USA > Pennsylvania > Prominent and progressive Pennsylvanians of the nineteenth century. Volume II > Part 5
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CYRUS BORGNER.
completed the company placed him in its office as Assistant to the Cashier, a position in which, being regarded as the substitute for any employé who might be unable to attend to his regular duties, he speedily gained a comprehensive knowledge of all the intricacies of the business, and made the acquaintance of men who controlled large interests in the iron trade. After seven years' service in the company's office he resigned, despite the persuasion of his, superiors, to accept the offer of R. J. Dobbins, the builder, who had received contracts for two of the principal buildings of the Centennial Exposition, and a number of smaller ones in and near the grounds. Mr. Borgner had charge of organizing the clerical force of the undertaking and of receiving and recording all materials used in the buildings. The magnitude of the task and the precision with which it was discharged may be judged from the fact that while the contracts represented a total of upward of $4,000,000, the builder's accounts were kept like those of a bank, and when the office closed at night every bolt and beam and tool was accounted for. Mr. Borgner remained with Mr. Dobbins until December, 1877, when, with William J. O'Brien, he formed a partnership and founded the business of which he is now the sole proprietor. The manufacture of fire-brick and clay retorts, which are extensively used in furnaces, rolling mills, gas works, glass works, etc., offered promise of success, and in that business the new firm embarked at once. Their first building on Twenty-third Street, above Race, the one still occupied by the offices of the factory, was started on December Ist, and was under roof before Christmas day. The firm had continued for more than ten years when Mr. O'Brien's interest was purchased by Mr. Borgner and he took complete charge. The facilities of the factory were steadily enlarged by him, and the plant now, as a result of his progressive management, makes every known variety of fire-brick, including many innovations which he origi- nated. The product of the house carries the name of Philadelphia industry to nearly every part of the world.
Mr. Borgner's time and thought have not been so completely occupied in the development of his business that he has not been able to engage in other interests, or to take an active part in public
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CYRUS BORGNER.
movements. He organized the Standard Concrete Manufacturing Company, of which he is President; he is one of the Directors of the Alpha Portland Cement Company, a Director of the Guarantors' Finance Company. He was one of the first to recognize the use- fulness of such an institution as the Philadelphia Bourse, and to support the movement for its organization. He was one of the founders, and was elected Chairman of its Building Committee, which office he still holds. He is a Director of the Builders' Exchange and, at the present time, Chairman of its Finance Com- mittee, and for years past has been a Director of the Manufacturers' Club. While Mr. Borgner has taken a deep interest in the welfare of the community, and is an ardent Republican, he has never taken an active part in practical politics.
In September, 1878, Mr. Borgner was married to Miss Emma L. Gelbach, daughter of the late George Gelbach, President of the National Security Bank. They have one son and two daughters.
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FRANK BOWER.
HE business of curing and smoking meats has grown to immense proportions, and to-day forms an important industry in Philadelphia, where it gives employment to thousands of workers. Among the houses engaged in this line of busi- ness none is better known than the old established firm of John Bower & Company, the present senior member of which, Frank Bower, is the subject of this sketch. During his more than thirty years' connection with the firm Mr. Bower has brought it to a high degree of prosperity and won for himself the reputation of being one of Philadelphia's most progressive and successful busi- ness men. Hard and almost unceasing labor, keen perception of opportunities, and steadfast adherence to honorable methods have, during the past third of a century, slowly forged the firm to the front, until to-day they have one of the largest and best known establishments of the kind in the city, and have acquired an enor- mous and steadily growing custom that is a monument to the energy of the man who has devoted his life to its upbuilding.
