YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

MEN

OF THE

CENTURY

AN HISTORICAL WORK

GIVING PORTRAITS AND SKETCHES OF EMINENT
CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES.

EDITED BY
CHARLES MORRIS.

PUBLISHED BY
L. R. HAMERSLY. & CO.,
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
l896.

Copyright, 1896, by L. R. Hamersly & Co.

Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.

PREFACE.

Our country has given birth to many men great in themselves, and to many gifted with
all the qualities that make a nation great, — such qualities as honor, integrity, energy, enterprise,
and public spirit, the wings on which a nation rises into the clear atmosphere of the highest
civilization. We have had men of thought and men of action ; men great in legislative halls,
in the pulpit, on the battle-field, and in the quieter but not less important provinces of the
workshop and the trading mart, the varied fields of finance, engineering, literature, art, and
science. The century in which we live has produced scores of such men, and to their genius
and energy the United States owes that rapid and enduring progress which has raised it to the
first rank among the nations of the earth, and seems destined in the coming century to exalt
it into a position of supremacy over all nations and peoples.
These Men of the Century are worthy of all honor and all praise. No nation of Europe
presents nobler examples of public-spirited and high-minded workers in the domains of civiliza
tion. And as Europe never fails to give due honor to her leaders in the varied fields of
modern life and enterprise, it is highly desirable that America shall do the same, and put on
permanent record the lives of those whose labors for the advancement of mankind have earned
them the fullest meed of recognition.
Such is the purpose of the work which is here offered to the American public It has been
prepared with the purpose of giving full credit to our leaders in thought and action, and of
placing in clear light before the people of this country a group of those whose achievements
have made them most worthy of praise, and whose high service to the community cannot fail to
be recognized in the new century which is so near at hand, and which will owe so deep a debt
of gratitude to the men of the century which is now fast approaching its end. No more needs
to be said. We present here a galaxy of the most worthy living Americans of the nineteenth
century, with the assurance that those who read this work will confirm our choice as well and
justly made.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ULYSSES S. GRANT.
Ulysses S. Grant, after Washington the most dis
tinguished of American leaders, and like him for two
terms President of the United States, was born at Point
Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio, April 27, 1822. In
1839 he entered the West Point Military Academy as a
cadet. He graduated in 1843, and joined General Tay
lor's army in September, 1845. After taking part in the
battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, and the cap
ture of Monterey, his regiment was sent to Vera Cruz to
join the army of General Scott, and Grant took part in all
the battles of Scott's successful campaign. On his return
to the United States, in 1848, he married Julia T. Dent,
of St. Louis, and continued to serve in the army till 1854,
when he resigned and settled on a farm near St. Louis.
He continued in private life till the outbreak ofthe Civil
War in 1861, when he immediately offered his services to
the government, and in June of that year was appointed
colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois Infantry. In August
he was made brigadier-general of volunteers and given
the command of a district, and in November fought the
battle of Belmont, Missouri. His remarkable ability was
soon to display itself in the signal capture of Forts
Henry and Donelson (February, 1862) with more than
fourteen thousand prisoners, for which exploit he was
made major-general of volunteers. In April he fought
the memorable two-days' battle at Shiloh, one of the
severest of the war, and in November began his cele
brated series of operations against Vicksburg, which
resulted in the surrender of that stronghold on July 4,
1863, with thirty-one thousand six hundred prisoners and
one hundred and seventy-two cannon. By this exploit
the Mississippi was opened from its source to its mouth.
For this service he was made major-general in the
regular army. His next field of duty was at Chatta
nooga, where he defeated the enemy and drove him out
of Tennessee. In March, 1 864, he was promoted to the
high grade of lieutenant-general, and made commander-
in-chief of all the armies of the United States, with his
head-quarters with the Army of the Potomac. He at
once organized a plan of campaign under which all the
armies of the United States were to operate simulta
neously against the enemy, General Sherman heading
the important advance against Atlanta, and Grant him

self that against Richmond. The details of the re
markable series of engagements between him and Gen
eral Lee, the persistent siege of Petersburg, and the final
surrender of Lee on April 9, 1865, need not here be
repeated. They are well-known matters of history.
In July, 1 866, Grant was raised to the grade of general,
the highest in the United States army, and in 1868 re
ceived the Republican nomination for the Presidency.
He was elected in November, receiving two hundred and
fourteen electoral votes out of two hundred and ninety-
four. He was again elected in November, 1872, for a
second term in the Presidency.
After retiring from the Presidency, General Grant made
a tour of the world, which occupied two years. He
afterwards became a partner in a banking house in which
one of his sons was interested, investing all his available
capital. In May, 1884, the house suddenly suspended,
and it was then discovered that two of the partners had
robbed General Grant of all he possessed. To provide
for his family he now yielded to solicitations to write his
personal memoirs. This work was simply and attractively
written, and had an enormous sale. About the same time
cancer developed at the root of his tongue, and he lived
barely long enough to complete his work, dying July 23,
1885. He was buried on August 8, with great pomp, at
Riverside Park, overlooking the Hudson. 5

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

BENJAMIN HARRISON.
Benjamin Harrison, ex-President of the United
States, is the son of John Scott Harrison, and grandson
of General Wm. Henry Harrison, President of the United
States from March 4 to April 4, 1841. He was born at
North Bend, Indiana, in his grandfather's house, August
20, 1833, graduated from Miami University in Class of
1852; he subsequently passed through a legal course,
and began practice of law at Indianapolis in 1854.
In the early part of the war of the Rebellion, Mr.
Harrison tendered his services to Governor Morton, of
Indiana, and the latter authorized him to raise a regi
ment. When the regiment was complete, Governor
Morton voluntarily commissioned Mr. Harrison colonel
of the Seventieth Regiment, Indiana Volunteers.
When Bragg was hastening with the main body of his
army to Louisville, considerable excitement was created,
and Colonel Harrison's regiment — although muskets had
just been issued to them and they did not even know
how to handle. them — was hurried to Bowling Green,
Kentucky, which was at that time fortified, and had
become a Union outpost, below which everything had
been broken by the Confederates.
Colonel Harrison's first experience as an independent
commander was when he was sent on an expedition
against a body of rebels lodged at Russellville. His
command was put aboard a train at Bowling Green and
hurried off. When within about ten miles of the town
he was stopped by a burned bridge. Only a portion of
a span was gone, however, and he made a pier of railroad
ties in the centre, then cut down a couple of large trees
and pushed them across the break. From a side-track
near by, rails were torn up and laid upon the timbers.
He pushed on with his train over the temporary bridge,
and arriving at a proper point, after making his military

dispositions, he suddenly and with energy attacked the
rebel camp. The surprise was complete. Forty rebels
were killed and wounded, while only one Union soldier
was killed. He captured ten prisoners and all the horses
and arms, and then returned to Bowling Green.
Colonel Harrison's regiment was brigaded with the
Seventy-ninth Ohio, and the One Hundred and Second,
One Hundred and Fifth, and the One Hundred and
Twenty-ninth Illinois, Brigadier-General Ward command
ing; and, what is extraordinary, the organization thus
effected was kept unchanged to the close of the war.
From Bowling Green, Colonel Harrison, with his com
mand, accompanied the brigade to Scottville, Kentucky,
and thence to Gallatin, Tennessee, where he was occupied
guarding the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Four
months were evenly divided between hunting guerillas
and drilling his men. The brigade then marched to
Lavergne and thence to Murfreesborough. There it
became part of Granger's Reserve Corps. On the 2d of
January, 1864, it became the First Brigade ofthe First
Division of the Eleventh Army Corps, and Colonel Har
rison was placed in command of it, General Ward taking
the division.
Shortly after this the Eleventh and Twelfth Army
Corps were consolidated into the Twentieth, whereupon
Ward's old brigade became the First Brigade of the
Third Division of the Twentieth Corps ; and, as General
Ward returned to the command of the brigade, Colonel
Harrison resumed that of his regiment.
Colonel Harrison participated in the Atlanta campaign
and was engaged in the battles of Resaca, where, in
charging a battery, he was among the first to cross the
parapet. He also assisted in the capture of Cassville;
was engaged at New Hope Church, and commanded his
brigade in the engagements at Gilgal Church, Kenesaw
Mountain, Peach-Tree Creek, and Nashville. After the
last-named, Colonel Harrison was occupied in the pursuit
of Hood's army, and through many difficulties pene
trated as far as Courtland, Alabama. He was then
ordered to report to General Sherman at Savannah.
At Pocotaligo he was assigned to a brigade, with which
he joined Sherman at Goldsborough.
At the close of the war, Colonel Harrison was made
brevet brigadier-general of volunteers, to date from Jan
uary 23, 1865, " for ability and manifest energy and gal
lantry in command of the brigade." He was honorably
mustered out of service at Washington, D. C, on the
8th day of June, 1865, and at once entered upon his
duties as reporter of the Supreme Court of the State of
Indiana. He was elected United States Senator in 1881,
and held that office for six years.
In 1888, General Harrison became the Republican
candidate for President of the United States. He was
duly elected, and took his seat March. 4, 1889.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
Brevet Major-General Rutherford B. Hayes, ex-
President ofthe United States, was born in Delaware, Ohio,
October 4, 1822. At the outbreak of the Rebellion, he
was elected captain of the military company formed from
the celebrated Cincinnati Literary Club. In June, 1861,
he was appointed major of the Twenty-third Ohio In
fantry, and was ordered to West Virginia in July follow
ing, remaining there until the summer of 1862, when his
command was transferred to the Potomac, and partici
pated in the battle of South Mountain. In this action
Hayes was severely wounded in the arm. He served in
West Virginia in 1863, against John Morgan in Ohio, and
in the movement against the Tennessee Railroad in the
spring of 1864, and led a brigade with marked success
in the battle of Cloyd's Mountain.
He took part in several engagements between Early
and Sheridan's troops prior to the battle of Winchester.
In that important encounter he had the right of Crook's
command, and it was therefore his troops which, in con
junction with the cavalry, executed the turning manoeuvre
that decided the fate of the day.
At one point in the advance his command came upon
a deep slough, fifty yards wide and stretching across the
whole front of his brigade.. Beyond was a rebel bat
tery. If the brigade endeavored to move around the
obstruction it would be exposed to a severe enfilading
fire ; while, if discomfited, the line of advance would be
broken in a vital part. Hayes, with the instinct of a
soldier, at once. gave the word " Forward!" and spurred
his horse into the swamp. Horse and rider plunged at
first nearly out of sight, but Hayes struggled on till the
beast sank hopelessly into the mire. Then dismounting,
he waded to the farther bank, climbed to the top, and
beckoned with his cap to the men to follow. In the
attempt to obey many were shot or drowned, but a suffi
cient number crossed the ditch to form a nucleus for the
brigade ; and, Hayes still leading, they climbed the bank
and charged the battery. The enemy fled in great dis
may, and Hayes reformed his men and resumed the
advance. The passage of the slough was at the crisis
of the fight, and the rebels broke on every side in con
fusion. At Fisher's Hill Hayes led a division in the turning
movement assigned to Crook's command. Clambering
up the steep sides of North Mountain, which was cov
ered with an almost impenetrable entanglement of trees
and underbrush, the division gained, unperceived, a
position in rear of the enemy's line, and then charged
with so much fury that the rebels hardly attempted to
resist, but fled in utter rout and dismay. Hayes was at
the head of his column throughout this brilliant charge.
At Cedar Creek he was again engaged. , While riding

at full speed, his horse was shot under him, but, soon
recovering, he sprang to his feet and limped to his com
mand. " For gallant and meritorious service in the battles of
Winchester, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek," Colonel
Hayes was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general of
volunteers, and brevetted major-general for " gallant and
distinguished service during the campaign of 1864 in
West Virginia, and particularly in the battles of Fisher's
Hill and Cedar Creek." He had commanded a brigade
for more than two years, and at the time of these promo
tions was in command of the Kanawha division. In the
course of his service in the army he was five times
wounded, and had four horses shot under him.
General Hayes was in 1864, while in the field, elected
to Congress, and in 1866 was re-elected. He was elected
governor of Ohio in 1867, and re-elected in 1869 and
in 1875. He filled the office of President of the United
States from March 4, 1877, to 188 1.
General Grant, in his Memoirs (Vol. II.), says of Gen
eral Hayes, —
" On more than one occasion in these engagements
General R. B. Hayes, who succeeded me as President of
the United States, bore a very honorable part. His con
duct on the field was marked by conspicuous gallantry
as well as the display of qualities of a higher order than
that of mere personal daring. This might well have
been expected of one who could write at the time he is
said to have done so, ' Any officer fit for duty who at
this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer for a
seat in Congress ought to be scalped.' Having entered
the army as a major of volunteers at the beginning of
the war, General Hayes attained by meritorious service
the rank of brevet major-general before its close."
General Hayes died January 17, 1893.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

FREDERIC DE PEYSTER.
The De Peyster family, whose first member in Amer
ica, Johannes de Peyster, reached New Amsterdam in
1645, has ranked since among the most prominent of
the old Dutch stocks, not only in direct lineage but
through its connections by marriage with the leading
New York families. They descend from a Huguenot
family which settled in Holland soon after the massacre
of St. Bartholomew. The first American De Peyster
and his descendants played leading parts in New York
history, down to the era of the subject of our sketch,
Frederic de Peyster, who was born in New York,
November II, 1796, at his parents' house on Hanover
Square, then one of the most fashionable quarters of the
city. He was educated at first in a notable grammar-
school of that day, situated in Poughkeepsie, and later
prepared for college at Union Hall, entering Columbia
College in 18 12, and graduating with a very honorable
record for scholarship in 18 16.
Mr. de Peyster, after his graduation, entered upon the
study of law, under Hon. P. A. Jay, son of the celebrated
John Jay; also under the learned jurist Peter Van
Schaack. He was admitted to practice in the Supreme
Court of New York in 18 19, and devoted himself here
exclusively to chancery cases, in which he won distinc
tion so rapidly as to be appointed by Governor Clinton,
in the following year, a master in chancery. For the
seventeen years that followed he retained this office, by
successive appointments, winning an enviable reputation
by his diligent and exhaustive research in the prepara
tion of cases. Few in his profession have been more
highly honored by the almost complete endorsement of
their conclusions by judicial tribunals.
In 1837 he resigned his position and withdrew from
legal practice, partly through the necessity of caring for

his estate and that of his father-in-law, Hon. John Watts,
and partly with the purpose of devoting his time and at
tention to literary pursuits. He had a strong native
inclination for a literary life, which he had developed to
a considerable extent in college, where he took a leading
part in all literary exercises. During his legal career he
had continued his culture in literature, and developed a
pleasing and attractive style, with a method of treatment
of his subjects which has been characterized as "accurate,
logical, and scholarly." After his retirement from the
law he gave much attention to historical subjects, while
also engaging largely in philanthropic enterprises. His
studies eventuated in many publications, principally his
torical, which display a mastery of the subject the fruit
of extended reading.
His treatise on Bellomont attracted the most attention,
and was followed by a second production, — left in manu
script at the time of his death, — " A Review of the Ad
ministration of Governor Colonel Benjamin Fletcher, the
Bad Predecessor of the Good Bellomont." His publica
tions brought him distinction abroad as well as at home,
and in 1877 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the
Royal Historical Society of Great Britain. He was also
at the time of his death president of the New York His
torical Society, his service in which is highly commended
by George Bancroft, the historian, as having raised it
from a condition of languor and decay into one of estab
lished and increasing prosperity.
Mr. de Peyster's life has also a military side. During
his college days he was elected commander of a students'
organization to assist in repelling any invasion of New
York during the War of 1 81 2. This organization as
sisted General Jonas Mapes in the construction of field-
works to defend McGowan's Pass, a portion of the line
of intrenchments between Harlem and the North River.
At a later date he became interested in the State militia,
and was commissioned captain in the One Hundred and
Fifteenth Regiment. In 1825 he was appointed an aide
on the staff of General Fleming, and later on that of
Governor De Witt Clinton, and became military secretary
to the governor for the southern district of New York,
an office at that time of considerable importance.
He also took an active part in religious, educational,
and benevolent institutions, particularly in the New York
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, of
which he was one of the original incorporators and a
vice-president. For more than fifty years he served on
the board of managers of the New York Bible Society.
He was also a member of the Institution for the Instruc
tion of the Deaf and Dumb, an active worker in the
Home for Incurables, and for fifty years clerk of the
board of trustees ofthe Leake and Watts Orphan Home.
He was a member of many other organizations. His
death took place August 17, 1882.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JOHN WATTS DE PEYSTER.
General John Watts de Peyster, the only child of
Frederic de Peyster, a sketch of whose life is given on the
opposite page, and of Mary Justina de Peyster, daughter
of John Watts, a distinguished New Yorker of the Revo
lutionary and later period, last Royal Recorder of his
native city, and Founder and Endower of the Leake and
Watts Orphan House, was born in New York City,
March 9, 1821. In both his lines of descent can be
traced a succession of soldiers during the Colonial and
Revolutionary periods, an ancestry which naturally pre
disposed him towards a military career. Military reading
was his youthful delight, and mock battles in association
with his cousin, Philip Kearny, afterwards Major-General,
his youthful recreation. He travelled in Europe in 1834,
when thirteen years of age, and again in 1851-53, as
Military Agent of the State of New York, endorsed by
the United States government. He then devoted his
time to studying the science of war as developed in
France, Italy, and Algiers. To enable him to do this he
studied the several foreign languages in which the docu
ments consulted by him were written. His industry in
these pursuits was untiring, while his highly retentive
memory enabled him to gain a vast mass of facts, which
he employed in composition with logical powers of analy
sis. He thus in time became a writer and critic on mili
tary matters of very unusual powers.
While still but a youth, he became connected with the
New York Volunteer Fire Department, in which he was
so active as to bring on an affection of the heart, from
which he suffered severely ever afterwards. He was
among the first to advocate a Paid Fire Department, and
also to recommend the organization of a Police Force
conducted on principles of military discipline. He entered
the State military service as Major in 1845, and in the
following year was commissioned Colonel. When the
military law of 185 1 was enacted, he was appointed
Brigadier-General in the State service, being the first
officer of this rank to be appointed by the governor. At
a later date he was sent to Europe as Special Military
Agent of the State to report on the organization of the
Militia and of Municipal Military Organizations, and Aids
against Fire, as provided for in foreign lands. His report,
published as a Senate document, became of great service
in the organization of State troops, and in the subsequent
exigencies of the Civil War.
General de Peyster was appointed by Governor Clark,
in 1855, Adjutant-General upon his staff. He resigned in
a few months, having found the department so controlled
by political influences as to render military reform almost
hopeless, though he succeeded in accomplishing various
beneficial changes for which he received the highest enco
miums from those best qualified to judge of his work.
When war was threatened, he offered President Lincoln

three regiments, and made a similar offer in the autumn
of 1 86 1. From this date to 1863 he was offered the
. command of several New York regiments, but his broken
health and the hemorrhages from 'which he suffered
obliged him to decline. He did not share in the feeling
general at that time that the war would soon be over,
but predicted in advance its extent and greatness, and
was the first to advocate the employment of colored
men as soldiers. Throughout the war, in which the
state of his health prevented him from participating, he
published many keenly critical articles on the subject.
j In 1 866, on the occasion of the State of New York ap
pointing him Brevet Maj or- General, based on flattering
testimonials of his great military knowledge and the
value of his advice and influence during the war, which
were given by Generals Rosecrans, Hooker, Humphreys,
Pleasanton, Sherman, and Grant, besides many others
which were published in pamphlet at the time.
General de Peyster has been a voluminous writer on
the subject of his special study and on historical subjects
in general. In addition to these labors, he has given
much attention to matters of charity. He built a Home
for Consumptives in Dutchess County, New York, and
near it a magnificent Hospital for the same class, and
in connection with it has erected a Training-School, and
donated about three hundred acres of ground, part of
the old family estate. He also has built and equipped a
Methodist church at Madalin, Dutchess County. He has
received the thanks of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania
Legislatures for portraits of military celebrities, etc., pre
sented to them, and has given the State of New York a
bronze bas-relief representing the Continental camp at
West Point during the Revolution. General de Peyster
dwells principally in his beautiful country-seat, near Tivolt
Station, on the banks ofthe Hudson. The portrait above
was taken when General de Peyster was 75 years of age.

IO

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

SAMUEL CULBERTSON HUEY.
Samuel Culbertson Huey, son of John Grahame
Huey and Margaret Culbertson, was born in Indiana,
Pennsylvania, on July 21, 1 813. He was of Scotch-Irish
ancestry, and his paternal grandfather died on the battle
field of Trenton in the Revolutionary struggle.
In 1828, he was sent to Pittsburg to finish his studies,
and in 1832 went into active business in that city as
a member of the firm of Baird & Huey. He was so
successful that in 1844 he removed to Philadelphia, and
continued to carry on business in both cities until 1857,
when, on account of the disturbances connected with
the panic of that year, he closed up both firms and
then devoted some years to travel. Returning home, he
commenced the manufacture of print cloths.
Meantime, in 185 1, he had become a trustee of the
Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company of Philadelphia,
and, after a service of nineteen years in that capacity, in
1870 he was elected its president, and from that time until
the date of his death devoted himself almost exclusively
to its interests. When he took charge of its affairs it
had an accumulated surplus of some $1,250,000. When
his connection with it ceased through his death, in 1866,
that surplus had increased to over $15,000,000. This
fact alone was a monument to his ability and consci
entious attention to duty. At a special meeting of the
board of trustees of the company, held February 15,
1886, a minute, of which the following is an extract, was
adopted :
" In the decease of Mr. Huey, who has been actively
connected with the management of the company, first
as a trustee for nineteen years, and for the last sixteen
years as its honored president, we have lost an officer
whose recognized position as a leading representative
Philadelphia merchant materially assisted in obtaining

for the company that confidence of the community so
essential to its success, and whose devoted personal
attention to its active management for thirty-five years
has aided in establishing its reputation and securing its
great prosperity. In his decease the company has lost
an intelligent, experienced, upright, and faithful officer,
who brought to the discharge of his onerous duties great
energy, intelligence, good judgment, and strict integrity
of character, and the officers and trustees have lost a
personal friend, endeared to them by long and intimate
association." Like expressions of opinion were shown in resolutions
of the Northern Central Railway Company, Spring Gar
den Insurance Company, and many other corporations
with which he was officially connected. The insurance
journals of the country joined in crediting to him the
prominence and prosperity of his company.
Mr. Huey was a man of very marked characteristics.
He did not know what fear was, and his name was a syn-
onyme for truth in word and act. His conscientiousness,
zeal, and fidelity in connection with anything which he
had in hand were never questioned. He had strong, well-
decided views and great plans, and awakened confidence
by his own positive convictions. He was a judicious ad
viser, and was always ready to advocate a just cause, even
though it was at the time an unpopular one ; hence he was
an abolitionist while a Whig, and was one of the first mem
bers of the Republican party. He was deeply interested
in the issues of the Civil War, and was a constant contribu
tor to the support of the Union cause; a member and
supporter of the Sanitary Commission ; one of the early
members of the Union League, and a stanch advocate of
every one of the great movements of the Republican party
along the lines of reconstruction of the nation. He was
a man of fine presence and address, of unusual mental
ability, and his advice and counsel were sought constantly
by business men and philanthropic organizations.
He was again and again solicited to enter political
life, but always refused, believing that he could exer
cise more influence in behalf of the cause to which he
was devoted by his support of measures as a private
citizen. An effective speaker and writer, his pen and
voice were always at the service of any good cause, and
when he died there was a gap left in the ranks of Phila
delphia's workers which has never quite been filled. He
was a devoted Christian, and was a ruling elder in the
Presbyterian Church from 1853 until the date of his
death. He was a generous contributor to all the be
nevolences of that church.
Mr. Huey died in Enterprise, Florida, February 11,
1886, and was buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery, Phila
delphia. He left to survive him a son, a member of the bar of
Philadelphia, and one daughter.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ii

SAMUEL B. HUEY.
Samuel Baird Huey was born at Pittsburg, January
7, 1843, of Scotch-Irish ancestry who came to America
in 1763. One of his great-grandfathers was killed in
Washington's army at the battle of Trenton. His father,
S. C. Huey, was a prominent business man of Philadel
phia, and president of the Penn Mutual Life Insurance
Company until his death in 1886.
Mr. Huey was educated in private schools, but at
twelve years of age entered the Central High School,
from which he graduated as valedictorian. He then
studied at Princeton College, where he graduated in the
class of 1863, receiving prizes for oratory and debate.
While at college he was fond of athletic sports, and
served as captain of the cricket team and as one of the
bass-ball nine.; After graduating, he entered the naval
service as captain's clerk on the United States steamer
" San Jacinto ;" in 1864 was made ensign on the staff of
Rear-Admiral Baily, and in 1865 was promoted assistant
paymaster. He took part in the attacks on Fort Fisher
and Wilmington, and continued on blockade duty till
the end of the war.
After his return home, Mr. Huey began the study of
law in the office of John C. Bullitt, and in the law de
partment of the University of Pennsylvania, from which
he graduated as Bachelor of Laws in 1868. He then
entered upon active professional practice, continuing in
association with Mr. Bullitt until January 1, 1872, when
he opened an office for himself. During this interval,
in 1866, Princeton College conferred upon him the de
gree of A.M.
While thus engaged in study and practice he took an
active part in military affairs, having joined the First
Regiment, National Guard of Pennsylvania, on his re
turn from the navy, and continuing connected with it for
many years, first as captain and assistant quartermaster
on the staff of Brigadier-General H. P. Muirheid, then
as major and aide-de-camp on the staff of Major-General
J. P. Bankson, and, finally, as assistant adjutant-general
of the First Brigade, National Guard of Pennsylvania.
He resigned from the National Guard in 1878, in con
sequence of the increasing requirements of his profes
sional duties.
As an attorney Mr. Huey's success has been marked,
and he ranks to-day among the leaders of the bar.
During the existence of the bankruptcy law of 1868
he had the largest bankrupt business of any of the
practitioners in the United States Courts of this district,
and on more than one occasion was requested by Judge
Cadwalader, during pressure of business, to sit with him
and pass on pending cases. He has also handled many
important corporation cases, among them some of the
heaviest tax cases disposed of at the State capital. In
1872 he was admitted to the Supreme Court of the

State, and in 1880, on motion of General Benjamin T.
Butler, was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court
of the United States.
Mr. Huey's successful handling of corporation cases
has made him counsel for numerous insurance and other
companies, including the Penn Mutual, the Phoenix, the
.Etna Life, the Spring Garden Fire Insurance Companies,
Edison Electric Light Company, American Bell Tele
phone Company, with many others. He is also counsel
for many leading business houses both in Philadelphia
and New York, has secured important decisions in cases
involving banks, and has taken an active part in the liti
gation attending the reorganization of various railroad
companies. His political duties have been confined to acting as
delegate in the city and State conventions ; but he long
served as a director and secretary of the Union League.
On his retirement from the latter position in 1888 he
was unanimously voted the gold medal of the organiza
tion, and elected its vice-president. He is also a member
of the Loyal Legion and of the Grand Army of the
Republic. In 1868 he was appointed a member of the
Board of Education of this city, and in that office has
served as chairman of the committees on University and
Boys' Central High School. He has been a director of
the Art Club since its organization, was one of the first
board of Governors of the University Club, and a di
rector of the West Philadelphia Institute and the West
ern Home for Poor Children since 1875. He is an elder
in the Presbyterian Church. With these many duties to
perform, Mr. Huey has found time to attend to literary
pursuits, has gathered a fine library, and has made three
extended trips to Europe, on his return from each of
which he prepared and delivered lectures on the subject
of his observations abroad.

12

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

REV. SANFORD HUNT.
Sanford Hunt, D.D., the senior agent of the Method
ist Book Concern, one of the leading publishing enter
prises in this country, was born in Erie County, New
York, and obtained his collegiate education at Alleghany
College, where he took a course preparatory to his entry
upon the ministry in the Methodist Episcopal Church,
and graduated in 1847 with the degree of D.D. In the
same year he joined the Genesee Conference, and since
that period has labored in pastoral work within the terri
tory embraced by that conference and that of Western
New York. In 1876 he served as a delegate from the
Western New York Conference to the General Confer
ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church, held in that
year. He is the author of a work relating to the legal
status of churches in this country, entitled " Laws re
lating to Religious Corporations." This is a compilation
of the statutes of the several States in relation to the
incorporation and maintenance of religious societies and
the disturbance of religious meetings. It is published
with an additional special article by the Hon. E. L.
Fancher, on the " Laws affecting Religious Corpora
tions in the State of New York." Mr. Eaton has also
written a " Hand-Book for Trustees."
Elected book-agent by the Church authorities, in asso
ciation with his able colleague, Dr. Eaton, Dr. Hunt's
energies have of late years been given to the advance

ment of the interests of the great New York publishing
house known as the Methodist Book Concern, whose
business has largely developed under the active labors
of Dr. Eaton and himself, until now its annual distribu
tion of religious literature has grown to enormous pro
portions. A brief historical sketch of this important establish
ment, now a little more than a century old, may prove
of interest. In 1789 John Dickins was appointed to a
charge in the city of Philadelphia, with the additional
office of " Book Steward," a title which had been applied
to such an office in England. He began with the small
capital of $600, borrowed for the purpose, and with this
sum laid the foundations of a superstructure whose two
houses, in New York and Cincinnati, are now worth
more than $3,000,000. This is a phenomenal progress,
a good share of which is due to the energy and efficiency
of the present management, that of Drs. Hunt and
Eaton, under whom the house has reached its highest
degree of prosperity.
The New York department of the business occupies
magnificent quarters at the corner of Fifth Avenue and
Twentieth Street, with a frontage of one hundred and
four feet on the avenue, and a depth of one hundred
and twenty feet. It is eight stories high, and is fire-proof
from cellar to roof, while the floor space, if extended
over a single area, would cover more than three and a
half acres. There could be no more striking tribute to
the successful management of the publishing interests
of the Church than this noble and thoroughly adapted
edifice, which is completely equipped in every department
for the work to be performed, and is prepared to furnish
Methodist homes in all sections of the country with the
books needed for centre-table or library, to supply all
preachers with the text-books and books of reference
which they may desire in the pursuit of their calling, all
Sunday-schools with library-books and other necessary
requisites, and all churches with their various records
and books of worship.
The business of the Book Concern has a large interest
for ever)' Methodist, and makes a strong appeal to their
sympathies, in the fact that its dividends are paid to the
worn-out preachers of the Church, so that it serves as
an agency for pensioning this noble band of veterans
whose years and energies have been devoted to the cause
of religion and the service of the Methodist Episcopal
Church.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

13

JOSHUA B. LIPPINCOTT.
Joshua Ballinger Lippincott descended from a
family belonging to the Society of Friends, his an
cestral line having been in this country for six gener
ations preceding him. He was born March 18, 1813,
in the vicinity of Mount Holly, New Jersey, and came
to Philadelphia at the age of eleven, his business life
beginning in the line of trade in which he was to become
distinguished, his employer being a bookseller named
Clarke. Young as he was, he applied himself to the business
with such diligence and intelligence that by the time
he was eighteen he had thoroughly mastered its details.
His industry and capability were well rewarded, for at
this juncture Mr. Clarke failed, and the creditors, who
took the business into their own hands, showed their
appreciation of the ability and trustworthiness of the
young employee by requesting him to take charge of it
as their agent. This he did, and conducted it for about
five years with so much energy, prudence, and judgment
as to give entire satisfaction to all concerned. At the
end of this period, having received some financial aid
from his mother, he began business on his own account
at Clarke's old stand, the south-west corner of Fourth
and Race Streets, under the firm name of J. B. Lippin
cott & Co.
The first few years of his business venture were years
of financial and industrial panic in the country, but his
prudence and foresight carried him safely through and
enabled him to establish himself on a solid basis of pros
perity. Prayer-books and Bibles were the special publi
cations of the new firm, and these were produced with a
taste and finish that created a large demand for them
from the book-buying public. As the years went on his
trade greatly increased under his intelligent management,
and in 1849 ^e found himself able to buy out the book
establishment of Grigg, Elliot & Co., then the largest
and most prosperous bookselling firm in Philadelphia.
This was a daring venture. The purchase absorbed
all the capital he had accumulated, and many of his
friends thought that he was inviting failure by his bold
ness. But events proved that he had not put too much
trust in his own judgment. The new concern prospered
and quickly gave him the position he had an ambition
to attain, that of leadership in the book trade of Phila
delphia. In 1850 he added a stationery department to his
business, and moved to new quarters at Fourth and
Commerce Streets to accommodate his increasing trade.
During the succeeding years the prosperity of the house
continued, the publishing department being greatly ex
tended, while it gained wide credit for the typographical
excellence and other features of superiority of its publi
cations. There were added to its list two highly-valuable

works of reference, " Lippincott's Pronouncing Gazetteer
of the World" and " Lippincott's Pronouncing Dictionary
of Biography and Mythology," works of the greatest
merit, and prepared at immense expense. In addition to
these, the house issued various other works of reference,
the increasing demand for which fully proves the judg
ment and foresight of their projector. Among these
may be named such important standard publications as
" Chambers's Encyclopsedia," " Allibone's Dictionary of
Authors," and the " United States Dispensatory." The
" Worcester's Dictionary" series and Prescott's histories
were acquired, and a number of valuable medical works
were added to the list of the firm's publications. To
the ventures of the house must be added " Lippincott's
Magazine," whose publication began in 1868, and still
continues. In 1861-62 was built the commodious store, 715 and
717 Market Street, in which the business is now carried
on, and in 1871 there was added to this the large fire
proof printing-office and bindery extending back to Fil
bert Street.
In 1845 Mr. Lippincott married Josephine Craige,
only daughter of Seth Craige, a leading manufacturer
of Philadelphia. In 1875 he visited Europe for the
fourth time, extending his journey to the Holy Land,
where he contracted the Syrian fever. From the
effects of this he never fully recovered, and by 1884
his health began seriously to give way. He died Jan
uary 5, 1886, having a short time previously con
verted his business into a joint-stock company under
its present title of " J. B. Lippincott Company." The
house continues, under the able management of his
three sons, to rank high among the leading publishing
and bookselling firms of America, or indeed of the
world.

H

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

SAMUEL STEVENSON.
Among the men of the present century who have had
to do with making Philadelphia what it is must be in
cluded the subject of our present sketch, the term of
whose life almost covered the century, and who at one
time was one of the best known of our citizens, his active
business and political career being a part of the history
of Philadelphia before the period of consolidation of the
old city with its surrounding districts. At this date he
was one of the prominent figures in Democratic city and
State politics, his period of political activity being con
temporaneous with that of Thaddeus Stevens, James
Buchanan, and many others then and afterwards distin
guished in the history of the State and country.
Mr. Stevenson was born in Philadelphia in the year
1805. After receiving his education he engaged in the
grocery business, and at the age of eighteen started in
trade for himself, in the grocery and shipping line, on
Callowhill Street wharf, at that time owning several ves
sels. In this line of business he proved very successful,
and, after an active devotion to it for about a quarter of
a century, retired from business in 1847. During that
time his attention was not solely directed towards his
business interests. Fie had become interested in the
politics of the city and State, and continued to give his
attention to them after his retirement from business.
Flis earliest official position was in connection with the
old district of the Northern Liberties, in which his busi

ness was situated. He was elected a commissioner of
this district, and continued to serve it in that capacity
for many years, giving it up at length in consequence of
failing- health. The feeble state of his health now induced
him to remove to the country for the benefit of the fresh
air and healing influences of open nature. After a period
of rural residence of six years, he returned to the city,
and soon entered upon a somewhat active political career.
An interesting and important incident of his residence in
the Northern Liberties district was the starting by him
of what was known as a " Beggars' School," its interest
being in the fact that this school was really the starting-
point of the public school system of Philadelphia.
After the consolidation of the city in 1854, he was
elected a member of Common Council for the Eleventh
Ward, the member of Select Council for the same ward
being Samuel G. King, afterwards mayor of the city.
Mr. Stevenson was elected to the Council for three con
secutive terms, and was finally offered the nomination of
his party for the mayoralty. He had always been an
old-time Democrat, and his party was at that time of
such strength in the city that a nomination was equiva
lent to an election, but he declined the proffered honor.
The most stirring part of Mr. Stevenson's career was
in the Pennsylvania State Legislature, in which he served
for two or three terms as a member of the House, and
was afterwards, October 12, 1 838, elected to the Senate,
in which he also served for several terms. His period of
service in the Senate was one of much activity and con
tention, being that of the famous " Buckshot War," in
which he was one of the participants, and in which Thad
deus Stevens also figured. This arose out of a contest
for seats in the Legislature, and for the time being was a
period of no small excitement. Mr. Stevenson was one
of those who came victorious out of the contest. While
in the Legislature he cast his vote for James Buchanan
for United States Senator, through the influence of John
W. Forney, with whom he was on terms of the closest
intimacy. Mr. Stevenson had invested his wealth in real estate,
and at his death was a large real-estate owner. He was
one of the organizers of the First Presbyterian Church of
the Northern Liberties, and a pew-owner until the time
of his death. Fie died April 11, 1886, in his eighty-first
year, from the effects of a stroke of paralysis which had
attacked him two weeks before, his faculties remaining
unimpaired till the hour of death.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

'S

HOWARD A. STEVENSON.
Howard Augustin Stevenson, the son of Hon. Sam
uel Stevenson, — of whose life we give a sketch opposite,
— was born in Philadelphia, January 2, 1842, and was
educated in the schools of that city. In 1859 ne entered
the wholesale drug house of Ziegler & Smith, attending
the College of Pharmacy in the evening until he had a
thorough knowledge of the pharmaceutical profession.
The outbreak of the Civil War brought his connection
with this house to an end. He had early shown a pre
dilection for military service, becoming an active member
of the Second Regiment, Pennsylvania militia, and sub
sequently the treasurer of his company. After the out
break of the war he enlisted, and assisted Colonel Fry
in recruiting his cavalry regiment, his recruiting station
being in Independence Square. While thus engaged he
received instructions from the Surgeon-General of the
Naval Department to report at Washington for exam
ination, with a view to appointment in the Medical Corps
of the United States Navy. Passing the examination
successfully, he was ordered to report on duty on the
United States steamer " State of Georgia," and remained
on her till the end of the year.
On the returning to civil life, he entered the wholesale
drug house of A. F. Hazard & Co., with whom he re
mained about three years. In 1870 he succeeded them
in business, in partnership with Lewis U. Bean, the firm
name being Bean & Stevenson. The business thus pur
chased had been established in 1822, and was the oldest
and perhaps the best of its kind in the city. The loca
tion of the new firm was at 113 Arch Street. In 1873
Bean & Stevenson bought out the stock of the long-
established firm of Wetherill & Brother, wholesale drug
dealers, at 47 and 49 North Second Street, and removed
to that locality. Wetherill & Brother had been princi
pally engaged in the South American trade, and their
business, added to that previously possessed by the firm,
gave it the most important drug trade in the city. During
this period Mr. Stevenson had become a member and
director of the Philadelphia Drug Exchange, in whose
affairs he took an active interest. In 1878 he retired
from mercantile life and became connected with the street
railway system, a connection which still continues.
Having purchased an interest in the Green and Coates
Streets Passenger Railway Company, he was elected a
director of that corporation in January, 1879, and in July
of that year was made its president. This office he held
till the railway was leased, in 1881, by the People's
Passenger Railway Company. He was offered the vice-
presidency of the consolidated companies, but declined,
and became interested in the Lombard and South Streets
and the West End Railways, being director of the former

for six, and of the latter for two, years. He resigned these
offices some time after the consolidation of the two roads,
and gave his attention again to the People's Passenger
Railway, of which he was elected a director on January
16, 1886, to succeed Charles J. Harrah. In February
he was elected a director of the Germantown Passenger
Railway Company. On December 9, 1890, he was elected
president of the People's Passenger Railway of Philadel
phia, which position he held till April 15, 1892, when he
resigned. During his term of presidency he strongly
advocated the use of electricity as the motive-power for
moving the cars of the company. His resignation of
office called forth the following unanimous vote of thanks
for his faithful service from the board of directors :
"Resolved : That a vote of thanks of this board be
tendered the retiring president, Mr. Howard A. Steven
son, for the earnest, indefatigable, and loyal service he
has rendered the People's Passenger Railway Company.
He has always been ready to surrender every personal
consideration for the interests of the company, and his
identification with it has resulted to its advantage and
prosperity. It is with deep regret we yield to his deter
mination to sever his official relation to the company, the
established success of which he has been so instrumental
in securing."
In 1887 Mr. Stevenson was made a member of the
board of directors of the Fire Association of Philadel
phia, and in 1889 of the Real Estate Title Insurance and
Trust Company, both of which positions he still retains.
He is a member of the George G. Meade Post, No. 1,
Grand Army of the Republic, and of various social
organizations, a life member of the Athletic Club of the
Schuylkill Navy, and a member of the Germantown
Cricket Club.

1 6

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JOSEPH WHARTON.
Joseph Wharton, born in Philadelphia, March 3, 1826,
is descended, through his parents, William Wharton and
Deborah Fisher, from two of the first settlers in Phila
delphia, namely, Thomas Wharton, who came here in or
about the year 1683, and John Fisher, who came with
William Penn from England on his first voyage in the
ship " Welcome" in 1682. He was educated in the best
private schools of Philadelphia until the age of fourteen,
and until sixteen by a Harvard graduate, when he was
sent to learn farming in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
He spent three years at this labor, returning to Phila
delphia in the winter to study. At the age of nineteen
he entered the counting-house of Wain & Learning, and
in the year 1847 joined his brother in establishing a large
manufactory of white lead, etc., which they sold after a
few years to John T. Lewis & Brothers.
In 1853, after some smaller enterprises, such as making
bricks by machinery, he took charge of the Lehigh Zinc
Company's business at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, at first
of its mines, and later of its zinc-oxide works. In 1857
he leased the whole establishment, and managed it on his
own account through the hard winter of 1857-58, re
suming afterwards its management for the company. In
1859 he experimented successfully in the production of
metallic zinc or spelter, which resulted in his building in
i860, for the Lehigh Zinc Company, of which he was
part owner, the first successful spelter works in America.
He operated these works as lessee until April 1, 1863,
and produced about nine million pounds of spelter. In
the same year he began the manufacture of nickel at
Camden, New Jersey, from the ores of the Gap Mine, in
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, which mine he bought,
and which probably yielded under his rule more nickel
than has any other single mine in the world. He still

carries on the establishment at Camden, producing nickel,
cobalt, and other merchandise, though now obliged to
draw material for it from Canada. For advances in the
art of nickel-making several awards have been made to
Mr. Wharton by international fairs, particularly the gold
medal of the Paris Exposition of 1878 for malleable nickel
in divers forms, a display so novel that the jury at first
doubted its reality. Nickel magnets for ships' compasses
were made by him in 1876, and he demonstrated in 1888
the increase of magnetic moment of forged nickel after
the addition of tungsten.
As director of the Bethlehem Iron Company, whose
principal products were steel rails and billets, he advo
cated in 1885 the undertaking by that company of ex
tensive works for making steel forgings, and in 1886
visited England and France, making there preliminary
contracts for the acquisition of the best methods and
apparatus. Out of this has grown, under the wise liber
ality of the company and the mechanical ability of their
superintendent, Mr. John Fritz, a vast steel-making es
tablishment, doubtless the finest in the world, producing
steel and nickel-steel armor plates, gun forgings, shaft
ings, cranks, etc. of unrivalled excellence, without which
the modern navy of the United States or the new ship
building industry of this country would scarcely have
been possible. He has acquired during the past twenty
years about one hundred and fifty square miles of land
in New Jersey, from which he has offered to supply
Philadelphia with abundance of water.
Having participated in the founding of the Industrial
League, and having for many years taken active part in
promoting protective tariff legislation, he was offered the
Republican nomination for member of Congress in the
second district of Pennsylvania, where election was cer
tain, but declined to enter public life, and has never held
public office except as school director, though frequently
consulted concerning pending legislation. In May, 1881,
he founded the Wharton School of Finance and Econ
omy as a department of the University of Pennsylvania,
and has since then doubled its original endowment. He
was one ofthe founders of Swarthmore College, of whose
managers he has been president since 1S83.
He has been largely engaged in several railroad enter
prises, and in other business affairs and manufactures
besides those named, such as iron mining and making,
glass-making, etc., and has had experience as railroad
director, bank director, etc. Fie has produced from time
to time addresses and short treatises upon many current
topics, mainly scientific, industrial, and financial. Mr.
Wharton married, in 1854, Anna C. Lovering, daughter
of Joseph S. Lovering, of Philadelphia. He is a member
ofthe Religious Society of Friends, as have been all his
ancestors for many generations. He has been a member
of the American Philosophical Society since 1869.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

17

J. WALTER THOMPSON.
J. Walter Thompson, the well-known magazine ad
vertiser, is a native of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in which
city he was born October 28, 1847. His parents removed
to Ohio while he was still quite young, and the early
part of his life, including its educational period, was
passed in that State. He was still quite youthful when
he came to New York, — early in the sixties, — in which,
city he shortly afterwards entered upon a mercantile
career. This first venture in the active business of life
was made in 1864, when he was seventeen years of age.
He began his career in the metropolis under the same
conditions as did Horace Greeley and many others who
have achieved success, being without money and without
influence, but possessed of that indomitable energy and
spirit of enterprise which even ill fortune itself is power
less to defeat, and which, as a rule, win good fortune bv
commanding it.
Mr. Thompson began his career, in a minor capacity,
in that field of labor which was to become the work of his
later life, his first position being that of clerk in an adver
tising establishment. The ambitious boy was not content
to remain long in this subordinate capacity. When only-
a clerk it was one of his first resolves to be a good clerk,
to do his duty to his employers, comprehend the business
in which he was engaged, and fit himself by industry and
intelligence for higher positions in the domain of mercan
tile life. Mr. Thompson was well equipped by nature
with the qualities which bring a man to the front alike in
the position of a clerk or a merchant. He had integrity,
energy, patience, and perseverance, together with the
important virtues of manner of courtesy, willingness, and
alacrity, and with them belief in his own powers, the
self-confidence which disarms adversity and is one of
the most essential elements of success. Add to these a
pleasing address, the power of impressing his views on
others, the secret of convincing, and we can readily com
prehend his remarkable progress in his chosen field of
labor, that of soliciting and placing magazine advertise
ments, of which he was the creator.
As has been said, Mr. Thompson did not content him
self with the bare duties of clerkship. These did not
exhaust all his time, and he quickly began to look around
for a method of profitably improving his hours of leisure.
He had taken an earnest hold of the advertising idea,
and neglected no opportunity to learn all he could about
it, and to invent new methods of operation and discover
new fields of extension in his adopted line of business.
His first step on his own account was taken in Brook
lyn, where he secured control of a number of theatre
programmes as profitable channels of advertising. To

these he soon added the programmes of several of the
New York theatres, convincing the managers that he
could make the enterprise doubly profitable. From this
first venture he succeeded in adding both to his income
and his experience.
This first state in his independent career was followed
by others, and by an advance in position in the firm in
whose service he was engaged, until he eventually pur
chased and became successor to its business. To this
business he has, since acquiring complete control of
it, steadily added, developing its importance and mag
nitude, especially in the special field of magazine adver
tising, until to-day he is the autocrat in this profitable
field of industry. He has gained a controlling influence
over most of the advertising that appears in the American
magazines, and built up a business in this line that is
regarded by his rivals in the advertising field as phe
nomenal. Personally Mr. Thompson is a man of excellent
judgment and cool self-control, agreeable in manner,
ready in speech, and quick to perceive and grasp the
details of a business situation, and to avoid risky com
plications. He is loyal alike to the interests of his
patrons and his friends, faithful and accurate in perform
ance, confident in his judgment, careful in expressing an
opinion, but firm in his conclusions when once reached,
and in all respects a model of the born man of busi
ness. Mr. Thompson was married in 1877 to Miss Margaret
R. Bogle, daughter of the late James Bogle, the cele
brated portrait-painter, and a prominent member of the
New York Academy of Design.

iS

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JUDGE FREDERICK CARROLL BREWSTER.
Frederick Carroll Brewster, son of Francis Enoch
Brewster, who had for many years been a prominent
member of the Philadelphia bar, was born in Philadel
phia, May 15, 1825. He was sent to the old Friends'
Select School at Fourth and Chestnut Streets, where he
was carefully trained and fitted for college. He entered
the University of Pennsylvania, then located in the old
Ninth Street buildings, while Rev. Dr. Ludlow, the father
of Judge Ludlow, was provost, or president. The young
student displayed great industry and aptness for learning,
until in 1841, when just about sixteen years of age, he
graduated with all the honors of the institution. William
Henry Rawle and Hon. Horatio Gates Jones were col
lege-mates with him. Judge Brewster has always main
tained an active relationship with the friends of the
University, and he has often given evidence of the
interest he feels in the permanent reputation and future
welfare of his Alma Mater. He was for years Presi
dent of the Society of the Alumni, and on several oc
casions has been called upon to deliver addresses to the
students and patrons of the University of Pennsylvania
in West Philadelphia. He was the orator at the laying
of the corner-stone of the new edifice. In testimony of
the esteem entertained for him by the University he was
honored with the degree of Doctor ol Laws.
Though leaving the University at an early age, he at
once began the study of the law in his father's office. A
natural adaptation for the profession was soon developed,
and in those earl)' years of his life he became so proficient
in his preparation that, upon application and due exami
nation, he was admitted to the bar, September 20, 1844,
when but little over nineteen years of age.
In his profession he achieved marked success. In the
criminal courts he became concerned in many trials of

much public interest. Among the most important oi
these was that in which Mr. Thomas Allibone, president
of the Pennsylvania Bank, was charged after the collapse
of that institution with conspiracy to defraud the bank.
The newspapers, and public opinion generally, were
strongly against the accused, but Mr. Brewster defended
him with such skill and energy that Mr. Allibone was1
declared innocent, and public opinion clearly shown to
have been wrong. He was concerned in many homicide
cases and never lost a client.
In 1856 he conducted a celebrated civil case, the con
test for the district-attorneyship between Lewis C. Cas-
sidy and William B. Mann, winning the case for Mr.1
Mann. It was the most important question of its kind
ever solved by a Philadelphia court, and has since been
held as a standard precedent in election contests in this
city. The political excitement aroused by it was the
greatest that has ever here been known. From that
time he was for many years the leader in election cases
and the civil courts.
It was not until the period of the Civil War that Mr.
Brewster entered the political field. The interests of the
city at that time of financial difficulty were such as to
require the greatest legal skill for their conservation.
The Republican party, without consulting Mr. Brewster,
nominated him for city solicitor. He was supported by
a strong independent movement and elected by a large
majority to an office to which he was to give the credit
and importance which it had previously lacked. The
most important question with which he was called upon to
deal was that concerning the Girard Estate. A vigorous
effort had been made by the heirs of Stephen Girard to
overturn the will by which such large bequests had been
made to the city and college. Mr. Brewster, in 1863,
appealed this case to the Supreme Court, before which he
defended the interests of the city with such legal acumen
that the decision was rendered in his favor, and the mag
nificent trust secured. He gained the Chestnut Street
bridge suit before the Supreme Court at Washington
and a number of constitutional cases, notably the State
Bounty Act, involving many millions of dollars.
After serving for two terms as city solicitor, Mr.
Brewster was elected judge in the Philadelphia courts,
and in 1869 was appointed by Governor Geary Attorney-
General of the State of Pennsylvania, an office which he
filled with eminent satisfaction for three years.
Judge Brewster is also the author of several works of
importance, including " Moliere in Outline," " The Life
and Writings of Disraeli," "A Digest of Pennsylvania
Cases," " Brewster's Blackstone," " The Rule in Shelly 's
Case," " Brewster's Reports," four volumes " Practice in
the Common Pleas Courts," two volumes " Practice in
the Orphans' Court," two volumes, and "Equity Prac
tice," two volumes.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

19

JOSEPH PULITZER.
ps, Joseph Pulitzer, who has so rapidly advanced into
-the front rank of New York journalism, is a native of
Hungary, his birthplace being Buda-Pesth, the double
capital of that kingdom. He was born April 10, 1847,
and received his preliminary education in his native city,
D but emigrated to America in early youth. Landing in
jjNew York, he proceeded thence to St. Louis, where he
quickly acquired a knowledge of the English language,
),and in which city he resided for many years. While
still young he became strongly interested in politics, and
{made himself so prominent that he was elected to the
> Missouri State Legislature in 1869, when but twenty-two
. years of age. In 1872 he was a delegate to the Cincin-
• nati convention that nominated Horace Greeley as Dem
ocratic candidate for the Presidency; in 1874 he served
. as a member of the Missouri constitutional convention,
; and in 1880 became a delegate to the Democratic national
convention, and the Missouri member of its Committee
1 on Platform. He was elected to Congress in 1884, but
\ resigned after a few months' service, his journalistic
. duties requiring his undivided attention.
Mr. Pulitzer began his career in journalism at the age
of twenty, as a reporter on the St. Louis Westliche Post,
a German Republican newspaper then under the editor
ship of Carl Schurz. At a later date he rose to the posi-
. tion of managing editor and gained a proprietary interest
¦ in this journal. In 1878 he purchased the St. Louis
Dispatch, which he combined with the Evening Post,
giving to the associated enterprise the title of Post-
Dispatch. This paper still remains under his control.
His residence in New York began in 1883, in which
year he purchased the New York World, a newspaper
which had been twenty-three years in existence under
various managers, but without attaining any large circu
lation. Since that period he has been sole proprietor
and editorial manager of the World, and has made of it
an unprecedented success. At the start he announced
that " There is room in this great city for a journal that
is not only cheap but bright, not only bright but large,
not only large but truly Democratic ; dedicated to the
cause of the people rather than that of purse-potentates ;
that will expose all fraud and sham, fight all public evils
and abuses; that will serve and battle for the people with
earnest sincerity."
This "battle-cry" of the World was borne out in its
new character, and the people at once began to buy it with
such avidity that its circulation increased with phenom
enal rapidity. In 1882 its average daily circulation was
twenty-two thousand three hundred and thirty-one copies.
On May 29, 1883, in less than three weeks of the new
management, a gain of thirty-five per cent, was announced.
On June 15 the circulation had doubled, and by Sep
tember, 1884, the paper had reached a circulation of one

hundred thousand copies. This remarkable growth con
tinued until, in 1890, the daily circulation reached an
average of three hundred and sixteen thousand six
hundred and thirty-six copies, while the advertisements
increased from eighty-six thousand five hundred and
seventy-seven in 1883 to seven hundred and eighty-two
thousand seven hundred and ninety-four in 1890.
This great development was due to the enterprise dis
played in the management of the paper, and its bold
and uncompromising exposure of frauds, trusts, and plu
tocratic schemes of every description. It became, as
promised, the people's paper, and the people rallied to its
support. By 1889 the old quarters of the World had
become quite inadequate for its needs, and a new and
great structure was begun, the present World building, at
the corner of Park Row and Frankfort Street, one of the
largest and best equipped newspaper buildings in the
world. The corner-stone of this edifice was laid October
10, 1889, by Master Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., then four years
of age, Mr. Pulitzer himself being detained by sickness
in Germany. It was completed by December 10, 1890,
when its formal opening took place in the presence of a
notable assemblage of governors, congressmen, and other
visitors of public prominence.
We may conclude with an extract from Mr. Pulitzer's
cablegram on the laying of the corner-stone of the new
edifice : " God grant that this structure be the enduring
home of a newspaper forever unsatisfied with merely
printing news, forever fighting every form of wrong, for
ever independent, forever advancing in enlightenment
and progress, forever wedded to truly Democratic ideas,
forever aspiring to be a moral force, forever rising to a
higher plane of perfection as a public institution." These
words have the true ring in them. They could be well
emulated in deeds by the whole newspaper world.

20

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

HORACE GREELEY.
Horace Greeley, the famous editor of The Tribune,
was a native of Amherst, New Hampshire, where he was
born February 3, 181 1, of Scotch-Irish ancestry, though
his progenitors had been in New England for several
generations. His father, Zaccheus Greeley, owned a farm
of fifty acres of sterile soil, yielding a bare support to
his large family. Before his son Horace was ten years of
age he became bankrupt, and had to flee from the State
to escape arrest for debt, while his farm was sold by the
sheriff. Horace as a child was feeble and precocious, learning
to read while little more than an infant, and quite noted
for his accurate spelling. After the family disaster a
new home was sought at West Haven, Vermont, where
the boy, who had a strong desire to be a printer, tried to
enter the village newspaper office as an apprentice, but
was rejected as too young. For three years he worked
as a day laborer, and then, with his father's consent, was
apprenticed in the office of the Northern Spectator, at
East Poultney, Vermont.
He soon became a good workman, developed a taste
for political statistics, and gradually became largely
depended upon for the editing of the paper, while he
made a figure in the village debating society. For his
services he received in money only $40 a year, most of
which he sent to his father. When he was twenty years
of age the Northern Spectator suspended publication, and
the boy visited his parents, then on a farm in the wilds
of Western Pennsylvania. After working for a time on
the farm and in various printing-offices he started for
New York, making his way on foot and by canal-boat,
and reached that city in August, 1831, with $10 as his
sole capital.

Employment was not easily obtained, and his first
work was on a 321T10 New Testament, so difficult from
its minute type that other printers refused it. He slowly
progressed, and in January, 1833, formed a business
partnership with Francis V. Story, a fellow-printer.
With a combined capital of $150 and a font of type
obtained on credit they began the printing of the first
cheap paper published in New York, the price being
fixed at two cents. It failed in three weeks. The
partners continued to work, however, and James G.
Bennett asked Greeley to join him in starting The Herald.
This Greeley declined, but soon after started The New
Yorker, which proved a losing venture, though it gained
a circulation of nearly ten thousand copies. It was
kept alive for seven years, and gave Greeley, who was
its sole editor, much reputation as a writer. He en
gaged also in editorial work on other papers, and
during the Harrison campaign for the Presidency, in
1840, published the Log Cabin, whose circulation rose
to ninety thousand.
On April 1, 1841, he announced that on the following
Saturday he would begin the publication of a daily news
paper of the same general principles as the Log Cabin,
to be called The Tribune. He was without money for
this venture, and borrowed $iooo, on which and his
reputation as an able editor The Tribune was founded.
The paper proved wide-awake and aggressive, and rapidly
increased in circulation, reaching eleven thousand in the
seventh week. From this time forward Greeley was
identified with this newspaper, and its history is his. It
gradually grew prosperous, and for many years paid him
an income of over $15,000 annually, and often as much
as $35,000 or more. Yet he lacked business thrift, and
frequently found himself in straits for money, so that he
gradually parted with nearly all his interest in the paper.
The Weekly Tribune, which he started in 185 1, became
highly prosperous, and attained a very large circulation,
proving an exceedingly profiable enterprise.
Greeley's political affiliations were at first with the
Whig, and afterwards with the Republican, party. He
served on several Republican conventions, but in 1867
injured his standing with the party greatly by going on
the bail-bond of Jefferson Davis. Being dissatisfied with
President Grant's administration, he sharply criticised its
acts, and in consequence, in 1872, received a nomination
for the Presidency from the Democrats, his life-long op
ponents. The result was a defeat, and this, and his
labors during the campaign, seem to have told on his
health, which rapidly declined, he dying on the 29th of
November, 1872. Despite the ridicule and contumely to
which he was occasionally exposed, no man was more
respected or admired for moral uprightness than Horace
Greeley.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

21

WILLIAM H. APPLETON.
William Henry Appleton, for many years the head
of the extensive New York publishing house founded in
1825 by Daniel Appleton, was born at Haverhill, Massa
chusetts, January 27, 18 14, being the eldest son of the
distinguished publisher. His father, who had carried on
the dry-goods business at Haverhill, removed in 1825
to New York, starting the same business on Exchange
Place in that city, and adding to it the importation of
English books. His son, then but eleven years of age,
was placed in charge of the book department, at that
time a very small one. The store was soon removed to
Clinton Hall, Beekman Street, and the sale of dry-goods
gradually abandoned, the book trade having grown so
extensive as to absorb the attention of the proprietor.
In 1835 William H., was sent to Europe in accordance
with a promise made him by his father in his boyish
days. He landed at Liverpool, and went to London,
where, without letters of introduction, and presenting
his personal card only, he quickly made the acquaintance
of the heads of the great publishing houses, including
William Longmans and John Murray, and was so suc
cessful in his business arrangements with these publishers
that his father gave him a three months' holiday for travel
in Europe, advising him to study while there the condi
tions of the book trade in Germany.
A year later he made a second journey to London.
He made no purchases on this occasion, in consequence
of the panic conditions which at that time affected
American business, but while there started a permanent
agency in Little Britain, and published several books of
religious extracts which had a fair sale. In 1838 his
father admitted him to partnership, the firm removing
to No. 200 Broadway and assuming the title of Daniel
Appleton & Co. Ten years afterwards, in 1848, the
father retired from business, requesting his son, on doing
so, never to sign a check or note without the name of
Daniel Appleton written out in full. This request has
been faithfully complied with.
A new firm was now organized, composed of William
H. Appleton as head, and his brothers John A., Daniel
S., George S., and Samuel F. Appleton as subordinate
partners. Of these five brothers the last two named
have since died, while three grandsons of the originator
of the house, William W., Daniel, and Edward D. Ap
pleton, are now members of the firm. William W., the
eldest son of the subject of our sketch, became a partner
in 1868, and in 1880, on the partial withdrawal from ac
tive business of his father, was recognized as manager of
the establishment. Yet William H. Appleton, though
now advanced in years, has never ceased his close con
nection with the affairs of the firm, and is still energetic
in such details of the business as he keeps in hand.
On the reorganization of the firm in 1848 the business

was removed to the corner of Broadway and Leonard
Street, and since then, with the growth of the city up
town, has made various removals. In 1881 the retail
job and importing branch of the business was abandoned,
the publishing department having grown so great that
it was necessary to devote sole attention to this depart
ment. In 1853 a printing-office and bindery had been
established in Franklin Street, but, in consequence ofthe
large increase in publishing, it was removed in 1868 to
Brooklyn, where nearly a square in extent is occupied
for this purpose.
The publications of the house are so numerous and
varied that we can name but a few of the more important
of them. Among its greatest ventures is the " New
American Cyclopaedia," the largest and most widely
circulated work of its class ever published in this
country. This appeared from 1857 to 1863, and a
revised edition, greatly improved and increased, was
issued from 1873 to 1876. In 1861 they began the pub
lication of an " Annual Cyclopaedia," which is still pub
lished yearly. Among other important issues are the
" Popular Science Mdnthly," the " Cyclopaedia of Ameri
can Biography," the "International Scientific Series," and
many valuable art, medical, and educational works.
Soon after the Civil War, Mr. Appleton suggested to
Rev. J. W. Beckwith, then made Bishop of Georgia,
that he would like to honor his promotion by founding
an orphans' home in his diocese. This suggestion has
culminated in a Church Home for Orphan Girls, daughters
of Confederate soldiers, at Macon, Georgia. It is known
as the " Appleton Church Home," the name being given
in memory of his oldest daughter, who died in China.
It is in charge of deaconesses of the Order of St. Katha
rine, the inmates being given a plain English education
and taught all kinds of household work.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM CRAMP.
William Cramp, ship-builder, was born in Kensington,
then a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1806.
His ancestors were among the first who settled in Penn
sylvania. William Cramp received a thorough English
education, and when he left school associated with Sam
uel Grice, one of the most eminent naval architects of
that day. In 1830, having mastered all the details of
ship-building, he engaged in the business on his own ac
count. By reason of his business ability and the superior
quality of the vessels which he constructed, his affairs
prospered from the outset, and his ship-yard has since
grown into the most extensive and best-equipped estab
lishment of its kind in the United States, and equal to
any in the world. His sons as they grew to manhood
learned their father's profession, and were admitted as
partners in his business. In 1872, the firm was incor
porated under the name of " The William Cramp &
Sons' Ship & Engine Building Company." Until i860
the Cramps were engaged in the building of wooden

vessels, ships, brigs, barkentines, etc., but they kept pace
with all the advances in the art of ship-building ; and
when, at the opening of the Civil War in 186 1, there was
an unexpected demand for war-vessels, they were able
to meet it promptly.
In person, William Cranvp'was a trifle below medium
height, but of massive build and striking presence, which
caused him to appear larger than he really was. Being
thoroughly master of every branch of the art in his day,
he was always the active superintendent of his ship-yard,
and his vigilance and diligence never relaxed until his
last illness. In business circles his name was a synonyme
for honor and probity, and, though sorely beset at times
by the vicissitudes of industrial operations, he never
failed to meet his obligations or to complete his con
tracts to the letter. This was strikingly exemplified
during the Civil War, when prices of material and labor
were constantly rising, so that contracts made on the
basis of existing prices would need to be carried out
under market conditions much less favorable. Under
these circumstances William Cramp was compelled to
exercise great financial foresight and sagacity as well as
professional skill and diligence, but he proved equal to
all emergencies.
The "New Ironsides'' was the most noteworthy of the
triumphs of William Cramp and his sons, who were then
associated with him. When the contract for her con
struction was signed, nearly all the timber of which she
was to be built stood in the forests. It was cut, brought
to the ship-yard, fashioned into shape, and her hull, the
heaviest ever built of wood, was framed, planked,
decked, and plated in seven months, and in eleven
months from the date of the contract she was in action
in Charleston harbor. No such expedition was ever
known before or since in the construction of so large
and powerful a ship.
William Cramp died at Atlantic City, July 3, 1879, at
the age of seventy-three years, after a career of unremit
ting activity lasting more than half a century.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

23

STEPHEN V. WHITE.
Stephen Van Cullen White was born in Chatham
County, North Carolina, August 1, 1831, the son of
Hiram White, a member of an old Quaker family of
Chester County, Pennsylvania, wdiich had removed to
North Carolina shortly after the Revolution. His
mother was Julia Brewer, of a North Carolina family of
much respectability, and a lineal descendant of Oliver
Cromwell, the Lord Protector of Great Britain. Hiram
White, educated in strong sentiments against human
slavery, refused to enforce the harsh decrees passed
against the negroes at the time of the noted Nat Turner
insurrection, and was forced to leave the State when his
son was an infant not two months old.
He made his way with his family in a covered wagon
to Greene (now Jersey) County, Illinois, near the mouth
of the Illinois River. Here he became a farmer and
miller, the boy, as he grew to proper age, working on
the farm and in the mill of his father, and attending
school at intervals. The first money made by the grow
ing lad was gained by trapping, the furs taken being sold
to the American Fur Company. In 1849 ne was entered
at the preparatory school of Knox College, and gradu
ated from the college in 1854, teaching school, mean
while, to help pay his expenses. After his graduation
he became a book-keeper for Claflin, Allen & Stinde, a
St. Louis firm, with whom he remained a year, and then
began the study of law with the legal firm of Brown &
Kasson. While thus engaged he wrote editorials and
reviews for the Missouri Democrat.
Mr. White was admitted to, the bar of Missouri in
1856, and in the next year located himself at Des
Moines, Iowa, soon after the capital of the State. Here
business quickly came to him, his ability gaining him
many clients. He remained here for the succeeding
nine years, during which he tried many important cases,
in particular that of Gelpke vs. Dubuque, argued in De
cember, 1863, before the United States Supreme Court,
in which he obtained a reversal of the decision of the
Iowa courts, and secured to investors many millions of
repudiated municipal bonds. In 1864 he served for a
time as acting United States district attorney for Iowa,
the incumbent being ill.
There was before him the promise of an unusually
brilliant legal career, yet in January, 1865, he suddenly
gave it up, removed to New York, and entered into the
banking business with Captain Charles B. Marvin, under
the firm-name of Marvin & White. This association
continued until 1867, when Captain Marvin withdrew,
Mr. White continuing alone till 1882, when the firm of
S. V. White & Co. was formed. This firm continued,
with modifications in its membership, until 1891, when it
came to an end in a somewhat disastrous manner. Mr.

White, who had been brilliantly successful as an opera
tor, attempted in this year to control the corn market of
the country, but failed through the misuse of his money
by his broker, and instead of the millions which he
hoped to make, failed so badly that he found himself a
million dollars in debt.
A remarkable result followed. By the rules of the
Stock Exchange he could not hold membership while
he had a legal obligation outstanding. In this emer
gency his three hundred creditors waived their claims,
with sole reliance on his word of honor to pay them
when he could. Their unusual confidence was not mis
placed. Borrowing $50,000 from some trusting friends,
Mr. White went upon the floor of the Exchange again,
and with the most surprising success. Everything he
touched seemed to turn to gold. His progress was
steadily upward. As fast as he made money he trans
mitted it to the most needy creditors, and within the
brief space of eleven months he had paid off the entire
million dollars of debt, and was soundly established in
business again. It was an event probably without par
allel in the history of speculation, and could only have
been obtained by a man of Mr. White's ability and recog
nized business probity.
For more than twenty-five years Mr. White has been
a trustee and the treasurer of Plymouth Church. As
another evidence of the confidence felt in him, his
church associates re-elected him to the post of treas
urer immediately after the announcement of the failure.
In politics he has been a Republican since the Fremont
campaign of 1856. He was elected to Congress in
1866, for the Third Congressional District of New
York, and served with distinction, but declined a prof
fered renomination.

24

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JOHN ROACH.
John Roach, one of the most notable of American
ship-builders, was born at Michelstown, County Cork,
Ireland, December 25, 1815, the son of a reputable mer
chant of that place. His place of birth afforded but
limited opportunities for education, and these ceased at
the age of thirteen, his father becoming ruined in busi
ness through endorsing notes for his friends, and soon
after dying, leaving the mother with a large family to
maintain. John, the oldest son, thereupon resolved to
come to America, with the hope that industry and enter
prise would win him success in that New World. He
was sixteen years old when he landed in New York,
whence he travelled on foot for sixty miles to secure a
position offered him in the Howell Iron Works in New
Jersey, his wages to be twenty-five cents a day.
The boy's intelligence, industry, and self-reliance soon
won him the favor of Mr. Allaire, the proprietor, who
took an earnest interest in him, and gave him every
opportunity to gain a thorough knowledge of the trade.
Industry and economy enabled him, after a number of
years, to save $1200, of which in 1840 he drew a portion,
went to Illinois, and made an advance payment on three
hundred acres of land on the site of the present city of
Peoria. Unfortunately for him, Mr. Allaire, who held
the balance of his savings, just then failed in business, and
the ambitious young pioneer lost all he had so painfully
saved, forfeiting the money paid in advance on his land.
He immediately returned to New York, where he en
tered an establishment to learn the trade of making cast
ings for ships and marine engines, at one dollar a day
wages. Having again accumulated a little capital, he
and three fellow-workmen purchased a small foundry in
New York and began work for themselves in a modest
way. His three partners soon drew out, and went to

work for him as employees, leaving him alone in the
business. Under his intelligent control it progressed
rapidly, every venture he made proved successful, and at
the close of four years he had found it necessary to en
large his works and was the possessor of $30,000 capital.
Then, in 1856, misfortune came. A boiler burst and de
stroyed his works ; he could not recover the insurance,
and his debts absorbed every dollar he had saved.
Fortunately he had won a reputation for enterprise
and integrity, his credit was excellent, and he at once
rebuilt his works on a larger scale, and with facilities for
building larger marine engines than had hitherto been
produced in this country, while some of its tools were the
largest that had yet been used in America. In this new
establishment, known as the .Etna Iron Works, he went
vigorously to work, rapidly building up a new and profit
able trade until he had more than fifteen hundred men
under his employment, and was turning out marine en
gines for the largest vessels built up to that time in this
country, including several large war-vessels and the mam
moth steamboats " Bristol" and " Providence."
By 1868 Mr. Roach's business had grown to such
proportions that he found it advisable to purchase the
Morgan Iron Works, an establishment of great dimen
sions ; and soon afterwards bought the Neptune and the
Allaire Works and the Franklin Forge. In 1871 he built
a great ship-yard at Chester, Pennsylvania. This estab
lishment covered a large area on the river front, and was
valued at $2,000,000. Mr. Roach was its principal owner.
While he built a number of large ships for the govern
ment, the most of his work was for private parties, the
Delaware River works becoming in time so famous as to
win for that stream the name of " The Clyde of America."
Mr. Roach studied deeply the requirements of modern
war-vessels, and advised the government to build only
improved machinery. His advice resulted in the placing
of compound engines in the " Tennessee," a trial which
proved a decided success. He afterwards devised a plan
for founding a native merchant marine, which was
strongly favored by President Garfield, but action on
which was prevented by the President's death. Misfor
tune subsequently visited Mr. Roach. He had con
tracted to build four large vessels for the government.
The first of these, the " Dolphin," was built and accepted,
but was afterwards refused by Secretary Whitney, who
also declared that Mr. Roach's contract would not hold
good. He had invested very largely in this government
work, and the withdrawal of the contract forced him, on
July 18, 1885, to make an assignment. Mr. Roach never
recovered from the consequences of this unmerited blow.
Llis powerful constitution gave way, and he died in New
York, January 10, 1887. His sons continue his works,
one having charge of the Chester establishment and one
of the Morgan Iron Works at New York.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

25

D. O. MILLS.
D. O. Mills, a leading Californian and New York-
financier, was born in Westchester County, New York,
September 5, 1825, being the fifth son of James Mills,
who in 1835 served as supervisor of the town of North
Salem. The family descended from Scotch-English an
cestry, Mr. Mills's forefathers settling in New York and
Connecticut before the Revolutionary period. His father
occupied for many years a prominent position in the
community in which he resided, but in late life became
impoverished, and died in 1841, leaving his family with
very small means. The subject of our sketch had, how
ever, received an excellent education in the North Salem
Academy and afterwards in the Mount Pleasant Academy
at Sing Sing, then one ofthe leading educational institu
tions of the State. His father had, in addition, carefully
trained him in the essentials of a business career.
Mr. Mills ended his school life at the age of seventeen
and prepared to make his own way in the world, securing
a clerkship in New York, in which he remained during
the few succeeding years. He was also engaged during
part of this period in duties connected with the settle
ment of the small estate left by his father. In 1847,
when twenty-two years of age, he went to Buffalo, where
he entered into partnership with his cousin, E. J. Town-
send, and was appointed cashier of the Merchants' Bank,
of Erie County, a bank of deposit issue established under
a special charter and doing a large business for those
days. Mr. Mills, however, had more ambitious views, and
in December, 1848, determined to go to California, a
country then the seat of an extraordinary excitement
from the recent discovery of gold. He reached San
Francisco in June, 1849, after a long voyage full of ex
citing incident. It was, however, not his purpose to en
gage in gold-mining, like most of the adventurers who
sought that land of promise. He saw, on the contrary,
better hopes in other directions, and engaged success
fully in trade with the various mining districts. After
a period of experience in this line, he settled in Sacra
mento, and engaged in general mercantile business,
while also purchasing gold-dust and dealing in exchange
on New York. By November of that year, after less
than six months' work, he already found himself the
possessor of about $40,000. He now closed out his
business and returned to Buffalo, where he disposed of
all his interests in the East, having resolved to make
California his future home. Seeking Sacramento again,
he founded there the banking house of D. O. Mills &
Co., which quickly became the leading bank of interior
California, a position which it maintains to this day.

Mr. Mills quickly established a reputation for integrity,
business judgment, boldness, and rapid decision, his word
being deemed as good as most men's bond, while his
business was maintained solely on a legitimate basis, all
questionable schemes being sedulously avoided. As a
consequence, business came abundantly to the house,
and he had gained ere long the position of the most
successful and leading banker of California.
In 1864 he was elected. president of the Bank of Cali
fornia, a new institution which began business that year
with a capital of $2,000,000. He remained connected
with it till 1873, when he resigned the presidency and
retired from business, having accumulated a large fortune.
His retirement proved almost fatal to the bank. Under
the reckless management of his successor, William C.
Ralston, it was in two years brought to the verge of
ruin, and Mr. Mills was summoned to save it. He
obeyed the summons, resumed the presidency, sub
scribed personally to the bank capital $1,000,000, raised
in all nearly $7,000,000, and within six weeks enabled
it to resume payment. In three years he again left it,
after having firmly re-established its financial standing.
Subsequently Mr. Mills came East, where he became
a resident of New York City, and erected there the great
" Mills Building" in Broad Street. His interests are
now divided between New York and California and yield
him an income of more than $1,000,000 a year. On
leaving California he endowed with $75,000 the Mills
professorship of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy in
the University of California, and donated to the State
the handsome group of marble statuary " Columbus be
fore Queen Isabella." He became also a trustee of the
Lick Estate and the Lick Astronomical Observatory.

26

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

GEORGE MORRISON COATES.
George Morrisox Coates was born in Philadelphia,
August 20, 1817, and resided in that city to the end of
his life. He was the son of George Morrison Coates, a
successful merchant in his day, and of Rebecca Hornor,
the daughter of another Philadelphia merchant. Indeed,
Mr. Coates had a distinct inheritance of mercantile train
ing, most of his ancestors having followed the pursuit
of commerce from the time of his great-great-grand
fathers, — Thomas Coates, who came to Pennsylvania
from Sproxton, in Leicestershire, England, in 1682, and
John Hornor, who landed from the ship " Providence,"
at Burlington, New Jersey, in 1683. Among the pas
sengers by the " Shield," the first vessel of size to ascend
the Delaware as far as Burlington, in 1678, were two
other ancestors of Mr. Coates, — Thomas Potts, the pro
genitor of a family of some distinction in New Jersey,
and Mahlon Stacy, one of the proprietors of West
Jersey, and a prominent officer in the government of
that colony. Another ancestor was the father of the
famous Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts colony,
and still another was Captain George Morrison, whose
name appears among the signers of the non-importation
resolution of October 25, 1765, a fac-simile of which
hangs in Independence Hall. Thomas Coates died in
17 19, leaving, among other pieces of properly, a house
and lot on Second Street above Market, in which his
great-great-grandson, a hundred and twenty years later,
was to begin his mercantile career.
George Morrison Coates, after having received a sound
classical education in the best private schools of the
city, was placed in the establishment of James Fassett,
a prominent merchant, to acquire his mercantile training.
At the age of twenty-one, he, with his father's assistance,
began business on his own account as a merchant in

cloths and cassimeres, his establishment being located
upon the property before mentioned, which then be
longed to his father, and which had for a long time been
occupied by Coates & Randolph, the firm of his grand
father, Josiah Langdale Coates. This adventure proving
profitable, Mr. Coates some years later removed to a
larger establishment upon Market Street above Third,
leaving his Second Street business, in which he still re
tained an interest, to a new firm, of which his cousin, the
late Charles W. Pickering, was the head. The panic of
1857 coming on, Mr. Coates met with severe reverses,
and in 1859 retired from the business he had so long
conducted, and soon after formed a partnership with his
brother Benjamin for the purpose of dealing in wool.
The wool trade was greatly stimulated by the outbreak
of war in 1861, and the consequent great demand for
that staple for war purposes. Values advanced rapidly
and trade increased largely, so that the new firm enjoyed
a rapid and permanent success. In 1869 the two brothers
became interested as special partners in a now well-known
publishing firm, of which a near relative had for several
years been a general partner ; and later on Mr. Coates
took an active interest in this firm.
Mr. Coates was for years an active member of the
Board of Trade and of the Board of Health, and served
for eleven years as a city director of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company. He was one of the earliest mem
bers of the Union League, and always greatly interested
in public affairs, and a liberal contributor towards the suc
cess of the Republican party, in whose political principles
he was a firm believer, and of which party he was one of
the organizers. During the war he gave liberally of his
time and his means to the national cause, and took an
especial interest in the raising of the regiments sent out
by the Union League. In 1864 he was chosen a Presi
dential elector, casting his vote for Abraham Lincoln and
Andrew Johnson. In 1 868 he was placed at the head of
the electoral ticket as elector at large by the Republican
State Convention, duly voting, when elected, for Grant
and Colfax ; and in 1872 was again an elector, voting for
Grant and Wilson. He had, however, no ambition for
political life, and uniformly declined to accept nomination
to any office carrying with it an emolument.
Mr. Coates married, in 1840, Anna, daughter of Henry
Troth, a native of Maryland, but a prominent citizen of
Philadelphia, being president of the city Common Coun
cil at a time when the membership of that body con
sisted of men bearing the best known and most respected
names in the community. In 1871 Mr. Coates received
a severe shock in the death of his youngest son, from
which he never fully recovered ; and after the death of
his wife, in 1881, he withdrew almost entirely from public
life. He died May 21, 1893, in the house in which he
had resided for thirty-four years.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

SPENCER TRASK.
Spencer Trask, one of the best-known names in the
financial history of New York City, is a native of
Brooklyn, in which city he was born in 1844. He re
ceived his early education in the Polytechnic Institute of
that city, whence he passed to Princeton College, from
which institution he graduated in 1866. Seeking a busi
ness outlet for his energies, he chose that field of finances
in which the city of New York has long been so promi
nent, as the financial centre of the country and the chief
connecting link between the American and European
money markets. Such houses as that established and
conducted for a quarter-century by Spencer Trask have
had much to do with lifting the metropolis to its position
of command in the financial interests of this country.
This house was established in 1869, and in April of
the following year he became a member of the Stock
Exchange, the firm-name being now Trask & Stone.
Subsequently other changes took place, the firm-name
later becoming Trask & Francis, and in 1881 Spencer
Trask & Co., under which title the house is still known.
New partners have been from time to time admitted,
until now Mr. Trask has associated with him in business
George Foster Peabody, William Blodget, Edwin M.
Bulkley, Charles J. Peabody, and E. P. Merritt (a Boston
member of the firm). Mr. Charles J. Peabody shares
with Mr. Trask the privilege of membership in the Stock
Exchange, so that the house has the advantage of pos
sessing a double membership in that powerful financial
institution. We need scarcely say that the house of Spencer Trask
& Co. has had a prosperous career, and now occupies an
influential position among the financial business concerns
of New York. It has beautiful banking-rooms at Nos.
27 and 29 Pine Street, in New York, and at No 20 Con
gress Street, Boston, and possesses branch offices in the
cities of Albany and Providence. Private connections by
wire bring these offices into immediate connection, and
also extend to correspondents in Philadelphia and Chi
cago, giving the house the most favorable facilities for
the immediate and profitable conduct of its business. It
hardly need be said that time is money more especially
in the relations of finance than in any other business that
could be named. The special line pursued by the house
is the negotiation of railroad, municipal, and other de
sirable issues of bonds, in addition to which it does a
large business in domestic banking and general broker
age. Mr. Trask has not confined his energies to the conduct
of his banking business. He is president of the Edison
Electric Illuminating Company of New York, a large
and growing business enterprise, and is connected as a

director with several important railroad corporations.
Aside from business, he is chairman of the board of
trustees of the New York Teachers' College, an institu
tion in whose progress and prosperity he takes great
interest. In tastes and habit Mr. Trask is domestic. His country
home is situated at Yeddo, New York, about a mile from
Saratoga village, and on the avenue leading to Saratoga
Lake. In this handsome establishment he takes great
pride, and enjoys every hour which he is enabled to
spend there. The estate embraces about five hundred
acres, while the grounds are given a special charm by a
chain of small lakes. In and out among these and
through the surrounding woods wind beautiful drives,
which, with praiseworthy generosity, Mr. Trask has
thrown open to the public, and which are made much
use of by the residents of Saratoga and visitors to this
delightful fashionable resort.
The old house on the place, which had been exten
sively remodelled by its new proprietor, took fire and
was destroyed in 1891. Since then a new, more modern,
and far handsomer edifice has been built, and is to-day
one of the most attractive country residences in the
State. Mr. Trask does not confine himself to personal
enjoyment in this rural home. His benevolent instincts
have led him to devote a portion of his wealth to a praise
worthy philanthropic object. This is a Convalescent
Home for children, which he presented some years ago
to the diocese of Albany, buying and fitting up a place
at Saratoga for this purpose. The children are brought
here from hospitals and elsewhere, about one hundred
poor young invalids being given this excellent opportunity
for recuperation each summer.

28

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

DAVID VAN NOSTRAND.
David Van Nostrand was born in the city of New
York, December 5, 181 1, the son of a successful mer
chant, of Dutch ancestry, but long a resident of New
York. The father dying in 1821, Mrs. Van Nostrand
was left with the care of a family of three sons and five
daughters, of whom David was the fifth in age, and one
who from childhood had been noted for his love of books,
to which he devoted his leisure hours to such an extent
as to impair his physical strength during his whole life.
He was educated at Union Hall, a classical school of
Jamaica, Long Island, where he made rapid progress.
At eight years of age he received a prize from the master
for his proficiency in Greek, and at fifteen was graduated
with an excellent preparatory education. His mother
wished to give him a college education, with a view to
his entering the church, but his desires led in other direc
tions, and immediately after leaving school he entered
the book-store of John P. Haven, a line of business to
which his love of books specially adapted him. His ac
tivity and intelligence won him the warm approval of Mr.
Haven, to whom he became so indispensable that, when
at the age of eighteen his return to study was contem
plated, the bookseller offered his useful assistant, rather
than lose him, a partnership in the business when he
should become twenty-one years of age. This promise
was faithfully kept, but the connection lasted only till
1834, when some changes in the business induced Mr.
Van Nostrand to withdraw from the firm. He had in
the mean time married, but lost his wife after eighteen
months of married life.
His next business venture was in partnership with Mr.
William D wight, a book business being established which
succumbed to the financial crisis of 1837, the firm being
dissolved in consequence of losses. Mr. Van Nostrand

soon afterwards joined Captain Barnard, of the Engineer
Corps, — one of his boyhood friends, — who was then at
New Orleans, where he had charge of the defensive
works of Louisiana and Texas. The purpose of this
visit was to act as groomsman at Captain Barnard's
wedding, but he remained with him as his clerk of
accounts and disbursements, a duty which he found very
pleasant, but hardly progressive enough to accord with
his ambition. In consequence he soon gave it up, re
turned to New York, and there began to apply the expe
rience he had gained through his association with military
men in the importation of books on military subjects for
officers of the United States army. Here, also, he soon
beo-an to receive orders from individuals and academic
institutions for foreign scientific works, and was enabled
greatly to widen the scope of his business.
His new location was at the corner of Broadway and
John Street, where, when his importing trade had become
well developed, he added to it publications of his own,
his establishment becoming a centre for technical litera
ture, with which he acquired a familiarity which greatly
aided his trade. His business grew steadily, particularly
in the importation and publication of books of pure and
applied science, in which he gained prominence among
the noted publishers and booksellers of the world. He
also continued a large importer and publisher of works
on military and naval topics.
In 1869 the extension of his business required his
removal to larger quarters at 23 Murray Street, his trade
in military and scientific books being now the largest in
the United States. In the same year he began the publi
cation of Van Nostrand 's Engineering Magazine, a pub
lication principally eclectic in character, but open to
mathematical discussions and technical articles of interest
to the engineer. In 1887, after the death of its projector,
it became the property of Mr. M. N. Forney.
Mr. Van Nostrand's devotion to business did not keep
him from attention to public and social pursuits. He
was a member of the Historical and the Natural History
Society, a Fellow of the Academy of Design, a member
of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and one of the
originators of the Union League Club. He also belonged
to the St. Nicholas Society, and was one of the founders
of the Holland Society and the St. Nicholas Club. The
Century Club, however, was his favorite resort, he being a
faithful attendant at its monthly meetings until prevented
by the advance of ill health. He married again soon
after his re-establishment in business. As time went on
his health failed, and during his last nine years he suf
fered severely, but continued his attention to business till
the last six months of his life. He died June 14, 1886.
The business which he had established is still continued
and remains prosperous, under the name of D. Van Nos
trand Company, at 23 Murray Street.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

29

ALEXANDER T. STEWART.
Alexander Turney Stewart was born at Lisburn,
near Belfast, Ireland, October 12, 1803, the descendant
of a Scotch emigrant to the north of Ireland. His
father died when he was still a school-boy, leaving him
a small estate. He began his later education with the
idea of entering the ministry, but this proving little to
his taste he gave it up, with the consent of his guardian,
and in 1823 made his way to New York, with no plans
as to his future life. For a time he was employed as a
teacher in a select school on Roosevelt Street near Pearl,
then one of the fashionable localities of New York.
While here the shrewd young man was wide-awake
in the observation of business opportunities, and on
his return to Ireland to obtain the moderate fortune
left him by his father, he bought a stock of laces
and linens at Belfast, with which he returned to New
York. On September 2, 1825, he opened a store at 283
Broadway, with an invested capital of about $3000. He
shortly afterwards married Miss Cornelius Clinch, whose
father had gone his security for the rent of his store.
The new merchant was very frugal and economical in
his habits, sleeping in a room back of the store, and
paying unremitting attention to his business, which
quickly showed signs of growth. In 1826 he was able
to take a larger store, at 262 Broadway, and shortly
afterwards made a second removal, to 257 Broadway.
From the start he displayed a genius for business,
and his success was remarkable, his business increasing
so enormously and his capital so greatly augmenting
that in 1848 he was enabled to build the great marble
store — now the wholesale department of the business —
on Broadway between Chambers and Reade Streets.
Here the retail business was conducted till 1862, by
which time the northward growth of the city, and the
up-town movement of the shopping trade, had become
so declared, that he removed his retail business to the
immense iron store built by him on the block between
Broadway and Fourth Avenue, Ninth and Tenth Streets.
This store, five stories in height, and covering a great
ground space, was said to be at that time the largest
store in the world. It cost nearly $2,750,000, and
within its extensive confines about two thousand em
ployees were gathered. The expense of conducting this
great business was over $1,000,000 yearly, while the
aggregate of sales in the two stores for the three years
before Mr. Stewart's death is given as about $203,000,000.
In addition to his New York establishments he had
branch houses in different parts of the world, and nu

merous mills and factories, his annual income during the
war being nearly $2,000,000.
In 1867, Mr. Stewart was chairman of the United
States Commission to the Paris Exposition. In 1869
he was appointed by President Grant Secretary of the
Treasury. To this appointment the objection was made
that a law existed which prevented an importer of mer
chandise from holding this office. The President asked
that the law should be repealed, and Mr. Stewart offered
to place his business in the hands of trustees, and devote
all its profits during his term of office to charitable pur
poses. This, however, was not considered to remove-
the objection ; the law was not repealed, and he failed to
enter the Cabinet.
During his life he did various deeds of charity, among
them being the sending a shipload of provisions to Ire
land during the famine of 1846, with instructions to
bring back as many emigrants free of cost as the ship
would carry. He sent a vessel-load of flour to France
after the Franco-German War, and sent $500,000 to
Chicago after the great fire. Among his latest benevo
lent doings was the building of a large edifice on Fourth
Avenue between Thirty-second and Thirty-third Streets
as a home for working-girls. He also built Garden City,
on Hempstead Plains, Long Island, made up of airy and
comfortable homes at moderate cost.
He died April 10, 1876, leaving an estate estimated at
$40,000,000. The bulk of this was willed to his wife,
whom he requested by letter to provide for various
charities. His wishes in this direction were not carried
out, though his wife erected a cathedral at Garden City
as a memorial to him.

3Q

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JOHN H. STAR1N.
John Henry Starin was born August 27, 1825, in
Sammonsville, Montgomery (now Fulton) County, New
York, he being a descendant of Johannes Ster, who
came from Holland about 1648. The family afterwards
changed its name to Stern, and finally to Starin. John
Starin, with ten other members of the family, served
as soldiers during the Revolutionary War. His son,
Myndert Starin, father of the subject of our sketch,
a man of unusual ability, engaged in manufacturing
at Sammonsville, and founded the town of Fulton-
ville. John H. Starin inherited the business qualities of his
father, which were manifested early in his life. He was
educated at the Esperance Academy, in Schoharie County,
and subsequently studied medicine. He did not, how
ever, care to pursue the medical profession, and entered
his brother's drug store in Fultonville as a clerk, remain
ing there till 1856, when he removed to New York and
ventured in business for himself in the line of medicine
and toilet articles. He was early successful, quickly
building up a profitable business, but was not long so
engaged before an opening for larger enterprise declared
itself. The transportation of goods, which his business
affairs required him to consider, was not at that time
very fully developed, and the idea occurred to him of
establishing a general freight agency in this city, as likely
to prove for the convenience of shippers. He unfolded
his plan to a railroad officer, who encouraged him to
proceed with it, offering him the patronage of his road,
— one of the great trunk lines. Mr. Starin closed the
contract, sold out his drug business, and went heartily
to work in his new enterprise.
The Civil War, which broke out shortly afterwards,

proved serviceable to him in the establishment of his
business, which he quickly developed to such an extent
that he was enabled to serve the government essentially,
providing it with transportation for troops and war mate
rial at less cost and quicker despatch than it was able to
do with its own means of carriage. By the end of the
war he had built up an extensive system of railroad and
steamboat connection of the greatest value to mercantile
shippers, while his reputation as a reliable business man
was high. His trade connections since that period have
grown to an enormous extent, he having freight lines on
the North and East Rivers, fleets of tugs and propellers,
lighters and car boats, excursion and pleasure boats,
grain boats and floating elevators, while his freight con
nections extend to all the railroads that come to the
rivers surrounding New York, and his dry-docks, freight
ing depots, and offices are widely distributed along the
wharf region of the city. His business has grown, in
deed, until it is the largest single enterprise of the kind
in America, while his enterprise and integrity have won
him hosts of friends. This feeling was strikingly dis
played in 1890, when a number of his friends, taking
advantage of his absence in Europe, erected a bronze
statue to his honor in Fultonville, the place of his resi
dence. This figure, eight feet high, stands on a granite
base, on whose sides are bronze bas-reliefs representing
Commerce, Legislation, Agriculture, and Public Works,
to all of which Mr. Starin's attention has been usefully
directed. Politically Mr. Starin has always been an earnest Re
publican, and has frequently held public positions. From
1848 to 1852, during his early residence at Fultonville,
he was postmaster at that place. In 1876 he ran for
Congress as Representative from the Twentieth District
of New York, and was elected. In 1878 he ran again,
and was returned by a large plurality vote. At the end
of this term a third nomination was offered him, but he
declined to run again, saying that he favored rotation in
office, and saw no reason why he should hold the office
continually to the detriment of others equally deserving
of it.
Mr. Starin has been a member of the New York
Chamber of Commerce since 1874, and in 1880 was
made president, upon the death of Horatio Seymour, of
the Saratoga Monument Association to provide a fitting
memorial of the battle that practically decided the result
of the war of the Revolution. In this enterprise he
worked energetically, secured for it an appropriation of
$30,000 from Congress, added a liberal donation of his
own, and induced others to subscribe. As a result of
his efforts the memorial has been erected. Mr. Starin
has been liberal in many other directions, charitable and
other. He belongs to many clubs and societies, and is
a trustee of Union College.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

3f

ANTHONY J. DREXEL.
The great banking house of Drexel & Co. owes its
origin to Francis Martin Drexel, who was born in the
Austrian Tyrol in 1792, left that country to avoid con
scription during the Napoleonic wars, and studied paint
ing in Berne. He came to the LInited States in 18 17
and settled in Philadelphia, where he engaged in portrait-
painting. He visited Mexico and South America, where
among others he painted the portrait of General Simon
Bolivar. In 1837 he founded in Philadelphia the bank
ing house of Drexel & Co., now one of the largest in
the United States, and with flourishing branch houses in
New York and Paris.
His son, Anthony J. Drexel, was born in Philadelphia
in 1826, and entered the banking house in 1839, when
he was but thirteen years of age, and while his school
studies were still uncompleted. Subsequent to that
period the history of the banking house was the history
of his life, and its great progress, high reputation, and
wide-spread influence the material from which the biog
raphy of himself and his brothers must be drawn. The
Drexel houses have handled and placed hundreds of
millions of dollars in government, railroad, corporation,
and other securities, but have always avoided speculative
operations, preferring to go slowly and go surely, while
all its dealings have been notable for the spirit of honor
and fairness displayed. To-day the house stands high
among the financial institutions of the world.
Anthony J. Drexel was for many years the leading
figure in the extended business of the house, and as a
business man was of firm demeanor and ready judgment.
But outside the banking house he was retiring and un
pretentious, quiet in his habits, and a lover of art, espe
cially of music. He was for many years a leader in all
philanthropic movements in Philadelphia, and a man of
the warmest heart and highest public spirit. In this
noble field of duty his great work, and the one from
vvhich his name will long be held in honor, is the Drexel
Institute, the institution for the instruction of deserving
youth in the practical arts of life founded by him in
1890, and now in its successful tide of operation. The
magnificent building devoted to this purpose, situated
on Chestnut Street just west of the Schuylkill, was
erected at a cost of over half a million dollars, while
a million dollars more were set aside by the munificent
founder as an endowment, and a million more left as a
legacy, which, with other amounts spent, made almost
three million dollars. The institution was formally
opened in September, 1891, with courses in all depart
ments of useful art, industrial, business, and domestic

training, and has already taken high rank among the
educational institutions with which Philadelphia is so
liberally provided. The Drexel Institute is one of those
enterprises which come from men who have the good
of humanity at heart, and is a fitting memorial to the
noble spirit of philanthropy in its founder.
Mr. Drexel died at Carlsbad, Austria, while on a visit
to Europe, June 30, 1893. We cannot do better than
to quote from the testimonial to his character written by
the late George W. Childs, his lifelong friend and fellow-
spirit in well-doing :
" As a man of affairs no one has ever spoken ill of
Anthony J. Drexel, and he spoke ill of no one. He
did not drive sharp bargains ; he did not profit by the
hard necessities of others ; he was a lenient, patient,
liberal creditor, a generous employer, considerate of and
sympathetic with every one who worked for him. His
pride in the city of his birth was exceedingly great, as he
so frequently demonstrated by the active part he took in
all movements tending to Philadelphia's advantage.
" If one noble phase of his character seemed to pre
dominate over others, it was his sympathy with his
fellow-men, which made him the philanthropist, the
modest gentleman, the kindly, helpful man he was. In
the economy of God, which notes the sparrow's fall,
there are no accidents ; there can be none when such a
helper of men as Anthony J. Drexel passes from the
world which he did so much to make fairer and better.
The passing away of such a man makes stronger our
faith in, and gives new and convincing assurances of
immortality."

32

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

CHARLES KING.
Charles King (LL.D.) was born in New York City,
March 16, 1789. He was the second son and child of
Hon. Rufus and Mary Alsop King. In 1799, during
the residence of his father in London as United States
minister to the court of St. James, Charles and his older
brother, John Alsop, were sent to Harrow School, where
they met and were intimate with, as boys, those who
were afterwards known to the world as men of talent,
among others Lord Byron and Sir Robert Peel. In
1803, the " King brothers" (as they were always known)
were sent from Harrow to Paris to study mathematics
and French. There these two American youths dis
tinguished themselves in their studies, taking with ease
the highest prizes.
Charles, being destined for a mercantile life, was sent
from Paris to Amsterdam under the care of the Messrs.
Hope. He remained there until the year 18 10, when he
returned to New York and was taken into the house of
Archibald Grade & Sons, and soon after married Eliza,
Mr. Gracie's eldest daughter. Upon the breaking out
of hostilities with Great Britain, Mr. King, a Federalist,
hastened to give to the government his support, both in
the Legislature of New York, to which he was elected
in 181 3, and as a volunteer. He was made colonel of a
regiment in 18 14, and was stationed on Long Island, at
Brooklyn. The failure of Archibald Grade & Sons in
1823 enabled Mr. King to embrace journalism, and with
Mr. Johnston Verplanck he became associated in the
publication of the New York American, a conservative
newspaper of much political influence and high literary
character. On the retirement of Mr. Verplanck Mr.
King became sole editor, and remained in charge of the
paper until its publication was discontinued. His bravery
of character and mind was often used to befriend those

whom he thought needed help. In the great fire in New
York City in 1836 the flames spread with great rapidity,
and the intense cold covered the firemen and their ap
paratus with ice. Mr. King, realizing the danger, went
himself to the Brooklyn Navy- Yard and, obtaining
barrels of gunpowder, with his own hands placed the
powder and blew up the houses next the spreading flames,
and thus stayed the destruction. He remained at the
fire all day and the following night, and on returning to
his home a hatchet had to be used to release him from
his armor of ice. In 1845, Mr. King became one of the
editors of the Courier and Enquirer, writing fearlessly,
and expressing himself most earnestly upon all subjects.
He was elected in 1849 president of Columbia College.
He heartily entered into all the duties of his new office,
advancing the interests of the college in every way by
his brilliant scholarship, his energy, and wise manage
ment ; increasing both the wealth and usefulness of that
institution. During his presidency, Mr. King remained
no silent spectator of the various questions which were
agitating the country, resulting in the Civil War. He took
an earnest part in sustaining the principles which he had
inherited and which his convictions had made his own,
and threw himself warmly into the discussions which
arose, and, as far as compatible with his duties as presi
dent, into active work to aid in pushing the fight against
slavery. The presentation of the national and regimental
flags to the first colored troops sent out to the seat of
war by New York City was his thought and act. This
presentation took place in Union Square, New York
City, in the presence of a vast concourse of people, with
the full regiment drawn up in line before him. His
clear, ringing, and heart-stirring words on that occasion
caused him to be cheered to the echo.
His wife dying after a lingering illness, Mr. King some
years later was married to Miss Henrietta Low, of New
York City.
In 1864, Mr. King resigned the presidency of Columbia
College, and with his family sailed the following year for
Europe to join his son, General Rufus King, then United
States minister to Rome. After travelling throughout
Europe his useful life ended at Frascati, Italy, on Sep
tember 27, 1867.
Mr. King was busy and fluent with his pen, writing
several most able reports, addresses, and articles. He
wrote the history of the New York Chamber of Com
merce, of which he was at one time president ; also a
report on the construction, cost, and capacity of the
Croton Aqueduct, and many addresses before the
Mechanics' and Historical Societies. He was a man
who feared naught but wrong, was earnest, high-
minded, and impulsive, firm in his convictions and
fearless in expressing them, but just and courteous in
his bearing.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

33

GENERAL GEORGE G. MEADE.
Major-General George Gordon Meade was born
at Cadiz, Spain, December 31, 181 5 ; his father, Richard
W. Meade, being at that time United States naval agent
there. His grandfather, George Meade, a wealthy mer
chant of Philadelphia, had contributed liberally for the
support of the Revolutionary army. The grandson
graduated at the Military Academy in 1835 and entered
the artillery service. He participated in the war against
the hostile Seminole Indians in Florida, but resigned in
October, 1836, and became a civil engineer. He was
engaged in a survey of the mouths of the Mississippi
River, and afterwards on the boundary-lines of Texas
and Maine.
In 1S42 he re-entered the army as second lieutenant
of topographical engineers, and during the Mexican War
served with distinction on the staffs of Generals Taylor
and Scott. He was afterwards employed in light-house
construction, and on the geodetic survey of the great
lakes. In August, 1861, he was appointed brigadier-
general of volunteers, and placed in command of the
Second Brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps. In
McClellan's Peninsular campaign, he fought at Mechanics-
ville, Gaines' Mill, and Glendale, being severely wounded
in the latter engagement. He commanded a division at
Antietam, and when General Hooker was wounded there
succeeded temporarily to the command ofthe First Corps
of the Army of the Potomac.
He was soon afterwards appointed major-general of
volunteers, and in December, 1862, led the attack which
broke through the right of Lee's line at Fredericksburg,
but, not being supported, was obliged to fall back. He
was next placed in command of the Fifth Corps, but,
though much esteemed by General Hooker, was not
called into action at Chancellorsville. On the 28th of
June, 1863, after Lee had crossed the Potomac on his
march to Pennsylvania, General Meade was appointed
by President Lincoln to the chief command of the Army
of the Potomac, then marching at forced speed to inter
cept Lee. The two armies met at the town of Gettys
burg, Pennsylvania, and after three days of severe fighting
the Confederate army was forced to retreat to Virginia.
For his highly valuable services in this great battle
General Meade was commissioned brigadier- general in
the regular army.
In the spring of 1864, when General Grant was placed
in command of all the Union armies, Meade entered the
field with the Army of the Potomac, and retained the
immediate command of this army till the close of the
war, discharging the duties of his difficult and delicate

position to the entire satisfaction of General Grant. He
led it through the sanguinary battles of the Wilderness
and the subsequent campaign, and in June, 1864, trans
ferred it to the south side of the James, the purpose of
the movement being to capture Petersburg, the main
defence of Richmond on that side. General Lee, how
ever, saved the place by prompt re-enforcements. The
siege of Petersburg lasted ten months, and at its close
Richmond had to be evacuated ; and General Lee, after
being pursued from Petersburg to Appomattox Court-
House, with constant and severe fighting, surrendered
April 9, 1865.
General Meade, on August 18, 1864, had been ap
pointed major-general in the regular army. After the
war he was placed in command of the military division
of the Atlantic, and in August, 1866, was given com
mand of the Department of the East. In January, 1866,
he received the thanks of Congress " for the skill and
heroic valor which at Gettysburg repelled, defeated, and
drove back, broken and dispirited, beyond the Rappa
hannock, the veteran army of the Rebellion."
General Meade was subsequently placed in command
of the military district comprising Georgia, Florida, and
Alabama, with headquarters at Atlanta. He died in
Philadelphia, November 6, 1872. His fellow-citizens of
that city had presented him with a residence, and after
his death raised a fund of one hundred thousand dollars
'for his family.
General Meade had the degree of Doctor of Laws
conferred on him by Harvard College in 1865. He
was a member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
and ofthe Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.

