Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Part 125

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1192

USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania > Part 125

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The late Thomas Doremus Messler, well remembered in Pittsburg, was de- scended from staunch Holland stock, a race of pioneers in colonial America

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characterized to a marked extent by industry, thrift and intelligence. He was born at Somerville, Somerset County, New Jersey, on the 9th of May, 1833, being the first son of Elma Doremus and the Reverend Dr. Abraham Messler, a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, and regarded throughout the State of New Jer- sey as a man of eminence, piety and influence. Mr. Messler's childhood and boy- hood were passed in Somerville, and there he received his early education at the old Somerville Academy, and there he was prepared to enter the freshman class of Rutgers College in New Brunswick. On the eve of his proposed entrance to college, however, he resolved to take up business instead; and, accordingly, in March, 1849, being then in his sixteenth year, he found employment with the firm of Doremus, Suydam & Nixon, in New York City, of which his uncle, Thomas C. Doremus, was the senior partner. With this firm he remained some- what over three years, when a more favorable opportunity presented itself in an offer of a position with what was then the New York and Erie Railroad Com- pany, now known as the Erie Railroad. Mr. Messler's first experience in the railway service commenced in the office of the company's auditor, Mr. William E. Warren, in August, 1852. In this office he worked hard and faithfully, and he soon won the esteem and confidence of the officers and employés with whom he was brought in contact. The department with which he was connected em- braced the auditing of accounts, and through this circumstance he seems to have had business relations for the railroad company with a number of the prominent New York banking houses of that day. He held his position with the New York and Erie Railroad Company for four years, when, having attracted the attention of Messrs. Moran Brothers, a banking firm in New York, it was proposed that he go to Pittsburg and accept the office of secretary and auditor of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad Company, a company operating a new line of railroad then about completed between Pittsburg and Chicago. To a young man of but twenty-three the offer was a tempting one in the way of increased pecuniary rewards and further possible advancement in the future, as well as being a recog- nition of merit and ability. But Mr. Messlcr had misgivings as to the propriety of the change, and he hesitated. He finally decided to accept the offer, and in August, 1856, he came to Pittsburg, and at once assumed the duties of his new office. He was now in a community to which he had hitherto been a stranger, with neither friend nor even acquaintance at the outset to extend to him a wel- coming hand. With a comparatively brief experience in railway science, he found his position with this company arduous in the extreme. The department over which he had supervision had been conducted theretofore with but little method and exactness. The accounts were seemingly in a hopeless tangle, and it was for him to unravel the mass by process of a reorganization of this depart- ment on the lines of modern railway accounting as then known to and practiced by the older railway companies in the East. It was a severe task. More than a .year elapsed before it was accomplished and the plan of accounting satisfactorily formulated and put in operation. It was at this time, or possibly a year or so later, that he evolved a system of railroad accounting, having for its object sim- plicity, comprehensiveness and classification. This method of accounting be- came known subsequently as the "Messler System," and it has been generally adopted by the more important railway companies of the country, with modifica- tions, in some instances, as environment or particular conditions may have sug- gested.

Mr. Messler continued in the service of the old Fort Wayne Company until its lease to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, in July, 1869, having been pro- moted in the meantime, through various grades, to the position of assistant to the President, who will be recalled by many as the late Hon. George W. Cass. In