FRANK BOWER was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the Ist day of November, 1840. He is the son of John D. and Rachel Bower, natives of Germany, who had left the Fatherland and come to seek fortune in the Western World. From this staunch and sterling stock Mr. Bower has inherited all the steadiness and industry of the race which has contributed so many men to the progressive development of America and its resources. The early years of Mr. Bower's life were spent in attending the public schools of his native city, in which institutions he proved the possession of those qualities of diligence for which his ancestry is
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Frank Bower
The Member
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FRANK BOWER.
remarkable. After a thorough mastering of the branches taught in the institutions of lower grade, he pursued his studies at the Central High School of Philadelphia, from which he graduated in due time after a four years' course. In February, 1858, Mr. Bower became engaged in business as a butcher, which he pursued with his usual assiduity for seven years. In 1865, however, he joined in the formation of the co-partnership of John Bower & Company, in which he had his cousin, John Bower, and William Entenmann associated with him. John Bower died in 1875, and Mr. Enten- mann retired in 1890. The firm is now composed of Frank Bower and the estate of John Bower, which is represented by Charles H. Bower. Their establishment is now one of the most complete meat packing and curing houses in the city, and their product is of the highest character and reputation. They have sixteen large cellars under ground and a large chill room on the first floor, in the whole of which the temperature is kept at a low point by two twenty-ton Buffalo refrigerating machines. They have their own electric light plant, and the whole premises are fitted out in the most approved manner for carrying on the curing and packing of beef and pork, with a capacity of three hundred hogs a day.
This colossal business, however, was not built up without endless effort. The immense and practically perfect establishment they now possess is the product of years of toil and constant and unfaltering attention. For more than thirty years Mr. Bower has never missed being at his works at four o'clock in the morning. Such remarkable devotion to his business and so close a personal supervision over the details of its management, when backed by the qualities of mind which Mr. Bower has shown himself to pos- sess, could not fail of success. This daily promptness is the key- note to Mr. Bower's character and the secret of his prosperity. A strong intellect, backed by physical health and untiring energy has helped him greatly, and constant and unwavering attention to his business has reaped its reward in the possession of an estab- lishment marked by success and prosperity.
But Mr. Bower, notwithstanding his fidelity to his duties, is not a believer in the policy of all work and no play. For years
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FRANK BOWER.
he has been known as one of the most ardent lovers of horses in the city, and is never happier than when holding the lines over one of the handsome pairs in the possession of which he rejoices. He has had, in his stable, some of the fastest and most valuable double teams in Philadelphia. For ten years he was President of the Belmont Driving Club, well known as Philadel- phia's foremost organization of gentlemen drivers.
Besides his interests in his packing establishment, Mr. Bower has wide business connections in many fields, and is an active member of several of the most prominent commercial organiza- tions of the city. He was President, for six years, of the German Fire Insurance Company, and is a Director in the Guarantors Company, a well known organization of financiers. He is a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, and has been President of the Pork Packers' and Provision Dealers' Association of Phila- delphia. Mr. Bower is also prominently identified with the Trades League, the Commercial Exchange, the Wholesale Grocers' Asso- ciation, and several other similar organizations, which have for their object the betterment of Philadelphia's trade conditions and the protection of its commercial interests.
Mr. Bower was married on the 28th day of May, 1863, to Margeret A. Schneck, who comes of a well known Philadelphia family. They have had twelve children, of whom three are living and married. Two of his sons, Frank, Jr., and George W., are now connected with the business establishment of their father.
Despite his long years of business activity, Mr. Bower finds his principal interests still centering about the establishment with "which he has been so long identified, and in the management of which he still takes an active part.
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CC Bowman
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C. C. BOWMAN.
A NAME highly honored and respected in the com- munity is that of C. C. Bowman, Mayor of Pitts- ton, not alone because of his occupancy of the highest executive municipal office in the power of this townspeople to grant, but because he traces his ancestry back to a race of early settlers who gave to their coun- try some of its best and greatest sons.
CHARLES C. BOWMAN was born in Troy, New York, Novem- ber 14, 1852, and numbered among his ancestors such families as had made the names of Hale, Strong, Byron, Dame, Bailey, Kimball, Beebe, Tillotson, Cole and Wolley noted and respected throughout the country. His paternal line traces to Nathaniel Bowman, who settled in Lexington, Massachusetts in 1630, through his grandson, Lieutenant Francis, who was King's Magistrate and member of Council for many years of Massachusetts Colony. His mother, Emilia Strong Beebe, came of the family that gave its name to Beebe Plains, Province of Ottawa, the town being built on the site of the family's former possessions. Mr. Bowman, the father, was superintendent of water works for the city of Troy. He died in the prime of life, leaving his young widow to rear his son and three daughters. She was a woman of more than ordi- nary force of character, and the education of the orphans could hardly have been left in the hands of one more competent to fulfill the task.