34

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WHITELAW REID.
Whitelaw Reid, notable in the newspaper world for
his many years of connection with the Tribune, that great
power in American journalism, was born October 27,
1837, near Xenia, Ohio, of which town his father, a strict
Covenanter, was one of the founders. Mr. Reid was
educated at the Miami University, where he graduated
in 1855. He very early in his career entered into political
and newspaper life, making speeches for the Republican
party in the Fremont campaign, when not yet twenty
years of age, and becoming editor of the Xenia News.
He soon after became widely known as a ready and able
writer by his brilliant letters to the Cincinnati Gazette,
signed " Agate." He was thus engaged at the opening
ofthe Civil War, his letters attracting attention alike from
their vigorous style and their trustworthy information.
He took part in the war as a volunteer aide-de-camp to
General Morris, and afterwards to General Rosecrans in
the West Virginia campaign of 1861. Later he served
as war correspondent with the Army of the Cumberland
and the Army of the Potomac, and was present at the
battles of Shiloh and Gettysburg.
In 1863 he accepted the position of Librarian of the
House of Representatives at Washington, in which he
remained until 1866, contributing meanwhile Washing
ton correspondence to the Cincinnati Gazette. After
the war he made a journey through the South, and
for some time tried cotton-planting in Louisiana and
Alabama. The results of his observations while thus
engaged were embodied in a book entitled " After the
War," which was published in 1866. On his return
to Ohio he became one of the proprietors of the Cin
cinnati Gazette, and for two years was engaged in
writing a book entitled " Ohio in the War." This was

published in 1868, and is esteemed as of much historical
value. Mr. Reid's connection with the Tribune, began in 1868,
in which year he was invited by Horace Greeley to come
to New York and accept an editorial position upon that
paper. His ability in this field soon made itself so mani
fest that he was quickly advanced to the post of managing
editor, in which he showed much skill and activity in
gathering news, and came into such favor with Mr.
Greeley that, when in 1872 he accepted the nomination
for the Presidency, he put the whole control ofthe paper
in Mr. Reid's hands. It has remained there since, through
its various changes in proprietorship. On the death of
Mr. Greeley, which took place immediately after the
1872 Presidential election, Mr. Reid succeeded him as
editor-in-chief, while he became the principal owner of
the paper. As such he has made the Tribune a leading
exponent of the principles of the Republican party, and
it has remained from that time to this one of the most
vigorous and influential organs of the party. His " Me
morial of Horace Greeley," an interesting biographical
sketch of his late friend and chief, was published in 1873.
In 1872, Mr. Reid was chosen by the Legislature of
the State regent for life of the University of New York.
He was subsequently twice offered the post of minister
to Germany, — by President Hayes and afterwards by
President Garfield, — but in both instances the demands
of business forced him to decline. Later, in President
Harrison's administration, he accepted the French em
bassy, a post which he filled with honor and dignity, the
public appreciation of his services abroad being expressed
in dinners by the Chamber of Commerce, the Lotos
Club, and other organizations on his return home. The
Chamber of Commerce elected him an honorary mem
ber, a mark of respect which had been bestowed on only
fifteen other men during the century of the Chamber's
existence. Shortly afterwards he was chosen as chairman of the
Republican State convention, held to elect delegates to
the Republican national convention of 1892. This con
vention, after nominating General Harrison as its candi
date for the Presidency, asked the New York delegation
to name a candidate for Vice-President. Mr. Reid was
named, and was accepted by a unanimous vote of the
convention. His letter of acceptance, and the several
speeches which he afterwards made, were among the
most effective contributions to the literature of the cam
paign. In addition to the works named, Mr. Reid has pubT
lished " The Schools of Journalism," " The Scholar in
Politics," " Some Newspaper Tendencies," " Town Hall
Suggestions," and numerous contributions to periodicals,
all of a practical character and close adaptation to the
trend of thought of the times.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

35

PHILIP CARPENTER.
Philip Carpenter, a prominent member of the New
York bar, comes hereditarily to his profession, being
lineally descended from a race of lawyers. His father,
Alonzo P. Carpenter, a graduate of Williams College in
1849, afterwards practised law in New Hampshire from
1852 to 1 88 1. In the latter year, having become one of
the most eminent lawyers in the State, he accepted a
position on the bench of the Supreme Court, which post
of honor he still fills. Ira Goodall, his grandfather on
his mother's side, was also a lawyer of high considera
tion, being the leading and most successful member of
the profession in northern New Hampshire from the
beginning of the century until about the period of the
Civil War. Another member of the family, Mr. Carpen
ter's uncle, Jonathan Ross, occupies as honorable a posi
tion in the legal and judicial circles of Vermont, having
been a justice of the Supreme Court of that State for
twenty years past. For the last five years he has been
chief justice of that court.
Philip Carpenter was born at Bath, New Hampshire,
on March 9, 1856. After receiving the usual district
school education of New England children, he was
entered, to prepare for college, at the well-known and
well-endowed academy at St. Johnsbury, Vermont, in
which his father had taken a similar preparatory course
thirty years before. In 1873 he entered Dartmouth Col
lege, where, after a four years' course of diligent study, he
graduated in 1877, having served as class historian in his
senior year, and on his graduation being appointed to write
the class prophecies for the commencement exercises.
Mr. Carpenter subsequently entered upon the special
study of the law, and, having thoroughly prepared him
self for practice in this profession, was admitted to the
New Hampshire bar on September 2, 1880, receiving in
his examination for admission to practice a higher per
centage than any of his fellow-students in the half-yearly
class then examined. Selecting Lancaster, New Hamp
shire, as his field of practice, he continued there until
June, 1885, gaining a good clientage and considerable
reputation as an able lawyer.
His period of residence in the city of New York began
in the year above named, he having sought this city as
offering a wider field for the exercise of his abilities, and
much better opportunities for progress and pecuniary
success than could be looked for in his original location.
Since that date he has continued in New York, steadily

and very successfully engaged in the practice of his
chosen profession. During his period of practice in the
courts of New Hampshire he served as judge-advocate-
general on the staff of Governor Moody Currier, and in
addition attained some political prominence as an earnest
and active member of the Republican party, in whose
principles he has an unyielding faith.
In New York his practice quickly became large, and
has gradually drifted towards " corporation law," to which
branch of practice his tastes and opportunities led him.
In addition to the important clients in this field which he
has gained in New York, he is general counsel for the
largest moneyed corporation in New Hampshire, one that
has a large branch in New York. He is also counsel for
two New York banks, — one a National, the other a State
institution, — and serves as a director in both. These are
but a few of the corporations to whose legal business he
attends, his practice in this direction having grown exten
sive. He has had his offices in the Potter Building, 38
Park Row, since its opening in 1886.
Mr. Carpenter is a member of various associations,
including the New York City and New York State Bar
Associations, and the Union League, the Republican, the
Colonial, the Manhattan Athletic Clubs and the New
England Society of New York. He was married in
September, 1880, to Miss Fanny H. Rouse, of California,
their present place of residence — purchased by him in
1890 — being at No. 165 West End Avenue.

36

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

CHARLES P. DALY.
Judge Charles P. Daly, who for so many years
occupied a prominent seat on the bench of New York
City, began life in an humble way, and progressed to his
later position of honor through sheer force of innate
ability. He was of Irish parentage, his parents coming
to New York in 1 814, in which city he was born two
years later, his birthplace being a house built upon the
site on which the judicial murder of the patriot Jacob
Leisler occurred in the colonial history of the State.
The elder Daly had been an architect in Galway, but
became a hotel-keeper in New York, his small but
popular hotel being on the site where the great Tribune
building now stands. The son obtained his education
in a neighboring school, among his classmates being
the after Cardinal McCloskey and James T. Brady.
His father died during his school-years, and the son
found himself obliged to make his own way in the
community. His first thought was to see and know
something of the world, an inclination which perhaps
afterwards led him to the positions of president of the
American Geographical Society and honorary member
of various Royal Geographical Societies of Europe, and
also to the writing of his learned treatise entitled " What
we know of Maps and Map-making before the Time of
Mercator." His first journey was to Savannah, where
he obtained a clerical situation, and found himself so
severely overworked that he soon threw it up to indulge
further his disposition for adventure, — now as a sailor.
In this field of abundant experience of hardship and
incident, " before the mast," he spent the succeeding
three years of his life. In 1830 his ship lay at anchor
in the harbor of Algiers at the time the French were
besieging it, prior to its capture and conversion into
a colony of France.

He was still quite young when, having had enough of
a sailor's life, he landed in New York. Work of some
kind was necessary, and, having had some experience
with carpenters' tools on shipboard, he apprenticed him
self to a master-carpenter, and went diligently to work
to master the trade. While thus engaged, his leisure
hours were not wasted. He joined a literary society,
and frequented the reading-room of the Mechanics' and
Traders' Society. In the one he learned to debate ; in
the other he read much and studied earnestly. His
native powers of elocution, keen logic, and cleverness
of illustration attracted the attention of a legal visitor
at these debates, who was so struck with his powers
that he advised him to study law, and offered him
money to enter college. Young Daly, not wishing to
incur an obligation, declined, and continued his appren
ticeship till its conclusion, though meanwhile his em
ployer had died and he was legally freed. By so doing
he was of great service to the widow, in aiding to relieve
the business from financial embarrassment.
At the end of his term of apprenticeship he gave up
his trade, and entered a law office as junior clerk, at
the salary of three dollars a week. At that time legal
apprenticeship was tedious, the prescribed term of pro
bation being seven years. But the young student was
so diligent, and proved so capable, that he gained a
remission of half the time, and was admitted to the bar
in 1839, becoming a partner of Thomas McElrath. This
partnership continued for three years, when Mr. McEl
rath left the law for the press, joining with Horace
Greeley in founding the New York Tribune. Mr. Daly
now associated himself with William Bloomfield, under
the firm-name of Daly & Bloomfield.
The progress of the young lawyer was rapid and
encouraging. He soon, however, took part in politics,
in which his powers as a debater became valuable, and
were rewarded, three years afterwards, by his election to
the New York Assembly. His period of life as a legis
lator was not long. A vacancy occurred on the bench
of the Court of Common Pleas of New York, and Mr.
Daly applied to the governor to reappoint the incum
bent whose term had expired. This the governor
refused to do, adding, " Why not take it yourself?" and,
despite Daly's plea of youth and inexperience, insisted
on appointing him to the vacant seat. Thus, at the age
of twenty-seven, the young lawyer found himself occu
pying that position upon the bench which he was to fill
for so many years with distinguished honor and ability,
and from which he finally retired at the end of 1885 with
the universal encomiums of the bar of New York.
During his period of service in the Court of Common
Pleas, Judge Daly was offered positions on the bench
of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals, nom
inations to Congress, etc., all of which he declined.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

37

GEORGE W. SOUTH.
George W. South, merchant and financier, was born
in Philadelphia, February 22, 1799, and was educated at
a school which was then considered one of the best in
the city, which held its sessions in the old hall of the
German Society, Seventh Street below Market, now
occupied by the Builders' Exchange. After completing
his education, he was apprenticed to a firm engaged in
the manufacture of jewelry, which business he thoroughly
mastered. When he was about twenty-two years of age
the firm failed, and he was chosen one of the assignees.
He performed this responsible duty so well that in two
years the creditors were paid in full, and a handsome
balance was turned over to his employers.
During his service as assignee, in 1824, he became a
partner in the firm of Lewis Veron & Co., importers of
cutlery, plated ware, etc. The firm did a very successful
business, and he remained in it till 1835, when he with
drew with the intention of starting business on his own
account. He had gone so far as to import a large stock
of goods from Europe, and was about ready to open a
store, when, in 1836, he was nominated and elected to
the office of treasurer of the county of Philadelphia.
He accepted the office, and disposed of his goods, which
had been so well selected that they were sold without
difficulty at a profit, leaving him free to devote his whole
attention to the duties of his important office. In 1837
he was again elected county treasurer, on the Whig
ticket, and completed a second term. During this period
he was also a member of the Board of Guardians of the
Poor. On the expiration of his term of office, the Bank ofthe
United States offered him the position of second cashier
of that important institution. This he declined, and re
moved from the city to a farm which he possessed in
Bucks County, near Neshaminy Creek. Here, during
the succeeding twelve years, he devoted himself closely
to agricultural pursuits. He continued, however, to take
an active interest in politics, and from 1842 to 1853 was
a member of every State convention of the Whig party.
He actively contributed to the election of Presidents
Harrison and Taylor, and received from them both the
offer of appointment to office, which in both instances
he declined. In 1852 he sold his farm and removed to
Washington, District of Columbia, with the intention of
establishing a bank in that city. Circumstances caused
him to change this purpose, and, after a short period of
residence in Bristol, Pennsylvania, he removed to Bur
lington, New Jersey. In 1854 he secured the charter of
the Burlington Bank from the New Jersey Legislature,
and became the first president of that institution.

During the seven years that he filled this position he
declined all compensation, though his ability and good
management made the bank a notable success. In 1862,
his health becoming impaired, he removed to Philadel
phia. During all these years he had taken a prominent
part in many of the schemes of internal improvement
that marked the first half of this century, chief among
them being the Camden and Amboy Railroad and Trans
portation Company. In these enterprises he was the
associate of some of the foremost men of his day, and
was held by them in high esteem for his business judg
ment, probity, and experience. After removing to Phil
adelphia, he devoted himself to the management of his
large fortune and to the society of his family and those
friends of his youth that the hand of time had spared.
His friendship was as constant as his advice was valuable
and his judgment unerring. He died in Philadelphia on
September 1, 1884.
His widow, one daughter, Mrs. H. Louisa More, and
a grandson survived him. In 1886 Mrs. South and Mrs.
More decided to erect a memorial in his honor, and in
1887 they began the first of the group of buildings at
the corner of Eighteenth and Diamond Streets, known as
the George W. South Memorial Church of the Advocate.
Mrs. South died in 1888, leaving $150,000 to this enter
prise, in addition to the $100,000 which she had devoted
to it during her life. Should the original designs be fully
carried out, this memorial will have cost $700,000, and
will be the finest specimen of French Gothic architecture
on this continent. Mrs. More is still living, and feels
deeply interested in this important project.

38

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

MARK RICHARDS MUCKLE.
Colonel Mark Richards Muckle, business manager
of the Public Ledger, was born in Philadelphia, September
10, 1825, his father, Michael Muckle, a clock-maker of
Neukirch, Baden, Germany, having emigrated to America
and settled in this city early in the present century. His
mother came from Kenzingen, Baden, and reached this
country after a voyage full of disastrous and distressing
adventure. Michael Muckle established himself as a
clock- and watch-maker in Philadelphia, and later became
a wood-carver, and executed in wood a number of re
markable works.
Mr. Muckle began his education in a German school,
and was afterwards sent to a Philadelphia public school.
During his school-days he filled several business posi
tions ; and, having gained some practical knowledge of
book-keeping, and received some school training in this
art, he at length obtained a place in the office of the
Public Ledger as errand-boy and assistant cashier. This
was in 1842, in the early years of that well-known paper,
with which Mr. Muckle has remained connected for more
than half a century. He was then not quite seventeen
years of age, but his diligence and ability soon raised
him to the position of cashier and business manager of
the paper. In this position Mr. Childs found and retained
him on purchasing the Ledger in 1864, and had in him
an invaluable assistant and associate in building up the
paper to its later high standard of success.
Mr. Muckle soon became prominent in public life. He
had unusual powers of oratory, and a knowledge of the
German as well as of the English language, so that he
acquired great influence among the German population
of the city. He also early became a member of the
Masonic and Odd-Fellows organizations, in both of which
he rose to the highest positions.

In 1846, during the Mexican War, President Polk
tendered him a commission as second lieutenant in the
Marine Corps, and in 1852 Governor Bigler appointed
him on his staff, with the rank of colonel. Politically, he
is a Democrat, and has been sought by his party as candi
date for mayor and several other city offices, while in
1884 his name was strongly urged for the post of min
ister to Germany. This was supported by the influence
of the Germans, among whom Colonel Muckle has
always been highly regarded. In 1853 he became a
member of the German Society, was an active member
of its building committee, and for thirteen years was
vice-president of the society. He was one of the founders
of the German Hospital in i860, and is the only sur
vivor of its original board of officers. For many years
he has been its vice-president. During the Franco-
Prussian War he was treasurer of the Relief Society,
which forwarded to Germany nearly $50,000 to assist the
widows and orphans of slain soldiers, and was an active
promoter of the Peace Festival held in 1871. Shortly
afterwards he was appointed by the Governor-General of
Alsace to collect contributions in America for the Im
perial University Library, at Strassburg, which had been
destroyed during the war. In this he was so active and
successful that he succeeded in gathering and forwarding
over thirteen thousand volumes upon a great variety
of subjects. For this able service the old Emperor of
Germany conferred upon him in 1874 the Order of the
Crown, and in 1883 further honored him with the Mili
tary Order of the Red Eagle, the second highest order
in the emperor's gift.
In the two orders of which we have already spoken,
the Masons and the Odd-Fellows, Colonel Muckle has
risen to the highest distinction, he having for years
served both orders in the highest posts of honor and
duty. He is a member of the Art Association of the
Masonic Temple, organized for the purpose of orna
menting the interior of that noble edifice. The Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals owed to him its
origin, and has made him its president. He was one of
the organizers of the American District Telegraph Com
pany, and is its secretary and treasurer, and was presi
dent of the German-American Title and Trust Company
since it began business, for over nine years.
Colonel Muckle took an active part in the origination
and furtherance of the Centennial Exposition, proposing
to build there a mammoth concert hall, with a great
organ. He has long been connected with the various
German singing societies ofthe city. The other societies
to which he belongs are very numerous. As manager
ofthe Ledger, he has been selected treasurer of a number
of charitable relief funds, and has distributed great sums
of money to the suffering. He was married in 1850,
and has two sons and one daughter living.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

39

GENERAL EDWARD LESLIE MOLINEUX.
Edward Leslie Molineux, brevet major-general in
the United States volunteer army, was born October 12,
!833. After his educational period, and during his early
ventures in business life, a native inclination towards a
military career led him (in 1854) to join a regiment of
the New York State National Guard. At a later date
he entered, as a private, the Brooklyn City Guard (the
Thirteenth Regiment), in which he passed through the
several non-commissioned grades. He left this regiment
to accept an important mission to South America, soon
after his return from which the Civil War began, and a
demand was made for patriotic citizens to rally to the
defence of the Union. Mr. Molineux was one of the
earliest to respond. He enrolled himself in the Seventh
Regiment, and after a brief period of service in this
noted body of citizen soldiery was made brigade in
spector of the Eleventh Brigade, as which he worked
efficiently in raising the Twenty-third Regiment of
Brooklyn. On the organization of this regiment he was unani
mously elected its lieutenant-colonel. Shortly afterwards,
in August, 1862, he raised a new regiment, the One
Hundred and Fifty-ninth New York, as colonel of which,
in November, he proceeded to the front, being assigned
to the Mississippi expedition of General Banks. During
the feint against Port Hudson he commanded a detach
ment of the expeditionary army, and continued to do
service in that campaign till April 14, 1863, when, during
the battle of Irish Bend, he received, while leading a
charge, a severe wound in the jaw.
No sooner was his wound in a condition to permit
active service than Colonel Molineux was again in the
field, taking part in the engagements of the Red River
campaign, and subsequently acting as inspector-general
ofthe Department of the Mississippi, and later as provost-
marshal-general and commissioner for the exchange of
prisoners. He continued to do efficient service in this
department for a considerable period, being next made
military commander of the Lafourche district, Louisiana,
with the duty of organizing troops or companies of
scouts in that State ; and afterwards, upon the comple
tion of the celebrated dam at Alexandria, being given
command of all the Union forces on the north side of
the Red River.
In the closing period of the war Colonel Molineux
joined General Grant's army, then operating against
Petersburg and Richmond, and, at the head of a pro
visional division of the Nineteenth Army Corps, joined
General Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley, and took
part in all the notable actions of that campaign. His

zeal and gallantry at Fisher's Hill, Winchester, and
Cedar Hill were rewarded by the brevet rank of briga
dier-general. His subsequent service was at Savannah,
Georgia, whither he was sent with his brigade by sea,
and placed by General Sherman in charge of Forts
Pulaski and Tybee and the other military works at that
city. While here he saved the ship " Lawrence," for
which the New York board of underwriters voted him
a service of plate.
The war ending, General Molineux was placed in com
mand of the military district of Northern Georgia, with
headquarters at Augusta, and while here seized for the
government a very large sum of Confederate coin and
bullion, valuable buildings and factories of the Confed
erate government, quartermaster and commissary stores
valued at $10,000,000, and over seventy thousand bales
of cotton. But while thus vigorously performing his
duty as a soldier, he did this with a courtesy and con
sideration that won him general esteem, and brought
him the thanks of the city council and merchants of
Augusta for his justice and kindness. He returned to
civil life as major-general by brevet, " for gallant and
meritorious services during the war."
General Molineux subsequently became major-general
in the New York National Guard, second division. He
is an active member of the Loyal Legion, the Grand
Army of the Republic, and various charitable associa
tions. He has been frequently nominated for office, but
has persistently declined. His business connection is
with the firm of F. W. Devoe & C. T. Raynolds Co., of
New York City. Valuable papers have been contributed
by him to periodicals on various military and civil subjects.

40

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

CAPTAIN AUGUSTUS P. COOKE.
Captain Augustus P. Cooke was born in Coopers-
town, New York, February 10, 1836; appointed to
the Naval Academy in 1852, and graduated in 1856.
During his first sea-service, in the Home Squadron, he
participated in the capture of Walker, the filibuster, at
Greytown, Nicaragua. In 1859 he received his warrant
as passed midshipman, and made a cruise on the coast
of Africa, in the "San Jacinto," assisting in the capture
of several slavers. He was commissioned lieutenant in
1 860. When the Rebellion occurred, the ship, then under
the command of Captain Wilkes, returned to the United
States, capturing on the way the rebel commissioners,
Mason and Slidell.
In January, 1862, as executive officer of the " Pinola,"
captured the blockade-runner " Cora," and then the
" Pinola" proceeded to join Farragut's squadron. Lieu
tenant Cooke was several times under fire in the " Pinola"
while that vessel was assisting in breaking the chain bar
riers which obstructed the Mississippi, and was present at
the bombardment and passage of Forts Jackson and St.
Philip, the destruction ofthe rebel flotilla and the capture
of New Orleans. He was also present at the first bom
bardment of Vicksburg; the passage ofthe batteries there,
and the engagement with the rebel ram "Arkansas."
In August, 1862, he was made lieutenant-commander,
and ordered to command a vessel in Buchanan's flotilla,
to operate, in conjunction with the army, in the Bayou
Teche. In January, 1863, he went up the Teche, sup
porting General Weitzel's brigade, and assisted in the
destruction of the enemy's gun-boat " Cotton." Here
Lieutenant-Commander Buchanan was killed, and the
command of the flotilla devolved upon Lieutenant-Com
mander Cooke.
During the Red River expedition, in 1863, he crossed

troops over Berwick Bay and transported General Gro-
ver's division through Grand Lake and landed it at
Indian Bend, under fire, without accident. Next morn
ing, at daylight, the flotilla under Cooke was attacked by
the " Queen of the West" and another gun-boat armed
with rifled cannon, and with sharp-shooters behind cot
ton-bales. Cooke very promptly went to meet them, and
his shells soon set fire to the cotton-bales ofthe "Queen
of the West," which was soon in flames, with her people
leaping overboard to escape death from fire. Her con
sort, seeing this, turned, and, having superior speed and
lighter draft than Cooke's vessels, escaped. The officers
and ninety men of the " Queen of the West" were
picked up. About twenty were lost. There were no
casualties iu the flotilla.
I lis next operation was the capture of Butte a la Rose,
on the Atchafalaya, driving off the supporting gun-boat,
and taking the garrison, with a large quantity of stores
and ammunition, clearing the Atchafalaya from the Gulf
to the Red River ; and by this route he proceeded to
join Admiral Farragut, then at the mouth of Red River.
General Banks made special acknowledgment to Lieu
tenant-Commander Cooke for his success in these opera
tions. His next service was in the Red River with Porter's
fleet, followed, in the winter of 1863-64, by blockading
Matagorda Bay and the coast of Texas.
In July, 1864, he was detached from duty in the Gulf
and ordered to the Naval Academy, serving in the prac
tice-ships " Marion" and " Savannah." In May, 1867, he
was ordered as navigator of the steam-frigate " Frank
lin," Captain Pennock, which went to Europe as Admiral
Farragut's flag-ship. This was a remarkable and inter
esting cruise, from the attentions shown the admiral in
every country he visited, especially in Russia and Sweden.
In October, 1868, he was detached from the "Franklin"
and ordered as executive officer of the " Ticonderoga,"
on the same station. Upon his return home he was, in
1869, appointed head of the department of ordnance at
the Naval Academy, and published a text-book on gun
nery, long used by the cadets.
Lieutenant-Commander Cooke was commissioned com
mander in 1870. Served at the Torpedo Station and
in command of torpedo-boat " Intrepid," and afterwards
the "Alarm." Later he commanded the steamer " Swa-
tara." He was made captain in 1881, while stationed at
Mare Island, California, and commanded the " Lacka
wanna," on the Pacific Station, in 1884-85. He next
served at the navy-yard, Brooklyn, in command of the
" Vermont," and afterwards as captain of the yard. In
1 888 he took command of the " Franklin," at Norfolk. In
1890 he was relieved and ordered to New York as presi
dent of the Board of Inspection of Merchant Vessels.
Captain Cooke, retired from active service in 1892.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

4i

ELBRIDGE T. GERRY.
Elbridge Thomas Gerry, born in New York City,
December 25, 1837, is the son of Thomas R. Gerry, and
grandson of Elbridge Gerry, a man of the highest note
in the early history of the United States, having been
one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence,
Governor of Massachusetts, and Vice-President of the
United States. The father of this distinguished Ameri
can, Thomas Gerry, the first ofthe family in this country,
came to America in 1730, and lived as a merchant in
Marblehead, Massachusetts. Mr. Gerry's father was a
naval officer, who died when his son was but seven years
of age.
The son, under his mother's care, was carefully edu
cated, receiving his college course at Columbia College,
where he graduated in 1857, delivering the German salu
tatory oration on that occasion. Within the same year
he was elected president of the Philolexian Society of
the college. He subsequently studied law in the office
of William Curtis Noyes, was admitted to the bar in
1866, and immediately afterwards was admitted to prac
tice in the Supreme Court of the United States. Shortly
after his admission he formed a legal partnership with his
former preceptor, Mr. Noyes, and upon the death of the
latter entered into partnership with Hon. William F.
Allen, judge of the New York Court of Appeals, and
Benjamin V. Abbott, a well-known legal author. Event
ually Judge Allen withdrew, and the firm was afterwards
continued under the name of Abbott & Gerry. In his
legal business Mr. Gerry obtained an extensive practice,
and took part in many important cases, both civil and
criminal. He aided in defending McFarland, on trial for
homicide, conducted some notable will cases, and was
concerned in other trials of leading importance.
In 1867 Mr. Gerry was elected a member of the con
stitutional convention of New York State, and was on its
committee on the pardoning power. He has since then
been very active in humane work," into which he entered
earnestly in connection with the American Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, after its formation
by Henry Bergh. He co-operated warmly with Mr.
Bergh in the work of this society, and to his efforts most
of the legislation affecting animals in New York law is
chiefly due.
On the subsequent formation of the Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Mr. Gerry entered
heartily into the work. This society, indeed, which be
gan in 1874, was the result of his efforts, and since 1879

he has acted as its president, and has won a national repu
tation through his incessant efforts in its behalf. During
the existence of this society it has investigated the cases
of more than two hundred thousand children, and res
cued more than forty thousand from neglect and destitu
tion, or from vicious surroundings, and placed them in
moral and comfortable homes. Through the example
and encouragement of the New York Society nearly two
hundred similar associations have been formed in the
United States and a large number in foreign countries.
In 1886 Mr. Gerry was appointed by the State Senate,
in association with Hon. Matthew Hale and Dr. A. P.
Southwick, to consider the most humane and effective
method of executing criminals sentenced to death. As a
consequence of the report of this commission, the State
of New York adopted its present system of electrical
execution in place of the old system of hanging. Since
1885 Mr. Gerry has been a governor of the New York
Hospital; in 1889 he served as chairman of the Execu
tive Committee ofthe centennial celebration; and in 1892
was chairman of the commission to consider the best
method of caring for the insane of New York City. The
commission prepared a valuable report. He is a trustee
of the Protestant Episcopal General Theological Semi
nary, and from 1885 to 1892 acted as commodore of the
New York Yacht Club. He was married in 1867 to
Louisa M. Livington, granddaughter of Morgan Lewis,
former Governor of New York and Grand Master of the
Masonic fraternity.

42

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JOSEPH M. STODDART, SR.
Few living Philadelphians can look back on so pro
longed a mercantile career as Joseph M. Stoddart, Senior.
His father, John Stoddart, was in the early part of the
century prominent in business circles, and earned the title
of Napoleon of Trade. He at one time owned more real
estate throughout Pennsylvania than any other individual.
Among his possessions was an extensive tract of land in
what are now the counties of Luzerne and Monroe.
Here, in a picturesque spot near the falls of the Lehigh
River, he erected large flour- and lumber-mills, laid out
streets, and put up dwellings, having in view the exten
sion of the Lehigh Canal to this settlement in the wilder
ness. The changed conditions introduced by the War
of 1812 brought this project to naught, and Stoddarts-
ville is to-day a small place, off the main lines of traffic,
though beautifully situated. Here the son of its founder
has a cottage, to which he retires annually during the
heated term, to enjoy pure air, charming views, and com
parative solitude.
Mr. Joseph M. Stoddart was born in 1816. While still
a boy he, in association with an older brother, established
in 1832 the dry-goods house of Curwen Stoddart &
Brother, on Second Street, then the principal business
street of the city. The firm continued in prosperous exist
ence through the long period of fifty-nine years, passing
through the severe financial panics of 1837, 1857, and
1873 with success and honor. Of the many millions
of dollars which passed through their hands during

their extended career, not a cent was earned otherwise
than honestly, and not a dollar of indebtedness was left
unpaid. The conditions of business sixty, or even thirty, years
ago and the requirements for conducting it successfully,
differed considerably from those now existing. A store
was opened at seven in the morning, and until ten at
night required the unremitting care of its owners and
their employees. Mr. Stoddart loved his work, and gave
it his close and steady attention. Though never actually
robust, his health was such as to enable him to do this.
In fact, during all the years of his commercial activity,
he lost no more than five days from illness, and was
very rarely absent from his place of business.
At an early date he was instrumental in promoting the
Callowhill Street Railway, which he succeeded in estab
lishing after overcoming numerous obstacles. In this he
had regard to the convenience of the public no less than
to the improvement of his own property. The wisdom
of this step has been proved by the importance which
the enterprise has assumed in the railway system of the
city. Mr. Stoddart took a patriot's interest in the events
which preceded and accompanied the war of the Rebel
lion. He was an early member of the Union League, and
a constant contributor, both of money and of labor, to the
cause. When the wounded and sick of the Union armies
were brought to the hospitals of the city, he and his

wife were active in assuaging their sufferings.

Though

always interested in municipal affairs, he declined every
invitation to assume public office.
He retired from business in 1891 with a moderate
competence. With mental and physical faculties unim
paired, he can look back over his career with a satisfaction
to be felt by few men who have had such long experience
of the exigencies and vicissitudes of mercantile life.
Mr. Stoddart has five children, all living. Of the
youngest, twin daughters, one is the wife of Samuel H.
Gilbert, of Philadelphia, the other of George H. Butler,
of Wilkesbarre. Of the sons, Curwen and Gideon are
well-known business men of Philadelphia. Joseph M.
Stoddart, Junior, was connected from boyhood with the
house of J. B. Lippincott Company, and for some years
conducted an extensive publishing business of his own ;
memorable among its productions being the revised
edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." In 1886 he
became the manager of Lippincott's Magazine, which he
left in 1894 to enter into a new publishing business.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

43

ISAAC A. SHEPPARD.
Isaac A. Sheppard was born in Cumberland County,
New Jersey, July n, 1826, and obtained such meagre
education as was to be had in the country schools of
that period. At the age of eleven he was put to work
on a farm, his school term now being restricted to the
three winter months. His parents removed to Philadel
phia in 1 840, where his mother soon after died and the
family was scattered, Isaac being thrown on his own
resources. It was his desire to learn a trade, but busi
ness was then greatly depressed and employment difficult
to obtain, and he was forced into a variety of temporary
occupations. He served as errand boy in a shoe store,
as cabin boy on a coasting vessel, worked in a bakery,
and tried various other lines of labor until 1843, m which
year he was finally successful in obtaining a situation in
a brass and iron foundry to learn the moulder's trade.
Shortly afterwards his employer died, and the business
was closed, but in January, 1844, he became an appren
tice in the stove and hollow-ware foundry of Charles
W. Warnick & Co., and devoted himself to a thorough
mastery of the business. He proved so able and intel
ligent that on the expiration of his term of apprentice
ship the firm offered him continued employment, with
the assurance that he should never lack work while they
had it. He remained with the firm until its dissolution
on the death of its leading member.
During this period Mr. Sheppard devoted most of
his evenings during four years to study, joined several
musical and beneficial associations, and took part in or
ganizing a savings and building association, among the
earliest of those formed in the city. Through its aid
he succeeded in obtaining a building lot on Sixth Street
below Girard Avenue, built a house, and, marrying in
1850, has since resided there. He continued to work at
his trade until 1859, when he joined with a number of
others in the establishment of a stove foundry at Seventh
Street and Girard Avenue, the firm being known as Isaac
A. Sheppard & Co.
The progress of the new firm was not a prosperous one.
It met with determined opposition from older establish
ments, which sought, by offering their goods at reduced
prices, to drive it out of business. But Mr. Sheppard
had the useful qualities of industry and pertinacity. He
had been through hard times before, and held on indom
itably, supported by his partners, so that by the end of
the third year they succeeded in firmly establishing their
business. During this period of stress and strain Mr.
Sheppard was engaged also in public duties. In 1858
he was elected by a large majority to the Pennsylvania
Legislature by the People's party, and became an active
and influential member of that body. He was twice re
elected, and in January, 1861, became chairman of the
Committee of Ways and Means, in which he strongly sup

ported all measures for the good ot the government, and
was largely instrumental in providing for the exigencies
of the war. In March, 1861, he became Speaker, pro
tern., and for a considerable period filled that office with
dignity and credit. He was chairman of the Committee
on the Attack upon Citizens of Pennsylvania in passing
through Baltimore en route to Washington, and made an
able report thereon, and was a member of the committee
that prepared and reported the bill under whose recom
mendations the Pennsylvania Reserves were organized.
Throughout the war he gave much attention to his
business, which continued to grow until the works in
Philadelphia became too small for the rapidly increasing
demand, and in 1866 were supplemented by a foundry
in Baltimore, its purpose being to take advantage of the
demand likely to arise from the South in its process of
industrial regeneration. By 1871 the business of the
Philadelphia foundry had so increased that new facilities
became imperative, and a square of ground of over two
and a half acres in extent, between Third and Fourth
Streets, Berks Street and Montgomery Avenue, was pur
chased. The works erected there are very capacious,
and the firm turns out a great number of stoves annually,
in addition to heaters, ranges, and various other castings.
They offer a striking example of the fruits of energy
and perseverance.
In 1870 Mr. Sheppard took part in the organization of
the National Security Bank, of which he became vice-
president. He was elected by Councils a trustee of the
Northern Liberties Gas Works, and in 1879 was ap
pointed a member of the Board of Education, of which
for several years he has been president. He has long
been a member of the Masonic, Odd-Fellows, and Master
Mechanics orders, and his labors in the field of charity
have been very earnest and useful.

44

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

REV. EZRA E. ADAMS, D.D.
Rev. Ezra Eastman Adams, D.D., was born in Con
cord, New Hampshire, in 1814, and passed his boyhood
upon his father's farm and in attendance upon the public
schools of that district. He early displayed an intellec
tual ability which attracted the favorable attention of Rev.
Dr. Buxton, the family pastor, who fitted him for col
lege. After completing his studies with this gentleman,
he was then sent to Dartmouth College, from which he
graduated in the class of 1836. Having decided to enter
the ministry, he prepared himself for this profession, and
was ordained in Concord, in the church of his early
friend and pastor, Dr. Buxton. Immediately afterwards
he sailed for Cronstadt, Russia, as a missionary in the
service of the American and Foreign Christian Union.
Dr. Adams spent four years in Russia, in the cities of
St. Petersburg and Cronstadt, actively engaged in the
field of duty assigned him, and then returned to America.
After a home probation of a few months, he was again

sent abroad by the Union, being now stationed at Liver
pool, England, and at Havre, France, his period of for
eign missionary labor on this occasion continuing for ten
years. He returned to the United States in 1852, and
became pastor of the Pearl Street Congregational Church,
of Nashua, New Hampshire.
Dr. Adams's residence in Philadelphia began in 1856,
in which year he sought that city, and was induced by
the late Matthias W. Baldwin, who was fully aware of
his powers as a minister, to begin preaching in a hall
in the vicinity of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Mr.
Baldwin generously guaranteeing his salary until a church
could be organized. A room was rented in the Odd-
Fellows' Hall, and Dr. Adams began his pastoral ser
vices in Philadelphia by preaching to a handful of people
whom his patron's exertions and influence had brought
together. The religious fervor and warm eloquence of
the new pastor quickly attracted others, and it was not
long before the hall proved too small to hold the in
creasing number of his hearers. The hall at Thirteenth
and Spring Garden Streets (the old Spring Garden Hall)
was then rented, and a church organized, which con
tinued to grow in numbers until it became what is now
the North Broad Street Presbyterian Church, at the
corner of Broad and Green Streets.
Dr. Adams remained the pastor of the large congrega
tion which his eloquence and ability had drawn together
until 1867, when failing health compelled him to resign
his charge. He then went to Europe and travelled
through that continent, with the hope that rest and relief
from pastoral duties would restore his health. His suc
cess was only partial. His voice had become affected,
and he rarely attempted to preach after his return.
His final post of duty was as Professor of Latin and
Rhetoric at Lincoln University, which he occupied until
his death in 1872. Dr. Adams was a fervent and pathetic
speaker, and had a peculiarly touching voice, which was
equally adapted to a " war sermon" as to the tender and
solemn requirements of a funeral discourse.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

45

SAMUEL R. SHIPLEY.
Mr. Samuel R. Shipley, the president of the Provi
dent Life and Trust Company of Philadelphia, is a gen
tleman extensively known, not only in his native city, but
through the principal commercial cities of the North.
He was born on the 8th day of January, 1828, of Quaker
parentage. His father was Thomas Shipley, long the
president of the old Abolition Society of Pennsylvania,
of which Benjamin Franklin was the first president. In
company with William Lloyd Garrison, Arnold Buffum,
John G. Whittier, and others, he assisted in the formation
of the American Anti-Slavery Society. At his death, in
1836, his body was carried to his burial in the grounds of
the Quaker Meeting-House, at Fourth and Arch Streets,
by six colored men whom he had saved from bondage.
The colored people turned out in vast numbers to do
honor to him who had been their friend and benefactor.
Mr. Poulson, the editor of the American Daily Adver
tiser, commented on this remarkable scene as follows :
" A week ago, Aaron Burr was buried with the honors
of war; yesterday, Thomas Shipley was buried with the
honors of peace. Let the reflecting mind pause on the
honorable contrast." Mr. Shipley's mother was de
scended from John Sharpless, of Upland, Pennsylvania,
who was one of the associates of William Penn in the
early founding of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Shipley was educated at the widely-known Friends'
Boarding-School at Westtown, Chester County, Penn
sylvania. At a very early age he became a member of the large
importing house of C. W. Churchman & Co., of Philadel
phia. As a member of the firm, he made several jour
neys to England and the Continent in the prosecution of
its business, and speedily acquired prominence as a mer
chant in the highest and most honorable sense of the
term. In the unexampled commercial disasters of 1857,
the house with which he was connected became finan
cially embarrassed, and was unable to pay its debts.
The creditors ofthe firm, recognizing the unimpeachable
honor and good faith of the partners, speedily granted
them a release from their unpaid indebtedness, and in
less than three months from the time of the failure Mr.
Shipley was at the head of the firm of Shipley, Hazard
& Hutchinson, a new house founded to carry on the dry-
goods business of the old concern. After a brief history
of six years this house dissolved, Mr. Shipley retiring
from all active business. Successful beyond expectation,
Mr. Shipley was able not only to pay, in connection with
his former associates of the firm of C. W. Churchman
& Co., the entire deficit of that firm, but to have left
over a sufficient sum to gratify his moderate desires.
Too young a man to be unemployed, Mr. Shipley soon
found himself at the head ofthe Provident Life and Trust
Company of Philadelphia. He was its first president, and

has continued for a period of nearly thirty years to pre
side over its administration. The company is universally
recognized as one of the stanchest and most admirably
managed life insurance companies in America, and as a
trust company it is of the highest rank. The period
immediately following the Civil War was prolific in life
insurance ventures. The Provident Life and Trust Com
pany of Philadelphia is almost the only life insurance
company organized at that time which achieved perma
nent success. Its business is twofold, — life insurance
upon the mutual plan, and what is known as the trust
business. Both call for the maintenance of a high
standard of security. In the latter case no company
without the highest reputation for skilful and conservative
management can hope to have confided to it the impor
tant and sacred duties which relate to the care of the
estates of deceased persons and those involved in the
management of trusts. Such a union of the two kinds
of business existed nominally in this city in the case of
an old established company of the highest standing. It
was reserved to the Provident Life and Trust Company,
under the able direction of Mr. Shipley, to demonstrate
the practicability of the full development of both. To
have succeeded in either would have been to gain an
honorable reputation; to have signally succeeded in
both was to achieve a result never before successfully
attempted in this country.
Mr. Shipley also assisted in the formation of the Cen
tral National Bank of Philadelphia, which, under the
management of Mr. George M. Troutman, has become
one of the most prosperous and successful banks of the
city. Mr. Shipley is a many-sided man, having the
disposition to serve others as well as himself. He has
long been connected with some of the most important
benevolent institutions of his native city.

46

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JAMES THOMPSON.
James Thompson, late chief justice of the Supreme
Court of Pennsylvania, was born in 1806, in Butler
County, Pennsylvania, being descended from a Scotch-
Irish family long settled in this country. His father had
served with distinction as a captain in the Revolutionary
War. He afterwards became a farmer, and died while
his son was quite young, so that the latter obtained but
a limited education, being principally that which his
mother, a woman of excellent natural endowments, was
able to give him. While a lad of eight or nine years of
age he pushed his way, on one occasion, into the crowded
court-house at Butler, and there was so entranced with
the eloquence of a legal advocate that he became filled
with an ambition to make himself the equal of the man
he heard. This advocate was Henry Baldwin, afterwards
a justice of the Supreme Court of New York.
From that time forward the ambitious boy kept this
goal before his eyes, and diligently sought to prepare
himself for it. He entered a newspaper office at Butler,
devoting his leisure time to the study of Latin, in which
he became proficient, and afterwards studying law in the
office of the Hon. John Gilmore. Removing to Kittan-
ning, he became interested in editing and publishing the
Gazette, a leading newspaper of that town, while he con
tinued his law studies in the office of Thomas Blair. He
was admitted to practice at the age of twenty-three,
having meanwhile^ married Mary, daughter of the Rev.
Nathaniel R. Snowden. His labors at the bar began in
Franklin, Venango County, where he made rapid prog
ress, and quickly pushed his way to the front rank of
the profession. He also became active in politics, writing
and speaking in support of General Jackson for the
Presidency, a course which brought him into such promi
nence that he was made the Democratic nominee of his

district for the Pennsylvania Assembly. He was elected
by a handsome majority, and served for four years, being
Speaker of the House during the last session.
After filling some other political positions, he was in
the spring of 1839 unexpectedly appointed, by Governor
Porter, district judge of the Fifth Judicial District of
Pennsylvania, and his nomination unanimously confirmed
by the Senate. The court was originally established for
five years, to relieve the Court of Common Pleas of the
district, and was renewed for one year, he continuing at its
head throughout. In 1844, while still on the bench, he
received the Democratic nomination of his Congressional
district for Congress, and was elected, though the district
had previously gone against the Democrats. He was' re
elected for two successive terms, and retired on March 4,
185 1, declining renomination. He took a prominent part
in the important measures which came before Congress
during his six years' service, and in his last term was
made chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He had
meanwhile removed to Erie, where he resumed the
practice of his profession, and gained a high reputation
at the bar alike for his powers of mind and skill as
a pleader. One of the celebrated trials in which he
was engaged was that of the Erie Railroad, in which
Edwin M. Stanton, William M. Meredith, George Tucker
Campbell, and other distinguished lawyers were also
engaged. In 1857, Judge Thompson was elected a justice ofthe
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, in common with Hon.
William Strong, afterwards justice ofthe Supreme Court
of the United States. Shortly after this date he removed
with his family to Philadelphia. He served nine years as
associate justice, and on January 1, 1865, became chief
justice, having previously been successful in drawing lots
with Justice Strong for this office. He continued to oc
cupy this exalted chair for six years, to the general satis
faction and commendation of the people and the legal
profession. At the end of these fifteen years of service
he was defeated by an adverse political majority, and
retired from the bench. In the same year his name was
presented to the National Democratic Convention as a
candidate for President, but he failed to receive the nomi
nation. He did not long survive his return to the prac
tice of his profession, but died suddenly on January 28,
1874, while engaged in organizing a case in the court
over which he had recently presided.
Judge Thompson had an exalted reputation as a crim
inal lawyer, while his career on the bench brought him
universal commendation for knowledge of the law,
breadth of view, and sound common sense in all his
decisions. Chief-Justice Woodward said of him that "A
clear head was so well balanced in him by a good heart,
that he came as near to the perfection of judicial charac
ter as any man of our day."

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

47

SAMUEL G. THOMPSON.
Samuel Gustine Thompson, recently justice of the
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, was born at Franklin,
Venango County, Pennsylvania, in 1837, his father being
James Thompson, late chief justice of the Supreme
Court, of whom we have given a sketch on the opposite
page, his mother being the daughter of Gustine Snowden,
who, when five years of age, escaped with her father from
the massacre of Wyoming, and at the time of her death
was believed to be the last survivor of that thrilling his
toric event.
He was educated at the Erie Academy, and after his
graduation studied the classics and the leading modern
languages under a private tutor. In 1858, on the re
moval of his father to Philadelphia, he entered the
University of Pennsylvania, and after a thorough study
of the law, for which he had an inherited predilection, he
was admitted to the bar in 1861. Here he quickly rose
to a leading position, and for more than thirty years
continued in the active practice of his profession at the
bar of Philadelphia. His practice has largely been in
important corporation cases, though he enjoys the repu
tation of being well equipped in all branches of the law.
Mr. Thompson may be said to have inherited his
political views as well as his predilection and capacity for
the law, but he has never sought office, preferring the
quiet pursuit of his profession, and no public position
could have allured him by its mere emoluments. Up to
the time of his appointment to the bench of the Supreme
Court the only public position he had held was the un
salaried one of Commissioner of Fairmount Park, to
which he was elected in 1887. Since that time he has
been connected with the management of the Park, and
has been active and zealous in the discharge of his duties
in relation thereto.
On March 2, 1893, Mr. Thompson was, without knowl
edge or solicitation of himself or friends, appointed by
Governor Pattison to the bench of the Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania, to fill the vacancy made by the resignation
of the recent chief justice. He accepted the honor, and
took his seat on the bench which his father had occupied
with distinction for fifteen years. The court was then in
session in Philadelphia, and the newly-appointed justice
at once assumed the arduous and responsible functions
of his office. His appointment was received with great
favor alike by the bar, the press, and the people of the
State, who confidently looked to him to sustain the repu

tation he had long since made at the bar, and to uphold
by his judicial action public confidence in the high
tribunal of which he had become a member.
In the convention which met in the following Sep
tember, so highly were his services on the bench regarded
by his party, that he received a unanimous nomination to
succeed himself as the Democratic candidate for the
position. But at the ensuing election he failed of suc
cess, being defeated by an adverse political majority.
His connection with the court had been marked by great
industry and attention, and his judicial opinions by clear
ness of thought and vigor of expression. Perhaps the
most notable of the opinions given during the brief period
of his incumbency is the dissent which he filed in the
case ofthe City of Philadelphia against the Public Build
ings Commission, a case which attracted great public
attention, and involved certain highly important principles
of constitutional law. While the constitutionality of the
law known as the Penrose Act was sustained by the
majority of the court, it is apparent that the views of
Justice Thompson were based upon reasons clearly and
strongly set forth, and to the professional mind amply
sufficient to justify the earnestness of his conviction and
the logical capacity with which he expressed them.
By constitutional limitation, the term of office of Justice
Thompson expired on the 31st of December, 1893, when
he was succeeded by the Hon. D. N. Fell, the newly-
elected justice. He has since resumed the active practice
of his profession.

48

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

CHARLES W. BROOKE.
The ancestors of Charles Wallace Brooke, the emi
nent lawyer and orator, emigrated from Ireland to this
country at an early date, though the notable Irish quali
ties of geniality, wit, and eloquence are still retained by
the descendant of the family with whom we are at present
concerned. His grandfather, Charles J. Brooke, was an
intimate friend of Alexander Hamilton, whose name he
gave to his most promising son. This son, Alexander
Hamilton Brooke, was born in Virginia, in which State
the Brooke family is still one of note. He entered the
navy, but after a time left it, moved to Philadelphia,
and became a sea-captain of that port, commanding the
largest ship in the China trade. He married the daugh
ter of Captain Joseph Berry, another famous Philadelphia
seaman, his son Charles being born April 10, 1836, in
the then district of Southwark, near the Old Swedes'
Church. Captain Brooke died when his son was but four years
of age, leaving his wife a small competency. Mrs. Brooke
took care that her children should receive a good educa
tion, Charles being educated at the Protestant Episcopal
Academy of Philadelphia, and afterwards at the Univer
sity of Pennsylvania. At the age of seventeen he left
the University to accept a clerkship in the Western Bank.
In this establishment he is credited with starting the
system of striking ledger balance sheets for each clay's
business, and also of inaugurating the clearing-house
system in Philadelphia.
Banking business, however, was not to his taste, and

he studied law in his leisure moments, Charles E. Lex
acting as his preceptor. He was admitted to the bar in
October, 1858, when twenty-two years of age. The
office taken by him was near that of Benjamin Harris
Brewster, who took a strong interest in him, and remained
during life his warm friend. The young lawyer quickly
made friends and gained clients through his winning
manners and that gift of eloquence which had early dis
played itself He had chosen the specialty of criminal
practice, and by the time he had been two years before
the bar he had gained a leading position in the Philadel
phia criminal courts, many important cases coming into
his hands. In addition to his legal reputation, he quickly
became prominent in the social life of Philadelphia. He
was one of the originators of the Penn Club, one of the
prominent social institutions of the Quaker City. He
was fond of theatricals, and became an active member
of the Amateur Dramatic Society. He was president of
the Board of School Directors, and during the war was a
prominent sustainer of the Union cause as a member of
the First City Troop, with which he marched, under the
leadership of Hon. Samuel J. Randall, to the defence of
Gettysburg. At successive dates he was Democratic
candidate for district attorney and for Congress, but
was not elected, the Republican party being in a strong
majority. Mr. Brooke's fine powers of oratory and high sense of
humor were soon displayed in the lecture field, in which
the announcement of his name was sure to draw a
large audience. His lectures on " Irish Bards and Bal
lads" and " Rare Old Players" were highly popular, and
were delivered not only in Philadelphia, but in various
other cities. His sense of humor, in fact, won for him
the title of " The Wit of the Philadelphia Bar," and
could all the bright sayings that have fallen from his
tongue be gathered, they would make a volume of good
things. In 1 87 1, Mr. Brooke removed from Philadelphia to
New York, in which wider field of practice he has since
been engaged. Among his many famous cases may be
named the WoodhuII and Claflin libel suit in connection
with the Beecher and Tilton scandal, and his defence of
Henry S. Ives, " The Young Napoleon of Finance." In
oratory he has made his mark in New York by his
famous orations on Robert Emmet and at the unveiling
of the statue of Tom Moore, in Prospect Park, Brooklyn,
where twenty thousand people listened to his eloquent
words. Another notable event was his memorial oration
on the " Manchester Martyrs," in the Cooper Institute.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

49

NATHANIEL TUTTLE.
The subject of this sketch was born April 21, 1848,
at Croton-on-Hudson, New York. He is descended
from Puritan and patriotic ancestry, the Turtles being
among the early immigrants to this country, where they
arrived in the ship "Planter" in 1639. Mr. Turtle's
early life was passed on his father's farm, whose rough
and stony surface resembled that of all farms in the
northern section of Westchester County. He attended
the district school, and after the death of his father in
1866 taught it during the winter and spring of 1866 and
1867. Later he attended and graduated from a leading
commercial college.
He began his business career on the New York Tribune
in 1868, and has been identified with it ever since. He
was rapidly promoted, and in 1878 was made cashier.
On the death of Mr. Edward Clarke in 1888 he took his
place in the board of trustees of the Tribune, and as
manager of the advertising department, in addition to
his other duties. When Mr. Reid left for his post as
United States minister to France in 1889, he placed the
management of the Tribune in the hands of Messrs.
Turtle, Nicholson, and Hall. Mr. Reid has not taken
up the details then laid down, and the paper is run
to-day in substantially the way in which he then ar
ranged it.
Mr. Turtle is greatly interested in everything that
improves or makes more attractive the metropolis of
which he is a citizen. He is a member of the Metro
politan Museum of Art and the American Museum of
Natural History, and a member of the Sons of the
American Revolution, and also the West Side Protective
League. In politics he is a Republican and Protectionist,
being a member of that vigorous organization, the West
Side Republican Club.
Mr. Turtle has been a close observer of the improve
ments in the printer's art, and has collected valuable
memoranda and data, covering almost every conceivable
phase of the publishing and newspaper business. These
include the sources of income of the Tribune, the per
centage from every source for each year, and the causes
which operated to change them from year to year; also
the expenses, embracing the percentage of the total of
every conceivable expense, for every year, and the reasons
for their increase or decrease from the normal. He has
also diagrams showing the circulation of each edition,
its increase or decrease, and the causes operating to pro
duce these changes. Any one familiar with newspapers
knows how important such facts are, leading, as they do,
to a perfect uniformity of accounts, and giving a com
plete control of all the working details of a publishing
enterprise. He possesses, in addition, also less complete

data of a great many other papers. Mr. Tuttle believes
that the information he has thus brought together is for
the highest benefit of the paper with which he is con
nected. He belongs to no Publishers' Association or
other organization of similar aims. He was one of the
incorporators of the Mergenthaler Printing Company,
and was connected with it until it became merged with
the present Mergenthaler Linotype Company. The ma
chine controlled by this company has revolutionized the
printer's art.
New York journalism, notwithstanding the talk to
the contrary, is essentially personal, and the controlling
spirits in each paper are well known. There is room
for but one great reputation, except in distinct lines, at
any one time in connection with any one of these jour
nals. The rest are simply assistants, however able they
may be in their respective duties. Mr. Turtle's reputa
tion is interwoven with that of the Tribune, to whose
success financially he has contributed. The Tribune
has worked intelligently in all possible ways for the
public good, and its suggestions frequently result in
legislative enactments for the benefit of the city and
good citizenship, with all that it implies.
Mr. Greeley, at the end of his disastrous Presidential
campaign in 1872, believed that he had ruined the Tribune,
with himself and his friends as well. A great many
others believed the same, yet Whitelaw Reid, out of this
serious condition of affairs, has brought it to its present
success, it being to-day second to no other paper in the
land, magnificently housed, and efficiently equipped in
every department. Its circulation is now far in excess
of that of any previous period for every edition, and its
influence has grown correspondingly more extended.

50

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JAMES HARPER.
James Harper, who for more than fifty years was
senior member of the great publishing house of Harper
& Brothers, was born at Newtown, Long Island, April 13,
1795, being the son of Joseph Harper, a farmer of that
locality. His grandfather, a schoolmaster by profession,
who had come from England about the middle of the
eighteenth century, and settled on a farm at Newtown,
afterwards kept a grocery store for many years in New
York. His son Joseph, who learned the trade of car
penter, became afterwards a fanner, married Elizabeth
Kolyer, the daughter of a Dutch farmer, and had six
children, two of whom died in infancy. The remaining
four became the members of the subsequent firm of
Harper & Brothers.
James Harper, the oldest son, spent his early life on
the farm, obtaining such education as the village school
afforded, and at the age of sixteen was apprenticed to a
printer in New York. He was strictly temperate, in
dustrious, and faithful to his employers, and by close
economy, aided by overwork, managed to save a small
sum from his modest wages. This, added to a similar
sum saved by his brother John, who also studied print
ing, and augmented by a contribution of a few hundred
dollars from their father, enabled the two brothers in
18 17 to establish a small printing-office of their own.
This was in Water Street, New York, the firm-name
adopted being J. & J. Harper. The first book printed
by them was an edition of Seneca's " Morals," of which,
in August, 1 8 17, they delivered two thousand copies to
Evert Duyckinck, then a leading bookseller of the city.
This was followed in December by two thousand five
hundred copies of Mair's " Introduction to Latin," printed
for and delivered to the same firm. The first book which
bore their own imprint was issued in April, 181 8, being a

reproduction of Locke's " Essay on the Human Under
standing," of which five hundred copies were sold to
Mr. Duyckinck.
They early commenced the issuing of serial publica
tions, one of the most notable of these, at an early date,
being " Harper's Family Library," which was continued
till it embraced several hundred volumes of the choicest
modern novels. At a subsequent date the two younger
brothers, who had also served apprenticeships to the print
ing trade, 'were admitted to membership in the firm, and
in 1833 the firm-name was changed to Harper & Brothers,
under which title the house has since been known.
The increase in the business of the firm rendered
necessary a larger building, and a removal was made
to 81 and 82 Cliff Street, where, by 1840, the printing,
binding, and publishing departments occupied several
buildings, on both sides of the street, three of them
having formerly been dwelling-houses. To these, in
1850, was added a large edifice on Franklin Square,
in Pearl Street, running back to the Cliff Street build
ings. None of these buildings were fire-proof, and the
new edifice had been occupied but a short time when the
establishment took fire and was burned to the ground,
the firm suffering a loss of fully a million dollars, on
which was a little insurance. The energetic brothers,
not visibly downcast by this disaster, at once set to work
to rebuild. The magazine, the January number of which
had been destroyed, was issued with little delay, and the
old structure was with no great loss of time replaced
with a fire-proof building, which remains the head
quarters of the firm.
James Harper never lost his self-possession during this
disaster and the hurry and confusion that followed it.
As a business man he was always early at his post,
steadily cheerful, genial, and courteous, and ever ready
with a kind word, a pleasant jest or repartee, and judi
cious counsel when needed. In 1844 he reluctantly
consented to serve as mayor of New York, but could
never afterwards be drawn into political life, saying, " I
prefer to stick to a business I understand." He was
always in great request as a presiding officer, which
position he filled with dignity and ability. He was
rigidly temperate, and closely identified with temperance
movements ; was strictly religious, being a prominent
member of the Methodist Church ; and was active in
benevolent enterprises. His health continued excellent,
he seeming much younger than he really was, and death
came to him at length by an accident. While driving
with his daughter in the upper part of the city, the car
riage-pole broke, the frightened horses ran away, and
they were both thrown violently from the carriage. He
was taken up insensible and carried to St. Luke's Hos
pital, where he lay for two days, and died, without regain
ing consciousness, on March 17, 1869.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

5*

JOHN HARPER.
John Harper, the second member of the publishing
firm of Harper & Brothers, was born at Newtown, Long
Island, on January 22, 1797. His boyish days were spent
on his father's farm and in attendance on the village o
school, until he attained the age of sixteen, when, like
his elder brother, he was apprenticed to the printer's trade
in New York City, different employers being chosen for
the two boys. As an apprentice he exhibited the same
diligence and economy as his brother James, and in his
twenty-first year joined the latter in establishing a small
printing business on Water Street, their small savings
being added to by financial aid received from their
father. In the new business he became an exact com
positor and accurate proof-reader, and added much
to the reputation of the firm by his skill in these par
ticulars. The new firm was one marked by that industry which
commands success. The two brothers did the greater
part of the work themselves, setting type and running
the presses as well as attending to the purely commercial
side of the enterprise. In those days only hand-presses
were used, and the magical performance of modern
presses was not yet dreamed of. It was considered the
best work of a good pressman to print two thousand five
hundred sheets in a day. Yet, despite this slow process,
the energetic youths just out of their apprenticeship
printed during their first year not less than five bound
volumes. The first book with the Harper imprint on its
title-page was issued in the succeeding year, this being
Locke's " Essay on the Human Understanding." Since
then not a year has passed without the publication by the
firm of a considerable number of volumes. To-day the
two thousand five hundred sheets per day of the old
hand-presses have increased to two hundred and forty
thousand sheets a day on the modern perfecting presses,
and the five books printed during the first year have aug
mented to about seventy-five new works annually, besides
more than twenty numbers of the " Franklin Square
Library of Fiction," twelve numbers of Harper's Monthly
Magazine, and fifty-two numbers each of Harper's
Weekly, Harper s Bazar, and Harper's Young People.
These four periodicals contain as much matter yearly as
nearly two hundred good-sized books, so that the total
annual publication of the house is equivalent to little
short of three hundred separate and distinct new books.
Originally the firm occupied a small two-story brick-
building, all the work being done by the partners and
two or three assistants. Now the buildings occupy the
better part of a city block, and the employees would
make a small army.
In 1839, when the growth of the firm's business ren
dered it requisite to give each member charge of some
special department, John Harper accepted that of financial

manager, and during the remainder of his life attended to
this portion of the firm's business. In 1853, after the
destruction ofthe establishment by fire, he came earnestly
to the aid of his brothers in the emergency, personally
planning and designing all parts of the present fire-proof
buildings. It becomes, therefore, of interest in this place
to say something about the edifice erected in accordance
with his designs.
The main establishment, thus erected, occupies a plot
of ground extending from Pearl to Cliff Street, it having
a frontage on each street of about one hundred and
twenty feet, and a depth of one hundred and seventy feet,
the area covered being about half an acre. There are
two buildings, one fronting on each street, with an open
court-yard between them. The Franklin Square building
is used mainly for offices and store-rooms. It is five
stories high above the street level, the front being of iron,
with ornamental columns, the side and rear walls of brick
and stone. There are two subterranean stories, the
lower one forming a series of vaults, with massive walls
and arches, within which are stored the numerous and
costly electrotype plates of the firm. The stereotype
plates possessed by the firm in 1853 were in great part
rescued from the fire, being stored in similar fire-proof
vaults, and the firm possesses a property of immense
value in these plates. The rear building, that on Cliff
Street, is used principally for manufacturing purposes,
while the press-rooms, mailing department, offices, sales
rooms, and stock-rooms are in the Franklin Square
building. After the death of his two brothers, James and Wesley,
John retired from active duties in the business, the heavy
responsibility of the finances being handed over to the
younger members of the firm. He died April 22, 1875
in the seventy-ninth year of his age.

52

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JOSEPH WESLEY HARPER.
Joseph Wesley Harper — commonly known by his
middle name of Wesley — the third member of the
original firm of Harper & Brothers, was born at New
town, Long Island, December 25, 1801. His early life
was a copy of that of his brothers already described,
and like them, on attaining the proper age, he was ap
prenticed to the printer's trade in New York City, the
father having apparently chosen that as the future avo
cation of all his sons. After he became of age, in 1822,
he entered the establishment of his brothers, founded
five years before, and now in a flourishing condition.
Here he worked for a time as journeyman printer, but
was soon promoted to the positions of foreman and
proof-reader of the composing room. He had a thor
ough knowledge of the business, and a veteran printer
who served under him has said that he was the best
foreman he ever saw.
A period of duty in this position was followed by
admission to membership in the firm, to which his
younger brother, Fletcher, was also admitted, the busi
ness, however, continuing to be conducted under the
firm-name of J. & J. Harper until 1833, when the ex
isting title of Harper & Brothers was adopted.
As the business increased, and the duties of the es
tablishment became varied and onerous, each brother
assumed charge of a special department, Wesley taking
that of literary correspondent. The duties of this de
partment, with the rapidly expanding business of the
firm, and the host of authors with which it was in com
munication, were arduous and delicate. Authors are
often of peculiar temperament, and many of them af
flicted with the malady of " great expectations," rarely
likely to be realized. To deal with many of them de
mands special qualities in a correspondent, including

great delicacy, courtesy, and judgment, to avoid giving
offence to persons frequently of very sensitive temper
ament. These necessary qualities Wesley Harper pos- .
sessed in unusual development. He was always courte
ous and thoughtful of the feelings of others, and during
the forty years in which he continued in charge of this
department there is no reason to believe that he ever
made an enemy among his correspondents. In the case
of those who visited him personally he was equally kind
and considerate, so much so that all felt towards him
as to a personal friend, and among the thousands of
acquaintances formed by him during his business life
the sentiment of respect and friendliness seems to have
been universal.
By his familiarity with books of every variety and
his frequent intercourse with eminent scholars, Wesley
Harper became himself a man of excellent information
and culture. He had acquired fixed and well-considered
views, but was always modest in expressing them, never
forcing his opinions — though decided and the results
of his own thoughtfulness — upon the attention of his
visitors. The department of the business which fell
under his care was, as has been said, one of the highest
importance. It must be borne in mind that the relations
to authors of a great publishing house, like that of Har
per & Brothers, are by no means to be measured by the
number of volumes issued annually. The authors of
these it is comparatively easy to deal with, — except in
the annoying case, of frequent occurrence, in which the
sale of their books falls far below their expectations.
But for every author whose manuscript is accepted there
are a considerable number whose manuscripts have to be
declined for various reasons, of which that of lack of
scholarship and ability does not always stand first. The
publisher has to consider readers as well as writers, and
judge of the selling qualities of a book rather than of its
intrinsic merits, many works of great value in their sub
ject-matter being inadmissible from defects of manner, or
non-adaptation to the probable tastes of the world of
readers. These remarks will suffice to indicate that the
office of correspondent with authors is no sinecure, if it
is desired to avoid misapprehension and offence. A
kindly mind goes far in producing pleasant results, and
it was to his native kindness of disposition that Wesley
Harper owed his long-continued agreeable relations with
the correspondents of the house.
In his later years his health slowly failed, he being
obliged to call in his son to his aid, and eventually to
place the correspondence largely in his hands. He was
seriously affected by the sudden death of his brother
James, the accident giving him a mental shock, from
which he never fully recovered. February 14, 1870, he
died, less than a year after the death of the brother he
mourned.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

53

FLETCHER HARPER.
Fletcher Harper, the youngest member of the
original firm of Harper & Brothers, was, in common with
his brothers, born in the paternal farm-house, at New
town, Long Island, the year of his birth being 1806.
Like the others, Fletcher was sent to New York to learn
the printing business, his education, like theirs, having
been confined to that obtainable at the Newtown village
school. His older brothers, James and John, were, at
the date of the beginning of his apprenticeship, engaged
in the publishing business in New York, and had fairly
entered upon that career of prosperity which was eventu
ally to become so great. On the completion of his term
of apprenticeship, in 1825, he was admitted to member
ship in the firm, then known as J. & J. Harper, the present
title being assumed in 1833. He succeeded his brother
Wesley as foreman of the composing room, a position
which he retained for years, while at the same time
gradually taking charge of the literary department, which
in the end came completely under his control. The idea
of establishing a magazine originated with James Plarper,
though the management of it fell largely into the hands
of the youngest member of the firm. Fletcher, how
ever, originated the Weekly and the Bazar, and during
his later life took a special interest in the periodical
publications of the house, exercising over them a close
and intelligent supervision, directed alike to their typo
graphical appearance and their literary and pictorial
excellence. In the establishment and conduct of their various peri
odicals the Harpers have, perhaps, done their most inter
esting work. Each of these has, from its inception, con
tinued in the first rank of its kind, and a study of the
many volumes issued is a valuable lesson in the progress
that has been made in this country in literature and the
arts of printing and illustration. Of these periodicals,
the first to be established was Harper's New Monthly
Magazine. The first number of this appeared in 1850,
and was then regarded as a model of enterprise, as
compared with the magazine literature that preceded it,
though if the early numbers be compared with those of
the present day the degree of improvement will be seen
to be remarkable. Yet there has been no sudden change.
The march of improvement has been so gradual and
continuous as to be hardly perceptible between any two
numbers, and has kept pace with the general growth
which has taken place in all the details of the typograph
ical art and illustration, and the advance in literary excel
lence in this country during the past half-century. To
American skill and ingenuity the world owes most of
the improvements that have been made in the mechanical
details of the printer's profession, and the four original
members of the firm of Harper & Brothers had much to
do with stimulating those steps of progress which they

lived long enough to see and of which to avail them
selves. A singular coincidence, worth noting here, is
the fact that the first book printed by the firm, in 18 17,
was a translation of Seneca's " Morals," and that the
last book printed in the lifetime of Fletcher Harper, the
youngest and last to pass away of the founders, was the
Latin original of the same work.
As regards the other periodicals of the firm, Harper's
Weekly 'was begun in 1857, and was appropriately entitled
"A Journal of Civilization," which it has continued to
be from that time to the present. It was started as an
illustrated paper, though at the beginning the pictures
were few as compared with those now given, and, while
quite as good as had been produced up to that time,
were crude in comparison with the artistic and well-
finished illustrations of the present day. It at once,
however, sprang into a prominent place, and five months
after its first issue the publishers were able to announce
a circulation of sixty thousand copies. Since then, up
to the present time, the Weekly has continued faithfully
to record, with descriptive articles and appropriate illustra
tions, the leading events of the world.
Harper's Bazar made its appearance in 1868, and its
growth has been steady from that time to this. It was
issued as an illustrated weekly for women, " Devoted to
Fashion, Pleasure, Instruction, and the Fine Arts." Its
leading department is that of the Fashions, though it has
a literary side as well, publishing serial novels and short
stories from the leading writers of the day. Harper's
Young People, the last-born of the Harper periodicals,
came into existence in 1879, and has made its way until
it stands to-day in the front rank.
Fletcher Harper died May 29, 1877, and with him the
original firm ceased to exist. The firm now consists of
sons and grandsons of the original members.

54

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

A. G. MILLS.
A. G. Mills, vice-president and secretary of the Otis
Elevator Company, has long been a prominent citizen of
New York, and particularly identified with athletic sports
and the preservation of the natural attractions of the Adi-
rondacks. We shall not speak here of the great busi
ness with which he is identified. It will suffice to say
that the executive management of that extensive in
dustry, as now organized, falls largely on the shoulders
of Mr. Mills, and that he is thoroughly familiar with its
details and lends a directing hand to its every movement.
But outside the interests of business Mr. Mills spends
a life of the utmost activity and usefulness, and it is to
these phases of his career that our attention shall be
particularly directed.
Though he has recently passed his fiftieth year, his
energy is in no sense diminished, and his activity in club
and social life, in athletic and sporting interests, is unsur
passed. As a boy he fought in the Union army, and is
prouder to-day of the bronze star of the Grand Army
and the silken button of the Loyal Legion than of all
the other marks of honor he has received. He has twice
served as Commander of Lafayette Post, G.A.R., the
largest and most important post in the State, and per
formed the many duties which devolved upon him in
this office with an industry and military precision which
made his administration a marked one in the history of
the organization.

In his youthful days he was devoted to and a crack
amateur player in the national game of base-ball, and
has never lost his enthusiastic interest in this American
sport, nor in field sports in general. No man in this
country has done more than he in the development of
athletic interests, and three important progressive move
ments are due solely to his energy and judgment. The
first of these is the national agreement of base-ball
clubs which brought harmony out of confusion ; the
second, the settlement of the persistent disagreement
between the National Association of Amateur Athletes
and the Amateur Athletic Union ; and the third, the
recent reorganization of the Amateur Athletic Union,
through which has come a great increase of interest in
field sports throughout this country. Mr. Mills was
unanimously elected a few years ago president of the
New York Athletic Club. He declined a renomination,
but preserves an active interest in the club.
He is a lover of mountain, lake, and forest, and of
out-door sport in its every form, and this proclivity has
awakened in him the strongest interest in Adirondack
affairs. Finding the West Side Inn, at Lake Placid, in
a sadly run-down condition, he organized a company, of
which he became and continues president, and transformed
this shiftless establishment into the present well-kept and
profitable Whiteface Inn. Also, finding the lake level
fluctuating through the operations of a party of mill-
owners at its outlet, he organized the Lake Placid Shore
Owners' Association, which secured control of the dam
at the outlet, and now carefully maintains the lake at the
desired level.
In 1890 the Adirondack League Club was formed.
To this organization, controlling over two hundred and
seventy-five square miles of the wilderness, and devoted
to the preservation of the forest and the protection of
fish and game. Mr. Mills gives much time and energy,
and for several years past has served as president of the
club, whose far extending interests he largely administers.
In city affairs he is very prominent in social and club life;
belonging, in addition to six veteran associations, to a
large number of clubs, scientific and art associations.
He is a partisan in politics, but has persistently declined
the nominations to high political offices which have been
offered him. In spite of his business and social interests,
he is essentially domestic in tastes, and there is no more
delightful home life than that enjoyed by one who might
seem solely devoted to out-door affairs.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

55

JOHN RUSSELL YOUNG.
Among the men who are Philadelphia-bred, one of the
youngest in point of years at the time not only to carve
out a career for himself but to assist in founding one of
the institutions of the city that is a part of its history,
is John Russell Young. He was born on a farm near
Downingtown, November 20, 1841, but he received his
elementary education at the Harrison Grammar School,
in Philadelphia, his father having removed from Chester
County to Kensington in 1843. Subsequently he at
tended the High School in New Orleans, where he lived
for some years as the ward of his uncle, James R. Young.
Returning to Philadelphia, he became a copy-holder in
the proof-room of the Press at the age of fifteen, but he
soon was made a reporter, and wras afterwards advanced
so rapidly that he had not yet attained his majority when
he was an editorial writer on the paper. In 1861 Mr.
Young went to Washington with Colonel John W. For
ney as his private secretary, the colonel having been
elected secretary of the Senate. He continued to write
for the Press, and first won his spurs as a war corre
spondent by his account ofthe battle of Bull Run in 1861.
Soon after the battle of Williamsburg he was stricken
with typhoid fever and compelled to return to Philadel
phia. After his recovery, in May, 1862, he was appointed
managing editor of the Press, and it was while he was
holding this position that he assisted in founding the
Union League of Philadelphia, of which he became the
president thirty years later. In April, 1864, Mr. Young
joined General Banks in New Orleans, and accompanied
him through the Red River campaign as a member of his
military family. In 1865 he went to New York at the
instance of Jay Cooke to assist in placing the national
loan. While thus employed, he began to write leading
articles for the New York Tribune. His fervid and vigor
ous style soon attracted the attention of Horace Greeley,
and early in 1866 he succeeded Sydney Howard Gay as
managing editor of that paper. Mr. Young, who was
then only in his twenty-fifth year, would have preferred
the post of Washington correspondent, but Mr. Greeley
insisted upon his acceptance of the more responsible posi
tion. In that place he soon manifested executive ability
of a high order, and his reorganization of the Tribune
staff between 1866 and 1868 must be regarded as the
master-work of modern journalism. Having in addition
to newspaper duties studied law, Mr. Young was admitted
to the bar of New York in 1867. Early in 1870 Mr.
Young established The Standard, a morning daily news
paper, in New York, but the same year he was induced
by George S. Boutwell, then Secretary of the Treasury,
to go abroad in connection with the national finances.
It was during his residence in Europe at this time that
Mr. Young, who was opportunely in Paris, wrote an
account of the rise and fall of the Commune that ranks

among the best examples of English descriptive writing.
In 1872, Mr. Young consented to accept an editorial posi
tion on the New York Herald, and took up his residence
in Europe in the interest of that journal, spending two
years in London and Paris and one on the continent. It
was during his residence in London, in 1877, that General
Grant invited Mr. Young to accompany him on his tour
around the world. He was in consequence a member of
the great soldier's family for nearly two years, and the
affection and confidence that were the results of the in
timacy of the two men only ended at Mount McGregor.
During the tour, Mr. Young wrote many brilliant descrip
tions of the scenes and incidents of the journey for the
Herald, which he subsequently recast and published in
two large volumes with the title of " Around the World
with General Grant," New York, 1881. Because of the
knowledge Mr. Young had acquired of the Chinese at
home during their stay in the " Flowery Kingdom," Gen
eral Grant was extremely anxious that he should accept
the appointment of minister to China which President
Arthur tendered him in 1882. Mr. Young accordingly
resigned from the Herald and became the American
representative at Pekin, but resigned upon the advent
of the first Cleveland administration. He is a frequent
contributor to the newspapers and magazines, and oc
casionally writes for the New York Herald and the
Philadelphia Evening Star, in which he has a proprietary
interest. It is an open secret among his friends that he
has in hand some important literary work with which he
expects to crown his career as a writer. Early in 1892
Mr. Young was made the fourth vice-president of the
Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, but he resigned
when the company went into the hands of the receivers.
He was chosen president of the Union League of Phila
delphia in 1893, and re-elected in 1894.

56

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

COLONEL WM. B. REMEY, U.S.M.C.
Colonel Wm. B. Remey was a native of Iowa, and en
tered the Marine Corps as second lieutenant in Novem
ber, 1861, when the whole country was in a ferment, and
all the young men, North and South, were taking up
arms. During the years 1862-63 he performed his first
service in the " Sabine," a well-known frigate of the old
school. After receiving promotion to be first lieutenant, he was
ordered to the navy-yard at Norfolk, where he was sta
tioned during 1864 and a part of 1865, a period when
vigilance on the part ofthe marine guard was particularly
necessary. For two years after this he served in the " Vander-
bilt," in the Pacific. Upon his return home his orders
changed rapidly. He was on board the " North Caro

lina" and the "New Hampshire," receiving-ships; at
the marine barracks at Philadelphia ; on special duty at
Washington ; and at headquarters at Washington.
He was commissioned captain in. 1872, and was or
dered to the frigate " Colorado," of the North Atlantic
Squadron. In 1875 he returned to headquarters, being
soon after detailed as fleet-marine- officer of the South
Pacific Station. There he remained until 1876, when he
was ordered to the same position on the South Atlantic
Station. He came home in 1877, and was attached to
the Norfolk Navy- Yard during 1878. In 1880 he be
came the acting judge-advocate-general of the United
States Navy, with the rank of colonel, from June,
1880. In this position he continued to serve until May,
1892, having been the law-officer of the department for
fourteen years, during which time he won many friends,
not only in the service itself, but among those having
business with the department, owing to his devotion
to the duties of his office and the signal ability with
which he accomplished the immense amount of work
devolving upon him. By assiduous study and industry
he became thoroughly able to decide questions of naval
law as well as to advise competently in the large con
tracts for building, in which the Navy Department was
engaged. During his administration of the office of judge-advo
cate he gained the respect and esteem of all the different
secretaries under whom he served. Personally a very
genial and companionable man, it was with unfeigned
regret and sorrow that his friends learned, in May, 1892,
that his health had suddenly and utterly broken down.
In consequence of this state of things he was retired on
June 4, 1892, with the full rank of colonel.
Colonel Remey died January 20, 1895.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

37

JAMES H. CAMPBELL.
Hon. James Hepburn Campbell, ex-member of Con
gress, was born at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Feb
ruary 8, 1820, his father having been for many years
a leading member of the bar in that city, and his
grandfather for thirty years rector of St. John's Epis
copal Church at Carlisle. Mr. Campbell studied law at
Dickinson College, Carlisle, and was admitted to prac
tice in 1841, establishing himself at Pottsville, Penn
sylvania. Here he became distinguished for legal learn
ing and forensic eloquence, acquired a large practice,
and for many years ranked among the most eminent
men at the bar.
His political life began in 1844, he becoming a member
of the Whig National Convention at Baltimore which
nominated Henry Clay for the Presidency. In the sub
sequent campaign Mr. Campbell employed his oratorical
power fervently in Mr. Clay's behalf. In 1854 he became
the candidate of the Whigs of his district for Congress,
and though the district was largely Democratic he was
elected a member of the Thirty-fourth Congress. It was
a period of bitter partisan struggle over the question of
the admission of slavery to the Territories, and it was
of first importance to the Whigs to secure a Speaker who
favored freedom in the new States, and would appoint
committees favoring that view. Mr. Campbell used all
his influence and oratorical ability in favor of N. P.
Banks, who was elected Speaker, and who appointed
him, though one of the youngest men in the House, on
the important committee of Ways and Means. In this
committee he led the opposition to all measures looking
to a reduction of the tariff.
In 1858, Mr. Campbell was re-elected to Congress as
Republican candidate, and became one of the leaders in
opposition to all the measures of the Buchanan adminis
tration, which favored the extension of slavery to the
Territories. In i860 his speech in opposition to the
resolutions known as the Crittenden Compromise excited
general attention, and gave him a leading position on the
floor of Congress. In the same year he was appointed
the Pennsylvania member of the " Committee of Thirty-
three," to consider the imperilled state of the Union.
He was elected to Congress again in i860 by a largely
increased majority, and in the stormy times that followed
became an ardent supporter of every measure calculated
to strengthen the government.
Mr. Campbell served his country not only in Congress,
but in the army. On the outbreak of the Rebellion he
at once went South, passed safely through Baltimore,
then in the hands of a ruffianly mob, reached Washing
ton on April 19, and immediately enlisted as a private
in the battalion of Major Cassius M. Clay, organized for
the protection of Washington. On the arrival of troops
from the North, the battalion, being no longer needed,

was disbanded, and on May 1 Mr. Campbell was elected
major of the Twenty-fifth Regiment, Pennsylvania Vol
unteers, with which he remained on active duty until the
expiration of its three months' term of service. Re
suming his seat in the House, he was made chairman
of the Select Committee on the Pacific Railroad, and
reported a bill in favor of the middle route (the war
rendering a Southern route impracticable). The bill,
though viewed as premature under the circumstances,
was carried through mainly by his tact, ability, and popu
larity, and became the basis of the subsequent building of
the road. In 1863, during the invasion of Pennsylvania,
he, in connection with General Nagle, raised a regiment
of eleven hundred men, and proceeded to the scene of
conflict as lieutenant-colonel in command.
In August, 1863, President Lincoln offered him the
appointment of judge of the Court for the Suppression
ofthe African' Slave Trade, to reside at Capetown, Africa.
This he declined, and in 1864 was appointed United
States Minister to Sweden and Norway. Under this
appointment he resided three years at Stockholm, ac
quired the language, and much knowledge concerning
the laws, customs, and commerce of the countries, and
travelled up the coast of Norway to Hammerfest, where
he saw that striking spectacle, the midnight sun.
In 1867 he was offered the mission to Colombia, South
America, but declined, and in the autumn of that year
took up his residence in Philadelphia, in which city he
has since resided, engaged in the practice of his profes
sion. In 1843 he was married to Miss Julia Lewis, a
daughter of Chief-Justice Ellis Lewis, and a lady of rare
intellectual qualities. Mr. Campbell has always been a
strong advocate of the protection of American industries,
and by his brilliant power of oratory has rendered much
service to his party.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JOHN P. GREEN.
Captain John Pugh Green was born in Philadelphia,
July 31, 1839. He was educated at the High School,
passing through all the grades and graduating with
credit. During his course of study at the High School
he applied himself to the study of short-hand writing at
a time when stenography was in its infancy. Foreseeing
the future importance of the art, he bent every energy
to perfecting himself in it, and left his class a thorough
stenographer. To this accomplishment he attributes
much of his early success in life. Upon leaving school,
he commenced the study of the law, and in due time
secured admission to the Philadelphia bar, where he had
won considerable prominence when the call to arms
startled the land in 1861.
At the breaking out of the war he entered the Union
army as a volunteer, and served until the end of the
Rebellion, returning with the title of captain and assist
ant adjutant-general of the staff of General Thomas L.
Kane, who commanded the famous brigade known as
the Pennsylvania Bucktails.
On January 10, 1865, Captain Green entered the ser
vice of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company as private

secretary to Thomas A. Scott, at that time first vice-
president of the company. From January 1, 1866, to
February 1, 1868, he was secretary and treasurer of the
Milwaukee and Minnesota Railway Company. He re
turned, however, to the service ofthe Pennsylvania Rail
road July 1, 1869, resuming his former position with Mr.
Scott, which he held till 1874, when, by appointment of
the board of directors, he was promoted to the position
of assistant to the president. After holding this re
sponsible position for eight years he was, on the ist of
October, 1882, made fourth vice-president ofthe Penn
sylvania Railroad, on June 1, 1886, was promoted to
third vice-president, and on March 1, 1893, he received
a further promotion to the office of second vice-president,
which position he now holds. Under the organization
of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the second vice-
president has general charge of the accounting depart
ment, and also exercises a special supervision over the
lines owned or controlled by the Pennsylvania Company
west of Pittsburg.
Captain Green's career thoroughly illustrates the pos
sibilities open to all young men who are not afraid of
energetic work. He is a hard worker in all that the
term implies, and is what is in every sense a self-made
man, having had to rely entirely upon his own ability for
the prominent place he now holds in the service of the
greatest railroad corporation in the world.
With all his incessant labor, however, the captain
finds time to enjoy life. He believes in keeping up the
physical system to as high a standard as the mental,
and consequently devotes much of his leisure time to the
game of cricket. There is no greater enthusiast for the
healthy sport to be found in Philadelphia. He is captain
of the famous Belmont Cricket Club, regarding the
success of which it is not necesary to enter into de
tail here. Captain Green is usually found playing in
the veteran eleven against Germantown, or other lead
ing club, and frequently manages to capture double
figures. In truth, he works to win, in amusement as
well as in more serious duties, and usually attains the
success which ability, energy, and ambition are sure to
command.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

COLONEL CHAPMAN BIDDLE.
Chapman Biddle, distinguished alike as a lawyer and
a soldier, was born in Philadelphia, January 22, 1822.
He was descended from a family long prominent in the
history of the city, John Biddle having come from the
family seat in New Jersey to Philadelphia in 1730. Of
his sons, Owen was a prominent patriot in Revolutionary
times and Clement an active officer in the war. A son of
the latter, Clement Cornell, was the organizer and first cap
tain of the State Fencibles of Philadelphia, and was colonel
of the First Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers in
the War of 1812. Chapman Biddle, the subject of our
present sketch, was his son. He received a collegiate
education at St. Mary's College, Baltimore, and after his
graduation travelled in South America. On his return
to Philadelphia he entered upon the study of law, and
was admitted to the bar in 1848.
Mr. Biddle had inherited from his father decided mili
tary tastes, and early associated himself with military
organizations. During the serious Native American riots
in Philadelphia in 1844, he served as orderly sergeant in
a volunteer company largely composed of his personal
friends. In 1849, when the city was again the scene of
riotous proceedings, Mr. Biddle aided to reorganize the
old company, which had been disbanded, and acted as
its captain. In April, 1861, a few days after the firing on
Fort Sumter, he, with some other members of his former
company, organized a company of artillery, which con
tained nearly all the members of the old Company I.
Mr. Biddle was named captain by acclamation. It was
attached to the first regiment of artillery and desig
nated as Company A.
The company was organized for home protection, but
in August, 1 862, after the disastrous ending of the Virginia
campaigns of that year, Mr. Biddle set about the raising
of a regiment of infantry, with the aid of his cousin,
Colonel Alexander Biddle. This regiment was mustered
into the service as the One Hundred and Twenty-first
Pennsylvania Volunteers, with Chapman Biddle as colonel
and Alexander Biddle as major. It left Philadelphia,
September 5, more than eight hundred strong, and
went into camp at Washington. Here the steady disci
pline maintained and the untiring energy displayed by
its colonel raised it to great efficiency. It was attached
to the First Army Corps, and did excellent duty at the
battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettys
burg. In the first-named conflict it had the post of
honor on the extreme left, and suffered severely.
At Gettysburg, Colonel Biddle was given the command
of a brigadier-general, having under him four regiments
and a battery of four guns. On the first day's fight this
brigade occupied the left wing of the Union line, the One
Hundred and Twenty-first Pennsylvania forming the
extreme left. It was overlapped by the enemy, and

exposed to an oblique as well as a front fire, so that it
suffered terribly, only one-third of the brigade being left
at night. Colonel Biddle was wounded in the head, but
not seriously. His horse was shot under him. In the
second and third days' fight the brigade formed part of
the supporting force, and suffered but little. He remained
with the army till the following winter, when important
private considerations and the weak state of his health
compelled him to resign, and he was honorably dis
charged from the service, December 10, 1863. As a
soldier, Colonel Biddle had exceptional ability, and " it
was not found in any command that was given him,
whether in the command of a regiment or of a brigade
in battle, that he was not perfectly the master of the
situation and of the handling of the force that was
intrusted to him."
After leaving the army he applied himself closely to
the practice of his profession. In 1871 he was appointed
solicitor of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and in
1877 became the general counsel of that corporation.
In 1879 he resigned these positions, his resignation taking
effect January 1, 1880. For many years his practice was
principally that of a consulting counsel, but in later life
his practice called him into the courts, where he showed
fine ability in the management of cases. While not an
orator, he was always fluent, and had a strong influence
upon court and jury. On the occasion of the presenta
tion to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania of a paint
ing of General Reynolds, Colonel Biddle delivered an
address on " The First Day of the Battle of Gettysburg,"
which was subsequently printed by the Society. He
was prominently connected with the Fairmount Park Art
Association, being chairman of the committee on works
of art, and active in the labor of embellishing the Park
with statuary and fountains. He died December 9, 1880.

6o

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

COLLIS P. HUNTINGTON.
Collis P. Huntington, one of the most prominent of
Americans in railroad interests and Wall Street finances,
was born at Harwinton, Connecticut, October 22, 1821.
His active business life began at the age of fourteen, the
following ten years being spent by him in journeys and
business enterprises in the South and West. Engaging
in mercantile business with his brother, they shipped in
1848 a cargo of goods to California. Mr. Huntington
quickly followed this consignment, spent some months
in business on the Isthmus, and then sought California,
where he engaged in business at Sacramento. Here he
became associated with Mark Hopkins, and in i860
devised a scheme of a trans-continental railroad. In
this five men were associated, Mr. Stanford as president,
he as vice-president, and Mr. Hopkins as treasurer.
The scheme was brought to the attention of Congress,
and an act was passed in 1862 authorizing and voting
aid to such an enterprise. The Central Pacific Company
was organized in 1864, with an official staff as above
stated. The raising of capital for the construction of
the road during the war period was no easy task, and
the engineering difficulties to be overcome were many
and great. These difficulties were successfully met,
however, and since that time Mr. Huntington has been
the general manager and financial spirit of the road, and
during its controversy regarding the debt due the gov
ernment has shown a commendable spirit of fairness and
care for the interests of the stockholders.
His interest in the Central Pacific, however, has long
since been overshadowed by greater ventures, of more
recent origin. The building of the Southern Pacific
from San Francisco to New Orleans, and, in particular,

his notable construction race with the Texas Pacific,
with Tom Scott as his able competitor, are matters of
railroad history which we need but mention. In this
interesting contest were displayed a fertility of resource
and a promptness and decisiveness of action which only
men of remarkable powers could have shown, and which
constitute part of the romance of the history of railroad
construction. Since that period there has been a vast consolidation
of the interests of trans-Mississippian railroads, including
the Central Pacific, the various systems which traverse
Arizona, Southern California, New Mexico, Texas, and
Louisiana, the San Francisco and Portland Line, and
the Morgan Steamship Line from New Orleans to New
York, the whole great organization being known as the
Southern Pacific Company, and operating in all over
eight thousand miles of trackage and various steam
ship lines. This organization was the direct outcome of
Mr. Huntington's financial policy, emanating from Wall
Street as its centre of action, and with him as its moving
and guiding spirit. The association also controls rail
roads in Mexico and Guatemala.
In addition to these complex interests, Mr. Huntington
has had, as an individual, much to do with Eastern roads.
At one time he controlled the Chesapeake and Ohio
Railroad, the Kentucky Central, the Louisville, New
Orleans and Texas from Memphis to New Orleans, and
the Newport News and Mississippi Valley Company,
this last including a number of Southern lines. His
interests here, in connection with the Southern Pacific
system, gave him the control of an unbroken line of
rail communication from Portland, Oregon, to the At
lantic seaboard at Hampton Roads, Virginia. He is,
furthermore, a large owner in the Pacific Mail and the
Old Dominion Steamship Lines, is a director of the
Western Union Telegraph Company, and is financially
interested in many other important companies. The
Old Dominion Land Company, organized by him, bought
land and started a city at Newport News, Virginia, event
ually developing into an industrial and manufacturing
centre, which has made this city a seaport of prominent
importance. His latest striking achievement is the great
ship-yard which he has built up at Newport News, an
industrial enterprise which employs nearly two thousand
men, and is turning out merchant steamships of large
tonnage and unusual speed.
Mr. Huntington is not alone a business man, he is a
philanthropist as well. The results of his benevolence
are seen in the celebrated Indian and Negro Industrial
School at Hampton, Virginia, and the Library and Read-
ing-Room in his own town of Westchester, New York,
which he has recently organized and endowed with one
hundred thousand dollars.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

61

LLOYD BRYCE.
Lloyd Bryce, author and publisher, was born at
Flushing, Long Island, September 20, 185 1, the son of
Major J. Smith Bryce, of Georgetown, District of Co
lumbia, in which city the youthful days of Mr. Bryce
were passed, many of them during the stirring scenes of
the Civil War, when Washington was the central point in
the struggle for the Union. His first school experience
was attained in the Jesuit College at Georgetown, but
after the war he became one of the most promising
pupils of the late Professor Anthon, in New York. In
1867 he made a journey to Europe under the care of a
tutor, and while there visited the principal art galleries
and copied several famous pictures, — he having previ
ously had instruction in art.
He entered Christ Church College, Oxford, in 1869,
and graduated there with a B.A. and later with an M.A.,
degree. On his return to New York he engaged in the
study of law at the Law School of Columbia College,
and in due time graduated, though he did not afterwards
follow^ the profession of the law.
When the celebrated Charnay expedition to Central
America was organized he was invited to accompany it
as reporter, but he did not see his way clear to accept.
He had, nevertheless, always taken a strong interest in
the exploration of this region, being a nephew, on his
mother's side, of John L. Stevens, the first and most
renowned explorer of the ruined cities of Yucatan.
Mr. Bryce early entered upon political life, as a mem
ber of the Democratic party, and took so active a part
that on the election of Governor Hill he was appointed
paymaster-general of New York, a position which he
filled with great credit. In 1886 he was nominated for
Congress from the Seventh Congressional District of
New York City, and was elected a member of the Fif
tieth Congress. During his term of service he worked
earnestly for the interests of the metropolis, and par
ticularly sought to place the harbor of the city under
the jurisdiction of the government, for the purpose of
checking the deposition of refuse in the waters of the
harbor and the needless anchorage of craft in the direct
path of navigation. His untiring work in this direction
won him warm praise from his fellow-Congressmen.
While thus engaged in various public duties, General
Biyce occupied his leisure in authorship, both in essay-
and novel-writing. He wrote papers on a number of
interesting subjects for the leading magazines, and pub
lished several novels, including " Paradise," " The Ro
mance of an Alter Ego," and " A Dream of Conquest."
The latter was an imaginary conception of an invasion
of America by the Chinese. It was published in Lippin

cott's Magazine, and attracted much attention by the
cleverness of its plot and the admirable powers of de
scription it displayed. "An Alter Ego" is a story based
on hypnotism. It indicates a careful study ofthe subject,
and was very well received.
In May, 1889, Mr. Bryce made a journey to Europe,
but immediately after reaching there was startled by
the news ofthe sudden death of his life-long friend, Allen
Thorndike Rice, the editor and proprietor of the North
American Review, and the recently appointed minister
to Russia. Mr. Rice had intended to accompany his
friend, but had been prevented by a seemingly slight
indisposition, which had had*this fatal result.
It proved, on reading the will of Mr. Rice, that he
had bequeathed the controlling interest in the Review to
General Bryce, who, in consequence, immediately re
turned to New York, purchased the remaining interest
from the heirs, and assumed the control of that old and
recently popular magazine. The North American Re
view, after years of feeble support, had been brought into
high popular favor by Mr. Rice, who devoted it to the
consideration of the timely topics of the day. Its new
editor has pursued the same course, and in his hands
the Rcviezv has grown in favor and usefulness, until it is
now the acknowledged medium through which current
history, science, philanthropy, and all topics of public
interest are brought to the notice of an appreciative
public. Mr. Bryce is gifted with excellent business
judgment and literary taste, and makes a capital editor.
Personally he is of agreeable manners, kindly dis
position, considerate feeling, and has won hosts of
friends.

62

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

AARON D. FARMER.
Aaron Dwight Farmer, the well-known type-founder,
was born in Bolton, Tolland County, Connecticut, Janu
ary 16, 1811. He received such education as was to be
obtained at that period in the common schools of his
native place, and came to New York at the age of four
teen, where he fortunately obtained an apprenticeship in
the type-foundry of Elihu White, established in 18 10 at
the corner of Lombard and Thames Streets, after having
been carried on for six years in Hartford, Connecticut.
The young apprentice proved very industrious and
efficient, and was promoted by his employer until he
finally became manager of the manufacturing depart
ment of the business, a responsible position for which
his thorough acquaintance with all the details of the
business well adapted him.
At a later date the firm assumed the name of Charles
T. White & Co., being reorganized with new members,
and in 1857 it was again reorganized under the busi
ness title of Farmer, Little & Co., the boy who in
1830 had entered the establishment as an apprentice
being now the acknowledged head of the establishment.
This advancement was the first reward of ability, devo
tion to the interests of the firm, and business qualities
which raised him step by step from the post of master-
workman and manager to a membership in the firm, and
finally to the first position in the then important manu
factory. The business of the firm had now become large and
lucrative, the factory employing from two to three hun
dred men, while its output was not surpassed by that of
any similar concern in this country, in every portion of
which its products were in use by the printing fraternity.

Mr. Farmer's close surveillance over the work of the
factory was not relaxed by his membership in the firm.
From the day he became manager and throughout the
remainder of his career he continued to give special
attention to the manufacturing department of the busi
ness, devising, as time went on, many important mechani
cal methods for the improvement of the product. For
more than fifty years he labored with the close attention
that might have been expected of an employe, but is
rarely given by an employer, there being no part of the
work which he could not himself perform better than the
most skilful of his workmen. They looked upon him as
in the truest sense a master-workman, and respected him
accordingly, while in return he treated them as equals.
This is the true relation which should exist between
owners and employees, and the one best calculated to
produce that perfection of work and harmony in relations
to which success is often due. During his whole career
Mr. Farmer never had a strike in his factory, nor even
a serious misunderstanding with his men, and there have
been few more harmonious establishments than that
under his care.
All the varieties of type in use and the necessary tools
for their manufacture were produced under his special
superintendence and many of them by his personal
ingenuity, including the many forms of plain and orna
mental type, borders, ornaments, etc., type-casting ma
chines, steel punches, matrices, and other essentials of
the art, in all of which his skill and intelligence resulted
in essential improvements and steps of progress. As a
result, he in time became known as one of the leading
type manufacturers, not only in this country, but in the
world, and the produce of his establishment became
favorably known in every field of typographical labor.
Politically Mr. Farmer was an earnest Republican, to
which party he stanchly adhered from its formation at
the date of the nomination of Fremont, in 1856, to the
time of his death. He was never, however, an active
politician, the demands of his business absorbing his
energies. He was married to Sarah Burns, of New
York, and had a family of two daughters and one son,
the latter becoming a member of the firm, and now
being the successor of his father in the business. In
May, 1892, the firm name was changed to its present
title of the A. D. Farmer & Son Type Company.
Early in the year 1895, Mr. Farmer died, having at
tained the ripe age of eighty-four, and gained a reputation
for business integrity, honor in his dealings, and a high
standard of business ethics that made his loss deeply
felt by those who knew him, and mourned by numbers
to whom by substantial acts of generosity he had proved
himself a true and helpful friend.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

^3

WILLIAM W. FARMER.
William Wallace Farmer, the present representa
tive of the well-known old New York type-foundry of
A. D. Farmer & Son, the opponent and successful rival
of the American Type-Founding Trust, was born in
Brooklyn, January 12, 185 1. His father, who designed
to bring him up to his own business, entered him as a
student in the Polytechnic Institute, from which he grad
uated in 1865 with a thorough training in the foundation
principles of a manufacturing career. Like his father,
he began his special training in business early in life,
entering the office of the firm soon after graduating and
serving a term of eleven years' apprenticeship, during
which he became proficient in every branch of the busi
ness and well calculated to succeed his father in the
careful management which had brought the concern up
to its high type of efficiency and given it its wide-spread
reputation. Mr. Farmer may be said to have learned the art of
type-founding at the bench, and with a completeness
which rivalled that of his father, and gained him the same
measure of respect from the employees of the firm. The
hundreds of workmen who are employed in this old and
thriving establishment look up to him as a master in his
art, and yield him that respectful obedience which skilled
workmen never pay to inefficiency or falsely-assumed
ability. As the present managing and controlling spirit
of the concern, Mr. Farmer is abundantly calculated to
keep it up to the high standard long since set and main
tained for it.
In 1 88 1 he was admitted to the firm as junior partner,
and is now, since the death of his father, the head of the
establishment, which in his hands is conducted in much
of the stable old fashion, though with that regard to
modern methods which are now necessary to business
success. For a considerable number of years the ad
vanced age of his father had thrown the care ofthe busi
ness largely into his hands. He proved fully capable of
sustaining its responsibilities. Without departing in any
sense from the strict old-school principles of commercial
honor in maintaining perfection of product, he has availed
himself to the fullest extent of the advantages offered
by new methods and processes of manufacture, and has
increased the capacity of the factories to adapt them to
the steadily growing demand, alike from home and for
eign markets. He brings to the conduct of one of our
largest manufacturing industries all the sturdy healthful-

ness and physical and mental robustness of constitution,
associated with industry and sincerity, which are such
essential elements of success. These traits of character
permeate the establishment and inspire the workmen with
the spirit which should rule in every well-managed estab
lishment. Without friction, but with the inspiration that
comes from contact with youth and ambition, the manu
factory in question goes steadily on in its successful career.
Such qualities as those possessed by William W.
Farmer are the ones the manufacturers of this country
need for example and guidance. Clear-headed business
acumen, incorruptible character, honor in dealings, and
dissatisfaction with any but the best results are the in
heritance which the present head of the firm has received
from his father, and which cannot fail to keep the house
up fully to its old high place in the commercial world.
Mr. Farmer married young, his first wife being Miss
Annie Jones, of Brooklyn, to whom he was wedded in
1868. They had one child, a son, but the mother and
boy both died. He married again in 1888, his second
wife being Miss Mary Knowles, daughter of E. M.
Knowles, a well-known Wall Street banker. His son
by this wife also died young.
Mr. Farmer is a favorite in society, and belongs to a
number of social institutions. These include the Lotos,
Colonial, New York Athletic, and Riverside Yacht Clubs.
He is also a director in the Fulton Club, and a member
of the Board of Trade. He resides at No. 106 West
Seventy-eighth Street, New York City.

64

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

COLONEL DANIEL APPLETON.
Daniel Appleton, well known in military circles as
the colonel of the famous Seventh Regiment, of the New
York State National Guard, and in business circles from
his prominent connection with the publishing trade, was
born in the city of New York, February 24, 1852, his
father being John A. Appleton, his grandfather Daniel
Appleton, founder of the publishing house of D. Apple-
ton & Co. The family has been one of long continuance
in this country, and had its share in making American
history for a hundred years before the Revolution. Its
military tendencies are shown in the fact that three of
Colonel Appleton's great-grandfathers fought in the
Revolutionary War, and two of his grandfathers held
commissions in the War of 181 2.
It was proposed by his parents that he should take a
college course in Harvard College, preparatory to which
he spent part of the years 1866 and 1867 studying in
Germany. On his return home he resumed his residence
in New York, where he continued his studies preparatory
to passing a college examination. He was but a young
boy during the Civil War, or doubtless his military pro
clivity would have led him into that conflict, for in 1867,
when only fifteen years of age, he entered the famous
Boston Cadet Corps, with which he gained his first ex
perience of military life. For the five succeeding sum
mers he went into camp with that organization, gaining
in this active duty some knowledge of the duties and
privations of a military career. During this period he
was occupied in study at Harvard, where, however, he
was not able to graduate, the demands of the publish
ing house requiring his presence in 1871, and inducing
him to give up college for business. Since that date
he has continued one of the most active members of the
firm.