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the interest of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, he was made comptroller of the Pennsylvania Company on July 1, 1871, and afterward, in 1876, the office of third vice-president was in addition conferred upon him. This latter company was a corporation organized in 1870 to manage and operate an extensive system of railroad lines running west of Pittsburg, and affiliated to the Pennsylvania Railroad. In later years and at different periods he became chief executive officer of many of the auxiliary corporations controlled by the Pennsylvania Company in the interest of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. He was president of the St. Louis, Vandalia and Terre Haute Railroad Company, the Cincinnati and Muskingum Valley Railroad Company, the North Western Ohio Railway Com- pany, the East St. Louis and Carondelet Railroad Company, the Ohio Connecting Railroad Company, and the Indianapolis and Vincennes Railroad Company. In the same interests he was likewise vice-president of the Waynesburg and Wash- ington Railroad Company, and chairman of the executive committee of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad Company. He was also a director of the Mer- chants' and Manufacturers' National Bank of Pittsburg, and resident chairman of the local board of the Guarantee Company of North America, a Canadian com- pany, with a branch office in Pittsburg. He was also a trustee of the Shady Side Academy in Pittsburg. The duties of the various offices held by him he dis- charged with fidelity and commendable ability, particularly in the line of railway financiering, of which he early became a student, not through practice and ob- servation alone, but through close reading of the literature bearing upon the sub- ject. His long and honorable career in the railway service covered a period of forty-one years, namely, from August, 1852, to August, 1893. Among railroad officers he was regarded far and wide as a railroad accounting financier of con- spicuous ability, remarkably clear-headed and self-poised. The commencement of the close of his active career dates from the year 1889. He had then reached the height of his usefulness and influence in official position, and was in the prime of mental vigor. But suddenly and without warning, on an excessively hot morning in July of that year, he was stricken in his office with what appeared to be apoplexy, but which was later determined to have been the bursting of a small blood vessel in the brain. As soon as possible he was taken to his home, where he lay in a precarious state for some weeks. By the first of August he was re- moved to Cresson Springs in the Alleghany Mountains. Here he commenced to improve slowly, and early in the following year he was able to again take up the thread of work. He never afterward, however, regained complete strength. His health was broken. In 1891 he gave up many of his responsible duties, but he still retained the office of third vice-president of the Pennsylvania Company. From this period on his strength declined perceptibly. In the following year ir- regularity of the heart action appeared. The closing years of his life were marked by the same steadfastness, courage and patience into which he had, in his younger days, so well schooled himself. In July, 1893, owing to increasing weakness, he again went to the mountains, where, shortly after his arrival, he was obliged to confine himself to his room. He rapidly failed, and it soon became evident that he could live but a little longer. Early in the dawn of a beautiful August day, with nature just breaking into life, the angel came and beckoned. And in a mo- ment his spirit had been translated. He was unconscious for two days before his death, and he passed peacefully away at the Mountain House, Cresson, at twenty minutes past 5 o'clock in the morning of August 11, 1893. Here ended a noble life, crowned with success and honor.

Mr. Messler was married at Poughkeepsie, New York, on June 3, 1857, to Miss Maria Remsen Varick, a daughter of John Remsen Varick and Susan Brinck- erhoff Storm. Mrs. Messler survived her husband with two sons, Remsen Varick

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Messler and Eugene Lawrence Messler. In personal appearance Mr. Messler was a good type of sturdy American manhood. The accompanying engraving affords a fair likeness of him as he looked a year or more before his sudden illness in 1889. His abilities and mental balance he inherited in a striking degree from his father and his grandfather before him. He possessed a certain judicial cast of mind which was always exhibited when addressing any question of importance, whether in the line of official duty, or in private conduct. In addition to the qualities of continuity of purpose, a high sense of honor and the observance of the moral obligations towards his fellow men in business intercourse, he early formed a disposition for cultivating the intellectual and æsthetic part of his na- ture, and an appreciation of the amenities of human life. Like his father, he was a man of scholarly tastes. Throughout many years he had gradually collected a very considerable private library, embracing a wide field of literature, and from this source he enriched his mind in extensive reading in many branches of useful and diverting knowledge. He was essentially a home-loving man, and here was most felt his kindly and strengthening presence. He was a dignified, self-respect- ing man, conscious in his life of rectitude and honor. Throughout all his life, from early manhood to its close, he followed in the path of high resolve. Gentle- manly and courteous in demeanor, though somewhat retiring in social intercourse, he always at once commanded respect and attention. He left, indeed, an hon- orable record in the community of Pittsburg. Mr. Messler was a member of the Duquesne Club, and of the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution, in right of his grandfather, who was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He was also a member of the Holland Society of New York, by reason of his descent in the direct male line from a Hollander, who was a resident of the American colonies prior to the year 1675.