Charles received his education in the High School of Lansing- burg, New York, from which he graduated at fourteen. His mother believed that every man, whether destined for professional or busi- ness life, should liave a trade, and following out that principle
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C. C. BOWMAN.
she apprenticed her son to a wood-worker, whose trade he mas- tered thoroughly. Every moment of his spare time was spent in earnest preparation for a college course. He entered Union College in the third term of the Sophomore year and graduated with his class in 1875, receiving his diploma as a Civil Engineer. He was engaged by the State of Massachusetts as a Civil Engineer during the winter of 1875-76, and was employed principally on the construction of the State Insane Asylum at Danvers. In January, 1876, he was employed by the Pennsylvania Coal Company and went to the Pittston coal region expecting to remain there for only a few months. The business opportunities that he saw before him, however, were so attractive, and his occupation was so thoroughly suited to his tastes, that he remained until July, 1882, in the service of the Pennsylvania Company. He then entered the firm of C. P. Matthews & Company, operating the Florence Colliery, near Pittston, and assuming the management of its mining work. Shortly afterward he became the selling agent of the company's coal in the West, and made similar contracts with the Spring Brook Colliery, at Moosic, Pennsylvania, and the Katydid Colliery, located in the same neighborhood. This business he continued for several years, building up a successful trade among the coal dealers in the United States.
At present he is President of the Avoca Coal Company, Avoca, Pennsylvania, Secretary and Treasurer of the Franklin Coal Company, Carbondale, Pennsylvania, Director of the Raub Coal Company, Luzerne, Pennsylvania, Treasurer of the Luzerne County Fair Association, etc., etc.
In Pittston, Mr. Bowman was recognized as one of its best citizens before he had lived there very long. He was always a Republican in politics, but was independent on local issues, and took an active and important part in all movements for the good of the city's business interests or its government. In June, 1896, when the Twin Shaft disaster entombed more than forty miners near Pittston, Mr. Bowman at once joined the relief movement, and was elected Secretary of the Association. He is also Secretary and one of the Trustees of the fund raised for the relief of the
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C. C. BOWMAN.
widows and orphans of the victims of the disaster. Acting Mayor Langan, of Pittston, was one of the men buried in the shaft. In August, Mr. Bowman was elected to succeed him. The office was entirely unsolicited, and in fact the City Council had such an overwhelming Democratic majority that even had he entered upon a deliberate canvass he could hardly have promised himself success. Mr. Bowman did not know that his name had been proposed until he was notified of his election. His administration of the city's affairs has been favorably commented on by Pittston citizens regardless of party prejudices.
In 1880 Mr. Bowman was married to Miss Elizabeth Law, daughter of Mr. William Law, the General Mining Superintendent of the Pennsylvania Coal Company. Their union has been blessed with three sons and one daughter.
JAMES BOYD.
S O bright a record has been made for the Bench and Bar of Pennsylvania during the century and so high a standard has been set that the younger members of the profession require all their energy and education to attain to the mark set by their predecessors. Generally regarded as a Nestor of the Montgomery County Bar, Colonel James Boyd represents in an emphatic man- ner the spirit of progress which animated those men of Pennsyl- vania who helped to make the history of the State before the Civil War was even thought of. Colonel Boyd was born in Fayette County, but removed to Montgomery County when still a young man, and that has been the scene of his triumphs both as a man of business and member of the legal profession. Mr. Boyd won his title of Colonel through services rendered the State as an appointed officer on the Gubernatorial staff many years ago, and during his entire career he has always had the best interests of the Commonwealth at heart.