His connection with the Cadet Corps had given him
what he thought was enough of soldiering, but events
quickly proved the contrary. The inciting cause which
brought him back into the ranks was the Orange riot of
July 12, 1871. "If respectable men cannot parade in
peace under the law," he said, " it is time for Americans
to do something," and that he might be ready to do his
part he enlisted on October 31, 1 871, as a private in " F"
Company, Seventh Regiment, of which company he has
remained a member ever since.
Step by step he advanced in rank in the regiment.
On the 8th of April, 1873, he received his first grade of
promotion, being made corporal, and on the 7th of
November of the same year was raised to the grade of
sergeant. He gained the promotion to first sergeant on
March 9, 1875, and as such he paraded with the regi
ment in Boston on Bunker-Hill Day. His next step of
promotion came on May 23, 1876, when he was made
second lieutenant. With this rank he accompanied the
regiment to Philadelphia during the Centennial Exposi
tion of that year, and encamped with it in tents in which
at times the thermometer recorded one hundred and ten
degrees. It was a service in which there may perhaps
have been glory, but certainly there was no comfort or
enjoyment. At a later date, during the railroad riots of
1877, he helped garrison the old armory over Tomkin's
Market until the exigency had passed. He was promoted
captain on the 13th of January, 1879.
At that time " F" Company had about thirty-five men
in its ranks. Under Captain Appleton it grew rapidly
in numbers and within a year had one hundred and three,
the number allowed by law, with others anxious for ad
mittance. Since that time there has always been a wait
ing list. On July 19, 1889, Captain Appleton received
another and flattering promotion, being elected to succeed
Emmons Clark as colonel of the regiment, a position
which he still retains. As officer in command of the
Seventh, Colonel Appleton has won general respect and
esteem, and during the recent strike of street-car opera
tives in Brooklyn his service, with that of his splendid
regiment, has deepened the feelings of respect and esteem
with which he and his command are regarded by all
law-abiding citizens.
In the publishing house of D. Appleton & Co., Col
onel Appleton has made himself practically familiar with
and has been in charge, at intervals, of all branches,
and is at present essentially at the head of its business
department. He is unmarried, and is a member of a
number of the leading clubs of New York, — including
the Century, the Union, and the New York Athletic, —
but does not consider himself a club-man, his duties
with his company and regiment occupying the most of
his leisure, to the exclusion of much devotion to club
life.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

65

EDWARD TRENCHARD.
Edward Trenchard was born in the city of Philadel
phia on August 17, 1850, and is the only child of Stephen
Decatur Trenchard and Ann O'C. Barclay Trenchard,
and grandson of Captain Edward Trenchard of the
United States navy. He was educated at one of the
leading private schools of Philadelphia, and at an early
age evinced a decided talent for the fine arts, an ability
which he seems to have inherited from his grandfather,
above named. That officer studied painting and engrav
ing under Gilbert Fox, a well-known English artist
(whom he had induced to come to this country), and also
under his uncle, James Trenchard, who was noted as an
engraver, and was the publisher of the Columbian Maga
zine. On reaching his eighteenth year of age, Mr. Trenchard
began his special studies in the office of the celebrated
architect Richardson, then in New York City. After a
period devoted to the study of this branch of art, he
gave up the pursuit of architecture in favor of painting,
entering the School of Design, and subsequently taking
lessons in the Art Students' League. This period of
study was followed by a visit to Europe, mainly with the
purpose of obtaining the advantages of art study offered
by that country. All the important art galleries of
Europe were visited by him, and their artistic treasures
closely studied, and the same was the case with the art
galleries of the Paris Exposition of that date, to whose
display he gave special attention.
On his return to America, with powers ripened by his
observations abroad, Mr. Trenchard devoted himself
specially to the study of painting, under the direction of
Professor Holmes, of Philadelphia, Miss Fidelia Bridges,
Peter Moran, and Henry C. Bispham. This period of
study was followed by a trip to the West Indies, he
having accepted the position of admiral's clerk on the
North Atlantic Squadron. Here he was enabled to apply
his long-continued studies in one of the richest fields of
natural scenery, and he brought back with him many
tropical studies, which he has since reproduced on canvas.
From this time forward Mr. Trenchard worked dili
gently with his brush in that field of art to which talent
and inclination drew him, — the delineation of natural
scenery. His works have been frequently exhibited in
the art galleries of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and
in various Western art exhibitions, and include among
their best-known examples " The Passing Shower,"

" The Old Wreck," " Sea Sand and Solitude," all exhibited
at the Academy of Design, New York ; and " Sunset on
the Strand," " Moose Peak Island, Maine," " The Break
ing Waves dashed High," " A Tropic Beach," " Surf,"
and " Castle Rock, Marblehead," exhibited in the gallery
of the Society for the Promotion of Art and in the art
departments of various exhibitions.
In regard to the character of Mr. Trenchard's work a
critic has said, " The artist seems to prefer nature in her
quieter color aspects, and is most successful in his paint
ing of waves and surf."
He has not exhibited any pictures recently, although
constantly engaged in painting from nature. Much of
his time during recent years has been given to literary
research in the records ofthe Colonial and Revolutionary
periods, on which he is considered an authority.
Mr. Trenchard was married June 11, 1878, to Mary
Cornelia Stafford, daughter of William Bacon Stafford,
president of the North River Savings-Bank. He was
one of the founders of the Society of Colonial Wars, in
which he has held various official positions. He is
assistant secretary of the Sons of the Revolution, vice-
president of the General Society of 18 12, member ofthe
Council of the Pennsylvanian Commandery of the Naval
Order, hereditary member of the Aztec Society and the
Loyal Legion, and member of various other societies,
military, art, and historical. For services rendered the
Venezuelan government he received the Order of Bolivar
(third class) from that government.

66

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

CHARLES E. CADWALADER.
Charles E. Cadwalader was born in Philadelphia,
November 5, 1839. He graduated at the University of
Pennsylvania, in the Department of Arts, in 1858, and
in that of Medicine in 1861.
The Civil War breaking out a few weeks after his grad
uation, moved with the patriotic spirit of the time, a
promised appointment as physician in one of the princi
pal hospitals of the city was set aside, and he at once
enlisted in the First City Troop of Philadelphia, a time-
honored corps of Revolutionary origin, serving with it in
connection with the Fifth Regular Cavalry, under Colonel
George H. Thomas, in the campaign of the Shenandoah
of that year. Upon the expiration of this term of ser
vice he was offered a position in the military family of
General Meade, but, preferring the cavalry service, he ac
cepted a first lieutenancy in the Sixth Pennsylvania Cav
alry. Upon the occasion of the removal of the army to
the Peninsula, the captain of his company being detained
through ill health, the command devolved on Lieutenant
Cadwalader, who was shortly promoted several files to a
captaincy of one of the companies. At Antietam, where
his regiment was one of the brigade in the charge result
ing in the capture of the central bridge over the Antietam,
he received a slight wound, which, however, did not
incapacitate him for duty. In Stuart's raid into Penn
sylvania, in the fall of 1862, Colonel Cadwalader was the
first to encounter his column and give intelligence of its
arrival at Woodsborough, near Frederick, Maryland, on
its retreat to the Potomac.
He entered the town alone, and, passing himself off
as one of Stuart's staff, had the address to obtain positive
information of the presence of Stuart's whole corps and
the direction of their march. He served with his regi
ment until appointed by General Hooker one of his
aides-de-camp when assigned to the command of the

army in 1863. He continued thereafter to serve with the
general staff of the army, General Meade having also
appointed him one of his aids on succeeding Hooker in
the command. General Hooker, in recommending him
for a brevet-major, speaks of him as " especially dis
tinguished for his gallantry and meritorious services in
the battle of Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863, and in the
cavalry fight at Brandy Station, June 9, 1863," adding
that " he served with marked zeal and devotion." Gen
eral Meade, in the recommendation for his second brevet
as lieutenant-colonel, says, " I cannot speak too strongly
of the activity, zeal, and energy displayed by Captain
Cadwalader during his services under me, which em
braced the battles of Gettysburg, Wilderness, Spottsyl-
vania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, and operations around
Petersburg," and recommends that he be brevetted lieu
tenant-colonel " for distinguished gallantry and good
conduct at the battle of Gettysburg and in subsequent
operations, including the campaign from the Rapidan to
the James, in 1864, and the siege of Petersburg."
Colonel Cadwalader comes of a family distinguished
in the military annals of the country. His father, John
Cadwalader, an eminent jurist and judge of the United
States District Court, was captain of a company formed
at the time of the native American riots of 1844. The
latter's brother, George Cadwalader, gained much dis
tinction as brigadier in command of the troops engaged
in quelling the riots, as a brigadier in the regular army
in the Mexican War, and as major-general of volunteers
in the Civil War. Colonel Cadwalader's grandfather,
Thomas Cadwalader, was a general officer in command
ofthe "advanced Light Brigade" in the War of 1812,
and for many years major-general of Pennsylvania Mi
litia. The latter's father, John Cadwalader, was of Rev
olutionary fame as a general officer, and one of Wash
ington's most trusted friends and military advisers.
Colonel Lambert Cadwalader, of the Continental army,
was a brother of the latter. Dr. Thomas Cadwalader,
father of General John Cadwalader, was chairman of the
Board of War known as the " Provincial Commissioners"
in the French and Indian War (1754-63), as well as a
member of the Governor's Council. Though advanced
in years, he took a leading part in the Revolutionary
struggle ; was chairman of the great tea-meeting held
at Philadelphia in 1773, and rendered valuable services
in the medical department. Colonel Clement Biddle,
also of Revolutionary renown, was a great-grandfather
of Colonel Cadwalader.
After the close of the Civil War, Colonel Cadwalader
received the appointment as clerk in charge of the Bank
ruptcy Department of the United States District Court,
which he held for a number of years. In 1872 he re
sumed the profession of medicine, in which he is still
engaged.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

67

GEORGE P. ROWELL.
It is probably true that during the past twenty-five years
no name has been more familiar to the general reader
or business man than that of Mr. George P. Rowell,
whose extended connection with the newspaper world
and the advertising trade has brought him into very wide
prominence. He was born at Concord, Vermont, July
4, 1838, but until the age of seventeen resided in Lan
caster, New Hampshire, securing, meantime, the practical
and valuable education for future life which a boy of am
bition could then well obtain in New England upon a
moderate expenditure of money, and graduating from the
Lancaster Academy with the highest honors of his class.
His first business venture was in a Boston retail store,
his next in the publication office of a Boston daily news
paper, the Post, where his duties appear to have been of
a congenial character, enabling him to supplement infor
mation already gained with a pretty thorough idea of the
right way to do business and to lay a good foundation
for his own future and successful active life. It was the
experience gained during his connection with this journal
that led him into his future field of business, that of
general advertising agent and publisher of the newspaper
statistics of the country.
Early in 1865, without capital, but thoroughly equipped
with energy, judgment, and a determination to succeed,
he established the firm of George P. Rowell & Co., at No.
23 Congress Street, Boston, for the purpose of engaging
in the business above mentioned, that of conducting an
advertising agency. Before the end of the second year,
having been encouragingly successful in his Boston
venture, Mr. Rowell decided to remove to New York,
and the change was made with good results. From the
outset his business prospered, and soon from his house
was sent out a larger amount of business to the publishers
of newspapers than emanated from any other in America,
and his establishment became known as the leading
advertising agency in the country.
In 1869, Mr. Rowell issued the first copy of the Ameri
can Newspaper Directory, a publication remarkable for
its completeness of information concerning the newspaper
world. It has appeared with regularity each year since,
and is the standard authority upon the newspapers and
periodicals of the United States in detail, but more
especially regarding their circulation, — the most vexed
question connected with journalism, and the one most im
portant in the estimation of advertisers. This book has a
reputation for honesty and fairness in dealing with statis
tics of a kind obtainable only with the greatest difficulty
and labor that is probably unapproached in any similar

compilation, and that has given it its well-earned position
as the leading publication of its kind in this country.
In 1888, Mr. Rowell commenced the publication of
Printers' Ink, — a journal for advertisers, which at once
became a great favorite with the advertising public, and
is now pretty generally known as " The Little School
master in the Art of Advertising." Its circulation is
national, and a branch office has been established in
London. In 1892, actuated largely by a desire to give
promotion and position to some of the more deserving
younger men in his employ, he severed his active con
nection with the advertising agency, of which a stock
company was formed, the stock being purchased largely
by the present managers and former employees of the
firm. The American Newspaper Directory and Printers'
Ink are still owned by Mr. Rowell, and to these he gives
much of his time.
It goes without further remark, from what has already
been said, that Mr. Rowell is a good business man.
Socially he has many friends of whom he is fond, and
to whom he is true. Those who have known him long
and know him best are the ones who can ever be relied
upon as the most faithful, and among these his word
alone is sufficient for the doing of an act or the under
taking of an enterprise, the doing or undertaking of
which for a majority of men would first require to be
prefaced by a bond or additional assurance. Mr. Rowell
is a member of the Union League and Grolier Clubs and
the New England Society, and is president of the Percy
Summer Club of New Hampshire. At Lancaster in that
State he has the most delightful farm-house home to be
found in all New England.

68

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

MORTON McMICHAEL.
The noted Philadelphia journalist of whom we have
now to speak was born in Burlington, New Jersey, Oc
tober 2, 1807, and received there his early education.
Passing thence to the University of Pennsylvania, he
made law his chief study, and was admitted to the Phila
delphia bar in 1827. In the year previous to this, how
ever, he had found his true vocation, the work to which
he was best adapted by nature, becoming editor of the
Saturday Evening Post. In 183 1 he became editor-in-
chief of the Saturday Courier, retaining this post till
1836, in which year he, in association with others, began
the publication of the Saturday News. In 1844, in asso
ciation with Joseph C. Neal, the well-known humorist,
he began editorial work on the Saturday Gazette, and in
1847 acquired part ownership of the North American,
the paper with which his name was thenceforth to be
associated. This journal had, that year, consolidated
with the United States Gazette, and was thereafter known
under the joint title oi North American and United States
Gazette. By 1854 he had gained sole ownership of this
paper, which continued under his fostering care till his
death. His prudent management and able editorship
brought it into prominence until it grew to be one of
the best-known and most influential journals of the
country. Mr. McMichael combined his business duties with

active labors in the service of the city. In his younger
days he served for several years as an alderman, from
1843 to 1846 was sheriff of the county, and for three
years, from 1866 to 1869, was mayor of the city. Phila
delphia, however, is most indebted to him in another
direction, as the leading spirit in the obtaining of her
magnificent park, the largest and most beautiful people's
pleasure-ground in the United States. On the organi
zation of the Park Commission, in 1867, Mr. McMichael
was chosen president of that body, and held this post till
his death in 1879. During this period the park grew,
under his intelligent direction, from a small expanse in
the vicinity of the Fairmount Water-Works into the great
space now embraced, miles in length and breadth, and
embracing within its confines not only many picturesque
hills and dells, but a section miles in length of a broad
river, and the charming valley of the Wissahickon, as
picturesque in its formation as a mountain ravine. The
eminent services of Mr. McMichael in this direction have
been fitly honored by a handsome bronze statue, erected
on one of the most prominent locations of the park. It
bears the inscription, " An honored and beloved citizen
of Philadelphia."
In 1873, Mr. McMichael served as delegate-at-large
in the fourth constitutional convention of Pennsylvania.
He was frequently requested to deliver public addresses
on great occasions, and was an orator of finished skill.
His ability in this direction is indicated in the words of
a critic of his speeches : " Prepared or unprepared, they
were always finished models." He died in Philadelphia,
January 6, 1879.
He left sons who fitly succeed him in ability and public
service. His third son, William, born in 1841, enlisted
as a private in the first troops raised for the suppression
of the Rebellion. He rapidly rose in station, being pro
moted to the rank of captain and aide-de-camp, then to
that of major, and afterwards to brevet colonel. He
served under Generals Grant, Rosecrans, and Thomas.
After the war he resumed his law studies, and held in
time various offices under the government, becoming
successively Solicitor of Internal Revenue, United States
Assistant Attorney-General, and United States District-
Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He
resigned the last named position in 1875 to enter into
private practice, and became a member of the New York
bar.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

CLAYTON McMICHAEL.
Clayton McMichael, son of the distinguished jour
nalist, Morton McMichael, was born in Philadelphia, June
30, 1844, and was educated at the best private schools the
city at that time afforded. At the time of the outbreak
of the Civil War, in the spring of 1861, he was not yet
seventeen years of age, but, filled with patriotic fervor,
he hastened to offer his services to the threatened gov
ernment, being among the first in his native city to enlist
as a volunteer in the armies of the Union. His youthful
devotion to his country, and the ability he displayed as
a soldier were speedily rewarded with an appointment to
the rank of second lieutenant in the regular army of
the United States, and on the 5th of August, 1861, he
was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant in the Ninth
United States Infantry. This progress in promotion was
extraordinary. Lieutenant McMichael was at that time
but one month more than seventeen years of age, and,
so far as is known, his rapid advancement was with
out precedent. It is believed that no other person has
ever been commissioned and promoted as an officer in
the regular army of the United States at so youthful
an age, and it is doubtful if the volunteer forces of the
war can furnish many parallel instances.
His advancement was merited. Lieutenant McMichael
was a brave man and a good soldier, and served with
honorable distinction from the beginning to the close of
the war. After a creditable career, first in commanding
troops protecting the overland emigrant route from
hostile Indians and afterwards on the frontier and else
where on the Pacific Coast, he was transferred to active
military duty in the East. His connection in the field
with the Army of the Potomac began after the decisive
battle of Gettysburg, he taking part in all the great battles
subsequently fought by that army, including the terrible
struggle of the Wilderness, the destructive combats of
Grant's overland march upon Richmond, and the contests
attending the siege of Petersburg. At the close of the war
he resigned from the army, and retired to private life and
to the pursuit of his father's profession in his native city.
The North American, of which his father had for
years been editor and proprietor, was at that time, and
still is, the oldest daily paper in America, and one of the
most respected and influential of Republican journals.
Colonel McMichael joined his father in its editorship,
and succeeded him as editor a few years before his

death, which took place January 6, 1879. ^n i8gi he
became its sole proprietor. Under his editorial charge
the North American retains its former standing as an
ably edited and highly influential exponent of Repub
lican principles, has gained a large circulation, and prom
ises long to maintain a standard suitable to its historical
position as the oldest daily paper in America. Its orig
inal issue as a daily paper, then known as the General
Advertiser, was on the 21st of September, 1784.
In 1873 Mr. McMichael was appointed by President
Grant one of the Commissioners to the International
Exposition at Vienna. The useful work done by that
Commission is indicated by the able report made by it
to the United States government on its return. In 1882
President Arthur appointed him to the post of United
States marshal of the District of Columbia. This office
he filled acceptably till the end of the administration,
sending in his resignation to the new government on
the 4th of March, 1885. It is complimentary to his
efficiency as a public officer that President Cleveland
declined to receive his resignation, and kept him in
office till December 2, 1885, when a successor was
appointed. Since that date Colonel McMichael has
devoted himself to his editorial duties, and has taken an
active part in all movements for the good of his party
and the advancement of the interests of the city of
Philadelphia.

70

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

CHARLES DAVID STEURER.
Charles David Steurer is a native of New York
City, where he was born October 18, 1859. In his earli
est years he manifested those characteristics which were
to influence and direct a successful business career, in
cluding enthusiastic persistency, moral courage in the
face of overwhelming difficulties, uprightness of life and
aims in social and business life, and a wonderful mastery
of detail. His education was secured at the public
schools, but the untimely death of his father limited his
educational opportunities, and, when not quite fifteen, he
was compelled to abandon his books. He was at that
time a member of the graduating class.
Mr. Steurer's first business experience was secured in a
printing-office in New York, where he received his earliest
acquaintance with newspaper work, and developed an am
bition to have, some day, a printing establishment of his
own. The publishing and printing facilities of that earlier
office were meagre in the extreme, compared with printing
establishments of the present time. An old Washington
hand-press typified the equipment of the little office.
With increasing knowledge of his chosen occupation,
the boy began to look forward to the larger opportunities
which it held out. Thus, one bright morning, accom
panied by another boy of his own age, and a few pennies
as capital between them, the lads directed their steps
towards " Newspaper Row," where, after some failures
and rebuffs, a place was found with the printing-house of
Wynkoop & Hallenbeck, at that time situated in Fulton
Street, near Nassau. Here he completed his apprentice
ship, his industry and faithfulness winning him the con
fidence and esteem of his employers. Appreciation of
his proficiency was soon exhibited in a practical way.
When the old comic paper Wild Oats purchased its own
plant, the proprietors induced Mr. Steurer to take a posi

tion in the new establishment. He did so, and gave such
satisfaction that, when but eighteen years of age, he was
advanced to the position of proof-reader. He remained
connected with this paper until it went out of existence.
It was not difficult, however, to find a new place, em
ployment soon being obtained in the well-known print
ing-house of John Polhemus, then located at Nassau and
Ann Streets, where he was engaged for several years,
expanding in knowledge and skill and gaining the respect
and confidence of his employer. When the publishers
of the old Tliomson's Bank-Note Reporter inquired of
Mr. Polhemus if he could recommend a capable and
faithful young man to take charge of their printing
department, the choice fell upon Mr. Steurer. In this
new field of duty he quickly developed an excellent
executive capacity, and in time won the unqualified
confidence of his employers. His presence as a prac
tical force was soon perceptible in the improved ap
pearance of the publications of the establishment, and
the introduction, at his instance, of new principles of
practical management. So successfully did he meet the
requirements of this position that he was finally placed
in sole charge of the printing department of the house,
and when, in 1884, the establishment was destroyed by
fire, he was intrusted with the responsibility of replacing
the material for the purpose of continuing business.
In the fall of 1885, Mr. Steurer, in association with Mr.
Anthony Stumpf, an old friend, purchased the enterprise
with which he was now fully identified, and the present
publishing house of Stumpf & Steurer was formed. The
titles of the older publications used by the predecessors
of the new firm were abandoned from considerations of
business policy, the directory of banks published by the
house being named the American Bank Reporter, and
the weekly financial journal the American Banker.
Mr. Steurer undertook the business management of
the new enterprise. In the multifarious details of office-
work and the management of a large and increasing
correspondence, his predominating quality, the complete
and easy mastery of detail, came into play. In 1887 the
firm purchased the plant of the Underwood Bank Re
porter, which was consolidated with the American Bank
Reporter ; and also Underwood's Counterfeit Reporter,
which is still published as a separate journal. Later,
The Financial Examiner, a weekly financial paper, was
absorbed, and also Bamberger's Legal Directory, pub
lished in Philadelphia, which was consolidated with the
American Bank Reporter. In 1892 the expanding enter
prise of the firm materialized in a new venture, The
American Lawyer, a monthly, which occupies a field
which had hitherto been neglected.
To conclude, he takes an active interest in municipal
matters, is a member of the Methodist Church, and takes
a particularly active interest in Sunday-school work.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

7i

RICHARD G. OELLERS.
Richard Gardiner Oellers was born in Philadelphia,
August 5, 1843. His father, James S. Oellers, was en
gaged in the grain business at Pine Street and Delaware
Avenue for many years, until his death in 1872. His
mother was the daughter of Dr. Richard Gardiner, who
was one of the most prominent homoeopathic physicians of
Philadelphia. They educated their son in private schools
of the city, his school life ending in 1858, when, at fifteen
years of age, he began his business experience in a whole
sale dry-goods house. With this establishment he re
mained connected till May, 1870, when, on the founding
by William J. Swain of the Public Record newspaper, he
accepted the position of business manager of the new
enterprise, and managed it with great efficiency during
Mr. Swain's period of ownership. At a subsequent date
the paper changed its name and proprietorship, being pur
chased by William M. Singerly, who altered its title to
The Philadelphia Record. Mr. Oellers continued to oc
cupy the position of business manager under the new
regime, and also became treasurer. His connection with
the Record still continues.
During this period he became officially connected with
the House of Correction, being elected a member of its
Board of Managers in June, 1875, to fill the unexpired
term of Samuel R. Leonard. He was re-elected at the
end of this term, and was re-elected for a third term, which
had not expired in 1887, when the Board was abolished
by the Bullitt bill going into effect. At a more recent
date, upon the formation of the Pennsylvania Nautical
School, for the education of young seamen, Mr. Oellers
was appointed by Mayor Fitler a member of its Board
of Directors, and was subsequently reappointed to this
position by Mayor Stuart, and still continues as a
Director. In 1891, when the office of City Treasurer became
vacant by the resignation of its then incumbent, the
County Commissioners elected Mr. Oellers to fill this
important municipal office, an election which was con
firmed by a similar action on the part of the City
Councils. A question arising, however, as to the power
of appointment in a case like this, it came before the
Supreme Court of the State for adjudication, the decision
rendered being that the appointing power was vested in
the governor and not in the City Councils. Governor
Pattison appointed a Democratic candidate for the posi
tion, and Mr. Oellers vacated the position, which for a
time he had very satisfactorily filled.
In 1894, Mr. Oellers received the regular Republican

nomination for City Treasurer, and at the election held
in November of that year was elected to the office,
receiving the largest majority ever received by any can
didate (having an opponent) for office in Philadelphia,
being eighty-six thousand three hundred and eighty-four.
Mr. Oellers entered upon his duties as City Treasurer
on the first Monday in January, 1895. The term for
which he was elected is three years, and he has now
entered on his second year. His previous experience in
large financial and business affairs enabled him to bring
about new methods in conducting the office, and in
creased revenue to the State has been the result of his
efforts. In former years Mr. Oellers took an active interest in
Freemasonry, and has occupied high stations in that im
portant Order. At present he is a Past Master of Crescent
Lodge, No. 493 ; Past High-Priest of Temple Chapter,
No. 248 ; and Past Eminent Commander of St. Alban
Commandery, No. 47, Knights Templar.
Mr. Oellers is a member of several social organizations,
prominent among which is the Columbia Club, at Broad
and Oxford Streets, which has over five hundred mem
bers, composed of leading citizens in the mercantile, pro
fessional, and financial world. Mr. Oellers has served as
second vice-president, also two years on its Board of
Governors. Mr. Oellers takes an active interest in the
affairs of Grace Baptist Church, at Broad and Berks
Streets, the largest church in the city, seating over three
thousand persons ; he is president of its Board of
Trustees.

72

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM McALEER.
William McAleer is of Irish origin, having been born
in County Tyrone, Ireland, January 6, 1838. He attended
school in that country from 1845 to 1851, after which
his parents emigrated to America, landing in Philadel
phia on May 2, 185 1. For two years afterwards young
McAleer attended school at Nicetown, in the northern
section of Philadelphia, but at the age of fifteen was
taken from school to work in a grocery store. He re
mained thus employed for four years, gaining a prac
tical knowledge of the business, which he then left to
join his father and brothers in the establishment of a pro
duce business on Second Street above Bainbridge Street.
The firm continued in this location till 1861, when it
removed to No. 618 South Second Street, where it con
fined its operations to the flour business, its trade be
coming the largest in that section of the city. The firm
is still known as John McAleer & Sons, and consists of
John McAleer, Jr., and William McAleer.
Very early in his business career, Mr. McAleer became
a member of the Southwark Literary Society, which met
in the hall of the Southwark Library Company, Second
Street below German Street, and afterwards in the Me
chanics' Institute building, Fifth Street below Washington
Avenue. At the beginning of the war this society was
in a flourishing condition, its list of members including
Henry R. Edmunds, its president ; Joel Cook and Frank
Sheppard, now of the Public Ledger ; Joseph Ashbrook,
now manager of one of the largest insurance companies
in the country; Jacob Teal, of the Erie Railroad, and
many others who have become prominent in business
pursuits. But the war broke up the society and scattered
its members, many of them enlisting, and some of them
doubtless dying on the battle-field.

Mr." McAleer was also a director of the Mechanics'
Institute, and was for many years vice-president and act
ing president of the St. Philip's Literary Institute. He
could not be made actual president, since the rules
require that this office shall be held by a clergyman.
He has also been president of the Hibernian Society,
and is one of its executive committee.
His political career began in October, 1870, when he
was elected a member of the City Council from the Fifth
Ward. He served a full term in Common Council, and
took an active part in its proceedings, but declined a
renomination. In June following the close of his term
in Council he was elected a member of the Board of
Guardians of the Poor, to which position he was re
elected for five consecutive terms, and in which he served
successively as vice-president and president of the Board.
In this important office he took an active interest, bring
ing about many desirable reforms and strongly opposing
improper legislation. The inmates of the Almshouse
felt a high respect and regard for him, knowing that he
was their true friend, and that they could always look to
him for justice and kind treatment.
Mr. McAleer has for many years been an active and
influential member of the Commercial Exchange, and
has been on its most important committees. He served
for a number of terms as a director of the Exchange,
was subsequently elected vice-president, and in 1880
became president of this association. In the same year
he became a director of the Chamber of Commerce of
Philadelphia. In 1886, Mr. McAleer received the Democratic nomi
nation to the Senate of Pennsylvania, and was elected for
a term of four years. In 1 889 he received the nomination
for president, pro tempore, by the Democratic members
of that body. At the end of his term as Senator he was
nominated to succeed Richard Vaux as United States
Representative for the district so long represented by the
late Samuel J. Randall, and was elected a member of the
Fifty-second Congress. In 1892 he was renominated as
an Independent Democrat, and was elected by a vote of
15,516 against 5500 for Mr. Kerr, regular Democratic
nominee. He is a member of the Democratic National
Executive Committee and also of the Campaign Com
mittee. Mr. McAleer is deeply interested in the charitable
work of the city, and was for many years president of
the First District Charity Organization. He particularly
prides himself on having brought about an organization
which has no parallel in the world. This is a union ofthe
benevolent societies of the different nationalities of Phila
delphia, brought about by his efforts, and over which
he has presided since its formation. It includes English,
Scotch, Irish, French, Welsh, German, Belgian, Norwe
gian, and Hebrew societies.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

73

ARCHIBALD LOUDON SNOWDEN.
Hon. A. Loudon Snowden, late United States Minister
to Spain, is a descendant of a family identified for many
generations with Philadelphia, William Snowden, the first
American of the family, having had large grants of land
in this province as early as 1669, wdiile his son John, a
very prominent citizen of early Philadelphia, was born in
that city in 1685. His descendants continued prominent
down to Isaac Wayne Snowden, born in Philadelphia in
1 794, the father of the subject of our sketch. He became
an assistant surgeon in the army in his twentieth year,
was severely wounded in the Seminole War, and after
wards practised medicine near Carlisle, Pennsylvania,
where his son Archibald was born August 1 1, 1837.
The son, after a preliminary education in academics at
Newville and Mechanicsburg, entered Jefferson College,
at Washington, Pennsylvania, in which he pursued a
distinguished career, and graduated with honor. He
had previously, when only fifteen years of age, taught a
district school. On leaving college he began the study
of law, but before his admission to the bar accepted, in
1857, the position of register of the United States Mint,
tendered him by his uncle, Hon. James R. Snowden, the
director of the Mint. In 1861 he was commissioned
lieutenant-colonel of Pennsylvania volunteers. In 1866
he was promoted to the chief coinership, which he filled
with distinguished ability till 1877, when, without solici
tation or knowledge on his part, he was appointed by
President Hayes to the position of Postmaster of Phila
delphia, which he occupied for two years. In 1879,
having twice declined the directorship of the Mint, offered
him by President Hayes, he accepted the position, and
became the chief executive officer in that institution.
In 1885, after a service in the Mint extending over more
than twenty-eight years, in which he had rendered most
valuable service, he tendered his resignation to President
Cleveland, and retired from a position in which he had
gained a national reputation, and was acknowledged as
an authority on all questions relating to money, coins,
and coinage. He conducted the Mint and Post-office
alike on strictly business principles, in no case employing
or dismissing an employee for political or partisan reasons,
and on leaving the Mint was fully justified in his claim,
" I have the best equipped Mint in the world."
Politically, Colonel Snowden was originally a Demo
crat, but in i860 he severed his connection with that
party, believing that its principles were detrimental to

the manufacturing interests of the country. He has ever
since been a pronounced Republican. In 1889 he was
appointed United States Minister to Greece, Roumania,
and Servia, a position in which he greatly advanced
American interests in those countries, negotiating an
important addition to our commercial treaty with Greece,
advancing the interests of the American archaeological
school in Athens, stopping the unlawful use of American
trade-marks in Servia, negotiating an extradition treaty
with Roumania, and exerting himself successfully for the
introduction of American machinery to that country.
In July, 1892, there being a vacancy in the ministry to
Spain, Colonel Snowden was promoted to that post of
honor "for valuable service rendered." He resigned on
the accession of President Cleveland, but remained some
months in charge of the legation. As an evidence of the
esteem in which he was held, the governments of Spain,
Greece, and Roumania, on his retirement, conferred on
him their highest orders of distinction.
Colonel Snowden's clearness and quickness of intellect
were excellently shown in his organization of the great
industrial demonstration connected with the Centennial
Constitutional celebration in 1887. He is a member of
the American Philosophical Society, of the Sons of the
Revolution, Union League, Philadelphia Club, Grand
Lodge of the Masonic Order, etc., and was for many
years a member of the First City Troop, and its captain
in 1877.

74

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ROBERT BONNER.
Robert Bonner, the well-known editor and proprietor
of the New York Ledger, was born in Ireland, a few
miles from Londonderry, April 28, 1824. He came to
America in 1839, on the invitation of an uncle in Hart
ford, Connecticut, a prosperous farmer and real-estate
dealer. Soon after his arrival the boy entered the office
of the Hartford Courant, as an apprentice to the printer's
trade, his engagement being that he should receive board
and washing, with twenty-five dollars the first year, and
ten dollars increase annually. He soon showed his
ability, quickly surpassing the older apprentices in ex-
pertness at type-setting. Being taught by one of the
journeymen how to feed the press, he would come to
the office early, set the latest news, send the paper to
press, and go to work at feeding. For this he received
extra pay. In 1844, when he left the Courant office, he
had a knowledge of all the details of newspaper work.
On leaving his apprenticeship he went to New York,
where he obtained work on the Evening Mirror, then
edited by the poets N. P. Willis and George P. Morris.
In the evenings he wrote digests of the city news and
sent them to the Courant, under the nom de plume of
" Threads." They were published and paid for, and,
finding his services appreciated by his old employers,
even after they had learned his name, he was encouraged
to correspond for papers in several other cities.
In the Mirror office he showed great skill in setting
advertisements, a fact which brought him an offer from
the proprietor of the Merchants' Ledger to undertake
that department in his paper, advanced wages being
offered. He accepted, proved highly useful to his new
employers by the satisfaction he gave advertisers, and
in a short time hired the type of the Ledger, and not

only printed that paper for the proprietor, but two other
weeklies. He also contributed spicy articles to the
Ledger, one short sketch, humorously attributed to Dr.
Chalmers, being copied and praised all over the country.
The young printer, by strict economy, had accumu
lated a small capital, and on Mr. Pratt, the proprietor
proposing to sell out the Ledger, he offered to buy, and
succeeded in closing a bargain with him. Mr. Bonner
had other ideas than those of his late employer. His
literary tastes and judgment of the public needs decided
him to continue the paper on a literary basis. He saw
instinctively that to attain success he must obtain the
best talent procurable, and applied for an article to Fanny
Fern, then the most popular of American authoresses.
He began by offering her twenty-five dollars a column
for a ten-column article. She declined, saying that she
would write no more for newspapers. He increased his
offer to fifty, to seventy-five, and finally to one hundred
dollars a column, at which she yielded, and agreed to
furnish the Ledger a ten-column story. This matter
became public and helped the paper immensely, there
being much curiosity about the thousand-dollar story,
Fanny Fern agreed to write regularly for the paper, con
tributions from other leading writers were arranged for,
the new proprietor advertised his sheet, now known as
the New York Ledger, with a boldness before unknown,
and a rapid and remarkable increase in circulation fol
lowed. He obtained contributions, regardless of cost,
from such men as Bryant, Beecher, Everett, Willis, and a
host of other celebrities, growing bolder as he proceeded,
obtaining from General Grant's father a biographical
sketch of his son, from Charles Dickens his only Ameri
can story contribution, a poem from Tennyson, articles
from twelve college presidents, from twelve United States
senators, from the most eminent journalists, etc., while
giving weekly instalments of a number of serial stories
suited to the tastes of the masses. The result was a phe
nomenal success, which has lifted the New York Ledger
to the head of papers of its class, and keeps it there.
Personally, Mr. Bonner's one passion is for fast horses,
his ambition being to own the best trotters in the world,
and in this he has succeeded. Since he began driving
for his health in 1856 he has expended $600,000 on
horses, buying successively " Maud S.," for $40,000,
" Sunol," for $41,000, and other great trotters, in their
time the fastest in the world. Yet he never bets— nor
gives any one else an opportunity to bet — on his horses.
In conclusion, it may be said that Mr. Bonner's bene
factions have been many and large. He gave $19,000
towards a gymnasium for Princeton College, $125,000
towards the building of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian
Church, $10,000 to the sufferers from the Chicago fire,
and has given many thousands in charities of which the
recipients alone know the particulars.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

75

ALLEN B. RORKE.
Allen Bearley Rorke, a leading contractor and
builder of Philadelphia, of late years prominent in politics,
was born in that city, March 21, 1846. He attended the
public schools, and afterwards entered the employment
of his father and thoroughly learned the trade of car
penter and builder. He soon showed his aptitude for the
business he had chosen, and when but twenty-two years
of age was placed in charge of important work. It was
under his supervision that were constructed the Pardee
Scientific School, at Easton ; the buildings of the Girard
Estate, occupied for several years by the Board of
Brokers, at the rear of the Girard Bank on Third Street ;
and Horticultural Hall, erected in Fairmount Park for
the Centennial Exhibition. In 1879 he decided to engage
in business on his own account, and almost immediately
took a front place in the ranks of the builders of the
city. Among the more prominent of the many structures
he has erected since entering business for himself may
be mentioned the Betz Building, at Broad Street and
South Penn Square ; the immense sugar-refining plant of
Claus Spreckels, at Reed Street wharf; the handsome
residence of Thomas Dolan, Esq., 1809 Walnut Street;
the entire block of store buildings, bounded by Market,
Eleventh, Twelfth, and Girard Streets, for the Girard
Estate ; the extensive cordage-works of Edwin H. Fitler
& Co., at Bridesburg ; the Park Theatre, at Broad Street
and Fairmount Avenue; the Retort and Purifying-Houses
of the Twenty-fifth Ward Gas- Works ; the massive-
looking and artistically designed edifice of the Western
Saving Fund Society, at Tenth and Walnut Streets ; the
Trinity M. E. Church, at Fifteenth and Mount Vernon
Streets; the unique and attractive Manufacturers' Club
House, on Walnut Street west of Broad ; the three im
mense white marble structures in Girard College grounds,
known as buildings No. 8, No. 9, and No. 10; John T.
Bailey's residence on Master Street, near Fifteenth ;
Leedom's Mills, at Bristol, Pennsylvania; the carpet-mills
of McCallum, Crease & Sloan, at Wayne Junction ; the
warehouse of O. S. Janney & Co., on Letitia Street ; the
depot and stables of the Second and Third Street Pas
senger Railway Company ; Hensel, Colladay & Co.'s
large building on Seventh Street below Arch ; the office
building ofthe Traction Company, at 423 Walnut Street;
Thomas Dolan & Co.'s Mills ; the State Fencibles'
Armory ; the buildings of the Brush Electric Light
Company ; John T. Bailey & Co.'s cordage-works ;
Dornan Bros. & Co.'s Monitor Mills ; Merchant & Co.'s
store and warehouse, 517 Arch Street; Lennox Mills,

at Bridesburg; Justice, Bateman & Co.'s warehouse on
Gothic Street ; The Fidelity Storage Warehouse, on
Market Street above Eighteenth ; Marks Brothers' store,
at Eighth and Arch Streets ; the large factory building of
the Hope Manufacturing Company, at Woodbury, New
Jersey ; office building of the Poth Brewing Company ;
the old and the new Times Annexes, on Sansom Street
west of Eighth, for the Times Publishing Company ;
stables on Carpenter Street above Fourth, for The Item ;
the College of Pharmacy, on Tenth Street below Race ;
the immense plant for the Philadelphia Warehousing
and Cold Storage Company, at Delaware Avenue, Noble,
and Beach Streets ; store building for James S. Wilson
& Son, at 44 North Seventh Street ; a seven-story factory
at Cherry and Carmen Streets, for J. R. Jones ; a six-
story office building for The Wm. S. Cramp & Sons'
Ship and Engine Building Company; and the orna
mental manufacturing building, at Twelfth and Thomp
son Streets, for Louis Schutte.
Mr. Rorke erected the largest building in Philadelphia,
known as the Philadelphia Bourse, covering the large
plot of ground bounded by Fourth Street, Ranstead
Place, Fifth Street, and Merchant Street.
Mr. Rorke is connected with various social and political
organizations. He is a member of the Union League,
Clover Club, Manufacturers' Club, Columbia Club,
Builders' Exchange, the Hibernian Society, and the
Union Republican Club; and is a director in the Chestnut
Street National Bank and the Chestnut Street Trust and
Saving Fund Company. He is also a prominent member
of the Masonic Fraternity.

/6

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ANTHONY STUMPF.
Anthony Stumpf was born November 16, 1856, at
Zell, Bavaria, Germany, and exhibited early that adapta
bility to a change of environment which characterizes so
many of our successful citizens of foreign birth. He was
one of a family of twelve children who emigrated with
their parents to this country in 1866, and settled in New
York City. For a time Mr. Stumpf attended St. Nicholas
Institute, and when twelve years old was apprenticed to
a shoemaker, whose little shop was a rendezvous for a
number of well-known lawyers, judges, and business men,
attracted by the thoroughness of the service which the
proprietor was known to render. During the two years
of this admirable tutelage the boy developed some of
those qualities of assimilative intelligence and moral grit
which distinguish his career.
The trade thus learned was quickly abandoned ; the
printer's trade offered attractions for him which he could
not resist. The accumulation of a store of types, gath
ered from the sweepings of a neighboring printing-office,
was the germ of this new influence and the turning-point
of Mr. Stumpf 's career. In 1872 and 1873 he had already
attained such skill in type-setting as to fit him for the
position of compositor on a morning newspaper, and
made his way to St. Louis, where he obtained employ
ment on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Returning to
New York, with broadened experience and undiminished
ambition, he became associated with the printing house
of Wynkoop & Hallenbeck, in which opportunities were
open to him for the exercise of his growing powers.
Invariable fidelity to the interests of his employers was
one of the qualities which soon distinguished him from
those about him. A growing confidence in the young
man's singleness of purpose and solid attainments opened
the way for rapid advancement in an enterprise organized

by a customer of the establishment mentioned. While
there he rose to the position of manager, and assisted
in the compilation of the Leviathan Cable Code, for
cipher telegraphing, a work which necessitates patience
and thoroughness.
Mr. Stumpf had now become master of the printing
business in all its branches. Not only was he expert in
the various details of his craft, but he combined with this
a high order of executive skill in the management of
men and the promotion of business measures. In 1885
he, in association with Charles David Steurer, purchased
the old Thompson's Bank-Note and Commercial Reporter,
which was founded in 1 836, and had long enjoyed a high
reputation in banking circles. Under its recent manage
ment this publication had lost considerably in public esti
mation, but its new proprietors perceived that by proper
handling its popularity could be restored. The young
men felt secure in the thought that well-directed energy
and unswerving business integrity would prevail in re
establishing its former prosperity.
Mr. Stumpf entered upon the larger opportunities
which this undertaking gave him with his customary
vigor. The old name was abandoned with the old
methods. The weekly issue was entitled The American
Banker, of which Mr. Stumpf, in addition to his duties
of supervising the printing department, took editorial
charge. The directory of banks also issued by this es
tablishment was called The American Bank Reporter, a
work of compilation upon which the experience which
Mr. Stumpf had acquired in his earlier labors was effi
ciently applied.
To the difficult work of realizing the fullest aims ofthe
new management, the partners addressed themselves with
untiring devotion. And as the change in the character
of the publications became manifest to the public -the
prevailing hostility diminished, while the aims of the new
proprietors broadened. In 1887, Underwood' s Bank Re
porter, published by Geo. F. June & Co., was absorbed by
them. In 1 889, Bamberger's Legal Directory was consoli
dated with the American Bank Reporter, and the Financial
Examiner was purchased and absorbed by the American
Banker. The progress and success of the firm were now
assured. In 1892 a legal journal, The American Lawyer,
founded on the principles which had brought success in
the conduct of the older journals, was established, and
has already reached a commanding place in the world of
legal journalism.
To Mr. Stumpf's character as an undaunted business
man, fertile in resources, undeviating in his adherence to
correct business principles, and with the ability to win
friends wherever such qualities are appreciated, is due in
a large measure the success of the publishing house, now
known throughout the United States under the firm-name
of Stumpf & Steurer.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

77

JOHN G. McCULLOUGH.
John Griffith McCullough, prominent in the railroad
interests of the United States, was bom near Newark,
Delaware, of mingled Scotch and Welsh ancestry. His
father died when he was but three years of age and his
mother when he was seven. He was, however, kindly
cared for by friends and relatives, and though his early
educational opportunities were meagre, his diligence in
study was great, while perseverance and industry finally
gave him the advantages of a good education. This
was obtained at Delaware College, where he graduated
with honors before reaching his twentieth year. He
next entered upon the study of law in the office of St.
George Tucker Campbell, of Philadelphia, a lawyer of
much prominence. He studied here earnestly for three
years, and also in the law department of the University
of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated, and in 1859
was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Penn
sylvania. Unfortunately for his hopes of success in legal practice
his health had become seriously weakened, symptoms of
pulmonary trouble appearing, and growing so grave that
he was forced to seek a more genial climate for the pres
ervation of his life. He accordingly sailed for California,
after having tried and won a single case in court. Upon
his arrival at San Francisco he found the winds there too
bleak for his weakened lungs, and made his way to Sacra
mento, where he obtained admission to practice in the
Supreme Court of the State. His health, however, con
tinued so delicate that he was compelled to leave this
city also, and he next sought the foot-hills of the Sierra
Nevada with the hope that their dry and exhilarating
air would enable him to overcome this discouraging
weakness. It was in i860 that he reached the final end of his
long journey, in Mariposa County, where he opened an
office for the transaction of legal business, and was not
long in acquiring a satisfactory share of practice. New
duties, however, soon opened before him, natural conse
quences of the situation of affairs in California at that
date. Before he had gained any extended acquaintance
with the people, he found himself drawn prominently
into the struggle for the preservation ofthe Union. The
settlers of the State had come from North and South
alike, and secession sentiment was strong in the vicinity
of his new abode. General Sumner's coming was very
fortunate in choking the schemes of the Southern sym
pathizers, and young McCullough, who was earnestly
loyal to the government, wrought actively in the same
cause, speaking with patriotic warmth and enthusiasm in
favor of the Union. His eloquence and courage soon
raised him to a position of leadership among those to
whom he had a few months before been a stranger, and
though scarcely yet qualified by length of residence, he

was nominated and elected to the Legislature, Repub
licans and Douglas Democrats alike voting for him.
His work for the Union cause in the Assembly was so
vigorous and successful that in 1862 he was elected to
the State Senate, in a district that for years had been
Democratic. Here his legal knowledge and earnest
patriotism served him so well and gave him such an in
fluence over legislation that in the following year he was
nominated for attorney-general, and elected by an over
whelming majority. This office he held for four years,
residing at Sacramento. He was again nominated in
1867, when, though his work in the office had been
eminently satisfactory, popular sentiment had changed,
and the whole Republican ticket was defeated. He now,
with recovered health, settled in San Francisco, where
for five years he was one of the most prominent members
of the bar and enjoyed a highly remunerative practice.
In 1 87 1 he visited the East, where he married Eliza
Hall, an accomplished Vermont lady. He soon returned
to California, but subsequently, at his wife's desire, re
turned to the East. He had won an ample fortune, and
now became active in railroad, banking, and commercial
affairs, making New York City his principal place of resi
dence. For ten years from 1873 he was vice-president
and general manager of the Panama Railroad Company,
and president from 1883 till 1888, when he resigned. In
1884 he became a director in the Erie Railroad Com
pany, and since 1888 has been chairman of its executive
committee. He was elected the first president of the
Chicago and Erie Railroad in 1890, which office he still
holds. He is also president and director in several other
corporations. Politically he has kept up his early ac
tivity, but, though supporting by his eloquence many
candidates, has displayed no aspiration for public office
on his own part.

78

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

MICHAEL JACOBS.
Michael Jacobs is a native of Buffalo, New York, in
which city he was born in 1850. His youth, however,
was passed in New York City, where he was educated
at first in the public schools and in Becker's Institute,
and afterwards in the College of the City of New York.
On graduating from the latter institution, he, having
chosen the law for his profession, entered the Law De
partment of Columbia College, passed a successful course
of study, and was admitted to the bar of New York City
in 1870.
Mr. Jacobs at once entered into practice, having asso
ciated himself in a legal partnership with Mr. I. L. Sink,
under the firm-title of Jacobs & Sink. His practice was
from the start successful, and at a later period he took
into partnership with him his two brothers, Edward
Jacobs, who at one time was a quarantine commissioner,
and Joseph A. Jacobs, since deceased. He was made
deputy clerk of the city court of New York, but contin
ued the practice of his profession with his brothers, under
the firm-name of Jacobs Brothers.
For the past eighteen years this firm has been actively
engaged in practice in the New York courts, and has been
retained in most of the extensive failures in the clothing
and dry-goods importing trade and other branches of
large commercial business. Mr. Jacobs has also fre
quently been associated with other lawyers as counsel
in the trial of jury cases, and has proved himself a forensic
orator of excellent ability, his fluent manner of speech
and logical powers of thought giving him much influence
upon juries. The devotion of the firm to the interests

of their clients, their industry in the preparation of cases,
and energy and ability in their handling of suits have
given them a high reputation as skilful and accomplished
lawyers, and to-day the Jacobs Brothers stand in the first
rank among the members of the New York bar.
The eminently successful career of Mr. Jacobs is no
mystery to those who are acquainted with his powers.
Ever since his admission to the bar he has been connected
with important cases, many of them of a character to
demand the highest grade of legal skill and knowledge,
and his management of such cases has long since won
him recognition as one of the ablest and most successful
of our legal practitioners. He enters earnestly into the
study of every case he assumes, and labors with all the
powers at his command to bring it to a successful issue.
Mr. Jacobs took a leading part in the Florida Ship
Canal enterprise, one of the most important engineering
problems of recent date. In this project he served as a
director, upon a board including such well-known mem
bers as Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts,
Hon. William Mahone, United States Senator from Vir
ginia, and ex-Governor Brown, of Tennessee. He also
served as a director in the Harris Telephone Company,
upon which board his associates included Hon. Isham
G. Harris, United States Senator from Tennessee, and
General Daniel E. Sickles, of New York.
Among the more important legal cases in which Mr.
Jacobs has been concerned was that of the formation of
the Southern Pacific Railroad system, through the con
solidation of six preceding independent roads. In this
case he was retained by Hon. James G. Fair, of Califor
nia, formerly United States Senator from Nevada, for an
expert opinion upon the legality of this consolidation,
and the validity, in such case, of the guarantee by the
Southern Pacific Company of the bonds held by Mr.
Fair. It was upon Mr. Jacobs's written opinion in favor
of the legality of consolidation that this took place, and
Mr. Fair accepted the guarantee of the Southern Pacific
Company. In political opinion Mr. Jacobs has always been an
earnest member of the Democratic party, and for many
years has been a member of the Tammany Hall General
Committee of the Fifteenth Assembly District. He is
past president of Metropolitan Lodge, I. O. F. S. of I.,
which society he has twice represented with distinction
in the Grand Lodge. He is also a member of Franklin
Lodge, F. and A. M., and belongs to the Pontiac and
other clubs. Personally he is a broad-minded and ac
complished gentleman, and numbers among his friends
many persons of high distinction.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

79

JOHN WANAMAKER.
John Wanamaker was born July u, 1838, in the
southern part of Philadelphia County, and worked, while
attending the public school of that section, in a brick
yard carried on by his father. At fourteen he left school,
and obtained a position as messenger-boy in the pub
lishing house of Troutman & Hayes, Market below Fifth
Street. Some time afterwards his family moved to
Indiana, but returned to Philadelphia in 1856, when he
obtained a position in the retail clothing store of Barclay
Lippincott, corner of Fifth and Market Streets. He
subsequently obtained employment at a higher salary
with Joseph M. Bennett, proprietor of the Tower Hall
clothing store, then the largest in Philadelphia. "John
was certainly the most ambitious boy I ever saw," says
Mr. Bennett. " I used to take him to lunch with me, and
he would tell me how he was going to be a great merchant.
He was always organizing something. He seemed to be a
natural-born organizer. This faculty is probably largely
accountable for his great success in after-life."
In 1858 he went to Minnesota for his health. On his
return he became secretary of the Young Men's Christian
Association. On the outbreak of the war he sought to
enlist, but was refused on account of the weak condition
of his lungs ; and on the day that Fort Sumter was fired
upon, he opened a small clothing store at the south-east
corner of Sixth and Market Streets, in association with
Mr. Nathan Brown, afterwards his brother-in-law. The
business was small ; the sales of the first year were less
than $25,000. But his energy and unceasing attention
to the details of his business caused it to grow with much
rapidity, until in time it developed into what was admitted
to be the largest retail clothing business in America.
Other ventures followed, notably that at 818-820
Chestnut Street. In 1875, Mr. Wanamaker conceived
the idea of combining his two stores into one great estab
lishment, to be erected on the site of the recently vacated
freight depot of the P. R. R., at Thirteenth and Market
Streets. In 1876 this establishment was opened; but the
other stores were not removed, as had at first been con
templated, Mr. Wanamaker having changed his plans
and decided to make this a grand general store, such as
at that time did not exist in America. It marked a new
epoch in business methods, which since then has been
widely copied in the great cities of the United States.
During the Centennial Exposition, Mr. Wanamaker
served on its Board of Finance, and was very efficient
in raising the necessary funds. He was chairman of the
Bureau of Revenue and of the Press Committee, and
served on other committees of the Board of Finance.
He had a strong interest in public affairs, and acted as
chairman of the Citizens' Relief Committees for the Irish
Famine Sufferers and the Yellow Fever Sufferers of the
South, and took part in various other charitable move

ments. He was also a member of bank boards and trust
companies, and of the directorship of several benevolent
associations. For eight years he served as president ot
the Young Men's Christian Association of Philadelphia,
the building ofthe Association at Fifteenth and Chestnut
Streets being erected during his administration.
In political life he was a member of the Union League,
and served as chairman of a committee appointed to aid
in the election of President Harrison. He had hitherto
declined all offers of nomination to public places ; but
when the President nominated him as Postmaster-General
in his Cabinet, in recognition of his efficient services
during the campaign and his eminent business ability,
he was induced to accept.
As Postmaster-General, Mr. Wanamaker introduced
into the department the efficient business methods to
which his own great success in life had been due, con
ferred frequently with his subordinates, and succeeded,
by his remarkable talent in organization, in adding greatly
to the efficiency of the postal service. He remained in
this post till the close of President Harrison's administra
tion, and then returned to the management of his great
business interests.
Early in life, Mr. Wanamaker became an earnest mem
ber of the Presbyterian Church, and has shown the
greatest interest in temperance and Sunday-school work.
The outcome of the latter is the world-famed Bethany
Sunday-school, first established by him in a very humble
way in 1858, and which now has three thousand six hun
dred scholars and one hundred and twenty-eight teachers
and officers. While thus engaged in duties at home and
abroad, Mr. Wanamaker has kept a firm grasp on his
business interests, and it is due to his efficient manage
ment that his establishment has gained its deserved
reputation of being the greatest retail store in the world.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

REV. ISAAC FERRIS, D.D.
Early in the seventeenth century, John Ferris, an
immigrant from Leicestershire, England, settled in the
town of Fairfield, Connecticut, and at a later period be
came one of the proprietors of Throckmorton's Neck,
in Winchester County, New York. His descendants
subsequently resided in this locality, his great-grandson,
Captain John Ferris, being the father of Isaac Ferris, the
subject of our sketch, who was born in the city of New
York on the 9th day of October, 1798. He was pre
pared for college by the celebrated blind classical teacher,
Professor Neilson, and on reaching a proper age entered
at Columbia College, from which he graduated in the
class of 1 8 16. Among his classmates were Frederick de
Peyster, John Ireland, James W. Eastburn, and Richard
Codman, all well-known personages in subsequent years.
Immediately after his graduation, Mr. Ferris' became
instructor in Latin in the Albany Academy. He had,
however, decided to devote himself to the ministry, and,
retiring from his position as instructor, he entered the
Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1820.
He now spent a short period in missionary duty in the
Mohawk Valley, which was followed by an offer of a
position in the Theological Seminary to succeed Dr.
John M. Mason, and also a call to the pastorate of the
Dutch Church, at New Brunswick, New Jersey, which
he accepted in preference to the professorship. In 1822

he was elected a trustee of Queen's (now Rutgers) Col
lege in that city. In October, 1824, he became pastor
of the Middle Dutch Church, at Albany, New York,
where he continued for twelve years.
In 1833, Mr. Ferris was honored with the degree of
D.D. from Union College; and in 1853 that of LL.D.
was conferred upon him by Columbia College. In 1856
he was called to the Market Street Church, then the
most fashionable church in the aristocratic old Seventh
Ward of New York City, with which he remained con
nected for a long period subsequently.
Dr. Ferris was one of the corporate members of the
American Board of Foreign Missions, his service in which
has received the honorable recognition of the large girls'
school in Yokohama being named Ferris Seminary. In
1840 he became connected with the American Bible
Society, with which he remained long associated. He
was also largely instrumental in organizing the Young
Men's Christian Association of New York, while Rutgers
Female Seminary, more recently known as Rutgers Fe
male College, one of the first institutions to afford higher
education for women in the world, was planned and
established by him.
In 1852, by unanimous vote, Dr. Ferris was chosen
chancellor of the University of New York, a post of
duty which called at that time for the highest quality of
organizing skill and the most unremitting devotion. He
found the university at the lowest possible ebb, over
whelmed with debt, with no means, and a mere handful
of students. From this threatening condition Dr. Ferris
rescued it. With his rare executive ability, and by great
personal effort, he put the college on its feet, paid its
debts, secured for it a liberal endowment, and left it a
prosperous institution, after which, in 1870, he retired
from active duty at the University, and became Chancel
lor Emeritus. Soon afterwards he removed to Roselle,
New Jersey, where he ended an active and useful life on
the 13th of June, 1873.
Dr. Ferris was tall, of very large frame, and much
dignity of manner. He was a man of great benevolence
and amiability, genial and sympathetic in his intercourse
with his parishioners, and widely esteemed in the com
munity of his residence. He was eminent as a scholar,
of untiring industry in his professional duties, and was
much beloved by all who came into intimate contact
with him.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

MAJOR WILLIAM H. LAMBERT.
Major William H. Lambert was born in Reading,
Pennsylvania, May 9, 1842, and during his early child
hood his parents removed to Philadelphia. He was edu
cated in the public schools of that city, and graduated
from the High School in 1859 as the valedictorian of his
class. Shortly before the outbreak of the war he began
the study of law, which was not to continue long, as he
early entered the military service, and a new direction
was given his life.
Enlisting as a private in the Fifteenth Pennsylvania
(Anderson) Cavalry, August 18, 1862, he served in Penn
sylvania and Maryland during Lee's invasion. He par
ticipated in the battle of Antietam, and afterwards accom
panied the regiment to Louisville, Kentucky. Here he
was discharged November 24, 1862, to accept a commis
sion as first lieutenant and adjutant of the Twenty-
seventh New Jersey Volunteers (nine months' troops),
that formed part of the Ninth Corps, Army of the Poto
mac. He was present at the battle of Fredericksburg,
in December, 1862; was honorably mustered out July
2, 1863; eleven days later he was appointed first lieu
tenant and adjutant of the Thirty-third New Jersey Vol
unteers. In September of the same year the regiment
joined the Army of the Potomac, being assigned to the
Eleventh Corps, which with the Twelfth was ordered
West under the command of General Hooker. Lieuten
ant Lambert took an active part in the battles at Chatta
nooga (in which his horse was killed under him) and in
the campaign for the relief of. Bumside at Knoxville.
January 16, 1864, he was commissioned captain in his
regiment, and in May was appointed aide-de-camp upon
the staff of Brigadier-General Geary, commanding the
Second Division, Twentieth Corps, — the Eleventh and
Twelfth Corps having been consolidated as the Twentieth,
under Hooker, — and was subsequently appointed assist
ant inspector-general on the same staff.
Captain Lambert took part in the Atlanta Campaign,
and in the action at Pine Hill again had his horse shot
under him. In the famous March to the Sea and the
campaign from Goldsborough to Raleigh, North Carolina,
he accompanied his division, with which he marched
northward and participated in the grand review at Wash
ington that celebrated the close of active hostilities.
Upon the disbandment of Sherman's army he was as
signed to duty upon the staff of General Willcox, com
manding the district of Washington.
He was brevetted major, March 13, 1865, "for gallant
and meritorious conduct during the war," and was honor
ably mustered out of service with his regiment July 17,
1865. The " Medal of Honor," also, under resolution of
Congress, was awarded him " for distinguished service
during the War of the Rebellion."
When Major Lambert's active military duties were

over he turned his attention to business, and in 1866 be
came associated with the Philadelphia General Agency
of The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York.
In 1872 he was admitted to partnership in the manage
ment of the agency, and in 1887 became its head as
general agent.
Major Lambert is connected with various military and
social organizations. He is a member of Post 2, Grand
Army of the Republic, Department of Pennsylvania,
and of the Commandery of the State of Pennsylvania,
Military Order of the Loyal Legion, of which he was
junior vice-commander in 1887-88 ; ofthe Union League,
Art, Penn, and United Service Clubs; and is treasurer
of the Mercantile Library.
In 1 879 he delivered the Memorial-Day address before
Post 2, of Philadelphia, since which time his services have
been in frequent demand for similar occasions and at
military reunions. Among the more notable of his ad
dresses may be mentioned that on " The American Navy,"
at the Grant Camp-fire in the Philadelphia Academy of
Music, in 1879; that at the unveiling of the monument
in the National Cemetery at Antietam, in 1880; the
eulogy on General Meade before the Department of
Pennsylvania Encampment, Grand Army of the Re
public, in 1880; the memorial oration at the Arlington,
Virginia, National Cemetery, in 1883 ; the annual oration
before the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, in
1884, the theme being Major- General George H. Thomas ;
and the eulogy on General Hancock at Gettysburg, on
Memorial-Day in 1886.
Early in 1892, Major Lambert was appointed a member
of the board having charge of the public charities and
corrections of Philadelphia, and September 30 of the
same year he was appointed president of the department,
a position of honor and of great responsibility in the
wide exercise of a true philanthropy.

82

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM CONANT CHURCH.
Among the prisoners released in New York by the
British at the close of the Revolution was Willard
Church, a native of Mansfield, Connecticut, and a kins
man, some degrees removed, of Colonel Benjamin
Church, the famous Indian fighter. Willard, who had
starved with Washington at Valley Forge, fought with
Anthony Wayne, as one of the forlorn troops, at Stony
Point, and witnessed the execution of Major Andre at
Tappan, New York, settled in New York after the Revo
lution, and his family, of New England origin, have been
associated with that State and its fortunes for over a cen
tury. Some of Willard Church's sons survive; among
the rare examples of the sons of Revolutionary heroes
still remaining with us. One of his sons, Pharcellus, who
died in 1886 at the age of eighty-five, was a clergyman,
an author of reputation, and an editor of large experience.
Three of Willard's grandsons, the sons of Pharcellus,
are men of literary reputation, — William Conant, Frank
Pharcellus, and John Adams Church ; the youngest of
the three, John, having a still further reputation as a man
of science, a " Ph.D.," being widely known in his profession
of mining engineering, as an acting professor at Columbia
College and professor in the State University of Ohio,
and in Ann Arbor University ; also by his work in con
nection with the Comstock Mines, while employed on the
government survey, and by his introduction of American
methods of mining into China, where for four years he
served on the staff of the famous viceroy, Li Hung Chang.
The eldest son of Pharcellus, Colonel William Conant
Church, derives his name from Roger Conant, the founder
of Cape Ann Colony and Salem, Massachusetts, of whom
he is a lineal descendant in the seventh generation on his
mother's side.
Colonel Church was born in Rochester, New York,

August 11, 1836, but has been for the past forty-one
years a resident of the city of New York. During the
Civil War of 1861-65 he served as an officer on the staff
of Major-General Silas Casey, bearing with him on his
return to civil life the brevet of lieutenant-colonel. By
this military title he is well-known in navy and army
and army circles as the editor of the Army and Navy
Journal, which he established in 1863 with the aid of his
brother Frank, who has now for some years been con
nected with the New York Sun, as one of the ablest
of its brilliant staff of editorial writers. These two
brothers, William C. and Frank P., also established the
Galaxy Magazine, and during the twelve years, from 1866
until 1878, when it was merged in the Atlantic Monthly,
maintained for it a chief place among our literary periodi
cals. In connection with his editorial work, Colonel
Church has found time for much literary labor, his name
being a familiar one in periodicals other than his own, —
Scribner's Magazine, The Century, The North American
Review, The Forum, and Harper s Weekly, — to all of
which he has contributed. He was also the literary
executor of the late John Ericsson, and is the author of
the " Life of John Ericsson," published by Charles Scrib
ner's Sons in 1890 in two octavo volumes.
Colonel Church has taken an active part in public
affairs in New York City, and is a member and trustee of
the Century Club and the Authors' Club, and a member
of the Players' and United Service Clubs of New York,
and of the Army and Navy Club of Washington. He is
a member of the Grand Army, George Washington Post,
and was one ofthe earliest members ofthe Loyal Legion,
his insignia numbering 130. He was a charter member of
the New York Commandery, over which he, for two years,
presided, in the absence of General Schofield, as its Junior,
and then as its Senior, Vice-Commander. He is now a
member of the Commandery-in-Chief of the Legion. He
took an active part in the establishment of the National
Rifle Association, and was for some years its president.
He was, previous to the establishment of the Army
and Navy Journal, publisher of the New York Sun,
leaving it to enter the military service. He and his
brothers also have, as executors of their father's estate,
a large proprietary interest in the New York Examiner,
one of the oldest and largest circulated religious weeklies
in the country. In 1882 he was appointed by President
Arthur government inspector for the Northern Pacific
Railroad. He was one of the founders of the Metro
politan Museum of Art in New York, and is a " Fellow
in Perpetuity" of that organization. He is also a trustee
of the Zoological Society of New York, and was one of
the founders of the Real Estate Exchange, serving in its
first board of directors, and by numerous activities has
associated himself with the literary, business, political,
and social life of the metropolis.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

83

DAVID LANDRETH.
The Landreth family is one whose origin can be traced
back to a remote period, its first known progenitor being
one of a colony which came from Flanders to England
at a distant epoch in English history. This immigrant
—who wrote his name Landrath — settled at Berwick-on-
Tweed. Passing down the long line of his descendants,
we come at length to an Oliver Landreth, whose son
was named Cuthbert, whose son David, the first Ameri
can of the family, was born at Haggerston, in the county
of Northumberland.
The elder David Landreth emigrated to America late
in the last century, making Philadelphia his home, and
establishing there in 1784 a nursery and seed business.
Its location, on what was then known as High Street, is
now covered by the building 12 10 and 12 12 Market
Street. The raising of trees and production of seeds
were conducted on land near by, particularly on a tract
at Twelfth and Filbert Streets. This locality proving
too contracted for the purpose, the nursery and seed
grounds were removed in 1789 to the " Neck," then con
sidered far out of town, the place chosen being not far
distant from the site of the present Arsenal.
The subject of the present sketch, the younger David
Landreth, was born in Philadelphia in 1802. When of
suitable age he entered actively into his father's business,
which had considerably extended in Philadelphia, while
a branch house had been opened in Charleston, South
Carolina. The young man's early duty was that of
manager of this Charleston branch. Of the Charleston
business it will suffice here to say that it continued till
the era of the Civil War, when it came to a sudden end,
by the act of the Confederate States District Court,
which confiscated the real estate and merchandise alike,
on April 22, 1862.
The younger David Landreth, in 1 828, succeeded his
father as proprietor of the well-established and thriving
business in Philadelphia, a business which was to remain
highly prosperous for half a century afterwards under
his fostering care. His time, however, was not wholly
occupied with the details of business, but was turned at
an early age towards the literature of husbandry and to
enterprises of public interest. Among the latter may be
mentioned the Philadelphia Horticultural Society, of
which, in 1827, he was one of the founders, and in 1828
was elected corresponding secretary, which office he held
for seven years. At a subsequent date he was made
president of the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion
of Agriculture, and vice-president of the United States
Agricultural Society, and became an active member of
many other organizations.

His literary labors included the publication of the
Illustrated Floral Magazine, started in 1832, and an ad
vanced work for that period. At a later date he wrote
much upon husbandry, his graceful style as a writer, and
his technical knowledge of the subject, making his views
of much value in the progress of the industry.
In 1847 the Landreth nursery was removed to Blooms-
dale, where Mr. Landreth established the most complete
seed-farm in the United States, and where he planted an
arboretum which stands unequalled in this country in the
development of its trees. He was an early breeder of
the Channel Island cattle, then styled Alderneys, and
was among the earliest manufacturers of mowing and
reaping machinery. In 1872-73 he experimented in
steam-ploughing with a Scotch engine, and in the follow
ing year with an American engine. Subsequently, steam-
digging and steam-chopping were experimented with at
Bloomsdale, and many improvements produced in the
machine-shop of that model farm.
David Landreth lived until 1880 in the enjoyment
and care of the business which had been so much de
veloped in his hands, and which had reached almost its
hundredth year. The firm is now one of the thirty cen
tenary firms of the United States. During a long life
he had served his country in connection with agriculture,
a pursuit which he dignified by the wide respect he had
gained as an old-school country gentleman, and his
reputation as an able and learned agriculturist. In early
life he had lived amid the plantations of the Landreth
nursery, one of the show places of Philadelphia, — the
site now marked by the Landreth School, — and his
virtues and character were those of one brought up in
intimate contact with Nature.

84

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

REAR-ADMIRAL SAMUEL PHILLIPS LEE.
Rear-Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee was born at Sully, Vir
ginia, February 13, 1812. Ordered to the East Indies, and learning
at Cape Town of the Civil War, returned the " Vandalia" to the
support of the Union, and by close blockade of Charleston
checked foreign scrutiny. He commanded the guard division
below Fort Jackson, and fought it in the "Oneida" to draw its
fire from the distant and hidden bomb-vessels ; ' piloted the
"Oneida" from the forecastle by the forts; relieved the " Va-
runa," capturing Captain Kennon and others, the only naval
captives made that day ; was in line at New Orleans ; com
manded the advance division to Vicksburg, and was second in
line in the fleet fights there.
Lee held important squadron command for the last three years
of the war. North Atlantic blockade required close blockade of
sea-coast and inland waters to prevent foreign interference and
shorten the war ; exclude men, money, and munitions ; keep cotton
and tobacco in ; prevent prize port ; protect Norfolk and Washing
ton ; and support army occupations and movements on the inland
waters of North Carolina and Virginia against Richmond. New
Orleans, Mobile,2 Port Royal, and Charleston were subject to inside
blockade and attack ; Wilmington3 was not, with its two difficult
entrances forty miles apart, by Cape Fear Shoals, and convenient
to the depots of rebel supplies, Bermuda, Nassau, and Halifax.
Lee's system of steam blockade, original and effective, was adopted
by his successor, and will be an instruction for the future. The
blockade was the primary cause of the subjection of the South,
and made its reduction only the work of time.4 There were ninety-
one affairs and expeditions, and fifty-four steamers were captured
or destroyed during Lee's command. Lee's arduous duties in
blockade command were discharged with intelligence and fidelity.6

1 " I never saw a ship more beautifully fought and managed. ... I
admire Lee very much for his cool, calm bravery, the highest quality an
officer can possess." (Porter.)
2 Near the great free port New Orleans.
3 Near Richmond.
* De Joinville.
5 Secretary Welles's Report, 1864.

Mississippi Squadron. — When Lee took command, Hood's whole
army was moving to attack Thomas before he could concentrate.
Lee promptly stationed the vessels on the Mississippi to prevent
Kirby Smith's forces6 from joining Hood. He sent two ironclads
to Nashville to support Thomas and protect his communications,
and following in the hurriedly repaired ironclad " Cincinnati,"
was stopped by low water on Harpeth Shoals, where Thomas and
Fitch had asked for an ironclad to prevent Hood's crossing for
the Ohio, about which Grant was so anxious. The river was high
enough to allow the gun-boats to assist the army to turn the
enemy's left in the battle of Nashville, but not enough to make
Harpeth Shoals passable until three days later, when Fitch asked
to remain on the Cumberland and retain an ironclad. Lee hur
ried up the Tennessee to cut off Hood's escape at Duck River
or at the foot of the shoals at Florence, then the head7 of steam
boat navigation, where Hood crossed into Tennessee. All visible
means of crossing were destroyed along the river.
Squadron operations forced Hood to cross six miles up, at the
head of Little Muscle Shoals. These shoals are singularly omitted
in the Coast Survey map (1865) made soon after. Thomas tele
graphed Lee, " Your efficient co-operation on the Tennessee River
has contributed largely to the demoralization of Hood's army. It
gives me great pleasure to tender to you, your officers and men,
my hearty thanks for your cordial co-operation during the opera
tions of the last thirty days." 8 Hood writes he had sufficient artil
lery, having taken a large reserve for the gun-boats, crossed Duck
River on the 19th, proceeded on different roads, marched leisurely
and arrived at Bainbridge December 2 5.' The defeat of Hood's
army by the Army of the Cumberland with the co-operation of the
Mississippi Squadron virtually ended the war,10 and left only cere
monial proceedings for the custom-house selvage of the Southern
States and Trans-Mississippi, which yielded its naval officers and
ironclad to the Mississippi Squadron. Hood's army mostly restored
itself to citizenship. Confederate recruiting ceased. Lee became
unable to hold or leave his trenches. Grant, on learning of the de
struction of Hood's army, promptly arranged with Sherman, at
Savannah, not to ship his army north by sea to Grant, but to operate
from where he was.11 Savannah was soon evacuated. Charleston
was evacuated with Sherman's army a hundred miles in its rear,
marching northward and meeting only trivial resistance. Fort
Fisher's slight resistance to the fleet attack caused small casualties
to the vessels and invited naval boarding in face of an army to
assault. " Acting Rear- Admiral Lee is so correct and accurate a business
man that I know he would wish himself to close up the final
affairs of the squadron he has commanded with so much ability
and with such indefatigable industry."12 Lee closed up the vast
affairs of the Mississippi Squadron.
Promoted to rear-admiral April 22, 1870, and then served in
the West Indies. He was devoted to duty and just in com
mand. 6 Rebellion Records, No. 94, p. 804. Hood wrote he could get Davis
twenty-five thousand troops from Kirby Smith. When Hood surrendered,
he said the vigilance of the gun-boats had prevented his crossing the
Mississippi. ' Lieutenant-Commander Phelps, Secretary Welles's Report, 1862^.467.
8 Rebellion Records, No. 94, p. 404.
9 General Hood, p. 437, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War.
lu Lee to Thomas telegram, Rebellion Records, No. 94, p. 230.
11 General Grant's Report of July 22, 1865, p. 31.
12 Secretary Welles, June 19, 1865, unofficial.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

85

JOHN A. STEWART.
John Airman Stewart, formerly Assistant Treasurer
of the United States at New York, and for many years
president of the United States Trust Company of that
city, was born in New York, August 22, 1822. His
father was of Scottish birth, emigrating to this country
while quite young and settling in New York, where he
was for many years a ward assessor and afterwards
receiver of taxes.
Mr. Stewart was educated at first in a public school of
New York, and afterwards entered Columbia College,
where he graduated in 1840, having taken the literary
and scientific course of study in that institution. In
1842, being then twenty years of age, he was appointed
clerk of the Board of Education, a position which he
retained till 1850, when he became Actuary of the United
States Life Insurance Company. In 1853, the United
States Trust Company of New York was chartered by
the State Legislature, mainly in consequence of his efforts,
and he resigned his former position to accept that of
secretary of this new financial institution.
He remained in this position until 1864, gaining such
confidence and respect for his ability in finance, that in
June of the latter year a pressing request was tendered
him by President Lincoln and Mr. Fessenden, Secretary
ofthe Treasury, to accept the post of Assistant Treasurer
of the United States at New York. This office had
previously been tendered him by Secretary Chase, and
declined. But, now that the war was at its height and
the national finances in a state of jeopardy, while public
confidence was wavering, he accepted, though at much
personal sacrifice, and continued to discharge the onerous
and responsible duties of the position with much satis
faction to the government until the end of the war. At
this period, Mr. Lawrence, president of the United States
Trust Company, resigned his position, and Mr. Stewart
was unanimously elected to succeed him. He accord
ingly withdrew from the Assistant Treasurership, which
no longer so strongly needed his services, and accepted
the presidency offered him.
During the many years which have elapsed since
that date, Mr. Stewart has continued to discharge the
duties of his responsible position in a manner which has
proved highly profitable to the company and accept
able to its board of directors. Under his control the
company has become the largest of its kind in Amer
ica and possesses the greatest value in assets. A trust
company with a capital of $2,000,000, a surplus of
$9,000,000, deposits of $40,000,000, and in gross assets
of $50,000,000, has certainly attained a foremost posi
tion among the moneyed institutions not only of this

country but of the world. Its building, Nos. 45 and 47
Wall Street, is built of massive granite in the Roman
esque style of architecture, and is of grand and highly
attractive proportions.
Mr. Stewart's marked success in business is due no
less to his activity and energy than to his integrity and
frankness in all business dealings. No man in America
has a higher record than he in these essentials of success.
Persistent effort, tact and ability, unfaltering honesty in
all dealings, and respect for obligations are qualities
which can scarcely fail to command success ; and it is to
these that Mr. Stewart owes at once his financial position
in the community and the confidence and respect of all
with whom he has business relations.
He is prominently identified with many institutions of
the city, being a director in the Merchants' National Bank,
the Bank of New Amsterdam, the Greenwich Savings
Bank, the Equitable Life Assurance Society, and the
Liverpool and London Globe Insurance Company. He
is also a director in the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary,
a trustee of the John F. Slater Fund, and an active
trustee of Princeton College, which position he has held
for many years. He belongs to the Metropolitan and
the Union League Clubs, his membership in the latter
indicating his political affiliation with the Republicans.
Originally he was Democratic in views, but during the
Civil War he warmly supported President Lincoln's ad
ministration, and has since, though not an extreme high-
tariff man, remained a believer in the leading principles
of the Republican party. He married, in 1845, Miss
Sarah Y. Johnson, of New York, who died in 1886. In
1890 he married Mary O. Capron, of Baltimore.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

DAVID JAYNE, M.D.
David Javne, so widely known through the merited
reputation of his " Family Medicines," was born at Bush-
kill, Monroe County, Pennsylvania, in 1798, the son of
the Rev. Ebenezer Jayne, a highly-respected Baptist
clergyman of that place. The rural districts in that day
presented very sparse opportunities for education, but the
boy entered upon a severe course of self-culture, and
fitted himself, with aid from a preceptor, to enter the
Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1825 he entered upon the practice of medicine in
Cumberland County, and afterwards in Salem County,
New Jersey, fields of work of little value pecuniarily,
yet in which he gained much valuable experience in the
treatment of disease.
In the year 1831 he introduced the first of the pro
prietary medicines with which his name has so long been
associated, while the others comprising the well-known
list of the Jayne remedies were produced in the imme
diately succeeding years. The sale of these medicines
proving successful, Dr. Jayne removed to Philadelphia
in 1836, purchased a drug-store at No. 20 South Third
Street, and there, while engaged in the sale of drugs and
in medical practice, laid the foundation of his subsequent
great business in the sale of proprietary medicines. This
quickly grew so important that he was obliged to relin
quish all visiting practice, but until the end of his life con
tinued to prescribe for such patients as came to his office,
treating them gratuitously and as a " labor of love."
By 1845 his business had so expanded that it became
necessary to seek much larger quarters than those he
had hitherto occupied, and he removed to No. 8, on
the same street, a few doors above his original place of
business. In less than two years this locality became
also insufficient in size, and he then determined on the

erection of a building that would be ample for all prob
able growth of his business, and in size, elegance, and
solidity would far surpass any business house in Phila
delphia, or, for that matter, in the United States at that
date. The site selected was on the south side of Chest
nut Street, east of Third, the building being commenced
in 1848 and completed in the autumn of 1850, its ex
tent and massiveness of character being such that two
years were needed for its erection. As completed, it was
ten stories in height (two below ground), its elevation
being one hundred feet, above which rose a tower thirty-
two feet higher. Its front, forty-two feet wide, was of
Quincy granite and Gothic in architecture, while the
depth of the building was one hundred and forty feet.
We give these dimensions because, though they have
been since much surpassed, they made this the most
conspicuous building of that time in Philadelphia.
In 1850, Dr. Jayne formed a partnership with his son,
David W. Jayne, and his nephew, Eben. C. Jayne, to con
duct the wholesale drug business. This attained large
proportions, but was not so remunerative as desired, and
was discontinued in 1854, a new partnership being formed
in 1855, including the three partners named and John K.
Walker, Dr. Jayne's brother-in-law, under the firm name
of Dr. D. Jayne & Son, its purpose being the handling
ofthe proprietary medicines. After the formation of this
firm, Dr. Jayne intrusted the management of the business
mainly to his junior partners, and had the satisfaction,
before he died, of seeing it nearly doubled in volume.
He continued his real estate investments, successively
erecting the building on Dock Street long occupied by
the Post-Ofnce, the fine granite building known as
" Jayne's Hall," the handsome marble buildings on the
site of the old " Philadelphia Arcade," the " Common
wealth building," and, lastly, the handsome marble dwell
ing at Nineteenth and Chestnut Streets, in which his
family reside, but which he did not live to occupy, as he
died suddenly from pneumonia on March 5, 1866, while
this building was still in process of erection.
The " family medicines" of Dr. Jayne have been spread
broadcast throughout the world, and still retain, after
more than sixty years' trial, their reputation as valuable
remedies. He was very able in the diagnosis of disease,
and proved his skill in the selection and combination of
medicines to combat them. In religious belief he was a
Baptist; in politics a Whig, and subsequently a Repub
lican. In the use of his wealth he was ever liberal,
particularly in direct contributions to the poor. Of his
two surviving sons, the elder, Henry Le Barre Jayne, is
a rising lawyer, and the younger, Dr. Horace Jayne, is
Professor of Vertebrate Morphology in the Biological
Department of the University of Pennsylvania, and was
late Dean of the Collegiate Department of that institu
tion.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

87

REV. SAMUEL A. MUTCHMORE.
Samuel Alexander Mutchmore, D.D., was born in
Ohio. He is descended from Scotch-Irish ancestors, who
emigrated to America at an early date and took active part
in the development of the American colonies. Settling in
the Cumberland Valley, his forefathers became engaged
in the contests with the Indians of that region, some of
them giving their lives in the defence of their homes
and firesides. Others of them took part in the Revolu
tionary War, and served with distinction in that vital con
flict of the American people. Among his ancestors also
were some who became eminent as ecclesiastics, worthy
progenitors in the profession which he was to adopt.
Mr. Mutchmore was educated in the University of
Ohio, and afterwards at Centre College, Kentucky, under
the presidency of the eminent Dr. John C. Young, from
which he graduated in 1854. He had selected the law
as his profession, and now entered upon a diligent course
of study with that object in view. His mother, however,
a devout Christian, earnestly desired that he should enter
the ministry, and by her prayers and arguments prevailed
upon him to give up his original purpose and take up a
course of theological study. This was pursued in Dan
ville Theological Seminary, Kentucky, under Drs. Robert
J. Breckenridge, E. P. Humphrey, Stuart Robinson, and
others. After graduating from this institution, in 1858, he
entered the ministry of the Presbyterian Church as Home
Missionary at Bowling Green, Kentucky, and its vicinity.
The first pastoral charge of the young divine was over
a church in Columbia, Missouri. Thence he removed to
Fulton, in the same State, the seat of Westminster Col
lege, his pastorate in this place being distinguished by
such enthusiastic earnestness that several remarkable re
vivals took place during his stay. During the war his
Union spirit was pronounced, and he served the govern
ment as member of a committee of safety appointed by
General Halleck, the county being under martial law.
Mr. Mutchmore's residence in Philadelphia began in
1866, in which year he left the pastorate which he then
held in Carondalet Church, St. Louis, in response to a
call to Cohocksink Church, then located at Fifth Street
and Germantown Road, Philadelphia. Here he spent
seven years of active, earnest, and successful labors,
building a new church at Columbia Avenue and Franklin
Street during this period, and gathering a congregation
of seven hundred and thirty members. At the end of
his seven years' service at Cohocksink, he was called to
the charge of the Alexander Church, now known as the
West Green Street Church, at the corner of Nineteenth
and Green Streets. His pastorate here continued for nine
years, at the end of which time he took charge of the

Memorial Presbyterian Church, at Eighteenth Street and
Montgomery Avenue, in whose pastorate he still remains.
Dr. Mutchmore received his title of D.D. from La
fayette College in 1870. As a preacher, he is original,
forceful, and impressive, taking deep and philosophical
views of his subject, and presenting his thoughts with a
sincerity of conviction and intense earnestness of utter
ance which give them controlling power over his hearers.
He is warmly devoted to his ministerial duties, and has
had marked success, also, in advancing the interests of
the church, particularly in the role of a builder of churches
and remover of encumbrances. The Carondalet Avenue
Church, of St. Louis, and the Cohocksink and the Me
morial Churches, of Philadelphia, were all built by his
efforts, and dedicated free of debt. The last-named
church, of which he is now pastor, is particularly notice
able in this connection, it being the outcome of a legacy
of four dollars and forty-one cents left for that purpose
by a little girl. He also paid off a heavy debt on the
Alexander Church during his pastorate, and has recently
established a chapel at Nineteenth and York Streets, from
wliich will probably grow a church in the near future.
He is actively identified with all affairs affecting the
welfare of the Presbyterian Church at large, and to his
pastoral duties has added important literary ones, having
been since 1873 proprietor and editor of The Presby
terian, which contains every week articles from his pen.
In addition, he is the author of several works, including
"Mites against Millions," "The Visit of Japheth to
Shem and Ham," "The Mogul, the Mongol, the Mikado,
and the Missionary," and a volume of sermons entitled
" Spiritual Volapiik."

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ROBERT C. OGDEN.
Robert C. Ogden was born in Philadelphia, June 20,
1836, being the son of Jonathan Ogden, who died in 1893,
and is descended from early American settlers. About
1630 Richard and John Ogden, Puritans, emigrated from
England to Connecticut, settling near the present town
of Stamford. Records of these brothers exist in early
colonial archives, the oldest being a contract to build a
church in New Amsterdam (now New York) in 1642.
Robert C. Ogden is in the sixth generation in direct
descent from Richard Ogden. Members of the family
settled in New Jersey about 1700, and in 1830 Jonathan
Ogden, above mentioned, removed from Bridgeton to
Philadelphia. Mr. Ogden has also Welsh ancestry on
his father's side, embracing the Jenkins family of early
Philadelphia history, and the Swinneys of Cumberland
County, New Jersey. On his mother's side he is of Eng
lish and Scotch-Irish descent, through his great-grand
father, John Ashburner, an Englishman who came to
Philadelphia after the War of the Revolution, and his
maternal grandfather, Robert Murphey, who was born in
County Antrim, Ireland, in 1776.
Mr. Ogden was educated in Philadelphia schools and at
the New London Academy, Chester County, Pennsylvania.
He left school while quite young, not having attained his
fourteenth year of age, and in 1854 removed to New York,
where he remained till 1879, returning to Philadelphia
January 1 of that year. In New York he was for a num
ber of years a member of the once famous clothing firm
of Devlin & Company. In 1885 he became a member
of the firm of John Wanamaker, and continues actively
engaged in the business of that establishment.
Apart from his business interests, Mr. Ogden takes an
active part in many religious, social, and benevolent
movements of Philadelphia. Politically his views are

Republican, but he takes no active part in politics. He
is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and has been
active in the Presbyterian Board of Publication, the
Board of Ministerial Relief, the Presbyterian Hospital,
and the Presbyterian Social Union. In 1885 he was a
commissioner to the Presbyterian General Assembly.
He is chairman of the board of trustees of the Hollond
Memorial Church, and has had much to do with the
erection of its beautiful edifice at Broad and Federal
Streets. He is liberal in religious views, being warmly
attached to the progressive element in the Presbyterian
Church, and acted as a member ofthe famous Conference
of Liberal Presbyterians held in Cleveland, November,
1893, was a signer of the Cleveland declaration, and
served on the committee for its dissemination.
Mr. Ogden has been active in philanthropic work. He
is president and has for tvvent)'-five years been an active
member of the board of trustees of the Hampton Insti
tute for Afro-American and Indian Youth, near Fortress
Monroe, Virginia. Since 1 889 he has been a member of
the Citizens' Permanent Relief Committee of Philadelphia,
and in this capacity was active in forwarding supplies to
the Johnstown and other flooded districts in the summer
of that year, and was one of the active members of the
Flood Relief Committee appointed by Governor Beaver
for the administration of the great sum subscribed for
the relief of the flood sufferers. In 1892 he was chair
man of the Finance Committee of the Citizens' Permanent
Relief Committee for the Russian Famine Relief, in 1893—
94 of that for the relief of the unemployed, and in 1896
of that for the relief of distress in Armenia.
Mr. Ogden did field duty during the war with the
Twenty-third Regiment, N.G.S.N.Y., especially during
the Gettysburg campaign in 1863. He continued with
the regiment in that campaign, returning to New York
with it to aid in the suppression of the draft riots. He
held commissions in this regiment, and also upon the staff
of the Eleventh Brigade, of which it was a part. He is at
present a member of Meade Post, No. 1, Grand Army of
the Republic. In addition to the above, he is a member
of the Union League, Manufacturers', Art, and Con
temporary Clubs of Philadelphia, and of the Hamilton
Club of Brooklyn.
Mr. Ogden has occasionally contributed to newspapers,
and has been a frequent public speaker at social, benevo
lent, and religious gatherings. His published addresses
have been " The Unveiling of the Monument to the Un
known Dead," Johnstown, 1892; "Progressive Presby-
terianism," at the centennial of the First Presbyterian
Church, Bridgeton, New Jersey, 1892. He has published
in book form "Pew Rents and the New Testament;"
" The Perspective of Sunday-School Teaching ;" and
"Samuel Chapman Armstrong, a Memorial Address,
Founder's Day, Hampton Institute, January 28, 1894."

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

89

CHARLES L. BUCKINGHAM.
Charles L. Buckingham, widely known from the
very prominent position which he occupies before the bar
of New York, comes from distinguished Puritan ancestry,
he being a lineal descendant of Thomas Buckingham,
who emigrated to Boston in 1637 and was one of the
founders of New Haven and Milford, Connecticut. Mr.
Buckingham is in the ninth American generation of the
family, and was born October 14, 1852, at Berlin Heights,
Ohio. He received his early education in the public
schools of that locality, after which, at the age of sixteen,
he made an extensive journey to the West. On his
return home he engaged successfully in business, with
the laudable object of obtaining means to aid him in
a college career. He then entered the University of
Michigan, from which he graduated in 1875.
During his college course Mr. Buckingham proved
unusually proficient in mathematics, mechanics, and the
principles of civil engineering, a profession in which he
would undoubtedly have had a brilliant career had he
chosen to embark in it. As evidence of this we may
cite the strikingly able article which he contributed to
Scribner's Magazine, being one of a series furnished in
1889-90 by the leading engineers of this country. He
chose the law, however, for his profession, and entered
the Columbian Law School at Washington, holding in
that city at the same time the position of examiner in
the Patent Office, a service which has proved of high
professional utility to him in his later years.
After his admission to the bar Mr. Buckingham con
tinued in the Patent Office, his skill and industry bring
ing him several promotions. But so marked became his
ability in legal practice, that he was offered the important
position of counsel for the Western Union Telegraph
Company, a highly complimentary offer for one so young.
Accepting this, he removed to New York, in which city
he quickly attracted attention by his wide knowledge as
a patent expert and his brilliant powers as a lawyer.
During his career he has conducted some of the most
important patent cases ever tried, and with remarkable
success, winning cases which involved enormous interests,
though opposed by the most eminent patent lawyers, and
by such distinguished attorneys as Senator Conkling and
David Dudley Field. The financial importance of the
cases which have been intrusted to Mr. Buckingham
frequently amounts to immense sums, and calls for the
best legal talent. Mr. Buckingham's powers in this
direction have been rarely equalled. His attention has
been particularly directed to electrical cases, one of the
most important and difficult departments of patent law

at the present time. In this department he stands un
rivalled, his practical experience as an expert, gained
from his years of service in the Patent Office, being of
the utmost advantage to him. His familiarity with all
questions involving the use of electrical power, and his
expert scientific knowledge in this direction, with the
exhaustive original investigation which he devotes to
every separate case, are such as to give him the highest
eminence in this branch of practice, one which, in addi
tion to the most thorough and exact knowledge, demands
the finest legal skill and ability.
Few lawyers of Mr. Buckingham's prominence equal
him in industry, or in the skill with which, almost at a
glance, he makes his way to the heart of a subject. Aside
from this technical skill, Mr. Buckingham enjoys the
reputation of being one of the most skilful cross-exam
iners at the bar, while his briefs are distinguished for the
clearness and originality with which they are prepared.
He is the leading counsel of the Western Union and
the American District Telegraph Companies in his de
partment of practice, and represents various other elec
trical and kindred corporations. Personally his wide
culture and fine conversational powers make him a very
desirable figure in society. As special counsel he has
tried for the General Electric Company many of its most
important suits with unusual success. He is a member
of several clubs of New York and Washington, of the
Ohio and Electrical Societies of New York, and of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science,
the American Academy of Political and Social Science,
and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.

9o

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

GEORGE B. ROBERTS.
One of the most unostentatious, yet one of the most
useful, ofthe living citizens of Philadelphia is the widely-
known president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com
pany, a position whose importance has few equals in
the places of trust and power within the United States.
Mr. Roberts worked himself up to this high position by
incessant diligence and superior ability as a civil engineer
and railroad manager. Born in 1833, on the farm in the
close vicinity of Philadelphia on which he still resides,
he received his professional training in the Polytechnic
Institute at Troy, New York, and immediately upon
graduating began that life as a railroad man from which
he has never since deviated.
His work began upon the mountain division of the
Pennsylvania Railroad, upon which he was first employed
as a rodman. In 1852, while still but nineteen years of
age, he was made assistant engineer of the Philadelphia
and Erie Railroad, and during the ten years that followed
was very actively engaged in railroad engineering, aiding
in the location and construction of various roads, in
cluding the Sunbury and Erie, the North Pennsylvania,
the Western Pennsylvania, the Allentown and Auburn,
the Mahanoy and Broad Mountain, the West Jersey, and
others. On several of these he was employed as chief
engineer and brought them to completion.
In 1862 Mr. Roberts, after this decade of varied ser
vice, returned to the Pennsylvania Railroad, his official
position being that of assistant to the president, Mr. J.
Edgar Thomson. His term of duty in this position

continued for seven years, during which his skill as an
engineer and his excellent administrative powers proved
so serviceable to the road that in 1869 he was promoted
to the position of fourth vice-president. Almost imme
diately afterwards he received a second promotion, being
elected second vice-president. On June 3, 1874, Colonel
Thomas A. Scott succeeded J. Edgar Thomson in the
presidency, and Mr. Roberts was advanced to the post
of first vice-president.
In this capacity great interests were confided to his
care, all engineering questions relating to the construc
tion, extension, and improvement of the company's far-
extended lines coming under his control, in addition to
which he had the general supervision of the accounts
through the comptroller. He also assisted the president
in the management of the various roads leased or con
trolled by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Colonel Scott
died in May, 1880, and Mr. Roberts was chosen to suc
ceed him as the president of the company, an office to
which he has since been annually re-elected. This choice
of the shareholders is not due to any influence exerted by
ownership of stock, — for Mr. Roberts is not a man of great
wealth, and has comparatively little financial interest in
the road, — but is the result of the general recognition of
his ability and probity, and the well-founded belief by
the shareholders that his life and powers are unselfishly
devoted to their interests and the best good of the great
property which they have placed under his control.
Mr. Roberts is of Welsh descent, his ancestors having
come from Bala in Wales more than two hundred years
ago. As a memorial of this fact, he has given the name
of Bala to his ancestral farm, and to the adjoining station
on the Schuylkill Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad,
on the northwestern edge of Fairmount Park. It is an
interesting coincidence that on the very day that the first
British train reached Bala in Wales, the first American
train reached Bala in Pennsylvania. On this farm is an
humble residence, built by Mr. Roberts's ancestors, and
the most cherished of his possessions. In this house he
was born, and in this house he still resides, affording a
remarkable instance of home-staying attachment amid
the migratory impulse of Americans generally. He is
not a lover of social distractions, and while giving daily
attention to the duties of his position at the Philadelphia
office of the company, he returns every afternoon to his
home, where, in the enjoyment of his fine library and in
leisurely strolls over his well-tilled fields, he passes life
in a calm enjoyment of books and nature that is richly
worthy of emulation.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

9i

FRANK THOMSON.
Frank Thomson was born in Chambersburg, Penn
sylvania, July 5, 1 84 1. His great-grandfather, Alexander
Thomson, emigrated from Scotland in 1771, and became
one of the pioneer settlers in the Cumberland Valley.
His father, Hon. Alexander Thomson, represented his
district in Congress from 1824 to 1826, was for many
years president judge of the Sixteenth Judicial District,
and professor of law in Marshall College.
Mr. Thomson received his preliminary and classical
education at the Chambersburg Academy, and at seven
teen years of age selected the railway as his life-work,
and entered the shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad at
Altoona in order to thoroughly fit himself for his chosen
profession. Colonel Thomas A. Scott was at this time
general superintendent of the road. At the breaking out
ofthe war, Colonel Scott having been called to the aid of
the government in matters relating to the transportation
of troops and supplies, detailed Mr. Thomson for duty
in the military railroad department of the government
which was then being organized under his direction.
Mr. Thomson remained in the service of the govern
ment, in active duty in various parts of the South and
Southwest, until 1864, and in June of that year was
appointed superintendent of the Eastern Division of the
Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, which position he filled
until March, 1873. In the latter part of 1871 he was
temporarily detached from the active duties of his post
in order that he might direct in person, on behalf of the
Pennsylvania Railroad, the American tour of the Grand
Duke Alexis, of Russia.
In March, 1873, he was promoted to the office of
superintendent of motive power of the Pennsylvania
Railroad, which position he held a little over one year,
when he relinquished it on July 1, 1874, to become gen
eral manager of the Pennsylvania Railroad system east
of Pittsburg and Erie.
As general manager he introduced a number of reforms
in the management, administration, and maintenance of
the road. The standard track and solid road-bed owes
its existence to his efforts, and the system of track in
spection and the award of prizes for the best sections of
track were instituted by him. The adoption of a superior
standard of equipment, the building of picturesque sta

tions and the ornamentation of their grounds, the use of
the block-signal system and other safety appliances, were
all distinctive features of his management. He was also
instrumental in developing that high grade of discipline
for which the Pennsylvania Railroad is noted, and out of
which has grown a degree of loyalty on the part of the
men to the service that is remarkable in the relations of
employer and employee.
On October 1, 1882, Mr. Thomson became second
vice-president, and on October 27, 1888, was advanced
to the post of first vice-president, of which office he is
now the incumbent. In this position he is in charge of
the traffic arrangements, both freight and passenger, and
is the administrative officer of the road and the direct
representative of the president.
He is particularly charged with the traffic arrange
ments effective between the Pennsylvania Railroad and
its connections, and in this line of duty he is one of the
best known and most highly regarded railroad officials of
the country. His long service and wide experience and
comprehensive ability peculiarly fit him for this important
position. In addition to his railroad duties, Mr. Thomson is a
director of the Equitable Life Insurance Company, of
New York.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

DAVID M. BOYD, JR.
David M. Boyd, Jr., late general passenger agent ofthe
Pennsylvania Railroad System, was born in Indianapolis,
Indiana, November 4, 1840. He was educated at the
Northwestern Christian University of Indianapolis, and in
1857 began his railroad career in the office ofthe general
ticket agent of the Bellefontaine Railway at Indianapolis.
Soon after the breaking out of the Rebellion in 1861,
he entered the United States service as assistant quarter
master in charge of the accounts of General J. F. Boyd,
chief quartermaster, and was attached to General Mc-
Cook's division of the Army of the Cumberland. An
active campaign through Kentucky, Tennessee, and
northern Mississippi, culminating in the battle of Shiloh,
proved too hard a strain upon his physical endurance,
and he was obliged to return home. After recruiting his
health he again became connected with the Bellefontaine
Railway, and eventually had the practical charge of its
ticket department, where he remained until called to a
more extended sphere of usefulness in connection with
the Pennsylvania Railroad.
On the 13th of October, 1864, he was appointed as
sistant general ticket agent ofthe Pennsylvania Railroad.
On the 10th of January, 1867, his title was changed to
that of assistant general passenger and ticket agent, and
thus continued until May 26, 1869, when he was made
first assistant, and placed in direct charge of the ticket
business of the Pennsylvania Railroad and branches.

On the ist of April, 1872, he was appointed general
passenger agent of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Phil
adelphia and Erie, United Railways of New Jersey, and
their respective branches. On the ist of February, 1874,
his control was extended over the Northern Central,
Alexandria and Fredericksburg, and Baltimore and Poto
mac Railways, and on the ist of March, 1875, the West
Jersey Railway was added to his already extensive
jurisdiction. He was early identified with the Union Transfer Com
pany of Philadelphia, taking a seat at its board of direct
ors in February, 1868, and was made president in June,
1870. His administration of its affairs was eminently
successful, and the present prosperous condition of the
company owes much to his untiring energy and able
management. When commissioners were being selected by the vari
ous States to represent their interests in the Centennial
Commission, Mr. Boyd was nominated by Governor
Baker, of Indiana, as the alternate from that State, and
was duly commissioned by President Grant on the 29th
of April, 1 87 1. He remained in this position until May
21, 1874, when the onerous duties connected with his
railroad cares compelled his resignation. This did not
occur, however, before he had made his influence strongly
felt as a member of the Committee of Transportation,
and in that capacity developed the plans and organized
the comprehensive system of tickets and fares which
so largely contributed to the success of the Centennial
enterprise. During the period of his identification with the Penn
sylvania Railroad he was a powerful factor in building
up and developing the passenger business of that corpo
ration, and the splendid state of efficiency which that
department of the railroad has now reached is due in
large measure to his clear foresight, accurate judgment,
and singular ability. The signal success which attended
his efforts in the handling of the enormous passenger
traffic to and from the Centennial — the largest movement
of the kind in the railway world up to that date — was
an achievement of which any man might well be proud.
Had not the fateful summons come to him at so early
an age, the triumphs of his early life would surely have
been eclipsed by the brilliancy of his more mature
work. Mr. Boyd died April 3, 1877, leaving a widow and
six children, two of whom still survive.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

93

GEORGE W. BOYD.
George W. Boyd, assistant general passenger agent
of the Pennsylvania Railroad, is one of the best known
and most popular passenger men of the country.
He was born in Indianapolis, August i, 1848, and
entered upon his railway career in the freight department
of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis
Railway at the age of fifteen. Indianapolis was at that
time the greatest railroad centre of the country. All
the east- and west-bound freight was trans-shipped there,
and the practical experience which he gained during his
service in the freight-yards was an excellent foundation
for the deep knowledge of railway affairs which he has
since secured in wider fields. In June, 1872, when his
brother, the late D. M. Boyd, was general passenger
agent of the Pennsylvania Railroad, he removed to Phila
delphia to accept the position of cashier of the passenger
department of the same line. In January, 1874, he
became chief clerk of the passenger department of the
Pennsylvania Railroad, which position he held until Jan
uary i, 1882, when he was promoted to his present post.
As chief clerk during the Centennial, an enormous
amount of work devolved upon him incident to the great
volume of passenger travel drawn to the Pennsylvania
lines from all sections of the Union. No American rail
road had ever before been subjected to so great a stress
of travel, and the making and promulgating of the varied
and diversified rates involved stupendous labor through
out the entire period of the Exposition. As the execu
tive officer of the general passenger agent, Mr. Boyd
was in direct charge of these matters, and the skill with
which they were handled served to advance him at once
to the foremost place in the rate and division department
of all the lines in the country.
His record as assistant general passenger agent has
fully borne out the promise of his work in a subordinate
position. The duties intrusted to his care are of the most
important character. No branch of railway management
has developed more extensively in the past twenty years
than that which has the carrying of passengers as its
purpose. Not only does the making of rates to conform
to all the diversified conditions of a great and growing
country present many intricate problems which require
skill, sagacity, and good judgment for their successful
solution, but the demands of an enlightened public senti
ment necessitate the most constant effort of the passenger
department to provide additional comforts and conve
niences in the methods of travel. Under these conditions
a successful passenger manager must be progressive.
As assistant general passenger agent, Mr. Boyd is
charged with all the details of the management of his
department. The supervision of the rates of fare and
the assigning of their proportions to other lines, the
developing of passenger traffic through a corps of district

passenger agents, the advertising of the entire system,
the direction ofthe special movements of large organiza
tions and personally-conducted parties, beside the vast
amount of detail incident to the administration of the
department, come immediately under his eyes, and are
handled by him with the approval of the general pas
senger agent. These responsibilities render him a busy
man, but with admirable power of application and an
athletic constitution he performs his arduous duties with
apparent ease.
Mr. Boyd has been particularly active in his efforts to
bring passenger travel on the Pennsylvania up to the
highest possible standard. He believes in the finest and
most comfortable equipment for all trains, and is ever on
the alert to suggest and promote new features of comfort
and convenience for the patrons of his road.
He has accomplished more than any other man in
popularizing pleasure-tours under personal escort. He
developed the celebrated system of pleasure-tours of the
Pennsylvania Railroad, and was the first to introduce
the chaperon as a guide and companion for ladies travel
ling alone.
Mr. Boyd has increased his reputation as a railroad
man by the success with which he has planned and con
ducted special movements of great magnitude. The
tour of the delegates to the Pan-American Conference
throughout the country in a palatial special train, drawn
over ten thousand miles by one locomotive, reflected
great credit on his skill and ability ; and the planning
and management of the tour of President Harrison to
the Pacific Coast was the most successful movement of
the kind ever made in any country.
Mr. Boyd is just in the prime of life, vigorous, and
wonderfully active. He is an ardent sportsman, a patron
of athletics, and a member of a number of clubs.