Hon. Felix R. Brunot. This gentleman, regarded as one of the most in- fluential, worthy and active citizens of Pittsburg, possesses a mind so well bal- anced, a philanthropy so unbounded and a patriotism so true, that it is a pleasure to chronicle here the events which mark his life as one of usefulness. Material wealth must not exclude the riches of character and ability in recounting the virtues which have been brought to this country by its citizens, and among its most potent factors must be estimated the lives of those citizens who have by their intelligence and eminence in the higher walks of endeavor, assisted in raising the standard of life and thought in the communities in which they have settled. To this class belongs the Hon. Felix R. Brunot, of Pittsburg, who was born in the arsenal at Newport, Kentucky, February 7, 1820, where his father, who was an officer in the regular army, was located. In 1821 the family removed to Pittsburg, and five years later the father retired from the army and took up his residence on a large tract of land on which the Union Depot is now located. At the age of fourteen, Felix was sent to Jefferson College at Cannonsburg, .where he was thoroughly educated. Upon leaving college he became a civil engineer and followed this occupation until 1842, when he engaged in milling at Rock Island, Illinois, and also conducted a store at Camden, on Rock River. He was very successful financially, but in 1847 returned to Pittsburg and became a silent partner in the firm of Singer, Nimick & Co., steel manufacturers, with which he has ever since been connected. From his boyhood days Mr. Brunot has taken a deep interest in all moral reforms, and has aided them with purse and influence whenever an occasion has presented itself. Upon the opening of the great Civil War he found ample scope for his philanthropic labors, and in this broader field did a grand and useful service. Although offered a high military position he refused it after due consideration and decided to follow out a line of work of his own where he was sure he could accomplish more good. The sick

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and wounded in hospital and on the field appealed to his kindly heart and his warm sympathies, and he decided to go, at his own expense, to their aid. He responded to the cry of suffering which arose from the bloody battlefield of Shiloh, and was placed in charge of two relief boats fitted out at Pittsburg with medicines and other needed supplies, and, with a small party, made his way to Pittsburg Landing, where he began his work of relief. Many of the sick and wounded were carried to the boats and conveyed to Pittsburg, but many lives ended during the voyage. After his return home, Mr. Brunot was taken seriously ill with blood poisoning, but upon recovering, again returned to his field of labor, and wherever his services were needed there he could be found, no matter how near to danger it might be, and herculean were the labors he performed. He had received a pass from Secretary Stanton which permitted him to go through the lines at all places, and thus his labors were unrestricted. Anticipating the bat- tles before Richmond, Mr. Brunot was placed in charge of twenty-five surgeons, cadets and others and sent to do hospital work at the front. They were at Savage Station several weeks, then at Gaines Mills, and, owing to McClellan's change of base, the Union troops, with which Mr. Brunot and his band were, were ordered to retreat, but Mr. Brunot would not do so for the reason that many of the wounded under his care would have to be abandoned. The Confederates soon occupied the vacated position, and Mr. Brunot was promised protection if he would care for the Confederate wounded also, which he agreed to do. At the end of one week the Confederate authorities broke their word, and he and his whole party were conveyed to Libby Prison, although he was given special priv- ileges as a physician. Eight days later, under pledge, he was allowed to go to Washington to negotiate an exchange of himself and two of his companions for two prominent Southerners who were in the hands of the Federal authorities under grave charges. When he made known his mission to Secretary Stanton, his personal friend, the latter with regret, explained that it could not be done, and advised Mr. Brunot not to go back to Richmond as, according to army regula- tions, he was unlawfully detained. True to his word, however, Mr. Brunot re- turned, and before long was exchanged, and during the remainder of the war he continued unremittingly his labors for his suffering fellows. He was three times compelled to return home on account of sickness, but as soon as his health per- mitted he would return to his work. When the war closed his health was shat- tered and his physicians advised change of scene. He and his wife made a three months' tour through Europe, and slowly health returned to him. When Grant became President Mr. Brunot, in 1868, was placed at the head of the famous board of Indian commissioners, where he did grand work for the red man, and aroused a public sentiment in their favor which has remained undiminished to the present day. Through personal contact with the Indian they gained a defi- nite knowledge of his wrongs and grievances, and great good resulted from this quest and many wrongs were righted. In the capacity of chairman, Mr. Brunot entered heart and soul into this work, and five summers were spent among the different tribes in Wyoming, Colorado, California, Washington, Oregon and Montana. The results of his conferences were sent to the President, and were full of absorbing interest and of eloquent appeals for the rights of poor Lo, but were not as cordially supported at Washington as they deserved to be. Mr. Brunot has, however, labored unceasingly for his red brother, and has addressed the public through the medium of the press, the platform and by personal appeal, and has been very earnest and outspoken in his views. In every respect Mr. Brunot has been a humanitarian, and has shown in his work that not only is he a man with a large heart, but of broad mind and fine brain also. He has for years been an active member of St. Andrew's Protestant Episcopal Church of Pitts-