JAMES BOYD was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, March 29, 1823. His parents were Virginians, descended from an old English stock, his father having been Jeremiah Boyd, who was a well known business man in Montgomery County. He gave his son a liberal education, which was initiated at Crawford's Academy, Philadelphia, and completed at the Haddington College, German- town. During his school years he evinced great talent, and showed that inclination for wit and humor and that quickness of percep- tion which have ever since characterized his proceedings as a pro- fessional man. From the outset his career promised brightness, and when he decided to adopt the profession of law he commenced
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James Boy do
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JAMES BOYD.
the study of the statutes immediately upon leaving college. He entered the office of the late Daniel H. Mulvany as a student, and, on August 16, 1842, was admitted to the Bar, and almost at once entered upon a successful practice. From the very beginning his force of character and energetic temperament brought him into the front rank, and he was particularly well known in criminal jurisprudence as one of the brightest members of the Bar. For a long number of years Colonel Boyd has been a leading figure in Montgomery County, and he typifies the general excellence of the Bar of the State. As his experience ripened and his appreciation of the opportunities of business broadened, be gradually departed from his original lines of work in the criminal courts and estab- lished a strong commercial and corporation practice. In cases of this character he has won pronounced success, and the list of victories to his credit is a large one. During his entire career one of his marked characteristics has been an unusual physical strength, and he has never been absent from court a single day on account of illness.
Mr. Boyd entered public life first as a Whig, and so continued up to 1856, when, with many other leading men of the Common- wealth, who could not accept the new issues, he refused to enter the Republican party, and voted for Buchanan. Adhering to his original principles he has remained in the Democratic party ever since. During the Civil War he gave to the Government active, earnest, loyal support, and came into prominence for his able defence of its interests. He was nominated by the Democratic party, in 1871, and elected a member of the Constitutional Con- vention, although at the conclusion of that body's sittings he refused to append his name, owing to his disagreement with some of the provisions of the instrument drawn up. This was but an indication of Mr. Boyd's character. In fact, his forcefulness and frank independence practically remove him from personal partici- pation in politics, since he has never been willing to tie himself up to any party trammels.
Mr. Boyd's connection with Montgomery County affairs dates back to 1836, two years before he began the study of law, and at
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JAMES BOYD.
which time he removed from Fayette County, Pennsylvania. In 1856 he was made Counsel for the Reading Railroad, holding that office for more than a quarter of a century. Among his other offices have been that of President of the Stony Creek and Phila- delphia Railroad; President of the Perkiomen Railroad, and the Newtown and New York Railroad. These business interests com- prise but a few of his connections with the progress of affairs. He has held the office of President of the Norristown Bridge Company, the Norristown Gas Company, the Montgomery Ceme- tery Company, and has been otherwise connected with many bank- ing and trust companies. As far back as the years 1844 and 1845 Colonel Boyd was appreciated by his townsmen to the extent of being elected twice Burgess of Norristown, but he has never dur- ing later years had any desire to participate in the movement of political affairs.
Mr. Boyd, in 1848, was married to Sarah, youngest daughter of Samuel Jamison, Sr., the owner of large cotton mills in Nor- ristown. They had three children, Robert, who died at the age of five years; Wallace J., who was elected to the Legislature in November, 1881, and died the following month, and Howard. The death of Mrs. Boyd occurred in 1876. In spite of the activity of his career and the zealousness of his attention to both professional and business duties during his useful life, Mr. Boyd to-day, at the age of seventy-four, is one of the most prominent figures of Mont- gomery County. He is noted for his philanthropy and benevo- lence, and being both wealthy and generous, has been of much service in public movements. This was especially so when he sus- tained the Centennial Commission and the Fountain Society, both with his purse and his influence. After a career distinguished and marked by triumphs in both the business and professional life of the community, Colonel Boyd enjoys the position which he has so well earned, and is one of the most respected and admired men in his section of the State, while his reputation extends from one end of the Commonwealth to the other.
PCBoyle
PATRICK C. BOYLE.