94

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN COCHRANE.
Brigadier-General John Cochrane was born at
Palatine, Montgomery County, New York, August 27,
181 3. His father was Walter L. Cochran; grandfather,
John Cochran, surgeon-general and director of the Mili
tary Hospitals of the Army of the Revolution; mother,
Cornelia W. Smith, daughter of Judge Peter Smith, of
Peterboro', Madison County, New York, and only sister
of Gerrit Smith, of the same place ; grandmother on the
paternal side, Gertrude Schuyler, only sister of Major-
General Philip Schuyler, of Revolutionary fame ; grand
father on the maternal side, Judge Peter Smith, above
named ; grandmother on the maternal side, Elizabeth
Livingston, oldest daughter of Colonel James Livingston,
of the Army of the Revolution, who, by his timely shot,
drove the British sloop-of-war "Vulture" from her moor
ing in the North River, thus securing the capture of Andre,
effecting the discomfiture of Arnold's treason, and assur
ing the safety of West Point, the key of the Revolution.
In 1827 General Cochrane entered Hamilton College,
Clinton, Oneida County, State of New York; in 1831
was graduated; in 1834 admitted to the practice of law
in the State of New York. 1 846, removed to New York
City, where he has since continued to reside. 1853,
United States surveyor of the port of New York during
four years. 1857-61, representative in Congress from the
city of New York — two terms, i860, a member of the
Board of Visitors to West Point. 1858, deputed by Com
mon Council of the city of New York to deliver the re
mains of James Monroe, fourth President of the United
States, to his native State, Virginia. 1864, nominated for
Vice-President of the United States, with General John
C. Fremont, candidate for President. 1 86 1 , June 1 1 , com
missioned to recruit and command a regiment to serve
during the war. 1861, August 27, regiment embarked

from New York City for Washington. 1861, November
2, commissioned by President Abraham Lincoln colonel
of the First United States Chasseurs, with rank from June
11, 1861, and 1862, July 19, brigadier of U. S. Volun
teers, with rank from the 17th of July, 1862. 1863,
February 25, resigned because of severe and serious
physical disability; resignation accepted by the Presi
dent. Battles, — Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill, Antietam,
Williamsport, and Fredericksburg. 1863-65, attorney-
general of the State of New York. 1872, May 1, 2, 3,
at the national convention in Cincinnati of the Liberal
Republican party, was chiefly instrumental in the nom
ination of Horace Greeley for President of the United
States. 1872, president of the Common Council of the
city of New York, and acting mayor of the city tempo
rarily. 1869, tendered by the President, U. S. Grant, the
mission to Uraguay and Paraguay united ; declined.
1857, member of the Society of the Cincinnati, and now
president of the Society in the State of New York;
member of the Chamber of Commerce of New York,
resigned ; member of St. Nicholas Society of New York,
resigned ; sachem of Tammany Hall ; member of the
Historical Society of New York, resigned ; member of
the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and president
one year of the commandery of the State of New York ;
member of the Grand Army of the Republic, of the
Society of the Army of the Potomac, and Sons of the
Revolution. 1870, appointed by the Secretary of the
Treasury under President U. S. Grant a collector of in
ternal revenue for one of the revenue districts of the city
of New York; declined. 1889, appointed police justice
of the city of New York for ten years ; resigned after
duty one year. 1861, November 13, historic speech be
fore his regiment in camp near Washington, in the pres
ence of and with the approbation of Simon Cameron,
Secretary of War, first insisting upon the arming of the
slaves. The contemporary press announced it as the
" key-note ofthe war." Orders in regiments ofthe rebel
army were given afterwards not to take Colonel Cochrane
prisoner, but to shoot him in battle. April 6, 1863, came
this despatch to the New York Tribune: "General Thomas
(U. S. adjutant-general) appeared at Helena, Arkansas,
and enlisted slaves and formed them into battalions under
the proclamation of the President, January I, 1863."
While attorney-general of New York, General Coch
rane discovered that throughout the whole colonial period
the waters now known as the Kills and Raritan Bay were
known as part of Hudson River. The discovery of this
important historical fact, which locates Staten Island at
the east of the waters of the Hudson, — the easterly
charter boundary of New Jersey, — was communicated
by him to the New York Historical Society in 1863, and
substantiates New York's claim to the island, so long
disputed by New Jersey. .

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

95

JOHN A. HALDERMAN.
General John Adams Halderman, first United States
Minister to Siam, and an active participant in the Civil
War, was born in Kentucky, April 15, 1838, where he
worked at clerking and school-teaching until he had
acquired the means to obtain a college education. He
was educated in McKandree College, Illinois, and St.
Xavier, Ohio, and afterwards read law in the office of his
uncle, C. C. Rogers, at Lexington, Kentucky. He was
subsequently, after attending the university at Louisville,
admitted to the bar in that city. Removing to Kansas
in 1854, he became one of the pioneers of that troubled
commonwealth. He quickly there entered into active
public life, becoming private secretary to Governor
Reeder, secretary of the first Territorial Council, probate
judge of Leavenworth County, mayor of Leavenworth
for two terms, regent of the State University, mem
ber of the State House of Representatives, and State
senator. Politically, General Halderman was a member of the
Democratic party, but was opposed to the extension of
slavery, and vigorously fought against the Lecompton
constitution, taking part in the purchase of the Leaven
worth Journal as an aid in this opposition. He was a
candidate for United States Representative from Kansas,
and, though defeated by the Republican candidate, ran
far ahead of his ticket. In i860 he was a member of
the Democratic National Convention that nominated
Stephen A. Douglas for the Presidency.
On the outbreak of the Civil War, the active young
politician at once offered his services to the government,
and was made major of the first infantry regiment of the
State. He took part in the battles of Dug Spring and
Wilson's Creek in 1861, serving as colonel in the latter
engagement, and receiving honorable mention for soldierly
conduct. In the ensuing winter he was sent to Kansas
to take steps against a Confederate invasion of that State,
and in the autumn of 1862, as major-general command
ing, he organized, armed, and equipped for active service
the Northern division of the Kansas State forces. He
subsequently took part in the battle of Westport, Mis
souri, October 23, 1864.
After the war, General Halderman entered upon an
extensive course of travel, through western Europe,
Greece, Turkey, Palestine, and Egypt, during which he
occupied himself in a cultured study of the conditions of
those lands and greatly widened the scope of his informa
tion. In 1870 he was a Republican member ofthe State
House of Representatives, in which he introduced the
General Amnesty Bill and a bill to abolish capital punish
ment. He afterwards served his second term as mayor
of Leavenworth City, from which he retired in 1872 with
high praise from the press, as " mayor of the people, and
not of a party," "the best, ablest, and purest chief

magistrate that Leavenworth ever had." On the 4th
of July of the same year he presided over the annual
American banquet in London, in honor of the day,
and in his speech there strongly urged the renomina-
tion of General Grant to the Presidency. In 1874 he
was elected to the State Senate of Kansas, in which
body he became chairman of the Committee on Educa
tion, and earnestly advocated many important public
measures. In 1880, General Halderman was appointed United
States consul at Bangkok, Siam, and was subsequently
appointed consul-general by President Garfield. In 1882,
President Arthur appointed him to the responsible posi
tion of United States Minister to the court of Siam, he
being the first to hold that office. His public presenta
tion in his new diplomatic character at the Siamese court
was made the occasion of an imposing Oriental pageant.
In August, 1885, he resigned, and returned to the United
States. While in Siam, General Halderman did his utmost to
suppress a nefarious traffic in spirits under cover of the
American flag; for which, and for his "faithful observance
of treaty obligations," the king of Siam conferred on him
the decoration of Knight Commander of the most Ex
alted Order of the White Elephant. King Norodon, of
Cambodia, bestowed on him the diploma and jewel of
Commander of the Royal Order of Cambodia in appre
ciation of his efforts to introduce postal and telegraph
service into Cambodia and Cochin China. For the latter
he also received the thanks of the Universal Postal
Union, and in 1883 Highland University conferred on
him the honorary degree of LL.D. In 1896, General
Halderman presented to the Smithsonian Institution a
rare collection of autograph letters, extending in date
from 1855 to the present time.

96

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

EDWARD D. COPE.
Edward Drinker Cope is a grandson of Thomas P.
Cope, and was born in Philadelphia, July 28, 1840. He
received his preliminary education in private schools of
that city, and afterwards studied in the medical depart
ment of the University of Pennsylvania, but did not
graduate, his love of biological science having so greatly
developed that he decided to make its study his life
work. His first scientific paper — a description of the
bony structure of the mouth of venomous snakes — was
published at the early age of nineteen. It was followed
by others of much scientific value, through which the
young author became early recognized as a promising
addition to the contributors to natural science. From
that time to this he has been steadily engaged in biologi
cal study, particularly in the field of vertebrate palaeon
tology, in which he has done a quantity of accurate
and important work which leaves him to-day almost
without a rival in this particular branch of science,
either in America or Europe. In addition to his studies
of material, he has proved himself a thinker of unusual
scope and power, and shares with Darwin, Spencer, and
other leading thinkers the credit of developing the great
theory of evolution.
Professor Cope's ability was early recognized in his
election to membership in many learned societies at
home and abroad, including the United States National
Academy of Science, the American Philosophical Society,
the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and
other American institutions ; the Royal Academy of Sci
ences of Bavaria, the Geological and Zoological Societies
of London, and the Geological Society of France. He
has been the recipient of the Bigsby gold medal of the
Geological Society of London for his palseontological
works, and of the Hayden gold medal of the Academy

of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia for his labors in
geology. He is Ph.D. of Heidelberg. For years he
occupied the chair of Natural History in Haverford Col
lege, Pennsylvania, and since 1890 has been connected
with the University of Pennsylvania, first as professor of
Geology and Mineralogy, and since 1893 as professor of
Zoology and Comparative Anatomy. It may be briefly
said here that there is no man in America better fitted to
fill these important chairs.
His explorations have been numerous and valuable.
He served as geologist and palaeontologist in the United
States Geological and Geographical Survey west of the
One Hundredth Meridian, under Captain G. M.Wheeler,
and as palaeontologist in the United States Geological
Survey of the Territories, under Dr. F. V. Hayden.
From 1 87 1 to 1881 scarcely a year passed without find
ing him in some part of the rich fossiliferous regions of
the west, rapidly adding to his collection of vertebrate
remains. In addition to his personal labors, he sent out
numerous expeditions at his own expense, whose explora
tions were not confined to this country, but extended
to Brazil and Peru, in South America. His most recent
work in this direction was in connection with the Geo
logical Survey of Texas in 1892, and an exploration of
South Dakota and other States in 1893.
The amount of material gathered by Professor Cope
during these years has been enormous in extent and in
valuable in character. It composes one of the largest
and most varied collections of vertebrate fossils in ex
istence. In his numerous works and papers he has
described more than one thousand species of extinct
vertebrata, man}' of which represent families and orders
previously unknown. These works include " Synopsis of
the Extinct Batrachia and Reptilia of North America"
(1869-71) ; " On the Vertebrata of the Cretaceous Forma
tion of the West" (1875); "On the Vertebrate Palaeon
tology of New Mexico" (1877); "On the Vertebrata of
the Tertiary Formation of the West" (1884); and "The
Batrachia of North America" (1889). In addition to
these great works, he has published a multitude of scien
tific papers in the Proceedings of various scientific soci
eties, a number of which are comprised in " The Origin
of the Fittest," issued in 1887, and for many years has
edited and published the American Naturalist.
Many of these papers are devoted to the evolutionary
theory, among them being " On the Origin of Genera
(1868); " Method of Creation of Organic Types" (187 1);
"Consciousness in Evolution" (1875) ; "The Evidences
of Evolution in the History of the Extinct Mammalia"
(1883). These are but a few titles selected out of many,
in which Professor Cope has developed numerous scien
tific generalizations, some of them of leading importance.
He is an earnest advocate of what is known as the Neo-
Lamarckian hypothesis of evolution.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

97

GEORGE C. REMEY.
Captain George C. Remey is a native of Burlington,
Iowa, in which city he was born August 10, 1841. His
father, W. B. Remey, was a Kentuckian, and his mother,
whose maiden name was Howland, was a native of Ver
mont. Captain Remey graduated from the United States
Naval Academy in June, 1859, and immediately joined
the United States flag-ship " Hartford," — of New Orleans
and Mobile fame, — and sailed for the Asiatic Station.
The " Hartford" returned to the United States in Decem
ber, 1 861, and Remey was at once appointed executive
officer ofthe gunboat " Marblehead," in which he served
until April, 1863, when he was transferred to the steam-
sloop " Canandaigua" as executive officer. During his
service in the " Marblehead" he commanded that vessel
for a short period, and while attached to these two vessels
took part in several engagements with the enemy's
batteries. From August 23 to September 8, 1863, he
commanded the naval battery on Morris Island during
the siege of Fort Wagner and the bombardment of Fort
Sumter, and in the night attack on Sumter, September 8,
commanded the second division of boats. The attack,
though boldly conceived and well pushed, proved un
successful, and resulted in great loss in killed, wounded,
and prisoners. Remey landed on the fort, but his boat
was sunk, and he was made a prisoner.
Thirteen months were then passed by him in the jail of
Columbia, South Carolina, and a short time in the jail
of Charlotte, North Carolina, and in Libby Prison, in
Richmond, Virginia, from which latter point he was ex
changed, and came North. In February, 1865, he was
made the executive officer of the United States steamer
" De Soto," and from April, 1865, to August, 1867, was
executive officer of the United States steamer " Mohon-
go," on the Pacific Station. Having accomplished this
long tour of service, he became instructor in gunnery at
the Naval Academy, and in 1869-70 was executive officer
of the United States frigate " Sabine," on special service.
At the time of the expedition for the survey of the
Tehuantepec and Nicaragua routes for a canal in 1870-
71, Remey was one of the staff, being employed during
the intervals of service at the Naval Observatory. For
a few months of 1872 he commanded the United States
steamer " Frolic," and from August of that year to May,
1873, was upon staff-duty on board the United States
flag-ship " Worcester," of the North Atlantic Squadron.
From 1874 to 1877 he was in the Bureau of Yards and
Docks, Navy Department, Washington, with the excep
tion of three months, when he commanded the naval
force during the troubles upon the Rio Grande.
In 1877-78 he commanded the "Enterprise," North
Atlantic Station, going from thence to Newport for tor
pedo instruction. The course completed, he returned

to the Bureau of Yards and Docks, and from 1881 till
1883 served on the European squadron as commander
of the flag-ship " Lancaster." Upon his return he was
ordered to the navy-yard at Washington, during which
time he received his promotion to a captaincy. He
served three years in this grade at the navy-yard, Nor
folk, Virginia, and was then, in November, 1889, ordered
to the command of the " Charleston," fitting out at San
Francisco. This fine ship, a protected cruiser of modern
type, with twin screws, two military masts, and eight
guns, was the flag-ship of Acting Rear-Admiral George
Brown, and her active service in connection with the
Chilian business made her name well known to the
country at large. Though his tour of duty on board
the " Charleston" expired before the settlement of the
Chilian troubles, he was retained in the command while
there was a prospect of hostile action ; but was after
wards relieved in regular course. He subsequently served
as captain of the navy-yard at Portsmouth, New Hamp
shire, and is now president of the Naval Examining
Board and a member of the Retiring Board of the navy.
Captain Remey had a younger brother in the service,
E. W. Remey, who rose to the rank of lieutenant, and
was a most capable and energetic officer, liked by all
with whom he came in contact, whether officer or man.
He graduated at the Naval Academy in the class of 1867.
Another brother, Colonel W. B. Remey, ofthe United
States Marine Corps, was judge-advocate-general of the
navy from 1880 to 1892. He died in January, 1895.
Captain Remey is a Companion of the Military Order
of the Loyal Legion, and was made a Knight Companion
of the Royal Order of Kalakaua by his late Majesty
King Kalakaua, of the Hawaiian Islands. His connec
tion with the political disturbances in Hawaii renders his
recognition in this manner quite proper.

!3

98

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ALEXANDER K. McCLURE.
Colonel McClure, the widely-known editor of The
Philadelphia Times, was born in Sherman's Valley, Perry
County, Pennsylvania, January 9, 1828, the son of a
farmer of that locality. At the age of fourteen his
school-life ended, he being apprenticed to the tanner's
trade. During his apprenticeship he frequently visited
the office of the Perry Freeman, the county paper, whose
editor, Judge Baker, became his friend and adviser.
Here he grew so conversant with political matters that
in the end he wrote several articles which were published
in the Freeman.
About this time the Whigs of Juniata County decided
to start a county organ of their cause, and asked Judge
Baker to recommend an editor. He promptly named
Alexander McClure, whom he urged and finally pre
vailed upon to undertake it. His father, who had op
posed the project, finally supplied him with some money,
with which be bought a supply of second-hand type and
an old-fashioned hand-press, and in the fall of 1846 he
issued the Juniata Sentinel, still the leading Republican
paper of the county. The paper prospered from the day
it started. Young McClure, then but nineteen years old,
learned type-setting and all the business details of the
office, and at the end of a year dispensed with all experi
enced help, setting the type, doing the press-work, writing
the editorials, and performing all the other labor of the
office himself, with the aid of a single apprentice.
Young as he was, McClure was thoroughly indoc
trinated with the principles of the Whig party, through
the teachings of his father and his conversations with
Judge Baker, and his editorials were written with such
point and vigor that they quickly attracted attention.
In 1848 he took an active part in the campaign in which
Governor Johnson was elected, and on the day in which

he reached his twenty-first year was appointed by the new
governor upon his staff, with the rank and title of colonel.
In 1848 he had also supported Andrew G. Curtin in
his candidacy for Congress. This service was repaid in
1850 by Mr. Curtin having him appointed deputy United
States marshal for Juniata County, to take the census
of that year. Soon after, a friend purchased for him a
half interest in the Chambersburg Repository, and he
entered upon a wider field of editorial duty. In the few
succeeding years his ability as a political editor became
so manifest that in 1853 he was nominated as the Whig
candidate for auditor-general, being the youngest man
ever nominated for a State office in Pennsylvania. The
Whigs, however, were in a minority, and he was defeated.
Mr. McClure took an active part in the subsequent
organization of the Republican party, was a delegate to
the convention that nominated Fremont, and stumped
the State in his favor. In 1856 he sold his paper, and
gave up journalism for the practice of the law, in whose
study he had long been engaged. This did not continue
long. In 1857 he was elected to the State Legislature,
re-elected in 1868, and sent to the State Senate in 1869,
after a vigorous campaign, in which his powers as an
orator were strikingly shown. In i860 he took a leading
part in the presidential and gubernatorial campaigns,
organized the Republican party of the State, and was
the acknowledged State leader in the active contest that
gave Lincoln the majority and sent Curtin to the gov
ernor's chair with a majority of 32,164.
In 1862 he was appointed Assistant Adjutant-General,
with the duty of enforcing the draft in Pennsylvania.
This was so ably done that the State's quota of regi
ments was quickly filled. In the same year he repur
chased the Repository, and returned to editorial duties,
which he continued till 1864, in which year his office
was burned during the Confederate raid, and his entire
fortune of nearly $100,000 was lost.
Mr. McClure came to Philadelphia in 1868, and entered
upon the practice of the law, proposing to give up poli
tics. But in the 1872 movement for reform within the
party ranks he took an active part, became a Liberal
Republican candidate for the State Senate, was declared
defeated, but contested the election, and gained his seat
by senatorial decision. In 1873 he was on the inde
pendent ticket for mayor of Philadelphia, but was de
feated by a small majority, after a vigorous and exciting
campaign. In 1875 he resumed journalism, in conjunc
tion with Mr. Frank McLaughlin starting The Times
newspaper as an independent journal, pledged to assail
misconduct in office without regard to party lines. This
position it has maintained to the present time. During
the period that has succeeded, Mr. McClure has devoted
himself to journalism, and the history of The Times has
been that of its energetic and aggressive editor.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

99

ROBERT BURTON RODNEY.
Robert Burton Rodney, paymaster in the United
States navy, was born in the State of Delaware about
1840, and entered the naval service of the United States
early in the Civil War, as acting assistant paymaster
when not yet twenty-two years of age. His period of
official duty in this capacity began on October 25, 1862,
and he served as paymaster of the ordnance-ship " Dale,"
then stationed at Key West, during the remainder of
1862 and part of the succeeding year. Thence he was
transferred to the blockader " J. S. Chambers," within
which he passed through an experience such as few of
the naval officers of the United States have been called
upon to endure.
The life of Paymaster Rodney during the closing part
of the war was one of patient and severe suffering, and
his experience such as fortunately is rarely equalled,
and from which many who could boldly face the enemy
in the field would involuntarily shrink. There are other
victories besides those of the unbattled field, and vic
tories which require often far more courage and en
durance. During August and September, 1864, while
he was on duty on the blockader "J. S. Chambers," that
gunboat was stricken by the yellow fever with fright
ful virulence, the rate of mortality being greater than
has ever been known elsewhere in the history of the
navy. The vessel, without consorts, lay moored off
Indian River Inlet, Florida, in a helpless state, almost
its whole complement of seventy men lying sick simulta
neously. The death-rate was frightfully heavy, about one-
fourth of the crew and one-half of the officers succumbing
to the death-dealing scourge. Among the latter was the
commander. The only medical officer, utterly worn out
by the incessant strain upon him, became helpless, and
had himself to be placed under close care. The vessel
resounded night and day with the delirious shrieks of
the sick and dying, and so frightful became the horror
of the situation that an officer, still free from the dis
ease, sprang overboard to escape these brain-distracting
sounds, and was drowned.
Being among the few well, Mr. Rodney had innumer
able duties to perform in this floating pest-house, and
among these delirious and dying sufferers. Both his
clerk and steward were among the dead, and all the
charge of the provisions, clothing, and stores fell to his
care. In addition to his personal services in this field,
he served as watch-officer, chaplain, and nurse, his labors
being of the most wearing and distracting character.
Of the dead, all except the first were buried at sea.
Worn out by these labors, Rodney himself was at

length seized by the fever, being the last attacked. The
ship in the end succeeded in making its way north, and
he was landed at the Philadelphia lazaretto, in which he
came very near death. His frame never altogether re
covered its former exuberant vigor.
His service after recovery, and during part of 1865,
was in the " Donegal" and the " Massachusetts," from
which he was transferred to the double-ender " Cone-
maugh," serving on her until the end of 1866. On July
23, 1866, he was one of the few selected, out of about
four hundred acting assistant paymasters, as highly
meriting promotion to the regular navy, and that of the
advanced grade of passed assistant. In the sole instance
of Rodney, among those selected, the board recorded,
and in red ink for special emphasis, " Examination es
pecially complimentary to Rodney."
During 1867 he served at Annapolis on the training-
frigates "Constitution" and " Santee," and during 1 868-
69 on the store-ship " Ceyane," at Panama Bay. On
June 30, 1869, he was promoted paymaster, bearing the
relative rank of lieutenant- colonel. In 1 870-71 he served
on the iron-clad " Terror" in Cuban waters, and in the
latter year was placed (nominally) on the retired list.
Mr. Rodney descends from ancestry of marked dis
tinction, his family name being found in the naval history
and peerage of Great Britain, and borne on the rolls of
the signers of the Declaration of Independence, the
United States House and Senate, Attorney Generals of
the United States, and governors of Delaware. He is
the author of " Allion and Rosamond" and lesser poems,
and " Pay-day at Babel."

IOO

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

REAR-ADMIRAL HENRY WALKE.
Rear-Admiral Henry Walke was born in 1808, in
Princess Anne County, Virginia, on " The Ferry Planta
tion," about ten miles from Norfolk, which was owned and
occupied by his ancestors for several generations, the first
of whom emigrated to this country from England in 1662
and settled. He is related by descent or intermarriage to
the Calverts, Randolphs, Masons, Meades, and other pro
minent families of Virginia at an early date. His father,
Anthony Walke, who emigrated to Ohio in 1820, and
settled near Chillicothe, was a man of considerable culture.
He served five terms as a representative in the Legislature
of Ohio, and two terms as a senator from Ross County.
Mr. Walke entered the navy in 1827, and in 1828
came to New York as a midshipman of the United States
ship " Natchez," — she was fifteen hours beating up from
Sandy Hook to Castle Williams, in a north-east gale.
After reaching the navy-yard the ship was moored to
the " Cob-Dock," to freeze out the yellow fever (con
tracted at Vera Cruz), by order of Commodore Chauncey,
successor of Commodore Evans, who designed and com
pleted many of its buildings, walls, and walks.
In the cold morning watches Midshipman Walke was
sent to the Catherine Ferry Market in the dingy for pro
visions for the officers' breakfast, and if any of the crew
deserted, he had to spend his " day's liberty" in search
ing for them, and if not caught or returned to the ship,
he had to pay their debts, and thus by early experience
he obtained a knowledge of the city. He was attached
to the " Ontario" when the " Fulton" was blown up, by
-an intoxicated gunner, it was said. The explosion was
terrible, some of the men were blown into Wall-About
Bay, the commander was killed, and his wife seriously
injured. The mainmast and yards fell with a great crash,
killing and wounding quite a number.

While attached to the same ship, in 1829, off the
Western Islands, when she was knocked down on her
beam-ends nearly, and her commander, Thomas H.
Stevens, called or beckoned for volunteers " to go aloft
and furl the main-topsail," which had not been furled,
and was holding the ship down (little could be heard or
seen in the roaring storm, flapping topsail, and flying
spray), Midshipman Walke was the only officer that vol
unteered, and with seven or eight men went aloft, and
furled the sail, which, no doubt, saved the ship, as then
stated by the late Admirals Charles H. Davis and J. A.
Dahlgren, and by Mr. Lee, consul-general at Algiers,
whose report of the hurricane was soon after published.
In 1839, after a three years' cruise in the Pacific, he
returned to New York in the 80-gun ship " North Caro
lina," and was one of her lieutenants at the time of the
Astor Place riot, when the mob was dispersed by Cap
tain J. G. Renolds with his marines and artillery, and
when the old veteran privateer Captain S. E. Reid was
wounded by a pistol-shot.
From 1836 to 1853 he served as lieutenant of the
" North Carolina" and other ships of war at sea and in
this port. She was for many years the most prominent
and admired man-of-war in this harbor or any other,
and was frequently visited by the people of New York
and Brooklyn, as well as by strangers and foreigners.
In the war with Mexico he participated in the capture
of all her principal ports. He rendered important ser
vice during the civil war, in preventing the capture of
Fort Pickens at Pensacola by the Confederates. On
the Western waters the gun-boats under his command
were always in the front line of battle, and were the
leaders in nearly all our victories. They were fore-
mostly engaged at Belmont, Fort Henry, Fort Donelson,
twice, Island No. 10, three or four times, Fort Pillow,
Memphis, the Yazoo, Vicksburg, Grand Gulf, twice, and
Simsport. He was thus engaged in four times as many
victories as any other commanding officer, and as often
misrepresented or ignored in the official reports. After
a month's leave of absence he was placed in command
of the "Sacramento," and sent in search of the "Ala
bama" in the North and South Atlantic Ocean, and was
in close pursuit of that vessel from the Cape of Good
Hope when she was sunk by the " Kearsarge."
He blockaded the " Rappahannock" (of the same class
as the " Alabama") for fifteen months, off and on, at
Calais, and, after her escape from that port, overtook her
in British waters, going into Liverpool, where she re
mained until the end of the war.
Rear-Admiral Walke, with his family, has been a resi
dent of New York City and Brooklyn for many years,
and he has always felt great interest and pride in their
growth and prosperity. He usually sailed from and
returned to the New York Navy-Yard.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

101

JAY COOKE.
Jay Cooke was born in Sandusky, Ohio, August 10,
1821. His father was Hon. Eleutheros Cooke, a leading
lawyer of that place, and a member of Congress from
1831 to 1833. Young Cooke entered the banking-house
of E. W. Clark & Co., Philadelphia, in 1839. He quickly
became that firm's confidential clerk, receiving a power of
attorney to sign for them in all matters eighteen months
before he became of age. On reaching his majority on
August 10, 1842, he was admitted as a partner in the
firm, of which he continued to be a member until Janu
ary, 1858. Retiring temporarily from the banking busi
ness, he gave his time for three years to negotiating rail
way securities and building railways. During this period
he negotiated the sale of the Pennsylvania State canals.
While he was of the firm of E. W. Clark & Co. they
negotiated a large portion of the government loans to
carry on the Mexican War, and this combined experience
served to prepare Mr. Cooke for the far greater work of
negotiating the loans required for prosecuting the war for
the Union.
On January 1, 1861, Mr. Cooke resumed the banking
business in Philadelphia with Mr. William G. Moorhead,
under the firm-name of Jay Cooke & Co., with branch
houses under the same title subsequently established in
New York and Washington, and a branch in London in
connection with Hon. Hugh McCulloch, ex- Secretary of
the Treasury, under the firm-name of Jay Cooke, McCul
loch & Co. This international banking business continued
successfully until the general financial revulsion of 1873,
which was the beginning of a period of general shrinkage
and liquidation following the inflation of the war period.
In the midst of these adverse general conditions, the
immediate occasion of the suspension of the house of Jay
Cooke & Co. was their attempt to carry too heavy a load
in connection with the construction of the Northern Pacific
Railroad, one of the most timely and beneficent com
mercial undertakings of the century. With but brief
delay Mr. Cooke, by a few years of activity along finan
cial lines, completely restored his fortune.
Mr. Cooke's reputation and place in history will be
fixed mainly by his work of successfully negotiating the
government war-loans. At the outbreak of hostilities in
1 86 1 the national treasury was empty, and the public
credit so low that it could only borrow money at the
rate of twelve per cent, per annum. The enormous
demands of the war immediately dwarfed into insignifi
cance all previous American experiences, and all ordi
nary instrumentalities in the way of raising money. The
needs of the treasury for military expenditure speedily
reached one million dollars daily, and before the end
came, with an army of a million men in the field, the

demand reached the colossal volume of three million
dollars every twenty-four hours. Each successive Secre
tary of the Treasury — Chase, Fessenden, McCulloch —
first exhausted all known means for negotiating the war-
loans directly by the government and through the co
operation of the national banking system, which had
been devised largely as an aid to the government finances ;
but each in succession was compelled by failure to call
Mr. Cooke to his side, and to him, as sole fiscal agent of
the government, was intrusted the direct responsibility of
providing the money for carrying forward to a victorious
issue the greatest war of history.
All competent writers on the war for the Union,
both American and foreign, agree that the signal and
sustained ability with which the financial credit of the
nation was built up and maintained in the midst of war,
and with which the money-raising power of the people
was stimulated, guided, and upheld, was not second as a
factor in military success to the skill of generals and
courage of troops in the field. General Grant expressed
this common conviction when, at the close of the war, he
sent from City Point to Mr. Cooke, with his thanks, the
assurance that to his efforts the nation was largely in
debted for the means that had rendered military success
possible. The loans negotiated by Mr. Cooke, chiefly through
an enthusiastic, confident, persistent, and skilful appeal to
the patriotism of the people, reached an aggregate of two
thousand million dollars, and the compensation for this
service, an average of three-eighths of one per cent., out
of which came all expenses and commissions to sub-
agents, left to the fiscal agent as a reward little besides
the prestige and satisfaction of a great success in support
of a noble cause.

102

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JOHN PULFORD.
Colonel John Pulford was born in New York City,
July 4, 1837, being the son of Edward and Sarah Lloyd
(Avis) Pulford, the former a native of Norwich, and the
latter of Bristol, England. They emigrated to New
York City in 1833. He was educated in the public
schools and afterwards read law, and is now a member
of the Detroit Bar, in which city he has resided since
1850. When the war of the Rebellion broke out in 1861
he was proprietor of a hotel and foreman of Engine
Company No. 3 in Detroit, and on April 20 he, in con
junction with Mr. E. T. Sherlock, proprietor of the
Metropolitan Theatre, reorganized said fire company
into a military company, offered his services to the
general government, and on June 19, 1861, was com
missioned first lieutenant Fifth Michigan Infantry. He
was stationed at Fort Wayne, Michigan, until September
11, 1 86 1, when he, with his regiment, left that city to
join the Army of the Potomac. He was actively engaged
in all the campaigns and battles of this army up to
Malvern Hill, where he was severely wounded by a
ricochet cannon-ball, which fractured his temporal bone
and also broke his jaw- and collar-bones. He was taken
prisoner and retained at Richmond until July 18, 1862,
when he was exchanged. He was promoted captain
May 15, 1862, and major January 1, 1863. He did not
recover from his wounds until September 12, 1862, when
he again took the field, and participated in the battle of
Fredericksburg. In this battle his company and regi
ment suffered severely.
The regimental commander having been killed at
Fredericksburg, Captain Pulford, although one of the
junior captains, was soon after appointed major of the
regiment, the officers of the regiment having petitioned
to the governor of Michigan for his promotion, on

account of his efficient services. At the battle of Chan-
cellorsville, May 2, 1863, he assisted in the capture of
the Twenty-third Georgia Infantry, and the next day,
May 3, assumed command of the regiment, after Lieu
tenant-Colonel E. T. Sherlock had been killed. He
remained in command of the regiment (though suffering
severely from a wound received at Chancellorsville) up
to and including the battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,
in which he was twice wounded, but did not leave the
field or his command.
Major Pulford was promoted lieutenant-colonel of the
Fifth Michigan, May 3, 1863, and in August of that year
was sent to New York City with his regiment to assist
in quelling the draft riots, and from there to Troy, New
York, for the same purpose, returning to the Army of
the Potomac September 18, 1863. On December 29,
1863, he went on veteran furlough, and returning to the
field in February, 1864, participated in the actions and
movements of the Army of the Potomac to the sur
render of Lee, April 9, 1865.
At the battle of the Wilderness, Colonel Pulford was
severely wounded, having his back broken and both arms
partially disabled from an injury to the brachial plexus
and loss of part of the first and second dorsal vertebrae.
He was promoted colonel of his regiment July 12, 1864
and brevet brigadier-general of volunteers March 13
1865, "for good conduct and meritorious services during
the war," and was honorably mustered out July 5, 1865.
Colonel Pulford held on various occasions command
of a brigade and division during the war, and of several
Western regiments at its close, in Louisville, Kentucky.
He has to his credit the following battles and actions :
Siege of Yorktown, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Peach
Orchard, Glendale, Malvern Hill, Fredericksburg, Chan
cellorsville, Gettysburg, Wapping Heights, Auburn
Heights, Kelly's Ford, Locust Grove, Mine Run, Wil
derness, siege of Petersburg, Deep Bottom, Strawberry
Plains, and Poplar Springs Church ; also the first line of
battle at Boydton Plank Road, October 27, 1864; Hatch
er's Run, Boydton Plank Road, capture of Petersburg,
Sailor's Creek and New Store, and the surrender of the
insurgent armies at Appomattox Court-House.
On February 23, 1866, Colonel Pulford entered the
regular army as second lieutenant of the Nineteenth
Infantry, and was promoted first lieutenant the same
day. He joined his regiment at Newport Barracks,
Kentucky, and served with it in the Southwest and
West, and engaged in General Hancock's expedition
across the plains against hostile Indians to April, 1867.
Subsequently he was placed on reconstruction duty in
the South, and on recruiting duty at Newport Barracks,
Kentucky, and was retired from active service with the
rank of colonel, on account of wounds received in the
line of duty, December 15, 1870.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

103

JAMES H. GILLIS.
Commodore James H. GiLLiswas born in Elk County,
Pennsylvania, May 14, 1831. He is descended from a
younger branch of the Scotch clan of McPhersons, Gillis
(Gaelic for Elias) being the first to assume the name.
He is also a descendant of the Stewarts, Admiral Charles
Stewart being his grand-uncle. His ancestors on both
sides were Revolutionary soldiers, and his father served
through the war of 1 812-18 15. He entered the United
States navy October 12, 1848, and was, after a brief
period at the Naval Academy, ordered to the United
States frigate " Raritan," flag-ship ofthe Home squadron.
After about eighteen months' service in the Gulf and
West Indies, he was ordered to the sloop-of-war " Dale,"
in which he served nearly three years on the coast of
Africa. Here he contracted the deadly African fever,
from whose effects he did not fully recover for many
years. Returning in 1853 to the Naval Academy, he
passed his examination, and was promoted to passed
midshipman in 1854.
Starting in the corvette " John Adams" for a cruise
in the Pacific, he was sent home from Rio de Janeiro
on account of failing health. On September 15, 1855,
he was promoted to master, and the following day to
lieutenant; was engaged on coast survey duty till 1857,
and during the following two years was attached to the
store-ship "Supply." On March 1, 1859, while m the
harbor of Montevideo, he went to the rescue of the crew
of the Argentine schooner " Filomena," which had foun
dered outside the harbor in a pampero, or violent south
west pampas gale. For three hours he battled with the
winds and waves, and finally succeeded in landing three
of the crew — all that were left — amid the wild excitement
of thousands of spectators, who viewed his feat as a mad
and impossible effort. For this act of gallant self-devo
tion, Lieutenant Gillis received the warmest thanks of
the Argentine government, was made honorary member
of the various societies of the city, and received numer
ous testimonials, while the citizens vied with each other
to do him honor. In 1889, on his return to those waters
as commander-in-chief of the South Atlantic station, his
noble act was remembered, and he was presented with a
magnificent medal of steel, bound with gold, and sur
mounted by a life-buoy in white enamel and a setting
sun of gold, the rays set with diamonds.
Lieutenant Gillis subsequently served on the " Alle
ghany" at Baltimore, on the " Water Witch" to prevent
the landing of slaves in Cuba, and on the " Richmond"
and "Susquehanna" in the Mediterranean, returning
home in June, 1861, shortly after the outbreak of the
Civil War. In this field of duty he was first attached to
the frigate " St. Lawrence," of the Atlantic squadron, and

took part in the sinking of the rebel privateer " Petrel" in
July, 1 86 1. While in command of the " E. B. Hale," in
1862, he was ambushed at Slaum's Bluff by a battery
and two regiments of infantry, after the capture of a
rebel battery at the junction of Dawho and South Edisto
Rivers. He drove them off, however, for which success
ful action he received a letter of commendation from the
Secretary of the Navy.
In June, 1862, in command of the steamer " Commo
dore Morris," took an active part in the battle of Seces-
sionville, James Island, South Carolina. Promoted to
lieutenan-tcommander July, 1862. On April 16, 1863,
he had a fight with a rebel battery at Taylor's landing,
Pamunky River, Virginia. In 1864 he was transferred
to the West Gulf blockading squadron, commanding at
various times the " Elk," the " Monongahela," the " Octo-
rara," the " Sciota," and the " Milwaukee." In the latter
vessel, while engaged with Spanish Fort, Mobile Bay,
March 28, 1865, she was almost instantly sunk by a rebel
torpedo. After the destruction of his vessel, he com
manded a naval battery on shore, under General Canby,
participating in the siege and capture of the fort.
Promoted to commander, July, 1866, and in May,
1867, ordered to the command ofthe " Wateree," Pacific
station. On August 13, 1868, while lying off Arica,
Peru, that city was completely destroyed by an earth
quake, and the " Wateree" was carried half a mile inland
by the tidal wave, leaving her high and dry. She was
the only vessel escaping destruction and terrible loss of
life. Commander Gillis received the thanks of the Eng
lish government for his assistance to English families.
Promoted to captain, September 30, 1876; to commo
dore, January 29, 1887; and retired on account of age,
May 14, 1893.

104

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JEROME CARTY.
Jerome Carty, one of the most widely-known and
successful of the younger members of the Philadelphia
bar, was born at Springfield, Pennsylvania, October 20,
1845. His father, Nicholas Justin Carty, a Pennsylva-
nian of Irish descent, served in the army during the
Civil War, and died after its close. The family moved to
Philadelphia when Jerome was about six years old, and
his education was obtained in the public schools of that
city. At the age of sixteen, he entered the office of
Hon. D. M. Fox, to study conveyancing, and remained
there for three years, after which he decided to make the
law his profession, and entered the law department of
the University of Pennsylvania, while he became a stu
dent in the office of Hon. Charles E. Lex.
He graduated from the University in 1866, and was
admitted to the bar in November of the same year.
From this time till the death of Mr. Lex (in May, 1872)
he continued in the office of that eminent practitioner, as
his colleague and confidential assistant, taking part in
his extensive practice in equity, Orphans' Court, and
corporation matters. The connection was of the utmost
service to the young lawyer, in indoctrinating him with
the excellent business methods of his preceptor. After
Mr. Lex's death he continued in charge of the business
till 1874, when he took offices for himself.
Among the important matters settled by Mr. Carty,
after Mr. Lex's death, was the sale of a large tract of
coal lands in Pennsylvania to the Lehigh Valley Rail
road Company. This transaction took three years of
labor, and involved intricate questions of railroad law
and conveyancing, and important interests in New York,
Boston, Newport, and Europe. He also, for some time
after Mr. Lex's death, succeeded him as solicitor for the
Fire Association.

In 1873, his health failing on account of overwork in
closing Mr. Lex's extensive business, he went to Europe,
acting while there as counsel for the Loup Creek Coal
Trust Syndicate, of West Virginia. This enterprise cov
ered a tract of 30,000 acres of land, and involved a large
amount of money. His negotiations in London in its
behalf were successful, until the failure of Jay Cooke
brought on the panic of 1873. In 1878 he conducted an
important case before the Supreme Court of the United
States, involving large interests in Illinois, and succeeded
in reversing the action of the Circuit Court for the Dis
trict of Illinois, and establishing an important precedent
in land titles in that State.
In 1882, having previously had some important expe
rience in the law of patents and trade-marks, Mr. Carty
took an office in the Record Building, and associated
himself, in this line of practice, with John A. Wieder-
sheim, the well-known patent solicitor. The business thus
established has been eminently successful,' and has ex
tended to the location of offices in New York and Wash
ington, Mr. Carty devoting his attention exclusively to the
law branch. His services in behalf of the city of Carlsbad,
Austria, in suppressing the sale of spurious Carlsbad salts,
and in other important cases, have given him an extended
reputation in the law governing trade-marks.
Mr. Carty was prominent in the telephone litigation in
opposition to the Bell Telephone Company, and in con
nection with the London and Globe Telephone Company
of England. He has travelled extensively in Europe,
has represented the Franklin Institute on that continent,
and has professional interests in England, France, and
Belgium. He speaks French and German fluently. In
1885 he was offered the vice-presidency ofthe American
Exhibition, to be held in London that year, but declined
on account of professional engagements. He is the
accredited delegate of the Manufacturers' Club to the
National Transportation Association, for which, in 1892,
he made a comprehensive argument before a committee
of the House of Representatives on a uniform bill of
lading. He is also general counsel for the Association.
Pie has been identified with various charitable associa
tions, being counsel for the Old Man's Home, and a
member of the Board of Managers of the Bedford Street
Mission. He took an active part in the organization of
the Philadelphia Society for Organizing Charity. He is
a member of the Franklin Institute, the Pennsylvania
Historical Society, the Union League, the Manufacturers'
Club, the City Liberal Club of London, the Lawyers'
Club and Lotos Club of New York, and the Order of
Freemasons. He is an active member ofthe Republican
party, and has taken an active part in national campaigns.
He is a fluent and impressive speaker and a terse writer,
having contributed frequent articles to newspapers and
magazines on political and other subjects.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

105

CHARLES BAEDER.
Charles Baeder, one of Philadelphia's foremost manu
facturers, was born October 2, 1807, at Oberderdingen,
a few miles from Stuttgart, Wiirtemberg, Germany, his
father being John George Baeder, a citizen and farmer
of Unterderdingen, and his mother, Margaretta Geissler,
daughter of John Geissler, mayor of Schneis. They
had several children. The father died May 14, 18 14,
aged forty-five years, but the mother survived until her
seventy-third year, dying December 15, 1837. At eigh
teen years of age, the subject of our sketch left home to
seek his fortune in America, whither he was subsequently
followed by a brother, who settled in New Orleans, and
two sisters, Mrs. Katz and Mrs. Adamson. Landing in
Baltimore, friendless and penniless, he made his way to
Philadelphia, and there found employment in the cabinet-
making establishment of the late Michael Bouvier.
Three years afterwards, the enterprising young man
started business for himself, in conjunction with his
nephew, William Adamson. This was the commence
ment of a business career which his indomitable energy
and keen tact were to render phenomenally successful.
From time to time during his early business career,
he formed various partnerships, but in 1828, when but
twenty-two years of age, he finally established the busi
ness in which he was to achieve such success, and in
which he may be said to have been the pioneer, the
manufacture of glue, curled hair, and emery paper. This
business was founded under the firm-name of Baeder &
Beuhler, afterwards Bodine, Baeder & Co., which sub
sequently was changed to Baeder, Delaney & Adamson,
a business title which in time became known all over the
United States.
The principal factory of this firm was long located on
North Sixth Street, Philadelphia, but the great extension
of its trade requiring enlarged facilities, it was at a later
date removed to Port Richmond, where the existing
great plant of the firm was finally established. From
this main centre the business spread, branch factories
being started in Newark, New Jersey, and Woburn,
Massachusetts, and stores at New York, Boston, and
Chicago. As early as 1 846, Mr. Baeder had amassed a
comfortable fortune; but in that year financial ruin came
upon him, through the dishonesty of a trusted employee,
and he found the results of his many years of strenuous
effort swept away. He was not the man, however, to
rest content with failure, and, under the encouragement
of his wife and the impulse of the irrepressible earnest
characteristic of him, he started business anew, and with
an energy and judgment that renewed his former
success. ' Twenty years after this year of disaster, on the even
ing of July 26, 1866, Mr. Baeder gave a banquet at the

Continental Hotel, Philadelphia, to his former creditors,
to whose generous release of obligation he had owed his
opportunity to renew his business career. As each guest
took his seat at the table, he found beneath his plate an
envelope containing a check for the full amount lost by
him through Mr. Baeder's failure, with compound interest
to the date of payment. Such an event was almost
unprecedented in the business world, and at the close of
the entertainment, the gratified creditors held a meeting,
at which a series of commendatory resolutions were
adopted, signed by the chairman and secretary of the
meeting, and presented to Mr. Baeder, as the grateful
recognition by his late guests of his highly honorable
and praiseworthy action.
Mr. Baeder's activity and public spirit were not con
fined to his industrial relations, but in every city in which
he' at any time resided he became known as a man of
large benevolence and ready charity. During the Civil
War he was a loyal supporter of the government, and
generous in material aid of all measures for a successful
prosecution of the conflict, or for doing honor to its
heroes. A beautiful trait in his character was his un
swerving devotion to his parents and his Fatherland.
He made several visits to his birthplace, and in 1878
gave a large fund for the support of the poor of the
town, and one also for the erection of a monument to
his parents. This was dedicated Sunday, April 11, 1880,
in the presence of a large concourse of people. Mr.
Baeder was married, in his thirty-third year, to Rachel
Ann Good, of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and left a
family of three sons and five daughters. His noble wife
fully emulated and encouraged his benevolent disposition.
During his last thirty years, he resided on his handsome
estate " Fulwood," near Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, where
he died September 25, 1886.

14

io6

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

HERMAN TAPPAN.
Herman Tappan is a native of Gloucester, Massachu
setts, where he spent his boyhood days. His energetic,
pushing disposition led him early into the activities of
mercantile life. With an inborn ambition and that spirit
of perseverance which so often assures success, he came
to New York in 1876, and there invested the capital he
had already accumulated in the purchase of the control
ling interest in a small but well-established manufacturing
perfumery business, which at that time was located at No.
65 Duane Street. With his keen business perceptions,
excellent judgment, and the valuable acquaintance with
merchants and mercantile affairs already acquired, he
readily saw that by originality and the generous outlay
of capital and ideas there was a future to this business
which had not theretofore been developed. He deter
mined, in consequence of this belief, to acquire a knowl
edge of the wants of the trade in every detail, and to
meet them promptly and thoroughly, appreciating the
fact that the great masses of the American people desire
novel products, and that the field in that direction had
received but little attention.
In pursuance of this conception, he introduced in rapid
succession novelty after novelty, in great variety, making
a line entirely different from any previously developed.
The appreciation of buyers was quickly made apparent
by their enthusiasm when inspecting his line of products,
and the avidity with which they placed liberal orders for
the new goods.
The rapid growth of the business soon made larger
quarters and greatly increased facilities necessary. With
unbounded faith in the future of the business, and a

desire to be untrammelled in the exercise of his judgment
and execution of his plans for the necessary enlargement
of the plant, Mr. Tappan purchased the interest of his
partner, and leased the spacious double building Nos.
112 and 114 Duane. Street, which ran through the block
to Reade Street, its floor space aggregating forty thou
sand square feet. He fitted up this building with every
appliance for the most perfect manipulation of the various
products that enter into the manufacture of perfumes,
until he possessed the most extensive and complete equip
ment of any establishment of its kind in the country.
Mr. Tappan early conceived the idea that as a manu
facturer he should seek a market among the jobbers,
whose interests and wants he has always studied to an
ticipate and provide for by having in readiness for each
recurring season an almost bewildering variety of popular
styles and novelties in perfumery. That his judgment
has been correct, and his enterprise appreciated by the
trade he endeavored to please, is proved by the fact that
his business has steadily increased in volume, until at
present it exceeds in the number of gross produced the
sales of any other house of its kind in the world, while
his goods are to be found in the stock of almost every
jobbing house in this country. In addition to this, they
have quite a large and steadily-increasing export demand.
Among the most prominent original productions which
Mr. Tappan has placed upon the market may be men
tioned the universally popular " Sweet By & By" per
fume, which met with the very general favor of the
public upon its introduction, and which, because of its
superior quality, has steadily increased in popularity until
it has become known throughout the civilized world, and
unquestionably has to-day the largest sale of any hand
kerchief perfume yet produced. Notwithstanding the
vast proportions to which Mr. Tappan's business has
been forced by perseverance and ability, his ambition is
by no means satisfied, and he is steadily increasing and
extending it by supplying the trade with a class of per
fumeries suited to all markets, and which for attractive
ness and general excellence cannot be procured else
where. Despite the demands made upon his time by his large
and constantly-increasing manufacturing business, Mr.
Tappan is closely identified with many important financial
institutions in New York City and elsewhere, to the suc
cess of which his sagacity and foresight have largely
contributed. While he does not court publicity, and has
steadfastly declined proffered honors, he is thoroughly
abreast of the times, and in touch with all local and
national movements for the promotion and advancement
of the material prosperity of the city and country.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

107

WILLIAM RAWLE.
The Rawle family of Philadelphia had its first repre
sentative in Francis Rawle, a member of the Society of
Friends, who, to escape religious persecution, emigrated
in 1686 from Cornwall, where his ancestors had been
seated for many generations. He landed at Philadelphia
with his son Francis, and settled in Plymouth Town
ship (now in Montgomery County), on a large tract of
land which they had purchased from William Penn.
The son settled in Philadelphia, where he quickly rose
to prominence, held many important offices, judicial,
legislative, and administrative, and wrote several works
in the line of political economy.
William Rawle, the subject of this sketch, the great-
great-grandson of the elder Francis, was born in Phila
delphia in 1759, and received his early education at the
Friends' Academy. On the evacuation of the city by
the British troops in 1778, he accompanied his step
father, Samuel Shoemaker, a loyalist refugee, to New
York, where he continued his education and began the
study of law under Attorney- General Kempe. He went
to London in 1781, continued his legal studies in the
Temple, and, after travelling on the continent of Europe,
returned to Philadelphia in 1783. In September of that
year he was admitted to practice at the Philadelphia bar,
where he rapidly rose to prominence, in time becoming
one of the foremost lawyers in the country. He had a
large practice, and ranked in his profession with Lewis,
Tilghman, Ingersoll, and Dallas, and, later, with Binney
and Sergeant, men who made the name of the Philadel
phia lawyer a proverb for learning and ability. In 1791
he was appointed by President Washington the Attorney
ofthe United States for Pennsylvania, and held this office
until after the close of Washington's administration. By
direction of the President, Mr. Rawle, in 1794, accom
panied the United States District Judge and the military
forces on the western expedition to suppress the " Whis
key Insurrection." It became his duty to prosecute the
offenders in this as well as in the insurrection of 1798.
Mr. Rawle was a member of most of the literary and
learned societies of Philadelphia, among them the " So
ciety for Political Inquiries," founded by Franklin, and
which held its weekly meetings at his house. Politically
he was a decided Federalist, and became a personal friend
of Washington, who in 1792 offered him the judgeship
of the United States District Court for Pennsylvania,
which he declined. He had been elected in 1789 a
member of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, but
his distaste for political life was such that he positively
declined a renomination. He also declined the position
of President-Judge of the District Court of Philadelphia.
For many years he was the attorney and counsel for
the Bank of the United States, and a trustee of the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania. In 1821, on the incorporation

of the Law Academy of Philadelphia, he was chosen its
vice-president. In 1822 he was made Chancellor of the
Associated Members of the Bar of Philadelphia, and in
1827, when this society united with the Law Library
Company of Philadelphia, under the name of the Law
Association of Philadelphia, he became chancellor of the
new institution, and held the office until his death. He
was one of the founders, in 1824, of the Historical
Society of Pennsylvania, and its president from that time
till his death. In 1830 he was appointed one of the
commissioners to revise the Civil Code of Pennsylvania,
and was the chief author of the reports of the commis
sion, the valuable results of whose labors are embodied
in still existing statutes.
Besides various addresses before learned societies, some
of which have been published, Mr. Rawle was the author
of " A View of the Constitution of the United States"
(1825), which for nearly forty years was the chief author
ity on that subject. He received the honorary degree
of LL.D. from Princeton College in 1827 and from
Dartmouth College in 1828. He died April 12, 1836.
His son, William Rawle, Jr., was born in Philadelphia,
July 19, 1788. He was educated at Princeton College,
and was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 18 10.
During the War of 1812 he saw some service as captain
of the Second Troop, Philadelphia City Cavalry. In the
practice of the law, he attained a reputation but little
inferior to that of his father. In association with Thomas
Sergeant, he published seventeen volumes of reports of
decisions of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (" Ser
geant and Rawle's Reports"), and, as sole reporter, five
more volumes (" Rawle's Reports"). He served for four
years as president of the Common Council of Philadel
phia, and was a member of many learned bodies. He
died August 9, 1858.

to8

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

COLONEL GEORGE A. WOODWARD.
Colonel George A. Woodward was born in Wilkes-
Barre, Pennsylvania, February 14, 1835. He graduated
B.A. at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, in June,
1855. In November, 1855, he removed to Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, where he continued the study of the law,
already begun, and was admitted to practice in December,
1856. He took an active part in military affairs and
served at different times as private in the Milwaukee
Light-Guard and the Citizen Corps, as sergeant-major
of the Light-Guard Battalion, and captain and judge-
advocate on the division staff. In 1858 he was elected
city attorney of Milwaukee, and on the expiration of his
term of office returned and entered upon the practice of
his profession in Philadelphia.
Immediately after the attack on Fort Sumter he set
about raising a company of volunteers for the war, and
was mustered in as captain on the 27th of May, 1861.
He was assigned to the Second Regiment of the Penn
sylvania Reserves in June, 1861. He took the field with
his regiment in July, 1861; was promoted to major
April 2, 1862, and engaged at the battles of Mechanics-
ville, Gaines Mill, and Charles City Cross-Roads (or
Glendale), in which battle he was twice wounded ; taken
prisoner and confined in Libby Prison, Richmond, Vir
ginia; promoted lieutenant-colonel February 20, 1863.
commanding regiment, and engaged at the battle of
Gettysburg, July 2-3, 1863; at close of Gettysburg
campaign applied for honorable discharge on account of
disability from wounds ; withdrew that application at the
request of division commander, by whom he was tendered
the position of inspector-general of the division ; pend
ing consideration of such tender, received an appointment
as major in Invalid Corps, accompanied by a letter from
the provost-marshal-general explaining that no higher

grade than that of major had yet been created in that
corps, but that if, as was expected would soon be the
case, higher grades should be authorized, his claim to
higher rank would be duly considered ; major, Invalid
Corps, August 24, 1863, and lieutenant-colonel Septem
ber 26, 1863 ; colonel December 4, 1863 ; colonel, Twenty-
second Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps, to July 20, 1866
when he was honorably mustered out of the volunteer
service ; performed duty commanding the depot camp of
the corps in Washington, and camps in Philadelphia,
Columbus, and Cleveland ; tour of inspection duty to
Hartford, Connecticut, on returning from which found
communication with Washington cut by enemy ; reported
for duty to General Cadwalader in Philadelphia, and by
his orders proceeded to Washington, by sea, in command
of five companies of convalescents organized from hos
pitals to assist in defence of Washington; being in
Washington awaiting orders on the night of President
Lincoln's assassination, volunteered his services, and
acted as field-officer of the day in charge of the special
guards established that night; accepted appointment as
lieutenant-colonel, Forty-fifth Infantry, United States
army, September 18, 1866; assigned to duty superintend
ing regimental recruiting service at Louisville, Kentucky;
superintended recruitment of and organized the Forty-
fifth Regiment of Infantry, United States army ; ordered
with it to Nashville, Tennessee, April, 1867; on recom
mendation of his division commander was brevetted
colonel for " gallant and meritorious services at the battle
of Gettysburg," General Meade forwarding such recom
mendation with the following indorsement : " Respect
fully forwarded, concurring in the recommendation that
Lieutenant-Colonel Woodward be brevetted colonel for
Gettysburg, and furthermore, that he be brevetted briga
dier-general for distinguished good conduct in the field
during the war;" in 1869 was retained as lieutenant-
colonel Fourteenth Infantry ; took post at Taylor Bar
racks, Louisville, Kentucky; July, 1 870, proceeded to
Fort Randall, Dakota, and assumed command of regi
ment, establishing Camp Lovell ; proceeded in command
of regiment to Omaha, Nebraska, and then to Fort
Sedgwick, Colorado; in spring of 1 871, in command of
four companies, marched to Fort Fetterman, Wyoming
Territory; at Sidney Barracks, Nebraska; Fort McPher-
son, Nebraska; and Fort Cameron, Utah; promoted to
colonel, Fifteenth Infantry, United States army, January
10, 1876; on sick-leave on account of breaking out of
old wound in foot ; retired for disability resulting from
wounds, March 20, 1879.
Received honorable mention in the official reports of
General McCall and General Seymour for good conduct
in the Seven Days' battles before Richmond (" Rebellion
Records," Series I., Vol. XL, Part II., pp. 389, 404).
Since 1887, has resided in Washington, D. C.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

109

HARRY EDWARD DANKOLER.
Harry E. Dankoler, a prominent member of the
Western newspaper fraternity, though still a young man,
with probably many years of effort and success before
him, was born March 30, 1863, at Sturgeon Bay, Wis
consin, in a log house, erected by his father, who ranked
among the sturdy pioneers of what was at that time the
wild West region of our country. He was of German
origin, and his ancestors were mostly professional men.
The father, who had been highly educated in the famous
German institutes of education, spent much of his life in
a military career, serving at first in the German army,
and afterwards for five years in that of France during
its severely-contested Algerian War. After his immi
gration to this country, he enlisted in the Union service
in the Civil War. He had here the misfortune to be
taken prisoner and consigned to the Confederate prison
at Andersonville, where he was one of the thousands
who died in that frightful death-trap.
The mother and her young family, thus left without
their natural protector, were compelled to struggle for a
livelihood. Mrs. Dankoler, an educated woman, taught
music and German to the sparse population of that fron
tier town, and succeeded by her efforts in bringing up
her children to an age in which they could lend their
assistance to the devoted woman. When seven years of
age, Harry, together with a brother and sister, was sent
to the Soldiers' Orphan Home School at Madison, Wis
consin, where he remained until twelve years of age.
Then, feeling it necessary to take up the burden of life,
he obtained employment in a saw-mill, in which he
worked during the summer, while during the winter
he attended school. He continued thus engaged from
thirteen to fifteen years of age, when, obeying an impulse
towards that career to which he has proved himself best
adapted, he entered the Advocate printing-office at Stur
geon Bay. Here he remained engaged for a number of
years, acquiring a thorough practical knowledge of the
business, and making himself familiar with all the details
of the printer's art.
When twenty years of age, the ambitious youth,
inspired by the desire for an independent career, joined
with his brother in the establishment of a paper at
Chilton, Wisconsin. This enterprise was continued, with
no promising success, for a year, when young Dankoler,
realizing that the paper was not likely to yield its pro
prietors more than the barest means of existence, left it
under the control of his brother and, with the small
sum of eight dollars in his pocket, set out on an indus
trial pilgrimage to Milwaukee. Here, after some time,
he secured employment as a compositor on the Mil
waukee Sentinel, the leading Republican daily newspaper
of that city; but in 1886, in association with several
other printers, began the publication of the Milwaukee

Daily Reviezv, — now The News, — a paper independent in
its political affiliations. Three years later he withdrew
from this enterprise, selling his stock in the concern for
a small sum, and, with his brother, E. W. Dankoler,
founded the Saturday Star, an independent weekly.
With the Star the brothers entered a field in which a
dozen earlier papers had failed, and it required a year's
hard work, early and late, to plant this enterprise upon a
paying basis. From a single room in the third story of
a building, and with little material, no press, and no
money, the Star struggled for a place in the newspaper
world, made its appearance week after week, its entire
copy being set by Mr. Dankoler with the aid of a single
apprentice. Hard work and business enterprise, however,
brought success. The business developed from this
humble beginning until in three years the Star occupied
a building of its own, with its own engine and presses
and thousands of dollars' worth of material, while its
single compositor was replaced by a considerable corps
of workmen.
Mr. Dankoler now purchased his brother's interest in
the business, and also bought Peck's Sun, the widely-
known humorous paper. To these, in October, 1895, he
added the Milzvaukee Daily Record, then established by
him. By his unaided efforts Mr. Dankoler has thus
placed himself in a prominent position in the newspaper
world, and, though still a young man, is widely known
as a capable and progressive journalist.
Mr. Dankoler is secretary of the South-Side Educa
tional Association, an association that is securing greater
educational facilities for the southern half of the city.
Through the efforts of this association, a new high-
school, costing one hundred thousand dollars, will soon
be erected. He is also a member of the Milwaukee
Press Club and other organizations.

no

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

SILAS S. PACKARD.
Silas Sadler Packard, widely known in the field of
literature and education, was born at Cummington, Mas
sachusetts, April 28, 1826, being a descendant in the
sixth generation of Samuel Packard, who came from
England to the Plymouth Colony in 1638. His father,
Chester Packard, was a skilled mechanic, who built,
largely with his own hands, a woollen factory in Cum
mington, devised its machinery, and finally operated it.
He removed in 1833 to Fredonia, a village of Licking
County, Ohio. Here his son Silas, whose native turn
was strongly directed towards literature, found but scanty
educational opportunities. At the age of fifteen, he en
tered the academy at Granville, six miles from his home,
and spent there two terms, supporting himself mean
while, as was the custom in those days, by " doing
chores" out of school hours. He proved a very apt
scholar in grammar and mathematics, was skilful at
" composition," and displayed unusual powers in pen
manship. He began teaching penmanship when sixteen, and
afterwards taught a country school, "boarding round"
according to the Western custom at that period. He
went to Kentucky in 1845, and there taught writing
and other branches for two years, also doing a little at
portrait-painting, of which he had gained some slight
knowledge. Of his triumphs in this direction the
most notable, as he humorously remarks, was the por
trait of an old man with a corn-cob pipe, its critical
excellence being established by the manifestations of
delight on the part of the family dog, who recognized
the pipe.
In 1848, Mr. Packard obtained a position as writing
teacher in Bartlett's Commercial College, Cincinnati,

where he remained till 1850. He afterwards taught for
one year in Adrian, Michigan, and two years in Lockport,
New York, and in the spring of 1853 removed to Tona-
wanda, New York, where he established a weekly paper,
the Niagara River Pilot. This he conducted for three
years, advocating vigorously but unsuccessfully in its
columns the diversion of the lake traffic from the ice
bound harbor of Buffalo to the more open and extensive
one of Tonawanda.
Mr. Packard resumed the profession of teaching in
1856, in which year he became associated with Bryant &
Stratton in the management of their Buffalo business
college. Shortly afterwards he joined with Mr. Stratton
in organizing a Bryant & Stratton college at Chicago,
and in 1857 he organized a similar college in Albany.
He came to New York City in the succeeding year, and
there opened the Bryant, Stratton & Packard College in
the Cooper Union Building, of which he was the first
tenant. Shortly after his advent in New York, he established
a monthly magazine, the American Merchant, which,
however, had but a brief period of existence. During
1859 and i860, his leisure from school duties was occu
pied in preparing the Bryant & Stratton series of text
books, which are still used as standard works in business
colleges generally, and also in other schools. His next
literary enterprise was the publication of Packard's
Monthly, issued and edited by him from 1868 to 1870.
This periodical became quite popular and proved a sub
stantial success.
In 1867, Mr. Packard purchased the interest of his
partners in the college, and changed its name to that
which it continues to bear, Packard's Business College.
This college now occupies the building formerly occu
pied by the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at
Twenty-third Street and Fourth Avenue, and has at
tained a reputation which places it on a level with the
best business colleges in the country. Mr. Packard is
the oldest living business-college teacher who has been
continually employed in that work, and is looked upon
as the acknowledged leader in that department of edu
cation, while the recent great development of business
colleges is largely due to his industry, ability, and liber
ality, he having constantly striven to advance other
interests than his own. The Business Educators' Asso
ciation of America was mainly established by him, and
the commercial schools of France, particularly those of
Paris and Rouen, were based in great measure on the
methods pursued in his school. The same may be said
of the " Bureau Commercial" of the Antwerp School of
Business. The Business College Exhibit at the Chicago
World's Fair was largely conducted under Mr. Packard's
direction and inspiration.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

in

JOSIAH R. ADAMS.
Josiah R. Adams, a prominent member of the Phila
delphia bar, is a son of the late Rev. Dr. E. E. Adams,
and was born in Havre, France, in 1848, during the
period in which his father represented in that country the
American and Foreign Christian Union. Mr. Adams's
years of early education were followed by a period de
voted to school teaching, during which he fitted himself
for college by earnest home study. He matriculated at
Princeton College in 1869, during the first year of the
presidency of Dr. McCosh, and graduated in 1873, receiv
ing first honors in oratory and literature, his superiority
over his classmates being indicated by the reception of
four gold medals and a money prize.
During his last year in college, Mr. Adams was regis
tered both at law and medicine, he not having determined
which of these to make his future profession. Finally,
however, he adopted the law, prepared himself for an
examination for admission to the Philadelphia bar, and
was admitted to practice in the courts of that city, De
cember, 1874. His ability quickly made itself felt in this
profession, and early in his legal career he became a busy
counsellor in bankruptcy, commercial, and maritime law,
in which branches of the profession he showed himself
particularly active and able. During the years that have
succeeded his admission to the bar his progress has been
exceptionally rapid, many cases of importance having
fallen into his hands, while he has the reputation of hav
ing advanced more rapidly in his profession than any
other lawyer of his years at the Philadelphia bar.
Of the cases which he has successfully handled, some
few ofthe more important may be here mentioned. One
of his early successes was as counsel in the case of Com
monwealth vs. Harris, an equity suit to enjoin the build
ing of a large bay window projecting into Walnut Street
by the defendant, a Philadelphia millionaire. On the oc
casion of the Bi-Centennial celebration, where a number
of persons were injured by an. explosion in Fairmount
Park, he became counsel for several of the sufferers, and
recovered for them substantial damages. He has also
represented plaintiffs in land damage and railroad accident
cases, and has obtained verdicts for large sums from
railroad corporations. He has had numerous appoint
ments from the courts as master, examiner, and auditor,
and his management of the important interests thus in

trusted to his hands has been so able, and the judicial
powers displayed so marked and creditable, that he has
gained high reputation as an expounder of the law, and
his name has been mentioned among his associates as a
fitting candidate for judicial honors. As auditor in the
Remington estate, he passed satisfactorily upon the dis
tribution of a quarter million of dollars.
One of Mr. Adams's more recent notable cases was
that of Morrell vs. Baily, a cause ce/ebre in Mifflin County,
Pennsylvania. In this case he won a decision in his favor,
the judgment of the court resulting in the overthrow of
a deed for property valued at thirty-five thousand dollars,
on the ground that it was obtained without consideration
by one standing in a fiduciary relation to the grantor, who
was an invalid. He has been instrumental in settling
several estates of descendants in England, and obtaining
inheritances and legacies for claimants here, and enjoys
an exceptional commercial and banking clientele.
Mr. Adams is a director of the Lawyers' Club, one of
the founders of University Club, Art Club, and Phila
delphia Yacht Club, and one of the most popular mem
bers of the Clover Club. It is not too much to say that
no lawyer of his years has more friends in and out of the
profession. His kindly nature wins and keeps the regard
of a large majority of those who come in contact with
him in either a professional or social way.

112

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

HARVEY EUGENE HEATH.
Harvey Eugene Heath was born at Lorain, Ohio,
August 1 6, 1848. His father, John Heath, was a native
of New York State, a relative of General William Heath,
of Revolutionary fame, and on his mother's side a direct
descendant of Benjamin Franklin. In 1852, when the
subject of this sketch was four years old, his father
removed to Illinois, where he bought a farm in Piatt
County, on which he lived for forty years, engaged in
farming, fruit-growing, and stock-raising. Here his
family, of three boys and four girls, found active employ
ment and obtained such education as the country school
afforded. Harvey, when nine years of age, had the mis
fortune to become crippled in one of his knees, a lame
ness resulting from which he has never recovered. With
an ardent aspiration for mental improvement, he made
the best of his annual four months' winter opportunity
at the country school, — working on the farm during the
remainder of the year. His chances for an education
here, however, proved so unsatisfactory, that at eighteen
he left home and passed a year in the high-school at
Bement, Illinois, doing chores and working for his board.
He afterwards spent a year in a country-town store, post-
office, and grain warehouse, and during the succeeding
five years attended the Illinois Normal University, part
of this period being employed by him in school-teaching
that he might earn the money necessary to pay his school
expenses. Having thus obtained an education by dint of hard
work "and determined application, Mr. Heath, in 1872,
" went West," locating a homestead in Harlan County,
in southwestern Nebraska. This part of the West was
then a new and undeveloped country, buffalo and antelope
were still plentiful, and grasshoppers so abundant that
his first two crops were harvested by these innumerable

pests. Drouth helped the grasshoppers to make farming
unprofitable for two or three years, and Mr. Heath found
himself obliged to resort to school-teaching to eke out
the scanty returns from his farm. With strict economy
he managed to save some money at teaching, even at
thirty dollars a month, doing at the same time any other
work that came to his hand. In the second year, grass
hoppers having taken his entire crop, he obtained a
school situation at forty-five dollars a month, two hundred
miles from home, and at the end of six months returned
to his homestead, ready for spring work, and with two
hundred dollars in his pocket: his neighbors, at the
same time, were obtaining charitable aid.
In 1878, Mr. Heath married Rosanna L. Snyder, a
leading educator in Nebraska. After six years of happy,
prosperous married life, he lost his loved and devoted
wife, who had borne him three children, Zula Edna, Ina
Dell, and John S. Heath. This was the saddest blow of
his life, and for six years he mourned her loss. He
continued single until 1890, when he married Miss
Lucretia M. Fausett. The fruit of this second union has
been one bright child, Oliver E. Heath.
Mr. Heath, finding his farm not likely to yield him a
large livelihood, entered the journalistic profession in
1880, as an employee of the house of Ramsey, Millett
& Hudson, of Kansas City, Missouri, publishers of the
Kansas City Live Stock Record. He continued in the
service of this firm for the succeeding eight years, during
which he visited most of the fine stock-breeding estab
lishments ofthe country, and attended many expositions,
State fairs, etc., thus obtaining much valuable informa
tion concerning improved stock. In this work he has
visited nearly every State and Territory of the Union.
In 1887, Mr. Heath purchased the Nebraska Farmer,
located at Lincoln, Nebraska, and began the most impor
tant work of his life. His brother, Alfred B. Heath,
became an equal partner with him in this business, and
in the management of their Harlan County farm of six
hundred and forty acres. This, composed of very fertile
land, nearly all under a high state of cultivation, was
stocked with fine short-horned cattle, Poland China swine,
and good standard-bred and draft-horses. The two have
since worked steadily together, Alfred managing the farm
and stock, Harvey the paper, which has been improved
and enlarged from the small, semi-weekly of 1888 to
a large illustrated weekly of wide influence and over
twenty-five thousand circulation, it being the leading
agricultural journal of the West.
Mr. Heath is a devoted and earnest advocate of im
proved agriculture. In recognition of his enthusiasm
and patriotism he has been called upon to serve in many
positions of trust and responsibility, but has declined to
accept anything that would remove him from his chosen
home-work.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

"3

JAMES ELVERSON.
James Elverson, a prominent journalist of Philadel
phia, was born in England in 1838, and came with his
parents to this country in 1847, settling in Newark, New
Jersey. Here he obtained a common school education,
and at the age of fourteen became a messenger-boy in
the office of the Magnetic Telegraph Company. Fore
seeing that telegraphy, then in its infancy, had a great
future before it, the ambitious boy set out to master its
principles, and at the age of sixteen had become an
operator. Before he was twenty, he was manager of the
consolidated offices in Newark, agent of the Associated
Press, instructor of the operators, and, having become
an electrical expert, took part in the construction of new
lines in the State.
When the Civil War broke out, Mr. Elverson left
Newark for Washington, where expert operators were
in great demand, and within a year became manager of
the American Telegraph office, a position which brought
him into relations of friendship with President Lincoln,
Secretaries Cameron and Stanton, and other leading
officials of the government. He held this position till
the end of the war, and was looked upon as one of the
most faithful and capable men in the telegraph service
in the country. Confident that the Federal forces must
succeed, he invested judiciously in government securities,
and succeeded in acquiring a modest competence.
In 1865, Mr. Elverson removed to Philadelphia, which
city has since remained his place of residence. Here he
began his journalistic career by establishing, in company
with a former associate, the Saturday Night, a newspaper
conducted in the interests of municipal reform. In the
following year the character of this paper was changed,
and it was made exclusively a story paper, Mr. Elverson
perceiving that there was room for a publication similar
to the New York Ledger, then in the full tide of success.
Entirely new methods were employed, and the paper
rapidly grew in circulation, until it gained a weekly out
put of three hundred thousand copies, distributed over
every section of the United States. Since 1879, Mr.
Elverson has been its sole proprietor. From the start
he has made it a rule never to accept gratuitous contri
butions, and to admit no matter to its columns that
could not be read by the most fastidious. In 1880 he
established the Golden Days, a weekly publication for
boys and girls. Of the first number of this paper three
million copies were printed, and distributed in every
town and hamlet of the United States. This required a
great outlay, but it brought success, the second number
having fifty-two thousand subscribers, while the present
subscription list is over one hundred thousand. It was so
different in character from the ordinary juvenile weeklies
that parents eagerly welcomed it as an antidote to the
pernicious literature that so abounded, and letters came

to Mr. Elverson from clergymen in every State con
gratulating him on his success in providing wholesome
literature for the young.
In February, 1889, he extended his newspaper interests
by the purchase of the Philadelphia Inquirer, at that
time a two-cent morning paper, with reduced circulation,
meagre news facilities, and small editorial force. Mr.
Elverson at once put new life into the journal. He
established it in new quarters, bought new type and
presses, trebled the editorial force, arranged for home
and foreign correspondence, and strengthened the paper
in every way possible. In the fall of 1889 he added a
Sunday edition. In 1890 he reduced the price to one
cent, increased the size to eight pages of eight columns
each, put in the largest illustrating plant in the State, and
added considerably to the news service. The Inquirer
was the first one-cent eight-page morning paper ever
published, and incidentally it may be mentioned that it was
the first to run its entire press-room by electricity, and
to substitute, wherever possible, the long-distance tele
phone for the telegraph, a more costly, but more satis
factory, method of news gathering. The result of these
improvements has been very advantageous to the paper,
which now has a circulation of ninety-five thousand daily
and a profitable business patronage. In 1894 it was
moved into a new building, of six stories in height,
entirely devoted to the publication of the paper, and
fitted up in a manner nowhere equalled in the United
States in a newspaper edifice.
In national politics, Mr. Elverson conducts the paper
as a Republican journal, but keeps himself free of po
litical affiliations in city affairs. Mr. Elverson's whole
career has been noteworthy for honor and integrity. " I
have succeeded in life," he says, "because I was deter
mined to win, and to use only honorable means to do so."

'5

H4

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JAMES GORDON BENNETT.
The well-known editor and proprietor of the New
York Herald, James Gordon Bennett, was a Scotchman
by birth, being born at Newmills, Banffshire, in that
country, about 1800. He was intended by his parents
for the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church, and
was educated for this purpose at a seminary in Aberdeen.
But the boy by disposition and inclination was unsuited
for such an avocation, and it was not long before it
became plainly evident that his parents were mistaken
in their purpose. As time went on, his growing aversion
to the priestly calling developed into a determination
to escape from it. He had read Franklin's "Autobi
ography," and was led by it to fix upon America as the
most suitable field for the pushing of his fortunes. In
accordance with this idea he left the seminary and took
passage for the United States, landing at Halifax in 18 19.
Here the boyish immigrant remained for a short time
engaged in giving lessons in French, Spanish, and book
keeping, at which he earned but a meagre living. His
next place of residence in the New World was Boston,
where he found the means of livelihood still more sparse,
and was finally saved from threatened starvation by
obtaining employment in a printing-office. In 1822
he made his way to New York, his place of residence
during most of his future life. He spent, however, a
few months at Charleston, South Carolina, where he had
engaged to make Spanish translations for a newspaper.
On his return to New York, Mr. Bennett tried his hand
in various enterprises, as projector of a school, lecturer
on political economy, and journalist, the latter in a very

subordinate capacity. His first effort to establish a
journal of his own was made in 1825, and during the
next ten years he engaged in several similar enterprises,
all of which proved futile. Meanwhile, he was employed
as reporter or assistant editor on several New York news
papers, and in the latter capacity took an active part in
the Presidential campaign in 1828, in support of General
Jackson. About 1830 he became associate editor of the
Courier and Enquirer, and in 1833 was raised to the
post of chief editor of The Pennsylvanian, a Philadel
phia newspaper. As Washington correspondent of the
Enquirer, he attracted attention by a series of letters
written in imitation of those of Horace Walpole.
Up to the present time Bennett had worked hard and
lived an absolutely abstemious life, but with little avail
in the increase of his fortunes. The year 1835 found
him still a poor man. In that year, however, he struck
the vein that was to enrich him, in the establishment of
a one-cent paper entitled the New York Herald. In his
looking around for an associate in this enterprise he at
first applied to Horace Greeley, who was then gaining a
reputation as an able editor in New York. Mr. Greeley
declined to join in the problematical venture, but gave
Bennett the name of the party to whom he next applied,
and who agreed to back him in the enterprise.
The pioneer number of the new paper appeared May
1, 1835, issuing from a cellar, in which the proprietor
and editor played also the part of salesman, doing triple
duty in the support of his doubtful venture. " He started
with a disclaimer of all principle, as it is called, all
party, all politics," and to this declaration of intentions
he rigidly adhered. The paper was vital from the start,
filled with a variety of news, spicy correspondence, and
personal gossip and scandal, a combination which brought
it quickly into notice, and insured it a rapidly increasing
sale. Bennett's industry was untiring, his editorial sa
gacity of the highest grade, and his unscrupulous rival-
ship with competitors one that gave him often the pre
cedence in obtaining news. As a result, the Herald
became in a short time a success, and in the course of
years a highly valuable property, as one of the few
leading newspapers in the United States. Money was
expended lavishly in the obtaining of news, the corre
spondents of the Herald sought all lands and were
present at all points of interest, and in the last year of
Mr. Bennett's life his enterprise was signally shown by
his despatch of Stanley to Africa in search of Dr. Living
stone, of whom for a long time nothing had been heard.
He continued to edit the Herald till his death, which
took place June 2, 1872.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

"5

SAMUEL HARTT POOK.
Samuel Hartt Pook, naval constructor United States
navy, finished his apprenticeship under his father during
the building of the " Plymouth" at Boston, after which
he opened an office, the first of the kind in this country,
at Boston, as naval architect. During the fifteen years of
this period of his life he designed and laid out the work
for the building of numerous noted ships for the mer
chant marine, which were well known at the time, —
among them the celebrated clipper-ships, " Red Jacket,"
" Ocean Telegraph," and others. He designed and laid
out the work for the first iron ships built by Harrison
Loring, at South Boston, and the work in iron ship
building at the Atlantic Works, East Boston. He de
signed and superintended the construction of the iron
steamship " Voyageur de la Mer," built for the Pasha of
Egypt, under contract with Mr. Stone ; and the " Erie"
and " Ontario," ships intended to run between Boston and
Liverpool ; also a sloop of war, which was advertised for
by government, the plans of which were later sold by
Mr. Page to a foreign government. He also designed
three frigates for Mr. Westervelt, of New York, which
were accepted by the Spanish government.
At the beginning of the war he offered his services to
the government, and was called to Washington, where,
under Chief Constructor Lenthall, he laid out the plans
for the ninety-day gunboats, six of which he super
intended. He laid down and superintended for Mr.
Bushnell, the iron-clad " Galena," and in the ensuing
four years designed, built, and launched for Mr. Bush
nell sixteen steamships ; also two of the lighest draught
gunboats built during the war, the famous yacht " Idler,"
and the torpedo-boat " Spuyten Duyvel," from Mr. Lay's
design. After the close of the war, at the request of
Mr. Lenthall, he entered the navy as assistant constructor,
and was stationed at the navy-yard, Portsmouth, New
Hampshire. Promoted to naval constructor, he was
ordered from Boston to the bureau of construction and
repairs, but was soon ordered back to Boston, where
the " Wabash" was fitted out. Ordered to Mare Island
Navy- Yard, at his own request, he there rebuilt the
" Kearsarge," laid down the lines for the " Mohican," and
fitted out the " Lackawanna," under an order from the
Secretary of the Navy that his work must be completed
in sixty days " without fail!' On the fifty-ninth day the
commandant inspected the completed work in construc
tion and pronounced it satisfactory. From Mare Island
he was ordered back to Boston, where he finished and
launched the torpedo-boat " Intrepid ;" from there to
New York, where the " Alarm" and " Trenton" were
finished and launched, and other important work com
pleted in construction and repairs. Ordered from New
York to Boston, at his own request, he there completed
drawings, models, and calculations for an iron-clad ship,

which he presented to the Naval Academy for the benefit
of the students. Ordered from Boston to Washington,
D. C, he there rebuilt the " Tallapoosa," and fitted out
several other ships. From there he was ordered to
League Island, where he called the attention of the Navy
Department to the desirability of building a Simpson's
dock at that station. When Mr. Whitney was called to
the Navy Department, he again detailed Mr. Pook for the
New York yard, where he served until his retirement.
While there the plant was ordered and the shops erected
for the building of the " Maine," and the work of laying
her out was performed, the plans being sent from the
Navy Department. He also completed a set of drawings
for a first-class iron-clad ship, the plans and model of
which were highly commended. The department had,
however, arranged to purchase plans for the intended
ship abroad. He had previously made: drawings, upon
the advertisement of Secretary Chandler, for a cruiser of
six thousand tons displacement, which were not adopted,
a smaller ship being deemed advisable by the advisory
board, for which, at their request, Mr. Pook furnished the
plans. Mr. Pook was one of the five who advocated the
building of iron-clad ships at the breaking out of the
Civil War. He strongly opposed the completion of the
wooden ship " New York," and directed, the plans for a
steel-armored cruiser in its place, which he presented to
the Navy Department. His name has been a guarantee for
promptness and accuracy in his profession, for which he
has received the personal thanks of Secretaries Robeson,
Hunt, and Thompson.
He was appointed assistant naval constructor in the
United States navy May 17, 1866; naval constructor,
April 15, 1871 ; and was retired January 17, 1889.

u6

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM L. ELKINS.
William Lukens Elkins was born in Western Vir
ginia, May 2, 1832, of Quaker parentage; his father,
George W. Elkins, being one of the earliest paper manu
facturers in this country. He came with his parents to
Philadelphia when but eight years of age, and was
educated in the public schools of this city, leaving
school at the age of fifteen to accept a position as entry
clerk in a store. A year afterwards he engaged in the
lumber business, and was building up a prosperous trade
in that line, when a freshet swept away his stock and
ruined his prospects. In 1852 he engaged in the pro
duce business in New York, with fair success ; but after
a year returned to Philadelphia, and entered into the
same line of business in partnership with Peter Sayboldt.
The firm was located at Second and Callowhill Streets,
and prospered so greatly in their undertaking that in
time they came to transact what was probably the
largest produce business in this country.
In i860, Mr. Elkins bought out the interest of his
partner, and conducted the business alone until the " oil
fever" broke out. Seeing opportunities for profit in this,
he invested in oil-company shares, and soon after sold
out his business and repaired to Western Pennsylvania,
where he made a thorough investigation ofthe oil region.
Convinced that petroleum had come to stay, he returned
to Philadelphia, and engaged in the business of refining
the crude oil, in which he was one of the pioneers.
He bought out several small refineries, leased the " Bel
mont Oil-Works" on the Schuylkill, and in a short
time found himself in possession of the entire field of oil
refining in Philadelphia. At that time, the total output
of his works was about six hundred barrels a week.
His business grew, however, with great rapidity, the
capacity of his plant increasing, till in time he was pro

ducing over twenty thousand barrels a month. The
first gasoline ever made was produced at his works, and
this article became an important addition to his products.
His works were several times destroyed by fire, but
after each disaster they were rebuilt and extended. He
became also part owner in several oil wells, and engaged
in sinking others, purchased the " Riverside Oil- Works,"
on the Alleghany River, — which he afterwards sold to
his brother and others, — and engaged in the manufacture
of gas, gradually becoming connected with a large num
ber of gas-works throughout the United States. In
May, 1875, he formed a partnership with the Standard
Oil Company, and in 1880 sold out his interest to the
Company, simply retaining some of its stock, but giving
up all active connection with the business.
Mr. Elkins had other business interests in view, into
which he soon entered with his full energy. In associa
tion with William H. Kemble and Peter A. B. Widener he
invested largely in street-railway shares, and formed with
them the plan of organizing a controlling company which,
by operating a number of the most profitable roads of
the city, would enable them to economize expenses and
act as feeders for each other. The result of their efforts
was the formation of the Philadelphia Traction Company,
which now controls the lines of the Union Passenger
Railway Company, the Chestnut and Walnut, and the
Market Street lines, and several other important lines,
their cars reaching almost every section of the city.
The operations of Mr. Elkins and his associates were
by no means confined to Philadelphia ; they obtained
interests in street-railways in New York, Chicago, Pitts
burg, and other cities, their business connections be
coming great and widely extended. In company with
Mr. Widener, Mr. Elkins entered into extensive building
operations in the northwestern section of the city, where
they purchased large tracts of ground and erected many
substantial residences, which have greatly developed that
part of the city.
Mr. Elkins was married in 1858 to Miss Laura
Broomall, of the well-known Delaware County family
of that name. The family consists of two sons and two
daughters. He resides in a handsome residence on
Broad Street above Girard Avenue, one of the most
striking architectural features of that section of the city.
Politically he is a strong Republican, but has held no
public position except that of a commissioner to repre
sent the city of Philadelphia at the Vienna Exposition
of 1873. He is a member of the Union League and of
the Masonic Order, and a trustee of the Girard Estate.
Personally, Mr. Elkins is affable, kind, and hearty in
manner, and in business prompt and decisive, being able
to transact the numerous affairs demanding his attention
with rapidity and no apparent fatigue. He is of a genial,
social temperament, a model husband and devoted father.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

117

THEODORE W. MYERS.
Theodore Walter Myers, recently comptroller of
the city of New York, was born in that city, January 11,
1844, being the son of Lawrence Myers, a prominent
merchant and a leading spirit in commercial and social
circles. Mr. Myers received a preparatory training for
college at schools in New York City, and also in France
and Germany, but ill health obliged him to give up a
collegiate course, and he turned his attention to busi
ness, becoming in 1864 a clerk in the banking house of
Polhemus & Jackson. After a few years' experience in
this establishment, he became a member of the new firm
of Camblos & Myers. After several years this firm dis
solved, and he continued in business for some years
longer under his own name. This was followed by a
period of connection, as special partner, with the banking
house of M. E. De Rivas & Co., and by a year or two
of travel abroad, after which, in 1884, he organized the
banking house of Theodore W. Myers & Co., of which
he continues the head. Since its origin this house has
stood high among the conservative firms upon which the
credit of Wall Street rests. It does a large commission
business, with branches in Boston, Philadelphia, Bal
timore, Chicago, and other cities, and has earned and
maintained a reputation second to none for legitimate
enterprise and scrupulous probity.
Mr. Myers's business career has been combined with
great activity in military, political, and social affairs.
During the Civil War he was very active in organizing the
Sickles Brigade, in which he served for a time as captain
of its Third Regiment. For many years afterwards he
was connected with the City Guard, and at a later date
became an officer in the Ninth Regiment of the New
York State National Guard.
Politically he has followed his father's example in being
an unswerving Democrat, the interests of which party he
has been active in promoting. In 1884 he took a leading
part in the Presidential campaign, organizing the Cleve
land and Hendricks Stock Exchange Campaign Club,
and arranging for the great down-town Democratic
rally, held on the steps of the Sub-treasury Building in
Wall Street. In May, 1887, he was appointed by Mayor
Hewitt a member of the Park Commission, and was soon
after elected treasurer of that board. In the fall of the
same year the United Democracy nominated him as their
candidate for comptroller, and he was elected by over
forty-five thousand plurality, leading the whole ticket.
In this office he gave such general satisfaction that in
1890 all parties — Republican, Tammany, and County
Democracy — united in his renomination, and he received
two hundred and seven thousand and eleven out of a
total of two hundred and thirteen thousand one hundred
and ninety-nine votes. At the expiration of his second
term of office he was strongly pressed by the Citizens'

Movement and the Good Government Club to accept a
second renomination, with every assurance of re-election.
He declined, however, to run again for the office. More
recently he has been unanimously elected president of
the Business Men's Democratic Association of New York.
While in office Mr. Myers's management of the re
sponsible duties committed to his care excited universal
commendation, as may be perceived by the support
given and offered him by citizens of all parties. For
energy, fidelity to duty, and far-seeing acumen, his ad
ministration has never been surpassed. He was a member
of numerous municipal boards and committees, in which
he brought to bear with the best results the keen dis
crimination which has made him so successful as a busi
ness man, while he zealously guarded and promoted the
highly important interests ofthe city intrusted to his care.
Among the many striking results of his administration
may be cited his successful placing of the first loan ever
made by any municipality at the low rate of two and a
half per cent. Over $14,000,000 of bonds were issued
at this rate, most of them being sold at a substantial
premium. This financial triumph won him general and
well-merited praise.
In 1870, Mr. Myers married Miss Rosalie Hart, a
grand-daughter of Bernard Hart, a prominent merchant
and citizen of fifty years ago. They have one son, a
graduate of Columbia College, and a member of the
banking firm. Mr. Myers has always been a liberal
patron of the arts, and is a member of the Manhattan,
New York, Rockaway Hunt, National Hunt, Demo
cratic, New York Yacht, Reform, New York Athletic,
Thirteen, and other clubs ; of the Historical and Geo
graphical Societies, and of a number of musical societies,
and is a familiar and favorite figure in the social circles
of the metropolis.

u8

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

PHILIP HICHBORN.
Philip Hichborn, Chief Constructor in the United
States navy, is the descendant of an old Colonial family
of unquestioned patriotism, — and one member of which,
Deborah Hichborn, was the mother of Paul Revere, —
and of a stock that later became one of the foremost of
the renowned ship-building and sea-faring New England
families. He was born at Charlestown, Massachusetts, on
the fourth day of March, 1839. He was graduated from
the Boston High School at sixteen, and the succeeding
five years were filled with study, theoretical and practical,
which brought him to his majority unusually well quali
fied and efficient in all that related to the arts of ship
building and designing.
Inspired by the promise then held out to adventurous
spirits by the Pacific slope, young Hichborn determined
to go to California ; and to that end shipped as one of
the officers of the clipper-ship " Dashing Wave," leaving
Boston for San Francisco on the fifteenth day of August,
i860. The hundred and fifty days of that trying and
tempestuous voyage were fruitful of lasting lessons.
From an easy-going willingness on the part of the crew,
when in the enjoyment of fair weather and reasonable
food, he saw the temper of the men sharpen under
pinched rations, bitter blasts, and divided authority, until
an outbreak seemed inevitable ; and again saw their
mood change to insolent indifference as the climate
moderated and their destination neared. He saw the
miseries of neglected sickness and accidental death, and
the stages of discontent from someting tolerable to just
this side of mutiny and murder ; and in this severe school

learned the lessons of considerate management and self-
control. Soon after reaching California, Mr. Hichborn entered
governmental employment at the Mare Island Navy-
Yard ; and here, from a minor position, rose in two years
to the responsibility of master shipwright of the station,
an office which often involved the direction of more than
a thousand men, and once demanded the entire control
of the construction department, during which time the
old " Saginaw" was hauled out and rebuilt under his
directions. In 1869 he became an assistant naval con
structor, and six years later, after a severe examination,
he gained the grade of full constructor, having distanced
all his competitors.
From his admission to the service until to-day, Mr.
Hichborn's life has been one of unfailing usefulness and
constant activity in the immediate concerns of the navy ;
broken only once by his official tour of European dock
yards, of which his published report — issued in two
eagerly- sought editions — gives but a restricted notion
of the scope of his investigations.
To indicate why he has always commanded the faith
and obedience of his subordinates, one instance pointing
to the spirit of his management will suffice. While at
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1875, the " Ticonder-
oga" arrived at the yard with yellow fever on board, and
by the order of the department the vessel was submitted
to a thorough cleansing. Mr. Hichborn personally su
perintended the whole work, and, when the task was
nearly finished, he was stricken down with a severe
attack of typhoid fever. This example of self-forgetful-
ness is but one illustration of his self-sacrificing devotion
among many that might be given ; and, in the same
spirit, he never ordered a man to go where he feared to
venture himself; and often, indeed, he led, unfollowed,
to assure the safety of those beneath him.
In 1884, he was ordered to the Navy Department as
Assistant Chief of Bureau, and from that time till his
appointment as Chief of the Bureau, July 13, 1893, he
was intimately identified with all that dignifies the work
of the Bureau of Construction and Repair.
To-day he bears the brunt of the directive and design
ing elements of our developing navy, a dignity compar
able only to that of the British Director of Construc
tion ; and his present eminence is the just reward for a
life of untiring energy, guided by a mind singularly fitted
for his calling. As a man, he is the embodiment of viril
ity and mental strength, softened by the possession of a
heart at once generous to friends and just to those less
kindly disposed.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

119

ORSON DESAIX MUNN.
Orson Desaix Munn, the subject of this sketch, who
has been identified with the Scientific American publica
tion and patent bureau for almost half a century, is a
New Englander by birth, his native town bearing his
ancestral name.
Mr. Munn is the son of Rice Munn, a successful
farmer, and attended school at Monson Academy, New
England, in the Massachusetts town of that name, until
he was sixteen years of age. He then entered the book
store of Colonel David P. King, at Springfield, Massa
chusetts, in which he remained for two years, and then
returned to Monson and became a salesman and book
keeper in a country store. Soon after reaching the age
of twenty-one, at the suggestion of a former companion,
Alfred E. Beach, who was at that time in the office of
the New York Sun, then owned and conducted by his
father, the late Moses Y. Beach, Mr. Munn went to New
York and joined his young friend in the purchase of
the Scientific American, a weekly of practical science,
founded a few months before by Rufus Porter. The
entire plant cost them but a few hundred dollars. Mr.
Porter was a quaint genius, pregnant with grand, imprac
ticable schemes which never materialized to his benefit.
This was in the year 1846, and it was then that the
firm of Munn & Co., now so widely known, came into
existence. It is quite a remarkable coincidence in this
changeable age for two men who became associated
in business together when mere boys to continue the
relationship without change for a period of almost fifty
years, as has been the case with Mr. Munn and Mr.
Beach. Soon after the establishment of the Scientific American
on a sound financial basis, Munn & Co. added to their
business as publishers an agency for procuring letters
patent for new inventions, a line of business at that time
in its infancy. This department of their establishment
increased with rapid strides, and a few years later it was
not unusual for their concern to prepare the requisite
papers for as many applications for patents in a single
month as there had been patents issued from the United
States Patent Office during the entire twelve months of
its first year's existence. Judge Charles Mason, con
ceded to have been the ablest and best Commissioner
of Patents that had ever held the office, resigned that
position in 1859, and was soon afterwards engaged by
Munn & Co., with whom he long remained connected.
Among the noted cases conducted by this firm, as far
back as i860, was the procuring of the extension for
seven years of the Morse Telegraph patent, which was
vigorously opposed by some of the most eminent lawyers
of that period. Professor Morse, as well as the attor
neys of record, always accorded it to Judge Mason's

wise and persistent effort that the seven last and most
profitable years of the Morse patent were obtained.
At the time of the Centennial Exposition in Phila
delphia of 1876, Munn & Co. began the publication of a
new weekly paper, the Scientific American Supplement,
which immediately obtained a wide circulation, which it
still possesses. The firm also issues, monthly, an Archi
tects' and Builders' Edition, and also an edition of the
Scientific American in Spanish, which circulates largely
in our Central American Spanish-reading countries.
Munn & Co., in addition, have a large business in the
publication and importation of scientific and engineering
books. Mr. Munn has long been a prominent member of the
Union and Union League Clubs, and has resided in the
same house thirty-eight years, where he has a valuable
collection of choice paintings by some of the most cele
brated foreign artists ; many of these pictures were
obtained by him while residing abroad. He has a
handsome summer home in Llewellyn Park, on Orange
Mountain, New Jersey. In addition to his park estate
he owns a farm of one hundred and fifty acres a short
distance from his summer home, which is principally
stocked with Dutch Belted Cattle, natives of Holland, in
which he takes great satisfaction, and perhaps some pride.
He was married in 1849 t° Julia Augusta Allen, only
daughter of Mrs. Elvira Allen, of his native town.
Mrs. Munn was attractive in person, gifted with rare
intellectual qualities, and was a most devoted wife and
mother. She died October 26, 1874, lamented by her
family and a large circle of friends.
Mr. Munn has two sons, both of whom are associated
with him in the publication and Patent Office Department
of the Scientific American.

120

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

FRANKLIN M. HARRIS.
Frankltn M. Harris was born in Philadelphia, De
cember 25, 1839. His paternal ancestors were among
the early settlers of Delaware, and his maternal fore
fathers were pioneer woollen manufacturers of German-
town. Mr. Harris's great-grandfather was a soldier of
the Revolution, and was with Washington in the snow
bound camp at Valley Forge, where he suffered all the
hardships incident to that historic campaign. Joseph
Harris, his grandfather, was a soldier in the War of 1812.
He was also for many years one of the commissioners of
the old district of Moyamensing, and was one of the
first of the family to adopt the building trade. He
constructed Peak's Museum, and achieved an enviable
reputation as a builder of fine residences.
Mr. Harris's father was also a builder, and noted for
energy and marked capabilities in his profession. He
was not destined, however, to realize the full expecta
tions that were entertained for him, for, while executing-
a large contract at Galveston, Texas, he was stricken
with yellow fever, and died before he had reached his
twenty-second year. This early loss was a great depri
vation to the subject of this sketch, but it had the effect
of testing the mettle of which he was made, and of im
pressing upon him a sense of his responsibilities at an
earlier age than it is wont to come to most children.
After receiving a public school education, he was inden
tured to James W. Howard, a mason-builder, with whom
he served an apprenticeship of over seven years. On
reaching maturity he was made his superintendent.
His promise of a bright business future, however, was
soon clouded by the outbreak of the Civil War, into
which he entered with the like patriotic energy which
had animated several of his ancestors. Immediately
after the attack on Fort Sumter, he promptly responded

to the call for troops, and enlisted in the Eighteenth
Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, into which he was
mustered April 24, 1861, and proceeded to Baltimore for
three months' service. On August 15 he enlisted for
three years in the Ninety-fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers
known as Goslin's Zouaves. With this regiment he
participated in the battles of West Point, Gaines Mill,
Savage Station, White Oak Swamp, Second Bull Run
Chantilly, Fredericksburg, Franklin's Crossing, Chancel-
lorsville, Marye's Heights, Salem Heights, Gettysburg,
Rappahannock Station, Mine Run, and numerous skir
mishes. He was promoted from time to time, until
November 14, 1862, when he became first lieutenant.
Until the second battle of Bull Run, Lieutenant Harris
had been in excellent health, but after that his strength
gave way, and in the spring of 1864, Colonel Carrell, his
commander, sent him home for light duty at Camp Cad
walader, where he remained until honorably discharged.
After the war he resumed his business relations with
Mr. Howard, forming a copartnership under the name
of James W. Howard & Co., which continued until 1885,
when he withdrew, and engaged in business by himself.
In 1889 he formed the present firm of Franklin M.
Harris & Co., and they have been engaged in the con
struction of some of the largest buildings in and about
Philadelphia. In 1889, at the suggestion of Ex-Mayor Stokley and
other residents of the new Thirty-second Ward, Mr.
Harris stood as the Republican candidate for Select
Council, and was elected. He was the first representative
of the new ward in the upper chamber, and has since
been re-elected. He has been honored with appointment
to important committees, including the chairmanship of
the Electrical Committee, two years ago, and of the
Committee on Railroads, in 1893-94. His services have
been of great value to the city, and especially to his ward,
Mr. Harris has held no other public office, though
he is interested, as an official, in numerous companies
and business concerns. He is president of the Master
Builders' Exchange, a powerful organization which repre
sents the building interests of Philadelphia. He is also
a leading member of the Bricklayers' Company, which,
next to the Carpenters' Company, is the oldest trade or
ganization in the city.
In a social way, Mr. Harris is widely known, being
a popular club man, and a ready-witted after-dinner
speaker. He is a member of the Masonic Fraternity,
Odd Fellows, Grand Army of the Republic, Manufac
turers' Club, Columbia Club, Five O'Clock Club, Sons
of Delaware, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the
Franklin Institute. Pie is also a trustee of the Bethle
hem Presbyterian Church. He resides at 1820 North
Broad Street. He has a fine library, in which most of his
leisure time is spent in reading and study.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

121

HENRY ECKFORD RHOADES.
Henry Eckford Rhoades was born in New York
City on June 15, 1844. He is a descendant of Zachariah
Rhoades, who settled in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, after
the arrival of the " Mayflower" (about 1630), and who
was an early friend of Roger Williams. His great-great
grandfather was Captain Samuel Peck, who commanded
a company in Washington's army ; one of his great-
grand-uncles was Zachariah Rhoades, who became a
lieutenant in the navy in October, 1798, and a grand-
uncle, William Rhoades, was a carpenter in the navy,
who resigned to become naval constructor for the Turk
ish government. His father was a chief-engineer in the
navy, who died in 1885.
Mr. Rhoades received his early education in the public
schools of New York City, and in 1858 he began to
study medicine, but a year later decided to become an
engineer. While an apprentice in the Allaire works,
New York, he took a special course in mechanical and
civil engineering, and before he finished assisted in build
ing the engines of the " Shamrock," " Puritan," " Dicta
tor," and other war-vessels. In the early part of the
Civil War he served in the army, part of the time on
General Banks's staff, and also on the staff of the sur
geon-in-chief of the Frederick City hospitals, Maryland.
On the night of September 5, 1862 (the day before the
Confederates, under Stonewall Jackson, occupied Fred
erick City), he was detailed to take charge of con
ducting about three hundred convalescent Union sol
diers to Gettysburg, thence to York, Pennsylvania,
marching part of the distance, and hiring conveyances,
where obtainable, to carry the sick men the rest of the
way. Later, he received his commission as assistant engineer
in the navy, and after the war, in December, 1 866, started
on a cruise around the world on the sloop-of-war " Iro
quois." He was at the opening of the ports of Hiogo,
Osake, and Kobe, Japan, on January 1, 1868, and during
the Japanese rebellion, when Prince Bizen's men fired on
the foreign sailors in the streets of Hiogo, he was one
of the officers in command, and led an engineer contin
gent into the mountains close to the rear of the Japanese
retreating force. The forces from the foreign vessels
were kept on shore for several days, during which time
Mr. Rhoades assisted in building earthworks to protect
the American legation.
When the sloop-of-war "Juniata" was fitted out, in
1873, to go to the Arctic Sea in search of the castaways
of Captain Hall's polar expedition, Mr. Rhoades applied
for and received orders to duty on that vessel. Among
other officers were Lieutenant- Commander DeLong and
Lieutenant Chipo, both of whom lost their lives in the
Arctic region. While on this cruise, Mr. Rhoades, at his
own request, was detailed with another officer to lead an

expedition to prospect for coal on the Greenland coast,
making the search in a small steam-launch, and sleeping
at night in the Esquimaux skin sleeping-bags, and under
canvas tents. The search was successful, three veins of
excellent bituminous coal being discovered, from which
he and his men got out about thirty tons. The mine
was named by him and Ensign Keeler the " Eureka."
(His report on this coal, for which he was complimented
by the Secretary of the Navy, was printed in the report
of the Navy Department for 1873.)
On this expedition he contracted angina pectoris (neu
ralgia of the heart), for which he was retired on De
cember 31, 1874. In 1869 he married Sarah M. Stone, a
descendant of Samuel Stone, the founder of Hartford,
Connecticut. He has a son and a daughter, the former
being a theological student, intending to go into the
ministry. Mr. Rhoades has lived in Mount Vernon, New York,
for several years. In 1889 he was offered the consulship
at Yokohama, Japan, by Secretary Blaine, but declined
because of an opinion by the Attorney-General that to
accept would mean resignation of his navy commission.
In 1892 he was offered the Republican nomination for
Congress from the sixteenth New York district, which
he declined. He is a member of the board of education
of Mount Vernon, New York, having been re-elected in
1894. In January, 1896, he was appointed one of the
trustees of the Mount Vernon public library. He was
also one of the founders of the Mount Vernon Hospital,
and one of its managers for several years. For a number
of years past he has been employed on the editorial staff
ofthe New York Tribune, and in 1893 was made assistant
editor of " The Tribune Almanac," succeeding to its
editorship upon the death of Hon. Edward McPherson
in 1895.