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burg, is a director of the Western Pennsylvania Hospital, the Allegheny Ceme- tery, one of the managers of the Western University, a director of the Mononga- hela Navigation Company, director of the Bank of Pittsburg, and also of the Safe Deposit Company. He was one of the prime movers in founding the Mercantile Library, and, for many years, was president. While devoting his life for the good of others, he has been ably seconded by his wife, who is an intelligent Christian woman, and whose tastes along the line of philanthropy and charity have ever been in accord with those of her noble husband.

James Callery. Like many other eminent men of Pittsburg and environs, James Callery was a native of Ireland, his birth occurring in County Roscommon in 1833. His youth was spent amid humble surroundings, and his education, though well grounded, was limited to the rudiments of good English. His par- ents were Catholics, to the requirements of which faith he conformed during his eventful life. At the age of about sixteen, actuated by the praiseworthy motives of bettering his affairs, he crossed the ocean to America and began learning the trade of tanning in Newark, New Jersey. Having mastered this occupation, he came to Pittsburg, secured employment in one of the tanneries here, and from the start saved his surplus wages and led a moral and industrious life. Having acquired the necessary means, he bought and conducted a small tannery at Bakerstown, this State, and so rapidly progressed that in 1860 he bought the Duquesne Tannery from the Taggart Brothers, of Allegheny City, which he operated profitably and extensively. During the war he was almost overwhelmed with orders, but amplified his operations to the full capacity of his works, labored night and day, and made a large sum of money by the advance of prices and the extent of his trade. In 1868 the Pittsburg Tanning Company was organized, of which Mr. Callery was made president, though still retaining his ownership in the well-known Duquesne Tannery; but two years later the property of both organizations was swept away by fire, entailing a considerable loss. Mr. Callery soon afterward bought the old tannery of Hays & Stewart, succeeding to its large business, and naming the same "The Duquesne Tannery." The capacity of these works and their immense and varied trade, tested the business ability of Mr. Cal- lery, and brought into full play his executive powers and sagacity. By wise business methods and judicious investments and improvements, he soon had con- trol of one of the largest works of the kind in the United States, with a trade that exceeded the bounds of the country. Three thousand sides of leather weekly were the average product of the works at the height of their prosperity. Mr. Callery was thus rewarded for his industry, patience and square dealing by the accumulation of a comfortable fortune, which he pluckily invested in numerous business enterprises, the most of which proved highly successful. He perhaps did more than any other man to place the Pittsburg and Western Railroad on a profit-paying basis. He was first a director and then its president, in which position he gave an admirable example of what energy, untiring persistence and 'ability can accomplish. He changed it from a narrow to a standard gauge, ex- tended it from Callery Junction (named for himself) to Butler, made it prosper- ous, bought up the Parker and Karns City Railroad, and the Pittsburg and Brad- ford Railroad, leading to oil regions of importance, and made it one of the best dividend-paying roads entering Pittsburg. He assisted in establishing the City Savings Bank, was first a director and then president, and at all times counseled those prudent and conservative lines of action which distinguished the bank for its strength and soundness. In many other fields of exertion he was likewise active and prominent-director in the City Insurance Company, West End Pas- senger Railway Company, Pittsburg and Fairport Coal Company, Second Avenue Passenger Railway Company, Excelsior Express Company, Standard Cab Com-