N that region of resourceful Pennsylvania where the towering derricks of the oil-wells tell emphati- cally of the wealth and industry of the State, no name is better known than that of P. C. Boyle, the enterprising publisher of the Oil City Derrick. A native of the "Emerald Isle," he has been a resident of this Commonwealth since infancy. The story of his life is typical of a poor boy, earnest, courageous, plucky and energetic, fighting his way to prosperity in the face of hardship, poverty and amid discouraging surroundings. The success he has achieved is a stimulating example for the youth of this country.
PATRICK C. BOYLE is the youngest of the eight children who were born to Bernard and Mary Dougherty Boyle, and he first saw the light of day in the Rosses, Donegal, Ireland, in 1846. His parents emigrated to this country in 1847, taking up their residence in Donegal Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania, where his father and several members of the family quickly succumbed to " ship fever," as the fatal typhus was then known. The widow shortly afterwards removed with her remaining children to Brady's Bend, where extensive iron works had been established. Here her boys, as they grew up towards manhood, found employment, and here the subject of this sketch was reared. His education was obtained in the public schools, the course being interrupted in his fifteenth year, by the breaking out of the Civil War. When peace came upon the country in 1865, Patrick C. went to Pithole, then the busy centre of the wonderland of petroleum. He had pluck and endurance and a strong determination to win fortune. He engaged in manual labor at Pithole, and subsequently in various
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PATRICK C. BOYLE.
other parts of the oil regions ; the range of employment including every form of unskilled labor from steering a "mud scow" (as the road wagon was then facetiously called at certain seasons when the mud predominated) to tool dressing and the pumping of oil wells, pipe screwing for the construction of oil-pipe lines, and mining and selling coal. In 1874 he became a victim of sunstroke, which incapacitated him from further active participation in outdoor pur- suits during the torrid season. This led him to turn his attention towards news reporting as a healthful and remunerative occupation. His first experience in this branch of journalistic effort was in reporting oil matters for the Pittsburg papers. His first individual newspaper venture was the publication of the Martinsburg Laborers' Voice, which he managed for a stock company in 1877 and 1878. Then followed a season of reporting for various oil-country journals, which was followed, in 1881, by the founding of the Richburg Echo, a daily journal intended to furnish the news and commercial values of the New York oil fields. The Echo was then the only daily in those oil fields, and about "the only paper of its kind anywhere." It lived six months, and in every way was a representative frontier oil-country newspaper, not much for style so far as beauty and "make-up" or typographical appearance were concerned, but it was accurate, reliable and prompt in the gathering and publishing of news. Its quarters, which were neither ornate nor commodious, were located for convenience and economy in an alley, and its numerous staff, not unlike the plant itself, was useful rather than ornamental. The opening of the famous "646," which ushered Cherry Grove into being as a commercial quantity representative of oil values, sounded the death knell of Richburg, even as the year before Richburg had brought disaster to numerous Bradford doors. The fickle folks that had deserted Bradford for Richburg were now ready to, and did, abandon Richburg for the more pros- perous inducements of Cherry Grove and, of course, The Echo could not survive the departure of its patrons. Mr. Boyle now entered the field of private oil reporting, then and since known as "scout- ing," his services being considered valuable by the Union Oil Company, then the largest oil-producing corporation in the State.
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PATRICK C. BOYLE.
The function of the "oil scout" was in many respects similar to that of commercial reporting. Oil values being subject at this time to speculative conditions, leading producers as well as promi- nent brokers, found it necessary to have experienced men on the ground where important operations were contemplated or under way. The earliest news was valuable news, and exact judgment was at a value peculiarly its own. Correct information had a wonderfully effective influence on floor trading in the oil exchanges, which were then influential in price making. Mr. Boyle, in this peculiar line of effort was moderately successful, and he could be depended upon to be with the first in the race where an important "tip" was at stake.
It was in 1885 that Mr. Boyle purchased the Oil City Derrick, with which his name has been prominently identified for over twelve years. The reputation of this newspaper is not confined to its city of publication, but it is known all over the State, and is one of the best paying properties of its kind to be found any- where. Mr. Boyle's individuality has been an important factor in its success, and its editorial utterances have a weight with readers that is not without effect. The Derrick is an authority on all matters pertaining to petroleum.
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