16

122

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JOHN DOBSON.
John Dobson, head of the extensive carpet and woollen
goods manufactory of John and James Dobson, is one of
those captains of industry and men of remarkable executive
ability who have made Philadelphia the most important
manufacturing centre in the United States. Mr. Dobson
is a native of England, in which country he was born in
1827. He has, however, for more than forty years been
a citizen of Philadelphia, in which city he began the
woollen manufacture in a modest way shortly after the
middle of the century. Under his able and skilful man
agement his business rapidly increased, continual enlarge
ments being made to the mill and its plants until 1866,
in which year his brother James joined him in the busi
ness, the present firm-name being then assumed.
Mr. Dobson possesses an unusual talent in mechanics
and power of grasping large affairs, and has an able and
progressive coadjutor in his brother; and it is due to
their energy and ability that their works have grown to
such extent that now they constitute the largest indi
vidual textile establishment of its class in the United
States. The product of the Dobson mills is exceedingly
varied, ranging from the finest silks, velvets, plushes, and
dress goods, to ordinary yarns, cloths, blankets, and car
pets, the last named being its leading product. In active
business years from four to five thousand hands are em
ployed by the firm, and the products of their looms are
distributed through every State and Territory from the

Atlantic to the Pacific. The factories and warehouses
of this firm are situated in Falls of Schuylkill village,
where they constitute an extensive group of buildings
while their spacious retail store is situated on Chestnut
Street, Philadelphia. The name of the Dobsons, in truth,
is known throughout the mercantile world, for they pur
chase in foreign lands by the ship-load silks, dyestuffs,
and other materials not produced in this country. As
regards the character of their goods, it will suffice to say
that their trade-mark is everywhere a guarantee of honest
goods and skilful workmanship. In January, 1 891, the
extensive carpet-mills of the firm were burned to the
ground, entailing a loss of about one million dollars, yet
with their characteristic energy the burned buildings
were quickly restored, and the establishment was soon
put again in full tide of operation.
Mr. Dobson is politically a stanch Republican, and
firm believer that the principle of protection to American
industry is the only sound and secure foundation for the
future safety and prosperity ofthe American Union. He
is an earnest and loyal citizen of Philadelphia and of the
United States, outspoken in his support of the govern
ment, and during the Civil War was not only an ardent
advocate of the cause of the North, but left his family
and business to take a personal part in the war. He
was twice commissioned captain in the Pennsylvania
Reserves, and led his company to the front. At the end
of the war he entered upon the diligent prosecution of his
business, in association with his brother, through which
his comparatively small establishment of that day has
developed into the great manufactory and salesrooms
of the present time.
Mr. Dobson is personally of domestic tastes and de
voted to home interests, his centre of enjoyment being
his home at the Falls of Schuylkill, where in the bosom
of his family and the love of country life he enjoys ex
istence with the highest zest. His chief recreation is his
daily drive through Fairmount Park to the city office of
the firm behind his well-known horse " Morgan" and
the famous trotter " New York Central," which has a
record of 2.13. A hale, hearty man of sixty-seven, the
wealth he has accumulated is not indicated in any pre
tension and ostentation, and the innate characteristics of
the man are best shown in his cheerful countenance, full
of courage and sincerity, and the genial spirit and cor
dial address which mark his intercourse with his friends
and business acquaintances.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

123

NATHAN S. BOYNTON.
Major Nathan S. Boynton, mayor of Port Huron,
Michigan, is a lineal descendant of Sir Matthew Boynton,
a seventeenth century English baronet. His American
ancestors came to New England before the Revolution
ary War, and his grandfather, Granville F. Boynton,
settled in Port Huron about 1827. Major Boynton was
born at Port Huron, June 23, 1837. When he was nine
years of age his father died, and two years afterwards his
mother, marrying again, moved to a farm near Marine
City, on the St. Clair River. His education was obtained
in the district schools, and in the high-school of Wauke-
gan, Illinois. He married in 1859, and located at Cin
cinnati till after the outbreak of the war. Returning to
Michigan in 1862, he there enlisted as a private in the
Eighth Michigan cavalry, but was soon promoted first
lieutenant of Company L. In 1863 he became captain
of his company, and in the winter of 1864-65 was com
missioned major of the regiment.
His war record was a stirring and honorable one. In
the cavalry raid of General Morgan through Indiana and
Ohio the Eighth Michigan was in vigorous pursuit, and
in the end, Lieutenant Boynton, at the head of a detach
ment of one hundred men, cut off the retreat of the
dashing partisan and forced him to surrender. Subse
quently, while serving under General Burnside, in east
Tennessee, he took possession of a printing-office at
Athens, and printed the first Union newspaper which
had appeared in that State for two years. It was patri
otic and spicy in tone, and the inhabitants, many of whom
were Unionists, hailed the issue with exuberant demon
strations of joy. Unluckily, before the second issue was
ready, General Forrest raided the town, captured the
printers, and made a complete wreck of the office of the
Athens Union Post. Lieutenant Boynton was fortunately
at brigade head-quarters and escaped capture.
Lieutenant Boynton was at Knoxville, Tennessee,
during the memorable siege of that town by Longstreet.
In 1864 the regiment joined Sherman's forces in their
march to Atlanta, he leading the column of cavalry into
that town as Hood retreated.
After the war he engaged in business in Marine City,
occupied there several municipal and government posi
tions, and in 1868 was elected to the Michigan House of
Representatives. He removed to Port Huron in 1869,
where he became editor and publisher of the Port Huron
Press, a Republican newspaper. He was active also in
politics, being a ready campaign speaker, and in 1874
was elected mayor of Port Huron, and again in 1875.
In 1895 and again in 1896 he was elected by majorities
larger than ever given in that city before.
Major Boynton is also widely known as the founder
of the order of the Maccabees, a fraternal beneficial or

ganization. In 1 88 1 he started that society with only
seven hundred members. The close of 1895 showed a
membership of two hundred and twenty-three thousand,
becoming the second largest organization of its kind in
this country, paying out to the beneficiaries of its de
ceased and disabled members during that period over
six million dollars.
Major Boynton has all through life shown himself to
be a successful society organizer and leader. He has
but few, if any, equals in that line of work, and has
achieved a national reputation in that direction. He
seems to have an intuitive knowledge of men and
women. While determined and resolute in his business
relations, the social side of his nature is so marked that
few can resist his personal magnetism. He is familiarly
known in his society as " Father" Boynton.
Major Boynton has few equals as a public speaker.
In personal appearance he is said to bear a striking
resemblance to Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis.
Socially, he is one of the most pleasant of men, and at
his home and in the State of Michigan, where he is
known so well, he commands the respect of all, and in
his travels about the country makes friends with every
one whom he meets. His addresses are always rich in
thought, with the information which they give, while
through them all his original and rich humor shines out
as a feature and as one of his prominent characteristics.
On the organization of the National Fraternal Con
gress, at Washington, D. C, in 1886, he attended as a
representative of his order, and was active in its councils.
He has attended every meeting of the Congress since.
In 1892 he was elected its vice-president, and in 1894 as
president. He is acknowledged to be the best-informed
society man in the country.

124

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JOHN WILLOCK NOBLE.
General John W. Noble, Secretary of the Interior
under the Harrison administration, was born at Lan
caster, Ohio, October 26, 1831. His father, Colonel John
Noble, a Pennsylvanian by birth, was a man of much
distinction in Ohio. After three years spent in Miami
University, he entered Yale College, where he graduated
with honor in the class of 185 1. At Yale he displayed
a talent for oratory and composition, and became one
of the editors of the Yale Literary Magazine. He sub
sequently studied law at Columbus, Ohio, was admitted
to the bar there in 1853, and afterwards removed to St.
Louis, where he was admitted to practice in 1855. In
1856 he removed to Keokuk, Iowa, where he formed a
law partnership with Ralph P. Lowe, afterwards gov
ernor of the State. His law practice here quickly proved
successful, and he continued busily engaged until the
opening of the Civil War.
Earnestly patriotic, he hastened to join a party of vol
unteers gathered to repel a threatened invasion of Iowa,
and took part in the battle of Athens, Missouri, in which
the rebels were defeated with much loss. Pie immedi
ately enlisted in the Third Iowa Cavalry, and was elected
first lieutenant of Company C. He was soon after made
adjutant of the regiment, and to his active and intelligent
labors in the duties of this office, the Third Iowa owed
much of its soldierly appearance and efficiency during
the war. He rose, step by step, in rank until made colo
nel of the regiment, and was finally rewarded with the
brevet rank of brigadier-general, " for distinguished and
meritorious services in the field." He served with the
regiment in the hotly-contested battle of Pea Ridge, at
the siege and fall of Vicksburg, and in numerous other
engagements. At Brice's Cross-Roads, the Third Iowa
held the rear against the assaulting columns of Forrest

for two nights and a day, with severe loss. Later, at
Ebenezer Church, Colonel Noble and his regiment re
venged themselves for their loss in this engagement-
breaking Forrest's line and chasing him into Selma, Ala
bama, where, the next day, the rebel chief surrendered
his troops and munitions, but fled himself down the
river in a canoe. The Third Iowa took part in the night
attack and capture of Columbus, Georgia, and Colonel
Noble was put in command of the city in reward for the
excellent service of his regiment. At Montevallo, while
charging at the head of his men, he was struck by a
rifle-ball, which fortunately, however, failed to pass quite
through the plate of his sabre-belt. Though almost
continuously with his regiment, he served also as judge-
advocate-general of the Army of the Southwest, and
afterwards of the Department of Missouri, in which he
had many novel and difficult questions to deal with.
After the war, General Noble returned to Iowa, but,
finding poor prospects there for business, he removed
to St. Louis. Here, in 1867, he received the appoint
ment of district-attorney for the United States, and
became very actively engaged in the prosecution of
counterfeiters and fraudulent manufacturers and dealers
in alcoholic spirits and tobacco who had evaded paying
the internal revenue taxes. For three years he energet
ically pursued these law-breakers, and finally broke up
their unlawful combinations. His valuable services to
the government were gracefully acknowledged by Presi
dent Grant, who thanked him " for the faithful manner in
which he had performed the duties of his office." The
President afterwards offered him the position of solicitor-
general, but the pressure of his professional duties forced
him to decline the honor.
From 1 870 to 1888, General Noble was very successful
in his profession in St. Louis, handling numerous cases
of great importance. Among these the suit of the St.
Louis Gas Light Company against the city of St. Louis,
involving four million dollars in property and money,
which was won in the Supreme Court of the State
after two adverse decisions below. He having thus won
a national reputation, in 1889, President Harrison ap
pointed him Secretary of the Interior, a position for which
his legal experience and his marked executive ability
especially fitted him. Among his achievements in this
office was the opening of Oklahoma Territory; the
reservation of mountain and forest land at head-waters of
streams in the arid regions ; the redemption of the busi
ness of the General Land-Office from almost hopeless
delinquency ; the taking of the eleventh census ; and the
allotment of lands to numerous Indian tribes. These were
but a few of his services, and in no period of its history
has the Department of the Interior been more ably admin
istered. Since 1893, General Noble has again been prac
tising law in St. Louis, and has regained a large business.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

125

ALFRED E. LEWIS.
Major Alfred E. Lewis was born in York County,
Pennsylvania, entered Princeton College in 1850, and
graduated at that institution in 1853. He subsequently
read law with Judge Durkee, and was admitted to the
York Bar in May, 1855. He continued in legal practice
at York until the breaking out of the Civil War, when
he raised a company of volunteers in that town, which
was accepted by Governor Curtin and mustered into
service as Battery E, First Pennsylvania Artillery, of
McCall's Pennsylvania Reserves. On the formation of
the regiment, Captain Lewis was elected senior major,
and as such took command of the eight batteries organ
ized at " Camp Curtin," and mustered into the United
States service.
On the call for troops after the first battle of Bull
Run, McCall's division proceeded to Washington, where,
upon the division of the regiment into two battalions in
February, 1862, Major Lewis selected the first battalion
as head-quarters of the regiment, and was assigned to
General McCall's command, then at Falmouth, opposite
Fredericksburg, Virginia. Here the " Reserves" be
came attached to the Grand Division of Maj or- General
McDowell. In May, 1862, McCall procured an order from the
President detaching him from McDowell's division,
and ordering him to join General McClellan at Hanover
Court-House. Here he was assigned to the Fifth Corps
under General Fitz-John Porter, while Major Lewis was
assigned to the staff of General McCall as " Chief of Ord
nance." He served also as an aide-de-camp to McCall
during the " Seven Days' Campaign" before Richmond.
At Gaines Mill, on June 2"], McCall and his staff were
greatly exposed, the division being repeatedly pressed
back by superior forces of the enemy. At the close of
the day's engagement, Major Lewis was the only staff-
officer remaining by his commander's side.
During the evening of this day, General McCall and
his faithful aide made a narrow escape from capture by
the enemy. The general, seeking the house which had
been General Porter's head-quarters earlier in the day]
finally reached an improvised field hospital where were
sixty wounded soldiers. The surgeon advised the gen
eral and major to get back to their lines with all haste.
The house was nearly surrounded by rebel pickets.
They attempted to obey, but in a few minutes found
themselves halted by a sentry. A brief colloquy en
sued with the orderly accompanying them, in which
McCall finally gave his name and rank. " Yes," said the
sentry, " but on what side ?" " The command of General
McClellan." "The h— 11 you are!" yelled the guard,
raising his piece, in which act he was joined by two
others of the picket. Fortunately, Major Lewis, who

had suspected the sentries from their Southern accent,
had quietly wheeled his horse. Now, as they prepared
to fire, he seized the rein of the general's horse, sank his
spurs into his own, and plunged headlong away, followed
by more than twenty shots from the enemy. They
reached camp in safety, with no harm except to their
horses, all of which were hit, and one was killed.
While the army lay encamped at Harrison's Land
ing, on the James River, Major Lewis was taken with
" Chickahominy fever," which later developed into chronic
laryngitis. He went to Philadelphia for treatment, and
in November, 1862, he was sent to Gettysburg to take
command of a drafted soldiers' camp. He was elected
colonel of the regiment, but declined to serve, on account
of his loss of voice. After accompanying the regiment
to Baltimore, he was forced to withdraw from further
military service by his state of health. In the re
port of the battle of Gaines Mill, General McCall
spoke of him as follows: "To Major Alfred E. Lewis,
First Pennsylvania Artillery, acting aide-de-camp, my
thanks are especially due for gallant and distinguished
services." Major Lewis married in 1864, and in 1873 removed to
Pike County, Pennsylvania. In 1879 he went with his
family to Europe, and spent two years abroad. In poli
tics he has always been prominent in the Democratic
party, and in 1886 was appointed by President Cleveland
Deputy Fifth Auditor of the Treasury. He resigned
from this position in 1889. His name has been three
times presented by the conferees of Pike County as can
didate for Congress from the eleventh (now the eighth)
Congressional district of the State. Major Lewis has a
large farm near Milford, Pennsylvania, and possesses also
a handsome summer residence in the town.

126

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

CHARLES T. YODER.
The subject of this sketch was born of Revolutionary
ancestry, in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, July 15, 1843.
He is the eldest son of Charles Yoder and Ann Eliza
Yoder, the latter being of old Scotch Presbyterian stock.
His ancestors on his father's side, some five generations
back, early in the eighteenth century, emigrated from
Switzerland and settled in Pennsylvania. Subsequently
portions of later generations emigrated from Pennsyl
vania to Canada, Ohio, Kentucky, and other States.
More than one hundred members of the family took
part in the War of the Rebellion, twenty-seven taking
sides with the Southern Confederacy.
His boyhood days were passed on a large farm in
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, where he achieved
considerable notoriety among the staid farmers of that
locality, by his expertness in mathematics, and his ability
to perform great feats of labor, although of tender age
and slight physique.
At the breaking out of the Rebellion he was engaged
in teaching a country school. He at once enlisted as a
private in Company C, Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and
proved himself an efficient, brave soldier, taking part with
his regiment in the following battles and skirmishes :
Mechanicsville, Gaines Mill, Glendale, Malvern Hill,
Antietam, Hedgesville, Union, Upperville (November 3,
1862), Manassas Gap, Markham Station, Little Wash
ington, Gaines Cross-Roads, Waterloo, Fredericks
burg, Kelley's Ford, Beverley Ford, Rapidan Station,
Chancellorsville, Stevensburg, Middleburg, Upperville
(June 21, 1863), Shepherdstown, Culpeper, and Bristoe
Station. His regiment, the Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry, stands
second on the official records of the War Department as

to the number of engagements participated in by any
regiment of the cavalry arm of the service, the First
Maine having been in eighty-one, the Fourth Pennsyl
vania in seventy-seven, the Eighth Illinois in seventy-six,
etc. President Lincoln's attention was drawn towards Pri
vate Yoder as an expert accountant, and on March 11,
1864, he appointed him as paymaster in the army with
the rank of major. Upon the confirmation of his ap
pointment by the Senate, Hon. Simon Cameron wrote him
a note which read as follows :
" My boy, you have been confirmed as major and pay
master, and can now go to work. God bless you !" He
was mustered out of service, July 29, 1865, by reason of
the close of the war. The War Department records
show him to be the youngest paymaster ever appointed
in the army.
After the war the major engaged in mercantile business
in the city of Washington, D. C, and met with success.
Several years thereafter he retired from business and
took a three years' law course in the National University,
receiving the degrees of bachelor and master of laws
respectively, graduating at the head of his class.
He accepted a clerkship in the general land office, and
was promoted on his merit, step by step, until he reached
the position of principal examiner, this latter position he
filled with ability and great credit to himself and the
government, until May 1, 1893, when he resigned to
engage in the practice of his profession.
Like in former pursuits he distinguished himself by
the able manner in which he handled some important
cases intrusted to his care, and as a result he now enjoys
a lucrative practice before the courts of the District of
Columbia. He is a successful business man, is president of the
German American Building Association, treasurer of the
American Home Life Insurance Company, and a director
in several syndicates. He is a member of the Washing
ton Commandery Military Order of the Loyal Legion,
takes an active part in G. A. R. matters, is past com
mander of Burnside Post No. 8, Washington, D. C, a
member of Columbia Lodge, No. 3, F. and A. M., and of
Lafayette Chapter.
Major Yoder's wife was formerly Miss Emma L. Berry,
well known in musical circles in Washington, D. C, as a
brilliant pianist. She is a daughter of Washington 0.
Berry and Amy Hart Berry, honored and life-long resi
dents of the District of Columbia. They were married
August 21, 1877, and have been blessed by this union
with three very interesting children, — Edith May Yoder,
William B. Yoder, and Frank W. Yoder. The major
enjoys the comforts of his home, where he can generally
be found when not at his law-office, surrounded by his
family.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

127

JOSEPH MATHER SMITH, M.D.
Joseph Mather Smith, of New York City, was born
at New Rochelle, New York, in 1789. His father, Dr.
Matson Smith, was a distinguished physician of that
place, president of the Westchester County Medical
Society, foremost in promoting the welfare of the commu
nity, and belonged to an old Connecticut family, marry
ing a daughter of Dr. Samuel Mather, of Lyme, an
officer and surgeon in the war of the Revolution, and
a descendant of the Rev. Richard Mather, who came
from England to this country in 1635.
Dr. Joseph Mather Smith graduated at the New York
College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1815. During
the War of 181 2 he was commissioned in 18 14 as sur
geon's mate of the First Regiment New York Horse
Artillery. In 1824 appeared his work entitled "Ele
ments of the Etiology and Philosophy of Epidemics,"
a volume declared at the time to be " fifty years in ad
vance ofthe medical literature on its subject," and which
was pronounced in the review of it by Sir James Johns
ton as "doing honor to American medicine."
In 1826 he was appointed professor of the Theory
and Practice of Medicine in the New York College of
Physicians and Surgeons, as the successor of the illus
trious Dr. David Hosack. Until 1866, the year of his
death, thus covering a period of forty years, he unin
terruptedly filled either this professorial chair, or the one
of Materia Medica and Clinical Medicine. A Memorial
Annual Prize in the college now bears his name. In
1829 he was appointed attending physician to the New
York Hospital, a position which he held until his decease.
In 1 83 1 he married Henrietta M. Beare, daughter of
Henry Martin Beare, of New York. She was a most
accomplished lady, a descendant of the old New York
colonial families of the Rutgers, Lispenards, and Mars-
tons. In 1854 he was elected president of the New
York Academy of Medicine. In 1864 he was appointed
president of the Council of Hygiene of the Citizens'
Association of New York, and it is chiefly due to the
efforts of that body that an efficient board of health was
established in the metropolis. He was one of the early
promoters of the American Medical Association, and his
masterly reports, as printed in the first, third, and thir
teenth volumes of its Transactions, illustrate the logical
arrangement of all his thoughts and the breadth and
comprehensiveness of his inquiries. He was the author
of numerous discourses and essays which were pub
lished; among these maybe mentioned "Efficacy of
Emetics in Spasmodic Diseases," 1817; "Epidemic
Cholera Morbus of Europe and Asia," 1831, published
by and at the request of the trustees of the college;
"Public Duties of Medical Men," 1846; "Puerperal
Fever, its Causes and Modes of Propagation," 1857;
"Therapeutics of Albuminuria," 1862.

Dr. Smith was pre-eminently patriotic. He was a
Christian gentleman of the old school. Grave, without
formality; dignified, yet not haughty; affable, unas
suming and universally beloved. He died in New York
in 1866, leaving a widow, three sons, and two daughters.
His eldest son, Dr. Gouverneur M. Smith, was his suc
cessor as attending physician of the New York Hospital,
and is now one of its consulting physicians. His other
sons, Lewis Bayard Smith and Henry Erskine Smith, are
retired merchants of New York. The latter has been
quite a traveller as well as an author, and is a member
of the Authors' Club, New York. All three of his sons
did honorable service in the Civil War, one in a medical
capacity and two in the Seventh Regiment, N. Y. S. N. G.
Dr. Wm. C. Roberts, in his eulogium upon Dr. Smith
before the New York Academy of Medicine in 1867, in
alluding to his writings, remarked : " The style of his
written discourses is classical and elegant, exhibiting,
without labored attempts at fine writing, depth and
beauty of thought and expression, wealth of erudition,
abundance and felicity of illustration, and accuracy of
logic and syntax."
Dr. Elisha Harris closed his biography of Dr. Smith
before the New York State Medical Society with these
words (Trans., 1867): " Forty years a public teacher in
medicine, forty-six years constantly concerned in the
active charities of the profession in public hospitals, for
more than thirty years a consulting physician whose
practical advice and diagnostic aid were widely sought
by his brethren, and to the end of his days a progressive
and noble exemplar of the great qualities that exalt our
profession, the beneficent influence of his life still lives.
His memory is embalmed in our hearts, and will not be
forgotten by the generations that follow us."

128

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL SAMUEL DUNCAN
OLIPHANT.
Brevet Brigadier-General Samuel Duncan Oli-
phant was born August i, 1824, at Franklin Forges,
on the Youghiogheny River, in Fayette County, Penn
sylvania. He was the second son of Fidelio Hughes
Oliphant and Jane Creigh Duncan, his wife. He received
his earlier education in private schools at Uniontown,
Fayette County, Pennsylvania ; the Grove Academy, at
Steubenville, Ohio ; entered the Freshman class in No
vember, 1840, and graduated from Jefferson College in
September, 1844.
He commenced the study of law under the direction
of the law-firm of Howell & Oliphant (Judge E. P.
Oliphant, his uncle), in Uniontown, Pennsylvania ; spent
two years at the Law-School of Harvard University, and
graduated therefrom in June, 1846, and was admitted to
the bar of Fayette County in September, 1847. Three
years later he moved to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and,
entering into partnership with the late Hon. Thomas
Williams, remained there two years, when he returned
to and resumed the practice of law at Uniontown, Penn
sylvania ; was actively engaged in building the Fayette
County Railroad from Uniontown to Connellsville.
Having been identified with the uniformed militia of
Fayette County as captain of the Union Volunteers be
fore he was twenty-one years of age, and subsequently
as colonel ofthe battalion of uniformed militia of Fayette

County, he felt in honor, as well as duty and inclination
bound to make good his soldierly professions of peaceful
days, and volunteered at the outbreak of the war of the
Rebellion. On the same day on which Sumter was fired
upon he raised a company of one hundred men. On the
next day he was off with it to Pittsburg, where he was
elected captain. His company wds organized in the
Eighth Pennsylvania Reserves at Camp Wright, of which
he was elected lieutenant-colonel. Marched with his
regiment to the defence of Washington on July, 1861 ;
was on his way while the battle of Bull Run was being
fought, and was there mustered into the service of the
United States for three years or during the war.
He participated with his regiment in the battles of the
Peninsula ; was physically disabled in the line of duty,
and honorably discharged in December, 1862.
Recovering in a measure from his disabilities, in June,
1863, he was appointed major in the Veteran Reserve
Corps. Being ordered to the command of the detach
ment at Pottsville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, he
was soon promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel and
colonel of the Fourteenth Regiment Veteran Reserve
Corps, and to the command of the Second Sub-District
of the Department of the Lehigh. Subsequently he was
with General Thomas at Nashville, Tennessee, December
15, 16, 1864, and participated in the defences when Jubal
Early threatened Washington in the summer of 1864.
He was the senior and presiding officer on two boards of
examination, and was several times detailed as president
of courts-martial. In August, 1865, he was brevetted
brigadier-general for meritorious services during the war,
and assigned to the command of the Second Brigade of
the garrison of Washington, and honorably discharged
from the service July 1, 1866.
The war being over, he removed from Uniontown,
Pennsylvania, to Princeton, New Jersey, for educational
facilities for a large family of sons, and resumed the
practice of law. In September of 1870 he was appointed
clerk of the Circuit Court of the United States for the
District of New Jersey by Hon. William McKennan,
circuit judge, and still continues to exercise the duties
of that office, residing at Trenton.
Pie was married in March, 1847, to Mary Coulter
Campbell, of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and of this mar
riage there was issue ten sons, all of whom are living.
In January, 1877, he married his second wife, Beulah A.,
daughter of Joseph Oliphant, of Oliphant's Mills, near
Medford, New Jersey.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

129

S. C. SWALLOW, D.D.
Rev. Dr. S. C. Swallow, a prominent ecclesiastic of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born March 5,
1839, near Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, in the historic and
classic valley of Wyoming. He was of English-Irish
ancestry. Receiving his preliminary education in the
common schools in the vicinity of his home, he after
wards attended Wyoming Seminary, and completed his
education at Susquehanna University. After his gradua
tion, he at first entered upon the business of teaching, in
which he continued engaged for five years, of which one
year was passed at the seminary above named.
Having decided on adopting the law as a profession,
Mr. Swallow entered as a student the office of that
matchless counsellor, Volney L. Maxwell. Under such
skilled direction he would doubtless have obtained an
exact and extended acquaintance with legal lore and
practice, and been fitted to shine in this profession, had
not circumstances and native inclination led him to give
up the law and adopt the ministry as his future calling.
Having passed through the essential course of instruc
tion in divinity, he entered the pulpit of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, and thus at length began what has
since continued the active and useful work of his life.
In recognition of his high standing in the ministry,
Taylor University, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, conferred on
him, in 1888, the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
Dr. Swallow long continued active in the pulpit, filling
a number of important posts in central and southern
Pennsylvania. His high standing in the church subse
quently brought him an elevation to the position of
presiding elder, and for four years he acted in this
capacity in the district of Altoona, Pennsylvania, a field
of labor that embraced five or six counties. He has
been twice elected a delegate to the General Conference
of his church, the last time being during the meeting of
this body for the year 1 896.
Within recent years Dr. Swallow has exchanged the
active labors of the pulpit and the supervising duties of
presiding elder for literary labor in connection with the
interests ofthe church. Four years ago he accepted the
editorship of the Pennsylvania Methodist, an important
organ of the denomination published at Harrisburg,
which he edits with a judgment and literary skill that
give its columns much weight in the counsels of the
church. He also occupies the important post of Super
intendent of the Methodist Publishing Interests for Cen
tral Pennsylvania.
Aside from the more immediate duties of the ministry
and the editor's sanctum, Dr. Swallow has taken a vital

interest in the great reform movements of recent times.
In his younger days, when human slavery was the lead
ing evil in this country, he ardently entered the ranks of
the Abolitionists, speaking his sentiments with no uncer
tain voice. Later, when slavery had plunged the country
into war, he ranked as an earnest patriot, and a fearless
supporter of the government against the rebellion. He
subsequently became equally active and earnest in another
labor of abolition, that of the legalized liquor traffic, of
which he has long been and continues an uncompro
mising advocate. Recognizing that intemperance is the
most active and dangerous vice in this land, and the one
that leads to an endless array of crimes, diseases, and
family and local evils, Dr. Swallow is an outspoken
champion of the cause of prohibition of the sale of ardent
spirits. His standing in this direction is so pronounced,
and his services have been so useful, that a few years
ago the Prohibition party tendered him the nomination
for Governor of the State.
Dr. Swallow is an able and fluent orator, and wields
the editorial pen with a trenchant power which has given
him a widespread influence, not only in Harrisburg, where
he has resided during the past ten years, but throughout
the State. He is indeed favorably known throughout
the nation as a leading divine in his church, and an active
advocate of the various reforms which now agitate the
public mind. Dr. Swallow's familiarity with the publish
ing interests of his denomination has caused him to be
mentioned favorably in many quarters as the possible
choice of the ensuing General Conference as either book
publisher or official editor.

17

130

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ALEXANDER C. McCLURG.
To the good judgment and business enterprise of the
publishing firm of A. C. McClurg & Co. is due much of
the great prestige which Chicago has attained as a book-
distributing- centre. The head of this firm and its active
manager is Alexander C McClurg, a grandson of a
Scotch-Irishman who emigrated to this country from
Coleraine, Ireland, in 1798, and son of Alexander
McClurg, the pioneer of the iron-foundry industry in
Pittsburg. Though born in Philadelphia, Mr. McClurg
passed his boyhood in Pittsburg, and obtained a collegi
ate education at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. After
graduating, he began the study of law at Pittsburg, but
the strain of legal study affecting his health, he abandoned
it, and in 1859 went to Chicago, where he entered the
book-store of S. C. Griggs & Co. as a junior clerk. This
occupation was of his own selection and much to his
liking, and his earnest application to the business soon
gave him a prominent standing in the establishment.
On the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1861, the patri
otic young man immediately enlisted as a private in the
Sixtieth Regiment, Illinois State Volunteers. This organi
zation, not being needed to make up the quota of three-
months' men, was soon disbanded ; but upon a later call
for troops, Mr. McClurg assisted in raising the Crosby
Guards, and, with his command, was mustered as a
private soldier into service, August 15, 1862. Shortly
afterwards, contrary to his expectation, he was unani
mously elected captain of the company which became
Company H, Eighty-eighth Illinois infantry.
This regiment was first employed in the defence of
Cincinnati, then threatened by General Kirby Smith, and
afterwards participated in the battle of Perryville, within
one month of the time of its leaving Chicago. At Nash
ville, Captain McClurg served as judge-advocate on a

general court-martial, and in May, 1863, he was selected
by General McCook as his acting assistant adjutant-
general. He served through the Tullahoma campaign
and the battle of Chickamauga, and after General McCook
was relieved from command, he was offered positions on
the staffs of Generals Thomas, Sheridan, and Baird. He
accepted the latter, and became Baird's assistant adjutant-
general. While serving in this capacity, General Sheri
dan, then with the Army of the Potomac, earnestly
requested him to accept a position on his staff, a high
compliment which circumstances forced him to decline.
In the battle of Missionary Ridge, Captain McClurg
twice had his horse shot under him. He was one of the
first of the army to gain the crest of the Ridge, and the
only officer of his division who scaled the Ridge on
horseback. In April, 1864, he became acting assistant
adjutant-general of the Fourteenth Army Corps, under
General John M. Palmer, who was succeeded by General
Jeff. C. Davis shortly before the capture of Atlanta. At
General Davis's request, Captain McClurg was promoted
lieutenant-colonel for " especially gallant conduct in the
battle of Jonesboro'." He retained his position as adju
tant-general, took part in Sherman's " March to the Sea,"
and, before being mustered out, at the end of the war,
was promoted colonel and brevetted brigadier-general.
A handsome sword was presented him, bearing the names
of the many battles in which he had taken part, and
General Davis urged him to accept a position in the
regular army. For family reasons, however, he pre
ferred to retire to private life, and resumed his position in
the firm of Griggs & Co., in which he became a junior
partner. Subsequently General McClurg became a member of
the new firm of Jansen, McClurg & Co. This was
succeeded in 1887 by A. C. McClurg & Co., of which
he is the senior partner, and whose large business he
actively controls. No firm has done more than that
here named to give the people of the West the best of
English and American literature. General McClurg is
himself a lover of books, and no work that is not first-
class in literaiy character and mechanical finish is per
mitted to be issued by his house.
He has been president of the Chicago Literary Club
and the Commercial Club of Chicago, and is vice-presi
dent of the Chicago Plistorical Society and of the Uni
versity Club of Chicago, and a trustee of the Newberry
Library. In 1874 he organized the First Regiment,
Illinois National Guard, of which he retained command
till 1877, leaving it in a most efficient condition. He is
an independent in politics, and a strong advocate of
civil service reform. Pie married, in 1877, Miss Eleanor
Wheeler, daughter of the late Judge N. K. Wheeler, of
New York, and has had two children, sons, one of whom
died in infancy.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

131

REV. HOMER EATON.
Homer Eaton, D.D., junior agent of the Methodist
Book Concern, and a member of the Troy Annual Con
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is the son of
the late Rev. Bennett Eaton, of the same conference, and
was born at Enosburg, Franklin County, Vermont, No
vember 16, 1834. His religious feelings were awakened
by a conversion at the age of sixteen to such an earnest
extent that he determined to devote his life to the ser
vice of the Church, and immediately afterwards began
a preparatory course of study for the ministry at the
academy in Bakersfield, Vermont. His studies com
pleted here, he entered the Methodist General Biblical
Institute, Concord, New Hampshire, where he graduated
as D.D. in 1857. In May of the same year he was
admitted on trial in the Troy Annual Conference.
Mr. Eaton soon proved himself an earnest and capable
minister and a valuable member of the conference, of
which he was chosen first assistant secretary in 1861.
This position he continued to hold until 1870, when he
was elected secretary to the conference, an office to
which he was re-elected annually for seven consecutive
years. In 1872 the conference sent him as a delegate to
the Methodist Episcopal General Conference, held in
Brooklyn in May of that year. As a part of the pro
ceedings of this meeting he was appointed one of the
fraternal delegates to the General Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada. He was elected
a reserve delegate to the General Conference of 1876,
and in the same year was appointed presiding elder of
the Albany district.
He was thus diligently engaged in pastoral duty until
elected to his present important and responsible position,
that of book-agent, he being placed, in association with
Dr. Hunt, in charge of the great Church publishing house
so widely known as the Methodist Book Concern, and to
whose prosperity his energy and business ability have
proved of the utmost advantage.
As evidence of the greatness of the interests which
have thus been committed to the care of himself and his
able colleague, we may briefly refer to the great annual
business of this theological establishment and the diver
sity of the duties committed to the care of its managing
heads. The Methodist Book Concern has a general catalogue
of over three thousand volumes, which embrace pub
lications for the young, for adults, for the preacher's
study, for Sunday reading and Sunday-school use, for
the Christian scholar, many of these works being placed
by competent critics at the head of their several depart

ments of literature, and the production of the ablest
minds in the Church throughout its history. Among
these authors we may name Foster, the master theolo
gian ; Stevens, the brilliant Church historian ; Whedon,
the profound Biblical scholar, and Wise, whose books
for young people have been the delight of thousands of
households. The Book Concern now has two large houses, in New
York and Cincinnati respectively. The extent and ap
pointments of the New York house we have stated in
our sketch of Dr. Hunt. The total sales of this great
publishing establishment amount to over one million
dollars annually, and the assets of the two houses are
worth more than three million dollars. As regards its
profits, it paid to conference claimants, the veterans of
the ministry, this year the munificent sum of one hundred
and twenty thousand dollars, it thus serving as a highly
valuable pension fund for worn-out preachers.
The Methodist Book Concern issues a number of
very successful periodicals, among which the Methodist
Review has the largest circulation of all reviews, while
the Christian Advocate is unequalled in circulation by any
other religious weekly. There are in addition several
Sunday-school periodicals, some of them with very large
circulations, while some of the hymnals issued have an
enormous annual sale. The house has paid for the
Methodist Church an average of more than sixteen
thousand dollars annually during its history, and has
been of enormous advantage to the cause of religion and
moral progress. For its present prosperity great praise
is due to its managers, Drs. Eaton and Hunt.

132

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM E. DODGE.
William Earl Dodge was born at Hartford, Con
necticut, September 4, 1805, the lineal descendant of a
Puritan ancestor, William Dodge, who landed at Salem
in 1629. His father was a merchant and manufacturer,
and the builder of the first cotton-mill in Connecticut.
His mother was Sarah Cleveland, whose father, in 1775,
introduced a bill in the Assembly of Connecticut for the
abolition of slavery.
Mr. Dodge began his business career in 1818, as a
boy in a dry-goods store on Pearl Street, New York, his
father having removed to that city. In 18 19 the family
returned to Connecticut, and the youth became a clerk
in a store at Bozrahville in that State. Six years after
wards his father opened a dry-goods store in New York
City, in which his son was employed as an assistant.
In 1828, Mr. Dodge married Melissa Phelps, daughter
of Anson G. Phelps, with whom in 1833 he entered into
partnership in the metal business, the firm-name being
Phelps, Dodge & Co. This firm still exists, and is widely
known in commercial circles. Mr. Dodge remained con
nected with it throughout the remainder (if his life, and
acquired a large fortune, partly through the business of
the firm and partly from various other business ventures.
In 1836 he made large investments in timber lands near
Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and afterwards in Canada
and Georgia, and to a lesser extent in other localities.
As a recognition of the value of his services in the in
dustrial development of the State, Georgia in 1870 made
a separate county to which it gave the name of Dodge.
He became interested also in the copper-mining interests
of Lake Superior and other regions. A rolling-mill was
established by the firm at Derby, Connecticut, and Mr.

Dodge, as a personal enterprise, founded the Lackawanna
Iron and Coal Company at Scranton, Pennsylvania, of
which he remained a director till his death. In addition
to these various business connections, he had large iron
and steel interests elsewhere.
His connection with the commercial interests of New
York was close and extended. For several terms he
served as president of the New York Chamber of Com
merce, was one of the first directors of the Mutual Life
Insurance Company of New York, and was associated
with various other mercantile and financial enterprises.
He was one of the original subscribers to the Atlantic
telegraph cable, and did much to encourage Cyrus W.
Field in his persistent enterprise. His connection with
railroad affairs began early in his business life, and be
came very extensive in his later years. The New York
and Erie Railroad was the first to enlist his attention, and
he afterwards became largely concerned in the Central
Railroad of New Jersey and in several other roads. He
was one of the first to take stock in the elevated railways
of New York.
Outside of his business relations, Mr. Dodge was
earnestly active in all that took place in New York. He
became a life member of the New York Historical So
ciety, and in 1853 became prominent in the movement
for municipal reform in that city. At the age of twenty-
one he became awakened to deep religious convictions,
and ever afterwards took an active part in religious move
ments. So great was his feeling in favor of the cessa
tion of secular activity on Sunday that he severed his
connection with the Erie and the Central Railroads when,
in opposition to his objection, they decided upon Sunday
travel. He was a member of the Bible Society, of the
Young Men's Christian Association, of the City Mission,
and of other religious movements, and contributed lib-
erally to the support of missionary and other church
interests. He was a prominent advocate of temperance,
and did his utmost to promote it by voice, pen, and
money. The State Asylum for Inebriates, at Bingham-
ton, New York, and several similar institutions were
founded by him, and he was president of the National
Temperance Society from its origin till his death.
Politically he was a moderate Whig, and afterwards
an active Republican, and an earnest supporter of the
government during the war. Pie served as a Presiden
tial elector in the second election of Grant, and as a
member of the Indian Commission by Grant's appoint
ment. During the Thirty-fourth Congress he was a
member of the United States House of Representatives.
Privately Mr. Dodge was a man of wide benevolence,
his gifts for charitable purposes aggregating many
thousands of dollars yearly. He died at New York,
February 9, 1883.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

133

GEORGE DeB. KEIM.
George de Benneville Keim, well known in the
records of the city government of Philadelphia for his
very efficient service as sheriff of the city and county ten
years ago, was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, January
18, 1 83 1. The family from which he descended was one
of high consideration and great social influence in that
part of the State, of which the Keims were among the
earliest settlers, having come to this country at the time
of William Penn's first visit, and received large grants of
land in and near the site of the present city of Reading,
On his mother's side Mr. Keim came from an equally
distinguished family, that of de Benneville, an illustrious
French Huguenot, who sought refuge in Pennsylvania
from the persecution in his native land.
After acquiring a sound education and engaging for
some years in the saddlery-hardware business in Read
ing, Mr. Keim came to Philadelphia shortly before the
outbreak of the Civil War and began the active business
career which in time placed him in a high rank among
the merchant princes of this city. His business eventu
ally extended till it embraced all sections of the Union,
there being no cities where the firm of George de B.
Keim & Co. was not known to the trade in its line, while
it eventually attained the proud distinction of being at
the head ofthe saddlery-hardware business ofthe United
States. From time to time Mr. Keim gave a partnership
interest in his business to the energetic and able young
men whom he had gathered around him. Gradually
his business, built up by his earnestness and industry
and firmly established by his reputation for integrity
and fair dealing, grew to such proportions and at
tained such stability as to require no further active
supervision on his part, and about 1880 he began to
relinquish the more exacting details to younger hands
and to enjoy the leisure and the competency he had
fairly earned.
Up to this time he had held no political office, nor
felt any political aspirations. His inclinations were for
other than an official life, and when in 1882, in re
sponse to a general public sentiment, he was brought
out by his friends as a candidate for nomination for
the office of sheriff, it was entirely against his wishes.
He gave way, however, to the earnest solicitations of
his friends and the evidence of public appreciation, and,
after a triumphant nomination, entered the fight with
a vigor and earnestness that swept everything before
it. The result was his election to the office by a large
majority and his entrance upon its duties in the year
1883. '
It may be said here that the jurisdiction of the sheriff
of Philadelphia is one of the most important in the United
States. It embraces Philadelphia City and County, a ter
ritory containing considerably more than a million people.

And when it is considered that this territory is the great
est manufacturing centre on the American continent, the
great importance of the office will be apparent. Sheriff
Keim's administration was so thoroughly satisfactory in
every respect that he made an enviable record, and would
have been easily re-elected, but that the State constitution
forbids any sheriff from holding the office for two con
secutive terms. He did everything to win the respect
and confidence of people of all political creeds, and
made himself highly popular to all by that frankness
and geniality of nature which was one of the secrets
of his business success. By disposition he was open-
hearted, manly, and generous, and no man in the city
had more friends than he.
In 1887 he ran for the office of mayor against Edwin
H. Fitler, his nomination being endorsed by the Demo
cratic party, though he was then, and continued, an un
flinching Republican. Being defeated in this campaign,
he retired to private life, glad at heart to escape from
the weight of political duties.
In 1873, Mr. Keim was sent abroad as Commissioner
to the Vienna World's Fair, and after the close of the
Exposition spent a year in European travel, during which
he purchased numerous works of art, including valuable
paintings and statuary. These formed the nucleus of a
collection which became in time one of the finest private
art galleries of this city, and which was kept at his very
handsome and commodious residence, No. 1122 Spruce
Street. In addition to this sumptuous home, Mr. Keim
had a country-seat at Edgewater Park, on the Delaware,
where he kept for private enjoyment a handsome steam
yacht. He had also a farm and shooting-box in Mary
land. Here, in 1893, he took a severe cold which de
veloped into pneumonia, and after a short illness he died
on March 10 of that year.

134

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ASSISTANT PAYMASTER WILLIAM ROSWELL
WOODWARD.
Assistant Paymaster William Roswell Woodward
was born at Georgetown, D. C, August 21, 1840. He
is the son of Roswell and Catherine Hill, who, soon
after the subject of this sketch was born, removed to
Brooklyn, New York. Paymaster Woodward's early
life was spent at school, and he took great interest in
the Volunteer Fire Department of Brooklyn, having
served his time (five years) with the same.
Being a patriotic man, and wishing to serve in the
navy, he was appointed by Captain Alfred Taylor, com
manding the United States steamer " Galena," North
Atlantic Squadron, captain's clerk, the latter part of

April, 1862, on the above-named vessel. Early in the
month of May, 1862, the "Galena" left for Hampton
Roads, where, after staying a few days, it proceeded, in
company with two or three other naval vessels, to open
the James River. Nothing of importance occurred until
they arrived at Drury's Bluff, or Fort Darling, where
the entire fleet was repulsed, and the vessels dropped
back to City Point, Virginia.
The next action in which he took part was at Mal
vern Hill, in company with the "Aroostook" and "Port
Royal." The next morning the fleet dropped back to
Harrison's Landing. Mr. Woodward, who had con
tracted a serious illness, was sent North, and upon his
recovery was appointed, May 11, 1863, an acting assist
ant paymaster, with orders to report on board the bark
" Ethan Allan," at Boston, Massachusetts. After leaving
this port, most of his time was spent on the South Atlantic
Blockading Squadron. He remained in the service until
September 4, 1865, when he was honorably discharged.
He married, March 5, 1867, Mary L. Townsend.
Mr. Woodward then entered upon business in civil
life, and was at the time of his death, which occurred
at his home in Brooklyn, July 5, 1890, the head of the
large wholesale firm of E. Fougera & Co., New York
and Paris. Previous to his purchase of the business of
E. Fougera & Co. he was connected with S. S. Town-
send, in the dye-wood and drug business, for several
years. His son, Edward Silvanus, succeeded him in his
business, and his widow, Mary, survives him.
Paymaster Woodward was a member ofthe Hamilton,
Rembrandt, and Brooklyn Riding and Driving Clubs,
and a member of the New York Commandery of the
Loyal Legion.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

135

HAMILTON FISH.
Hamilton Fish, governor of the State of New York,
and for two terms Secretary of State of the United
States, was a native of New York City, in which he was
born on August 3, 1808. He obtained his education in
Columbia College, from which he graduated in 1 827, and
immediately began the study of the law. He was ad
mitted to the New York bar in 1830. His inclination,
however, led" him rather to a political than a legal life, he
early manifesting a strong interest in State affairs, from
the stand-point of the Whig party. His first public ser
vice was as commissioner of deeds, which post he filled
for several years. In 1834 he became a candidate for the
Assembly, but was defeated. In 1841 he was nominated
as the Whig candidate for Congress to represent the
Sixth District of New York, and was elected.
After serving one term in Congress he was nominated
for the lieutenant-governorship of the State, but was
defeated by the Anti-Renters, at that time a prominent
disturbing element in New York politics. In the suc
ceeding year he was renominated for the same office, and
was now triumphantly elected, receiving a majority of
thirty thousand votes. After serving one year in this
office, he was, in 1848, nominated and elected to the
governorship, and served one term as governor of New
York State. This was followed by an election, in 185 1,
to the high office of United States senator, which he
filled during the stormy period intervening between that
date and 1857. The repeal ofthe Missouri Compromise,
the opening steps towards the war, was opposed by him.
On the formation of the Republican party, in 1856, he
joined its ranks, the old Whig party having vanished
from national politics. He took no prominent part, how
ever, in Republican politics.
After the close of his senatorial term, in 1857, Mr.
Fish went to Europe, in which country he remained for
something over a year. On his return he retired from
activity in politics, though he worked earnestly for the
election of Lincoln to the Presidency. On the outbreak
of the Civil War, Mr. Fish's long experience in public
affairs rendered him highly useful in the State councils,
and he was appointed on the commission to work for the
conservation of law and order in New York. In this
service his energy, wisdom, and patriotism were con
spicuously evident.
In 1862, Mr. Fish and Bishop Ames were appointed
commissioners to visit the United States prisoners held
by the Confederacy, and to " relieve their necessities and
provide for their comfort." The authorities at Rich
mond, however, refused them access to the Confederate
States, but made to them a proposition for the exchange
of prisoners, the result being the formation of a system
of exchange which continued till the end of the war.
During the remainder of the period of conflict Mr. Fish

was frequently employed on delicate missions, and was
one of those on whom President Lincoln depended for
advice. His services were of much utility in the devel
opment of a spirit of loyal public opinion in his native
city. At the close of the war, Mr. Fish retired from public
life, and during the several years that followed devoted
himself to the practice of his profession. To all ap
pearance the remainder of his life was to be passed
outside the field of politics, and in that of quiet citizen
ship and forensic labors. But destiny willed otherwise.
General Grant had made his acquaintance and felt the
highest respect for his abilities. On the election of the
successful warrior to the Presidency, he appointed Elihu
B. Washburn Secretary of State. This was admittedly
a temporary appointment, Mr. Washburn's health being
so feeble that he was obliged to retire from the position
after a week's incumbency. Mr. Fish was appointed to
succeed him. This was an unlooked-for honor, which
his first inclination induced him to decline. He was,
however, induced to accept at the strong personal re
quest of the President, and served as Secretary of State
during Grant's two terms, from 1869 to 1877.
In this elevated office Mr. Fish's statesmanlike ability
rendered his services of the highest importance to his
country. Many important questions were settled by him
in a manner most honorable to the United States. He
was the warm personal friend and closest adviser and
confidant of the President, who had so high an opinion
of his abilities that he earnestly advocated his nomination
to the Presidency. The convention, however, thought
differently, and Mr. Fish again retired from public to
private life. Pie died in New York, September 7, 1893.
He was an ideal diplomatist and thorough gentleman of
the old school, agreeable and popular in his association
with all classes, and possessed of hosts of friends.

136

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ARTHUR B. FARQUHAR.
Arthur B. Farquhar, a prominent manufacturer and
political economist of Pennsylvania, was born in Mont
gomery County, Maryland, September 28, 1838. His
ancestry is of mingled Scotch, English, and German
origin, his great-great-grandfather, William Farquhar,
having emigrated from Scotland about 1700 a.d. to
Frederick County, Maryland, bringing with him a num
ber of religious refugees. His maternal ancestor, Robert
Brook, who was born in London in 1602, and married
the daughter of the dean of Worcester, emigrated to
Charles County, Maryland, in 1650, and became com
mandant of the county and president of the council of
Maryland. His descendants subsequently settled in
Montgomery County.
In 181 2, Amos Farquhar, grandfather of the subject
of this sketch, removed to York County, Pennsylvania,
and erected there a cotton factory, which proved unsuc
cessful after the close ofthe war with England. William
H. Farquhar, his son, was a man of the highest cultiva
tion and attainments, a good Latin and Greek scholar at
the age of thirteen, and a mathematician of note. Mon-
cure D. Conway has spoken of him as the most accom
plished gentleman he had ever the good fortune to meet.
Returning to Maryland, the father and grandfather
opened a seminary for the private instruction of young
women, and here the subject of our sketch was born.
Receiving his education at Hallowell's select school for
boys at Alexandria, Virginia, he spent a year in managing
his father's farm. But his tendency was strongly towards
mechanics, his taste for which had early appeared, and
been fostered by his father, who proposed to start him in
a mechanical career. For this purpose he gave the youth

every opportunity for gaining a knowledge of and practical
experience in mechanics, and finally sent him to York
Pennsylvania, to learn a trade. Here he manifested such
talent and industry that at the end of two years he was
admitted as a partner into the business.
The company with which he was connected prospered
until the outbreak of the Civil War, which reduced its
business, while a fire which succeeded entirely wrecked
the establishment, the firm being left with assets barely
sufficient to pay twenty-five cents on the dollar. Such
a settlement as this did not satisfy Mr. Farquhar's sense
of integrity and desire for business independence. He
therefore persuaded his creditors to give him an oppor
tunity to start anew, and again embarked in business.
At the end of two years he was enabled to settle his in
debtedness in full. At that time he was at the head of
a very modest business, conducted in a small frame shop
with the aid of seven hands. From this small beginning
has grown the present colossal establishment, the Penn
sylvania Agricultural Works. This concern was reor
ganized in 1889 into the A. B. Farquhar Company,
limited, with a capital of five hundred thousand dollars,
whose stock is entirely in the hands of members of the
Farquhar family. A. B. Farquhar is president of this
company, whose annual business at present is over one
million dollars, and is yearly increasing. The products
of the works are largely shipped to Mexico, Brazil, Ar
gentina, Chili, and South Africa. The name of Farquhar
is a synonyme for progress in the city of York, which
owes to the enterprise of Mr. Farquhar much of its
prominence as a manufacturing centre.
Mr. Farquhar is a scholar as well as a manufacturer,
and has become widely known as an authority on ques
tions of political economy, finance, and industry. His
essays on these subjects, published in the papers of New
York and Philadelphia, have attracted general attention;
and his pamphlets on finance, and notably on the silver
question, have had a very wide circulation. His book,
" Economic and Industrial Delusions," deals in a closely
argumentative manner with the subjects of free coinage
and high tariff, both of which he believes to be seriously
detrimental to the best interests of this country.
Mr. Farquhar served as one ofthe commissioners from
Pennsylvania to the Columbian World's Fair, by them
was unanimously chosen Executive Commissioner, and
was elected president of the National Association of
Executive Commissioners of all the States at Chicago.
Visiting Europe under a commission from the govern
ment, he performed valuable service there for the World's
Fair. In every respect he is progressive and public
spirited, and one of the most active and useful citizens
of his community.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

137

REAR-ADMIRAL THOMAS HOLDUP STEVENS.
Rear-Admiral Thomas Holdup Stevens was born in
Connecticut, and is a son of Commodore Thomas Holdup
Stevens, who at the age of eighteen commanded the
" Trippe," one of Perry's squadron at the battle of Lake
Erie. Upon the old navy lists Lieutenant T. H. Stevens
appears as the second of the " date of 1836," a notable
one for the ability of those who composed it.
Thomas H. Stevens was appointed a midshipman from
Connecticut in 1836, and after varied service became a
lieutenant in 1849, and, after serving on board the
" Michigan," some Coast Survey vessels, and the steam-
frigate " Colorado," was ordered to the command of the
" Ottawa" early in 1862. In this vessel he took part in
the actions of the squadron at Port Royal, capture of
Forts Beauregard and Walker, battle of Port Royal
Ferry, and the different engagements with Tatnall's fleet.
After that the " Ottawa" was constantly employed for
many months in the waters of Florida, under fire many
times. Stevens commanded the naval forces on these
waters. Lieutenant Stevens received his commission as com
mander in July, 1862, and commanded the " Maratanza"
during the exciting period of the battle of Malvern Hill.
Then, for a short time, he was in command of the cele
brated " Monitor," covering McClellan on his with
drawal from the Peninsula. He next commanded the
" Sonoma," in the West India squadron, and captured
several blockade-runners. Commanded the monitor
" Patapsco," during which period that vessel took part in
numerous attacks on the defences of Charleston, and on
the night of September 8, 1863, Stevens commanded the
boat-assault on Fort Sumter. He next took command
of the steam-sloop " Oneida." During the operations
before Mobile, in August, 1864, to enable Commander
Mullany (late rear-admiral), who had volunteered for the
occasion, to take part in the fight, Stevens consented to
take command of the double-turreted monitor " Winne
bago," and Mullany took the " Oneida," so that both
those officers could command fighting-ships. In the
" Winnebago" Stevens took' part in the battle of Mobile
Bay and the capture of the " Tennessee" and her consorts,
as well as Forts Powell, Gaines, and Morgan, in all which
operations he was conspicuous for the handling of his
command and for his personal daring. Resuming com
mand of the " Oneida," he remained in command of the
Texas Division of the West Gulf blockading squadron,
participating in the final operations of the war, and re
turned North in that vessel in August, 1865.
During these stirring four years Stevens received testi
monials in regard to his zeal and conduct from every
superior officer under whom he had served, including
Rear-Admirals Dupont, Wilkes, John Rodgers, Dahlgren,
Rowan, Farragut, and Le Roy. All of these speak in

the highest terms, both in official reports and in special
letters, ofthe judgment and discretion, the gallantry and
unfaltering determination of the subject of this sketch.
No service was too arduous, no mission too perilous, for
him to undertake, and his only failures to accomplish
what he undertook were in capturing the " Florida,"
because he could not overtake her, and in the boat-
assault on Sumter. After making an earnest protest
against the plan of attack arranged by the admiral in
command, he took charge of the expedition as it was ;
otherwise the attempt would have been abandoned. He
had just returned from an all-day engagement with the
harbor forts, when he was sent for to assume the com
mand of the boat expedition which made the attack that
same evening.
Admiral Dahlgren, in his farewell order, said, in regard
to the night attack on Sumter, " When I began to per
ceive that the enemy was not likely to be driven out
of Sumter, except by assault, and saw that the force
which I had could not of itself go farther, unless he was
driven out, I ordered the assault. It failed, but never
was more gallantry displayed than in the attempt."
Admiral Rowan says, " I witnessed, upon one occa
sion, the gallant and intelligent conduct of this officer
while engaged with Fort Moultrie and its other defences.
I also witnessed his gallant bearing on occasion of the
' Ironsides's' attack on Fort Moultrie, when he passed
from his monitor to the ' Ironsides,' and back to his
vessel in a boat, while the fire of Moultrie and its sur
rounding batteries was concentrated on that ship."
Similar comments were made upon his conduct at
Mobile Bay by his superior officers. After the war he
commanded the frigate " Guerriere;" then the navy-yard
at Norfolk ; commanded, as rear-admiral, the Pacific
squadron ; and, upon arriving at the prescribed age,
hauled down his flag while in that command.

138

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

EDWARD R. BACON.
Edward R. Bacon, a distinguished member of the
circle of railroad presidents of our country, is a native
of the town of Le Roy, Genesee County, New York,
where he was born in 1847, and in which town, and later
in Poughkeepsie, he received his education. Having
passed through a course of legal study and been ad
mitted to the bar, he engaged in the practice of the law
in the city of Buffalo, New York, where he became a
member of a leading law firm, succeeding his deceased
uncle, John Ganson, in this position.
It was not until 1879, after many years of successful
legal practice, that Mr. Bacon took his first step towards
that field of activity with which he has since been so
closely identified. In that year he was retained by the
stockholders of the old Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad
in a legal contest against the Garrett interests in the
Baltimore and Ohio corporation. On the termination of
this suit, in the conduct of which his great ability was
fully recognized by his opponents, he was engaged as legal
adviser by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company,
and has ever since exercised a leading influence in the
councils of that great corporation. Among the services
which he has rendered it may be mentioned the recent
three-million-dollar loan, for the successful negotiation
of which the credit belongs to him.
In the years that followed his entry into this new
avocation Mr. Bacon became connected with various
stock and financial operations, growing widely known
for his skilful management of the interests in which he
was concerned. His true field of action, however, was
not reached until 1889, when he first became engaged in
those railroad reorganization plans which have occupied
his time so fully since, and which stamp him, both in

this country and in England, as one of the most brilliant
and successful railway organizers at present known. He
in that year found the Cincinnati, Washington and Balti
more Railroad in serious financial straits. This rival, a
southwest connection of the Baltimore and Ohio, ex
tended from Parkersburg to Cincinnati. At the request of
a committee of the New York and London stockholders
of the weakened concern, which had already been several
times reorganized, Mr. Bacon took it in hand, reformed
it as the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern Railroad, and
put it on its feet so firmly that in the succeeding two
years its net earnings doubled, and it has since done a
safe and profitable business. The presidency of the new
road was promptly offered to and accepted by Mr. Bacon,
and his subsequent management of it has proved a
decided success. He at once administers the finances of
the company, controls and directs its policy, and exercises
a general supervision over all its affairs, while the ability
of his policy and management have been recently amply
attested by commendatory articles in the leading Cincin
nati and St. Louis newspapers.
In 1 89 1 the stockholders of the Ohio and Mississippi
Railroad, a line running from Cincinnati to St. Louis,
and of which he was a director, requested him to submit
a plan of consolidation of this road with the Baltimore
and Ohio Southwestern. This plan was prepared and
submitted by him, was immediately approved of by the
London shareholders and the Baltimore and Ohio direc
tors, and a committee of those financially concerned was
organized to put it into effect. This effort precipitated a
contest which brought Mr. Bacon very prominently before
the railroad and financial world. The directors of the
existing road, eager to retain their personal position, and
fearing that their interests were threatened by the re
organization project, strongly opposed the plan devised,
and took the case into court, where the)- fought it with all
the vigor at their command. The fight was carried from
court to court, Mr. Bacon, as counsel for the shareholders,
skilfully contesting their claim, and finally winning a
complete victory for the reorganization scheme. The
change was completed in October, 1892, and ninety per
cent, of all the security-holders accepted the new plan.
When the consolidation was completed, the new corpora
tion, under the title of the Baltimore and Ohio South
western Railway, came energetically into the transporta
tion field, with a capital of more than five million dollars
in its treasury.
Mr. Bacon has, in addition to his railroad enterprises,
controlled large financial trusts, as executor and admin
istrator of the Pratt, the Fargo, and other large estates,
and was the organizer of the American Tobacco Company,
one of the strongest and best paying of modern industrial
corporations.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

139

CHARLES E. WARBURTON.
Charles Edward Warburton was born in Leaming
ton, the famous resort in the English Midlands, on March
2, 1836. His parents removed to this country when he
was only two years of age, and made their permanent
home in Philadelphia, where his father, the late John
Warburton, became a successful merchant. The son was
educated in the public schools, and in early life acquired,
by a thorough and practical business training, the un
flagging industry, persistence of purpose, alertness of
perception, and knowledge of men which qualified him
so abundantly for the exacting calling to which nearly
the whole of his active life has been devoted.
Combining his resources with those of his brother-in-
law, J. Barclay Harding, he established The Evening Tele
graph in the beginning of 1864, the first number of the
new daily being issued on January 4 of that year from
its present publication office, No. 108 South Third Street.
Mr. Warburton's practical business training was supple
mented by the journalistic experience and brilliant quali
ties of Mr. Harding. The latter was the son of Jesper
Harding, one of the most famous of the old school of
newspaper men, who had been for many years the pro
prietor and publisher of the Pennsylvania Enquirer. He
had inherited his father's tastes for journalistic work, and
had served under him a full apprenticeship in the editorial
department. The inaugurators of the new undertaking
thus possessed between them the knowledge and experi
ence which were essential to its success. There was, also,
a fairly open field for their enterprise, as there was at
that time but one evening journal published in the city,
although there was then, as now, an abundance of morn
ing newspapers. The war for the preservation of the
Union was at that period in its most critical stage, and
a public eager for tidings from the scene of conflict
extended a hearty welcome to the new evening paper
when it demonstrated, as it did from the start, that it
was to be conducted on the most intelligent and ener
getic basis.
The death of Mr. Harding in October, 1865, less
than two years after the paper was established, threw
the editorial, as well as the business, management of The
Evening Telegraph into Mr. Warburton's hands, and he
immediately demonstrated his capacity for the additional
task. Although he has never been an editorial writer in
the strict and technical sense, he has been through the
succeeding years the editor-in-chief of The Evening Tele
graph in all that the phrase implies ; dictating its policy
from day to day on all questions of importance, sug
gesting topics for discussion, outlining arguments and
marshalling points in their support, and meanwhile keep

ing a watchful eye on the news columns, and deciding
when and how the service should be extended and im
proved. He is now (1896) the dean of Philadelphia jour
nalism, being the oldest newspaper proprietor and editor,
in point of continuous service, in the city.
Mr. Warburton has always been a Republican in poli
tics, but has never held or sought office. In the columns
of The Evening Telegraph he has for nearly a third of a
century advocated the principles of Republicanism as
interpreted from a broad, liberal, and independent stand
point, supporting such measures and candidates, and such
alone, as would, from its point of view, promote the best
interests of the country at large, as well as of the party.
This independent spirit has frequently brought him and
his paper into conflict with partisan leaders in the city,
State, and nation. In following up this policy, The Even
ing Telegraph opposed the impeachment of President
Johnson, the reckless operations of the " carpet-baggers"
in the South during the Reconstruction period, a third
term for General Grant, the nomination and election of
James G. Blaine, the extreme provisions of the McKinley
Tariff act, and all other radical measures which it re
garded as being, from its independent stand- point, antago
nistic to genuine Republicanism. In State politics it has
always been arrayed against the " bosses," especially in
the Independent Republican revolt of 1882, when it was
the most influential Republican journal in the State that
supported that movement.
Mr. Warburton is a widower, with a son and a daughter.
The former, Mr. Barclay H. Warburton, has since the
beginning of 1 894 been associated with his father as pub
lisher of The Evening Telegraph.

140

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JULIAN HAWTHORNE.
Julian Hawthorne, one of the most versatile and
graceful of recent American writers, was born in Boston,
June 22, 1846, the son of the famous novelist, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, whose power of deep psychological analysis
stands almost unrivalled in the history of literature. The
son's child-life seems to have been one of active migration.
Leaving Boston at three months of age, he sojourned
successively in Salem, West Newton, and Concord,
Massachusetts, and a year or two in Lenox, where he
had an infantile introduction to the late Louis Kossuth
and other famous men, and the celebrated actress Fanny
Kemble. When seven years of age, he crossed the
Atlantic to Liverpool, his father having been appointed
American consul for that city.
His career, indeed, seemed to divide itself into seven-
year periods. The second seven years of his life were
spent in England and on the Continent, he returning to
Concord in i860, at the age of fourteen. His course
of studies at this period included fencing, gymnastic
exercises, French, and Arabian, followed by a period
of preparation for college under F. B. Sanborn, of the
famous boys' and girls' school of Concord. He entered
Harvard in 1863, where he remained nearly four years,
and spent another year in Harvard Scientific School, his
college studies being tempered by athletic exercises,
among them boxing, which art he studied under the
noted pugilist, John C. Heenan.
The third seven-year period of his life thus completed,
he sailed for Europe in 1868, and settled in Dresden,
Saxony, where he devoted himself to the study of civil
engineering, and the enjoyment of the various relaxations
of German student life. While there he met and became
engaged to a young American girl, who was spending
the season in Dresden. She returned to New York in

1869, and he followed in 1870, their marriage taking
place in November of that year. He here utilized his
knowledge of civil engineering by entering the New
York Dock Department, then under the charge of the
late General McClellan.
Mr. Hawthorne's inclinations, however, turned strongly
towards the profession of literature, not merely through
hereditary influences, but from a decided native talent in
that direction, which was first indicated in short stories
contributed to Harper's Magazine. After two years'
experience of engineering labor, he returned with his
wife and infant daughter to Dresden, being at that time
actively engaged in writing his first novel " Bressant."
This he completed in Dresden, and published it simulta
neously in London and New York. He completed a
second novel, " Idolatry," during his period of residence
in Dresden, and afterwards settled in London, where he
remained until 1881, employed in literary pursuits.
He had now attained considerable literary repute, and
was busily engaged with his pen while in London, writing
reviews for the Spectator and contributing to other peri
odicals, while his novelistic ventures during this period
included " Garth" and " Sebastian Strome," both works of
high merit as examples of character-drawing and story
telling facility. During his period of residence in London
he met with the misfortune of having his home burned.
His family circle was increased to nine, including seven
children. On leaving London, he spent six months in
the south of Ireland, and in 1882 sailed for New York.
After a period of residence in New Jersey, he removed
to Sag Harbor, New York, of which he was a resident
for twelve years. His literary labors while there, were
very versatile in character, including editorship of the
literary department of the New York World, essays,
criticisms, stories contributed to magazines, and several
novels, " Fortune's Fool," " Dust," " Beatrix Randolph,"
etc. He also engaged, in association with Chief-of-Police
Byrnes, of the New York Police Department, in writing
a series of detective stories, the plots and incidents of
which were largely taken from the personal knowledge
of his collaborator. In addition, he published a bio
graphical work, " Nathaniel Hawthorne and his Wife,"
and edited some of his father's works. He contributed
also several novelettes to Lippincott 's Magazine.
In 1893, Mr. Hawthorne, after a visit to the Columbian
Exposition at Chicago, sailed to the West Indies, and
took up his residence in Jamaica. An interesting event
brought him back to New York. In 1895 the New York
Herald proposed a novel competition, offering $10,000
as the first prize. Hawthorne entered this competition,
and had the fortune to win the prize over more than a
thousand rival competitors. He is now in New York,
"engaged," as he says, "in helping his friends to spend
this money — which they have nearly accomplished."

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

141

PAYMASTER (LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER) HENRY
CLAY MACHETTE.
Paymaster (Lieutenant-Commander) Henry Clay
Machette, of the United States navy, was born in Phila
delphia, October 27, 1842; his father, Samuel Tucker
Machette, was a grandson of James B. Machette, of Tren
ton, New Jersey, who married Mary, a sister of Samuel
Tucker, president of the Provincial Assembly. His
mother, Lydia B. Musgrave, was a daughter of Joseph
Philip Musgrave, a descendant of the old English family
of that name; her grandfather, Joseph Musgrave, came to
America prior to the Revolution, and, settling in Chester
County, married there the noted beauty and heiress,
" Esther Bennett, the flower of Kennett," as she was styled
by the young beaux of her day.
The Machette family is said to be of Huguenot extrac
tion, and to have emigrated to America about the close
of the seventeenth century via the island of Jersey. The
subject of this sketch entered the naval service in May,
1 86 1, upon the breaking out of the Rebellion, serving
first on the United States steamer " Flagg," off Charleston
and the Southern coast, witnessing the attack on the latter
city by Rear-Admiral Dupont, and subsequently on the
" Governor Buckingham," off the coast of North Caro
lina. In 1864, having been promoted to be acting assist
ant paymaster, he was assigned to duty on board of the
United States steamer " Undine," in the Mississippi
squadron. Upon the capture and destruction of the latter in the
Tennessee River by a part of Hood's army, he escaped
to Fort Donelson, saving at the same time the govern
ment funds, — a fact to which the attention of the Navy
Department was called by Acting Rear-Admiral Lee.
He was afterwards assigned to duty on board the gunboat

" Donegal," and, the war having closed, was honorably
discharged in 1866.
February, 1867, Paymaster Machette was reappointed
in the regular service, and ordered to the Brazil station,
where he served until 1870 on the "Wasp." He has
since been attached to the following vessels on the North
Atlantic station, — i.e., monitors " Terror" and " Canoni-
cus," and steam-sloop " Canandaigua ;" on the Asiatic
station to the " Monocacy," and lately to the United
States sloop " Iroquois," in the Pacific. In addition to
the foregoing, the paymaster (lieutenant-commander) has
been attached to the ships " New Hampshire," " Wabash,"
and " St. Louis." He has also been attached to the
Norfolk and League Island Navy- Yards. In 1885 he
married Adelaide Granet ; their two daughters, Adelaide
Henriette and Lydia Musgrave, are both living.

142

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

CHARLES H. A. ESLING.
The Esling family, of Philadelphia, ancestors of the
subject of our sketch, have descended from John George
Esling, who came from the Palatinate, Germany, to Phila
delphia, in 1740, and whose son, John Paul Esling, was
a prominent citizen of Philadelphia before and after the
Revolution, and with his own son Nicholas founded the
leading brick-making establishment of the city at that
period. Nicholas second, grandson of Paul, served at
successive periods as city commissioner, auxiliary super
intendent of fortifications (1814), health officer, and harbor
master. On his mother's side, Mr. Esling descends by
one line from Cornelius Holahan, of Ireland, who settled
in Delaware about 1750, and by another from the Bakers,
of Pennsylvania, and John Winthrop's English colonists
of Massachusetts Bay, in 1630.
Several of his ancestors figure as patriots in important
historical events of Colonial and Revolutionary days.
Mr. Esling was born in Philadelphia, January 21, 1845.
His early education was received at the Dame School of
Madam Noronah, from which he passed to St. Joseph's
College, and subsequently entered the Philosophy School,
of Georgetown University. This institution, at its cen
tennial celebration in 1889, conferred upon him the de
gree of A.M. honoris causa. At twenty-one years of age
he entered the law office of PI on. Wm. M. Meredith, then
attorney-general of Pennsylvania, being the last student
who had the valuable advantage of his training. He
was admitted to the bar, June 19, 1869, but subsequently
attended the reorganized law school of the University of
Pennsylvania, which gave him the degree of LL.B., in
1882. He took a post-graduate course in civil law in
the same institution, and has devoted himself since, with
much success, to surrogate practice and the management
of trust estates.

Mr. Esling, while assiduous in the practice of his pro
fession, has devoted himself for recreation to the pursuit
of literature, in its various branches of poetry, polemics
genealogy, and history, with such zeal and ability as to
have made his mark in all these varied fields. His apti
tude in the languages has also enabled him to do much
excellent work in translation from the Latin, French
and Italian. His skill in this field is such that he has
preserved all the delicacy and flavor of the original in
his Anglicized productions. When he had scarcely
reached his majority he had translated a selection of the
hymns of the Roman Missal and Breviary with a beauty
and fidelity that won the encomiums of some of the
most scholarly critics of the religious world.
Besides writing several volumes of essays, Mr. Esling
has been a frequent contributor to journals and maga
zines, while a series of letters from Europe, contributed
by him, in 1877, to the Philadelphia Evening Telegraph,
met with phenomenal popularity. He was also, for a
time, a valued special contributor to the Philadelphia
Press. It is in poetry, however, that he has chiefly made
a literary reputation. His volume of poems, " Melodies
of Mood and Tense," published in 1894, was received
with high praise by distinguished authors and critics,
and had special recognition from three of the crowned
heads of Europe. This work was issued in England as
well as in the United States. He was one of the three
founders of the " Pegasus," the well-known Poets' Club,
of Philadelphia, and probably the first association of its
kind in the United States. He has also gained an en
viable reputation as a lecturer, dramatic reader, and
public speaker.
Politically he is a warm Republican, is vice-president
of the Pennsylvania Republican Club, and has twice been
offered diplomatic positions at the Russian court. He
is greatly interested in athletic sports, particularly oars
manship, and has been president of his boat club for
several terms, and represented the Schuylkill Navy at
the Henley Royal Regatta, 1895.
Descended from six American generations of Roman
Catholic ancestors, he has been active in all church
movements, notably as the founder ofthe De Sales Insti
tute (Catholic club), and an organizer of the Roman
Catholic Historical Society, and represented the American
Church at the Vatican in 1877, during the Golden Jubilee
celebration of Pope Pius IX., by whom he was specially
honored. He was also created by Patent an honorary
member ofthe Order ofthe Passion, Rome, June 3, 1877.
He served as delegate from Philadelphia to the first
Catholic Congress of the United States, at Baltimore, in
1889; and was appointed to the second, at Chicago, in
1893. He is connected with various alumni associations,
clubs, and societies.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

143

REGINALD DE KOVEN.
Reginald de Koven, a notable figure among American
musical composers, was born at Middletown, Connecticut,
April 3, 1859, being the son of Rev. Henry de Koven, a
prominent Protestant Episcopal clergyman. His paternal
ancestor, Captain de Koven of the English army, came
to this country early in the seventeenth century, and,
taking up his residence in Connecticut, married the
grand-daughter of the historically famous governor John
Winthrop. His descendants were well known throughout
the history of Connecticut. On the mother's side, Mr.
de Koven is descended from the Le Roys, of early New
York history. His uncle, Rev. James de Koven, played
a leading part in the history of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in America, through his vigorous and aggressive
championship of the high-church innovation. He intro
duced the Oxford cap and gown, and the gold tassel, in
the ecclesiastical college at Racine, Wisconsin, to be
worn by the most advanced pupils, and was also the first
to organize the surpliced choir west of New York City.
He was elected bishop of Massachusetts and of Illinois,
but his extreme ritualistic theories caused his rejection
in each diocese by the standing committee.
Rev. Henry de Koven took up his residence abroad in
1872, and there prepared his son for college. Entering
St. John's College, Oxford, Reginald de Koven graduated
with high honors in 1879, being the youngest B.A. of
the year. His talent for music was very early displayed,
and was so marked that he began to study when but
seven years of age. When fourteen, he was placed
under William Speidl, of Stuttgart, for piano practice.
Afterwards he studied harmony and counterpoint under
Dr. Huff, at Frankfort; and going thence to Florence,
took a course of instruction in singing with Signor
Vannucinni, an able Italian master.
These early studies, and his subsequent diligent prac
tice in musical composition, so developed his native
talents that while still quite young he came before the
world with a light opera, named " Cupid, Hymen & Co."
This, though studied for production, was never performed,
the company meeting with financial disaster. It was
followed in 1887 by a more notable work, " The Begum,"
which was produced by the McCaull Opera Company,
and proved a marked success.
This success so encouraged the young composer, that
he revisited Europe to continue his studies, which he did
Under Richard Genee, the distinguished operatic com
poser at Vienna. While here, Mr. de Koven continued
his original work, writing the opera of " Don Quixote,"
which was brought out in 1889 by the Bostonians, and

greatly increased his reputation as a dramatic and
musical composer. His next work, " Robin Hood,"
produced in 1890, took the public by storm, and has
since retained its high popularity. It has taken rank
among the standard operas, being the first by an Ameri
can composer to be admitted to that dignity. Its success,
indeed, was instantaneous, and can scarcely fail to prove
permanent. In 1892 came out the melodious "Knickerbocker,"
and in the same year the brilliant- " Fencing-Master,"
which had a success little less than that of " Robin
Hood." This was followed in 1893 by the " Algerians,"
another timeful and harmonious production, displaying
the vigorous powers of invention and skill in construction
that marked his preceding works. Other productions of
merit have followed, and no American contemporary has
equalled Mr. de Koven in prolific powers of production,
and none in the high measure of success which has been
met by his rapidly appearing works.
In addition to these productions he has been prolific
as a song-writer, his earliest composition, " Marjorie
Daw," of which he wrote both the words and the music,
being very widely known and esteemed. His songs in
all number over one hundred ; other titles being " My
Lover will come To-Day, " " Indian Love-song," and
"A Winter Lullaby."
Mr. de Koven married, in 1884, the daughter of ex-
Senator C. B. Farwell, of Illinois. He is a familiar figure
in the society circles of New York and Chicago, and is
a member of most of the fashionable clubs of those two
cities.

144

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

THEODORE D. WILSON.
Theodore D. Wilson, for many years Chief Construc
tor of the United States navy, was born at Brooklyn,
New York, May II, 1840, and served a full term of
apprenticeship as a shipwright under naval constructor
Benjamin F. Delano at the navy-yard in that city. On
the outbreak of the Civil WTar he enlisted in the volun
teer service, and became a non commissioned officer in
Company B, Thirteenth Regiment, New York State
militia, with which regiment he went to the front on
April 23, 1861, and served in the first three months'
campaign. On August 3, 1861, after the return of the
regiment, he was appointed a carpenter in the navy, and
served on the United States steamer " Cambridge," of
the North Atlantic blockading squadron, until 1863.
The " Cambridge" was engaged in the first day's fight
in Hampton Roads with the " Merrimac," " Yorktown,"
and "Jamestown."
In December, 1863, Commodore Wilson was ordered
to special duty in New York with Rear-Admiral Francis
H. Gregory, general superintendent of all naval work-
outside of navy-yards, and under his orders was intrusted
with the building, repairing, and alteration of scores of
vessels, a task which involved the exercise of great
judgment and skill. He continued engaged in this
important duty until May 17, 1866, when he was ex
amined for and appointed an assistant naval constructor
in the United States navy, and placed in charge of the
construction department of the navy-yard at Pensacola,
Florida. In December, 1867, he was transferred to the navy-
yard at Philadelphia, remaining there until July 3, 1869,
when he was ordered to the Naval Academy, Annapolis,
Maryland, as instructor in ship-building and naval archi
tecture. In this field of duty he remained for four years,

during which, in the summer of 1870, he was sent by the
department on special service to England and France.
This duty was satisfactorily performed, and much reliable
information obtained for the naval service. On July 6
1873, he was ordered to the navy-yard at Washington
D. C.
On July 1, 1873, Commodore Wilson was commissioned
a naval constructor, and on June 1, 1874, was sent as
naval constructor to the navy-yard at Portsmouth, New
Hampshire. During his period of service here he was
appointed a member of the first naval advisory board,
organized in 1881 by Secretary William B. Hunt for
formulating a policy to rebuild the navy.
In March, 1882, he was nominated by President Arthur,
and confirmed by the Senate, as Chief Constructor ofthe
navy, with the relative rank of Commodore. He was
renominated to this responsible position by President
Cleveland, in December, 1886, and again confirmed, and
was a third time nominated in December, 1 891, by Presi
dent Harrison, and once more confirmed, an honor which
very few officers have had conferred upon them in the
history of the United States navy.
The calculations and plans ofthe first steel ship ofthe
new navy — the " Chicago" — were prepared in the Bureau
of Construction and Repair under his supervision, and
from that time up to July, 1893, the plans of all the
vessels of the new navy (with the exception of the
" Baltimore," " Charleston," and " Texas," which were
purchased abroad, the "Philadelphia" and "Vesuvius,"
designed by the Cramps, and the " Cushing," built by the
Herreshoffs), have been prepared under his direction.
These include five double-turreted monitors, the harbor
defence vessel " Monterey," the harbor defence ram
" Katahdin," the armored cruisers " Maine," " New York,"
and " Brooklyn," the battleships " Iowa," " Indiana,"
" Massachusetts," and " Oregon," the steel cruisers
"Chicago," "Boston," "Atlanta," "Newark," "San
Francisco," " Raleigh," " Montgomery," " Detroit,"
" Marblehead," " Olympia," " Columbia," and " Minne
apolis," with gun-boats and other vessels, the whole
aggregating fort)- in number and one hundred and
fifty-eight thousand three hundred tons in displace
ment. Pie resigned his position, July 12, 1893, on account of
ill health, being given two years' leave of absence. He is
now on duty at Boston, Massachusetts. On January 14,
1893, the Institution of Naval Architects, of England, did
him the high honor of electing him an honorary member
of that body. He is also an honorary member of the
Technical Society of the Pacific Coast, first vice-president
of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers,
of this country, and a member of the Loyal Legion, the
Grand Army of the Republic, and the Naval Order of
the United States.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

145

ELLIS LEWIS.
Ellis Lewis, a prominent jurist of Pennsylvania, was
born at Lewisburg, in this State, May 16, 1798; his
native town being one which had received its name in
honor of his father, Eli Lewis, a man of wealth, wide
influence, and developed literary tastes, who died when
his son was but four years old. During the long minority
of the son, his estate, the management of which had
been placed in incompetent hands, was dissipated, and,
while still a boy, he found himself thrown on his own
resources and forced to shift for himself in life. He
proved equal to the emergency; learning the printer's
trade, to which he was put, so well that by the time he
reached the age of manhood he was a good practical
printer, and had done satisfactory editorial work. While
occupied as printer and editor, he engaged in the study
of law, and at twenty-four years of age was admitted to
the bar, having acquired a profession to which he was
admirably adapted by nature, and in which he was des
tined to make great progress. About this time he
married Miss Josephine Wallis, the daughter of Joseph
Wallis. Two years after his admission to the practice of law,
Mr. Lewis was appointed to the office of deputy-attor
ney-general for Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. In
this position he made himself prominent politically, the
result being that he was elected a member of the Legis
lature of Pennsylvania. Here he made his ability, both
as lawyer and legislator, so strongly felt as to attract the
attention of Governor Wolfe, who in 1833 appointed him
attorney-general of the State. In the latter part of the
same year his career as a judge began, he being appointed
president-judge of the Eighth District of Pennsylvania,
a position which he retained for ten years, when he re
ceived the appointment of president-judge of the Second
District. Judge Lewis's fine powers as a jurist, as displayed in
these positions, were so manifest that in 185 1 the highest
judicial honor in the gift of the people was conferred
upon him, he being elected a justice of the Supreme
Court of Pennsylvania. In 1855 he attained the exalted
position of chief justice of this court, which he retained
for two years, and then retired to private life, declining,
in 1857, the unanimous nomination of the Democratic
committee to a renewal of his official position. It was
as a justice of the Supreme Court, and during his later
life, that Judge Lewis became connected with Philadelphia.

In addition to his judicial decisions, which displayed
deep legal learning and the higest order of merit, and
which are regarded as a valuable legacy to the legal pro
fession, he published a work of much value, entitled,
"An Abridgement of the Criminal Law of the United
States." The honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine
was conferred upon him on account of his knowledge
of medical jurisprudence, while he received from two
universities the degree of Doctor of Laws, in merited
recognition of the width and profundity of his legal
learning. He was, in truth, widely recognized as a ripe
scholar, a deep thinker, and a public-spirited and benevo
lent man, whose life-record was one to win encomiums
from all who knew him, either personally or by reputation.
He died March 19, 1871.
As regards the children of Judge Lewis, the following
information may be of interest. His oldest daughter
married Hon. James H. Campbell, of Pottsville, who was
United States minister to Sweden and Norway during
the administration of President Lincoln, and a sketch of
whose life we have elsewhere given. Mrs. Campbell en
tered the field of literature, and has become an authoress
of some celebrity. His youngest daughter married Cap
tain James Wiley, of the United States Marine Corps.
The only son of Judge Lewis entered the Marine Corps
just before the war, rose to the rank of major in this
branch of the service, and died within a year of his
father.

*9

146

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

GEORGE S. GRAVES.
George S. Graves was born at Springfield, Massa
chusetts, April 11, 1853, and, unlike Americans in gen
eral, in whom restlessness seems to be born, he has spent
the greater part of his life in his native city, and still
makes it his chosen place of residence and the scene of
his business activities. His education was confined to
that afforded by the public schools of Springfield, and
he presents an excellent example of the " self-made"
type of man. In the words of a contemporary au
thority, " He has risen to his present position by hard
work, indomitable courage, and the rarest manifestations
of the business faculty, which is little less than genius."
The newspaper career of Mr. Graves began in 1871,
when he was eighteen years of age, his virgin work in
this field being the humble duty of carrier for the
Springfield Republican, which netted him the not very
munificent income of seventy-five cents per week. At
the same time he served a route on the Evening Union,
of Springfield. In 1873, after two years of this service,
he was given a position in the counting-room of the
Evening Union, where he was placed in charge of the
subscription and mailing departments.
In 1876 he left the Union to enter the service of Phelps
& Sanderson, owners of the New England Homestead.
Subsequently Mr. Sanderson retired, and Mr. Phelps
organized the company since so well known as the
Phelps Publishing Company. In this association Mr.
Graves took an interest, and assumed the business
management of its affairs, which he has since retained.
Closely associated with this company is the Orange
Judd Company, of New York, which, through the Amer

ican Agriculturist and its rural books, is known the world
over. The Agriculturist is the oldest publication of its
class in this country, having been established in 1842.
It was purchased in 1856 by Mr. Orange Judd, who held
it till 1873, and gave it its wide-spread reputation. In
1886 it passed under the control ofthe Phelps Publishing
Company, and the two companies, which have an invested
capital of over eight hundred thousand dollars, are now
practically one corporation. Mr. Graves occupies the
responsible position of treasurer and manager for both,
and under his energetic direction the editions of the
publications owned by the two companies have grown
from ten thousand to the high total of four hundred and
twenty-two thousand per issue. In fact, the Phelps
Company has grown to be the largest agricultural pub
lishing house in the world, and the third largest of any
class in the United States. It confines itself to what is
known as a " mail business," a very small percentage of
its publications being sold on the news-stands.
Previous to September, 1894, the American Agricul
turist was a monthly publication. It was then changed
to a weekly, to meet the increasing demands of the times.
At the same time the New England Homestead, of Spring
field, and the Orange Judd Farmer, of Chicago, were
purchased by the Orange Judd Company, and added to
the papers issued by the association. This combination is
the first among agricultural weeklies to cover the whole
country, and by their publication in five editions the
local needs of each section of the country are thoroughly
considered and attended to. The Agriculturist, now
possessing a weekly circulation of one hundred and
sixty-five thousand, is more than ever in a position to
aid and instruct the farming community. It aims to
keep abreast the progressive spirit of the age, and to
continue a true exponent of the development of agri
cultural science, whose recent progress has been so great
and promising.
In addition, the Phelps Publishing Company issue the
Springfield Homestead, a local weekly, and Farm and
Home, a semi-monthly agricultural and family journal,
which has a circulation of two hundred and fifty thou
sand, and is read throughout the United States and
Canada. An average of four tons of mail matter is sent
out each day from this establishment, to meet which the
Government has established a branch Post-office in its
building, from which all mail matter is sent direct to
the trains. The whole business of these companies is
conducted at Springfield, Massachusetts, and under the
immediate and active superintendence of Mr. Graves,
who needs the inspiration of genius to control the vast
interests intrusted to his hands.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

H7

ROSCOE CONKLING.
Roscoe Conkling was born at Albany, October 30,
1829. His father, Albert Conkling, had been a member
of Congress and afterwards United States district judge
for Northern New York, and received in 1852 the diplo
matic appointment of minister to Mexico. The son was
given an academic education, and in 1846 removed to
Utica, where he studied law, and obtained admission to
the bar in 1849. As a lawyer his progress was rapid,
and in 1850, one year after his admission to practice, he
was made district attorney for Oneida County.
Politically he began life as an ardent Whig, in which
party he continued until its decadence and disappearance,
when he entered its successor, the Republican party, of
whose principles he became an earnest advocate. His
first political position was as mayor of Utica, to which
office he was elected in 1858. In the same year he
secured the Republican nomination to Congress, and was
elected to that body, being at that time the youngest
member of the House of Representatives. On the floor
of Congress the young member soon acquired a reputa
tion for eloquence in debate and courage in the ex
pression of his opinions, and in i860 he was again elected.
He was defeated, however, in 1862, and returning again
to legal practice, was employed by the attorney-general
of the State in exposing the frauds which had been
practised in New York in regard to the enlistments and
bounties of soldiers. In this field of duty his services
were valuable, and much of the secret peculation and
fraudulent devices of the law-breakers was laid bare
through his agency. In 1864 he was again elected to
Congress, and resumed his seat on the floor of the House,
in which he served as chairman ofthe Committee on the
District of Columbia and as member of a committee
appointed to consider a bankrupt law. He was also
appointed on the Committee of Ways and Means,
and on the special Reconstruction Committee of the
House. In these fields of duty Mr. Conkling vigorously
opposed all measures whose operation would have given
the late secessionists a voice in national affairs. In 1866
his constituents returned him to Congress for another
term, but his period of duty as a member of the House
came to an end in the succeeding session, the New York
Legislature electing him to the Senate in January, 1867.
He took his seat in that august body in March of that
year. On the formation of the senatorial committees,
Mr. Conkling was placed on that on the Judiciary, and
during the remainder of his senatorial career, from 1867
to 1 88 1, served on most of the leading committees of
the Senate.
In 1876 his name was prominently presented before
the Republican national convention as a candidate for

the Presidency, but it shared the fate of several other
prominent names, in the nomination of General Hayes.
The new President showed a disposition to adopt con
ciliatory measures towards the South, in which he was
opposed by many members of his party, and strenuously
by Senator Conkling, who was one of the leaders in
opposition to such measures, and organized the " Stalwart"
faction of the Republican party from the sympathizers
with his views. As a political manager, both in New
York and in the Senate, he manifested unusual skill, not
only ruling the party in the State, but controlling in the
Senate, in a measure, the nominations to office by the
executive head of the government, and opposing the
new doctrines regarding the civil service.
In the Chicago national convention of 1880, Mr.
Conkling strongly advocated the nomination of General
Grant for a third term to the Presidency. In this effort
he was unsuccessful. At the opening of President Gar
field's administration he endeavored to retain the power
he had previously held, of controlling the nominations
to office, and particularly insisted on the withdrawal of
the name of W. H. Robertson as collector of the port
of New York. He met in Garfield, however, a man
of vigorous determination, and, finding his power of
appointment gone, he and his colleague, Thomas C.
Piatt, resigned their seats in the Senate and appealed to
the New York Legislature for re-election, as a vindication
of the justice of their cause. In this they signally failed,
the Legislature, after a struggle that lasted for months,
appointing two successors in their places. Declining a
nomination as justice of the United States Supreme
Court, offered him by President Arthur, Mr. Conkling
entered upon the practice of law in New York City,
where he died April 18, 1888.

148

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

HORATIO S. STEPHENS.
Horatio S. Stephens, until recently vice-president of
the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company of Philadel
phia, was born in that city in the year 1822. His ancestry
was associated with the growth of the city of Penn, and
his father, William Stephens, served as treasurer of the
county of Philadelphia prior to that act of consolidation
which extended the city to embrace the county limits.
Mr. Stephens obtained his education in the city schools,
and while still at quite a youthful age began his business
life, entering a mercantile house in the capacity of a clerk.
He continued with this house for some years, being even
tually made the book-keeper of the firm.
He was still quite young when there came to him an
offer for service with an engineering expedition to South
America, which he, glad of the opportunity for adven
ture and experience which it afforded, readily accepted,
and in which he accompanied his father and several en
gineers, who made up the staff of the expedition. The
principal of these were the well-known Colonel George
M. Totten, of New York, and John C. Trautwine, of
Philadelphia, both engineers of much reputation and ex
perience, and subsequently the builders of the railroad
from Aspinwall or Colon to Panama across the isthmus
of that name.

The purpose of this expedition was the construction
of a canal from Carthagena — a walled and strongly for
tified city on the Caribbean Sea, built by the Spanish in
1533 — to the river Magdalena, an important stream of
the then republic of New Grenada, now Colombia. This
canal, to connect the ancient city with Calamar on the
Magdalena, had been contracted for by the two engineers
named, young Stephens accompanying the party as an
aid. The climate of that section of South America,
however, proved unsuitable to him, and after a period of
service, ill health compelled his return.
His next business enterprise was in connection with
the manufacture of anthracite iron on the Susquehanna
and Lehigh Rivers in Pennsylvania. At that period there
were but two or three establishments engaged in this
branch of manufacture in the United States, and the
business offered excellent opportunities for energy and
capital. Mr. Stephens, however, did not remain long
engaged in it, he being recalled to Philadelphia on May
1, 185 I, to fill the position of cashier ofthe Penn Mutual
Life Insurance Company, an organization which had been
formed three years previously, and in which an appoint
ment to this position was tendered him.
Since that date, Mr. Stephens has remained continu
ously in the service of this important financial institution,
a period of forty-five years, during which he has had the
selection and management of the agents through whom
its large business has been built up, and most of whom,
like himself, remain connected with the company.
The Penn Mutual has, since the date of Mr. Stephens's
original connection with it, grown from a small concern
to one to-day possessing a capital of $27,500,000, and a
business of nearly $150,000,000 in amount insured. In
January, 1862, he was elected to the position of secretary
of the company, and in March, 1863, vice-president, the
management of the agency department being intrusted
to his hands. In length of service, Mr. Stephens is prob
ably, with one exception, the senior life insurance officer
in the United States. He resigned the position of vice-
president in May, 1895, on account of ill health, and was
thereupon elected to the position of advisory officer of
the company.
Mr. Stephens has a family of four children, one son
and three daughters. His wife died ten years ago.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

149

CAPTAIN GEORGE HAMILTON PERKINS.
Of Perkins, as a young lieutenant, — and holding a place
which many a man twenty years his senior would have
coveted, — Admiral Farragut said, " He was young and
handsome, and no braver man ever trod the decks of a
ship. His work in the ' Chickasaw' did more to capture
the ' Tennessee' than all the guns ofthe fleet put together."
" Praise from Sir Hubert Stanley is praise indeed." Far
ragut was not lavish of his praises when fighting was in
question, nor did he distribute commendation lavishly
when the fight was over, — as some commanders are
wont to do. If not another word about Perkins was to
be said, Farragut's estimate of him might stand for his
epitaph. Captain George Hamilton Perkins was born in New
Hampshire, October 20, 1836, of most worthy parentage,
and entered the Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1851.
Here he distinguished himself, especially in gunnery.
When he graduated he first served in the " Cyane," at a
period when the disturbances on the Isthmus of Panama,
about 1856, served to show him some of the duties of a
naval officer. Passing over that remarkable time, for the
want of space, we may say that, in the same ship, he vis
ited all the British provinces, and then made a cruise in the
West Indies, full of interest from the state of things then
existing. After this cruise, Midshipman Perkins served
in the Paraguay Expedition ; came home in the frigate
" Sabine," and was at once ordered to the steamer " Sum
ter," as acting master, for a cruise on the West Coast of
Africa. Here he passed through the various scenes
familiar to those who have had the same experience, and
not of great interest to those who have not. But about
the end of that cruise came the mutterings of the rebel
lion. The South rushed on their suicidal course as if
truly mad, and now " a wall, as of fire, rose up between
the officers ; every mess in every ship was divided against
itself; brothers-in-arms of yesterday were enemies of to
day; and no one spoke ofthe outlook at home except in
bated breath and measured speech, from fear that the bitter
cup would overflow then and there, and water turn to
blood." God grant that no officers in our time may ever
experience the anxiety and distress of those who were
on foreign stations in 1860—61 !
The young lieutenant at last reached home, to find the
country in the throes of war, indeed ; and, after a brief
leave to recover his health, somewhat shattered by ex
posure on the African coast, he was ordered as the exec
utive officer of the " Cayuga," one of the new gun-boats,
carrying a battery of an 1 i-inch gun, a 20-pounder Par-
rott, and two 24-pounder howitzers. She was commanded
by Lieutenant N. B. Harrison, a stalwart, loyal Virginian,
and afterwards became the bearer of the divisional flag of
Captain Bailey, leading the fleet through the obstructions
and past the forts at the time of the well-known ascent of

Farragut's fleet towards New Orleans. Such confidence
had Harrison acquired in Perkins that he gave in his
charge the piloting of the vessel past the forts. He
noticed that St. Philip's guns were all aimed at mid-stream,
and so coolly steered right under the walls of the fort, —
suffering much in masts and rigging, but little in the hull.
Once past the last battery, the officers looked back to
find themselves alone and in the presence of the enemy's
gun-boats and the ram " Manassas." They sustained an
unequal combat until the rest of the division arrived.
This was carried on muzzle to muzzle for a few moments.
When relieved from this entanglement the " Cayuga"
pressed on, and at daylight captured the Chalmette
regiment, encamped close to the river-bank.
On arriving before New Orleans, Bailey and Perkins
went on shore to demand the surrender and the hoisting
of the flag. How they escaped the fiendish mob which
surrounded them on their way to the mayor's office is a
wonder. The story has been told many times, and by none
better than by George W. Cable, the well-known author.
After many exciting scenes on board the " Cayuga" and
the " New London," Perkins at last found himself in com
mand of the " Scioto," and was about to be relieved after
arduous service in that vessel, when the preparations for
the capture of Mobile induced him to apply for any duty
connected with the enterprise. Farragut knew his man,
and appointed Perkins to the command of the " Chicka
saw," a double-turreted monitor, — a command much
above his rank. Not really completed, and with a green
crew, the " Chickasaw" gave ample opportunity for energy,
and, although short time for preparation was allowed, he
managed to join Farragut off Mobile bar on August 1
and on the 5th the battle was fought, with imperishable
fame for the subject of this sketch, then not twenty-eight
years of age.
Captain Perkins voluntarily retired in 1891.

ISO

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE.
Alexander Dallas Bache, a great-grandson of Dr.
Franklin, and well known for his long and efficient work
on the Coast Survey, was born in Philadelphia, July 19,
1806. His love of learning was shown early in life,
while his education began at a classical school in Phila
delphia, and was continued at the United States Military
Academy, to which he was appointed at the youthful
age of fourteen. Here he showed such diligence and
ability in study that, though the youngest member of
his class, he graduated at its head in 1825. During his
four years in this institution he did not receive a single
demerit mark, which can be said of very few students of
the West Point Academy, which is noted for its rigid
discipline. He was appointed, after his graduation, lieu
tenant of engineers, but was retained in the academy
during the succeeding year as assistant professor of
engineering. He then became assistant engineer in the
construction of Fort Adams, Newport, Rhode Island,
and here met Miss Nancy C. Fowler, who afterwards
became his wife.
In 1828, Mr. Bache was elected to the chair of Natural
Philosophy and Chemistry at the University of Pennsyl
vania, and resigned from the army, his resignation being
dated June 1, 1829. On reaching Philadelphia, he joined
the Franklin Institute, to whose "Journal" he had already
contributed, and to which he continued to furnish papers
at intervals. He made at this time important researches
in regard to the bursting of boilers and meteorological
observations, and published in the "Transactions of the
American Philosophical Society" papers on valuable
researches made by him in physics and chemistry.
In 1836 he was intrusted with the organization of

Girard College, and became its first president, being sent
by the trustees to Europe to study the methods of
instruction and discipline there employed. The report
which he made on his return proved of much service
to the art of education in this country. The college
being unfinished and the trustees not ready to begin
operations, Professor Bache offered his services to the city,
and was made Principal of the High School, and during
1841-42 served as superintendent of the public schools,
whose methods were much improved under his adminis
tration. He also while in Philadelphia established a
magnetic and meteorological observatory, which was
largely supported by the American Philosophical Society.
In 1842, his duties as school superintendent being com
pleted, he returned to his chair in the University, where
he remained till 1843, when he was appointed superin
tendent of the Coast Survey.
The Survey had begun its work in 18 17, under the
charge of F. R. Hassler, whom Mr. Bache succeeded.
Its operations had hitherto been limited in scope, but it
rapidly extended under the new administration, and plans
for wide operations were put into practice. He succeeded
in convincing Congress of the practical value of the
Survey, and was well supported in his operations, which
also met with the approval of geographers and scientists
in general. During the Civil War he placed the resources
of the Coast Survey at the disposal of the naval forces,
much to their assistance, and in 1863 constructed the
defences of Philadelphia against threatened attack from
the invading Confederates.
He was one of the incorporators of the Smithsonian
Institution in 1846, and was annually re-elected by Con
gress. During the war he served efficiently as vice-
president of the Sanitary Commission. He received
many honors from universities and learned bodies, being
given the degree of LL.D. by the University of New
York in 1836, by that of Pennsylvania in 1837, and by
Harvard in 185 1. He served as president ofthe Ameri
can Philosophical Society, of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, and of the National
Academy of Sciences, whose chair he was the first to
occupy. Many leading foreign societies elected him to
honorary membership, and several foreign medals were
conferred upon him in recognition of the excellence of
his work on the Coast Survey and in science in general.
Pie published numerous papers on scientific and engi
neering subjects, and a work entitled " Observations at the
Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory at the Girard
College." Pie died February 17, 1867. His property,
to the extent of forty-two thousand dollars, was left to
the National Academy of Sciences, its income to be de
voted to physical research.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

I5i

GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN.
General William T. Sherman was born in Ohio,
February 8, 1820, and graduated from the Military Acad
emy July 1, 1840. He was promoted second lieutenant
Third Artillery the same day, and first lieutenant Novem
ber 30, 1841. He served in the Florida War, 1840-41 ;
on duty in various Southern States and in Pennsylvania,
1842-46; on breaking out of war with Mexico he applied
for duty in the field, and was assigned to Company F,
Third Artillery, then under orders for California ; he was
bearer of despatches from General Smith to War Depart
ment, and, after six months' leave of absence, joined Com
pany C, Third Artillery, at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.
He was appointed captain and commissary of subsistence
September 27, 1850, and stationed at St. Louis and New
Orleans, but resigned from the army September 6, 1853,
and entered upon a civil career as a banker in San Fran
cisco and New York until 1857; was major-general of
California militia in 1856; counsellor-at-law at Leaven
worth, Kansas, 1858—59; superintendent of the Louisiana
State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy,
1859-61. At the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion, he
was reappointed in the United States army, colonel of the
Thirteenth Infantry, May 14, 1861, and brigadier-general
of volunteers May 17, 1861. He served in the defences
of Washington, and was in command of a brigade in the
Army of the Potomac, in the Manassas campaign, until
July 23, being engaged in the battle of Bull Run, July
21, 1861. He was then assigned to duty in the Depart
ment of the Cumberland until November, 1861, when he
was transferred for duty to the Department of the Mis
souri, and ordered to report to Major-General Halleck at
St. Louis; on inspection duty at Sedalia, Missouri, and
commanding camp of instruction at Benton Barracks,
Missouri, 1861-62; at post of Paducah, Kentucky, ex
pediting and facilitating operations in progress up the
Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, and organizing a di
vision to be commanded by himself; bore a distinguished
part in the battle of Shiloh and in the operations against
Corinth ; commanding District of Memphis and an ex
pedition against Vicksburg, 1862; assigned to command
of Fifteenth Army Corps in January, 1 863 ; participated
in capture of Arkansas Post; took part in operations
preceding and attending siege of Vicksburg; assigned to
command of Department of the Tennessee, October 27,
1863 ; joined his forces to the army under General Grant
at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and bore a conspicuous part
in the battle of that name ; moved with great energy to
the relief of General Burnside at Knoxville, Tennessee,
and returned to Chattanooga, 1863; made an expedition
from Vicksburg to Meridian, Mississippi, destroying much
railroad and war material thereabouts, and returned to
Vicksburg; assumed command of Military Division of

the Mississippi, March 18,1864; captured Atlanta, Geor
gia, and made his march to the sea which terminated in
the capture of Savannah, Georgia, December 21, 1864;
marched northward from Savannah, captured Columbia,
South Carolina, compelling the evacuation of Charleston ;
repulsed the enemy under General J. E. Johnston at
Bentonville, and joined his forces with those of General
Schofield at Goldsborough ; moved against General
Johnston, who, on April 26, 1865, surrendered his army
on the same terms as had been granted General Lee.
General Sherman was appointed major-general of vol
unteers May 1, 1862, and brigadier-general United States
army July 4, 1863. He had conferred on him the com
mission of major-general, August 12, 1864, for "gallant
and distinguished services as commander of the Missis
sippi Division in the conduct of the campaign in Georgia,"
and was further honorably mentioned by Congress in the
following joint resolution of thanks, February 19, 1864:
" To Major-General W. T. Sherman and the officers and
soldiers of the Army of the Tennessee for their gallant
and arduous services in marching to the relief of the Army
ofthe Cumberland, and for their gallantry and heroism in
the battle of Chattanooga, which contributed in a great
degree to the success of our arms in that glorious vic
tory." June 10, 1865 : " To Major-General W. T. Sher
man and officers and soldiers of his command for their
gallantry and good conduct in their late campaign from
Chattanooga to Atlanta and the triumphal march thence
through Georgia to Savannah, terminating in the capture
and occupation of that city."
General Sherman was appointed lieutenant-general,
United States army, July 25, 1866. Appointed general
of the army, March 5, 1869, and retained that position
until retired from active service, February 8, 1884. He
died February 14, 1 891, at New York City.