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pany, and president of the Union Bridge Company and the Troy Hill Incline Plane Company, in all of which and in others, including the Shaner Gas Coal Company, he owned stock. He was thus one of the most active business men of his time, and contributed incalculable good to this portion of the State, and par- ticularly to these cities and their suburbs. He became a tower of strength in local politics. Though a Democrat in a Republican stronghold, the influence he exerted is felt to this day. He was burgess of old Duquesne Borough, Alle- gheny, and afterward, when it had become the Eighth Ward, became its repre- sentative in the Select Council; though the ward was heavily Republican. In this position he did much for the improvement of the city. He was a member and a regular attendant of St. Peter's Catholic Church, and as such wielded a great influence in this diocese. He was an incorporator of St. Mary's Cemetery and new Calvary Cemetery, and was one of the most lavish givers to the various charitable institutions. He left the imperishable imprint of his generosity, his judgment and his high character on the public institutions of Western Pennsyl- vania. In his early manhood he married Miss Downing, of Pittsburg, and to them were born four children-James D., William, Charles, and Rose-all living, and the son prominent in business circles and useful in citizenship. A short time before his death, which occurred April 5, 1889, he removed from Allegheny to Stanton Avenue, East End, Pittsburg, where he contemplated building a palatial home on North Hiland Avenue, but death cut him down ere he could accomplish this design. A large concourse of people gathered at his obsequies to pay their last tribute to his exalted character and his moral and useful life. Bishop Phelan delivered a touching and merited eulogy on his character and career.

Charles Lockhart. This prominent man was born at the Cairn Heads, near Whithorn, in Wigtownshire, Scotland, August 2, 1818. His father, John Lock- hart, was the son of Charles Lockhart, of Ersock, a prosperous farmer and a prominent and influential man in his shire. His mother, Sarah Walker, was the daughter of James Walker, a linen manufacturer of Sorbie, a man of rare business and intellectual qualities. From this ancestry Mr. Lockhart inherited the abili- ties which have made him a prominent factor in the business world. When seven years of age he went to live with an uncle, John Marshall, a merchant at Garliestown, a seaport on Wigtown Bay. He remained with him, with the ex- ception of one year, until he was sixteen years of age, attending school and assist- ing in the store. Early in 1836 his parents decided to come to America, and, with their family of seven children, reached New York after a voyage of fifty-six days. They came direct to Pittsburg, but shortly after moved to a farm in Trumbull County, Ohio, where, however, they remained but a short time, return- ing to Pittsburg.

Charles Lockhart did not go with his parents to Ohio, but remained in Pittsburg, where he found employment with James McCully, with whom he re- mained for nineteen years, and in 1855 he became one of the firm of James McCully & Co., the other partner, besides Mr. McCully, being the late Mr. Wil- liam Frew, who was a nephew of Mr. McCully. This partnership was continued until April 1, 1865, when it was dissolved. It was while a clerk in the store of Mr. McCully that Mr. Lockhart made his first venture in the oil business, in which he afterward became so largely interested, and one of the chief factors in the development of that great industry. His first deal in oil was the purchase of three barrels, in 1852, from Isaac Huff, who was part owner in a salt well in Westmoreland County, from which well Mr. McCully obtained a large amount of the salt in which he dealt. Disposing of this oil at a considerable profit, Mr. Lockhart conceived the idea that there was a great future in the business, and, against the advice of Mr. McCully, purchased a controlling interest in the salt

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well from which this oil was taken, and from that time, April, 1853, until the present, he has been an oil producer. Associated with him in this venture was Mr. A. V. Kipp, who was the active partner-Mr. Lockhart remaining with Mr. McCully-and this partnership was only dissolved by the death of Mr. Kipp, in 1896. After the discovery of oil at Oil Creek in 1859, by Colonel Drake, Mr. Lockhart sent a representative to investigate the field, and the report being favor- able, a company was organized under the firm name of Phillips, Frew & Co., Mr. Lockhart being a member of the firm. Land was bought and leased, and active operations begun at once on the Major Downing Farm, where, in March, 1860, the first oil was struck, and sixty-four barrels of the fluid were shipped by the steamboat "Venango" to Pittsburg, being the first oil, in quantity, to reach this market. In May, 1860, Mr. Lockhart, with samples of crude and refined oil, went to Europe, and was the first person to bring to the attention of the commercial world of Europe the value of this, to them, unknown product, and the result has been of incalculable value to the oil producers of this country.

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Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Part 125

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn Publication date: 1898 Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co. Number of Pages: 1192

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1192