152

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

CHARLES EDMUND PUGH.
Charles Edmund Pugh was born at Unionville,
Chester County, Pennsylvania, February 25, 1842. He
is the son of the late Elijah Pugh, a well-known mer
chant of Chester County.
Mr. Pugh's early education was received at the district
school in the village of Unionville. He applied himself
closely to study, and, when duly prepared, entered the
State Normal School, at Millersville, Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania. Here he completed a very thorough
course of study, and, upon graduation, went into his
father's office as a clerk.
Such vocation, however, soon grew distasteful to him,
and it did not take long for him to discover that his
heart was not in the monotonous duties of a clerk in the
retail trade. Accordingly, he determined to secure a
more congenial occupation, in which the latent capa
bilities he was conscious of possessing might be afforded
oportunity for development. Thus it was he left home
at the age of twenty in search of a wider field of useful
ness. Although wholly inexperienced, through perse
verance he succeeded in securing a position in the employ
of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.
This was in the year 1859, and his work was that of a
station agent at Newport, Perry County, Pennsylvania.
Considerable responsibility was attached to his duties at
that point, through which he proved his ability. The
company was not slow in recognizing his merit, and
determined to advance him.
The position selected was the very important one of
train despatches To equip himself for this important
post, and more especially to familiarize himself with all
the details of practice and theory attending the running

of trains, he served six months as a conductor on a pas
senger train. In 1864, having made himself master of
the required knowledge, he was appointed train de-
spatcher of the Philadelphia Division. Promotion then
followed rapidly. In 1870 he was made General Agent
of the Pennsylvania Railroad for Philadelphia, and held
this position until 1879, when he was again promoted to
the office of general superintendent, with head-quarters
at Altoona.
He remained in this office until October 1, 1882, when
he was appointed to the position of general manager,
with head-quarters at Philadelphia.
During the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, in
1876, Mr. Pugh was ordered to the Centennial stations
in West Philadelphia, and placed in charge of the move
ments of all trains entering and leaving them. It is safe
to say that never before in the history of American rail
roads had a heavier responsibility been laid upon one
man's shoulders. But the Pennsylvania Railroad illus
trated its boasted policy of the " right man in the right
place," and this exceptionally trying time of Centennial
travel found the man competent to cope with it. Mr.
Pugh's labor in this regard was truly remarkable, and
his success was the marvel of railroad men at home and
abroad. Over three million passengers were received at
and despatched from these stations during the continu
ance of the Exhibition, and so admirably were the ar
rangements perfected by Mr. Pugh, not only for hand
ling such an immense number of people, but for doing
so with every care for their comfort and safety, that in
all that time, a period of nine months, not a single
accident occurred.
Mr. Pugh has abundantly demonstrated his fitness for
every position to which he has been appointed, and his
rapid promotion has been honorably earned. He is an
indefatigable worker, untiring in the discharge of duty,
and personally supervises the work of his immense de
partment. As general manager of the Pennsylvania Railroad
system, Charles E. Pugh demonstrated not only his
great executive ability in developing the immense trans
portation facilities of the company, but his thorough
acquaintance with railroading as a science, and has shown
a knowledge of those infinite details of management in
the multitude of departments under his charge attained
only by many years of experience coupled with close
attention to business.
In March, 1893, Mr. Pugh was advanced to the high
post of third vice-president of the Pennsylvania Railroad,
which position he now holds.
Pie is prominent in social life, and has been for several
years a director of the Union League.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

153

REAR-ADMIRAL JOHN LORIMER WORDEN.
Rear-Admiral John Lorimer Worden enjoys the
distinction, unique in our service, of being placed upon
the retired list, at his own request, upon full pay, the
latter being done by special act of Congress. Admiral
Worden's name will always be especially associated with
the " Monitor," but he performed valuable service before
the idea of the " Monitor" was conceived, as well as long
after she went to the bottom.
Rear-Admiral Worden entered the navy as midship
man from his native State, New York, in January, 1834,
and served in the Brazils and the Mediterranean be
fore going to the Naval School at Philadelphia. Pro
moted passed midshipman in July, 1840, and was in
the Pacific for three years, after which he went to the
Naval Observatory, at Washington. He obtained his
next two steps in the same year, master in August, and
lieutenant in November, 1846. He went out to the
Pacific Station in 1847, and served there in the "South
ampton," " Independence," and " Warren," coming home
in the line-of-battle ship " Ohio," in 1850. For several
years afterwards he was on duty at the Observatory,
and in the Mediterranean, at the navy-yard, New York,
and as first lieutenant of the frigate " Savannah," Home
Squadron. On April 6, 1861, Lieutenant Worden reported at
Washington for special duty connected with the dis
cipline and efficiency of the naval service, but, finding
that ships were being rapidly fitted for service, in conse
quence of secession movements, asked to be relieved
from special duty, and applied for service afloat. On the
7th, at daylight, he was sent to Pensacola with de
spatches for the commanding officer of the squadron off
that port, the orders to re-enforce Fort Pickens, and
reached there about midnight on the 10th. A heavy
gale prevented him from communicating with the ships
on the next day. But on the 12th he delivered his de
spatches at noon. At 3 p.m. left to return to Washington
by rail. It was necessary to go via Montgomery, Ala
bama, and on the 13th, about 4 p.m., he was arrested at
a station just south of the rebel capital, taken there, and
detained as a prisoner until November 14. He was then
paroled and ordered to report to the Secretary of War,
at Richmond. He found that he was to be exchanged
against Lieutenant Sharp, a Confederate who was con
fined on board the " Congress," at Newport News. By
flag of truce from General Huger to Admiral Golds-

borough, this exchange was duly effected November 18,
after Mr. Worden had been more than seven months a
prisoner. On January 16, 1862, he was ordered to the
command of the " Monitor." The story of this extraor
dinary engine of war, and its influence on our own
fortunes and upon naval construction all over the
world, has often been told, and cannot be told too often.
In his battle with the " Merrimac," on March 9, 1862,
Lieutenant Worden was severely injured, and was
obliged to be removed as soon as the action was over,
but not until complete success had crowned the efforts
of one who was fighting an entirely novel and untried
vessel, which had only come in the night before from a
perilous voyage. He was made commander, July, 1862,
and upon partial recovery was upon duty at New York,
as assistant to Admiral Gregory, in superintending the
construction of ironclads. Commander Worden com
manded the monitor " Montauk," from October, 1862,
to April, 1863, in the South Atlantic Squadron. In her
he attacked Fort McAllister, on the Ogechee River, and
on February 28, 1863, destroyed the Confederate priva
teer " Nashville," under the guns of that fort.
On April 7, 1863, he participated in the attack of the
ironclads, under Admiral Dupont, upon the defences of
Charleston. In the mean time, February 3, 1863, he
had been promoted to be captain in the navy. Com
modore and superintendent, Naval Academy, 1868, Rear-
admiral commanding European Station, 1872, and much
other service.

iS4

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

FRANK TILFORD.
Frank Tilford, born in New York, July 22, 1852, is
the youngest son of John M. Tilford, for many years a
prominent merchant of that city. The Tilford family is
of Scotch descent, its emigration to America having
taken place during the reign of George II., its locality
in this country being in the strongly Scotch settlement
of Argyle, north of Albany. On his father's side, Mr.
Tilford can trace his family name to 916 a.d., when,
in a battle between Normans and barbarians, a Count
d'Angouleme, with one slash of his terrible sword, cut
in twain the body and iron girdle of Storis, the barbarian
king ; whereupon he was named " Taile-fer" (sword-edge).
His mother, Jane Tilford {nee Jane White), was a direct
descendant of William White, who came over in the
" Mayflower." For generations the Tilfords were tillers
of the soil, their first entry upon city life being made in
1835, when John M. Tilford, then twenty years old,
made his way from the paternal farm to the city of New
York. He obtained a position there in a grocery store,
worked diligently, and in 1840, in association with a
fellow-clerk, Joseph Park, began business in a small way,
under the firm-name of Park & Tilford. This modest
beginning was the origin of the great establishment of
to-day, which has grown up largely through the hard
work, business judgment, and unceasing energy of John
M. Tilford. He died in 1891, having continued until
within a month previously to attend to business affairs.
Plis son and successor, Frank Tilford, was educated
in the schools of New York, his course of study being
completed at Mount Washington Collegiate School.
He then entered his father's establishment, preferring a
mercantile life to the other fields of employment which
he was at full liberty to enter had he chosen. His father
had become conspicuous among the great merchants of

New York, and, with a desire to sustain and increase this
reputation, the son entered the establishment, still known
by the original name of Park & Tilford, at the corner of
Sixth Avenue and Ninth Street, New York. Here he
began in one of the minor positions, his father wisely
desiring that he should pass through every department
of the business, and gain a thorough knowledge of its
details. He was advanced only as he showed his com
petency for a higher field of work. This practical course
of apprenticeship continued until 1873, when, having
passed his twenty-first year, and being familiar with all
the workings of the business, he was placed in charge of
the store opened that year at the corner of Thirty-eighth
Street and Sixth Avenue, a position for which he was
well fitted by the careful training he had received.
Shortly afterwards he began to take part in the man
agement of financial institutions, being, in 1874, elected
a director in the Sixth National Bank. He was at that
time the youngest bank director in the city. He resigned
from this position ten years afterwards. In 1876 he
joined the Real Estate Exchange, and entered upon a
series of operations in real estate in the upper part of
the city, which he still continues with a judgment and
foresight which have brought him much success. The
North River Savings Bank elected him on its board of
trustees in 1885, and in 1889 he, in association with Mr.
G. G. Haven, organized the Bank of New Amsterdam,
of which he has since continued the vice-president.
These real estate and financial operations did not divert
his attention from the store. A branch of the Park &
Tilford establishment was opened in 1885 at Fifth Avenue
and Fifty-ninth Street, which was placed under his
charge. The business continued to grow until, in 1890,
it became advisable to convert it into a joint-stock
corporation, Mr. Tilford, senior, being made its vice-
president. After the death of the latter, .in January,
1 89 1, Mr. Frank Tilford was elected to succeed him.
In September, 1893, he opened a store at Seventy-second
Street and Columbia Avenue, and in March, 1896, an
other at Thirty-ninth and Broadway.
Mr. Tilford was married in 1881 to Julia Greer, and
has a family of two daughters. He is a member of the
Union League, the Republican, the Colonial, and several
other clubs, also of the Society of Sons of the Revolu
tion. Mr. Tilford is also a member of the Lotos Club,
Press Club, Chamber of Commerce, and Board of Trade
and Transportation. While taking an interest in public
questions, and being ready to aid with money and time
any project for the benefit of the community, he has no
political aspirations, and has declined all propositions to
enter official life, preferring to confine his energies to
business affairs. He is social in disposition, simple in
tastes, invariably courteous in manner, and, as a business
man, possesses enterprise and excellent executive powers.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

i5S

WILLIAM H. SHOCK.
Chief-Engineer William H. Shock, of the United
States navy, was born in Maryland, and appointed third
assistant engineer in the navy from that State in January,
1845. During the Mexican War he served in the
" General Taylor," " Princeton," " Spitfire," and the
frigate " Mississippi," in which vessels he participated in
the capture of Tampico, under Commodore Conner, and
of Alvarado, Tuxpan, Tlacotalpan, and Vera Cruz, under
Commodore Perry. He was promoted second assistant
engineer July 10, 1847, and afterwards served in the
steamer " Engineer," of the Home Squadron. On Octo
ber 31, 1848, Mr. Shock received his promotion to first
assistant engineer, and in 1849 became senior engineer
of the steamer " Legare," on the Coast Survey. The
two succeeding years were spent by him upon special
duty at Philadelphia, he superintending the construction
of the machinery of the steam-frigate " Susquehanna."
He was raised to the rank of chief-engineer in March,
1 85 1, and was ordered to Boston to superintend the
construction of the new machinery for the " Princeton,"
at which he was engaged during the next two years. In
1853 and 1854 he served as inspecting engineer of ocean
steamers for United States mail service, and as chief
engineer of the steamer " Princeton," of the Home
Squadron. During 1854-55 he was on duty at the West Point
Works, superintending the construction of machinery for
the steam-frigate " Merrimac," and in 1855-56 he served
as chief engineer of the " Merrimac," on the Home
Station. That ship was then one of the most formidable
afloat in any navy. From 1857 to i860 he was chief
engineer of the steam-frigate " Powhatan," of the East
India Squadron. In the years 1860—62 he officiated as
president of the Examining Board of Engineers, and for
the next two years was on special duty at St. Louis,
superintending the construction of river monitors ren
dered necessary by the exigencies of the war in the
West. From 1863 to 1865 he was fleet-engineer of the
West Gulf Squadron, and while on this duty he partici
pated in the capture of Forts Gaines and Morgan, under
Admiral Farragut, and of the Spanish Fort and the city
of Mobile, under Admiral Thatcher.
After the war, Mr. Shock served two years as chief
engineer of the Boston Navy- Yard, and a similar term
at the Washington yard. During 1868-69 he was on

duty as fleet-engineer of the European Squadron ; and
in 1869-70 served as inspector of machinery afloat, and
member of the Board of Visitors to the Naval Academy
at Annapolis. In the summer of 1870 he was appointed
acting chief of the Bureau of Steam-Engineering, and
retired from that office with the written thanks of the
department for the efficient manner in which the duties
of the bureau were discharged. In 1871 he was again
called to take temporary charge of the Bureau of Steam-
Engineering, and upon retiring from this position was
actively employed on other duty in the United States
until 1873, at which time he was ordered to Europe, on
a tour of inspection of the public and private dock-yards
on that continent, and to represent the Bureau of Steam-
Engineering at the International Exhibition at Vienna.
By direction of the President he was appointed one of
the American judges of awards.
Upon his return from Europe, Commodore Shock was
again employed actively until March 3, 1877, when he
was appointed and confirmed engineer-in-chief of the
United States navy. On the 3d of March, 1881, the term
of service under his first appointment expired by law, and
he was reappointed by President Hayes and confirmed
by the Senate for a second term. Under this second
commission he served until the 15th of June, 1883, when,
having reached the age of sixty-two years, he was retired,
with the rank of commodore, under an Act of Congress,
approved March 3, 187 1.

i56

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

NATHAN A. REED, JR.
Nathan A. Reed, Jr., better known as Colonel Nate
Reed, was born July 2, 1839, at Wakefield, Rhode Island.
His father, Rev. N. A. Reed, D.D., is a well-known
clergyman of the Baptist denomination. He was noted
during the late war for his ardent patriotism and for
giving five sons to the army. His second son, Major B.
C. G. Reed, ofthe One Plundred and Seventy-fourth Ohio
Volunteer Infantry, was killed at Murfreesborough, Ten
nessee, while leading a charge against Forrest's cavalry.
Major Reed was captured with Streight's command in
North Georgia, and was a prisoner for some seventeen
months. While at Libby prison he raised the United
States flag, for which he was imprisoned in a dungeon
for thirty days. He was one of the three captains
selected as hostages and was sent to Salisbury, North
Carolina, and from there to Charleston, South Carolina,
from which place he made his escape to the blockading
squadron. After a few weeks' rest at home he went into
the field and met his fate in one of the last engagements
of the war. The third son, First Lieutenant E. O. G.
Reed, Company A, Sixteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry,
died three years after the close of the war from wounds
received at the battle of Champion Hills, Mississippi.
The eldest son, the subject of this sketch, was designed
to follow the footsteps of his father in the ministry, but
the attractions of the printing-office proved greater than
the pulpit. When but a boy he became a contributor to
several weekly publications. His health failing him, he
made a sea-voyage, and upon his return engaged in divers
pursuits, — clerking, teaching school, the insurance busi
ness, etc., but at the time he continued his literary work.
In the years 1857 and 1858 he was in Kansas during
the troublous times and made a trip across the plains to
Fort Bridger; returning, he visited Europe, Australia,

and South America. In May, 1862, he joined the army
as newspaper correspondent, and, in company with Chap
lain Gaddis, captured the office of the Huntsville, Ala
bama, Democrat, and started the Huntsville Reveille.
When General Don Carlos Buell relieved General 0. M.
Mitchel, the Reveille was stopped summarily, and news
paper correspondents ordered north. On his arrival in
Ohio Mr. Reed did recruiting services, and in July, 1862,
went into the field with the Fiftieth Ohio Volunteer
Infantry. He was wounded at the battle of Perryville,
Kentucky, and after his recovery was assigned to staff
duty. His last service was upon the staff of Major-General
Stoneman, and his last contribution as military corre
spondent was a description of the last great Stoneman
raid, which was published in the Cincinnati Commercial.
Mercantile pursuits engaged his attention for two
years, after which he went to New York and worked on
the New York Sun and the New York Sunday Mercury
for some time. In 1872, after having been connected
with some of the leading newspapers of the country, he
abandoned that profession for the law, in which he was
engaged for five years, but during that period accom
plished much newspaper work. In 1879 he went to
Chicago, where he has been a resident, excepting one
year's experience as editor of the Centralia, Illinois,
Sentinel. In 1880, he was made the managing editor of
the Morning Nczvs (since the Chicago Record), which
position he resigned to go into country journalism. On
his return from Centralia, he organized a bureau represent
ing the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Boston Herald, St. Paul
Globe, and other papers, and became a leading politician.
Since 1891, Colonel Reed has been active in the
Keeley movement. He started the Banner of Gold, a
sixteen-page weekly paper, which has taken a high stand
as a journal of philanthropic work and a leading literary
family magazine. Colonel Nate Reed is an enthusiast,
a strong writer, and an eloquent and magnetic public
speaker. In 1882, Colonel Reed was married to Miss M. Kate
Perrine, of Prospect Hill fruit farm, Centralia, Illinois,
and, as founder ofthe Woman's Keeley League and asso
ciate editor of the Banner of Gold, she has been an effi
cient helpmeet, adding to the reputation of her husband
and the extension of the Keeley League movement.
Colonel Reed is a member of various Masonic bodies,
the Independent Order of Red Men, the Independent
Order of Good Templars, the Keeley League, Loyal
Legion, Grand Army of the Republic, Union Veterans'
League, the Marquette Club, the Logan Club, Union
Veterans' Legion, Illinois State Press Association, Chicago
Press Club, etc. Mrs. M. Kate Reed is an active mem
ber of the Illinois Woman's Press Association, Press
League of Chicago, National Executive Board of the
Woman's Keeley League, etc.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

157

MAJOR AND QUARTERMASTER JOHN LINCOLN
CLEM.
Major and Quartermaster John Lincoln Clem was
born in Newark, Ohio, August 13, 185 1. He entered
the volunteer service, at the breaking out of the Rebel
lion, as a drummer, in May, 1861, but on account of his
youth (not ten years old) was not enlisted, although he
served as a drummer in Company C, Twenty-second
Michigan Infantry, until he was enlisted, May 1, 1863.
He served in the field in the Army of the West ; was
promoted sergeant of Company C, Twenty-second Michi
gan Infantry at the battle of Chickamauga, and was
honorably discharged from the volunteer service, Sep
tember 19, 1864.
Major Clem is probably the youngest soldier on record,
and began active service when about eleven years of age.
Shortly after the death of his mother, he offered his
services to the Third Ohio Regiment as drummer, but
was rejected, being then not ten years of age. He after
wards offered himself to the Twenty-second Michigan
Regiment, but was again rejected. He determined, how
ever to cast his fortunes with the Twenty-second Michi
gan, and April, 1862, found him beating the "long-roll"
before Shiloh, where his bravery was so great that he
was mustered in, and was known as " Johnny Shiloh."
But it was on the 23d of September, 1863, at the battle
of Chickamauga, that he won the name which will live
long after he has passed away. Here, though just
passed his twelfth year, he had laid aside the drum for
the musket, and, after acting for a while as a marker,
with a musket, the barrel of which had been cut down
expressly for his use, he took his place in the ranks.
As the day closed and the army retired to Chattanooga,
his brigade was ordered to surrender by the enemy, and
" Little Johnny" himself was covered by the sword of a
Confederate colonel, but quickly bringing his gun into
position he shot the Confederate colonel. His regiment
was then fired into, and, falling as if shot, the juvenile
soldier laid close until dark, when he went to Chatta
nooga and joined his command. For his bravery he was
made a sergeant by General Rosecrans, and attached to
the head-quarters of the Army of the Cumberland, and
was presented with a silver medal by Miss Kate Chase,
a daughter of the chief justice. He was afterwards

captured and held prisoner for sixty-three days, and
after his release was made orderly sergeant by General
Thomas, who had succeeded General Rosecrans, and
was attached to his staff. At the close of the war he
went to school and graduated at the Newark High
School. In 1 87 1, General Grant, in recognition of his
merits, appointed him second lieutenant of the Twenty-
fourth United States Infantry, and he served on signal duty
at Fort Whipple, Virginia, during the years 1872-73;
then ordered to the Artillery School at Fort Monroe,
Virginia, from which he graduated in 1875 ; he was
after this detailed as professor of Military Science at
Galesville University, where he served from June 8, 1879,
to May 4, 1882.
Joining his regiment in Texas, he remained with it
until appointed a captain and assistant quartermaster
and ordered to Schuylkill Arsenal, Philadelphia, Penn
sylvania, May 4, 1882, where he remained until trans
ferred to Fort McHenry in 1883. In 1886 he was
assigned to duty as depot quartermaster at Ogden, Utah,
and in 1888 removed to Columbus, Ohio, doing duty as
depot quartermaster at Columbus Barracks. Since 1892,
Major Clem has been on duty at Atlanta, Georgia, in
charge of national cemeteries, and was appointed major,
May 16, 1895.

158

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

SMITH ELY.
Smith Ely was born on April 17, 1825, at the resi
dence of his maternal grandfather, Ambrose Kitchell, at
Hanover, Morris County, New Jersey. His ancestry
were notable in the history of our country. Judge
Aaron Kitchell, his maternal great-grandfather, was a
soldier in the Revolutionary War, and at a later date
served as United States Representative and Senator, and
Presidential elector-at-large. His father, Epaphras C.
Ely, leather merchant in New York City, served as a
soldier in the War of 181 2 ; his grandfather, Moses Ely,
was a soldier in the Revolutionary army, and his two
more remote paternal ancestors, William Ely and Richard
Ely, were captains in the colonial army during the old
French and Indian War. By virtue of this military ser
vice of his ancestors, Mr. Ely is a member of the Society
of the War of 18 12, of Sons of the Revolution, and of
the Society of Colonial Wars.
Mr. Ely, after the period of his preliminary education,
adopted the law for his profession, studying for three
years in the office of Frederic De Peyster, and after
wards graduating at the Law-School of the University of
New York. Yet he never practised the profession, de
voting his middle life instead to mercantile pursuits.
Politically he has always been a Democrat, and many
years of his life have been spent in official service as a
representative of that party. In 1856 he was elected
school trustee ofthe Seventeenth Ward, and held the office
for four years. In 1857 he was elected to the State
Senate by a large majority, — being the first Democrat
ever elected in the district. In the Senate he was the
only Democrat on the two most important committees,
the Committee on Cities and the Sub-Committee of the

Whole, and was thus enabled to do much good and pre
vent much evil in legislation.
In i860 he was elected to the Board of County Super
visors, one of whose important functions, at that period,
was to raise money and enlist men to carry on the war.
He held this office for eight years, and while a member
of the board became conspicuous by his rigorous oppo
sition to its extravagant, use of the public funds. In
1867 he was re-elected, in opposition to the regular
Democratic and Republican candidates, being supported
by every daily newspaper in the city, and in the same
year was made commissioner of public instruction. In
1880 he was nominated as one of the Presidential electors
on the Democratic ticket.
Mr. Ely's term of Congressional service began in 1870.
In that year there was a union of the factions of the
Democracy of New York, and he was nominated and
elected to the Forty-second Congress from the seventh
district. He was placed by Speaker Blaine on the Rail
road Committee of the Plouse, and did good service in
that capacity. In 1874 he was re-elected, and during
this term served on the Committee on Foreign Relations,
the Committee on Public Buildings, and the Committee
on the Expenditures of the Treasury Department, —
being chairman of the last-named committee.
In 1876, while he was still serving in Congress, the
different Democratic elements of New York City united
in nominating him as a candidate for mayor. The Re
publicans nominated the distinguished soldier and states
man, General John A. Dix. Mr. Ely was elected by a
majority of over fifty-five thousand. His administration
of the important office for which he had thus been chosen
was characterized by the qualities which he had shown
throughout his official life, those of wise and strict econ
omy and judicious administration ofthe duties committed
to his charge. In each of the years of his term the net
amount of the city debt was reduced, it being in January,
1877, $119,811,310; in January, 1878, $1 17,700,742; and
in January, 1879, $113,418,403, there being thus a total
reduction in two years of nearly $6,500,000. At the same
time the tax levy, notwithstanding the increase of popu
lation, was similarly reduced, decreasing from $31,109,5-1
in January, 1877, to $28,008, S88 in January, 1879. No
other mayor ever succeeded in attaining a similar result.
Before the expiration of his term as mayor, Mr. Ely was
offered by the Democratic party in his old Congressional
district the nomination for Congress. He declined the
honor, however, preferring to retire to private life.
Since the period named Mr. Ely has not held office.
Pie is unmarried, and is a member of the Century, the
Manhattan, the Drawing-Room, and the Presbyterian
Union Clubs.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

159

ELIHU C. IRVIN.
E. C. Irvin, president of the Fire Association of Phil
adelphia, was born near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, May
22, 1839. His school education was followed by a
period of service as school-teacher at Duncannon, near
the mouth of the Juniata. This was while still a youth,
and was soon abandoned for a study of the iron busi
ness, in the works of the well-known Duncannon Iron
Company. His ability in this direction was so marked
that he was soon made manager of the works, and con
tinued in this service for a number of years. In 1869
he entered the fire insurance business, with which he was
thereafter to be identified, as special agent for Pennsyl
vania of the Germania Fire Insurance Company, of New
York. He continued with this company until 1874, in
the autumn of which year he became general agent of
the Phcenix Fire Insurance Company, of Hartford, Con
necticut, making Philadelphia his place of residence. He
has since that date resided there. The business of the
company was an extended one, and Mr. Irvin had a wide
field to cover, the territory under his management com
prising, with the exception of New York, the whole
region along the Atlantic coast from Lake Erie to the
Gulf of Mexico. He continued with the Phoenix, doing
most excellent work as an inspector, adjuster, and agency
manager, until February, 1884, when he was offered and
accepted the vice-presidency of the Fire Association, a
company which has been in existence for nearly eighty
years, and whose history is closely identified with the
whole recent development of the Quaker city. In 1891
he was elected to the presidency of the company, a posi
tion which he still most acceptably fills.
The career of the Fire Association has been so inter
esting, that we may reasonably supplement our sketch of
its president by a brief account of its history. It was
organized September 1, 1817, and incorporated March
27, 1820, with Michael Fox as its first president and
Caleb Carmelt as its first secretary. The organizers of
the company were the volunteer fire and hose companies
of old-fashioned Philadelphia, and it was understood
among them that the building bearing the long-familiar
representation of the fire-plug, with which the association
ornamented all buildings insured by it, should be the first
to receive attention in the event of a fire. This under
standing, which was an open secret, worked strongly for
the advantage of the association, every prudent citizen
quickly coming to feel a decided preference for the poli
cies of this company.
The great fire of 1850 marked an event in the history
of the association. Finding itself with but $100,000 to
meet its losses by that fire, the thirteen trustees went

energetically to work to raise the necessary funds, making
themselves individually liable, while the engine and hose
companies pledged their apparatus and other property.
As a result, the money was secured and all losses paid
in cash. In this case honesty proved good policy ; the
confidence and sympathy of the community were enlisted
in favor of the company, and within four years the asso
ciation had regained its former strength. In 1870, when
the Volunteer Fire Department of Philadelphia, which
had existed since 1743, gave place to the present Paid
Fire Department, part of the assets of the Fire Associ
ation was converted into capital, and the ten thousand
shares distributed among the members of the disbanded
engine and hose companies, the joint-stock arrangement
being duly provided for by charter. At present the as
sociation is domiciled in a very handsome white marble
building on Walnut Street, west of Fourth Street, one of
the choice architectural adornments of that locality.
Mr. Irvin has done much for the advancement of the
company. On accepting the vice-presidency, he found
the association in a depressed condition, and at once
proceeded to reorganize its agency system. The second
year of his duty found a large reduction in losses, and
in the year following the surplus began to recuperate.
Since then, under his careful and intelligent management,
there has been a steady progress, and by the year 1891,
Mr. Irvin had added three-quarters of a million to the
company's assets and half a million to its net surplus,
besides paying annual dividends of forty per cent. Since
his promotion to the presidency, this progress has con
tinued, and the venerable association, in its new home
and under its energetic president, is excellently equipped
for a future of success.

i6o

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR.
Chester Alan Arthur, twenty-first President ot the
United States, was born at Fairfield, Vermont, October
5, 1830. His father, Rev. William Arthur, was a Baptist
minister, who came to this country from Belfast, Ireland,
and preached at several localities in New York and Ver
mont. The future President was born in a log cabin
which his father occupied while waiting for the erection
of a parsonage. He was educated at Schenectady, New
York, at first in an academy there, and afterwards
in Union College, from which he graduated in 1848.
During part of his college career he supported himself
by teaching, and after graduation he continued to teach
while studying law at Lansingburg, New York. Thence
he went to New York City, where he entered the law-
office of E. D. Culver. He was admitted to the bar in
1853, and became junior member of the firm of Culver,
Parker & Arthur.
Early in the young barrister's career his firm was con
cerned in the celebrated " Lemmon slave case," in which
Arthur selected William M. Evarts as consulting counsel.
It ended in the freeing of the slaves, in which result the
young advocate took an active part, though all the
honor is usually given to Mr. Evarts. Mr. Arthur's firm
afterwards became the legal champions of the colored
people, and in 1856, by their successful handling of the
Jennings case, established the right of the African race
to ride in the street cars.
Politically, Mr. Arthur was in his earlier days a Whig,
but on the absorption of his party by the new Republican
party, he became one of its ardent members, and was
active in its local organization. In i860, Governor Mor
gan appointed him engineer-in-chief on his staff. This

had previously been an office with nominal duties, but
the outbreak of the war made it important, and Mr.
Arthur's previous connection with the militia made his
services valuable. In April, 1861, he opened a branch
quartermaster's department in New York, at Governor
Morgan's request, and was soon after given the entire
task of preparing and equipping the regiments raised in
the State. This duty he continued to perform until the
end of the war, being appointed quartermaster-general
in 1862.
In January, 1862, he made an elaborate report of the
defences of New York harbor, and in February, being
appointed inspector-general, he visited the New York
regiments in the Army of the Potomac and saw that
their wants were supplied. On the election of Governor
Seymour in December, 1863, Mr. Arthur returned to
the practice of the law. But he continued active in
military and political affairs, was chairman of the Re
publican Executive Committee of the State, and worked
actively for the nomination and election of President
Grant in 1868. On November 20, 1871, he was ap
pointed by the President collector of the port of New
York, and at the expiration of his term, in 1875, was
renominated and unanimously confirmed by the Senate.
He held this position until July 12, 1878, when he
was removed at the instance of Senator Sherman, who
brought against him charges of political mismanagement
of the office, which were indignantly and successfully
repelled. Collector Arthur proved that the removals
from office of his subordinates was in an unusually
small percentage, and that many improvements had
been introduced.
In 1879 he was elected chairman of the Republican
State committee, and when, in July, 1880, General Gar
field was nominated by the Republican convention at
Chicago for President, it was decided that the second
nominee should be taken from New York, and General
Arthur's name was offered and accepted. In November
he was elected Vice-President of the United States, and
in March, 1881, took his seat as President of the Senate.
On the retirement of Senator Conkling, Mr. Arthur
sought to procure his re-election by the State Legisla
ture, but failed in this purpose.
The assassination of President Garfield raised the Vice-
President to the Presidential chair. President Arthur
took the oath of office privately in New York, September
20, 1 88 1, and was publicly inaugurated in Washington
on September 22. Of his acts in office we have no space
here to speak. It will suffice to say that his administra
tion won wide-spread commendation, even from those
who had at first predicted for him a weak or corrupt ex
ecutive career. He did not long survive the conclusion
of his term of office, dying November 1 1 , 1 1

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

161

CORNELIUS NEV1US HOAGLAND.
Cornelius Nevius Hoagland was born in Hills
borough Town, Somerset County, New Jersey, Novem
ber 23, 1828; eldest son of Andrew, and a descendant in
the seventh generation from Christoffel, Hoagland. This
sturdy pioneer of the family was born in Holland in
1634, and his name first appears on the records of
the Burgomaster and Schepens Court in 1655, his first
name being shortened to " Stoffel." In 1661 he married
Catrina Creiger, daughter of Captain Creiger, a noted
officer under Keift and Stuyvesant.
In 1837, Andrew emigrated to Miami County, Ohio,
and Cornelius, the subject of this sketch, began the
study of medicine in 1845, when seventeen years of
age. During the winter of 1848-49 he attended his
first course of lectures at Starling Medical College, at
Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from the Medical De
partment of the Western Reserve University, at Cleve
land, Ohio, in the spring of 1852.
In 1854 he was elected county auditor, and re-elected
in 1856. At this date he was a private in a militia
company, the " Lafayette Blues," of Troy, Ohio, and at
the outbreak of the war volunteered in a company from
that place, which company became Company H in the
Eleventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry. On the organization
of the company he was elected first lieutenant. On the
expiration of the three months for which the troops
were called, he re-entered the service for ten years.
Soon afterwards he was detailed as acting assistant
commissary of subsistence at Camp Dennison, Ohio.
In October, 1861, he was commissioned surgeon of
the Seventy-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, then being
recruited at Camp Tod, Troy, Ohio. He accompanied
his regiment to Paducah, Kentucky, in the spring of
1862, participated in the battle of Pittsburg Landing in
April, after which he served with a detachment of his
regiment in garrison at Clarksville, Tennessee, and later
at Gallatin. At this latter place his health gave way,
and his resignation was tendered and accepted. In
appreciation of Dr. Hoagland's character and services,
the officers of the regiment at this time presented him
with a sword, which he preserves with great pride.
Upon the return of his health, at the request of the
officers of the Seventy-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, he
was reappointed surgeon, and continued as such to the
close of the war.
Soon after rejoining his regiment he was appointed
surgeon in charge of the hospital at Gallatin, Tennessee.
Some months later, upon his request, he was relieved
from this duty and joined his regiment at Decherd,
Tennessee. In the fall of 1864 his regiment was ordered to the
front at Atlanta, becoming part of the Second Brigade,
Third Division, Fourth Corps. Shortly afterwards, Dr.

Hoagland was appointed chief surgeon of the brigade,
on the staff of Colonel P. Sidney Post, which position
he occupied during the remainder of his services. At
the battle of Nashville, on the 16th of December, 1864,
he was seriously injured by a Minie-ball in the breast.
After this battle the brigade followed Hood's forces
out ofthe State, and went into winter-quarters at Hunts
ville, Alabama. Early in the spring they went to East
Tennessee, and were at Greenville, the home of Andrew
Johnson, when Abraham Lincoln was shot. In July,
1865, the Fourth Corps, with others, was sent to Texas
via river steamer to New Orleans, thence by steamer
across the Gulf, landing at Indianola, and by march to
San Antonio. In November they were mustered for dis
charge, and ordered to Columbus, Ohio, where they were
discharged in the first week of January, 1866. Soon after
the close of the war, Dr. Hoagland engaged in the manu
facture of baking-powder, and is now the president of
the Cleveland Baking-Powder Company, of New York.
In 1887 he founded in Brooklyn the "Hoagland
Laboratory," instituted for the pursuit of original re
search in the higher branches of medical science, bac
teriology, pathology, and physiology being the prin
cipal departments. The cost of this institution, with
equipments, exceeded one hundred thousand dollars,
to which he subsequently added fifty thousand dollars
as an endowment fund.
Dr. Hoagland is a fellow of the Royal Microscopical
Society of London, life fellow of the American Geo
graphical Society of New York, the New York Genea
logical and Biographical Society, and the Long Island
Historical Society. He is a member of the Military
Order of the Loyal Legion, a regent of the Long Island
College Hospital, and trustee and director of numerous
financial and benevolent institutions.

l62

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

GEORGE H. HOUGHTON, D.D.
Rev. Dr. George H. Houghton, pastor ofthe famous
" Little Church around the Corner," was born at Deer-
field, Massachusetts, February i, 1820. After receiving
a preliminary school education, he entered the New York
University, where he was graduated in 1842. Afterwards,
having decided to enter the Protestant Episcopal ministry,
he pursued a private course of theological study, and
took holy orders in the autumn of 1845. For some time
he acted as assistant to Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg, after which,
gathering a small number of admiring friends, he began
to lay the foundations for a church and congregation of
his own in a private house in New York. In 1849 this
growing body of followers formed an organization under
the title ofthe Church of the Transfiguration, and had a
building erected on Twenty-ninth Street near Fifth Ave
nue, which was partly paid for by a benevolent member
of the parish. This structure, which, though small, may
claim to be one of the most picturesque church edifices
in any of our cities, was first occupied on Sunday, March
10, 1850.
For four years the entire pew rents were employed in
reducing the debt incurred in purchasing the ground and
building the church. For a number of years the congre
gation had a severe struggle to maintain its existence,
but has progressed until now the Church of the Trans
figuration possesses one of the largest and wealthiest
congregations in New York City. Dr. Houghton has
attained a wide reputation for his knowledge of Hebrew,
and for twelve years held the position of instructor of

Hebrew in the General Theological Seminary of the
Protestant Episcopal Church. As a teacher of that lan
guage he has had few superiors, and his reputation for
theological learning brought him, in 1859, tne honorary
degree of Doctor of Divinity from Columbia College.
The peculiar title borne by his church, and by which
it is familiarly known far beyond the limits of New York
City, arose from an interesting incident. On the death
of the eminent and admired actor, George Holland,
another equally eminent actor, Joseph Jefferson, went to
the clergyman of a certain fashionable church, with the
request that he would open his church for the burial of
the deceased actor. This mediaeval pulpit orator, not
dreaming of the storm he would draw down on his de
voted head, objected to having his holy precincts dese
crated by the burial of a " professional player." He told
Mr. Jefferson, however, that he had better apply at "the
little church around the corner," where he might meet
with more success. Jefferson did so, and found Dr.
Houghton with a soul large enough to admit that an
actor was a man, and possessed of all the rights that
man can claim. He freely and readily performed the
burial service for the dead actor, and by so doing lifted
himself and his church into enduring fame.
This incident lies largely at the bottom of Dr. Hough
ton's marked success, though it is in great measure due
to his ability as an orator, the fascination of his personal
character, and the purity of his life as a Christian. His
ministrations began with six persons only. This small
group has since grown into a large and admiring con
gregation, whose members are ardently devoted to their
pastor. Dr. Houghton is highly respected by all who know
him, and sincerely beloved by all his congregation. His
character is one calculated in its traits to win esteem ;
and alike as citizen, pastor, and man he occupies a high
position in the public regard. The Church of the Trans
figuration, built for him through the efforts of his small
circle of early followers, has continued his only charge;
it was born and has grown under his ministrations, and
he has always been identified with it in the public mind,
— he and the " Little Church around the Corner" being
constantly associated in thought. It need scarcely be
said that the theatrical world have not forgotten their
friend in need, and that Dr. Houghton's church has been
a favorite place of resort by this large fraternity.
Dr. Houghton's publications have been confined to
occasional sermons, his principal field of action outside
his pulpit being in his long-continued course of Hebrew
instruction in the General Theological Seminary.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

\6i

CHARLES EMORY SMITH.
Charles Emory Smith, the popular editor of The
(Philadelphia) Press, is of Connecticut origin, having been
born at Mansfield, in that State, in 1842. I lis parents
moved to Albany in 1849, and he received his education
in the public schools of that city, and at Union College,
from which he graduated in 1861. During the two suc
ceeding years he performed valuable services on the staff
of General Rathbone, who had charge of the depots in
which were organized regiments of volunteer soldiers.
Part of this time he served as assistant adjutant-general.
From 1863 to 1865 he was a teacher in the Albany
Academy, and in the latter year became editor of the
Albany Express.
His journalistic work had really commenced at the
age of sixteen, when he began writing for the Albany
Evening Transcript, to which paper, for six months, he
furnished its daily leading editorial articles. He con
tinued to cultivate at every opportunity his precocious
powers in this direction, and finally gained a full oppor
tunity for their development in the editorship of the
Express. While thus engaged, he served, in 1868, as
private secretaiy of Governor Fenton. In 1870 he
purchased an interest in the Albany Evening Jour
nal, and became joint-editor of that paper with the
well-known George Dawson. On the death of the
latter, in 1874, Mr. Smith became editor-in-chief of the
Journal. During his connection with this paper he served in
several public and political positions. He was elected a
trustee of Union College, and subsequently was nomi
nated and elected by the New York Legislature regent
of the University of New York. In addition, his de
served reputation as a fluent public speaker brought him
constantly into demand as an orator for military, press,
educational, and other associations. His political career
consisted principally in his frequent election as a delegate
to Republican State conventions, in which he served
on many successive annual occasions, being repeatedly
chosen chairman ofthe Committee on Resolutions. His
work in this direction was important, he playing a promi
nent part in the formation of the party platform of the
Republicans of the State of New York.
In 1876 he was sent as a delegate to the Republican
National Convention at Cincinnati, and was appointed a
member of the Committee on Resolutions, as the repre
sentative from New York on the committee. In drafting
the resolutions for the Presidential campaign of that year
he took a prominent part, and the platform, as finally
adopted, embraced the measures which he had already
embodied in the party platform of New York. In the
New York State convention of 1880 he was chosen
temporary president, and was subsequently elected per
manent president of that body.

Mr. Smith's residence in Philadelphia began in 1880,
in March of which year he accepted and assumed the
position of editor-in-chief of The Press, then one of the
most prominent Republican journals of the State. He
soon after purchased an interest in this paper, and by his
energy and vigorous editorial power restored it to the
position which it had in a measure lost, — that of the
leading Republican paper of Pennsylvania, the chief ex
ponent of Republican views in the Keystone State.
In the Garfield election campaign of 1880, Mr. Smith's
fine powers as a political orator and debater were called
actively into play, he stumping the States of Pennsyl
vania and New Jersey in favor of the Republican candi
date, and aiding essentially in the campaign of education,
by the aid of which Garfield was carried triumphantly
into the presidential chair, — that chair which was so
soon to be made vacant again by the hand of an
assassin. In the subsequent presidential campaigns, Mr. Smith
continued to do efficient service for his party with pen
and voice, and his useful labors were suitably rewarded
in his appointment by President Harrison, in February,
1890, to the highly honorable and important diplomatic
position of United States Minister to Russia. In this
high post he represented his country at St. Petersburg
for two years with much credit, returning to America in
1892. It may be said, in conclusion, that Mr. Smith is
an able representative of the art of political journalism,
his wide knowledge of men and public affairs enabling
him to present clear and cogent statements ofthe drift of
public events. As a man he is affable and genial, as a
speaker he is attractive and sympathetic ; he is a close
and logical speaker, a skilful and adroit politician, and
has an exceptional command of reason and rhetoric both
in speech and with pen.

164

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM M. THOMS.
In this practical age, and especially in this land of
golden opportunities, it is a rare thing to find a young
man turning a deaf ear to the el dorado voice of trade
and commerce, and pursuing consistently, devotedly,
and honorably the literary and artistic bent of his char
acter; for the Muses continue to deal out no more
tangible currency than encouraging smiles and appro-
bative nods.
W. M. Thorns is still a young man, having been born
in 1852, and coming from a family which had given the
world assurance of possessing genuine creative talent.
His grandfather was a soldier, his father, a mechanical
engineer of great ability, and was engaged in the con
struction of the first turreted war-ship, of the monitor
type, with which has been immortalized the name of
Ericsson, and from the brain of another ancestor, in 1820,
sprang the application of iron in piano construction.
Mr. Thorns is a typical New Yorker, and owes much
of his alert intellectual force to the training of the
metropolitan public schools. Like all boys born with
the artistic bent, while the concourse of sweet sounds
hummed in his head, schemes of color and design pricked
his finger-tips, and his first dollar earned was by painting,
in oil, boxes for John W. Watson, whose name is known
to the world as the author of " Beautiful Snow." As
a lad he began the study of music with the Nash and
Bristow system. Chamber music and symphonic forms
he pursued under Frederick Mollenhauer, piano with
Henry C Watson, and Italian singing under Madame
Locler of the London Royal Academy. It will be noted

with what endowment he entered the field of musical
journalism as the protege of Henry C. Watson, that
eminent art and music critic of the Tribune, and became
the publisher of the American Art Journal, founded by
Watson in 1863. Under Watson's hand, young Thorns
was not slow in developing into a journalist of potency,
so that the Art Journal became then, as it is now, the
leading American weekly, wholly devoted to music and
the music trade, and recognized throughout Europe and
America as the best critical authority on those sub
jects. We use the word " American" advisedly, for while Mr.
Thorns on the purely practical side of journalism enjoys
the well-earned reputation of having been the first to
make illustrations a permanent feature of his paper, and
to add absolute value and character to it by the publi
cation of diagrams of patents, custom-house reports,
etc., yet, in the domain of art, he has persistently and
consistently championed American composers, and ex
tended a strong and helping hand to every man with a
message or idea of any import.
The columns of the American Art Journal have done
most admirable service in the advancement of musical
taste and culture in the United States. In 1870-71, Mr.
Thorns published The Journal of the Day, the first
musical daily ever projected in this country. He also
issued the Musical Monthly, a thirty-six page quarto,
and in 1877 edited and published a superb art periodical
entitled, The World of Art, its Eminent Men and Women.
While engaged in various projects, Mr. Thorns has
given the key-note of success to many young men of
talent. Not a few New York journalists were trained
in the editorial rooms of the Art Journal under his
guidance, and now occupy leading positions on the
metropolis press.
Mrs. Clara E. Thorns, his wife, is one of the most
renowned American pianists, and is a descendant of that
grand old Revolutionary patriot, General Israel Putnam.
They have one child, William Frederick Thorns, in whom
the artistic temperament is strongly marked.
As it is the easiest thing in the world for trade jour
nalism to degenerate into mere parasitical growth upon
the particular industries which it may represent, Mr.
Thorns has cause for sincere congratulation that, after a
quarter-century of activity in his special department of
class journalism, his standing in the musical instrument
circles, whose interests he has so indefatigably and
jealously safeguarded, is above suspicion, and that he
enjoys the fullest confidence and esteem of his patrons
as an honest and trustworthy critic and adviser.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

165

AARON S. DAGGETT.
General Aaron S. Daggett, a native of Maine, was
born June 14, 1837. He is descended from a paternal
ancestry which can be traced, with an honorable record,
as far back as 1100 ad. His mother was Dorcas C,
daughter of Simon Dearborn, a lineal descendant of Gen
eral Henry Dearborn. His more immediate ancestors
came from Old to New England about 1630, and both
his grand-parents served in the Continental army during
the Revolutionary War. He was educated, in his native
town, at Monmouth Academy, Maine, and State and
Maine Wesleyan Seminaries. At the outbreak ofthe Civil
War he enlisted as a private, April 29, 1861, in the Fifth
Maine Infantry; was appointed second lieutenant May 1,
and promoted first lieutenant May 24, 1861. He com
manded his company at the first Bull Run battle, and
was promoted captain August 14, 1861.
From the first engagement of the regiment to the end
of its three years' memorable service, Captain Daggett
proved a faithful and gallant soldier. He was promoted
major January 8, 1863, and on January 18, 1865, was
commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Fifth Regiment,
United States Veteran Volunteers, Hancock's Corps, and
was brevetted colonel and brigadier-general of volunteers,
March 13, 1867, for "gallant and meritorious services
during the war." He also received the brevets of major
in the United States army for " gallant and meritorious
services at the battle of Rappahannock Station, Virginia,"
November 7, 1863, and lieutenant-colonel for "gallant
and meritorious services in the battle of the Wilderness,
Virginia." Immediately after the battle of Rappahan
nock Station, the captured trophies, flags, cannons, etc.,
were escorted by those who had been most conspicuous
in the action, to General Meade's head-quarters, Colonel
Daggett being in command of his brigade. General
Upton, to whom he owed this distinction, wrote of him
as follows : " In the assault at Rappahannock Station,
Colonel Daggett's regiment captured over five hundred
prisoners. In the assault at Spottsylvania Court-House,
May 10, his regiment lost six out of seven captains, the
seventh being killed on the 12th of May, at the 'angle,'
or the point where the tree was shot down by musketry,
on which ground the regiment fought from 9.30 a.m. to
5.30 p.m., when it was relieved. On all these occasions
Colonel Daggett was under my immediate command,
and fought with distinguished bravery. Throughout his
military career in the Army of the Potomac, he has
maintained the character of a good soldier and an up
right man, and his promotion would be commended by
all those who desire to see courage rewarded."
General Upton also wrote to the governor of Maine as
follows : " I would respectfully recommend to Your Ex
cellency, Major A. S. Daggett, formerly Fifth Maine
Volunteers, as an officer highly qualified to command a

regiment. Major Daggett served his full term in this
brigade with honor both to himself and State, and won
for himself the reputation of being a brave, reliable, and
efficient officer. His promotion to a colonelcy would be
a great benefit to the service, while the honor of his
State could scarcely be intrusted to safer hands." He
was subsequently recommended for promotion by Gen
erals Meade, Hancock, Wright, and D. A. Russell. He
was in every battle and campaign in which the Sixth
Corps, Army of the Potomac, was engaged from the
first Bull Run to Petersburg, and was twice slightly
wounded. On July 28, 1866, without his knowledge or
solicitation, he was appointed a captain in the United
States regular army, on recommendation of General
Grant, and has since been promoted lieutenant-colonel
in this service. During his subsequent career he has
won the reputation of being a fine tactician, and of being
thoroughly versed in military law, as is indicated by Major
Hancock's commendatory words in 1878 : " I look upon
him as by far the best tactician in the regiment, and as
for a thorough, clear knowledge of tactics his superior
is not in the army. As regards military and civil law, I
know of no one so well informed." PI is ability and sol
dierly qualities have been commended by General Crook.
As a public speaker, the following was said of him by
the Rev. S. S. Cummings, of Boston: "It was my privi
lege and pleasure to listen to an address delivered by
General A. S. Daggett on Memorial-Day of 1891. I
had anticipated something able and instructive, but it far
exceeded my fondest expectations. The address was
dignified, yet affable, delivered in choice language without
manuscript, instructive and impressive, and highly appre
ciated by an intelligent audience." General Daggett is
noted for his courteous manner and his sterling integrity
of character. He is a member of the Presbyterian church.

1 66

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

FRANCIS H. LEGGETT.
Francis Howard Leggett was born in New York,
March 27, 1840, and is the descendant of an old West
chester County family who came to this country in the
seventeenth century, and whose history may be briefly
given as preliminary to that of the subject of our sketch.
The family is traced back to Essex County, England,
where it dwelt for many generations, the name originating
in the title of papal legate at Rome. The first American
of the family came to this country from Barbadoes. His
son married Elizabeth Richardson, daughter of a large
land-holder in Westchester County, New York, and his
grandson was for years mayor of Westchester borough,
and one of the leading citizens of that district. From
this person descended Abraham Leggett, father of the
subject of this sketch, and for many years a highly re
spected merchant of New York City, where for half a
century he carried on a large wholesale grocery business
on Front Street, and where he aided in founding the
Market Bank.
Francis H. Leggett received a good education in an
academic institution, upon the completion of which, in
1856, he began his business life at the age of sixteen as
clerk in a produce commission house. He continued
here until 1862, gaining a thorough acquaintance with
business methods, and displaying that industry and intelli
gence to which qualities his more recent rapid progress
has been due. In the last-named year he went into busi
ness on his own account, in partnership with an older
brother, and continued thus associated until 1870, when

he withdrew from the firm to engage in business with his

younger brother, Theodore (now deceased), the name of
the new firm being Francis H. Leggett & Co.
The business thus started in a modest way grew with
the most encouraging rapidity, increasing so quickly that
from the original establishment it extended in 1873 to
occupying three stores on Reade Street. Later it became
necessary to add a fourth store on Chambers Street, to
accommodate the large business which had developed.
The progress here briefly described continued until the
extended quarters mentioned became too small for the
great trade of the firm, and it became necessary to gain
increased room. In 1881 the present imposing warehouse
on West Broadway, Franklin and Varick Streets, ten
stories in height, was erected, and thoroughly equipped
with eveiy requisite for the handling of groceries on the
largest scale.
The house does a large importing business in high-
class groceries, coffees, and teas, while many articles are
manufactured from the raw material or otherwise prepared
for the trade on the premises of the firm. In addition it
has an office in Bordeaux, France. Since the origin of
the firm three other partners have been admitted, from
the experienced and trustworthy employees ofthe house,
the original firm-name being retained. Mr. Leggett
continues at the head of the concern and is the active
manager of its great business, over which he keeps an
immediate and careful oversight.
Aside from his mercantile business, he is a member of
various financial and other institutions, being a director
in the Home Insurance Company, a trustee in the Green
wich Savings Bank, and a member of the Chamber of
Commerce, and of the Produce and the Cotton Ex
changes. He was formerly a director of the National
Park Bank, which position he held for twelve years, but
has since resigned.
Recently Mr. Leggett was selected as foreman of the
special grand jury, which served for three months in
bringing up the police official bribery cases. His work
in this body brought him the thanks of the judge and
general praise from press and people.
Aside from his business connections, Mr. Leggett be
longs to several social organizations, including the Union
League, the Merchants', the Metropolitan, the Tuxedo,
and a number of other clubs. He takes a warm interest
in the Charity Organization Society, or the association
of public charities, of this city, being a member of its
council and a frequent contributor to its funds. Relig
iously he is a member of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian
Church. His country-seat is at Stone Ridge, Ulster
County, New York, where he has an extensive estab
lishment.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

167

RICHARD RUSH.
Richard Rush, son of Dr. Benjamin Rush, was born
in 1780; he graduated at Princeton in 1797, and entered
upon the study of the law. Pie would doubtless have
achieved a great reputation in this profession but for his
predilection for a political life. His defence of William
Duane, who was charged with libel on Governor McKean,
was so able as to bring him much reputation. In 181 1 he
was made attorney-general of Pennsylvania, but resigned
this office before the year ended, to accept that of comp
troller of the United States Treasury. His next public
position was that of Attorney-General of the United
States. This he held from 18 14 to 1817, in which year
he served for a time as Secretary of State, and was then
sent as United States Minister to England, which post he
retained until 1825.
During his eight years as minister he negotiated several
important treaties, principally that of 18 18, respecting the
fisheries and the northeastern boundary. In 1825 John
Quincy Adams, then President, recalled him, and ap
pointed him Secretary of the Treasury. Three years later
he ran for the Vice-Presidency in association with Adams
for President. The ticket was defeated, but Mr. Rush
did not cease his public services under the new Presi
dent. He used his influence abroad to obtain foreign
loans for the city of Washington and other places, and
in 1836 was sent by President Jackson to England, with
the important commission of obtaining from the British
courts the legacy of James Smithson to the United
States. In this mission he was successful, gaining the
full amount of the legacy, five hundred and fifteen thou
sand, one hundred and sixty-nine dollars, — a sum from
whose wise disposition has grown the flourishing Smith
sonian Institution, one of the most promising of modern
scientific institutions.
In 1847, Mr. Rush was again selected to serve his
country abroad, being appointed by President Polk Min
ister to France, a position which he filled with much
credit. He was the first of the foreign ministers at Paris
to recognize the French republic of 1848. In 1849 he
resigned this position and returned to the United States,
to spend the remainder of his life in private pursuits in
the city of his birth. He died at Sydenham, his country-
seat, near Philadelphia, July 30, 1859.
In addition to his legal and diplomatic duties, Mr.
Rush paid much attention to literature, and was the
author of a number of works on political and similar
themes. These include " Laws of the United States,"
published in 181 5 ; " Memoranda of a Residence at the
Court of St. James," 1833 ; " Incidents, Official and Per
sonal, from 1 8 19 to 1825," a second volume on the same
theme, 1845; "Washington in Domestic Life," 1857;
and " Occasional Productions," published after his death.

lg* ^1

His brother, Dr. James Rush, born 1786, followed his
father's profession, graduating from the medical college
of the University in 1809. He practised for some time
in Philadelphia, after preliminary study in Edinburgh, but
gave little attention to his profession after his marriage to
the daughter of Thomas Ridgway, who brought him a
princely fortune. Mrs. Rush was long a brilliant leader
of society in Philadelphia, but her husband, inclined to
studious habits, spent the most of his later years in the
seclusion of his library. His studies were signalized by
a number of works, notably " The Philosophy ofthe Hu
man Voice," which able critics declared to be the most
philosophical work on the voice and human speech ever
produced. His other works were " Hamlet, a Dramatic
Prelude," 1834; "Analysis of the Human Intellect,"
1865; "Rhymes of Contrast in Wisdom and Folly," a
satirical dialogue, 1869. He died May 26, 1869.
Mr. Rush left his estate to the Philadelphia Library,
and the bulk of it has been expended in building the
massive granite building on south Broad Street, known
as the " Ridgway Branch of the Philadelphia Library," a
noble monument to literature, and one of the most im
posing and striking edifices in this country.
This building stands in the square of ground bounded
by Broad, Thirteenth, Christian, and Carpenter Streets,
in a solitary grandeur which gives a fine effectiveness to
its magnificent Grecian faqade. The building is admira
bly appointed within, and is made the receptacle of the
less used books and treasures of the library, some of
them of great antiquarian value. In a room set apart
for the purpose are kept certain costly articles of furni
ture which belonged to Mrs. Rush, and in another
apartment is contained the tomb of Dr. and Mrs. Rush.

i68

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM SELLERS.
William Sellers, a prominent iron manufacturer of
Philadelphia, was born, September 19, 1824, on the old
homestead estate in Delaware County, Pennsylvania,
which had been taken up by Samuel Sellers in 1682,
when he came to America from Bristol, England, as
one of William Penn's company of Quaker emigrants.
The marriage of Samuel Sellers is the first one recorded
in the minutes of the Friends' Meeting of Darby. Part
of the estate is still held under the original patent by
William Sellers and his brother John. His mother was
Elizabeth Poole, of Wilmington, Delaware. The family
tradition is that her great-grandfather was sent from
England by the Royal Geographical Society, in the last
century, to observe in this country a transit of Venus,
and that he found the attractions of the New World
such that he decided to remain. It is interesting to learn
that the paternal great-grandfather of William Sellers
was, in his turn, appointed by the American Philosophi
cal Society to observe a transit of Venus, perhaps the
same, as there were only two transits in the century.
This gentleman was one of the original members of the
Philosophical Society, and membership has been con
tinued in the family unto the present generation, William
Sellers being a member.
Mr. Sellers was educated in private schools, and at the
age of fourteen entered the machine-shop of his uncle,
J. M. Poole, near Wilmington, Delaware, where he
served an apprenticeship until twenty-one years of age.
He then assumed charge of the shops of Bancroft,
Nightingale & Co., at Providence, Rhode Island, and
two years afterwards came to Philadelphia, where he
started in business for himself at Thirtieth and Chestnut

Streets. A year later (in 1848) he entered into partnership
with Mr. Bancroft, his former employer in the Providence
establishment, and removed to a shop on Beach Street,
Kensington, the title of the new firm being Bancroft &
Sellers. In 1855, Mr. Bancroft died. John Sellers had
previously been admitted to the firm, which now took
its present title of William Sellers & Co. Several other
persons have since formed members of the firm.
The business of the establishment continued to grow,
until in time it became one of the largest in its line, that
ofthe manufacture of machine tools in the United States.
It was eventually removed to its present location at
Pennsylvania Avenue, Sixteenth and Buttonwood Streets,
where it occupies extensive buildings, and possesses a
plant of unsurpassed excellence in its line of production.
In 1873, Mr. Sellers became President of the Midvale
Steel Company, at Nicetown, Philadelphia, a large and
important establishment, which he afterwards reorganized.
At an earlier date (in 1868) he had established the Edge
Moor Iron Company, for the manufacture of iron and
steel building material. He is still president of this
concern, which supplied all the iron material for the
buildings of the Centennial Exposition, and possesses
one of the largest plants in the country for the building
of iron bridges and other structures in iron and steel.
In 1864 he became president of the Franklin Institute,
whose finances were then in a critical condition. Mr.
Sellers's able management brought it quickly into a state
of greater prosperity, which it has since maintained. He
is still closely connected with this institution, and is a
member of the Finance Committee of the Academy of
Natural Sciences. During his presidency of the Franklin
Institute he proposed the first formula ever offered for a
standard system of screw-threads and nuts. His system
was adopted, and is now the standard in the United States.
Politically a Republican, he became a member of the
Union Club, founded early in the Civil War, which after
wards became the Union League. For several years he
served as vice-president of the latter body. On the
formation of the Park Commission he became one of its
first members, and later became active in furthering the
Centennial Exposition, being for some time vice-presi
dent of its Board of Finance. For several years he was
a director of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad
Company, and for many years a director of the Phila
delphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad Company.
In 1 868 he was elected one of the trustees of the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania, which position he still retains.
The productions of the Sellers Works have received
high honors and many medals from the various World's
Fairs, and the establishment stands to-day in the front
rank of the industrial interests of Philadelphia.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

169

MELVILLE W. HUTCHISON.
Melville Welsh Hutchison, a prominent and in
fluential journalist of the West, is a native of Ohio,
having been born in Muskingum County of that State,
on the 24th of September, 1854. He is the oldest son
of Rev. Samuel M. and Emily P. Hutchison, his father
a well-known and much respected divine of that locality.
Mr. Hutchison, after a preliminary term of school-life
in the schools of his native place, entered Muskin
gum College, of New Concord, Ohio, an institution
under the auspices of the United Presbyterian Church.
Here he graduated in 1874, when only nineteen years
of age.
The young graduate found the first channel for his
activities in the vocation with which he was as yet most
familiar, that of teaching, which he entered upon with
energy, and in which he continued engaged for the
ensuing six years. While thus employed, however, his
pen was not idle, and he developed a facile and forcible
literary style which was to serve him in good stead in
the profession to which his tastes and inclinations next
led him, that of journalism.
He entered the field with which he was to be thereafter
identified, that of the newspaper business, in 1880, and
has been actively connected with it since. His first ven
ture in this direction was as editor of the Enterprise , a
local journal of New Concord, Ohio, in whose pages his
native adaptation to this field of labor first manifested
itself. Thence proceeding to Cambridge, Ohio, he took
editorial charge of the Herald, an influential independent
sheet of that growing manufacturing city. His next
field of labor was in a district far to the West, in the
city of Olathe, Kansas, a thriving market-town of that
rapidly developing agricultural State. Here he assumed
the editorship of the Mirror, a Republican weekly journal,
to which his trenchant pen gave vigorous local influence
in the party councils.
In these several centres of journalistic experience, Mr.
Hutchison continued until 1883, fitting himself gradually
for the wider and more exacting field of Metropolitan
journalism, which he entered in the year named as a
member of the editorial staff of the Kansas City Journal.
He continued connected with this paper and with the
Times for the succeeding ten years, niaking himself a
power with the constituency of these influential political
sheets by his vigorous and forceful pen, and thorough

grounding in the principles of the party of which he had
become one of the ablest advocates, the Republican.
The long experience in newspaper labor thus acquired
induced Mr. Hutchison finally to embark in business on
his own account. Selecting the field of evening journal
ism as the most inviting one, he, in 1892, established the
Kansas City Mail, which ably conducted sheet, under his
energetic and skilful management, has had a success
which is phenomenal, it having rapidly developed in
circulation and influence till now it holds a high position
as one of the most influential journals of the wide world
of prairiedom, and the exponent of practical and pro
gressive Republicanism for the rapidly-growing and
important city whose interests it represents.
Mr. Hutchison's success in journalism, and the position
he has attained in the newspaper world of the West, are
due to his native powers as a writer and news-gatherer
and his prompt and ready judgment in selection and
arrangement of material. He has the reputation of being
without an equal in the West as a skilful handler and
rapid condenser of telegraphic news, and the well-
balanced columns of his paper attest to his ability in
this direction. The Mail, which is the only penny
paper in the Missouri Valley, has become a power in the
West, and its course must continue to be upward and
onward in the hands of its able editor and publisher.
Mr. Hutchison was married in 1887, and has one son.
His home is one of the handsomest in Kansas City.

170

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

EDWARD BROOKS.
Edward Brooks, superintendent of the Philadelphia
public schools, was born at Stony Point, New York, in
1 83 1. After attaining an academic education, he spent
three years in his father's factory, devoting his leisure
hours to the study of literature, mathematics, etc., and at
the age of eighteen began his career as a teacher in the
village school of Cuddebackville, New York. In the
following year he entered the Liberty Normal Institute
as a student, and while there was offered and accepted a
position in the University of Northern Pennsylvania as
assistant teacher, with opportunities for continued study
in literature and mathematics. His high ability in mathe
matical study was so marked and evident that the pro
fessor of that department being taken sick, he was given
charge of the class in higher mathematics, and in the
following year was elected professor of this department.
In the year succeeding, the department of literature was
placed under his care, and he aided in introducing and
developing the newly devised system of grammatical
analysis in the teaching of grammar.
Shortly afterwards, Professor Brooks accepted the
chair of literature and mathematics in the Monticello
Academy, New York, and in the following year (1855)
became professor of mathematics in the newly-organized
State Normal School, at Millersville, Pennsylvania.
During the eleven years in which he remained in his
position he published a series of mathematical text-books
which revolutionized the methods of teaching mathe
matics throughout the country; while his system, as
developed in his own teachings, gave the Millersville
school a national reputation. In 1866 he was elected
president of the Normal School, and adopted a course
of instruction in pedagogy which anticipated much of
what is now known as the " New Education." The

teachers he trained were widely sought for, and many of
them now occupy leading educational positions. During
this period he published two works, " Normal Methods
of Teaching" and " Mental Science and Culture," which
have been widely used in the education of teachers. His
work on " The Philosophy of Arithmetic" is a masterly
production, which shows fine powers of analysis and
generalization. Dr. Brooks's work at the Millersville Normal School
gave him the reputation of being one of the foremost
educators of the country. He was frequently offered
the presidency of other schools at a higher salary; in
1858 received the degree of Master of Arts from Union
College; and in 1868 was unanimously elected to the
presidency of the Pennsylvania State Teachers' Associa
tion. In 1876 the honorary degree of Doctor of Phil
osophy was conferred on him by three different institu
tions, and in the same year he officiated as president of
the Normal Department of the National Teachers' As
sociation. The Normal Department of the Pennsylvania
exhibit at the Centennial Exposition was placed under
his charge, while his mathematical works, which were
on exhibition, were favorably noticed by the French
Commissioners of Education in their report to their
government. In 1883, Dr. Brooks resigned his position at Millersville
to take a much-needed rest, and settled in Philadelphia.
The following year he was elected president of the
National School of Orator)-, which he resigned at the
end of a year, to engage in literary and general educa
tional work. His services as a lecturer were widely in
demand, and he gave courses of lectures in all parts of
Pennsylvania, was connected with summer schools for
the education of teachers at Saratoga, Round Lake,
Glenn's Falls, etc., and for two years had charge of the
Normal Department of the Florida Chautauqua.
In the spring of 1891, after the resignation of Professor
McAlister, to take charge of the Drexel Institute, Dr.
Brooks was elected superintendent of public schools in
Philadelphia, a prominent and important position, his
efficient administration of which has already attracted
wide attention. His most important work as yet in this
position has been the reorganization of the Girls' High
School, the establishment of a separate Girls' Normal
School, the revision of the elementary course of instruc
tion in arithmetic, the introduction of a course in model
ling, the reorganizing- of the course in drawing, and the
.organization of an Educational Club. In 1893 he was
president of the Department of Superintendence of the
National Educational Association.
In addition to the works named, Dr. Brooks has pub
lished several other school treatises on arithmetic and
the higher mathematics, together with "The Story of
the Iliad" and " The Story of the Odyssey."

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

171

CORNELIUS N. BLISS.
Cornelius Newton Bliss, a prominent merchant and
a leader in the Republican party in New York City, was
born at Fall River, Massachusetts, whither his father
had removed from Rehoboth, Massachusetts, long the
location of the family in this country. The American
founder ofthe family was one of the early New England
Puritans, reaching America about 1635.
Mr. Bliss's father died young, while his son was still an
infant. His mother married again, her second husband
being Edward S. Keep, of Fall River. In 1840 she and
her husband removed to New Orleans, leaving the boy
behind at school. He continued here till fourteen years
of age, attending the public school, and subsequently
the academy of his native town, and then went to New
Orleans, where his mother placed him, to complete his
education, in the high-school of that city.
Mr. Keep, his step-father, was engaged in a mercantile
business in New Orleans, and after the completion of
his education, Mr. Bliss was taken into the counting-
room ofthe establishment, where he remained for a year,
gaining in this interval a fair degree of practical business
experience. At the end of this period, he left New
Orleans for Boston, where he obtained a position in the
dry-goods firm of James M. Bebee & Co., at that time
one of the largest dry-goods importing houses in the
United States. Here the young man found an excellent
opportunity to complete his business education, and
displayed an industry, perseverance, and ability which
quickly made him not only familiar with all the details
ofthe business, but indispensable to the firm, who recog
nized in him an assistant of unusual powers.
As a result of their appreciation, Mr. Bliss was offered
and accepted a partnership in the house, whose business
quickly felt the impetus of his energetic methods. In
1866 the firm was dissolved. He then became a mem
ber of the firm of John S. & Eben Wright & Co., a
Boston house doing a large commission business. This
concern also quickly felt the influence of his energy, its
business increasing encouragingly. His connection with
it was followed by his establishment of a branch house
in New York, which developed with great rapidity under
his skilful control, becoming in time one of the greatest
concerns of its kind in the country. Philadelphia also
became the seat of an important branch. The firm-name
under which this extensive business was first conducted
was Wright, Bliss & Fabyan. It was subsequently reor

ganized under the title of Bliss, Fabyan & Co. This
firm still endures as one of the largest and most firmly
established dry-goods commission houses in this country,
while its reputation is international.
Politically, Mr. Bliss is an active member of the Re
publican party, in which he has risen to a position of
leadership in New York City. For many years past he
has been prominent in the local movements of the party,
his influence being potent not only in city affairs, but in
State and national politics as well. He has been promi
nent in State and national Republican conventions for
years. In 1884 he served as chairman of the committee
of one hundred business men appointed by a public
meeting to attend the Republican National Convention
and urge the nomination of President Arthur for the
Presidency. In the following year he was urged to
become a candidate for governor, but he declined the
honor. His name was presented, despite this refusal,
and a large complimentary vote was cast for him. The
only office he has consented to hold has been that of a
member of the International Conference.
Aside from politics and his immediate business rela
tions, Mr. Bliss has made himself prominent in New
York. He is vice-president of the Fourth National
Bank, and holds a similar office in the Union League
Club. He has served as president of the New England
Society, is a member and vice-president of the Chamber
of Commerce, and one of the governors and treasurer
of the New York Hospital.

172

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

THEODORE ZELLER.
Theodore Zeller, engineer in the United States
navy, was born in 1823 in New York, from which State
he was appointed third assistant engineer in the United
States navy, June 15, 1843, ar>d ordered to duty on the
frigate " Missouri." This ship was destroyed by fire at
Gibraltar in September, and in the following year he was
assigned to the steamer " Colonel Harney," stationed,
for the protection of live-oak timber, in the Gulf of
Mexico and the rivers of Florida and Louisiana. In
1846 he served for some months in the Bureau of Con
struction, Equipment, and Repairs. Promoted in 1847
second assistant engineer, he was engaged in various duties
till April 18, 1849, when he was ordered to the Pacific
Ocean to join the " Massachusetts" as senior engineer.
He was promoted first assistant engineer November 6,
1849, and in October, 1853, started on a cruise in the
" Saranac," as senior assistant engineer, from which he
returned in 1856. Promoted chief engineer August 15,
1856, he was ordered in 1857 to the "Saranac" for a
cruise in the Pacific, from which he was detached, and
returned in November, 1859. He was next ordered to
Erie, Pennsylvania, to superintend repairs to the steamer
" Michigan." He continued on the " Michigan," in lake
service, till June 3, 1861, when he was ordered to New
York to superintend the building of machinery for gun
boats, screw sloops of war, ironclads, and other vessels,
on which, with other duties, he was engaged till 1863,
acting during this time as president of a board to test
the evaporative efficiency of varieties of coal. On May
19, 1863, he was appointed fleet engineer of the Eastern
Gulf Squadron, with the rank of captain. He remained
here, upon the staff of Rear-Admiral Theodore Bailey,
until September 1, 1864, when he was permitted by the
Department to return North to recruit his health, after

a severe illness from yellow fever. He was, however
immediately ordered for duty to the North Atlantic
Squadron, and on October 5 reported to Admiral D. D.
Porter for duty as fleet engineer, on which duty he
remained till the close of the war.
In a letter to the Secretary of the Navy, dated August 6
1864, Admiral Bailey spoke in very complimentary terms
of Mr. Zeller's services as fleet engineer, and in the
following month, Mr. Zeller, then in New York, received
a letter from Hon. Gideon Wells, Secretary of the Navy,
expressing gratification at the efficient and satisfactory
manner in which he had performed his duties. On
August 9, 1865, he was ordered to the Philadelphia
Navy- Yard as chief engineer, and while there, on March
30, 1866, was appointed president of a board to deter
mine a standard gauge for bolts and nuts for the navy.
He continued in Philadelphia till March, 1869, and in
July of that year was ordered to special duty in New
York, where he remained till April, 1874, in which
month he was ordered to report to Chief-Engineer
B. F. Isherwood, for duty connected with preparing
reports on the performances of vessels during the war.
In November, 1875, he and Chief- Engineer Isherwood
proceeded to Europe on a tour of inspection ofthe dock
yards, vessels, and methods employed in the British,
French, and Italian navies, and also of the large private
engineering establishments of Western Europe. In 1877
he was appointed a member of the Experimental Board.
He became president of this board October 6, 1884, and
made important experiments and reports on the laws of
steering by rudder and propeller. On completing this
service, having attained the age of sixty-two, he was
transferred to the list of retired officers of the navy with
the rank of commodore, on December 1, 1885.
The following are copies of the letters above referred to :
Washington, September 20, 1864.
Sir, — In forwarding. to you a copy of a report from your late
commander, Acting Rear-Admiral T. Bailey, relating to the very
efficient and satisfactory manner in which you performed your
arduous duties as fleet engineer of the East Gulf Blockading
Squadron, the Department cannot withhold the expression of its
sincere gratification and pleasure in communicating such reliable
testimony of your character as an officer and services to the
government as expressed in this report. GIDEON WELLES,
Secretary of the Navy.
Chief-Engineer Theodore Zeller, U. S. N.
Hampton Roads, November 6, 1864.
Sir, — ... I am fortunate at this moment in having a so
thoroughly honest and independent a man as Chief-Engineer
Zeller to expose this neglect, and also fortunate in having a man
who so well understands his business and is equal to the emergency.
DAVID D. PORTER.
Hon. Gideon Welles.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

173

PETER A. JORDAN.
Among the men who, in a quiet but strong way, had
a large influence in building up the fame of Philadelphia
as the leading manufacturing city of America, Peter A.
Jordan held a notable place, as one of the proprietors
and a ruling spirit in the development of the MacKellar,
Smiths & Jordan Type-Foundry, long acknowledged
as the most prominent house in this important line of
business in our country. Mr. Jordan was a native of
Philadelphia, being born in that city on May 30, 1822.
His education was gained in the best schools of the city
at that period in its career, and he began his business life
in his early years as clerk in a hardware store. After
gaining a degree of valuable business experience in this
situation, he entered the house of Cowpland & Cresson,
a well-known business firm, in which establishment he
held a position of trust and confidence. In 1854 he
accepted a position in the establishment of L. Johnson &
Company, at that time the most important type-founding
firm in the United States, and the predecessors of the
present firm of MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan. Mr. Jordan
was admitted as a member of the firm in i860, on the
death of Mr. Johnson, and during the remainder of his
life rendered it the most valuable service, having much
to do with its development into the commanding posi
tion which it occupies to-day.
This establishment is worthy of note from its prominent
career, and its close connection with the development of
the art of printing in America. It is more than a century
old, having been originally founded in the closing years
of the eighteenth century, and has produced more print
ing material than any other concern of its kind in this
country. At present it is located at Nos. 606-614 San-
som Street, where it occupies large quarters, and is in
full tide of its highly successful career. The specimens
of the typography issued by this house as examples of
its work are said to be models of the type-making art.
Mr. Jordan was very happy in his social environments,
and strictly domestic in his tastes, finding his chief
pleasure and recreation in his home circle. His wife,
well known and esteemed in their circle of friends for
her accomplishments and excellence of character, was

Adelaide Linton, daughter of John Linton, an old and
highly respected merchant of Philadelphia. She died in
Denver, Colorado, April 12, 1882.
Mr. Jordan was a man of unusual literary attainments,
being possessed of a remarkably retentive memory, and
very fond of books and reading. His cultivated tastes
in this direction led him to the collecting of valuable
works, and his library in time came to be considered one
of the finest in this city. It contained in profusion rare
copies of old and modern books, valuable alike for their
contents and as handsome examples of the bookmaker's
art. Being of a retiring and quiet disposition, he spent
his hours between the active pursuit of business duties
and the enjoyment of family life, of his library, and his
circle of friends, avoiding any open part in public affairs.
Privately, however, he made his strong and kindly hand
felt in many important directions, one of these being
that of charity, in which he, while freely responding to
demands for aid, preferred that his benefactions should
remain unknown. He died in this city on March 25,
1884, leaving but one child, his son, G. Frederick
Jordan, who has become his business successor in the
firm.

174

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

FRANCIS MARION DRAKE.
General Francis M. Drake, who took his seat as
governor of Iowa in January, 1896, was born at Rush-
ville, Illinois, in 1832, his parents being natives of North
Carolina, and his father, John Adams Drake, a descend
ant of the celebrated Adams family. In 1837 the family
removed to Fort Madison, Iowa, which at that time was
surrounded by Black Hawk's Indian tribe. In 1846 they
removed to Davis County, and settled there on land
recently purchased from the Indians. Upon this land-
claim Judge Drake, the father, founded the village of
Drakeville, where he engaged in the mercantile business;
the son, at the age of sixteen, entered his establishment
as a clerk. In the year 1852 the California gold excite
ment was at its height, and young Drake, organizing an
ox-train, consisting of two wagons, ten yoke of oxen, and
six men, started across the plains to Sacramento, Cali
fornia. Crossing the Missouri at Council Bluffs on flat-
boats, he there organized a company of seventeen men,
called the Drakeville train, of which he was elected
captain ; and continued his journey till the Horseshoe
Bend of Shell Creek, near the Platte River, was reached.
Here the train was halted by fifty Pawnee warriors,
who demanded a toll of five oxen for crossing the bridge.
Young Drake preferred to fight rather than to be robbed,
sent back for aid to a train in the rear, and began battle
with the Indians. By the time the reinforcements arrived,
the savage party was increased to about three hundred
by warriors who had been concealed in the willows along
the creek, and a hot conflict ensued. The rifles of the
emigrants, however, proved too much for the arrows and
tomahawks of the Indians, and the latter were driven,
with severe loss, across the Platte. From this point the
journey continued without further exciting incident until
Sacramento was reached.

The young adventurer now secured a ranch on the
American River, engaged a herder to take care of his
cattle, and spent some time in gold-seeking in the Yuba
River diggings. He afterwards engaged in the horse
business in Sacramento, acting as his own auctioneer in
selling his stock. After a period of financial success in
this enterprise, he returned to Iowa, whence, in the spring
of 1854, he again crossed the plains to Sacramento, with
a hundred cows, five yoke of oxen, and five horses. He
lost only three cows in the journey, his trip across the
plains being the most successful one known. He started
to return on the steamer " Yankee Blade," which foun
dered on the coast reefs, September 30, he narrowly
escaping with his life. Sailing again on the " Golden
Gate," he safely reached his Drakeville home.
He now entered into partnership with his father and
elder brother, in the mercantile, pork-packing, and mill
ing businesses; and in 1858, on the dissolution ofthe
firm, he took as his own the milling business. He con
tinued successfully engaged in business till the outbreak
of the war, when, in 1861, he enlisted a company, was
elected captain, and soon after became major of Colonel
Edwards's Independent Iowa Regiment. The regiment
quickly engaged in active service in Missouri, Major
Drake, with a part of its force, holding the post at St.
Joseph against General Price. He was in 1862 made
lieutenant-colonel, took part in the Yazoo Pass expe
dition, and commanded the regiment at the battle and
capture of Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1864 he rendered
important service in General Banks's Red River expe
dition, and, after the defeat of Banks, made a gallant
defence of Elkins's Ford, on the Little Missouri River,
he commanding but five hundred men against Marrna-
duke's division of three thousand.
At the battle of Marks's Mills, where he commanded
fifteen hundred men against a force of from six to eight
thousand, he was severely wounded in the left thigh,
and fell into the hands of the enemy. He rejoined
his command after six months, was brevetted brigadier-
general " for special gallantry," and was mustered out of
service with his brigade in 1865.
After the war, his wounds preventing him from en
gaging in active business, he entered the practice of the
law, and three years afterwards became president of the
Missouri, Iowa & Nebraska Railroad Company, which
flourished under his energetic management. After 1873
he again entered into legal practice. General Drake has
been active in all the public concerns of Southern Iowa,
and in philanthropic, religious, and educational interests,
and was the founder of the Drake University, at Des
Moines. In politics he has always been a Republican,
but held no office until his election in 1894 to the gov
ernorship of Iowa by one of the largest pluralities ever
given a candidate in that State.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

i7S

LESTER A. BEARDSLEE.
Rear-Admiral Lester A. Beardslee, United States
navy, was born in Little Falls, New York, February I,
1836. Appointed acting midshipman March 5, 1850;
sloop "Plymouth," East Indies, May, 185 1, to January,
1855; participated in one battle and several skirmishes
with Chinese army at Shanghai ; Naval Academy, Octo
ber, 1855, to June, 1856.
Promoted to passed midshipman June 20, 1856; steam-
frigate " Merrimac," special service, 1856-57 ; sloop " Ger
mantown," East India Squadron, 1857-60. Promoted
to master January 22, 1858. Promoted to lieutenant
July 23, 1859; sloop" Saratoga," coast of Africa, 1860-63.
Promoted to lieutenant-commander July 16, 1862; mon
itor " Nantucket," North Atlantic Squadron, January to
May, 1863; participated in attack of the iron-clad fleet
on the defences of Charleston harbor, April 7, 1863;
steam-sloop " Wachusett," special service, on coast of
Brazil, cruising for rebel privateers, October, 1863, to
January, 1865 ; participated in capture of rebel steamer
"Florida" at Bahia, by "Wachusett," October, 1864;
commanded prize steamer " Florida," from October, 1864,
and brought her to Hampton Roads, Virginia; steam-
sloop "Connecticut," special service, West Indies, 1865 ;
commanded steam-gunboat " Aroostook," 1867-68,
taking her to East India Squadron from Philadelphia;
commanded steamer " Saginaw," Pacific Squadron, Octo
ber, 1868; executive of steam-sloop "Lackawanna,"
Pacific Squadron, 1868-69.
Commissioned as commander June 12, 1869; Hydro-
graphic Office, Navy Department, 1869-70; steamer
" Palos," April, 1870, to January, 1871 ; took her to East
Indies; Hydrographic Office, January, 1871-72; navy-
yard, Washington, May, 1872, to April 1, 1875; mem

ber of United States Board for Testing Iron, Steel, and
other Metals, April, 1875, to April, 1879; commanding
sloop "Jamestown," Alaska, April, 1879, to October,
1880. Promoted to captain November, 1880; leave of ab
sence, 1882-83; commanding receiving-ship "Frank
lin," 1883-84; commanding steam-frigate "Powhatan,"
June, 1884, to June, 1886; Torpedo Station, 1887; wait
ing orders, 1888; commanding receiving-ship "Ver
mont," July, 1888-91.
November 9, 1891, assumed command of naval sta
tion, Port Royal, South Carolina. January 23, 1894,
promoted to commodore; August 24, 1894, assumed
command of naval forces in the Pacific Station, flag-ship
" Philadelphia." May 21, 1 895 , promoted to rear-admiral,
and continued in command of the Pacific Station.

176

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

FRANK LESLIE.
The great New York publishing house of Frank Leslie
owes its inception to the enterprise and intelligence of a
young Englishman, who had the quick judgment to per
ceive the wide field for illustrated journalism which lay
open in this country forty years ago, and the energy to
seize upon and improve the opportunity. Frank Leslie
— or Henry Carter, to give him his original name — was
born at Ipswich, County of Suffolk, England, March 29,
1 82 1, the son of Joseph Carter, a prosperous glove
manufacturer. The father intended young Henry for a
commercial life like his own, and, after giving him a
good English education in his native town, made a place
for him in his glove factory.
This occupation proved repugnant to the ambitious
youth, whose native inclination was for the life of an
artist, and who, while still a boy, developed unusual talent
in this his predestined occupation, in which he did some
highly creditable work while still at school.
His father, however, opposed this predilection, which
to his mind meant failure, and sent the boy, when seven
teen, to London, to enter a large dry-goods establish
ment kept by his uncle. Pie could not have taken a
more injudicious step for the accomplishment of his
purpose. The young artist was not long in London be
fore he began to send sketches to the Illustrated London
News, then just started, and the pioneer among illustrated
journals. These sketches were promptly accepted by
the paper, and he soon became a regular contributor, his
work bearing favorable comparison with that of such
men as Linton and Landells. His sketches were signed
" Frank Leslie," a nom de crayon taken by him from a
favorite novel. Before he was of age he had quite cut
loose from mercantile pursuits, and at the age of twenty
was placed in charge of the engraving department of

the News. Here he had an admirable opportunity to
improve himself in his chosen profession, and to gain a
practical acquaintance with all the details involved in the
publication of an illustrated newspaper.
The young artist, after remaining for some years in his
position on the News, developed an ambition to start an
illustrated paper of his own, and with this purpose in
view he crossed the ocean, in 1848, to New York, which
he had selected as the best field for his projected venture,
Here he found that the fame of "Frank Leslie" had
preceded him, but nobody had heard of Henry Carter.
This fact seriously interfered with his new purpose, and
he finally found it desirable to adopt his nom de plume as
his legal name, and became Frank Leslie by Act of
Legislature. This name he ever afterwards bore.
Lacking capital, his early experience in the New World
was as an artist on the rather rude " picture papers"
which then existed, including Gleason's Pictorial and the
Illustrated News. Having vainly sought a partner with
money, he at length decided to start with no capital but
his artistic skill, and on December 14, 1855, issued the
first number of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper.
He found himself at once in the midst of difficulties,
chief among them the lack of capital. But the tide
soon turned in his favor. The paper was ably conducted,
its illustrations were of a superior character, and its
editor and proprietor was enterprising in presenting to
the public pictures ofthe most interesting passing events.
By the end of the Civil War it was firmly established, and
Mr. Leslie added to it from time to time other journals,
including the Chimney Corner, the Boys' and Girls'
Weekly, Pleasant Hours, Lady's Journal, Popular Monthly,
Sunday Magazine, and Budget, all still flourishing. To
these he added the Illustrirte Zeitung, a German pictorial
paper, and three illustrated annuals.
Frank Leslie deserves to be entitled the founder of
illustrated journalism in America. In addition to his
rare merit as an artist and engraver, he had excellent
literary ideas, and knew just how to cater for the public.
He was master of the whole establishment, and under
stood its every detail. Nothing could go wrong in any
department but he was able to straighten it out at once.
In 1877 a temporary embarrassment forced him to
make an assignment for the benefit of his creditors. In
1879 a tumor appeared in his neck, which could not be
removed without severing the jugular vein, and he died
on the 10th of January, 1880, almost his last words being
a request to his wife to " Go to my office, sit in my place,
and do my work until my debts are paid." It need
scarcely be said that Mrs. Frank Leslie has fully carried
out this wish of her dying husband, after a long succes
sion of obstacles, and has, by her subsequent success in
business, fully demonstrated the ability of a woman to
manage successfully great business interests.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

177

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL AND BREVET BRIGADIER-
GENERAL GUY V. HENRY.
Lieutenant-Colonel and Brevet Brigadier-Gen
eral Guy V: Henry was born at Fort Smith, Indian
Territory, March 9, 1839. He was graduated at the
United States Military Academy in the class of 1 861, at
the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion, and as
signed as a second lieutenant to the First United States
Artillery. He served with distinction in that regiment
until made colonel of the Fortieth Massachusetts In
fantry, in the fall of 1863, and continued throughout the
war with that command.
The attention of the commanding general was called
" to the gallant and distinguished services of First Lieu
tenant Guy V. Henry" in the battle of Pocotaligo, South
Carolina, October 22, 1862, and again to the advance
led by Colonel Henry, of the Fortieth Massachusetts
Infantry, into Florida, in 1864, in the following words by
General Seymour : " I cannot commend too highly the
brilliant success of this advance, for which great credit
is due Colonel Henry and his command, and I earnestly
recommend him to your [General Gillmore's] attention
as a most deserving and energetic officer." General
Seymour again complimented Colonel Henry, in his
report on the battle of Olustee, as follows : " Colonel
Hemy kept his cavalry in constant activity, watching
and neutralizing that of the enemy, and by important
and gallant services before and after, as well as during
the battle, was eminently useful. I desire to recom
mend him to you [General Gillmore] as a highly
deserving officer."
At the close of the war, when Colonel Henry was
mustered out of the volunteer service, he was brevetted
a colonel in the regular army, and had the honor con
ferred upon him of being made a brevet brigadier-general
of volunteers. Since the war, Colonel Henry has had
various positions of trust assigned him in the Indian
country west of the Missouri River, and was transferred
to the Third United States Cavalry in 1870, reaching the
grade of major of the Ninth Cavalry in 1881. While in
the cavalry service he has not only endured hard cam
paign duty, but has met with some sad misfortunes while
in the performance of it. He has been engaged with
different tribes of Indians in Arizona, Wyoming, Utah,
Nebraska, and Dakota; and in the expedition to the
Black Hills in the winter of 1874 and 1875 he, with his
command, was badly frozen. Notwithstanding this mis
fortune, Colonel Henry is found again with his command
in the Big Horn and Yellowstone expedition of 187$,
where he was severely wounded through the face, losing
the use of his left eye, in the battle of Rosebud Creek,
Montana. He is honorably mentioned in General Orders
by General Crook for this affair, and as " carrying on
his person honorable marks of distinction in the severe

wound he received at the hands of the enemy." Before
thoroughly recovering from his wounds, he is found
commanding a battalion in the capture of Crazy Horse
Village of Sioux Indians in 1877.
After these arduous duties, and being much broken
in health, Colonel Henry was granted leave of absence,
and made an extended tour through Europe, returning
in time, however, to take part in the White River expe
dition from September to December, 1879. fn tne winter
of 1890 he commanded the Ninth Cavalry in the Sioux
Indian troubles at Pine Ridge Agency, South Dakota.
Brevet brigadier-general United States army for gallant
and- meritorious services in action against Indians, on
Rosebud Creek, Montana, June 17, 1876, where he was
severely wounded. Received a medal of honor from
Congress for " noteworthy and conspicuous gallantry,
while colonel of the Fortieth Massachusetts Volunteers,
leading the assaults of his brigade upon the enemy's
works at Cold Harbor, Virginia, June 1, 1864, where he
had two horses shot under him, one while leaping over
the breastworks of the enemy."
In addition to his extensive field service, Colonel
Henry was an instructor at the Fort Monroe Artillery
School from 1867 to 1869.
Colonel Henry is a son of Major William Seaton
Henry, Third United States Infantry, and grandson of
Daniel D. Tompkins, who was twice governor of New
York and Vice-President of the United States ; also of
Smith Thompson, who was Secretary of the Navy and
judge of the Supreme Court.
He was promoted lieutenant-colonel Seventh Cavalry,
January 30, 1892, and was in command at Fort Myer,
Virginia. Transferred to Third Cavalry, and command
ing regiment and post of Jefferson Barracks, Missouri,
since October, 1895.

23

i78

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JOSEPH L. CAVEN.
In the present warm interest that is being shown in
municipal reform, and particularly in the effort to divorce
city affairs from party politics and conduct them on busi
ness instead of political principles, the name of Joseph
Lewis Caven becomes important as the first active advo
cate in the Philadelphia City Council of this desirable
principle. Mr. Caven was born in Abington Township,
Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, August 14, 1835.
His father removed to Philadelphia when the boy was
three years old, and he was educated in the public
schools of this city, leaving the Central High School in
1 85 1 to study conveyancing under A. B. Carver & Co.
He afterwards studied law in the offices of Charles E.
Lex and Charles M. Wagner, and was admitted to the
bar in April, 1861, his examination being held on the
day that Fort Sumter was fired upon.
Mr. Caven's first political position was as school di
rector in the Fifteenth Ward. He served in this position
for three years, during part of the time as president of
the board. In 1872 he was nominated by the Repub
lican party for the Common Council. He had by this
time become so popular in the ward that the nomi
nation was concurred in by the Democrats and by a
pioneer reform association. This general endorsement
of their candidate did not please the political magnates,
and they tried, by a manipulation of the vote, to discard
Mr. Caven from the party ticket. Their action roused a
storm of protest in the ward. The candidate, who had
so far been lukewarm, aroused to activity, defeated the
efforts to remove his name from the ticket, and was
elected by a marked majority.
Mr. Caven was in no sense under obligation to the

party leaders, and he acted in the Common Council with
an independence that was little to their liking. His work
began with an impeachment of Councilman Siner, who
had been convicted of keeping a gambling house, and
who found it wise to resign. Then he turned his atten
tion to the Highway Department, insisted that all con
tracts should be given to the lowest bidder, and carried
this measure, which since then has saved the city no
small sum of money. The new member was irrepres
sible. Fear or favoritism had no influence upon him.
Reform in the city administration was his settled purpose,
and he worked for it with undeviating energy. In the
spring of 1874 the party refused to nominate him, but
he accepted an independent nomination, was endorsed
by the Democrats, and again returned to Council.
His record in this term of Council was an eventful
one. A strong effort was made, assisted by A. Wilson
Henszey, president of the chamber, to nominate John
Bardsley, chairman of the Finance Committee, for city
treasurer. After a sharp contest, Henszey was de
posed from the presidency, Caven elected to this
office, and Bardsley lost his chairmanship, and with
it his chance of a nomination as treasurer. This
movement brought Mr. Caven into such prominence
that in 1877 he received a citizens' independent nomi
nation for mayor. He was defeated by William S.
Stokely, the Republican candidate, by the aid, as
was shown in an investigation by a committee of the
Reform Club, of ballot-box intrigue.
Mr. Caven continued to be elected to Common Council,
and was its president for five successive terms, during
which, through his influence, the reformers became dom
inant, and carried measures of legislation that made
marked changes in the management of city affairs. His
fixed purpose was, as he openly expressed himself, " that
the government of the city of Philadelphia should be
removed from the influence of party politics," and he
worked with ardor and earnestness for this end. In
1 88 1, to the great regret of his associates, he voluntarily
retired from public life. A public dinner was tendered
him, and a handsome gold medal presented in recogni
tion of his eminent services. In 1883, he was appointed
by the Board of Judges of Philadelphia County a member
of the Board of Directors of City Trusts (which position
he had formerly held by virtue of his office as president
of Common Council). He is now vice-president of that
body, and has assisted, by his large experience, in the
management of the Girard Estate and College. After
his retirement from Councils he was elected president
of the United Firemen's Insurance Company, and more
recently has been made president of the Real Estate
Title Insurance and Trust Company,, the first corpora
tion of the kind organized in America,

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

179

JONAS CRABTREE.
Jonas Crabtree, well-known and distinguished as an
engineer and inventor, was born fifty-eight years ago in
the north of England, of poor parents, though descended
on both sides from ancestry who had been the recipients
of titles from their sovereigns for deeds of valor. His
father, by his genius in mechanics and engineering, de
served the title of the George Stephenson of his locality,
and seems to have transmitted his native powers to his
son. Mr. Crabtree's school education was a very sparse
one. He was left an orphan veiy early in life, and from
the time he was nine years of age he worked in the
factory on half time (about seven hours a day), his school
hours being restricted to an hour and a half daily with
some night-school instruction. From his twelfth year
he had to earn his own living, and his educational oppor
tunities came to an end, beyond those he could make for
himself. Yet so eager was his thirst for knowledge that,
when apprenticed as machinist, he worked at the lathe
with an English grammar hidden in a hole in the wall,
for stolen intervals of use, while at seven o'clock on
Sunday morning he recited his weekly acquisitions to a
friend. Mr. Crabtree showed such inborn mechanical skill
that, while still an apprentice, he was made engineer of
the works, and placed in full charge of what was then
considered a large plant. At the age of twenty-four he
began business for himself, in company with two older
brothers, as worsted spinners, and here his engineering
skill came usefully into play. The production of their
factory was tripled by the aid of home-made contrivances,
one of which they patented, and, from lack of capital,
traded for more machinery. The business flourished,
and, though started on borrowed capital, proved suffi
ciently remunerative to enable them to repay this obliga
tion, with interest of over thirty per cent, per annum.
In 1870 the manufacture of tapestry carpet was added.
This led to the necessity of decorative art culture, in
which Mr. Crabtree proved as notable as in mechanics.
In 1874 the firm purchased a large Brussels carpet and
rug plant, in the belief that the results of the American
panic of 1873 would soon pass away. But this, with the
previous "Black Friday" in England, in 1866, proved the
bane of the carpet trade, and, though their production
grew very large, their profits vanished. In 1877, Mr.
Crabtree was offered and accepted the position of general
manager and director of one of the largest manufacturing
concerns in England. He continued in this employment

for three years, during which the market value of the
shares of the concern tripled.
In 1880, at the earnest solicitation of friends, he re
solved to visit the United States. Some time afterwards
he sent for his family, became a citizen of this country,
and, with the energy and adaptability he had shown in
his native land, won an enviable position in the fraternity
of engineers. For ten years he continued engaged in
engineering labors in this country, and then, in 1890,
accepted a position as mining engineer in Mongolia,
China, where he was highly successful in the introduction
of American machinery. He had an exciting experience
during the Chinese rebellion of 1 891, being several times
reported killed. But he eventually won the friendship
of all the Chinamen with whom he came into contact,
and received a gold medal and a testimonial that his
visit had been unprecedentedly successful in the intro
duction of machinery.
On his return home, Mr. Crabtree erected, for the
Ingersoll Sergeant Drill Company, of Easton, Pennsyl
vania, one of the most perfect of modern machine-shops ;
and has since then erected the large air-compressing
plant at Jerome Park reservoir. His greatest recent
achievement is the invention of an air-compressor which
he believes will bring compressed air into common use.
Mr. Crabtree has made himself an adept in physical
science, and is wedded to music as a recreation. Short
articles from his pen on philosophical and ethical subjects
have attracted much attention. He has two sons, who
have inherited his mechanical talent.

i8o

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

PETER F. ROTHERMEL, SR.
Peter Frederick Rothermel, Sr., one of America's
ablest and best-known artists, was born in Nescopack,
Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, July 18, 1812, and began
his long period of life in Philadelphia about 1820, at
which period his father removed to that city, and became
host of the old Eagle Hotel, on Third Street below
Arch. This house was then and long afterwards one
of the leading hotels in the city.
He received a common school education, after which
his father, who was disposed to take a practical and busi
ness-like view of life, put him to study land-surveying,
ignoring the boy's decided tendency to artistic pursuits,
which had been indicated in his early life. As he grew
older, his strong love of art abstracted him so greatly
from the proper attention to the pursuit for which his
father had intended him that the sturdy old gentle
man found himself obliged to yield to destiny, and the
youthful candidate for fame, after his patient struggle
against obstacles and opposition, found himself, before
his twenty-second year, free to change the surveyor's
instruments for the painter's brush. He had now gained
not only his father's consent, but also his sympathy and
substantial aid, and he entered upon the study of art
with an enthusiasm that could scarcely fail to yield im
portant results.
His art studies began under John R. Smith, who gave
him instruction in drawing, and were continued under
Bass Otis, then a famous portrait-painter of Philadelphia,
and whom the young man had selected as his tutor. Mr.

Rothermel quickly displayed an unusual ability in his
new calling, and was not long in making his name known
as an artist of superior powers. At the age of thirty
he married Caroline Goodhart, a lady whose ancestors
had long dwelt in Philadelphia, and settled down earnestly
to work in what was then known as "Art Row," on
Sansom Street east of Eighth.
He remained here for many years, actively engaged
in art work, and turning his attention more and more
towards historical painting, a branch of art in which he
was to gain his highest reputation. In 1856 he went to
Europe, for the purpose of advanced study and practice
in the historical field of art. His period of residence
abroad extended over three years, two of which were
spent in Rome, while he also found time to visit and
study in the other large cities of Italy, and in those
of England, France, Germany, and Belgium. In 1859
he returned to Philadelphia, in which city and its vicinity
he has since resided.
From 1847 to 1855 he had served as a director of the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and on his
return to Philadelphia was elected a member of this in
stitution. As a painter he displayed remarkable facility,
and produced a large number of works, many of which
are well known. Among them may be named " De Soto
discovering the Mississippi," " Columbus before Isabella
the Catholic," " The Embarkation of Columbus," a series
of paintings illustrating Prescott's " History of the Con
quest of Mexico," " Vandyke and Rubens," " King Lear,
" The Virtuoso," " Christian Martyrs in the Coliseum,
" Patrick Henry before the Virginia House of Burgesses,
" Paul at Ephesus," " St. Paul preaching on Mars Hill,
"Paul before Agrippa," "Trial of Sir Henry Vane;
"The Lands-Knecht," and "Bacchantes." Many of
these have been engraved. A " St. Agnes" by him is
owned in St. Petersburg. His " Christabel" and his
" Katharina and Petruchio," won great commendation in
the early period of his artistic career. After the Civil
War he was commissioned by the Legislature of Penn
sylvania to paint a picture illustrating the battle of
Gettysburg, and in 1871 completed his colossal painting
on this important subject. This great work of art is the
one by which he is best known, and is destined to be
long remembered as the great historical battle-piece of
the war. It is now in Memorial Hall, Fairmount Park,
where it forms one of the leading attractions of that
museum of art. Mr. Rothermel, now a veteran in age,
has of recent years been attacked by cataract in both
eyes, and his artistic career is, in consequence, at an end.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

181

PETER F. ROTHERMEL, JR.
Peter Frederick Rothermel, Jr., son of the cele
brated Philadelphia artist of the same name, and one of
the most successful members of the junior bar of Phila
delphia, was born in this city, September 27, 1849, and,
with the exception of a few years, has spent here his
whole life. The Rothermel family originally came from
Holland or Germany, the first American of the name
reaching Pennsylvania in 1703. In time his descendants
made their way to the northwest section of the State,
some of them making their home in that romantic valley
of Wyoming which has attained celebrity alike for its
history and the beauty of its scenery. From this locality
the grandfather of the subject of our sketch removed to
Philadelphia about 1820, and became proprietor of the
old Eagle Hotel, on Third Street below Arch. Under
his care this hotel became a favorite resort for market-
men from the surrounding counties and for merchants
and travellers from neighboring towns, who at that period
were in the habit of coming once or twice a year to the
metropolis of the State to make their purchases. In its
day the Eagle Hotel was what the Continental is to-day.
Peter F. Rothermel, the artist, was born in Luzerne
County, before the coming of his father to Philadelphia.
He made his home and established his studio in a resi
dence on Sansom Street, between Seventh and Eighth
Streets. Here his son, Fred Rothermel, as he is famil
iarly known in his profession, was born, one of a family
of three children. When he was ten years of age, his
father sought Europe for study and practice in historical
painting, and his education, which had begun in the
Philadelphia schools, was continued in those of France,
Italy, and Germany, during the several years of his
father's residence abroad. On their return to Philadel
phia, young Rothermel was sent to the Central High
School, and took the full classical course of that institu
tion, from which he graduated in 1867. He had decided
to adopt the profession of the law, and at once entered
the office of James T. Mitchell, who since that date has
served as judge of Common Pleas Court, No. 2, and is
now upon the Supreme Bench of the State. In due time
he passed the necessary examination and was admitted
to practice.
Mr. Rothermel's course at the bar became a persistent
and aggressive contest for business and position. He
was a fluent speaker and cogent reasoner, and would
have shone in the field of criminal law, but in preference

chose the quieter and more arduous, but more profitable,
line of civil practice, in which he has steadily progressed,
his business being largely that of corporation cases. He
is to-day counsel for some of the largest concerns in the
city and State, among them several of the leading mer
cantile houses. One of these is that of John Wana
maker, the greatest retail establishment in the city. In
the arduous duties and complicated questions involved
in his special field of practice Mr. Rothermel has been
notably successful, and has attained a high reputation in
his profession.
His powers of thought and of oratory brought him
early to the notice of the political leaders of his party,
the Republican, and strong efforts have been made to
induce him to enter into the contest for some of the local
offices of profit and prominence. These importunities
he has resisted, as incompatible with his professional
duties and engagements, though he has taken an active
part in political campaigns, freely giving money, time, and
talent alike in the service of the candidates of his party.
In 1884 his name was put in nomination for the office
of city solicitor, but he withdrew it in favor of Charles
F. Warwick, and worked earnestly for that gentleman's
election. His name has been frequently pressed for a
judgeship, but he has never seconded the efforts of his
friends to win for him this prize of the profession. He
was married in 188 1 to Miss Bryant, and divides his life
between professional labors and social duties.

182

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

THOMAS A. EDISON.
Thomas Alva Edison, the distinguished electrical
inventor, was born at Milan, Ohio, February u, 1847.
His ancestors came to this country from Holland in
1730, his grandfather, a banker in New York at the time
of the Revolution, living to the age of one hundred and
two. His mother, of Scotch descent, was for some time
a Canadian school-teacher, and gave her son his educa
tion at home, his total school life not extending over
more than two months. In 1854 the family removed
to Port Huron, Michigan. Here the son, who had
become an omnivorous reader, engaged in several enter
prises, being at once railroad newsboy, and having a
news-stand, a book-store, a vegetable market, in which
enterprises he employed eleven boys. At fifteen he
tried journalism, buying some old type and plates for
" patent insides," and setting up and printing his paper
011 the train. The Grand Trunk Herald, " the only news
paper ever published on a railway train," ran through
forty weekly numbers. His enterprise came to a close
by his trying chemical experiments in the car, which he
managed to set on fire.
He engaged in other newspaper enterprises, and learned
telegraphy from a grateful station-master, whose child
he had saved from death by snatching it from the wheels
of a locomotive. The active youth quickly strung a
wire from the station to the town, and was forwarding
messages at ten cents each, when the Western Union
Company engaged him as their Port Huron operator.
He was afterwards employed from time to time at vari
ous other offices, one of them at Fort Wayne, Indiana,
where, by a shrewd trick, he learned the higher art of
taking " report," which he continued to do surreptitiously
until his scheme was discovered and suppressed.
After working for a time at Cincinnati and Louisville

he went, at seventeen, to Memphis, where he was under
military control, and earned one hundred and twenty-five
dollars a month and rations. Yet his money went in
experiments and otherwise as fast as it came, and, losing
his situation, he soon after appeared in Louisville with
empty pockets, seeking his old position. Here he re
mained two years, when an accident arising from his
chemical experiments caused his discharge. After some
further wanderings he made his way East, and appeared
in search of work in a Boston office, as usual poor and
shabby. Here the clerks, seeking to make sport of him,
set him to take reports from one of the fastest operators
in New York. To their amazement he did this with
ease, and sarcastically asked the rapid operator to " please
send with the other foot." He was at once placed at
work on the New York wire.
While here his experimentation continued, and he
took out his first patent, a chemical vote-recording in
strument. He also began work in duplex and quadru-
plex telegraphy, as yet unsuccessfully. In 1871 he went
to New York, where he was fortunate enough to point
out the cause of a break-down in the gold-exchange
indicators, and was at once engaged as superintendent at
two hundred dollars a month. From that time forward
his success was steady. Various inventions appeared,
and in 1872 the duplex telegraph was brought to success,
to be followed in 1874 by the marvellous quadruplex,
which has immensely lessened the expense of telegraphy.
He was soon in possession of a factory in Newark, New
Jersey, employing three hundred men, where his prolific
facility in invention could be fully exercised. In 1876
he organized his establishment at Menlo Park, New
Jersey, in which he became very actively engaged in the
business of invention, and where many of his concep
tions have developed into machines of marvellous utility.
For years he experimented with the incandescent electric
light, trying hundreds of materials before he settled on
a fully satisfactory one. His experiments with the tele
phone were equally exhaustive, and while engaged in
them he fell upon the principle of the famous phonograph,
the most wonderful of his inventions. This invention,
regarded as a useless toy at first, was eventually sold for
one million dollars. The Menlo Park establishment in
time becoming too small, a new one was started at
Orange, New Jersey, where Mr. Edison continues actively
at work, his latest experiments having been with the
Rontgen rays, in which he has achieved striking success.
His patents are said to number over four hundred in all.
In 1878, Union College made him a Ph.D , and the
French government has made him a commander of the
Legion of Honor. He has been twice married, and has
a beautiful home in Llewellyn Park, on the Orange
Mountains, not far removed from his laboratory, within
whose walls most of his life is spent.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

183

NATHAN W. AYER.
The Ayer family was among the makers of old New
England, John Ayer having been but sixteen years behind
the " Mayflower" pilgrims, entering the colony of Massa
chusetts Bay in 1636, two hundred and fifty-eight years
ago. The family soon removed to Connecticut, where they
settled permanently, and where the subject of this sketch,
Nathan Wheeler Ayer, was born on January 21, 1817,
at Preston, near Norwich.
He was graduated from Brown University, then under
the care of that famous educator, Dr. Francis Wayland,
in 1840. In 1852, he was admitted to the bar in Berk
shire County, Massachusetts, but practised law only a
short time. Much of his life was spent in teaching. He
was principal of several large academies in New York
State, and came to Philadelphia in 1867, to assume charge
of a young ladies' seminary. This was, however, soon
disposed of, and in April, 1869, with his son, F. Wayland
Ayer, he established a Newspaper Advertising Agency,
then and since known as N. W. Ayer & Son.
The conditions then existing in the business world make
the conception and inception of this enterprise a matter of
general interest. Where the utility of newspaper adver
tising may now be said to be little understood, then it was
scarcely suspected. The undertaking involved the de
velopment of a method, whose use perhaps none of the
bright men mentioned in this work would then have even
considered, into one which scarcely any business man can
afford to ignore; and the elevation of the advertising agent
from the canvasser, whose chief concern was to get an
order for something, to the agency whose skill, experi
ence, and facilities should be sought alike by those who
wish to spend a dollar or a hundred thousand.
Three convictions governed in the foundation of this new
and unusual business, and have controlled it to this day :
First, an unwavering belief in the value of newspaper
advertising as a common-sense method of getting and
keeping business, and in its applicability to almost every
line. Second, that profit or loss to the newspaper advertiser
depends almost altogether on how the advertising is done;
it being not a matter of "just hitting it," but rather of
when, where, and how the strokes are given.
Third, that every customer should receive the best
advice experience could suggest, the most exact service
organization could secure, and the greatest value his
money could buy.
So founded and conducted, large success was but a
matter of time, and dates are but milestones in the path
of its progress. It was first quartered at 5 30 Arch Street,

where two hundred and fifty dollars, the only outside cash
it ever received, was put in as capital. Here, without
acquaintance, experience, or employees, the two partners,
father and son, started out to demonstrate to business
men the value of newspaper advertising.
They soon moved to 719 Sansom Street, and in 1871
to 733 Sansom Street. Here growth was rapid. While
located here, on February 7, 1873, the father and founder
died, leaving the son alone to push the enterprise along
the lines they had together marked out. On January 1,
1874, Mr. George O. Wallace, the first employee of the
house, became a partner. More room being again neces
sary, December, 1876, they leased the second floor of the
Times Building, then just erected, at Chestnut and Eighth
Streets. Here the business has remained, absorbing
more and more space, until all the floors above the first,
together with those of an adjoining building, have been
filled with their busy clerks. In October, 1877, Coe,
Wetherill & Co., old competitors, were bought out, and
in 1 88 1 the Philadelphia branch of S. M. Pettingill & Co.
was likewise absorbed. In January, 1878, H. N. Mc-
Kinney became a partner. On December 28, 1887, Mr.
Wallace died. To-day the firm consists of Mr. F. W.
Ayer and Mr. McKinney. With its one hundred and
twenty-five employees, and an annual business expressed
in millions, it is everywhere recognized as the leader in
its line.
Such, in briefest outline, is the history of a business
that has been made in Philadelphia; that has brought
millions of dollars to this locality, and has extended
knowledge of that city and its facilities wherever in this
land press and paper unite to tell the world of what the
world proposes, what it is doing, and what it has done.

1 84

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ALONZO J. EDGERTON.
Judge Edgerton, distinguished alike for his Congres
sional, military, and judicial career, is a lineal descendant
of a Puritan family which settled at Norwich, Connecticut,
in 1647. Several of his ancestors served in the Revolu
tionary War, one under General Stark, at Bennington,
one under Washington, at White Plains, and one at Sara
toga, under Gates.
He was born near Rome, New York, in 1827, prepared
for college at the celebrated preparatory school of Low-
ville Academy, Lewis County, New -York, and at the
age of twenty entered the Sophomore class of Wesleyan
University, at Middletown, Connecticut. From this insti
tution he graduated in the class of 1850.
While still a young man, Mr. Edgerton removed to
Minnesota, where he took so active a part in the political
interests of that developing commonwealth, and showed
such marked ability, that he was elected to the Legis
lature for the session of 1858-59. In 1876 he was
chosen one of the Presidential electors for that State,
and in 1877-78 served another term in its Legislature.
The outbreak of the Civil War called him early into
the field in defence of his adopted State and of the
country at large. In the early summer of 1862 he
recruited Company B, Tenth Regiment Minnesota In
fantry, United States Volunteers. Pie was appointed
captain of this company August 21, 1862, and served
with it throughout the Indian campaigns of 1862 and
1863. Pie continued in the service until after the end
of the war, serving in Minnesota, Dakota, Missouri, and
Louisiana, in different commands. During this service
he rose in grade to colonel and brevet brigadier-general,

with which rank he was mustered out of service in Jan
uary, 1867.
On his return to civil life, Colonel Edgerton became
again actively in touch with public affairs. From 1871
to 1874 he served as railroad commissioner of Minne
sota, and in 1881 was given the highest rank which the
State could confer, that of United States senator. In
this distinguished position he succeeded Mr. Windom
who had been appointed Secretary of the Treasury in
the Cabinet of President Garfield. He also served for
some years on the board of regents of the State Univer
sity of Minnesota.
In December, 1 881, he entered upon a new and exalted
field of duty, being appointed chief justice of the Terri
tory of Dakota. While occupying this judicial position
he became, in 1885, a member of the constitutional
convention of South Dakota, and took a prominent part
in formulating the present constitution of that State. He
was elected president of the convention by a unanimous
vote, and the same high compliment was tendered him
in 1889 as a member of the convention called to readjust
the constitution in accordance with the requirements of
Congress. The new State is especially indebted to Judge
Edgerton for his conservative action in the convention,
and for the judicial wisdom and large experience which
enabled him to take a leading part in the preparation of
the organic law of the new formed commonwealth.
On the admission of the State into the Union, he was
appointed by President Harrison district judge of the
United States for the district of South Dakota. Upon
the organization of the State government, Judge Edger
ton was made president of the board of regents of the
State educational institution, but the onerous duties of
his judicial office compelled him, reluctantly, to resign
this position after a few months of service.
The high scholarship and judicial knowledge attained
by Judge Edgerton brought him, in 1891, the honorary
degree of LL.D., from Wesleyan University, his alma
mater, and a similar degree from the State University of
South Dakota. These honors were well deserved, since
their recipient is not only a scholar of wide general cul
ture, but has been a close student in the higher fields of
his own profession, alike in those of the common and
the civil law.
For years past, Judge Edgerton has been an indefati
gable worker, and, though showing the effects of his life
of labor and incessant application, he refuses to take the
necessary rest to recuperate. Personally, he represents
the most thorough type of liberal Puritanism, transmitted
to him by a stalwart ancestry. Of him it may be justly
said that he is not afraid to do his duty and not afraid
to die.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

185

WILLIAM HOWARD MILLS.
Major William Howard Mills, formerly of the
United States army, was born at Bangor, Maine, in 1838,
his parents being among the leading people of that section
of the country. He received his education in the Bangor
public schools, and in 1858 removed to St. Louis, where
he became engaged in business.
On the outbreak of the Civil War the young merchant
at once took a strongly patriotic part, and rendered the
Union cause such efficient service in Missouri that, on
the recommendation of Vice-President Hannibal Hamlin
and General Frank P. Blair, he was appointed by Presi
dent Lincoln first lieutenant in the Fourteenth Regiment,
United States infantry. In this regiment he served
throughout the war, receiving several promotions during
its continuance. He was promoted, " for gallant and
meritorious service in the battles of Chancellorsville,
Virginia, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, a captain by
brevet, to rank as such from the third day of July,
1863;" and, "for meritorious service in the campaign
terminating with the .surrender of the insurgent army of
Northern Virginia, a major by brevet, to rank as such
from the ninth day of April, 1865." On December 23,
1865, he received regular promotion to the rank of
captain. The service at Gettysburg, in part, was the following :
Lee's army remained there until the night of July 4,
when it commenced to retire, the rear of the column
leaving its position after daylight of the 5th. During the
afternoon of the " Fourth of July" Major Mills was sent,
with fifteen picked men of the Fourteenth Infantry and
two of Berdan's sharp-shooters, across the field from
Little Round Top to the brick house on the Emmits-
burg road, known as Sherfey's, to silence a party of
Confederate sharp-shooters stationed near that locality,
who had become very annoying. Major Mills, after a
careful survey from the hill-top of the ground he was
directed to cross, led his little detail over the intervening
space, taking advantage en route of such shelter as
could be found, and making his movements with such
skill and judgment that he reached the assigned station
without loss. Carefully placing his men, — the two of
Berdan's in the little attic windows of the house, — fire
was opened on the rebel sharp-shooters so effectively
that they were speedily dislodged, while none of Mills's
men were injured. The bricks around the windows
show the marks of very many of the enemy's bullets,
After the close of the war, the Fourteenth Infantry
was sent to California, the Second Battalion going to
Oregon, and the First and Third Battalions to Arizona.
For about a year Major Mills acted as depot-quarter
master and commissary at Fort Yuma, California, in
charge of supplying the posts of Arizona. He after

wards took command of an expedition to establish a
new post "in the midst of the hostile Indians," — the
Apaches. On December 12, 1868, he resigned his com
mission and retired to private life.
Major Mills has by no means ceased to take an in
terest in military affairs. When the Postal Department
changed the historic name of Appomattox for that of
"Surrender," it was mainly through his influence exerted
upon and through the press of the country that the old
name — with its suggestion of heroic deeds by American
soldiery — was restored, and the new title — so offensive
to Southern ears — removed. The intente cordiale exist
ing between those who fought the terrible war of 1861-
65 is in a large measure due to his efforts during the last
thirty years. When, on February I, 1895, Lee Camp of
Confederate Veterans, of Richmond, appointed a com
mittee to seek the support of other bodies of Confederate
veterans, and of the Grand Army of the Republic, in
securing from Congress an appropriation for the estab
lishment of a national park at Appomattox, Major Mills
worked earnestly in its interest, and wrote out a plan for
its accomplishment. The proposition, however, while
widely favored in the North, aroused so much opposi
tion in the South from veterans and others that it was
abandoned. He advocates one more national military
park, at Fredericksburg, Virginia, to cover the ground
occupied by the contesting armies in that memorable
conflict. The efforts of Major Mills in this direction have been
so appreciated by his friends in Fredericksburg, that he
has been made an honorary member of Maury Camp of
Confederate Veterans, and of R. S. Chew Camp, No. 1,
Sons of Confederate Veterans, of that city. He is at
present a resident of the national capital.

24

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

FRANK WHEATON.
General Frank Wheaton, U.S.A., was born at Provi
dence, Rhode Island, May 8, 1833, being the descendant
of a colonial New England family. His grandfather, Dr.
L. Wheaton, when a boy not sixteen years old, walked
with his brother forty-two miles to take part in the
battle of Bunker Hill, — the two having but one cartridge
between them. He was for many years a professor in
Brown University, and afterwards an eminent physician
of Providence. His father, Dr. F. L. Wheaton, was a
surgeon in the Mexican War, for years surgeon-general
of Rhode Island, and in the Civil War medical officer of
the Second Rhode Island Regiment, which was com
manded until 1862 by his son. His maternal ancestor,
Edward Rawson, was the first secretary of the Plymouth
Colony in 1636, the family removing from Rehoboth,
Massachusetts, to Rhode Island in 1646. One further
member of the family needs mention, his cousin (and
uncle by marriage), Henry Wheaton, who represented
this country as minister at several European courts, and
was the author of the standard work, " Elements of
International Law," and several able historical works.
General Wheaton studied civil engineering at Brown
University, where he graduated with the degree of M.A.
In 1850 he was appointed an assistant on the United
States and Mexican boundary survey, and remained
engaged in this and other engineering labors until 1855.
During this time there were various hostile encounters
with the Indians, in which he rendered such efficient
service that the War Department appointed him first
lieutenant in the First Regiment United States Cavalry,
to date from March 3, 1855.

Joining his regiment in November, he served in the
Kansas border troubles, and in August, 1856, after escort
ing a number of captive Sioux chiefs to Fort Kearney,
led in the pursuit and attack of a war party of Cheyennes.
He afterwards, as staff-officer to Colonel Sumner, took
part in the battle with the Cheyenne tribe, July 29, 1857,
and, as aide-de-camp to General P. F. Smith, escorted
his remains to Philadelphia on his death in 1858. Sub
sequently, on the staff of General W. S. Harvey, he
took part in the Utah expedition, and afterwards served
with his regiment till the outbreak of the Civil War,
being promoted captain March 1, 1861.
General Wheaton played a remarkably active part
in the Civil War, being engaged in every battle and
campaign of the Army of the Potomac from the first
Bull Run battle till Lee's surrender, and also in all
the Shenandoah Valley operations of General Sheridan,
He is perhaps the only living officer of whom this can
be said. He fortunately escaped personal injury in the
many battles in which he took part, though he had three
horses shot under him. His several official positions
were the following: On July 16, 1861, he was appointed
lieutenant-colonel of the Second Rhode Island Regiment,
and took command of this regiment after the battle of
Bull Run, its colonel having been killed. During the
battle of Fredericksburg he was promoted brigadier-
general of volunteers, and in 1864 was brevetted major-
general of volunteers for gallant service, receiving after
the close of the war a sword of honor from Rhode
Island for his meritorious conduct. In the regular army
he was promoted major in the Second United States
Cavalry November 5, 1863, and subsequently received
the brevet ranks of colonel, brigadier-general, and major-
general " for gallant and meritorious services."
After the war, General Wheaton was engaged in
various military duties, was promoted lieutenant-colonel
in November, 1866, and served at first in the Thirty-
ninth and afterwards in the Twenty-first Infantry, with
which he took part in operations against the Arizona
Apaches in 1869, and commanded the regiment in the
Modoc Indian campaign of 1872-73. He was subse
quently engaged in active field service in the Nez Perce
outbreak of 1877, and that of the Bannock Indians in
1878, and was afterwards engaged in various military
duties in the West, being on several occasions in tem
porary command of the Department of the Columbia.
On April 18, 1892, he was promoted brigadier-general,
and on June 1 assigned to the command of the Depart
ment of Texas, where he directed an active campaign '
against the violators of the neutrality laws. On April 30,
1895, he was made commanding general of the Depart
ment of the Colorado, with head-quarters at Denver.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

187

ABSALOM BAIRD.
General Absalom Baird, United States army, de
scends from excellent American historical stock, his
great-grandfather having been an officer in the French
and Indian War, and his grandfather a physician in
Washington's army throughout the Revolution. His
father, William Baird, was an accomplished scholar and
eloquent orator of Washington, Pennsylvania, in which
town the subject of this sketch was born August 20,
1824. Graduating at Washington College in 1841, he
studied law for three years, and then entered the United
States Military Academy, where he graduated in 1849,
being given the brevet rank of second lieutenant. In
1850 he was assigned to the First Artillery as second
lieutenant, and took part in the Florida campaign against
the Seminole Indians until 1853, m which year he was
promoted first lieutenant. During the succeeding three
years he served as assistant professor of mathematics at
West Point, and was then made principal assistant of
this branch. He subsequently served on frontier duty
in Texas, and at the outbreak of the Civil War was in
garrison at Fort Monroe. General Baird's war service
began as commander of a light battery in the defence of
Washington, followed by duty as assistant in the adjutant-
general's office, — as brevet captain of staff, — and after
wards as adjutant-general of General Tyler's division,
with which he took part in the action at Blackburn's
Ford, and the first battle of Bull Run. In August, 1 861,
he was appointed captain and assistant adjutant-general,
and was promoted major on November 12. In March,
1862, he was assigned to the Fourth Corps, Army of the
Potomac, as inspector-general and chief-of-staff, and as
such took part in the Peninsula campaign, being engaged
in the siege of Yorktown and the battle of Williamsburg.
He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers
April 28, 1862, and subsequently transferred to com
mand of the Seventeenth Brigade, Army of the Ohio,
with which he was engaged in the capture and occupa
tion of Cumberland Gap. In September, 1862, he was
placed in command of the Third Division, Army of
Kentucky, and took part in the principal actions in that
region throughout 1863, being engaged in the repulse of
Van Dorn's assault on Franklin, Tennessee, and in Gen
eral Rosecrans's Tennessee campaign, taking part in the
advance on Tullahoma and the capture of Shelbyville.
In the battle of Chickamauga, General Baird especially
distinguished himself, and was rewarded for his gallantry
with the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel in the regular
army. In command of a division of the Fourteenth
Army Corps, he took an active part in the occupation
of Chattanooga and the subsequent operations, his divi
sion being prominent in the capture of Missionary Ridge.
These services brought him the brevet rank of colonel in
the regular army. He pursued the enemy to Ringgold,

Georgia, and held the gap at Taylor's Ridge for many
weeks within a few miles of the enemy at Dalton.
In the spring of 1864, General Baird was engaged
in active operations, having many skirmishes with the
enemy, and he afterwards participated in the Atlanta
campaign, and the memorable march through Georgia,
taking active part in all the movements of Sherman's
army until the surrender of General Johnston, in North
Carolina, April 26, 1865. His later promotions were to
the brevet rank of brigadier-general in the regular army,
for " gallant and meritorious services in the capture of
Atlanta, Georgia ;" of major-general for the same " in
the field during the Rebellion ;" and of major-general of
volunteers for " faithful services and distinguished conduct
during the Atlanta campaign, and particularly in the bat
tles of Resaca and Jonesborough, and for general good
conduct in the command of his division against Savannah."
After the close of the war, General Baird became
actively engaged in various military duties. From Novem
ber, 1865, to September, 1866, he was assistant com
missioner for Louisiana and military commander of the
Department of Louisiana. As such, during the riot of
July, 1866, in New Orleans, he declared that city under
martial law, and took possession of the civil government.
For this action, President Johnson relieved him from
duty, and he was mustered out of the volunteer service.
Returning to duty in the regular service, he filled suc
cessively the grades of major, lieutenant-colonel, and
colonel in the inspector-general's department, and in 1885
was promoted brigadier-general (inspector-general). In
1887 he was sent to Europe to view the field manoeuvres
of the French and English armies, and received from the
President of France the cross of the Legion of Honor.
On the 20th of August, 1888, General Baird was retired
from active service under operation of law.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JOHN W. HAMERSLEY.
John William Hamersley, born in New York City,
May 24, 1808, was a descendant of a family long promi
nent in the metropolis, and whose ancestry can be traced
back to Hugo le Kinge, who removed from Provence,
France, to England about 1366, and acquired there the
estate of " Hamersley," from which the subsequent
family name was derived. The American family is
directly descended from Sir Hugh Hamersley, lord
mayor of London in 1627, his great-grandson, William
Hamersley, having migrated to New York about 1716
and founded the American branch of the family. He
became a successful merchant, and his descendants have
continued wealthy and prominent members of metro
politan society.
Mr. Hamersley, second son of Lewis Carre Hamersley,
a well-known merchant and financier of the early days
of the century, was educated at Columbia College, from
which he graduated in the class of 1826. He travelled
widely after his graduation, studied law, and practised it
with much success, finally retiring to the enjoyment of
a large fortune and the pursuit and encouragement of
literature, to which his tastes particularly turned. The
" Friday evening gatherings," which he established at his
home in his later years, were unique occasions in New
York society, they bringing together celebrities of the
most diverse character, representing art, science, and phi
losophy, law, business, military and naval affairs, etc.
" Banquets worthy ofthe host and ofthe guests" accom
panied these intellectual occasions, which were continued
weekly for years.
Mr. Hamersley was himself a conversationalist of un
usually fine powers, and had made a dozen visits to
Europe and the East, thus supplying his mind with all

that can be gained from travel and observation. He
was witty, full of anecdote, and learned, particularly in
history, and fully competent to take the lead in these
periodical conversaziones. Captain Mayne Reid, the well-
known novelist of adventure, was one of his intimate
friends, and made him the hero of his novel " The Lone
Ranch," of which he presented him a copy. He was
himself an author to some extent, publishing a volume
of reminiscences of Lady Hester Stanhope, and trans
lating from the French of Jacques Abbadie the curious
work "A Chemical Change in the Eucharist." This
work, one of the most powerful ever written on the sub
ject, has become an ecclesiastical authority.
In his younger years Mr. Hamersley was colonel of
one of the regiments of New York State Volunteers,
and was always known as Colonel among his old friends.
During his early travels he was presented at the court
of St. James. He was, however, strongly American in
sentiment, and when Napoleon III. sought to place Maxi
milian on the throne in Mexico, he joined with Hon. J.
W. Beekman in giving a memorable banquet in New
York, as a demonstration of sympathy with Mexico.
Many distinguished men attended, and speeches of much
eloquence, inspired by the Monroe doctrine, were made.
This demonstration had a strong influence in inducing
Congress to recognize the Mexican republic, and, as a
consequence, in arousing the strong feeling before which
Napoleon desisted from his efforts, leaving Maximilian
to care for himself. As a reward for this service the
Mexican minister promised Mr. Hamersley that the life
of Maximilian should be spared. This, however, the
Mexican government found itself unable to perform, in
consequence of the intense popular demand for an exe
cution of the captive.
In character Mr. Hamersley was honorable, upright,
and deeply religious. He was warmly loved by his
family and friends, and esteemed by all who knew him.
For many years he was a member of Grace Church, and
after his death his children presented to that church a
massive brass lectern in his memory. He was earnestly
charitable, the Children's Aid Society being particularly
the recipient of his benefactions, while many other be
nevolent institutions found in him a liberal patron. In
his memory a library and reading-room have been built
by his son for the benefit of the Children's Aid Society,
at their country home, Bath Beach, Long Island.
Mr. Hamersley was married to Catharine L. Hooker,
daughter of Hon. James Hooker, of Poughkeepsie.
Being an only child, Mrs. Hamersley inherited the large
fortune of her family, consisting of extensive landed
property and of real estate in Poughkeepsie. She was
a woman of sterling worth and gentle manners, a true
helpmeet to her husband, and devoted to her children.
Mr. Hamersley died June 7, 1889.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

189

JAMES HOOKER HAMERSLEY.
James Hooker Hamersley, the only son of John
William Hamersley, a sketch of whose life we have
given on the opposite page, was born in New York on
January 26, 1844. In the sketch of his father the story
of his paternal ancestry has been given. On his mother's
side he descends from the Rev. Thomas Hooker, the
founder of Connecticut, while his grandfather, lion.
James Hooker, of Poughkeepsie, was noted for his legal
acumen as judge of the Surrogate's Court of Dutchess
County, and as one of the first proposers of the Hudson
River Railroad, the building of which was largely due to
his persevering energy. Another has observed that Mr.
Hamersley, through his mother's family, " is connected
with the Reades, Livingstons, Stuyvesants, Beekmans,
Van Cortlandts, De Peysters, and, in fine, with nearly all
the distinguished families of the State."
When a boy Mr. Hamersley was placed at school in
Paris, and had already travelled somewhat widely when
but twelve years of age, having seen most of the capital
cities of Europe, climbed on foot the cone of Mount
Vesuvius, and been presented to the Pope, Pius IX. He
was prepared for college at a school in Poughkeepsie,
and afterwards entered Columbia College, the seat of his
father's collegiate education. He graduated there with
honors in the class of 1865. His course in college had
been brilliant, and he was chosen an orator at the com
mencement exercises at the Academy of Music, New York.
Mr. Hamersley's college course was followed by a
period of law study in the Columbia Law School, and
of practical experience in the office of James W. Gerard,
then the leader of the New York bar. On his admission
to the bar he entered actively into practice, and for ten
years was successful as a lawyer, but at the end of that
time withdrew to give his time to the care of the Ham
ersley estate and to gain time for the literary studies
and production to which his tastes strongly inclined him.
He is greatly interested in history, and is a classical
scholar of ability, reading his favorite ancient authors
with ease and satisfaction in the original. As a writer
he wields a ready and graceful pen, his occasional articles
on the important topics of the day having brought him
into notice as a thinker and reasoner. In addition to his
prose productions he is a poet as well, and the author of
numerous striking poems, among which may be named
" Yellow Roses," " Fog Curtain," " The Midnight Sun,"
" Ronkonkoma," " The Countersign," and " The Voice
of the Breakers." In fact, it is as a poet that he will be
best known and longest remembered.
Mr. Hamersley is a strong Republican in political
sentiment and has taken much interest in the political
movements of his time. In 1877 he was elected, by the
Independent Republicans, a delegate to the State Repub
lican Convention at Rochester. More recently he was

nominated for the New York Assembly by the Repub
licans ofthe Eleventh District, but declined to run, with
drawing in favor of William Waldorf Astor, in whose
canvass he was an earnest worker.
He is a member of numerous clubs and societies, in
cluding the University and the Metropolitan Clubs, the
St. Nicholas Society, the Society of Colonial Wars, the
City and the Badminton Clubs, of the New York Law
Institute, and various other social and literary organi
zations. He is president of the Knickerbocker Bowling
Club. He also belongs to the Geographical Society, and
for many years served as a director of the Knickerbocker
Fire Insurance Company, one of the oldest insurance
concerns in this country.
Mr. Hamersley was married in 1888 to Margaret W.
Chisolm, daughter of William E. Chisolm, of an old
South Carolina family. They have had three children,
of whom two, Catharine Livingston and Louis Gordon,
are living. The eldest child, a daughter, died in infancy.
Mrs. Hamersley's mother was a daughter of John
Rogers, a real-estate owner of New York, in whose
memory his widow erected the Church of the Holy
Communion, and donated to it the land on which it
is built, at the corner of Twentieth Street and Sixth
Avenue. In Mrs. Hamersley's direct line of ancestry
is FYederick Augustus Muhlenberg, Speaker ofthe First
House of Representatives, and brother to General Muh
lenberg of Revolutionary fame. She is a grandniece
of Rev. William Augustus Muhlenberg, who was the
founder of St. Luke's Hospital. Personally, Mrs. Ham
ersley is a woman of charming manners, quick intelli
gence, and great executive ability, while her amiable
disposition makes her a general favorite in society. She,
in common with her husband, is warmly interested in
many charitable and benevolent institutions.

190

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM R. HUNTINGTON, D.D.
Rev. William Reed Huntington, S.T.D., D.C.L.,
rector of Grace Church, New York, is a native of
Lowell, Massachusetts, in which city he was born Sep
tember 20, 1838. His father, Dr. Elisha Huntington,
was long a physician of Lowell, wdiere he practised with
great success. He was at one time president of the
Massachusetts Medical Society. For eight years he
served as mayor of Lowell, and in 1853 was elected
lieutenant-governor of the State of Massachusetts.
The son, William R. Huntington, obtained his educa
tion at Harvard University, from which institution he
graduated in 1859. He was class-poet of Harvard in
this year. During the remainder of that and part of the
succeeding year he taught in the University as temporary
instructor in chemistry, then, having decided to enter
the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, he
went through the necessary course of study, was or
dained in i860, and in the years 1861-62 served as
assistant rector of the Emmanuel Church of Boston.
Subsequently he accepted the rectorship of All Saints'
Church, at Worcester, Massachusetts, which he held
during 1862-63.
By this time Dr. Huntington had acquired a high
reputation as an able theologian and an eloquent pulpit
orator, and in 1863 he was called to the important posi
tion of rector of Grace Church, New York City. In
this position he has remained until the present time.
In 1870, Dr. Pluntington made his appearance again
at his alma mater, as poet for that year of the Phi Beta

Kappa College Society, and in 1873 Columbia College
conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of
Divinity. Dr. Huntington, in addition to his active labors as
rector of one of the leading parishes of the city of New
York, has been active also in the literary field, having
produced a large number of papers and works on re
ligious subjects, liturgical revision in the United States,
etc. In 1892 he was the leading spirit in bringing to
a successful termination the revision of the American
prayer book, an important task in which for years pre
vious he had taken an earnest and active part. • In fact,
this movement had from its beginning been under his
guidance, and as completed it owed more to his industry
and ability than to any other individual concerned in
the work.
We may name among the various works which owe
their authorship to Dr. Huntington, " The Church Idea,
an Essay towards Unity," published in 1870; "Condi
tional Immortality" (1878), a learned consideration of a
subject which has excited attention among recent philo
sophical theologians ; " The Peace ofthe Church" (1891) ;
" Popular Misconception of the Episcopal Church" (1891),
" The Church Porch," a Sunday-school manual with
hymns, and the following pamphlets : " American Catho
licity," " Questions on the Fourth Gospel," " Twenty
Years of a Massachusetts Rectorship," and " The Book
Annexed, its Critics and its Prospects."
Grace Church, with which the Rev. Mr. Huntington
has been so long and usefully connected, is, next to
Trinity Church, the wealthiest corporation of the Pro
testant Episcopal denomination in New York. The
present structure, at Broadway and Tenth Street, was
built in 1845, and is one of the handsomest church
edifices in the city, it being of Gothic architecture, and
built of white limestone. Standing, as it does, just
where Broadway turns abruptly from the north to the
northeast direction, the church-porch and steeple close
the view from the south, the position being, architect
urally, the most effective of any edifice in the city.
The parsonage, so long the home of Mr. Huntington,
is similar in design to the church,, and is connected with
it by a building erected in 1880. Between the two is a
very interesting antiquarian object, a colossal terra-cotta
jar, brought from Rome, where it was found buried forty
feet under ground. During his connection with this
church its interests have been greatly advanced by the
earnestness and devotion of its able rector, who has its
progress and usefulness in well-doing warmly at heart.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

191

DAVID PHILLIPS JONES.
Chief-Engineer David Phillips Jones, United States
navy, was born in Philadelphia, and educated at the Cen
tral High School of that city when the celebrated scholar
and educator, Professor John S. Hart, was at its head.
In 1858, when but a youth, he was appointed one of
the principal examiners of the Utah surveys. The duty
of the examiners was to test the accuracy of the surveys
of the public lands in that Territory. After the comple
tion of this work he was appointed resident engineer of
the surveyor-general's office.
At the breaking out of the Civil War he returned
East, and in 1862 entered the navy as assistant engineer,
and was ordered to duty on the gun-boat " Cimmerone."
This vessel was attached to the James River fleet, and
afterwards assigned to Admiral Wilkes's Flying Squad
ron, and thence transferred to Admiral Dupont's fleet,
where she participated in various engagements on the
St. John's River, Florida. His next service was on the
ironclad " Sangamon." This was the vessel that received
the Confederate commissioners, Stephens and Campbell,
upon their memorable mission to secure an interview with
President Lincoln. The arduous duties and close confine
ment on the ironclad undermined Engineer Jones's health,
and he was condemned by medical survey and detached.
In a short time he again reported for duty, and was
ordered to the " Mendota." The " Mendota" was at
tached to the James River fleet, and participated in many
actions on that river preceding the fall of Richmond.
While this vessel was stationed at Hampton Roads,
Engineer Jones was detailed to carry the despatches
from Admiral Porter informing General Grant of the
capture of Fort Fisher. Army head-quarters were at
that time at City Point. The dangerous journey was
made at night, and the despatches safely delivered to
General Grant in the early morning. For this service he
was highly complimented by his commanding officer.
His next duty was on the flag-ship " Powhatan," on
the South Pacific. While on this , vessel he witnessed
the bombardment of Valparaiso and Callao by the Span
iards in 1866. After leaving the " Powhatan" he was
attached to the " Gettysburg" and " Michigan," and to
the Portsmouth Navy- Yard. He was stationed at the
latter place when Admiral Farragut died there, and was
one of the officers' guard-of-honor selected to watch over
the remains. He was afterwards on duty in the Bureau
of Steam-Engineering, and was thence assigned to the
Naval Academy, where he aided in perfecting the system
of mechanical drawing and machine design for the cadet
engineers. He was retained on this duty for five years.
During this period, such eminent scientists as Professor
Hollis, of Harvard, Professor Cooley, of University of
Michigan, and Professor Spangler, of University of Penn
sylvania, were among his pupils.

Besides the duties enumerated, Engineer Jones has
been attached to various vessels and stations. While
upon extended leave he became the engineer of the St.
Louis and Southeastern Railway, and designed and built
the great railway transfers at Evansville, Indiana, and
Henderson, Kentucky.
Of his ability and the esteem in which he is held,
Commander (now Rear-Admiral) John Irwin, wrote,
" With his professional ability and scholarly attainments,
I consider him one of the most accomplished officers in
the service." The lamented Captain Shoonmaker, in
a special report to the Navy Department, says, " This
method of repairing the defect in the machinery (of the
' Nipsic') was the design of Passed Assistant Engineer
Jones, and is very creditable to the designer, showing
knowledge, skill, and ingenuity."
Chief-Engineer Jones is a member of many prominent
scientific societies, and has a broad and comprehensive
grasp of engineering subjects. He has always been
identified with the progressive element of the Naval
Engineer Corps, and has never failed to retain the confi
dence and esteem of the engineers-in-chief. The law
authorizing the detail of naval engineer officers as in
structors in technical schools was his conception.
As a writer he has contributed much to establish the
importance and define the responsibilities of his corps,
while his official reports upon professional topics are
regarded as models. He is also the author of many
well-known navy songs. Pie has considerable reputation
as a public speaker. His witty and eloquent responses to
the toast of " The Navy," at the inaugural banquet given
to Governor Davis, of Rhode Island, in 1890, and at the
thirtieth anniversary of the Rhode Island Artillery at
Newport in 1891, will long be remembered.

19:

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ANDREW S. BURT.
Colonel Andrew Sheridan Burt, of the United
States army, was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, November
21, 1839, and educated in his native city. Shortly after
he had attained his majority the Civil War began, and
on the President's call for volunteers he at once enlisted
as a private in the Sixth Ohio Infantry. Soon after he
was made a sergeant, and in the same year (1861) was
appointed a lieutenant in the Eighteenth Regular In
fantry. His service in the field began in the autumn of
1 86 1, and continued throughout the war.
His regiment, as part of Colonel R. L. McCook's
brigade, General Thomas's division, Army of the Ohio,
took part in the battle of Mill Springs, in which he was
wounded. His gallantry in this action was such that he
was subsequently given the brevet rank of captain, — one
of the earliest brevets of the war. In 1862 he was ap
pointed aide-de-camp, with rank of captain, and assigned
to Colonel McCook's brigade; and in 1863 reported to
General Rosecrans, commander of the Army of the
Cumberland, and was assigned for duty in the inspector-
general's department of that army. In this capacity he
served through several campaigns, and was highly com
mended for gallantly in the battle of Chickamauga, and
for his services in other engagements.
In the fall of 1863, having received a captaincy in the
line, he withdrew from staff duty, and took command
of Company F., Eighteenth United States Infantry,
which he led in the charge on Missionary Ridge.
General Palmer personally thanked the company for its
gallantly in this action. Captain Burt subsequently
took part in all the battles of the Atlanta campaign

from Buzzard's Roost to Jonesborough, and received the
personal thanks of the department commander for gal
lant services in the last battle. These services brought
him, in 1864, the brevet rank of major.
Since the war Colonel Burt has been actively engaged
in army service. In 1867, while in command of a de
tachment of recruits en route to Fort McKinney, he was
attacked by Indians under Red Cloud. The Indians
were beaten off. In 1868 he had two other successful
skirmishes with hostile Indians. In 1873, he served on
Stanley's Yellowstone expedition; in 1875, with the
Jenney expedition to the Black Hills ; and with General
Crook's expedition in 1876. At the battle of the Rose
bud, a battalion of cavalry being routed by the Indians,
Major Burt and Major Burrows, with their companies,
stopped the Indian pursuit, and rescured the battalion
from a dangerous situation. At Slim Buttes, in the
same campaign, his battalion repulsed an Indian attack.
In 1877, Major Burt, with his company, was sent to
Chicago during the riots. In 1879 he was sent to
Hastings, Nebraska, to protect Judge Gaslin's court
against a threatened attack by cowboys. In 1885, while
in command of Fort Bidwell, California, he received the
thanks of the citizens for his services in preventing an
Indian outbreak. Since that period he has received
two promotions, that of lieutenant-colonel of the Seventh
Infantry, and that of colonel of the Twenty-fifth, which
rank he now holds. He has qualified three times as a
sharpshooter, and in the season of 1865 stood at the
head of the list of sharpshooters of the entire army.
Colonel Burt's field of activity has not been confined
to army service, he having made himself well known in
the literary world. In his early days of service on the
frontier he was an industrious newspaper correspondent,
and in 1875 was employed as a special correspondent
on the New York Tribune. He is, besides, the author
of several plays, among them " May Cody, or Lost and
Won," the most successful play of W. F. Cody (Buffalo
Bill). The title, " The Rock of Chickamauga," applied
to General George H. Thomas, was given by him in a
public address in 1865, in Cincinnati. Colonel Burt has
also made his mark in the whist world by his humorous
writings over the nom de plume of " The Colonel."
As a soldier Colonel Burt has amply done his duty,
having been present at every field service in which any
command of which he was part was engaged. He com
manded two posts for a year each without a single de
sertion, though keeping his men under strict discipline,
an inspector officially reporting his command, — " One
of the finest bodies of troops I have ever seen in this
country."

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

193

JAMES M. MUNYON.
Perhaps no one person in the field of medical service
is attracting wider attention to-day than Professor James
M. Munyon, president of Munyon's Homoeopathic
Home-Remedy Company. Certainly no other man has
made such strides as he in revolutionizing the practice
of medicine.
Born at Thompson, Connecticut, August 3, 1848, he
while still a mere child manifested a strong predilection
for that study of medicine in which he was to distinguish
himself in later years. While a boy his chief delight
was to gather herbs and roots, from which he made
decoctions to sell to his youthful companions in the
miniature drug-store which he had established. Thus
it is that the boy is often " father of the man." While
at school this same predilection was strongly indicated
in his ardent study of chemistry, in which branch he
stood always at the head of his class, and invariably
carried off the prizes in experiments and examinations
in this branch.
After reaching maturity, however, Professor Munyon
was led to embark in other pursuits, being concerned
in the advertising business and eventually drifting into
that of publisher. Munyon's Illustrated World became
a well-known and very successful publication. It was
afterwards changed into a magazine, in which form it
enjoyed a large and profitable circulation. During these
years, however, Professor Munyon did not forget his
first love. His studies in chemistry and medicine con
tinued, and eventually yielded the valuable remedies
whose general use has made him so widely known.
About four years ago he embarked in the homoeopathic
specific business in Philadelphia, and in this short interval
has built up an enormous business and gained for himself
a large fortune.
We may quote from the Philadelphia Times an apt
criticism on his ability and character: " Professor Munyon
is to medicine what Professor Edison is to electricity.
He is progressive, inventive, wide and liberal in his ideas,
and, altogether, a man in his profession far in advance
of his time." To this well-founded praise we may add
that he is a man free from prejudice in his profession,
admitting that each school of medicine has much of
good. It has been his life's study to select the best
from each, and embody them in an intermediate school
of his own. He is not one of that class of physicians
who believe that a single remedy can be made to cure a
dozen different diseases. On the contrary, he has form
ulated a separate specific for each disease, so labelled that
any one can become his own doctor, and adapted to the
cure of that disease alone.
Professor Munyon understands well the necessity of
reaching the public through advertising, if one would

bring even the most valuable specifics to the general
knowledge. By the double means of producing remedies
of great curative value and bringing them extensively to
public attention, he has built up a business that runs
into millions of dollars annually, and which has probably
a larger mail correspondence than any other medical
establishment in the world, while his parent house at
Philadelphia has grown until now there are branches in
every important city of the Union, each under the charge
of a competent physician. It may be further said that
he is not alone engaged in making money, but is also
benevolently and usefully employed in its distribution, he
making it a fixed rule to give away one-tenth of his
income annually to charities and worthy people.
Professor Munyon devotes much of his leisure time
to literary pursuits, and finds recreation after business
hours in the pleasant task of song writing and the
setting to music of his verses. His poems include,
" Yes, I'm Guilty," " Is Freedom a Lie ?" " The Nation's
Danger," " White Slaves," etc., and among his well-
known songs are " Don't Whip Little Ben," " Keep the
Lights Burning," and " The Nation's Song," the latter a
patriotic outburst of high merit, intensely American, yet
broad and liberal in spirit, and likely to find a permanent
place among the national hymns of this country, and
to be sung as long as the American heart throbs for
liberty. The following lines written by him when a lad of
seventeen indicate that he had resolved to win distinction
even at that early age :
" Up the rugged rock of Fame,
I'll climb my way and write my name !
For who shall say to Hope, ' Be still ' ?
Or who shall check Ambition's will?"

25

194

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

PAUL A. OLIVER.
Brevet Brigadier-General Paul A. Oliver was
born at sea on the 18th July, 1831, on the ship " Louisi
ana," owned and commanded by his father, Captain Paul
A. Oliver, who was a native of Philadelphia, and served
as sailing-master in the United States navy in the War of
1812. General Oliver was engaged as shipping merchant, and
resided at Fort Hamilton at the time the yellow fever
epidemic prevailed in that village in 1856. He established
a hospital, and was made president of the Fort Hamilton
Relief Society, which he organized, and by its efforts the
disease was prevented from spreading to the city of
Brooklyn. In January, 1862, he enlisted as second lieutenant in
the Twelfth New York Infantry, which was assigned to
the Third Brigade, First Division, First Corps, then sta
tioned at Hall's Hill, Virginia. He participated in the
siege of Yorktown and battle of Hanover Court-House;
commanded his company at the battle of Gaines Mill
(where he was wounded), Second Bull Run, Antietam,
and Fredericksburg. In December, 1862, his company
was detailed as head-quarters guard of the Fifth Corps,
where it remained to the close of the war. When General
Butterfield was appointed chief of staff of the Army of
the Potomac, under Hooker, Lieutenant Oliver was ap
pointed on his staff as his aide, and as such served in the

campaign of Chancellorsville. In the Gettysburg cam
paign he was appointed personal aide to General Meade,
and remained on his staff until General Hooker got com
mand of the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps, when he went
with him, and served on his staff in the battles of Look
out Valley, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and
Ringgold. On the Atlanta campaign, in the spring of
1864, he served with General Butterfield, who had com
mand of a division of the Twentieth Corps, as his chief
of staff, in the battles of Resaca, Carsville, Dallas, New
Hope Church, and Marietta. In July, 1864, he returned
to the Army of the Potomac at his own request, and
served on the staff of General Warren, part of the time
as acting provost-marshal of the Fifth Corps. At this
time he received the commission of major, and after
wards lieutenant-colonel of the Fifth New York Veteran
Volunteers, but declined. He participated in the siege
of Petersburg and the various battles, — Yellow Tavern,
Weldon Railroad, Hatcher's Run, raid to Bellfield, and
Hicksford. In January he was transferred, by special
orders of Grant, to City Point on special duty, under
General M. R. Patrick. On the 8th of March, 1865, he
was brevetted brigadier-general. At the surrender of
Lee he was, as assistant provost-marshal, engaged in
paroling the Army of Northern Virginia, at Appomattox,
under the direction of General George H. Sharpe, assist
ant provost-marshal, who took the original paroles of
the Army of Northern Virginia to the War Department,
Washington, and the duplicate paroles were taken by
General Oliver to Richmond, and handed by him to
Colonel Taylor, General Lee's adjutant-general. The
war being closed, General Oliver tendered his resigna
tion, and was honorably discharged May 5, 1865.
General Oliver received honorable mention by General
Butterfield in official report of the Seven Days' battles,
June-July, 1862 (" Official Record," vol. xiv.,p. 321) ; also
for his coolness and assistance at the battle of Bull Run
(official report of Captain William Huson, Twelfth New
York Volunteers, idem xvi., 477). He also received hon
orable mention for brave and intelligent performance of
duties as aide-de-camp by General Hooker in official report
of the Chattanooga-Ringgold campaign (idem lv., 325).
Since that time he has been engaged in the manufacture
of powder at Laurel Run, Oliver's Mills, Pennsylvania.
General Oliver received the medal of honor for distin
guished services at the battle of Resaca, May 15, 1864.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

195

WILLIAM F. HARRITY.
William F. Harrity was born in Wilmington, Dela
ware, on October 19, 1850; received his preliminary
education in the public schools of Wilmington and at
Clarkson Taylor's Academy and St. Mary's College, in
the same place; graduated at La Salle College, Phila
delphia, as Master of Arts, in June, 1871 ; studied law
with Hon. Lewis C. Cassidy and Pierce Archer, Esq.,
and was admitted to the Philadelphia bar on December
27, 1873 ; remained with his preceptors as their assistant
for six years ; formed law partnership with Hon. James
Gay Gordon on January 1, 1880, which was dissolved
on January 1, 1884; has always been in active j#facticc
of the law in the courts of Philadelphia ; was chairman
of the Democratic City Executive Committee of Phila
delphia in 1882, when Hon. James A. Beaver, as a can
didate for governor, had a majority in that city of but
three thousand four hundred and sixty-four over Gov
ernor Pattison ; was delegate-at-large from Pennsylvania
to the Chicago Convention of 1884, which nominated
Grover Cleveland for President ; was appointed post
master at Philadelphia on December 1, 1885, and served
a full term of four years ; was elected president of the
Equitable Trust Company of Philadelphia in January,
1890, and is still its president; was permanent chairman
of the Democratic State Convention, held at Scranton,
in 1890, which nominated Robert E. Pattison for a
second term ; was unanimously elected chairman of the
Democratic State Central Committee on July 2, 1890,
but declined to accept because of business engagements,
and resigned the position on July 16, 1890; was nomi
nated by Governor Pattison and was unanimously con
firmed by the Senate as secretary of the commonwealth
on January 20, 1891. Prior to accepting his present
position Mr. Harrity never held any public office, except
that of postmaster at Philadelphia.
On January 20, 1892, Mr. Harrity was unanimously
elected by the Democratic State Central Committee of
Pennsylvania to represent that State in the Democratic
National Committee as the successor of the late William
L. Scott; on April 13, 1892, he was unanimously elected
by the Democratic State Convention for the full term as
the Pennsylvania member of the Democratic National
Committee, which election was unanimously ratified by
the Pennsylvania delegation to the Democratic National
Convention, held at Chicago on June 21, 1892 ; on July
21, 1892, Mr. Harrity was unanimously elected as chair
man of the Democratic National Committee at a meeting
held in the city of New York on that day. As Demo
cratic national chairman, Mr. Harrity conducted the
national campaign of 1892 which resulted in the elec
tion of Grover Cleveland and A. E. Stevenson as Presi
dent and Vice-President of the United States.
Because of his efficient services to the Democratic

party and of his devotion to President Cleveland during
his candidacy for the nomination and election as President
in 1892, it is generally understood that Mr. Harrity
would have been appointed as a member of President
Cleveland's cabinet had he not promptly indicated his
inability and disinclination to accept the position, Mr.
Harrity preferring to continue in the office of Secretary
of State of Pennsylvania until the end of his term
(January 20, 1895).
Mr. Harrity 's nature is frank and open ; but he pos
sesses sufficient caution and shrewdness to avoid mistakes
and to protect himself from imposition. He has in a
marked degree that rare and invaluable aid to successful
leadership, the quality of attracting and holding the
confidence and affection of those about him, and upon
whose assistance a successful manager or leader must
rely. Mr. Harrity has been successful in all his undertakings
in the fields of law, finance, and politics. He is of in
dustrious habits and is an indefatigable worker. He
averages not less than from twelve to fourteen hours
each day at hard work, giving most of his time and
attention to the affairs of the Equitable Trust Company
of Philadelphia, of which he is president. He does not
neglect his law practice, although that is looked after by
his law partner and corps of assistants.
That Mr. Harrity should attract a large circle of friends
is inevitable. His career in business and in official and
political life has been so creditable that men sought him
out to that extent that, without any adventitious side,
Mr. Plarrity has attained an enviable position in the
country as well as in the community in which he resides.
Mr. Harrity is married and has four children, Mary
Agnes, Marguerite, Isabel, and William F. Harrity, Jr.

196

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM S. STRYKER.
William S. Stryker was born in Trenton, June 6,
1838. The Stryker family left Holland in 1652, and
settled in New Amsterdam, where, in the colonial affairs
of early New York, the name became prominent. His
progenitor was one of the great burghers of that old
Dutch town, and a member of the Landtdag, the great
assembly of the province. General Stryker was gradu
ated from the College of New" Jersey in the class of
1858. He immediately commenced the study of law,
entering the office of the late Hon. Barker Gummere,
at Trenton. In response to the first call for troops he
enlisted as a private, April 16, 1861. He assisted in
organizing the Fourteenth Regiment, New Jersey vol
unteers. In February, 1863, he was ordered to Hilton
Head, South Carolina, and made major and aide-de
camp to Major- General Gillmore, then in command of
the Tenth Army Corps. He participated in the capture
of Morris Island, the bloody night attack on Fort Wag
ner, and the operations in the siege of Charleston. Sub
sequently he was transferred to the North, on account
of illness, and placed in charge of the pay department,

United States army, at Parole Camp, Columbus, Ohio.
In 1866 General Stryker was made counsellor-at-law of
the State of Ohio. He was brevetted lieutenant-colonel
for meritorious services during the war, and resigned in
June, 1866. Soon thereafter he returned to New Jersey
and was placed on the military staff of the governor.
Since April 12, 1867, he has been adjutant-general of
New Jersey. In February, 1874, he was brevetted
major-general by the State of New Jersey. General
Stryker was elected president of the Trenton Battle
Monument Association at its organization, in 1884, and
the beautiful structure which has been erected in Trenton
commemorative of her victory in the Revolution is a
tribute to the untiring efforts of General Stryker and
his coadjutors. In the financial life of Trenton, he has
acted as president of the Trenton Banking Company,
and is now president of the Trenton Saving Fund So
ciety. He is a member of a large number of State and
county historical societies, and of the Royal Historical
Society of London, a Fellow of the American Geo
graphical Society, and a member of the Society of the
Cincinnati. To him New Jersey is indebted for some of the most
comprehensive monographs which have yet been issued
in this country. From information drawn from his
library, rich in Americana, and from the State archives,
General Stryker has compiled a " Register of Officers
and Men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War"
(Trenton, 1872), the initial work of its kind in America,
and a " Record of Officers and Men of New Jersey in
the Civil War" (1876), as well as the following historical
studies : " The Reed Controversy," " Trenton One Hun
dred Years Ago," " New Jersey Continental Line in the
Virginia Campaign of 1781," "The Princeton Surprise,"
" Washington's Reception by the People of New Jersey,
in 1789," "The Capture of the Block-House at Toms
River, New Jersey," " New Jersey Continental Line in
the Indian Campaign of 1779," "The Old Barracks at
Trenton, New Jersey," " The New Jersey Volunteers, —
Loyalists." General Stryker has now ready for the press
two notable works, one on the battles of Trenton and
Princeton, and the other on the battle of Monmouth.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

197

FRANCIS E. PINTO.
Brevet Brigadier-General Francis E. Pinto. — The
oldest brick house in New Haven, Connecticut, at this
date is the old Pinto house, erected in 1745 of brick im
ported from England. In that house was born William
Pinto, of Spanish descent, who was the father of Francis E.
Pinto. At the time of the invasion by the British he was
one ofthe students of Yale who armed themselves in de
fence of the town, and did military service during the war.
Francis Effington Pinto was born in New Haven June
30, 1823, and attended the Lancasterian school. In 1835
he was placed in a dry-goods house in New York City.
At the outbreak of the Mexican War, in 1846, he was
commissioned second lieutenant in the First New York
Volunteers. He was at the landing and siege of Vera
Cruz, the storming of Cerro Gordo, the taking of Pueblo,
the battle of Contreras, the storming of Chapultepec, and
the capture of the City of Mexico. He claims to have
placed the first scaling-ladder against the wall of Chapul
tepec, and assisted the color-sergeant of the regiment up
and over the wall, being the first colors in the enemy's
works. He was promoted first lieutenant September 14,
and brevetted captain the same date. He was junior mem
ber of the first Court of Commissions assembled in the
palace of the city. He was mustered out of the service
at Fort Hamilton, New York, July, 1848. On Christmas
Day, 1848, Captain Pinto took passage, on the steamer
" George Law" for the Isthmus, en route to California,
and arrived at San Francisco February 28, 1849. In the
spring of 1856 the celebrated Vigilance Committee of San
Francisco was formed. He took an active part, and was
soon made second in command of the military department
ofthe committee. In July, 1856, he returned to New York.
At the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion he joined
Colonel Baker and Roderick Mattheson. Baker having
an order from President Lincoln to create and equip a
regiment representing California, dissensions soon arose,
and Roderick Mattheson, of California, proposed to
withdraw from Baker and toss up with Pinto for the
command; Mattheson won. The regiment was organ
ized as the Thirty-second Regiment, New York. It was
mustered into service in May, 1861. It was engaged in the
first battle of Bull Run, and was the last regiment to retire
from that field, not leaving Centreville Heights till near
midnight, and went into camp at Fairfax Court-PIouse and
remained till the morning of the next day, when it hauled
a four-horse ambulance, which had been abandoned,
from Centreville to Alexandria. General Franklin said
the ambulance should always belong to the regiment.
At West Point, Virginia, the regiment was severely
engaged by the retreating enemy from Yorktown, Vir
ginia. The regiment was engaged at Gaines Mills,
White Oak Swamp, Malvern Hill, and the second Bull
Run. While at Harrison's Landing, on the James River,

Pinto was ordered to take command of the Thirty-first
New York. He commanded that regiment at the storm
ing of Crampton's Pass, South Mountain, Maryland.
Colonel Mattheson having been killed at Crampton's
Pass, Colonel Pinto was ordered back to his own regi
ment, the Thirty-second New York, and commissioned
colonel. He took his regiment into action at Antietam
on the 17th of September, 1862. While in front that
day he received a flag of truce from the enemy (signed
by Colonel Colquitt) requesting the body of a Georgia
colonel. He found the body, and, by General Franklin's
permission, passed it through the lines. This flag caused
much comment by the press, charging McClellan with
receiving a flag instead of driving the enemy into the
Potomac. The regiment was engaged at Fredericksburg,
December, 1862, and made the advance at the lower
crossing of the Rappahannock, and also at the second
crossing of the Sixth Corps, under Sedgwick, at night,
and taking the enemy's rifle-pits by surprise. It also par
ticipated in the storming of Fredericksburg Heights, and
in the battle of Salem Heights the next day. The regi
ment was mustered out of service June 8, 1863.
In a general order issued from the head-quarters of the
Sixth Army Corps, May 22, 1863, General Sedgwick
thus referred to this redoubtable organization :
The loss of this gallant regiment from the service is a cause of much
regret to the major-general commanding. The Thirty-second New York
Volunteers has been identified with the Sixth Army Corps from its first
organization, and has nobly borne its part on all occasions, from its earliest
marches down to the last memorable struggle at Salem Heights. In
Maryland and Virginia, upon many battle-fields, the graves of fallen but
unforgotten comrades attest the brave devotion of the regiment to the
national cause. There are memories of great deeds, of trying marches,
of perils and fatigues that should make each soldier proud of his con
nection with the command and the army of which it was a part. The
general commanding the corps congratulates the officers and men upon
their honorable retirement from the service, and assures them that they
have bravely deserved the thanks of the country and the army.
JOHN SEDGWICK,
Major-General Commanding Sixth Army Corps.

198

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

LEWIS B. PARSONS.
Brevet Major-General Lewis B. Parsons is de
scended from old English ancestry. " Cornet" Joseph
Parsons, his paternal ancestor, emigrated to Boston in
July, 1635, and was one of the original settlers and pro
prietors of Springfield and Northampton, Massachusetts.
On the maternal side he is descended from Charles
Hoar, of Gloucester, England, whose widow, Joanna,
with a large family, emigrated to Boston in 1640, and
from whom are descended the families of that name in
New England. Captain Charles Parsons, the grandfather
of General Parsons, was an officer of the Revolution,
serving from Ticonderoga to (including Valley Forge)
Yorktown, being severely wounded at Monmouth.
Lewis B. Parsons, father of General Parsons, was a
successful merchant, a citizen of high standing, and the
founder of Parsons College, Iowa. General Parsons
was born in Genesee County, New York, April 5, 18 18 ;
graduated at Yale College in 1840 and at the Law-
School of Harvard University in 1844. Emigrating to
Alton, Illinois, the same year, he was successively city
attorney and attorney, treasurer, and president of the
Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. Entering the army in
1 861, he was ordered to St. Louis, Missouri, and served
first on a military commission with General (then Cap
tain) Phil. Sheridan.
April 4, 1862, Captain Parsons was promoted to the
rank of colonel and aide-de-camp on the staff of Major-
General Halleck, who, on account of his railroad ex
perience, placed him in charge of army transportation.
Soon after, on the order of the Secretary of War, Colonel
Parsons was made " chief of rail and river transporta
tion" of the armies of the West and Southwest, with
head-quarters at St. Louis. In 1864, Secretary Stanton
ordered him to Washington, extending his duties to the

entire country. May 14, 1865, on the autographic order
of President Lincoln, for distinguished services, he was
promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, and on re
tiring from the service, April 30, 1866, was brevetted
major-general of volunteers.
General Parsons's eminent executive ability and suc
cess in the rapid movements of large armies for long
distances, with their vast supplies and munitions of war,
elicited the highest commendations of President Lincoln,
Secretary Stanton, Generals Grant, Sherman, and others,
and were, among other instances, shown in the move
ment of General Sherman's army of forty thousand men
for the first attack on Vicksburg, as also in the trans
fer of General Schofield's army from Eastport, Missis
sippi, over the Alleghany Mountains to the Potomac, in
midwinter, a distance of fourteen hundred miles, in an
average time of eleven days, instead of thirty allowed by
the Secretary of War. This movement was pronounced
by the Secretary, as also by English and French authori
ties, as unequalled in rapidity and success in the annals
of war. General Parsons's duties kept him mostly from
the field, but when present, during several engagements,
he volunteered as aide and received special commenda
tion for services rendered.
His record of duty is perhaps best shown by the follow
ing extracts of letters from Generals Grant and Sherman :
May 20, 1865, General Grant writes, "The position
(chief of rail and river transportation of the armies of the
United States) is second in importance to no other con
nected with the military service, and to have been ap
pointed to it at the beginning of a war of the magnitude
and duration of this, and holding it to its close, pro
viding transportation for whole armies, with all that
appertains to them, for thousands of miles, adjusting
accounts involving millions of money, and doing justice to
all, never delaying for a moment any military operations
dependent upon you, evidences an honesty of purpose,
knowledge of men, and executive ability of the highest
order, and of which any man might be justly proud."
October 29, 1865, General Sherman writes, " I more
especially recall the fact that you collected at Memphis,
in December, 1862, boats enough to transport forty
thousand men, with full equipments and stores, on less
than a week's notice, and subsequently that you supplied
an army of one hundred thousand men, operating near
Vicksburg, for six months, without men or horses being
in want for a single day. I beg to express my admira
tion of the system and good sense which accomplished
results so highly useful to the whole country."
After two years spent abroad in search of health, and
several years as president of a bank in St. Louis, General
Parsons, in 1874, retired to Flora, Illinois, where he now
resides, engaged in managing a large landed estate pur
chased in the early settlement of Illinois.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

199

CHARLES A. DANA.
Charles Anderson Dana, an American journalist of
distinction, was born at Hinsdale, New Hampshire, Au
gust 8, 1 8 19. His education was completed at Harvard,
which he was compelled to leave after two years' study,
on account of a disease of the eyes. In 1841 he joined
the famous Brook-Farm Community at Roxbury, Massa
chusetts, associating himself with various persons of later
literary celebrity and Utopian ideas in this notable com
munistic experiment. He remained here for two years,
and after the collapse of the enterprise became one of
the editorial staff of the Harbinger, a weekly paper in
which the socialistic views of Fourier were warmly advo
cated. His service on this paper continued from 1844
to 1847, after which he became a contributor of the
Boston Chronotype. In 1847 he made his way to New
York, with an experience in editorial work which com
mended him to the publishers of the Tribune, upon which
he became engaged as assistant editor, being placed
particularly in charge of the foreign department. For a
number of years he was managing editor of the paper,
and was largely instrumental in making it the leading
organ of the party in opposition to the extension of
slavery to new Territories, vigorously combating this
effort on the part of the South which led, step by step,
to the development of the Civil War. His earnest war
spirit, as manifested in his famous " On to Richmond"
editorials, in 1 861, brought him into disagreement with
Horace Greeley, who was disinclined to have the Tribune
take so radical an attitude. The result of this difference
of opinion was that in 1862 Mr. Dana withdrew from
the paper.
He did not long remain out of employment. In 1863,
Secretary Stanton appointed him Assistant Secretary of
War, a post in which he was at first chiefly employed
in forwarding General Grant's military operations in the
West. He continued in this position until the end of
the war, as a very efficient aid to the War Department
in its stupendous task. After the war he accepted the
editorship of the Chicago Republican ; but that paper
failed to make a success, and, leaving it, Mr. Dana
returned to New York, where he, with some others,
purchased the New York Sun, a newspaper which had
for thirty years been successfully published as a one-cent
daily. The new editor increased the price to two cents,
adding, of course, to its size and enterprise, and handling
it with such ability that its circulation rapidly increased
despite its enhanced price. Under his management it
quickly established its record as the leading Democratic

organ of the metropolis. Of the first number published,
January 1, 1868, forty-three thousand copies were issued,
and its circulation steadily grew until it reached the one
hundred thousand mark.
The Sun has been sensational and personal in character,
but has been managed with much ability, and kept in
close touch with all the leading topics of the times. Mr.
Dana's long journalistic experience had amply equipped
him for the management of such a journal, and the
influence of his paper has continued great. He is a
vigorous writer, quick and bold in the expression of his
ideas, and well informed on all topics of general public
interest, and has always kept his paper well abreast of
the times.
Mr. Dana has not confined himself to journalism, but
has taken active part in various literary enterprises. In
1858 he compiled and published the " Household Book
of Poetry," an excellent favorite collection. His principal
labor in this direction was his long-continued task as
editor of Appleton's " New American Cyclopaedia," which
he planned and edited in association with George Ripley,
literary editor of the New York Tribune, and one of his
old Brook-Farm companions. This work, consisting of
sixteen volumes, was issued between 1858 and 1863. In
[873 he became editor, in common with Mr. Ripley, of
a revised edition of the work, which was completed in
1876. In addition to the literary labors mentioned, Mr.
Dana has published several translations and anthologies,
and in 1868 took part in writing a biography of General
Grant.

200

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

SIGOURNEY W. FAY.
Sigourney W. Fay, a leading merchant in the woollen
business in New York City, is by birth a native of
Boston, in which city he was born fifty-nine years ago.
He bears his age so well, however, that he might pass
for little more than forty, having in some way learned
the valuable secret of looking young, — perhaps that of
keeping young, for the two go naturally together. Mr.
Fay spent his youthful years in his native city, and
received that education which Boston is better adapted
to give — if we may accept its reputation — than any other
city in this country. Having decided on engaging in
mercantile business, he obtained a position in the Boston
house of Lawrence, Stone & Co., with whom he re
mained actively engaged until about twenty-four years
of age, proving himself an energetic and conscientious
employee, and winning the confidence and respect of
his employers by devotion to their interests and an
excellent business capacity.
In i860, having the capital to engage in commercial
life on his own account, and sufficient business experi
ence to warrant the venture, he came to New York in
company with Mr. Stone, one of his recent employers.
Here a partnership was organized, under the firm-name
of Stone, Bliss, Fay & Allen, for the purpose of con
ducting a dry-goods business, and the partners went
energetically to work, quickly building for themselves a
satisfactory trade.
The firm continued in existence under this title for
about ten years, becoming well known and prominent in
its line of trade. At the end of that period changes took
place in the list of partners, and the firm was reorganized

under the title of Perry, Wendell, Fay & Co., the busi
ness gradually changing from general dry-goods to the
woollen commission line, to which it has long been con
fined. In 1878, Mr. Perry, senior member of the firm, — a
well-known character in New York, where he was gener
ally addressed as Commodore Perry, — was removed by
death, and his name was dropped from the firm-title,
which now became known by its present name of Wen
dell, Fay & Co. Since that time there has been no
change in the title or personnel of the firm, whose
business has grown to be a very extensive one, though
one that is always conducted in a safe and conservative
manner. The success of this business is largely due to Mr. Fay,
who is a man of much business enterprise and ability,
and is known among his trade associates as a model
merchant, his activity being combined with integrity, and
with an intelligence and uprightness in all the fields of
life that command the respect of all who know him.
The great popularity which he possesses among the
patrons of his business house is due to his pleasant face
and agreeable manners, and his native sociability of dis
position, he being noted for his constant geniality and
courtesy. Aside from business he has had little time
for other pursuits, a merchant's time, in these days of
energetic competition, being usually too completely taken
up to permit indulgence to any great extent in outside
affairs. Yet Mr. Fay has much literary taste and love of
knowledge, while he possesses good powers of oratory.
In consequence he has appeared to some extent as a
lecturer on various topics, and has gained considerable
reputation in this field of intellectual exercise.
The firm with which he is connected has interests out
side New York. Its origin may be said to have been in
Boston, with which it has since maintained close relations,
having a representative branch in that city. It is also
represented in Philadelphia. The goods dealt in com
prise the best grades of cloths, suitings, uniform goods,
and in short all the best products of the woollen manu
facture, wdiile the house is the New York representative
of a number of the leading woollen-mills of the United
States, among which may be named the celebrated
Middlesex Mills, the Campbell and the Dumbarton Mills,
the Swift River Manufacturing Company, and a number
of other woollen manufacturing concerns.
Aside from his firm connections, in which he may be
said to be one of the most popular merchants in New
York, Mr. Fay is connected with several financial con
cerns, he being a director in the Hanover National Bank
and in the Exchange Fire Insurance Company.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

201

STEPHEN DECATUR TRENCHARD.
Rear-Admiral Stephen Decatur Trenchard was
descended from the Trenchard family of Dorset, Eng
land. His great-grandfather, George Trenchard, was
attorney-general of West Jersey under the Crown, but
he drew his sword in favor of the Colonies. The ad
miral's father, Captain Edward Trenchard, served in the
war with Tripoli, and was one of the commanders of
Commodore Chauncey's flag-ship " Madison" in the
War of 1812. Admiral Trenchard was born in Brook
lyn, New York, in 181 8. He received his appointment
as midshipman on October 23, 1834, having previously
made a cruise as acting midshipman under Commodore
Downes. His first cruise was on board the " Consti
tution." In 1836 he served in the West Indies and in
the Florida War. He was promoted to master in 1842,
and served in the Coast Survey from 1845 to 1846.
While on this duty he was aboard the brig " Washington"
when she was wrecked off the coast of North Carolina.
During the Mexican War he was lieutenant on board
the United States steamer "Saratoga." In 1856, while
in command of the United States surveying steamer
"Vixen," he rescued the crew of the British bark
"Adieu," of Gloucester, Massachusetts, for which service
he received a sword from Queen Victoria. Admiral
Trenchard was flag-lieutenant to Commodore Tatnall, in
the East India squadron, in 1858, and was wounded when
the commodore visited Sir Admiral Hope, at the battle
of the Pei-ho River. He had just returned from China
when the war of the Rebellion began. On April 19,
1 86 1, he sailed, under sealed orders from the Navy De
partment, in command ofthe " Keystone State," destined
for Norfolk, where she rendered much assistance with
the tug-boat " Yankee" in towing out the " Cumberland"
and taking the loyal officers and men of the Norfolk
station to Washington. Lieutenant Trenchard received
a letter of thanks from Secretary Welles for this service.
On May 25 following, he assumed command of the
" Rhode Island," which was first used as a special de
spatch and supply steamer, but was afterwards converted
into a heavily-armed cruiser, and ordered to the North
Atlantic squadron on November 28, 1862. While the
" Monitor" was being taken from Fort Monroe, that
famous vessel foundered off Cape Hatteras, but the
" Rhode Island's" boats, notwithstanding the heavy sea,
succeeded in rescuing nearly all the " Monitor's" crew.
On February 12, 1863, Commander Trenchard received
orders to cruise after the "Alabama" and other priva
teers. In May of the same year the " Rhode Island"
was attached to Admiral Walker's squadron, and for a
short time to the South Atlantic blockading squadron.
In the following November she was ordered to the

North Atlantic fleet, and became one of Admiral Porter's
squadron before Fort Fisher. The " Rhode Island" was
one of the vessels that assisted in landing General Terry's
siege-guns, and General Abbott sent a letter of thanks
for this service to Commander Trenchard and officers.
In the engagement at Fort Fisher the " Rhode Island's"
guns were trained on Battery Lamb, and shot away the
flag-staff of the mound. After the reduction of Fort
Fisher, Commander Trenchard was ordered, as senior
officer, to command the convoy fleet which protected the
Pacific Mail steamers going through the Southwest Pass.
While on duty as a cruiser, the " Rhode Island" captured
five blockade-runners.
After the war, Commander Trenchard was stationed at
the Brooklyn Navy- Yard. As captain he commanded
the flag-ship " Lancaster," of the South Atlantic squad
ron, 1 869- 1 87 1. Returning to the United States, he
received his promotion to the grade of commodore, and
served as a member of the Board of Examiners at Wash
ington. His next duty was in charge of the Light-House
Department, head-quarters at Staten Island. In 1875 he
was promoted to rear-admiral, and, after serving as chair
man of a special board at San Francisco, he was ordered
to command the North Atlantic squadron, the historic
" Hartford" being his flag-ship. After serving on a spe
cial board at Washington, he was retired, according to
the United States navy regulations, in July, 1880, having
seen twenty-eight years' sea-service out of forty-five years
in the navy.
Admiral Trenchard was senior vice-commander ofthe
New York Commandery, Loyal Legion, 1879, 1880, and
a vice-president of the Seaman's Aid Society. He died
in November, 1883.

26

202

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

THOMAS MAY PE1RCE.
Thomas May Peirce, son of Caleb and Mary Peirce,
was born December 10, 1837, in Chester, Delaware
County, Pennsylvania. He is of English descent, being
a lineal descendant of George Perce, who came to this
country with William Penn and settled on a tract of land
comprising the present township of Thornbury, Delaware
County, and the township of the same name in Chester
County. On the maternal side he is descended from the
Pottses and Mays, who were also among the earliest
settlers of Pennsylvania.
When a child his parents removed to Philadelphia,
and here he grew to manhood. He was educated in the
public schools, and was graduated, at sixteen years of
age, from the Central High School, with the degree of
A.B. Five years later he received the degree of A.M.
from the same institution, and still later, the degree of
Ph.D. from Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
His first venture was in the business of engraving on
wood, which was not a financial success. He then spent
several years in travel, without any particular object in
view ; at the end of which time, at the solicitation of his
father, who had begun life as a teacher, he applied for a
situation as teacher of a district school in Springfield
Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Teach
ing proved to be his true vocation. He succeeded from
the first, and was soon called to the Norristown High
School, and in succession was changed to the Manayunk
Grammar School, to the Monroe School, and finally to
the Mount Vernon Grammar School of Philadelphia.
With this ample experience, Mr. Peirce began, Sep
tember 19, 1865, the work of training the young for
business. To use his own words : " When I organized
the school, in 1865, I had a clear apprehension of a

popular want of large proportions. I knew from busi
ness men that advertisements for help were answered by
hundreds, and that cases were rare in which more than
one per cent, of the applications rose to the dignity of
consideration. I did not have money, but I had time, I
had youth, and I had some degree of courage, and I
gave myself to the work of training the ninety-nine per
cent, of applicants who wanted to go into business and
whose previous preparation did not secure for them even
consideration at the hands of an employer." The result
is known. The Peirce School of Business stands pre
eminent as the representative business school of America,
coupling a good English education with systematic busi
ness training. There is a daily attendance of about
nine hundred students, taught by a faculty of thirty
specialists. Ever on the alert to keep up with the times, a trained
teacher himself, and well informed as to the preparation
needful for success in business, Dr. Peirce hesitates not
to test new methods while holding on to approved and
successful ones. During the last few years he has
organized and developed a school of shorthand and
typewriting, which now fairly divides honors with the
commercial department of his establishment.
For many years Dr. Peirce accepted engagements as
an expert accountant and as an expert in matters of
handwriting, but fifteen to twenty years' service in these
pursuits, which kept him almost constantly in court, so
impaired his eyesight that he gave up engagements of
this character, though he had commanded the highest
fees ever paid for such services. Besides, after the re
moval of his school to the Record building, it grew to
such a size as to require his entire time and strength.
Dr. Peirce has not been able to spare much time
for authorship, except in a few instances when his school
demanded special text-books. " Test Business Prob
lems ;" later, " Peirce Manual of Bookkeeping," and
"Peirce Writing-Slips;" and later still, " Peirce Manual
of Business Forms and Customs," " Peirce Manual for
the Typist," and " Peirce Manual of Language Lessons,"
are among those which he has published.
A marked feature in connection with Peirce School
is the annual graduating exercises. The most conspic
uous men of the land deliver the parting words of coun
sel and encouragement to the young men and women
graduates. Addresses covering a period of eleven years
have been collected and published in a very interesting
volume of five hundred and twenty-four pages.
Dr. Peirce is president of the Bookkeepers' Beneficial
Association, also a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal
Hospital in the city of Philadelphia, and treasurer of the
Philadelphia Sabbath Association, and takes an active
part in movements intended to secure the good of the
State and the welfare of mankind.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

203

CAPTAIN GEORGE B. ECKERT.
Captain George B. Eckert is a great-grandson of
Conrad Eckert, who came to this country from Longa-
selva, in the kingdom of Hanover, in 1740, and settled in
Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. During the war of
the Revolution he held a commission as captain in the
Berks County Regiment, taking part in the battles of
Long Island and Germantown. Valentine Eckert, brother
of Conrad, was one of the members of the Provincial
Conference in 1776; commanded a cavalry company for
a time during the Revolutionary War, and was wounded
at the battle of Germantown. Valentine acted as com
missioner for the purchase of army provisions. In 1784
he was appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas.
Captain Eckert was born in Reading, September 13,
1840, being the youngest son of Isaac Eckert, deceased,
who for many years was one of the leading iron mer
chants and financiers of Pennsylvania. Captain Eckert
was one of " The First Defenders," enlisting at Reading
in Captain James McKnight's Ringgold Light Artillery,
leaving Reading for Washington, April 16, 1861. These
were the first troops to pass through Baltimore.
Captain Eckert was appointed second lieutenant Third
United States Infantry, August 5, 1861, by President
Lincoln, reporting at Governor's Island, New York, and
was assigned to Company I, which was captured at Fort
Pickens and placed on parole at the breaking out of the
war. After reorganizing the company he joined the
regiment at Washington, D. C, and was promoted to
first lieutenant July 2, 1862.
Captain Eckert participated in the Peninsular cam

paign, advance to the Chickahominy, Fair Oaks, Gaines
Mill, Seven Pines, Seven Days' battles, South Mountain,
Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville.
In May, 1863, Captain Eckert was ordered to report
to Colonel Buchanan, Fourth United States Infantry, for
mustering duty at Trenton, New Jersey. In October,
1864, he received his promotion as captain.
November 10, 1864, Captain Eckert resigned his com
mission to take charge of valuable business interests at
home, where he is a well-known citizen, and member of
the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United
States, and Post 76, Grand Army of the Republic, De
partment of Pennsylvania.

204

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

DANIEL PHCENIX.
Daniel Phcenix, a citizen of New York of much
prominence during and after the Revolutionary period,
was born in that city about 1737, and resided there
during his whole career, playing an active part in the
mercantile and public life of the city. His business life
was that of a merchant, in which he was very successful,
attaining what, at that period of more modest views than
the present, was esteemed a position of wealth. His
life, however, was by no means confined to business, he
becoming conspicuous in the political affairs of the city
in those far-off days before the present political parties
and public questions were born. In the slow growth of
New York from the position of a village to that of a
metropolis, a period arrived in its finances in which a
custodian of its funds became necessary, and Mr. Phoenix
was chosen to occupy this resjionsible position. In other
words, he was the first city treasurer of New York. In
connection with this official position he also held that
of city chamberlain, being the first in this also. These
important positions, the election to which shows the
high standard he had attained in the regard of his fellow-
citizens, he retained for twenty years, manifesting in
them an integrity and devotion to public duty which
have not always been emulated in later incumbents of
these important offices.
A conspicuous patriot in sentiment, he was, in common
with many other loyal citizens, obliged to leave the city
on the occasion of its occupation by the British army,
and to remain an exile during the whole period of the
war, not daring to return until the end of the conflict.
On the day following the evacuation of the city by the
British troops, November 26, 1783, he had the honor of

presenting to General Washington, then entering at the
head of the American forces, a patriotic address of wel
come, signed by himself and others of the distinguished
citizens who had spent the period of British occupation
in exile from their native city. An extract from this
address will undoubtedly be of interest.
" Sir, — At a moment when the arm of tyranny is
yielding up its fondest usurpations, we hope the saluta
tions of long-suffering exiles, but now happy freemen,
will not be deemed an unworthy tribute. In this place,
and at this moment of exultation and triumph, while the
ensigns of slavery still linger in our sight, we look up to
you, our deliverer, with unusual transports of gratitude
and joy . . . The citizens of New York are eminently
indebted to your virtues ; and we, who now have the
honor to address your Excellency, have been often
companions of your sufferings and witnesses of your
exertions. Permit us, therefore, to approach your Excel
lency with the dignity and sincerity of freemen, and to
assure you that we shall preserve, with our latest breath,
our gratitude for your services, and veneration for your
character." In response to this address, signed by Daniel Phcenix
and others, General Washington felicitously replied, —
" Great as your joy must be on this pleasing occasion,
it can scarcely exceed that which I feel at seeing you,
gentlemen, who from the noblest motives have suffered
a voluntary exile for many years, return again in peace
and triumph to enjoy the fruits of your virtuous conduct.
The fortitude and perseverance which you and your suf
fering brethren have exhibited in the course of the war
have not only endeared you to your countrymen, but
will be remembered with admiration and applause to the
latest posterity."
These extracts, which are all we have space to give,
will suffice to show the spirit of this interesting occasion.
We may say, in conclusion, that Mr. Phcenix was for
many years an elder in the Presbyterian Church. He
was a man of education and refinement, strongly inter
ested in many religious and benevolent institutions of
the city, and in all that contributed to its growth and
prosperity. He died in 18 12.
The Phcenix Building, on Chapel Street, New Haven,
was erected on his property, and still remains in pos
session of some of his descendants. He left four chil
dren, of whom Elizabeth married Nathaniel G. Ingraham,
father of Judge Daniel P. Ingraham, and Jenet married
Richard Riker, the first recorder of New York. Among
his great-grandchildren are Major Edgar Ketchum and
Colonel Alexander P. Ketchum, of New York City, two
of the children of Elizabeth Phcenix and Edgar Ketchum,
late of this city.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

205

MAJOR EDGAR KETCHUM.
Edgar Ketchum was born in the city of New York,
July 15, 1840. He is the son of Edgar Ketchum and
Elizabeth Phcenix, his mother being the grand-daughter
of Daniel Phcenix, a distinguished citizen and merchant
of New York, and its first city treasurer and city cham
berlain, which position he held for twenty years. Pie
was also a member of the first Chamber of Commerce
of this city. On his father's side Mr. Ketchum is de
scended from Cornelius Van Tienhoven, who was a
prominent citizen of New York more than two hundred
years ago.
Mr. Ketchum graduated with the degree of A.B. at
the College of the City of New York in the year i860.
Three years afterwards he received that of A.M. He
subsequently studied law in his father's office and at
Columbia College Law School, graduating in 1 862 with
the degree of LL.B., and was then admitted to practise
law. Early in the Civil War Mr. Ketchum joined the cele
brated New York Seventh Regiment, and subsequently
was appointed by the President an officer in the Signal
Corps in the United States army. He served in the
Army of the James before Richmond in this field of
duty, and was highly commended by his superior officers
at that time.
At a later date he took part in the second Fort Fisher
expedition, serving on the staff of General A. H. Terry
and General C. J. Paine. He was twice promoted, once
for gallant and meritorious services at the capture of
that fort. He participated in the capture of Fort Ander
son, was at the battle of Town Creek and the capture of
Wilmington, serving on the staff of General J. M. Scho-
field and that of General J. D. Cox, and rendering valu
able service in connection with these victories.
After the capture of Wilmington he served again on
the staff of General Terry, and was with him until after
the battles of Bentonville and Averysborough in March,
1865. His duties at the capture of Fort Fisher were of
a very responsible nature, he being occupied during the
period of the assault and bombardment in communicating
information from General Terry to Admiral Porter, direct
ing the firing of the fleet so as to avoid injury to the
advancing sections of our army. During this time he
was constantly under fire, and was especially exposed to
the aim of the enemy's sharp-shooters. The morning
after the capture of the fort, he narrowly escaped death
by the explosion of the magazine, at which time two
hundred men were killed.
The capture of Fort Fisher with the subsequent loss
of all the Cape Fear River defences and of Wilmington,
the great importing depot of the South, effectually ended
all blockade-running, and justified the statement of Gen

eral Lee, that Fort Fisher must be held or he could not
subsist his army.
Captain Ketchum was honorably discharged from the
United States service in August, 1865, the war having
closed. On his return to New York he resumed his
position in the Seventh Regiment, but was soon pro
moted, and afterwards was appointed engineer with the
rank of major in the First Brigade, First Division, New
York National Guard, in recognition of his services in
the field during the war. After holding this position
for three years he resigned and was honorably dis
charged. Major Ketchum has been in constant practice of the
law at New York City since his return to civil life, de
voting himself principally to the examination of titles,
conveyancing, etc., a branch of practice with which he
is very familiar, and in connection with which his long
association with his father, one of the most distinguished
practitioners of New York, has given him peculiar ad
vantages. He has always been a Republican.
He is a member of the Military Order of the Loyal
Legion of the United States, the War Veterans of the
Seventh Regiment, Post Lafayette, G. A. R., the Society
of the Army of the Potomac, and the Veteran Signal
Corps Association.
In 1870 he married Angelica S. Anderson, daughter
of Smith W. Anderson, deceased, and has two children,
Edith Schuyler and Edgar Van Rensselaer Ketchum.
Since 1870 he has resided at Woody Crest, a pictu
resque private park on Jerome Avenue, near One Hun
dred and Sixty-fifth Street, in New York City, in a house
erected by him soon after his marriage on a portion of
the estate of James Anderson, the grandfather of Mrs.
Ketchum, the land having been in the possession of the
Anderson family for more than a hundred years.

206

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

CHRISTOPHER C. BALDWIN.
Christopher- Columbus Baldwin is a native of Anne
Arundel County, Maryland, where his father, who had
served as a naval officer in the War of 1812 on the
" Boxer" and the " Peacock," possessed a plantation.
During the war he took part in many naval engagements,
and was voted a sword by Congress for his gallantry
during the fight between the " Peacock" and the " Eper-
vier." After the war he married Mary Woodward, a
woman of highly amiable character, and spent the re
mainder of his life in the care of his plantation.
Their son Christopher — one of eleven children — was
educated in the local schools, and afterwards entered a
mercantile house in Baltimore, where he advanced rapidly
in position. On the outbreak of the Civil War, he was
sent by the firm of Woodward, Baldwin & Co., in which
his brother was a partner, into the seceding States to
collect debts due the firm. In this he was entirely suc
cessful, collecting the entire indebtedness, and running
the blockade twice in so doing. At his suggestion this
firm, near the end of the war, opened a branch in New
York, which still continues, under the name of Wood
ward, Baldwin & Co., one of the leading houses on
Worth Street. He became a partner in this firm, and
for many years was its senior partner, its high position
in the commercial world being principally due to his
efforts and ability.
He entered into a new field of activity about 1880,
when he was elected president of the Louisville and
Nashville Railroad Company. His former business ex

perience had made him thoroughly acquainted with the
South and its people, and adapted him for this post.
Under his presidency, the road made rapid progress,
auxiliary roads were purchased, and the foundations of
the present system were laid. The finances, which were
in a low state, improved greatly under his management,
and by a single transaction he saved the company more
than two million dollars. He resigned the presidency in
1884, leaving the road greatly increased in extent, and in
a far more stable condition than that in which he found
it. Since then he has been connected wdth other railroad
enterprises and large financial undertakings, in all of
which he has displayed a business energy and integrity
that have inured to the advantage of every affair with
which he has been concerned. He is an officer in
numerous banks, insurance companies, trust companies,
and other corporations ; among them the New York Life
Insurance Company, the Manhattan Trust Company, and
the New York Security and Trust Company.
In January, 1884, he was appointed by Governor
Cleveland commissioner in charge of the construction
of the new Croton aqueduct. His appointment to this
post occasioned some surprise, as he had mingled but
little in politics, and was then engaged as president of
the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. But it met with
general approval, and his management of the work won
him the highest commendation.
The most important political contest in which Mr.
Baldwin took part was the campaign of General Han
cock for the Presidency. In this he worked earnestly,
and after Hancock's defeat he called a meeting at the
Brunswick Hotel, at which a committee of one hundred
was appointed and the County Democracy organized.
In truth, although he had voted with Tammany Hall,
he opposed its methods when these seemed to interfere
with the freedom of suffrage of the voter, and in con
sequence has been antagonistic to it in its eveiy recent
campaign. He has shown no ambition for political posi
tion, and has several times refused nominations for city
offices and for Congress.
Some time after he settled in New York he married
Miss Roman, of Hagerstown, Maryland, who died early,
leaving him a family of two sons and one daughter. He
has presented to Hagerstown, as a memorial to her, a
spire and tower to St. John's Episcopal Church, one of
the finest pieces of ecclesiastic architecture in the State.
Mr. Baldwin is vice-president of the Manhattan Club,
and is connected with other social and political institu
tions of the city.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

207

LYMAN D. MORSE.
The subject of this sketch, Mr. Lyman D. Morse, is
a worthy member of a family which has given to the
United States citizens active in science and invention, and
prominent in law, the ministry, journalism, and states
manship; and his own career gives evidence of inherited
characteristics derived from the line of Samuel Morse,
who left England in 1635 and became a prominent
leader among the earl)- Puritan fathers in America.
Mr. Morse is a native of Maine, his birthplace being
the town of Paris, in that State. His boyhood was spent
and his education obtained in Paris, his final course of
study being in the Oxford Normal Institute of that town.
Shortly after graduating from this institution he removed
to Boston, Massachusetts, where he became connected
with the eminent firm of Joseph Burnett & Co. It was
during his fourteen years' experience with this firm, during
which he travelled widely over the United States, that he
gradually acquired the basis of the intimate knowledge
of and acquaintanceship with the newspapers and peri
odicals of this country which now characterizes him as
the foremost specialist in his line of business. In addi
tion to this, a faculty he has of making friends quickly
and impressing his individuality strongly on those whom
he meets, caused him to make a most extended and
valuable acquaintance with merchants and business men
in all parts of the country.
In 1872, Mr. Morse married Miss Clara Meacham,
the daughter of a prominent New York merchant, and
shortly afterwards went to London, England, where he
resided for three years, establishing his business head
quarters there, and advertising and introducing American
products in Europe. His natural talent in the direction
of his present avocation, which had developed largely
during his wide experience, combined with his intuitive
grasping of all the circumstances which serve to make a
publication of value, or otherwise, for advertising pur
poses, singled him out as pre-eminently fitted for the busi
ness with which he has become so prominently connected ;
and on his return to this country after his European
experiences, the value of which proved great in his after-
career, he connected himself with Mr. J. H. Bates, then
proprietor ofthe advertising agency which bore his name.
The many years of association with Mr. Bates eventu
ated in Mr. Morse becoming the manager of the business,
in which capacity he found full scope for his energy and
abilities. Little by little Mr. Bates withdrew from active
labor, realizing that in his new manager he had one whose
integrity and experience were such that the vast interests
which were intrusted to his hands would be judiciously
taken care of and augmented. And when afterwards
Mr. Bates solidified his interests by taking Mr. Morse
into partnership, the latter found himself the executive
head of a business whose name had become a synonyme

for integrity, honesty of dealing, straightforwardness,
and good business methods. Some of the largest firms
at home and abroad, who expend their millions to
make the names of their goods household words, placed
their confidential interests in his watchful care, and Mr.
Morse directed this enormous stream of money, seeing
to it that none ran to waste, but that every penny was
spent in a painstaking, judicious, and profitable manner.
The agency in Mr. Morse's hands maintained the ex
cellent reputation of the firm, and the next important
step taken by the partners was the permanent retirement
of Mr. Bates, leaving Mr. Morse the sole owner of the
establishment, which is now known as the Lyman D.
Morse Advertising Agency, and one of the leading con
cerns of its kind on either side of the Atlantic,
Mr. Morse is shrewd, quick-witted, with remarkable
thoroughness of purpose, and has the faculty of instant
decision, an important business instinct where large inter
ests must be decided in a moment. This faculty alone
is sufficient to raise a man above his fellows, and no
doubt to its possession is due a large portion of Mr.
Morse's success in life. He combines the mature judg
ment of middle age with the vigor more properly belong
ing to a man of fewer years.
He is very genial and warm-hearted, a fact to be testi
fied to by many a less fortunate " brother," as well as by
those who know him in his domestic relation in his refined
Brooklyn home or at his charming country house at Twi
light Park. Mr. Morse is a trustee of the Morse Society
of America and a member of the New England Society.
At his clubs — the Union League and Lincoln of Brook
lyn ; the Press, Twilight, and the Hardware of New
York — he is known as a whole-souled clubable man
who occasionally exhibits to a few privileged intimates
his talent as a raconteur and brilliant conversationalist.

208

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JOHN DENISON WATTLES.
John Denison Wattles was a typical New Englander.
A descendant, on the one side, of John Alden and Pris-
cilla Mullins, of Plymouth Colony, he was descended on
the other side from Captain George Denison, who has
been called " the Miles Standish of Connecticut Colony,"
and who was wounded as a soldier in Cromwell's army
before he became the successful fighter against the
Indians in his New England home.
The ancestral home of Mr. Wattles was the township
of Lebanon, Connecticut, where was the home of Gov
ernor Jonathan Trumbull, the friend of Washington, and
the original " Brother Jonathan," who gave the popular
name to the " Yankee Nation," and afterwards of various
other governors, down to the famous " war governor"
William A. Buckingham, the friend of Lincoln. Born
November 28, 1849, young Wattles was brought up
with the New England idea of working hard for a living,
and of being faithful in every duty.
Trained on a farm in his country home in Lebanon,
and afterwards in an apothecary's store in Norwich, he
removed in 1870 to Hartford as the secretary and assist
ant of Rev. H. Clay Trumbull, then in charge of the
missionary work of the American Sunday-School Union
for the New England field. He showed power as super
intendent of a mission school, and afterwards of a church
school, and was efficient in organizing new schools and
arousing old ones to new life and effort in various
directions.

He came to Philadelphia, in the summer of 1875, to
be the business manager of The Sunday-School Times,
of which Mr. Trumbull was to be the editor, and of
which Mr. Wanamaker had been, until then, sole pro
prietor. Two years later he, with Mr. Trumbull, pur
chased the interest of Mr. Wanamaker in that paper,
and became its publisher. Its circulation was then less
than twenty-five thousand, and his energy and ability
raised it to one hundred and fifty thousand, and made it
the best known and most influential periodical of its
kind in the world.
His power and influence were felt to a large degree
outside of Philadelphia as well as in it. He was promi
nent in efforts to change the postal laws, and his counsel
was greatly valued in the national conferences of pub
lishers to that end. He was peculiarly effective in
bringing others to see the truth as he saw it. Unselfish
and reasonable to a rare degree, he never advocated a
measure unless he saw it to be best, and then he was
quietly persistent, while gently persuasive and convincing.
He was respected and beloved by all.
He was a member of the Union League, and was
influential in bringing about reforms in methods of local
political action. In various spheres of religious activity
also his labors were prominent for good. He was a
ruling elder in the Walnut Street Presbyterian Church,
and one of the superintendents of its Sunday-school.
He was a manager of The Pennsylvania Bible Society,
a manager of the Young Men's Christian Association,
a manager of several local beneficences, and a repre
sentative manager of various Presbyterian organizations
for denominational work.
Clearness of head, quickness of perception, a grasp
of principles of action, unswerving integrity, firmness of
purpose, coupled with gentleness of manner, winsomeness
of spirit, and attractiveness of personality, were marked
characteristics in the business qualities of Mr. Wattles.
He put his best self into whatever he did, and those
who had to do with him were conscious of this fact, and
were impressed by him accordingly.
While not yet forty-four years old, in the prime of his
young manhood, Mr. Wattles was stricken down with
tubercular laryngitis, and, after a brave struggle for life, he
died March 21, 1893, at Sarasota, Florida, where he had
gone in the hope of at least prolonging the conflict. The
periodical press ofthe country, secular and religious, gave
expression to the public sense of his loss, and he died, as
he had lived, honored and beloved by all who knew him.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

209

GEORGE H. NORTH.
Colonel George Humphries North was born June
17, i84i,at Coventry, Chester County, Pennsylvania, but
was brought to Philadelphia by his parents while still an
infant. He is a grandson of Colonel Caleb North, who
commanded the Eleventh Pennsylvania Regiment, Con
tinental Line, during the Revolutionary War, and a son
of George W. North, of Philadelphia. He was educated
in the schools of this city, and in 1857 entered the bank
ing house of Charles Emory &: Company, on Third Street.
On the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1861, Mr. North,
moved by the desire to aid in the preservation of the
Union, which his grandfather had fought to establish,
volunteered his services for the suppression of the rebel
lion, although not yet twenty years old, enlisting on
April 24, 1861, as a private in the Commonwealth Artil
lery. His company was stationed at Fort Delaware, where
he served until the end of his three months' term of en
listment, returning home in August. Pie again entered
the army as second lieutenant of the Fourteenth Penn
sylvania Cavalry, with whom he served until the close of
the war, participating in the campaigns of the Army of
the Potomac and the Shenandoah, and in those of West
Virginia, and accompanying General Sheridan in his
famous ride from Winchester to Cedar Hill, one of the
most striking and dramatic incidents of the war. He
was highly complimented by Generals Averell, Torbett,
and others for gallant conduct on the field of battle, and
was honorably discharged from the volunteer service on
July 31, 1865, being then captain of Company E, Four
teenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
After the war, Captain North was offered a position in
the regular army, but was forced to decline this honor
from the demands of home duties, and returned to pri
vate life. In the fall of 1865 he was elected a member
of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, and has continued
in this body in good standing ever since, being now one
of its governors. In November of that year he entered
into partnership with H. Heber Bull, under the firm-name
of Bull & North. The firm conducted a successful busi
ness until December 2, 1871, when Mr. Bull retired, and
Colonel North's brother, William F. North, entered the
firm, which now took the name of G. H. North & Com
pany. On October 18, 1870, Colonel North had married,
his bride being Miss Harriet J. Robbins, daughter of
Charles Robbins, an iron merchant of this city. His family
at present consists of a son and three daughters, one son
having died. He resides at Chestnut Hill, his residence
being known by the suggestive title, " Our Home."
In 1873, the firm again changed, Colonel North's
brother retiring and Mr. Craig Heberton entering, the
title becoming North, Heberton & Company This firm

was dissolved in 1878, and since then Colonel North has
continued in business under the firm-name of G. H. North
& Company. His business career has been a successful
one, although many duties have called him from it, par
ticularly those in connection with the National Guard of
Pennsylvania. He entered this organization after the war
as adjutant of the First Regiment of Infantry, and has
been promoted to each grade, gaining in 1870 the posi
tion of adjutant-general of the division, which he still
holds, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel on the staff of
the division commander, General George R. Snowden.
In completion of the record of Colonel North's military
career, it will suffice to state that he is a member of the
military order known as the Loyal Legion, Pennsylvania
Commandery, Insignia 1102; also of the Society of the
Army of the Potomac ; of the Association of the Com
monwealth Artillery of Pennsylvania ; of the Grand
Army of the Republic, Post No. 2, Philadelphia; of the
Society of Sons of the Revolution ; Past Commander of
the Veteran Corps, First Infantry, National Guard of
Pennsylvania ; a member of the United Service Club ;
of the Army and Navy Club of New York, etc.
In addition to these military organizations, Colonel
North is a member of many social clubs and orders.
He has since 1865 been an active worker in the Masonic
order, and is a Past Master of Union Lodge, No. 121.
He was one of the organizers of the Art Association of
the Masonic Temple, which has done so much to adorn
that noblest temple of this ancient order. He is a mem
ber and one of the directors of the Union League, a
member of the organization of lovers of music known
as the Utopian Club, of the Bachelors' Barge Club, New
York Club, and of several other organizations. Politi
cally he is a Republican, and has done much to assist
his party by his means and influence.

27

2IO

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM HENRY BROWNE.
General William Henry Browne is descended pa
ternally from a military Huguenot family, expatriated
from France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
Brounet entered King William's army, the name shortly
becoming Anglicized into Browne. Generations of his
descendants have served as officers in the British army,
including General Browne's father, who resigned his
captaincy, married, and came to America, where General
Browne was born. His maternal ancestry, the Mont-
gomerys, were connected with the English navy.
With such martial ascendants, the boy naturally desired
a military career. His father strenuously discouraged
this taste, designing him for his own adopted profession,—
the law. Absorbed in his studies, he found time,
notwithstanding, to join the splendid citizen regiment,
since become world famous as the Seventh New York.
While still a minor, commissioned as second lieutenant,
he went to Mexico with his father's stanch friend, General
Scott. He was in all the principal battles, earning two
brevets, medals, and warm commendations.
Refusing a commission in the permanent army, after
the war, he resumed his law studies. In 1850 he was
admitted to the Supreme Court of his State (New York).
He became at once conspicuous for proficiency in the
new code of civil procedure. In 1857 he was admitted
to the United States Supreme Court, before which he
still practises. Joining the new Republican party in
1856, his popularity made him president of the Fremont
and Dayton Central Club, embracing clubs of twenty-
two New York wards. Nominated for the bench, in
1857, he was, while running ahead of most of his coad

jutors, defeated with his party. Later he was nominated
by a spontaneous vote for a high court, and was asked
to run for Congress. Preferring the practice of law, he
declined both honors. Although no civil positions could
tempt him from his chosen profession, the Sumter guns,
which thrilled through all the land, roused his martial
blood, causing Coke and Blackstone to lie on dusty
shelves. At his own expense he raised fourteen com
panies, most of which were joined to other regiments
without his consent. Holding fast to the few remaining,
he became lieutenant-colonel of the Thirty-first New
York Infantry. The records show him in command of
his regiment at the first Bull Run, supporting the field-
batteries of Hunt and Piatt. Just after the Seven Days'
Fight he was promoted to the colonelcy of the Thirty-
sixth New York. In command of a brigade of five
regiments he fought, on the same day, the battles of
second Fredericksburg and Salem Heights, being severely
wounded in the latter action. As soon as practicable he
was before President Lincoln, asking for his old command.
Too crippled for hard field duty, Mr. Lincoln assigned
him to the command of six volunteer reserve regiments.
Towards the end of the war, Grant called for ten thou
sand volunteer reserves to advance by water on Rich
mond. Browne was advised to hold himself in readiness
to command these troops ; but Stanton refused, much to
their chagrin, to send wounded soldiers on such arduous
duty. Browne was commissioned in the permanent
service, but declined, turning his attention once more
to his long-neglected law.
He has been a diligent writer on law subjects, and has
an exhaustive work on marriage laws now in process
of compilation. He is best known to the legal world
through his " Browne on Trade-Marks" and analogous
subjects. It is a book not only esteemed for the purity
of its English, but as an acknowledged authority in
Europe and the United States. He has lectured in
various universities, and was proffered the deanship of a
university's law faculty. Preferring to be thoroughly
untrammelled, he declined.
In 1886 his alma mater, the University of the City of
New York, conferred on him the honorary degree of
Doctor of Laws.
His life has been one of industry, whether in study
or the fiercer duties of war. He acquired a thorough
knowledge of French and a good understanding of
Spanish and German. As instructor of new troops he
used to spend hours daily, and as a president of courts-
martial hours more. That he was appreciated by his
equals is shown by the fact that he was selected by a
number of them for promotion above themselves.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

21 I

GEORGE W. CHILDS.
George W. Childs, the eminent Philadelphia phi
lanthropist, was born in Baltimore, May 12, 1829, and
received his education in the public schools of that city.
When thirteen years of age he obtained a position in the
United States navy, and served there for fifteen months,
after which he came to Philadelphia, where he obtained
employment as errand-boy in a book-store. Here he
soon acquired such knowledge of books that he was
trusted with the important duty of attending auction
sales and purchasing books for his employer. He after
wards attended the great trade sales at New York and
Boston. The boy had in him those essential elements of
success, diligence, judgment, and enterprise, and when
but eighteen years of age he opened a book-store for
himself, with a few hundred dollars he had saved. This
was in the building at Third and Chestnut Streets, then
occupied by the Public Ledger.
His business prospered, and shortly before he became
of age he entered into partnership with Robert E. Peter
son (his future father-in-law), the original firm-name of
R. E. Peterson & Co. soon being changed to Childs &
Peterson. The new firm entered energetically into the
publishing business, and with marked success. One of
the first books published was Dr. Kane's " Arctic Ex
plorations," which had so great a sale that within a year
they paid Dr. Kane a copyright of nearly seventy thou
sand dollars. Other works issued included Bouvier's
" Law Dictionary," Peterson's " Familiar Science," Alli-
bone's " Dictionary of Authors," etc., many of which
had a very large sale. In i860, Mr. Peterson retired,
and Mr. Childs became connected with the house of J.
B. Lippincott & Co. After a year he resumed business
for himself, issuing the National Almanac and the Ameri
can Publishers' Circular with great success.
During this time he was steadily coming nearer to the
accomplishment of an ambition he had long entertained,
the possession of the Public Ledger newspaper. In 1864
it was losing money rapidly, and the proprietors accepted
Mr.^Childs's offer to purchase it. But the new propri
etor soon showed how it could be published at a profit.
He doubled the price and increased the advertising rates.
Subscribers and advertisers at once fell off largely, but
Mr. Childs held to his point, except that he reduced the
weekly price from twelve to ten cents. The Ledger had
become a necessity in many families, and soon began to
recover its lost patrons, and in a short time was on a
solid paying basis. The new proprietor worked on it
with energy, superintending everything, and not leaving
the editorial rooms till midnight. He made a number of
changes in the character of the paper, elevating its tone,
excluding all advertisements tainted with immorality.
From that time forward it grew rapidly in circulation, and
has continued to grow until it has attained its present

highly lucrative and prominent position. In 1866 the
growth of the business demaded more ample accommo
dations, and the large building at Sixth and Chestnut
Streets, the present home of the paper, was erected, and
opened on June 20, 1867. The later history of the
Public Ledger is familiar to all Philadelphians.
Mr. Childs was pre-eminently a public-spirited and
philanthropic citizen. He was one of the originators of
Fairmount Park, contributing largely towards the pur
chase of ground for park purposes. He subscribed liber
ally towards the Centennial Exposition and other purposes,
and in 1868 established and abundantly endowed a burial
lot in Woodland Cemetery for the Typographical Society
of Philadelphia. His generosity was not confined to
Philadelphia, but was world-wide. England is indebted to
him for a fine window in Westminster Abbey in memory
of the poets Cowper and Herbert, and one to Milton in St
Margaret's Church, Westminster; a monument to Leigh
Hunt, and a handsome Shakespeare memorial fountain at
Stratford-on-Avon. In America he honored with monu
ments the graves of Edgar A. Poe and the astronomer
Proctor, and established a home for aged and disabled
printers at Colorado Springs. These were in addi
tion to countless private benefactions, which have made
his name almost a synonyme for quiet charity. He was
vice-president and, after the death of the founder, presi
dent of the Drexel Institute, the great benefaction of his
business partner and life-long friend, Anthony J. Drexel.
Mr. Childs possessed a valuable library of rare books
and other literary treasures, embracing autographs, let
ters, and manuscripts of priceless worth, among them
the original manuscript of " Our Mutual Friend," signed
by Charles Dickens. Many of these are deposited at
the Drexel Institute. He died, after a sudden and short
illness, February 3, 1894.

212

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ALBERT G. SPALDING.
The development of the American national game of
base-ball is so closely identified with the name of Albert
G. Spalding that the two can only be mentioned in close
connection. Born at Byron, Ogle County, Illinois, Sep
tember 3, 1850, he removed to Rockford, Illinois, with
his parents, in 1863, completed his education in the com
mercial college of that city, and began his business life
as a grocery clerk at five dollars per week. He had
already shown marked ability as a base-ball player, and
now continued a member of the Forest City Base-Ball
Club, then the leading club of the West. In 1867 this
Rockford club surprised the country by defeating the
National Club of Washington, then the champion club
of the country. This victory, which was largely due to
young Spalding's striking ability as a pitcher, gave him
a national reputation, and offers of positions, at salaries
ranging from fifteen hundred to twenty-five hundred dol
lars per year, were sent him from a number of clubs.
Such offers, to a boy of seventeen, were very alluring,
but his mother and sister so strongly opposed his em
barking in the career of a professional sportsman that
he accepted instead a position in a wholesale grocery
store in Chicago. During the succeeding four years he
had a strange experience. The store in which he was
failed in business, and so did an insurance company, a
newspaper, and an insurance agent, with which he suc
cessively became connected. Pie had returned to Rock
ford, and was now pitcher for the Forest City Base-Ball
Club, which also disbanded.
Discouraged by these several failures, he now decided,
against his mother's and sister's earnest wish, to accept
a professional position in the Boston Base-Ball Club at
a salary of twenty-five hundred dollars a year. In his
desire, however, to please his friends, he accepted two

other positions, one on the New York Graphic, and one
in a Boston insurance office. Both these failed, making
seven failures in five years of concerns with which he
had been connected. Evidently the fates were against
his embarking in business as an employee, and he was
forced to pursue base-ball as a profession. He had for
years had the idea that the " great American game"
might be popularized in other lands, and in 1874 he
visited England, and made arrangements for a tour in
that country of the Boston and Philadelphia clubs. The
tour through England and Ireland that followed proved
a highly successful one, Mr. Spalding acting as assistant
to its business manager. His success in this made him
aspire to become manager of a club himself. From 1871
to 1875 he had been the only pitcher ofthe Boston Club,
and the victorious career of this club gave him so high
a reputation that in 1876 the Chicago Club engaged him
as its manager, captain, and pitcher. Under his manage
ment the Chicago Club that year won the League cham
pionship. Mr. Spalding took an active part, with William A.
Hubert, in organizing the National League, now the
governing body of base-ball throughout the world. On
the death of Mr. Hubert, in 1882, he became president
of the Chicago Club, with which, and the Ail-American
Base-Ball Team, he made a tour ofthe world in 1888-89,
the result of which was the introduction of the repre
sentative American game into fourteen different countries.
But Mr. Spalding's life has not been solely one of
sport. In 1876 he, with his brother, J. Walter Spalding,
began business in a small way in Chicago in the manu
facture of base-ball bats and other sporting goods. So
successful was this venture that at the close of 1877 he
retired from active work on the field, having often had
to leave the ground after a hard game and work until
midnight in his office. In 1879, William T. Brown, his
brother-in-law, entered the firm, which has since been
known as A. G. Spalding & Bros. Soon after starting
business they began to manufacture for themselves,
establishing a large factory at Hastings, Michigan, which
was burned in 1887. The business was then removed to
Chicago, where all kinds of sporting goods in which
wood predominates are now produced on a very exten
sive scale by the Spalding Manufacturing Company. In
1885 a branch house was established in New York, and
one in Philadelphia in 1891, while some ten large facto
ries are located in various parts ofthe country. In 1891
the demands of his great business caused Mr. Spalding
to retire from the presidency of the Chicago Base-Ball
Club, though his interest in it remains undiminished.
He is at present, as president of the A. G. Spalding Land
Association, engaged in the disposal of a large tract of
land just south of the city limits of Chicago, being part
of the celebrated Calumet Region.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

213

EDWARD F. BOGERT.
Edward Freas Bogert, postmaster of Wilkesbarre,
Pennsylvania, and long identified with the progress of
that active mountain city of the Keystone State, is a
native of Pennsylvania, having been born at New Co
lumbus, Luzerne County, on September 27, 1856. His
father was in business at that place as wheelwright, black
smith, and painter. His education was gained in the
public schools and the Collegiate Academy of New
Columbus, and in part at the Keystone Academy,
Factoryville, Pennsylvania.
After completing his course of study in these institu
tions, Mr. Bogert spent some time at labor in his father's
workshops, taking a hand in the several departments of
work in these shops ; but in the spring of 1878 he leased
a farm in the vicinity of his native town, and for the
succeeding two years was engaged in agriculture, he
superintending in person the farm work, and doing his
own share in the labor of the fields. During part of
this period, however, he filled the position of clerk in
the office of his brother, the late J. K. Bogert, who at
that time was register of wills of Luzerne County. On
April 1, 1880, Mr. Bogert gave up his farm, and began
his subsequent career of journalism in the office of the
Leader, a prominent Democratic newspaper of Wilkes
barre, Pennsylvania. Shortly after entering this office he
took charge of the books of the paper, and soon after
became its general business manager.
The Leader was under the control of his brother, J. K.
Bogert, but the latter becoming actively engaged in 1881
as chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee,
and being appointed, in July, 1885, postmaster of Wilkes
barre, the management of the paper had to be mainly
intrusted to his young assistant, who, we need scarcely
say, proved abundantly adequate to the task. Mr. J. K.
Bogert died in February, 1887, and during the following
year Mr. Bogert took charge of the business interests of
his estate. In April, 1888, he succeeded him as pub
lisher and editor, purchasing from the estate the three
papers formerly conducted by his brother, the Evening
Leader, Sunday Leader, and Weekly Union Leader.
This purchase was made at a time when Mr. Bogert
was still comparatively young, and his capital limited.
But friends came to his assistance ; he went in with a
determination to win, and by the most careful economy,
hard work, and shrewd business management, in which
he never lost faith in the outcome or became discouraged

in his venture, he succeeded in placing it among the fixed
successful business institutions of the county. He has
added largely to the plant, made additions to the building,
and greatly improved its interior adaptation to newspaper
work. Politically, Mr. Bogert has always been an earnest
and energetic Democrat, and is an active worker in the
interests of the party, alike through his editorial work
and his personal connection with party movements. In
April, 1896, he was appointed postmaster of Wilkesbarre,
in his application for which he displayed that energy
and system to which he has owed all his success, pro
curing the strongest and most influential recommenda
tions, and arranging them with a systematic care and
precision which elicited warm praise from the postmaster-
general. Mr. Bogert has made himself a leader in the develop
ment of athletic sports in the city of his residence, being
the prime mover in establishing the new athletic park,
and an earnest advocate of municipal improvement in
general. For four years he served as president of the
Wilkesbarre Base-Ball Club, was president of the Penn
sylvania State League of Base-Ball Clubs, 1887, and
director of the Eastern League of Professional Base- Ball
Clubs in 1893-94-95. From April, 1884, to December,
1886, he served in the Ninth Regiment, National Guards
of Pennsylvania, and is a member of a number of fraternal
organizations, including the Dieu le Vent Commandery,
Knights Templars, of Wilkesbarre.

214

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

COLONEL THOMAS FITZGERALD.
Colonel Thomas FitzGerald, the well-known jour
nalist, dramatist, art critic, and philanthropist, was born
in New York City, December 22, 18 19, and died in
London, England, June 25, 1891.
Colonel FitzGerald was descended from the Geraldines
of Ireland, and was a warm friend of the late Duke of
Leinster, as well as his father, the Marquis of Kildare.
Colonel FitzGerald began his career by becoming assist
ant editor of the New Brunswick Fredonian. He was
soon after connected with the New York Commercial
Advertiser. In 1839 he visited Florida, and was con
nected with The Floridian, at Tallahassee, Florida.
Colonel FitzGerald removed to Philadelphia in 1844,
and, after having been connected with the Bulletin and
other journals, finally established The Item in 1847.
The paper was at first published weekly, but made such
a success that it was turned into a daily in 1852, with
such gratifying results that, before Colonel FitzGerald's
death, the circulation had increased to two hundred
thousand copies daily and Sunday.
Colonel FitzGerald became a controller in the public
schools, and was the first one to insist upon the intro
duction of music into the schools. I le was also a director
ofthe Musical Fund Society and a member ofthe Union
League and many charitable associations.
He wrote a number of plays that were very successful ;
his first drama, " Light at Last," having, in 1868, achieved
a brilliant success with Mrs. John Drew as the heroine.
It was performed in New York, Boston, Chicago, etc. He
also wrote "Wolves at Bay," "Tangled Threads," " Patrice"
(for Miss Laura Keene), " Perils of the Night," etc.
Colonel FitzGerald's charities were numerous, but he
always declined to give them publicity.
Colonel FitzGerald was a brilliant orator. His intimate

friend, the Hon. Charles Sumner, pronounced him one of
the best extemporaneous speakers he had ever heard.
Hon. Morton McMichael declared that he was one of
the wittiest after-dinner speakers in America.
Hon. John W. Forney was also an enthusiastic admirer
of Colonel FitzGerald's ability as an orator. Together
they stumped the State of Pennsylvania for Abraham
Lincoln twice. Mr. Lincoln was a warm friend of
Colonel FitzGerald, as was also Hon. E. M. Stanton,
Secretary of War during the Rebellion. Mr. Lincoln
desired to send Colonel FitzGerald abroad as minister to
Spain, but he declined the compliment, and his son,
Riter FitzGerald, who had been for four years during
the Rebellion private secretary of General Thomas, was
sent as consul to Moscow, Russia.
In 1844, Colonel FitzGerald married Sarah Levering
Riter, a daughter of Dr. G. W. Riter, and a descendant
of the celebrated Levering family. Their surviving
children are Riter, Harrington, Hildebrand, and Maude.
In 1890, Colonel FitzGerald retired, transferring The
Item to his sons Riter, who became the dramatic, musi
cal, and art critic ; Harrington, whose business abilities
are exceptional, as managing editor ; and Hildebrand,
whose versatility is remarkable, as business manager.
Under their skilful management The Item has grown
more prosperous than ever, and is one of the most
valuable publications in the United States.
While on a tour through Europe with his son Riter,
Colonel FitzGerald expired suddenly from an attack of
influenza. His body was brought home and buried in
Mount Moriah Cemetery, beside his wife.
Colonel FitzGerald bore the reputation of being one of
the most popular and successful journalists Philadelphia
has possessed. He left an estate valued at $3,000,000.
His pamphlet on " Music in our Public Schools"
achieved a wide popularity, and portions of it were re
published in the journals of London with highly com
plimentary remarks, the London Telegraph remarking
that it was one of the most practical and valuable publi
cations on the subject that had ever appeared.
Colonel FitzGerald practised what he preached. He
was generous in his donations, and presented to the
Academy of the Fine Arts Bisbing's celebrated picture,
" Dans la Prairie," which was awarded a medal in the
Paris Salon. His private bequests were numerous, but he
left a special request that they should not be made public.
He consented to present his large and valuable collec
tion of paintings to the Academy of the Fine Arts, if
the directors would place them in a special gallery, to be
called " The FitzGerald Collection," but the offer could
not be accepted for lack of room. The collection
was then divided among his family. It contained fine
specimens of Sully, Neagle, Hamilton, and many other
American and foreign artists.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

215

NATHANIEL J. RUST.
Henry Rust, the founder of the Rust family in
America, was among the early Puritan settlers in New
England, having come from England and settled in
Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1635. He removed to
Boston about 1650. Two centuries after this immigra
tion, on November 28, 1833, was born at Gorham, Maine,
Nathaniel J. Rust, the subject of this sketch, his parents
being Meshach and Martha Frost Rust. He received
his education in the public schools and academies of his
native town, and at the age of sixteen began his business
life as an assistant in an apothecary store in Maine.
Two years afterwards, in 185 1, he removed to Boston, in
which city he engaged in the same business, and in 1853
entered the employ of Messrs. Weeks & Potter, whole
sale druggists of that city, in whose service he continued
until 1859. Failure in health caused him to pay a brief
visit to Europe in the latter year.
On his return from Europe, Mr. Rust removed to
New York City, where he engaged in the drug business
with Messrs. Demas, Barnes & Co. During the spring
of the following year, however, he was in Charleston,
South Carolina, where he had the fortune to witness the
bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter, the open
ing event of the great American Civil War. The year
1862 found him again in Boston, where he engaged in
business for himself, as a member of the wholesale drug
house of Carter, Rust & Co., a firm which, after four
years of successful business, was reorganized under the
title of Rust Brothers & Bird. Under this form it con
tinued until January, 1890, when the present Rust &
Richardson Drug Company was established. In this
company Mr. Rust is a director.
Mr. Rust, while devoting his time and attention closely
to business, has been drawn into political life without
particular desire on his part. He has always been an
earnest member of the Republican party, and as such
has been elected to several important political positions.
In 1874 he was elected by a district of the city of Bos
ton to the Massachusetts Legislature, and re-elected in
1875 and 1876. During the succeeding two years he
filled the post of president of the Republican City Com
mittee of Boston. He served also as a member of the
Boston Common Council in 1878-79. His more public
official service has been as a member of the Board of
Aldermen in 1891-92, and for the past six years as a
member of the Board of Sinking Fund Commissioners.
Mr. Rust has ever been a consistent friend to good gov
ernment, and steadfastly opposed to political dishonesty
of all kinds, and has never permitted political affiliation,

religion, or color to influence his action where a question
of integrity and honest public service arose.
Mr. Rust's true forte is not politics but business, in
which latter he has played a very active part, being con
nected with many prominent Boston financial institutions.
For three years he served as president of the North
End Savings Bank, which position he resigned in 1885
to accept the presidency of the Lincoln National Bank.
Of this institution he was one of the original founders.
He resigned its presidency in 1894 to make an extended
tour of Europe with his family. He is now a director in
the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, the New
England Mutual Life Insurance Company, the Boston
Gas-Light Company, the Dorchester Gas-Light Com
pany, the Manchester Mills, Davol Mills, Wakefield
Rattan Company, Boston Storage Warehouse Company,
Lincoln National Bank, Mercantile Loan and Trust
Company, Atlas Mutual Fire Insurance Company, with
various other corporations, and for many years was a
director in the street railways of Boston.
Mr. Rust's prominent connection with these many
substantial corporations will suffice to show that he is
an active and sagacious business man. While very retir
ing in disposition, he is a man of sound judgment and
quick action, and his fairness of dealing has given him
the full confidence of all his associates alike in finance
and politics. He is at all times approachable by those
who wish his advice, and is as unassuming and regardful
of the rights of others as when he began life. He be
lieves in the necessity of recreation, is a member of
prominent clubs of Boston, and has travelled quite ex
tensively in Europe and North America.

2l6

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

GEORGE READ MOREHOUSE, M.D.
Dr. Morehouse was born at Mount Holly, New
Jersey, March 25, 1829, being the great-grandson of
Andrew Morehouse, who came to this country from the
north of England, and served as a colonel in the Revo
lutionary War. His father, George Y. Morehouse, D.D.,
was for forty-six years rector of St. Andrew's Protest
ant Episcopal Church, Mount Holly ; and his mother,
Martha Read, was daughter of Joseph Read, attorney
for the Crown for the province of New Jersey at the
beginning ofthe Revolution. After a careful preliminary
education he entered the College of New Jersey, at
Princeton, in 1846, being so well prepared that he was
admitted to the junior class. He graduated in 1848
with high honors, being one of the orators on com
mencement day. While in college he became a member
of the Whig Society, and was its speaker on the occasion
of the centennial celebration ofthe College of New Jersey.
Becoming interested in a work on physiology during
his college course, Mr. Morehouse determined to study
for the medical profession, and entered the medical
school of the University of Pennsylvania. But finding
this school just then in a low state of efficiency, he
transferred himself at the end of the term to Jefferson
College, which then presented much better opportunities.
Here he was made chief clinical clerk, and as such
enjoyed excellent advantages for practical work. Gradu
ating in 1850, he at once entered upon the practice of
his profession in Philadelphia, which he has pursued
with distinguished success ever since.
In 1 85 1 the College of New Jersey conferred upon
him the degree of Master of Arts, and in 1892, that of

Doctor of Philosophy. He was given the degree of
M.D. by the University of Pennsylvania in 1875, pre
paratory to an election to be held for the professorship
of physiology in that institution. As, however,- the
trustees made a rule requiring increased time in the
duties of this professorship, Dr. Morehouse withdrew
from the contest, as incompatible with attention to his
large private practice. Early in his career he had gained
a select circle of patients, which he still retains, and has
served as physician for many distinguished persons, both
at home and abroad. With naturally keen perceptions,
logical instincts, and marked originality, genial and con
siderate in bearing, strong and effective in actions, he is
abundantly capable of battling with disease, while his
earnest love for the practical phase of his profession has
led him to decline many more publicly recognized posi
tions of honor and trust. For many years he was one
of the physicians on the staff of St. Joseph's Hospital,
and is now consulting physician to the Orthopaedic
Hospital. As a writer, Dr. Morehouse has made many important
contributions to medical and scientific literature. In
the latter field the work entitled " Researches on the
Anatomy and Physiology of Respiration in Chelona,"
produced by him in collaboration with Dr. Weir Mitchell,
and published by the Smithsonian Institution, is a valu
able piece of original scientific work. From 1862 to
1865, Dr. Morehouse and Dr. Mitchell, and later Dr.
Keen, had charge of the special hospitals for nervous
diseases at Philadelphia, organized during the war. The
results of their studies were intended for use in the
military hospitals throughout the country, but also proved
of great value to the profession at large, from the very
wide opportunity afforded them for the study of nerve
injuries. Many of the results of their studies were
published, including such subjects as " Reflex Paralysis,"
" Gunshot Wounds and Other Injuries of Nerves,"
" On the Antagonism of Atropia and Morphia," etc.
In addition, Dr. Morehouse has, from time to time,
issued other and valuable reports of original medical
investigations in epilepsy and other diseases.
Dr. Morehouse married, late in life, Mary Ogden,
daughter of David C. Ogden, of Woodbury, New Jersey.
He is a member of the American Philosophical Society
and of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia,
a Fellow of the College of Physicians and of the American
Academy of Medicine, and belongs to many other local
and general societies. He was one of the earliest mem
bers of the Union League, and, as a citizen, has always
held an influential position, and been widely respected
and esteemed.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

217

ABRAHAM H. RYAN.
Colonel Abraham H. Ryan was born in New York-
City, February, 1837, removing to Illinois when a boy.
At the first call to arms, in 1 861, he assisted in organizing
Company A, Seventeenth Volunteer Infantry, and was
elected first lieutenant. On the organization of the regi
ment he was appointed adjutant. In July, 1861, the
regiment was ordered on active service in the States of
Missouri and Kentucky; February, 1862, with Grant's
army at capture of Fort Henry ; thence to Fort Donelson,
where, as adjutant of the Third Brigade, McClernand's
Division, he was twice wounded, losing the hearing of
right ear, but continued on duty ; thence to Pittsburg
Landing, or Shiloh. About 9 a.m. of the first day of the
battle, Colonel Raith, commanding the brigade, fell mor
tally wounded ; falling, he ordered Adjutant Ryan to
inform Lieutenant-Colonel Wood to take command of
the brigade. Such was the closeness of the enemy and
severity ofthe fight that he could not transmit the order.
Knowing the movement that Colonel Raith had in hand
when he fell, Adjutant Ryan continued it, and for nearly
two hours commanded the brigade, when, the ammunition
being exhausted, withdrew it in good order, forming line
with the division and turning over the command to Lieu
tenant-Colonel Wood. For the handling of the brigade
in action he was complimented by his general of division,
and ordered to make written report of the same (Volume
X., series I., page 139, " Official Reports of the War"), —
the only instance during the war of an officer of the rank
of first lieutenant and youngest in years commanding a
brigade in a pitched battle. During the battle he had
two horses shot under him. For meritorious services he
was promoted captain. He continued with his command
throughout the approach and capture of Corinth.
In May, 1862, he was detailed chief of staff of Brigadier-
General L. F. Ross, continuing in active service and in
various engagements in West Tennessee and Northern
Mississippi ; in battles of Iuka, Corinth, Hatchee, etc. ;
thence with General Grant's army through Mississippi to
Oxford and Grenada ; thence to Memphis and Helena, —
still as chief of staff through the whole ofthe Yazoo Pass
Expedition, when he was again wounded while recon
noitring approaches to Fort Pemberton. He was next
ordered to Milliken's Bend, Louisiana, and was with the
army in its movements for the capture of Vicksburg ; was
on gunboat " General Price" during the bombardment of
Grand Gulf, running the batteries at night on steamer
"Forest Queen." When General Grant decided to land
his army at Bruinsburg, Captain Ryan volunteered to
convey orders to General Sherman to withdraw his army
corps from the Yazoo and follow Grant's. To do this he
had to ride about fifty miles through the enemy's country
at night. His instructions were to swallow the despatch
if in danger of falling into the hands of the enemy.

After Vicksburg he was assigned to duty on the staff
of Major-General Frederick Steele, commanding the Army
of Arkansas. He was in all the movements and engage
ments culminating in the capture of Little Rock, Septem
ber, 1863, having command of a squadron of cavalry, and
was the first to enter the city and State House. Soon
after he was assigned by General Steele to superintend
the organization of Arkansas troops, and on February 10,
1864, was mustered in as colonel of the Third Regiment
of Arkansas cavalry, and assigned to the command of
the posts of Lewisburg and Dardanelles. Here, on out
post duty, he maintained his position until the close of
the war, constantly on the move, fighting engagements of
Cypress Creek, Dardanelles, etc., and in movements against
Price, Shelby, and others of the Confederate armies.
After the war, Colonel Ryan embarked in business in
Little Rock, Ark., and for several years was general man
ager ofthe Little Rock, Mississippi River & Ouchita R.R.
In August, 1873, while on a visit to Cape Cod, Mass.,
he was presented by citizens of Falmouth, Mass., with a
gold medal, and by the Humane Society of Mass. with
their highest testimonial medal of the society, for saving
the lives of two ladies from drowning, and rescuing the per
sons of three others drowned in the waters of Buzzard Bay.
Colonel Ryan was married in 1879 to Mrs. Emma A.
Ryan, daughter of Charles Hitch, of New Bedford, Mas
sachusetts, and has one child, a daughter, Emita. He is
a member of the Army of the Tennessee, Grand Army
of the Republic, and the Loyal Legion. In 1880 he re
moved to East Orange, New Jersey, where he still resides;
taking an interest in all things pertaining to the welfare
of the town, having served seven years as a trustee of the
schools, and five years member of the Township Commit
tee. He is president of the Savings Investment and Trust
Company, and president of the Orange Art Association.

28

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM BRANDRETH.
William Brandreth, son of Dr. Benjamin Brandreth,
was born at Sing Sing, New York, October 22, 1842,
being his father's oldest son by his second wife. His
education was obtained at Mount Pleasant Academy,
where he remained until sixteen years of age, when he
went to New York City, studied the profession of phar
macy, of which he gained a thorough knowledge, and
afterwards entered the wholesale drug establishment of
Palanca & Escalante, a Spanish firm. When twenty-one
years of age he made a journey to South America, and
travelled extensively in that continent. A considerable
period was passed by him in Venezuela, and a year was
afterwards spent in the British, Dutch, and Danish West
Indies. Leaving these islands, he went to California by
way of the Isthmus, and remained there for the succeed
ing four years, during a portion of which time he was
engaged in the introduction and sale of medicines, and
afterwards in the life-insurance business. In this he was
highly successful, founding an extensive business.
In 1868, Mr. Brandreth returned to his native town,
and became interested there in insurance and real-estate
operations, in which he was very successful. Two years
afterwards he founded the firm of Howland & Brandreth,
which for several years carried on a large and lucrative
business. His interest in this firm was disposed of in
1876, and he removed to New York, where he opened
an office for the purpose of dealing in mines and mineral

lands. In this line of business he became familiar with
the mineral resources of many portions of the country,
and acquired a practical knowledge of metallurgy which
stood him in good stead He is largely interested in
mineral lands in North Carolina, containing mines, as yet
undeveloped, of iron, copper, and mica. He also has
large interests in the gold and silver fields of Colorado,
and also in the Republic of Colombia, South America,
in the valley of the Cauca, and elsewhere. He is, in
addition, one of the proprietors of the manufacturing
business left by his father at the village of Sing Sing. It
may be said here that the firm produces about five million
of porous plasters annually, while the yearly production
of pills in all the factories of the firm amounts to the
great total of two million boxes. Mr. Brandreth pays
particular attention to the pill-making branch of the
business, his brothers giving more of their time to the
porous plaster production.
Few citizens of his native place have given more active
attention than he to public improvements. Steam fire-
engines and reservoirs for water-supply were introduced
into Sing Sing largely through his efforts, and in every
local movement of reform or improvement he is warmly
interested. In whatever business he engages, he makes
it his object to gain a complete knowledge of its
details ; and in the accomplishment of this purpose no
amount of necessary exertion or difficulty can divert
him from his purpose or discourage him in its pursuit.
It is this element of character which has given him such
a grasp of every enterprise he has undertaken and gained
for him the reputation of being a thorough-going man
of business. His knowledge of the details of the in
surance business, for example, is unsurpassed, and much
the same may be said of his acquaintance with the other
enterprises with which he has been engaged. No advice
that can affect the interests of others is ever given by
him except after careful and dispassionate examination,
and his judgment upon any topic is valued accordingly.
Mr. Brandreth was married in 1868 to Sarah Louise
Flint, and has three children, all daughters. He is a
prominent member of the Masonic order, with which he
has been connected for more than thirty years, and is
a member of the St. George's Society in New York, in
addition to his membership in his lodge and commandery
at Sing Sing. He served three years as a member ofthe
Board of Aldermen of Sing Sing, and is now (1896) the
mayor of the village.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

219

HENRY C. TERRY.
Henry C. Terry is a lineal descendant of William
Bradford, who came over in the " Mayflower," and who
was for many years annually elected governor of
Plymouth Colony. Mr. Terry was born in Philadelphia,
March 17, 1846. His father had been possessed of
large means till the breaking of his Southern business
connections by the Civil War. He afterwards removed to
Woodbury, N. J., where his son pursued almost unaided
those studies which fitted him for entering his profession.
As a youth, during his school-days, Mr. Terry held
front rank as a debater and elocutionist, and when scarcely
sixteen years of age gave evidence of unusual dramatic
ability in performing the titular role in Knowles's drama
of " William Tell." He enacted the character in such a
manner as to attract the attention of that noted tragedian,
the late Edwin Forrest, who advised him to adopt the
stage as a profession. However, he had set his hopes of
distinction upon the bar, and in 1863 returned to Phila
delphia, where he entered upon the study of law in
the office of Judge Frederick Carroll Brewster Some
time before he reached the age of twenty-one years,
Mr. Terry passed his examinations and was qualified to
practice, but, as under the law he could not be admitted
until he attained lawful majority, he was not sworn in
until March 16, 1867, the day he became of lawful age.
Immediately thereafter he became an assistant to the late
Judge Lynd, then city solicitor, and continued with him
until 1869, at which time he opened offices for himself,
and began a career which attests the ability he brought
to the performance of his professional labor.
While mainly concerned in litigation in the county and
United States courts in Philadelphia and in the adjoining
counties and in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, he
is well and favorably known to the bench of New Jersey,
the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Court
of Claims at Washington. His most notable successes
have been in cases for and against corporations, though
he has a large mercantile and Orphans' Court practice.
In the suit of the Kensington and Oxford Turnpike Com
pany against the city of Philadelphia, — an action brought
to free from toll a road through a populous and fast-
growing portion of the city, — he opened for municipal
improvement property valued at $3,000,000 and up
wards, receiving from his clients a fee, which was contin
gent upon success, of $50,000. In damage cases against
railroad companies he has been remarkably successful ;
the Supreme Court at its 1887 term affirming a verdict
for $10,000 for the loss of the hand of a little child (Clar
ence Layer), occasioned in passing between the coupled
cars of a train. This was then the largest verdict for
personal injuries to a child ever paid in this county.
He recently, in the Dobbins's Electric Soap case pend
ing in the New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals, suc

cessfully established his clients' title to their trade-mark,
valued at $1,000,000, against some of the most eminent
members of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania bars.
He organized and has always been solicitor for the
Berwind- White Coal Mining Company of Pennsylvania
and New York, the largest bituminous coal company in
the United States, if not in the world ; and is solicitor
for numerous other coal companies and corporations in
Pennsylvania and other States, and for many private
business firms.
Mr. Terry is quite popular with the bench and his
brethren in the profession, and, while not anxious to shine
as a post-prandial speaker, his ready ability in that par
ticular is such that he is called on to preside at the ban
quet which the former students of Judge Brewster, about
forty in number, annually tender their preceptor as a
mark of their esteem. He has long been a member of
the Union League, United Service, and some minor
clubs, the Law Association, and similar institutions. He
is a charter member, and has since its organization been
treasurer and one of the governors, of the Lawyers' Club
of Philadelphia, member of the Pennsylvania Society of
Sons of the Revolution, New England and Pennsylvania
Historical Societies, Radnor Hunt (while he does not
often " ride to hounds," he is an expert horseman, no
fence across country too high for him, and is as much at
home in the saddle as in court), Devon Polo and Golf,
and Merion Cricket Clubs, and Societe Francaise de
Bienfaisance (French Benevolent Society), of which he is
avocat (solicitor). He is ai member of the Grand Lodge
of Masons of Pennsylvania, was Master of his lodge
(No. 51) in 1876, when it entertained a large number of
distinguished and titled Freemasons.
Except as assistant to Solicitor Lynd, he has never
held public office, though often urged by fellow-members
of the bar to accept a judicial appointment.

220

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

GENERAL HENRY E. TREMAIN.
Henry Edwin Tremain, an officer in the Army of
the Potomac throughout the Civil War, was born in
New York City, November 14, 1840, the son of Edwin
R. Tremain, and a member of a fighting family, being
the brother of Lieutenant Walter R. Tremain, who died
in the service, and the cousin of Colonel Frank W. and
Major Frederick L. Tremain, both slain in battle near
the end of the war. General Tremain received his
education at the College of the City of New York,
graduating in i860, and at once beginning a course of
legal study at Columbia College Law-School.
While he was thus engaged the war broke out, and he
immediately (April 17, 1861) enlisted as a private in the
New York Seventh Regiment, served with it during its
first brief campaign, and soon after, in association with
his brother, recruited a company in New York, and went
to the front as first lieutenant in the Second Regiment
of Fire Zouaves (Seventy-third New York Volunteers),
which was attached to the famous Excelsior Brigade.
He served in the line and as adjutant of this regiment
till April, 1862, when, at the siege of Yorktown, he was
promoted to the staff of General Nelson Taylor, then
commanding the Excelsior Brigade, and as such served
during the Peninsular campaign and subsequently under
General Pope; taking part in all the principal engage
ments before Richmond and in the battles of Pope's
campaign, ending with the unfortunate second Bull Run.
During the last-named battle, while participating in a
charge, he was taken prisoner, and was forced for a time
to endure the inhospitalities of Libby prison, being one
of a number held there as hostages to be executed by
lot in case General Pope continued the destruction of
Virginia property. Fortunately the cartel for the ex
change of prisoners was just then agreed upon, and after

a few weeks' confinement Lieutenant Tremain was re
leased on parole, and subsequently exchanged, promoted
captain, and returned to duty as assistant inspector-gen
eral on the staff of General Sickles, now in command of
his old division (Second Division of the Third Army
Corps). Lieutenant Tremain received high commenda
tion for his services in several of the Peninsular engage
ments, and his gallantry at the second Bull Run battle
was warmly praised by his commander.
He served in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chan-
cellorsville, in the latter as major (his commission dating .
April 25, 1863), his gallantry at Chancellorsville being
so notable that he was specially recommended for a
brevet. At Gettysburg, Major Tremain, as chief staff-
officer of the Third Army Corps, gained great distinc
tion. In 1864 he served as aide to General Butterfield
at Chattanooga, took part in the engagements around
Dalton and at Resaca, and was awarded the Congres
sional Medal of Honor for " distinguished conduct" in
the latter battle. Later in that year he was, at his
special request, assigned to duty with the cavalry corps
of the Army of the Potomac, served as aide to Generals
Gregg and Crook, and took part in all the cavalry en
gagements of the Petersburg campaign till the end of
the war. He was commended by General Crook for
gallantry during this campaign, brevetted lieutenant-
colonel, on General Sheridan's recommendation, at its
termination, afterwards brevetted colonel. On Novem
ber 30, 1865, he was promoted brevet brigadier-general
of volunteers, and sent on duty to South Carolina, where
he, in April, 1866, resigned from the service, returned to
New York, and entered upon the practice of the law.
General Tremain graduated at Columbia Law-School
in 1867, having already gained a promising legal busi
ness. In 1869 he formed with Colonel Mason W. Tyler
the well-known legal firm of Tremain & Tyler, now more
than twenty-five years in active business. He was nomi
nated for judge of the Common Pleas in 1870, but de
feated at the polls, his party being in the minority. In
1 88 1 he was repeatedly voted for by many members of
the Legislature in joint convention for the United States
senatorship. In his law business he has frequently been
employed by the United States government, and has
practised much in the United States Supreme Court.
General Tremain has been active as a Republican in
every Presidential contest since the war. He has been
public spirited in matters of reform and education and
against monopoly, and has delivered many admirable
speeches on those and other topics. He has also contrib
uted considerably to the press, and was one of the founders
and editors of the Daily Law Journal. He was one of
the founders ofthe Grand Army ofthe Republic in New
York, and served for a number of years as president of
the Alumni of the College of the City of New York.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

221

WILLIAM E. LITTLETON.
William E. Littleton, lawyer and late clerk of the
Quarter Sessions of Philadelphia, was born in this city,
January I, 1838. He was educated in the Philadelphia
public schools until ten years of age, when his father
died, and his mother, needing his services to aid in
the support of the family, placed him in a position as
errand-boy. Friends of the widow, however, succeeded
in placing her son in Girard College, where for five
years he enjoyed the excellent educational advantages
given by that institution. At the end of his term the
directors of the college, in accordance with their system
of providing all their graduates with an opportunity
of acquiring a knowledge of business, placed him in
the office of Thomas S. Mitchell, conveyancer, that he
might learn this avocation. Here he made rapid and
satisfactory progress, and proved of much assistance to
his employer.
His experience in conveyancing awakened in him a
desire to study law, particularly that bearing upon real
estate, and he entered the office of Richard C. McMurtrie
as a law student. He passed a successful examination,
and was admitted to the bar in the twenty-fourth year of
his age. His progress in his new profession was rapid,
and he quickly won for himself a lucrative practice.
While thus engaged he became interested in politics, to
which he devoted considerable attention, at first as a
member of the Democratic party, and later as a Repub
lican, into the ranks of which party he was led by a
study of the principles involved in the slavery agitation,
and to which he still adheres.
His official life began in 1866, in which year he was
nominated as a candidate for Common Council by the
Republicans of the Tenth Ward, against William T.
Ladner, the Democratic candidate. The ward is a close
one politically, and uncertain in a contest between popular
candidates. In this case the canvass was a vigorous one
on both sides. Mr. Littleton won by the small majority
of twenty-six votes. His service in Council was note
worthy from the first, but at the end of his term, being
renominated against his former opponent, he was defeated,
the ward being one in which the political scale could
easily be turned. In 1870, Mr. Littleton became a can
didate for Select Council, and, after an active personal
canvass, was elected a member of this body. His career
in Select Council was one that attracted much attention,
he being an earnest advocate of municipal reform, on
which subject he took every opportunity, either public
or private, to express his opinions, which were of an
advanced character.

At the end of his term, in 1873, Mr. Littleton retired
from Select Council. He was solicited to accept the
reform nomination for mayor, against William S. Stokley,
but declined. He was elected a member of the Consti
tutional Convention of 1873, and served with zeal and
ability in the work of this body, that of providing a new
constitution for the State of Pennsylvania. In the year
1880 the contest for municipal offices promised to be a
close one, and both parties felt it important to make a
careful selection of their candidates, convinced that only
the most eligible ones could win. Mr. Littleton's high
record for integrity during his political career, his activity
in conducting a campaign, and his cheerful acceptance
of defeat, all told in his favor at a time of political un
certainty, and he received the Republican nomination for
Clerk of the Quarter Sessions. The election showed
that the party had been wise in their choice of a can
didate, Mr. Littleton being elected by a majority of
twenty-one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six
votes against Henry B. Freeman, his opponent. He
was re-elected by increased majorities at several succes
sive terms, and continued to hold the offiee until 1890.
Mr. Littleton has proved himself, alike in his profession
and in office, a prompt, correct, and trustworthy person,
and enjoys an excellent and profitable practice. When
in Select Council, he was elected chairman, and showed
himself a capable presiding officer, while on the floor he
was ready, forcible, and polished in debate. He is a
member of the Union League and the Union Republican
Club. In 1 88 1 he was married to Annie, daughter of
Dr. Matthew Semple.

222

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

FITZ-JOHN PORTER.
Colonel and Brevet Brigadier-General Fitz-John
Porter, United States army, was born in New Hampshire
in 1822. He is a son of Captain John Porter, U.S.N. , and
nephew of Commodore David Porter, of" Essex" renown.
He graduated from the Military Academy July 1, 1845,
and was promoted the same day brevet second lieutenant
Fourth Artillery; second lieutenant June 18, 1846, and
first lieutenant May 29, 1847. He served at West Point
as an assistant in the Department of Artillery and Cav
alry, and October 1 joined his regiment at Fort Monroe.
In July, 1846, he joined the army in Texas operating
against Mexico. In January, 1847, he embarked at
Brazos and accompanied General Scott's army, perform
ing service during the siege of Vera Cruz and the battles
of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Molino del Rey, and the siege
of Chapultepec and the capture of the city of Mexico. At
the last action during the war, — the sanguinary fight at
the capture ofthe Garita of Belen, — Porter was wounded,
and the other two officers of his company killed. In 1 849
he was assigned to duty at the Military Academy, where
he remained until 1855. Here he occupied the posi
tions successively of assistant instructor of natural and
experimental philosophy, assistant instructor of artillery,
adjutant of the Military Academy, and, finally, instructor
of artillery and cavalry. Pie served during the Kansas
troubles. In 1857, while on duty at the head-quarters of
the army in New York City, Porter was assigned to duty
on the staff of General Albert Sydney Johnston, and
accompanied that officer to Utah, enduring the hardships
and annoyances of that campaign.
In the autumn of i860, Porter was assigned to duty
at the head-quarters of the army, in New York City, as
assistant inspector-general, in which capacity in Novem
ber he inspected the defences in Charleston harbor. As

a result of this inspection and of Major Porter's recom
mendations, Major Robert Anderson was placed in
command of Fort Moultrie, and carried out the plans
recommended by Porter and arranged between them to,
at the proper time, abandon Moultrie and take possession
of Sumter. The secession of the Southern States now
began, and Major Porter was sent to Texas for troops and
to reinforce the garrisons at Key West and Dry Tortugas.
In April, 1861, Porter was on duty in the Adjutant-
General's Office in Washington, when he was chosen by
the Secretary of War, Hon. Simon Cameron, and General
Scott, to superintend the protection ofthe railroad between
Baltimore and Harrisburg against Baltimore rioters, and
maintain communication with Washington. Promptly
Porter placed over three thousand cavalry, artillery, and
infantry — regulars and volunteers — near Cockeysville,
Md., twenty miles from Baltimore, and, with trains for
repair of bridges on Northern Central Railroad destroyed
by rioters, was moving to reopen and maintain commu
nication between the Northern States and Washington,
when suddenly orders from the President, " who feared
collision and bloodshed," were received directing the
troops to be withdrawn and taken to Washington via
Philadelphia. While at Harrisburg, and unable to com
municate with the Secretary of War, Porter assumed
authority of Secretary of War, and ordered Gen. Harney
to muster into the United States service the Missouri
troops, arm and equip them for the protection of public
property, thereby, as declared by General Frank P. Blair,
" saving Missouri to the Union." Porter's acts were ap
proved by the Secretary of War and General Scott.
Major Porter was now appointed colonel of the Fif
teenth Infantry, and shortly afterwards brigadier-general
of volunteers. He served in Maryland campaign under
General Patterson and with the Army of the Potomac
(commanding the Fifth Corps) in the Peninsula, North
ern Virginia, and Maryland campaigns After passing
through the latter campaign, and returning with the
army to Warrington, Virginia, he was relieved from his
command November 12, 1862, and tried at Washington,
D. C, by a general court-martial, for disobedience of
orders and general misconduct on the battle-field, —
offences said to have been committed in August in the
Northern Virginia campaign under General Pope.
The court-martial convicted General Porter and sen
tenced him to be cashiered and forever prohibited from
holding any office of profit or trust from the government.
For fifteen years General Porter bore the stigma of this
sentence. At last he obtained a Board of General Officers
to examine the matter by order of President Hayes, and
this board fully exonerated him from all blame. In 1885
Congress authorized the President to restore him to the
army, and he was restored and retired as a colonel in the
army, with his original commission dated May 14, 1861.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

223

JOHN CRITTENDEN WATSON.
Captain John Crittenden Watson, United States
navy, is a native of Kentucky, and born August 24,
1842. He was appointed a midshipman from that State
September 29, 1856, being then just fourteen years old.
He remained at the Naval Academy until his graduation
in i860. In those days Kentuckians were much divided
in their allegiance, but young Watson remained true to
his flag. He was promoted to the grade of master in
1 861, while serving as navigator in the frigate " Sabine."
From the " Sabine" he was ordered to the " St. Louis,"
January 4, 1862, orders revoked January 10, 1862;
ordered to the " Hartford," Farragut's flag-ship, January
10, 1862, as navigator, and in her he served for three
years, being commissioned as lieutenant July, 1862, when
not twenty years of age. He was at the bombardment
and passage of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, and of the
Chalmette batteries; at the passage of the Vicksburg
batteries, June and July, 1862; passage of Grand Gulf,
March 19 and 30, 1863; passage of Port Hudson; and
was wounded by a fragment of shell from a rebel battery
at Warrington, just below Vicksburg. He was present
as flag-lieutenant at the battle of Mobile Bay, August
5, 1864.
During the years 1865-67 he was attached to the
steam-frigate " Colorado," the flag-ship of the European
Squadron, as senior watch-officer, navigator, and last as
flag-lieutenant. Commissioned as lieutenant-commander
on July 25, 1866, and continued to serve in the European
Squadron until 1869, — being in the "Franklin," Farra
gut's flag-ship, as his flag-lieutenant, and then in the
steam-sloop " Canandaigua," as executive. The latter
half of 1869 he was on special duty in Philadelphia. In
1870 he went to the Asiatic Station in the "Alaska,"
second rate, as executive, and during the years 1872-73
commanded the store-ship " Idaho," at Yokohama. Im
mediately on his return to the United States he married,
and during the latter part of 1873 he was on ordnance
duty at New York. Detached, January 25, 1874, from
New York Navy- Yard. He received his commission
as commander in the navy in January, 1874, and was
stationed at the Mare Island Navy- Yard, 1874-77. In

1878 he was ordered to command the "Wyoming" on
the European Station, where he remained two years.
Upon his return he was ordered to torpedo instruction
at Newport, Rhode Island, and appointed light-house
inspector of the Eleventh District, which position he
occupied from 1880 until October, 1883. November 1,
1883, was ordered as equipment officer to the navy-yard,
Brooklyn, New York. November 30, 1884, detached.
April 30, 1885, ordered back to navy-yard, Brooklyn,
New York, as equipment officer. August 20, 1886,
detached and ordered to command the " Iroquois" in
the South Pacific. He was promoted to captain March,
1887, and spent a large part of the succeeding three
years on special duty in San Francisco, California, as
president of the Inspection Board. Then two years as
captain of yard at Mare Island Navy- Yard.
Commanded the cruiser " San Francisco," July 2,
1892, to July 20, 1894, in the North and South Pacific
and North and South Atlantic, and in the International
Fleet Review in connection with the Columbian Exposi
tion. Member of Retiring and Examining Boards from
August, 1894, to May, 1895. Ordered to command
United States Naval Home, as governor, May 9, 1895.

224

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

CHARLES H. CRAMP.
Charles Henry Cramp, well known as the president
of one ofthe largest ship-building concerns in the world,
the " William Cramp & Sons' Ship and Engine Building
Company," is the eldest son of William Cramp, the
founder of that famous company, and was born in Phila
delphia, May 9, 1828. He was educated in the Philadel
phia public schools, graduating from the Central High
School in 1845. While in this school he was one of four
scholars selected by Professor Bache, then president of
the school, to make nightly observations from the Girard
College observatory. Reports of these observations were
sent to Washington, and the system thus inaugurated
formed the basis of that on which the Signal Service
Bureau has since been established.
After his graduation, the youth entered the ship-build
ing yard of his uncle, John Birely, not being taken into
his father's yard until he had obtained three years' in
struction outside. He continued under his father's direc
tion his course of instruction in naval architecture — in
which he was followed by his younger brothers — until
1859, when he was taken into partnership in the estab
lishment. After the death of his father he became the

head of the company, which was then made up of himself
and four younger brothers.
It is largely due to the enterprise and industry of the
Cramps that the Delaware River has fairly earned the
title of " The Clyde of America." The great ship-yard
was founded by William Cramp in 1830. It extends
along the river front from Plum to Cumberland Streets,
covering an extensive tract of ground.
The work doing in this yard is ofthe most stupendous
character. Years ago a number of large vessels were
built, including the four steamers of the American Line,
and several monitors and frigates furnished the govern
ment during the Civil War. At a later date three fast
cruisers, the " Europe," the " Asia," and the " Zabiaca,"
were supplied to the Russian government, two great
passenger ships, " Mariposa," and " Alameda," to run
between San Francisco and the Sandwich Islands were
constructed, and Jay Gould's steam yacht, the " Atalanta,"
remarkable at that time for size and finish, was built.
The work of marine construction here named, impor
tant as it was, has been thrown into the shade by the
later achievements of the yard. It has taken a very
prominent part in the building of the new American
navy, and of the extraordinarily fast cruisers and power
ful war vessels now bearing the flag of the United States
the greater number were built in the yard ofthe Cramps.
Other large war vessels are now being constructed, some
of them being of over ten thousand tons burden. The
great establishment is a very hive of industry, employing
over five thousand hands, and presenting a scene of
activity in ship-building which has few equals on either
side of the Atlantic. There have been built here in all
nearly three hundred vessels.
Great credit is due the Cramps for their innovations in
marine engineering. In 1870 they introduced and per
fected the construction of compound marine engines.
In 1884 they made another great step forward by the
introduction of the triple-expansion engine. The effect
of these improvements is seen in the remarkable perform
ance of their recent additions to the United States navy.
Mr. Cramp is noted for keen powers of observation, a
probity of the strictest character, and the reliance that
can be placed upon his slightest word.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

22-5

ALFRED B. SCOTT.
One of the most genial men to be found in the business
life of New York City is Alfred B. Scott, of the firm of
Scott & Bowne, proprietors of the well-known medici
nal preparation, Scott's emulsion of cod-liver oil. Mr.
Scott was born in Orange County, New York, February
i, 1846. He was the son of a farmer, and his early life
was like that of most healthy, ambitious, active young
men who are brought up in the country. After gaining
such education as the schools in the vicinity of his home
afforded, and some experience in the active duties of life
from his labors on the farm, he made his way to New
York in 1867, when twenty-one years of age, and there
secured a position in a large manufacturing house, in
which he gained his first acquaintance with the details of
practical business affairs. He worked his way up steadily
to higher positions in the house, which he served effi
ciently as a travelling salesman.
In 1873 he, in association with his cousin, Samuel W.
Bowne, began experimenting with cod-liver oil, with the
view of rendering this highly valuable medicine palatable
and easily digestible. As is well known, the plain oil is
nauseating to the taste, and so difficult of assimilation
that even when the stomach can retain it the digestive
organs are severely taxed in dealing with it. Yet it has
been recognized for years by the medical profession as
the most nourishing of foods and the possessor of un
usual remedial properties, being especially valuable in all
cases where there is a wasting away of strength, as in
consumption and other debilitating diseases. The efforts
of the two experimenters were to produce an emulsion
of the oil in which the disadvantages mentioned would
be overcome, and a palatable and digestible substance,
useful both as food and medicine, replace the crude oil.
An emulsion of oil, as may be said here, means simply
the mixing of the oil with other ingredients which are
capable of breaking it up into tiny particles suitable for
assimilation, and preventing these particles from again
gathering into drops or liquid masses.
It took the experimenters three years to produce this
effect satisfactorily, at the end of which time — in 1876 —
having succeeded in preparing a permanent emulsion,
they organized the business firm of Scott & Bowne, for
the purpose of manufacturing what has since been widely
known as Scott's emulsion of cod-liver oil. The new
preparation proved a success from the very outset, though
not without hard work in demonstrating its utility and
high standard of merit as a remedial and nutritive article.
By the year 1880 it had become fully established among
the medical profession, and its future was assured. No
effort was made to conceal its formula or method of
manufacture, the discoverers being anxious to co-operate
with physicians, and to take advantage of all suggestions
that might enable them to improve their emulsion.

From the start they adopted the principle of free ad
vertising as the most available means of reaching the
public, and as their capital increased their patronage of
newspapers similarly augmented, until by 1882 they be
gan advertising in journals in all sections of the country.
In 1880 they established a branch factory in Belleville,
Canada, and about two years later started one in London.
Their enterprise in advertising proved so successful in its
results that they were enabled to make a rapid extension
of their business in other quarters, factories being estab
lished in 1884 at Barcelona, Spain, and Oporto, Portugal,
and in 1885 one being opened at Milan, Italy. Branches
were also established in Mexico, Central and South
America, and the West Indies, and in 1890 a factory was
opened in Paris. More recently the emulsion has been
introduced into China and Japan, and at present it has
a strong foothold in every country of the world where
any business is done in the modern sense, except Ger
many, Russia, and Scandinavia. Mr. Scott has person
ally superintended the advertising during the last ten
years, and with a success that has made the name of his
preparation well known in almost every country of the
world. The firm possesses a new twelve-story building
on Pearl and Rose Streets, New York, which is claimed
to be the most perfectly equipped edifice of its kind in
the world.
Personally Mr. Scott is of the most genial tempera
ment, and counts his friends by the hundred, there being
no more popular man in the clubs to which he belongs,
or the business world with which he comes into contact.
He has a wife and two children, who make their home
most of the time in Geneva, Switzerland, and Mr. Scott
has it in view to make that city his future place of resi
dence, and to devote himself to handling from there the
foreign business of the firm.

29

226

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JOHN A. W1EDERSHEIM.
John A. Wiedersheim was born in Philadelphia in the
year 1842. He obtained his education in the public
schools of the city, ending in the Central High School,
from which he graduated in 1857. He began his busi
ness life in a dry-goods commission establishment, and
continued so till 1862. On the outbreak of the war,
being then nineteen years of age, he joined the Reserve
Brigade, from the First Regiment, of which the One
Hundred and Nineteenth Regiment of Pennsylvania
Volunteers was mainly officered. Mr. Wiedersheim
enlisted in Company F of this regiment, and continued
in it during nearly the three years of its gallant service
with the Sixth Corps, Army of the Potomac. Near the
end of his term of service he received an appointment
in the office of the Secretary of War, at Washington,
D. C, which, after the end of the war, July, 1865, he
resigned to accept a position in the office of the Scien
tific American, of New York, after which he entered
upon the study of law at Columbian College, Washing
ton, D. C, and chose "patents" as his specialty. Since

then he has continued to serve as a patent attorney, and
thousands of patents, trade-marks, and copyrights have
been procured through his agency Furthermore, he has
prepared numerous expert opinions as to the scope and
validity of patents, and continues actively employed in the
practice of the complicated branches of the profession.
Mr. Wiedersheim's main office is located in the Record
Building, 919 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, while a
branch office at 918 F Street, Washington, gives him
special opportunities to expedite his large business and
attend to the needs of his clients without undue expen
diture of time and money. He is an acknowledged
expert in this line of special practice, and has in his
office full reports of patents from the time the first was
granted, in 1790, to the present day.
He is an active member of various societies and orders,
— viz., Past Commander of the George G. Meade Post,
No. 1, Grand Army of the Republic, Department of
Pennsylvania ; Past Aide-de-camp on the staff of Gen
eral Fairfield ; and Past Colonel of Encampment No. 73,
Union Veteran Legion ; a member of the Society of the
Army of the Potomac, the Sixth Corps, and secretary
of the One Hundred and Nineteenth Pennsylvania Regi
mental Association. As an officer of his Grand Army
Post, Mr. Wiedersheim assisted at the funeral services of
General U. S. Grant at Riverside, New York, in 1885,
reciting the third part of the ritual, and ending with
placing the Post bouquet on the remains ofthe illustrious
dead. Mr. Wiedersheim is also a life member of the Veteran
Corps, First Regiment of Infantry, National Guard of
Pennsylvania, and of the Horticultural Society, Fair-
mount Park Art Association, Franklin Institute, the Old
Man's Home, and the Western Temporary Home. He
also belongs to the Union League, the Order of Sparta,
Masonic Lodge, No. 385, the Church Club of Philadel
phia, and the Down Town Club of Washington, D. C.
In addition, he is one of the governors of the Powelton
Club, West Philadelphia, and a warden of St. Andrew's
Protestant Episcopal Church.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

227

GENERAL DELEVAN BATES.
General Delevan Bates was born in the town of
Seward, Schoharie County, New York, March 17, 1840.
He received his education at the little red school-house
under the hill, and at the age of fifteen years entered the
store of N. H. Wilder at Worcester, Otsego County, New
York, as a clerk, where he gained the thorough confidence
of his employer and the good will of all who knew him.
When the Rebellion reached a point that showed the
necessity of vigorous action, the youthful clerk became
the recruiting officer who raised the first quota assigned
to the town in which he lived.
August 18, 1862, he was enrolled as second lieutenant
of Company I, One Hundred and Twenty-first New York
Volunteer Infantry, Upton's Regulars, as they were called,
when, under the leadership of the gallant colonel of that
name, they proudly took their place among the fighting
regiments of the grand old Army of the Potomac.
Lieutenant Bates was an apt pupil, and with such a
teacher and in such a school he could not do otherwise
than become an intelligent and fearless soldier.
May 3, 1863, at Salem Church, where his regiment
lost thirty-three per cent, in killed and wounded, Lieuten
ant Bates with others was taken prisoner, confined in Libby
prison sixteen days, and then exchanged in time to take
part in Gettysburg. He was here given the bars of a first
lieutenant. At the gallant charge of Upton's brigade at
Rappahannock Station, November 7, 1863, Lieutenant
Bates, as his regiment went over the rebel works, grasped
the uplifted sword from the hand of a Louisiana captain.
In March, 1864, officers were needed for the colored
regiments that were being rapidly recruited. Selections
were wisely made from the army in the field.
Lieutenant Bates was appointed colonel ofthe Thirtieth
United States Colored Troops. But a few weeks were
given to prepare these raw recruits for the battle-field,
where would be met the veterans of the Army of Northern
Virginia. Their first charge was made in front of Peters
burg. The Thirtieth United States Colored Troops led
the colored division, and Colonel Bates was shot through
the head inside the rebel lines.
Colonel Bates, for gallantry on this occasion, was made
a brigadier-general of volunteers by brevet, and also
given a "medal of honor." In October, 1864, General
Bates assumed command of the First Brigade, Fourth
Division, Ninth Corps.
December 2, 1864, the colored troops in the Ninth
Corps were transferred to the Twenty-fifth Corps, and
he was given command of the First Brigade, First Di
vision, of this corps, the number of which was soon after
wards changed to the First Brigade, Third Division, of
the same corps. After the capture of Fort Fisher, the

colored troops participating therein were attached to the
Army of the Ohio, and in April, 1865, General Bates was
assigned command of the First Brigade, Third Division,
Tenth Corps, Army of the Ohio, and in the absence of
General Paine he had command of the Division.
During the summer of 1865, General Bates had com
mand for a time of Beaufort Harbor, North Carolina, and
afterwards of the District of New-Berne, assisting in the
work of " reconstruction." The conservative methods
and impartial treatment of all questions arising won for
him the respect of the citizens, and he was also presented
with a beautiful sword and belt by his command as a
token of their esteem.
General Bates was mustered out of the service, Decem
ber 23, 1865, at Baltimore, Maryland.
In 1870 he married, and in 1873 emigrated to the far
West to assist in building up the new State of Nebraska.
Aurora, the county-seat of Hamilton County, had then
but one frame building and several sod houses, and here
he made his home.
To-day Aurora is a city of two thousand five hundred
inhabitants, with brick blocks and business houses of all
kinds. Since its incorporation as a village, General Bates
has been identified with the growth and government of
the municipality, filling every office from city treasurer to
that of mayor. He is vice-president of the First National
Bank of Aurora and a working officer in that institution.
His wife, Lena A. Bates, is a prominent worker in the
Women's Relief Corps, and was for six years secretary
of the Visiting and Advisory Board of the Nebraska
Soldiers' Home, which position she filled with unexcep
tionable ability. She was one of the Lady Managers of
the World's Columbian Commission.

22c

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

HENRY W. GRAY.
Henry W. Gray was born June 3, 1830, at Ephrata,
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He was educated at
York, Pennsylvania, and on coming of age engaged in
the iron and mining business. At the age of twenty-five
he married a daughter of J. H. Schomacker, the manu
facturer of the piano bearing his name; and in 1857 he
came to Philadelphia, and assumed the management of
the business of his father-in-law, for which he was emi
nently fitted. He is the inventor of the electro-gold
piano string, and other important improvements in the
piano, which gave to the Schomacker instruments such
high reputation. In 1864, the stock company called the
" Schomacker Piano-Forte Manufacturing Company"
was formed under act of the legislature, and he became
its president and business manager. The business was
thereby largely extended, and under his sole management
has become one of the most important and successful
enterprises of its kind in the United States He entered

into politics at an early age, and has held many positions
of trust and honor, both in the municipal and State
governments. He was a member of the gubernatorial
convention that nominated Andrew G. Curtin, and was
also active in securing the same honor for General John
W. Geary, who was his warm personal friend. He was
closely connected with the latter's administration as con
fidential adviser.
At the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion he was
appointed an aide on the governor's staff, and was after
wards transferred to General Haupt's command. While a
member of City Council he was appointed chairman of the
Finance Committee, and was credited with raising more
funds for war purposes than any man who had preceded
him in that position. In 187 1 he received the Republican
nomination for State senator in the Fourth District, his
opponent being Colonel A. K. McClure. After an ex
citing contest he was given the certificate of election, and
took his seat in the State Senate. Then commenced the
famous Gray-McClure contest. The crowning event of
his life, however, was his strong and successful advocacy
of the location of the Public Buildings at Broad and
Market Streets. The wisdom of his course has since
become apparent, and a large majority of the popular
vote of the city endorsed the acts of himself and his co-
laborers. He was appointed a member of the commis
sion to superintend the erection of these buildings. He
was one of the first citizens to aid in organizing the
Union League of Philadelphia, and is now one of its
oldest members. During his entire political career he
has been unflinching in the advocacy of his views, and
has thereby made many bitter enemies as well as many
warm friends ; but, possessing as he does rare business
and social qualities, the latter far outnumber the former.
He is still in the prime of life, enjoying his well-earned
fortune in his beautiful Germantown home, and is one
of the most active and energetic of Philadelphia mer
chants.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

229

NELSON B. SWEITZER.
Colonel and Brevet Brigadier-General Nelson
B. Sweitzer was born in Pennsylvania, December 12,
1828, and graduated from the Military Academy July 1,
1853. He was promoted brevet second lieutenant of the
Second Dragoons the same day; second lieutenant July
25, 1854, and first lieutenant First Dragoons September
24, 1855. He served at the cavalry depots until 1854,
and then joined his regiment in New Mexico. He was
at Fort Lane, Oregon, from the spring of 1855 to the
summer of 1856, and was engaged campaigning against
the fighting Pacific coast Indians, the last of which ended
by surrender and removal of all Indians in Southern
Oregon to reservations in Northeastern Oregon.
Joined Troop E at Walla Walla, Washington Territory,
as first lieutenant, fall of 1856, and commanded escort to
wagon-road expedition from Fort Dallas, Oregon, to
Salt Lake, Utah, during summer and fall of 1859. He
was promoted captain First Cavalry, May 7, 1861, and
was appointed lieutenant-colonel and additional aide-
de-camp, September 28, 1861, on the staff of General
McClellan, with whom he took the field, and participated
in all the campaigns under that officer and others. He
was engaged in so many actions, skirmishes, combats,
and battles that it is impossible to find room for them
in this sketch. He accompanied General McClellan to
New York, on his being relieved from command of Army
ofthe Potomac, November 10, 1862, and assisted writing
report of operations of Army of the Potomac until July,
1863 ; applied to join Army of the Potomac ; took com
mand First United States Cavalry, Cavalry Corps, Army
of the Potomac. He was selected, by order of General
Sheridan, to take First and Second United States Cavalry
and dislodge, at any cost, enemy from ridge command
ing Meadow Bridge, General Custer reporting his being
unable to dislodge them with his brigade; the two regi
ments dislodged the enemy.
Colonel Sweitzer was with General Sheridan in the
Shenandoah campaign, and in combats at Berryville,
Stone Church, New Town, Front Royal, Shepherdstown,
at Smithfield, made a sabre charge with the First Cavalry
on the advance of the enemy, consisting of a regiment
and battalion, and drove them back on the main body of
the enemy, disabling and capturing a number. He was
appointed colonel of the Sixteenth New York Cavalry,
November 12, 1864, and he was, on the assassination of
President Lincoln, with his regiment ordered to Wash
ington, April 16, 1865; patrolled Southern Maryland
and Virginia, between Potomac and James Rivers, for
assassins of the President; Booth, the assassin, killed,
and Harold and Mudd, conspirators, were arrested by a
detachment of the regiment.
At the close of the war he was brevetted in the regu
lar service from major to brigadier-general, for " gallant

and meritorious services ;" and was also brevetted briga
dier-general of volunteers. He was in command of the
District of the Northern Neck, Virginia, from May to
September, 1865;. proceeded to New York with regi
ment, and honorably mustered out of volunteer service
September 21, 1865. Commanded battalion Fifth Cav
alry and Sedgwick Barracks, Washington, D. C. ; joined
Second Cavalry as major, dating July 28, 1866, at Fort
Laramie, Wyoming; scouted North Platte and Sweet
water country to South Pass ; re-established telegraph
stations and lines destroyed by Indians ; selected loca
tion for Fort Fetterman ; established route for road from
proposed site of Fort Fetterman on North Platte south
to projected line of Union Pacific Railroad on Laramie
Plains ; sent with battalion of Second Cavalry to patrol
road and protect supply-trains from Sioux Indians on
road leading from North Platte to Forts Reno, Phil.
Kearney, and C. F. Smith, in Powder River and Big
Horn country, until October 20, 1867 ; inspector-general,
Department of the Platte, April, 1868, to March, 1871 ;
engaged in scouting country of Platte and Loupe Rivers
until October, 1872; March, 1873, at Fort Ellis, Mon
tana, to September, 1875 ; guarding Gallatin Valley and
scouting country from Yellowstone to Musselshell and
Missouri Rivers ; took command of Fort Sanders, Feb
ruary, 1877, and regiment; joined Eighth Cavalry as
lieutenant-colonel June, 1877; took command of regi
ment and District of the Rio Grande from Fort Brown
to Fort Mcintosh, Texas; served in Department of
Texas to March, 1886. Promoted colonel Second Cav
alry, to date from January 9, 1886. On Retiring Board,
detailed by authority of the President, December 18,
1885, to April, 1886; at Fort Walla Walla, Washington
Territory, May 1, 1886, to October 29, 1888. Retired
on his own application October 29, ii

2 30

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

FRANCIS ANTHONY DREXEL.
Francis Anthony Drexel was the oldest son of
Francis Martin Drexel, who came to the United States
in 1 8 17, from the Austrian Tyrol. The senior Drexel,
after some years spent in his profession of portrait-paint
ing in South America, turned his attention to 'finance,
and founded the house of Drexel & Company in 1837.
Francis was the eldest of three sons, Anthony Joseph
and Joseph William being his younger brothers. He
was born in Philadelphia, January 7, 1824. The discipline
imposed upon his boys by the founder of the house was
a severe one, and bore fruits in a success rarely equalled
in the history of banking. At the age of thirteen the
subject of this sketch began his career in his father's
counting-room, and there developed a natural aptitude
for business that was strengthened by industrious appli
cation until his acquirements were of the highest order.
His keen discernment and sound judgment made itself
felt in the building up of the firm ; and after the death of
his father, in 1863, he and his brother, Anthony J., were
already known as unusual men and well qualified to
develop the business on the lines already laid down by
its founder. The affection that bound these brothers to
each other during the long years they worked together
and the perfect confidence they reposed in each other's
judgment, notwithstanding some dissimilarities of temper
ament, gave to their united work results that could hardly

have been attained by individual effort. The younger
brother was prompt to seek advice from the elder;
the elder to assent to the suggestions of the younger.
Francis was of a retiring nature, notwithstanding his
strength of character. Anthony had been early trained
to the outside work of the firm, while his brother super
vised the office and counting-house. As a consequence,
Anthony was more often seen among men; but his
brother's department of the firm's business was not less
important than his own. The public history of the lives
of these brothers is largely, almost entirely, that of the
house of Drexel & Company, a banking firm that, like
certain European houses, although controlled by private
individuals, seemed under their management more like a
public institution. What it has been to Philadelphia, as
a strengthening and conservative power in business circles,
it would be difficult to tell ; but that its power has been
used wisely, and in such a manner that its success might
carry with it the advantage of others, is shown by the
exalted esteem in which the characters of these brothers
were held during their lives and the honor paid their
memories after death.
In private life, Mr. Drexel was simple, unostentatious,
kindly, and well loved. His charities were so great as to
mark him as a philanthropist; but he sought to avoid
publicity and to confer his benevolence in such a way as
to give grace to his act. His life was governed by a
strict and conscientious regard for the precepts of his
religion. He was a devout Catholic, and found his rule
of action in the teachings of that Church. He was an
intense lover of music, and had great knowledge of its
science. His favorite instrument was the organ, of which
he was a master. He owned a fine instrument, upon
which it was his favorite diversion to play the most
elevated and scientific productions. He was capable of
directing the most difficult performance, and on many
occasions he carried on the musical services at the
cathedral. Fond of a rural life, he made himself familiar with
the natural history of trees and flowers, of birds and
animals, and devoted much of his leisure time to the
beautifying of his country home. He was a discrim
inating reader, and filled his library with well-chosen
books. He died on the 15th day of February, 1885.
By his will one tithe of his large estate was devoted to
charity.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

231

BENJAMIN LILLARD.
Among the first settlers of " the dark and bloody
o-round" of Kentucky were the parents and grand
parents of the subject of our sketch, who emigrated
thither from Pennsylvania and Virginia. Benjamin Lil-
lard was born in Kentucky in 1847, at Harrodsburg,
Mercer County, famous at that time as a great health
resort, and for its celebrated mineral springs, etc. At an
early age he became a student of medicine, and subse
quently served for a time as a drug clerk. To fit himself
the better for this business he entered upon a course
of studies at the College of Pharmacy of Philadelphia,
supplemented with special courses in chemistry and
botany, where he graduated in 1867, number one, in a
class of forty-nine. After graduating he proceeded to
Nashville, Tennessee, where he engaged in the drug
business, and at the same time filled the chair of professor
of pharmacy in the Tennessee College of Pharmacy.
During this time he was also editor of the Pharmacal
Gazette, the first weekly paper of its kind in the country.
His marked success in these lines brought him a valu
able proposition from Boston, and in 1874 he gave up
these positions, came East, and accepted the post of
manager of the Boston Journal of Chemistry, which,
for several years, he filled very successfully. In 1878
a more flattering offer opened up a wider field in the
great metropolis, and he removed to New York, where
he assumed the management of the journal then so
widely known as New Remedies, but which is now the
American Druggist. For seven years he remained con
nected with this journal, and the publishing house of
William Wood & Co., which prospered greatly under his
skilful management. His phenomenal success brought
him many opportunities in other lines, and in 1885 he
again broadened out his field of usefulness by becoming
the conductor of, and purchasing a considerable interest
in, the Druggists' Circular and afterwards the Oil, Paint,
and Drug Reporter. To the management of these papers
he gave that ability and unfailing energy which had
marked his previous journalistic experience, and for ten
years added to the circulation and general business of
these papers, which under his management acquired
great value as trade papers. They are now considered
two of the most prosperous trade journals in the world.
In the summer of 1894, Mr. Lillard, feeling the need
of a well-earned rest from the too close application to
business details, retired from active work on these two
journals, and took a long vacation in Europe. He still
retains, however, a very large pecuniary interest in both
of them. On his return to this country, in 1895, he
purchased one of the first journals with which he had
been connected, the old Boston Journal of Chemistry,
then published in New York. Before his purchase,
however, the name of this paper had been changed to

Popular Science *or Popular Science Nezvs. Mr. Lillard at
once took energetic steps for its improvement, for the
increase of its usefulness as an expositor of popular
science, and the extension of the large circulation it then
possessed. In this his efforts have been attended with
the most gratifying success. Not only have the many
improvements in the paper added to its individual pros
perity, but fourteen other papers have been bought and
merged into it. By these means the circulation of the
paper has been greatly enhanced, while it has attained a
popularity that is rapidly adding to its prosperity.
Mr. Lillard's close attention to the smallest details of
his enterprises is doubtless a main element in his great
success, for even a genius for business is of little avail
without steady application, carefully directed in the
proper channels. Like many hard workers, he is do
mestic in disposition, and, while aggressive in business, is
pleasant and courteous in private life, and very popular
in his large circle of friends and acquaintances.
Mr. Lillard married, in 1871, Miss Martha D. Hall,
daughter of a prominent physician of Nashville. His
family, which includes four children, has resided in New
York for the past eighteen years. His interest in all
scientific matters is very great, especially in the line of
chemistry and pharmacy. Having devoted so much of
his life to the improvement and advancement of the drug
business, he still takes a very active interest in drug
education and periodicals, and is a member of the New
York College of Pharmacy. He is a prominent mem
ber of the Episcopal Church, and has been for many
years a member of the Masonic fraternity, in which he
had attained the thirty-second degree. He is also one of
the old members of the Massachusetts Press Association,
and one of the originators of the American Trade Press
Association.

232

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM M. SINGERLY.
William Miskey Singerly, the well-known proprietor
of the Philadelphia Record, was born in this city, Decem
ber 27, 1832, and educated in the Philadelphia public
schools, graduating from the High School in 1850. Im
mediately afterwards he obtained a position in the com
mission and produce house of J. Palmer &"Co., on Market
Street wharf, where he remained ten years, gaining a
thorough knowledge of business and unusual facility as
an accountant. After leaving this situation, he went to
Chicago, and became there a commission merchant, a
business in which he was progressing satisfactorily, when
his father, who was a large stockholder in the German-
town Passenger Railway Comjjany, recalled him to Phila
delphia for the purpose of becoming manager of this
street railway.
He found the road in an unsatisfactory condition, but
in a year's time, by enforcing economy and improving
the service, he converted it from a losing into a paying
concern. One of his first measures was the purchase, at
a small price, of the Girard Avenue road. Many looked
on this as an unwise proceeding, but the result has fully
proved the wisdom of the purchase. Mr. Singerly's
energy and ability as a manager proved so great that
eventually the sole control of the road came into his
hands. His father died in 1878, leaving him his stock,
valued at $750,000. This stock was afterwards sold to
the Work syndicate for $1,500,000, and Mr. Singerly
retired from street railway management.
His energies found play in several other directions.
In 1877 he purchased the Record newspaper, which at

that time had the small circulation of five thousand two
hundred, but which he has run up to a daily issue of
over one hundred thousand copies. In 1881-82 was
erected the beautiful and substantial Record building, on
Chestnut above Ninth Street, which is looked upon by
journalists as one of the most complete newspaper es
tablishments in the country. Politically, Mr. Singerly is
a Democrat, and his paper is the leading exponent of
Democracy in this city. He has always been prominent in
politics, and has frequently served his party in State and
national conventions, and in other important lines of duty.
Another of Mr. Singerly's enterprises has been in the
building business. In conjunction with the Singerly es
tate, he owned seventy-five acres of land in the Twenty-
eighth Ward, on which he has built a very large number
of dwelling-houses, at a cost running far up into the mil
lions. This building operation is probably the largest
ever attempted by any one individual in this city, the
necessary material for the undertaking being in part pro
vided by a brick-yard which has a capacity of sixty
thousand bricks a day, and an immense planing-mill for
the supply of lumber. He has, besides, an interest in
the knitting-mills at Eighth and Dauphin Streets, which
have been greatly developed since his connection with
them, being now the largest producers of "Jerseys" in
the world, while this product is of the finest quality. In
addition, he owns a gleaner and binder factory at Nor-
ristown, and a paper mill at Fair Hill, Maryland, both
with a large production. Another of his enterprises was
the purchase of the old Masonic Temple on Chestnut
Street and the building of the beautiful Temple Theatre
and Egyptian Musee. These have since been destroyed
by fire, and replaced by a group of the handsomest
banking buildings in the city.
Impaired health and his father's advice induced him, in
1872, to purchase a small farm in Montgomery County,
to which he removed in 1873. From this small begin
ning has grown, by successive additions, the splendidly
developed " Record Farm" of seven hundred acres, which
is to-day the most extensive and elaborate high-grade
stock-farm in the country, Mr. Singerly's love of fine
animals having led him to employ his country life in this
direction. His stock includes what is undoubtedly the
finest herd of thorough-bred Holstein cattle in America,
and an extensive heard of high-grade Cotswold sheep.
He is a lover of horses, also, and in Kentucky is inter
ested in a fine breed of trotting stock, whose powers are
being steadily improved. Mr. Singerly is still in the
prime of life, sociable, but fond of domestic life, while
his time is largely occupied in the many interests in which
he has engaged.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

233

J. HARPER BONNELL.
J. Harper Bonnell, head of the ink-making company
that bears his name, was born in 1850, being the grand
son of John Harper, one of the founders of the great
publishing house of Harper & Brothers, of whom we
have given a biographical sketch elsewhere. Mr. Bonnell,
after passing through his period of school-life, made the
manufacture of printing inks the business of his mature
years, and has brought his class of goods to a stage of
great perfection, while gradually building up the large
manufacturing business which he still actively conducts.
His life has been so closely devoted to the advancement
of his business and the improvement of the inks manu
factured by him that his career presents few biographical
details, and we cannot do better than describe the de
velopment of the New York ink industry, which has
been largely due to himself, and may be given principally
in his own words :
" As I look back to the year in which I was born,"
he remarks, " I find that the makers of the highest grade
of printing inks were our English cousins. To-day one
has but to pick up Harper or Leslie to see that, com
pared to us, the English no longer can claim superiority
over, or even equality with, American manufacturers.
England comes to us to-day for our fine grades of ink,
which compliment I highly appreciate, as my former
partner was the agent here for English inks. Since then
an English house, directly related to and connected with
English makers, has exported our goods. In Sydney,
Australia, they secured the first prize over makers of all
nations." This we give, not as an eulogy of Mr. Bonnell's estab
lishment, but as testimony from one well competent to
speak of the superiority of American productions, in
this one line at least, to those of England.
During the period of his business career the demands
of the press have steadily increased, particularly for inks
adapted to the delicate engravings which have replaced
the somewhat crude wood-cuts of the past, and the
photo-engravings which, by their cheapness and exact
ness of reproduction, have become so prominent a
feature of recent illustration.
Mr. Bonnell, as regards to conditions of the book-
making art in England, quotes the following remarks
from Henry Newton Stevens's work, entitled " Who Spoils
our New English Books ?"
This author says in reply to his own query, " First,
the author ; second, the publisher ; third, the printer ;
fourth, the reader ; fifth, the compositor ; sixth, the press
man ; seventh, the paper-maker ; eighth, the ink-maker ;
ninth, the bookbinder; and tenth and last, though not
least, the consumer, who is to blame for putting up with

it, although the ink-maker is a sinner of the first mag
nitude." In this somewhat sweeping denunciation Mr. Bonnell
quite accords with the author, so far as his special re
mark about English inks is concerned, and says, " I find
Mr. Stevens to be perfectly correct, and have, since
reading his work, sent many tons of ink to Merrie Eng
land," not, as one may safely aver, without improvement
in this one feature of English books.
Mr. Bonnell relates an interesting and characteristic
anecdote of George W. Childs, the eminent Philadelphia
publisher, who one day said to him, " I have one fault to
find with your ink." The visitor expressed great regret,
and asked what the fault was. " You do not charge
enough for it," answered Mr. Childs. " I knew he meant
it," says Mr. Bonnell, "and raised the price accordingly.
Next express brought me an engraving of Mr. Childs,
which I have always prized for its connection with a
fault of which I have not since been accused."
Mr. Bonnell tells a similarly characteristic anecdote
about his grandfather, John Harper, which is worth
repeating as an interesting addition to the biography of
the latter.
On one occasion he saw Mr. Harper nod carelessly
to Commodore Vanderbilt, and immediately afterwards
make a polite bow to another person. On asking him
how he came to treat the latter undistinguished individual
more respectfully than the noted millionaire, he replied,
" That is one of my compositors ; he will think more of
it." There could be nothing more significant of the
character of the man than this brief remark, in which
was displayed a spirit of human fellowship and consider
ation of the feelings of others which, unhappily, is too
rarely possessed by those in authority.

234

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM WELLS.
Brigadier- and Brevet Major-General William
Wells was born in Waterbury, Vermont, December 14,
1837. He enlisted as a private in Company C, First
Regiment Vermont Cavalry, September 9, 1861 ; was
sworn into the United States service, October 3, 1861, at
the age of twenty -three years ; commissioned first lieu
tenant, Company C, October 14, 1 861, and captain, Novem
ber 18, 1 861; mustered November 19, 1861, with the field
and staff of the First Regiment Vermont Cavalry, to serve
for three years. Commissioned major, October 30, 1862;
colonel, June 4, 1864. Appointed brevet brigadier-gen
eral of volunteers, February 22, 1865, and brigadier-gen
eral of volunteers, May 19, 1865. Appointed brevet
major-general of volunteers, March 30, 1865, " for gallant
and meritorious services."
He was placed in command of the Seventh Regiment,
Michigan Cavalry, March 2, 1864, by order of General
Judson Kilpatrick, while near Richmond, Virginia, on
what is known as Kilpatrick's raid, and continued in com
mand of the regiment for several weeks. As major, he
commanded his own regiment from June 3, 1864, and
during Wilson's raid south of Richmond, June 21 to
July 2, 1864. As colonel, he commanded the Vermont
cavalry regiment until September 19, 1864, when he
assumed command of the Second Brigade, Third Division,
Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac. He commanded
this brigade at the surrender of the Army of Northern
Virginia, at Appomattox, Virginia, April 9, 1865, and
until May 22, 1865, when he assumed command of the
Third Cavalry Division. From September 19, 1864, to
April 9, 1865, he was several times in command of the
Third Cavalry Division. He was in command of the
cavalry corps from June 1 to June 24, 1865, being its last
commander. He was in command of the First Separate

Brigade, Twenty-second Army Corps, from June 24, 1865,
to July 24, 1865. He was mustered out of the service
January 15, 1866, by General Order 168, War Depart
ment, Washington, D. C, dated December 28, 1865. He
was wounded at Boonesboro', Maryland, July 8, 1863,
with a sabre thrust and cut, and at Culpeper Court-
House, Virginia, September 13, 1863, by fragment of
shell ; was a prisoner of war in Libby prison, Richmond,
Virginia, from March 17, 1863, to about May 6, 1863.
His service in the field was continuous from his muster
in until the close of the war.
During his service with the First Regiment of Cavalry,
General Wells took part in the following battles and skir
mishes : Middletown, Winchester, Luray Court-House,
Culpeper Court-House, Orange Court-House, Kelley's
Ford, Waterloo Bridge, Bull Run, Warrenton, Hanover,
Hunterstown, Gettysburg, Monterey, Leitersville, Hagers
town, Boonsboro', Falling Waters, Port Conway, Port Con
way, Culpeper Court-House, Somerville Ford, Raccoon
Ford, James City, Brandy Station, Gainesville, Buckland
Mills, Falmouth, Morton's Ford, Mechanicsville, Piping-
Tree, Craig's Meeting- House, Spottsylvania, Yellow Tav
ern, Meadow Bridge, Hanover Court-House, Ashland,
Hawes' Shop, Bottom Bridge, White Oak Swamp, Rid
dle's Shop, Malvern Hill, Reams's Station, Nottoway
Court-House, Roanoke Station, Stony Creek, Reams's
Station, Winchester, Summit Point, Charlestown, West
Virginia, Kearneysville, and Opequan or Winchester.
As brigade and division commander he was engaged
at Opequan, Front Royal, Gooney Manor Grade, Milford,
Waynesboro', Columbia Furnace, Tom's Brook, Cedar
Creek, Cedar Creek, Middle Road, Middle and Back
Road or Middletown, Lacy's Springs, Waynesboro', Five
Forks, Scott's Corners, Namozine Creek, Winticomack,
Appomattox Station, and Appomattox Court-House.
At the grand review, Washington, D. C, May 22, 1865,
he commanded the Second Brigade, Third Division, Cav
alry Corps, which led the advance of the Army of the
Potomac. A medal of honor was awarded him by
Congress "for distinguished gallantry at the battle of
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 3, 1863." He was col
lector of customs, District of Vermont, from 1872 until
1885. General Wells was elected to the office of adjutant and
inspector-general of the State of Vermont in 1866, and
resigned in 1872. He was one ofthe trustees ofthe
Vermont Soldiers' Home and was the first president of
the board, from the date of its creation by the legislature
until 1890, when he declined a re-election. He was a
member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was a
charter member and first commander of the Vermont
Commandery, Military Order of the Loyal Legion.
General Wells died April 29, 1892, and is buried at
Lake View Cemetery, Burlington, Vermont.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

235

LEWIS D. VAIL.
Lewis D. Vail, lawyer, was born at Stroudsburg,
Monroe County, Pennsylvania, March 17, 1832. Mr.
Vail is, on his father's side, of English descent, his an
cestors settling in the province of New York in the
middle of the seventeenth century. His great-great
grandfather, John Vail, moved from New York to North
ern New Jersey in 1698, where he was a noted preacher
in the Society of Friends, and died in 1774. One of his
ancestors in the paternal line, a woman, came to Phila
delphia in the year preceding the arrival of William Penn,
and, in common with the first comers, lived in a cave
excavated in the river bank until a house was built.
She afterwards married and resided in New Jersey. His
father, Dr. Charles Vail, came from Morris County, New
Jersey, to Stroudsburg, where he practised medicine for
many years, and died in 1836.
His mother, Rachel De Pui Stroud, was descended
from the De Puis, a family of French Huguenots, who
came to this country about 1662, in which year a planta
tion on Staten Island was granted to Nicholas De Pui.
While in the Netherlands, Nicholas De Pui married
Winifred Rose, of Holland. The family afterwards set
tled at Shawnee, on the Delaware River, a few miles
above the Water Gap, where the old family mansion still
remains. When the surveyors of the Penn family reached
this point, they found De Pui in possession, knowing
nothing about William Penn, but holding his lands by
Indian grants. He afterwards obtained patents from the
proprietors, under which patents the estate is still held.
The Strouds, with whom the De Puis intermarried, were
of English descent. Sir William Stroud was a member
of Parliament, and in 1642 was, with Pym, Hampden,
Hollis, and Hazeling, accused of treason by Charles I.
The Parliament refused to surrender them, and the city
of London defended them by arms. Colonel Jacob
Stroud, Mr. Vail's great-grandfather, was a soldier ofthe
last century. He fought in the French and Indian War,
and at Quebec assisted in carrying the mortally wounded
General Wolfe from the field. He fought also in the
Revolutionary War, served as a member of the Colonial
Legislature in 1776, and took part in the formation of
the first constitution of Pennsylvania in the same year.
He was the founder of Stroudsburg, in whose vicinity he
acquired a large landed estate. One of his descendants
was the late Judge Stroud, ofthe District Court of Phila
delphia. The De Puis and Strouds intermarried with the
Macdonald family, sturdy, noted Scotch-Irish people.
Mr. Vail studied as freshman and sophomore at La
fayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, and then went to
Princeton College, where he graduated in 185 1. In the

winter of that year he taught the district school at
Shawnee, Pennsylvania, and in the spring of 1852 took
charge of the Stroudsburg Academy. He continued
there till 1856, being occupied in 1854 in reorganizing
and regrading the public schools of Stroudsburg. Early
in 1856 he came to Philadelphia, where he entered the
office of Richard McMurtrie for the study of law. He
was admitted in 1858 to practise at the Philadelphia bar,
where he rapidly rose to prominence, and has ever since
maintained an honorable and elevated position. His
standing before the courts can be estimated from the
following testimony given by the Philadelphia judges in
1888, when Mr. Vail had been named as a candidate for
the position of associate law judge of Lackawanna County:
" Mr. Vail has for many years been an active and
prominent member of the legal profession of this city,
whose ability and learning, as well as his fidelity to the
bench and to his clients, have commended him to the
confidence of every one, and have gained for him the
fullest confidence of the bench of this city."
On the formation of the Law and Order Society, an
association to enforce the laws relating to the liquor
traffic in this city, Mr. Vail was chosen its attorney, and
has since acted in that capacity. He is regarded as an
authority in the interpretation of the liquor laws. He
was a member of the Democratic party till 1884, when
he joined the Prohibition party, to which he still adheres.
He married, in i860, a daughter of the Hon. George M.
Stroud, and has a family of seven sons and two living
daughters. He resides in Germantown, where he takes
an active part in church and Sunday-school matters, be
ing a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

236

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

GEORGE WEST.
Hon. George West, manufacturer and member of
Congress, is a native of England. He was born at
Bradninch, Devonshire, February 17, 1823, went to work
in a paper-mill when eleven years of age, was bound
apprentice at the age of fourteen, and served seven years
in one of the finest paper-mills, and at the age of
eighteen was in charge of the copper-plate department,
one of the most important in the mill.
In the winter of 1848-49, Mr. West, feeling that he
would have greater opportunities for advancement in this
country, came to the United States, worked at his trade
about a year in New Jersey, and in February, 1850, moved
to Tyringham, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where
he made the first water-mark writing paper on a paper-
machine in the United States, and invented machinery
for cutting the water-mark in the middle of the sheet.
In 1853, Mr. West gave up this position on account
of sickness, and in the fall of that year moved to Russell
and superintended the mill, which position he filled until
the proprietor sold out. In early 1858 he moved to
West Cummington, where he bought a quarter interest
in the New Writing-Paper Mill, and took full charge, and
did the buying and selling of the paper, until October,
i860, when he sold his interest to his partners.
In 1 86 1 the Empire Mill, at Rock City Falls, Saratoga
Co., N. Y., was offered him, but he declined to buy until he
had worked a year in it to learn its value. He purchased
it in June, 1862, and entered upon a prosperous career.
In 1866 he built the Excelsior Paper-Mill in Rock
City Falls, and in the same year became part owner of a
mill in Watertown, New York. This interest he sold in
1870, and bought the Pioneer Mill in West Milton, and
in the same year joined with Robert Gair, as Gair &
West, in the paper commission trade in New York City,

and withdrew from the latter concern in 1 876. He bought,
in 1874, what is known as the Eagle Mill, in Factory
Village, Saratoga County, New York, and in August,
1875, bought all the cotton- and woollen-factories in
Ballston Spa, including the Glen, Union, and Island Mills.
He now owns seven paper-mills in Saratoga County,
and at Luzerne, on the Hudson, he also owns and
conducts the largest factory for the manufacture of paper-
bags in the world. The Glen Mill is used to produce
sulphite fibre, and turns out about fifteen tons a day.
He began business in 1862 with ten employees and an
output of one-half ton of paper per day. He has now
four hundred employees and produces forty tons of paper
per day, having a capacity of from three to four million
paper-bags daily. Ballston Spa and other parts of Sara
toga County have greatly benefited by his activity and
public spirit, and the people regard Mr. West as a public
benefactor. He is treasurer of the Round Lake Asso
ciation, to whose interests he devotes much attention.
Within recent years, Mr. West has extended his business
connections. He owns the Schenectady Union, is a stock
holder and director of the Utica Herald, and is one of
the two partners in the firm of D. S. Walton & Co.,
wholesale dealers in paper-bags, etc., in New York City.
Mr. West also owns Western mines and other interests,
and has been president of the First National Bank at
Ballston Spa since 1880. Politically he is a Republican,
a strong believer in the policy of protection of home
industries. He has been five times elected to the State
Assembly from Saratoga County, from 1871 to 1875,
by steadily increasing majorities. In 1876 he served as
chairman of the railroad committee. In 1880 he was
elected to Congress, and re-elected in 1884 and 1886 as
representative from the Twentieth District of New York.
In Congress he served on the Committee of Agriculture,
Manufacture, and Enrolled Bills and Patents. In 1880,
1884, and 1888 he was a delegate to the National
Republican Convention, and in his political campaigns
has shown himself a ready and well-informed speaker.
Mr. West married in England in 1884. Of his six
children, two only are living, — George West, Jr., who is
associated with him in business management, and Florence
Louise, wife of D. W. Mabee, who is Mr. West's right-hand
man in the control of the paper-mills and paper-bag factory.
Much of Mr. West's life is passed in New York City,
where he is a member of the Republican Club, Board
of Trade Transportation, and the American Geographical
Society. He a few years ago visited his place of birth,
which town and several of its inhabitants have greatly
benefited by his liberality. A man of sound, liberal
views, and wide range of knowledge, he commands the
respect of all who know him, while his genial humor
and exuberant spirits make him a general favorite in
society.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

237

CHALMERS W. HUTCHISON.
The subject of our present sketch is the youngest
son of the Rev. Samuel M. and Emily P. Hutchison, of
Knox County, Ohio, and was born at Mount Vernon,
an active manufacturing centre of that county, on May
13, 1861, his birth being thus very nearly synchronous
with the beginning of the Civil War. His early educa
tion was gained in the local schools of Mount Vernon,
and at a later date he was entered in Muskingum Col
lege, New Concord, Ohio, from which institution he
graduated in 1882.
Mr. Hutchison early manifested literary proclivities,
and after his graduation selected journalism as the pro
fession best suited to his tastes and abilities. During
his college life, indeed, he had somewhat actively en
gaged in journalistic activity, being connected with
several papers in the capacities of reporter and corre
spondent. In 1882, immediately after leaving college,
and when twenty- one years of age, he removed from
his native place to the town of Olathe, Kansas, and
became business manager of the Mirror, oi which news
paper his brother was editor.
His engagement here came to an end through a con
flagration, by which the entire plant and building of the
Mirror were destroyed and the young men thrown out
of business and left destitute of capital. Mr. Hutchi
son now applied for a position in the Interior Depart
ment at Washington, D. C, and obtained the desired
appointment through the influence of the late Senator
Plumb, of Kansas. He here became private secretary
to Hon. Hiram Price, United States commissioner of
Indian affairs, a position which he acceptably filled for
a number of years. While thus engaged, however, Mr.
Hutchison kept up his journalistic labors, acting as
Washington correspondent for the State Journal, of
Topeka, Kansas, and sending occasional letters also to
several smaller papers.
After nearly five years of this occupation, Mr. Hutchi

son resigned his position under the government, with
the purpose of engaging once more in the business of
journalism. This new venture was in Kansas City,
Missouri, where, in 1893, in connection with his brother,
he purchased the Kansas City Mail. Of this paper he
became the business manager, which position he still
holds and in which he has displayed a marked and
pronounced business ability, whose results are very
favorably shown in the growing patronage of the paper.
It is in the advertising line that Mr. Hutchison's powers
are chiefly declared. In this field of labor his activity
and versatility are so decided that he is looked upon
as exceptional, while the Mail has had a flourishing
career under his skilful management of its concerns,
and promises to grow into a widely patronized and
influential sheet. Mr. Hutchison is an unmarried man,
and devotes all his time, energy, and ability towards the
important end of business success, in which his career
hitherto is significant of a brilliant future.

238

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ANSON MILLS.
Colonel Anson Mills, U.S.A., was born in the State
of Indiana, August 31, 1834, and entered as a cadet
at the United States Military Academy, at West Point,
July 1, 1855, remaining there till February 18, 1857.
During the succeeding year he taught school in McKin-
ney, Texas, while engaged in the study of law with
Colonel R. L. Waddell. Subsequently, as surveyor of
the El Paso and Presidio Land District of Texas, he
surveyed the original plan of the City of El Paso ; and
in 1858-59 served as surveyor on the part of Texas in
the commission to define the boundary between Texas
and New Mexico. In February, 1861, when a vote was
taken in Texas for separation from the Union, he cast
one of the lonely two votes given in El Paso County
" against separation."
The outbreak of the Civil War found him in the city
of Washington, whose volunteer soldiery he hastened to
join as sergeant in the "Clay Guards." On May 14,
1 86 1, he entered the service with which he has since
been identified, that of the United States Regular Army,
in which he was commissioned first lieutenant of the
Eighteenth Infantry. He was promoted April 27, 1863,
to captain, and during the war received brevet commis
sions, "for gallantly in action," of captain, December 31,
1862 (Stone River), major, September 1, 1864 (Chicka
mauga), and lieutenant-colonel, December 16, 1864 (Nash
ville). From February to October, 1862, he served as
adjutant of his regiment, to April, 1863, as commissary
of subsistence of regular brigade, Army of the Cum
berland (he meanwhile commanding his company),
and in 1864 as inspector-general of the district of the
Etowa. Captain Mill's company (H, First Battalion) had the

distinction of having the most casualties in battle than
any other company in its regiment, while the regiment
(the Eighteenth Regular Infantry) had the similar dis
tinction of having more casualties in battle than any
other regular regiment in the army during the war of
the Rebellion (see Fox's " Regimental Losses in the
Civil War"). This fact, significant of the severity of its
service, is indicated also in the number of battles in which
it took part, in all of which Captain Mills participated as
commander of his company. These included the several
engagements of Corinth, Mississippi ; Stone River, Ten
nessee; Hoover's Gap, Tennessee; Chickamauga, Geor
gia ; Missionary Ridge, Tennessee ; Resaca, Georgia ; New
Hope Church, Georgia; Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia;
Neal Dow Station, Georgia ; Peach-Tree Creek, Georgia ;
Atlanta, Georgia ; Utoy Creek, Georgia ; and Jonesboro',
Georgia. Captain Mills served on the staff of Major-
General Steedman in the battle of Nashville, Ten
nessee. The service of Colonel Mills after the war embraces
many matters of interest, which can here be only briefly
stated. In 1866 he was appointed a member, from
Texas, of the Board of Visitors to the United States
Military Academy. On January 1, 1 871, he was trans
ferred to the cavalry arm of the service, and since then
has seen active duty in the West, and has served the
government in several important capacities. His pro
motions since the war have been as follows : major,
Tenth Cavalry, April 4, 1878 ; lieutenant-colonel, Fourth
Cavalry, March 25, 1890 ; colonel, Third Cavalry, Au
gust 16, 1892, with the brevet commission of colonel,
February 27, 1890, for gallantry in action at the engage
ment of Slim Buttes, September 9,. 1876.
Colonel Mills, in 1874, commanded the Big Horn and
Yellowstone expedition. In 1876 he came again actively
into service in the field in the Indian troubles of that
year. Pie commanded a squadron of the Third Cavalry
in the Indian battle of Powder River, Montana, on
March 17 of that year, and that of Rose Bud, Montana,
on June 17, and was in an independent command in the
engagement of Slim Buttes, South Dakota, September 9,
1876. How well he acquitted himself in the last-named
affair is sufficiently indicated in the fact we have already
stated, that he afterwards was brevetted colonel for his
marked display of gallantry in this sharp-fought battle
with our so-called national wards.
Military attache to the International Exposition, Paris,
France, 1878 ; commissioner, international (water) bound
ary commission, United States and Mexico, by joint
resolution of Congress, since December 12, 1893.
In addition to his varied and active military service,
Colonel Mills may claim credit in the inventive field, the
woven cartridge belt, adopted and in use both in the
army and navy, being of his invention.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

239

CHRISTOPHER MAGEE.
Judge Magee, a prominent and public-spirited citizen
of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, was born in that city De
cember 5, 1829, being the son of Christopher and Jane
Watson Magee. After a period spent in preliminary
study he entered the Western University of Pennsylvania
for a collegiate education, graduating from this institution
in 1848 with the degree of A.B. The Western Univer
sity subsequently (in 1879) conferred on him the honor
ary degree of A.M., and afterwards that of LL.D.
Desirous of pursuing his studies further, particularly in
the department of law, Mr. Magee, in 1848, applied for
and obtained admission to the Senior Class of the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, where he grad
uated with the class of the succeeding year as A.M. and
LL.B. Continuing the study of the law, he was duly
admitted to the bar in his native city, and at once en
gaged in practice before the courts of that city, and
quickly obtained a profitable legal business. He remained
actively engaged in the practice of his profession for many
years. His attention, however, was not restricted to the law,
he taking an active interest in and giving much time to
the political movements in Pittsburg. As a consequence
he was, in 1856, nominated and elected by his party, the
Democratic, to the lower body of the Pennsylvania
Legislature, in which he very creditably served one term.
A legislative career, however, did not prove fully to his
taste, and beyond a term of service in the Common
Council of Pittsburg, which he entered in 1859, Judge
Magee has declined any further official connection with
political life, his time having been devoted, in preference,
to the demands of his extensive practice, and of the
various institutions with which he has from time to time
become connected.
In 1885 he was raised to the bench of Alleghany
County, by appointment of Governor Pattison, and after
wards being elected judge of the Court of Common
Pleas, No. 2, for that county. Since his incumbency in
this office he has withdrawn from all active connection
with political affairs. He still, however, takes an earnest
interest in the fortunes of the Democratic party, and is

looked upon as a stanch adherent of this great political
organization. As a member of the Pittsburg bench,
Judge Magee has faithfully and creditably maintained
his record as an honorable, capable, and impartial judge,
one who can always be depended upon for a just and
well-considered decision, and as such has won the esteem
of the bar of that city, and the general respect of its
inhabitants. He married Elizabeth Louise McLeod, daughter of
the Rev. John Neil McLeod, D.D., of New York City.
As a citizen of Pittsburg he takes an active interest in,
and is generous in the support of, a number of its chari
table institutions. Of these may be named the Pittsburg
Hospital for Children and the Shady Side Academy.
Of these, as also of a number of other public institutions,
he was one of the original corporators, and is still a
member of their several boards of management. He
holds the same relation to the Chamber of Commerce
of Pittsburg, and is a member of the Pittsburg Club, the
University Club of Pennsylvania, and the Delta Phi Club
of New York City. In short, Judge Magee ranks among
the most prominent, useful, and highly respected inhabi
tants of the Iron City.

240

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

GEORGE A. SCOTT.
The late George A. Scott was born at Lansingburg,
Rensselaer County, New York, in 1842, the son of
George Scott, a prominent brush manufacturer of that
place. When but seventeen years of age he conceived
the idea of a brush whose bristles should not be doubled
in the back of the brush and secured with wire or thread,
and at this he worked at intervals for years, finally
achieving success.
The war with the South broke out when he was nineteen
years of age. Young Scott burned with martial ardor,
particularly when he saw his friends and companions
donning the blue and marching away to the front. His
parents, however, who feared for their son's life, steadily
refused to permit him to enroll himself in any of the
regiments being raised in the town. The youthful patriot
ended the contest by running away from home and
making his way to Virginia, where he sought the regiment
containing his friends, and enlisted in a company whose
captain had formerly been in his father's employ. It was
a " two years' regiment," and was mustered out at the
end of that period. Feeling that he had done his share
of duty to his country, and weary of the hardships of
soldiering, he returned to civil life.
On the perfection of his device and the taking out of
a patent, he took the necessary steps to push it, bringing
it to the attention of certain capitalists in Massachusetts,
with whom he entered into business relations. A com
pany was organized, called the Florence Manufacturing
Company, with a large capital.

The young inventor was venturesome and proved for
tunate. Ten years were spent abroad, during which time
a company — the Lionite Manufacturing Company, limited
— was organized in London, and the brushes placed upon
the market, he being made the managing director. He
was also engaged in other enterprises, and became a
director in several other companies, while also diligently
engaged in working out a new idea, the application
of electro-magnetism to his patent hair-brush and to
other articles. He became convinced that by inserting
a magnet in a hair-brush he could produce an article of
daily use which would prove an important agent in the
relief of headache and neuralgic pains.
The magnetic brush was brought out in 1878 in Lon
don, and advertised with a liberality to which Britannic
conservatism was not accustomed, and which gave
the new article a decided start. The business being
established in London, Mr. Scott made his way to Paris,
whose journals were quickly filled with illustrations of
his brush, on whose back appeared a hand brandishing
a cluster of lightning darts. This seemed to take the
Parisian fancy, and orders poured in for the magnetic
brush. In the following year, 1879, Mr. Scott returned to New
York, where he began advertising in the same liberal
manner as he had done abroad, and at once became
known as one of the largest advertisers in the world ;
and for years his advertising expenses in England were
about $100,000, and in this country about $150,000,
annually. Mr. Scott's inventive activity did not cease with the
production of the hair-brush. He followed this with
experiments towards the production of an electric flesh-
brush, and successively applied his magnetic idea to
other articles, producing a magnetic belt, corset, and
tooth-brush, all of which articles have a large annual
sale. Into his three agencies — New York, London, and
Paris — orders come from all parts of the world, such as
Central and South America, Australia, Hong-Kong, the
Holy Land, and other remote points, and the business
is still actively pushed.
Mr. Scott resided in New York, and was an American
physically as well as mentally. Tall and lithe, with regu
lar features, keen gray eyes, an evident sense of humor
lurking in their depths, and quick, decisive manner, he
bore the mark of the enterprising man of business in
his whole vital personality. He died February 11, 1890,
at Colorado Sjsrings, Colorado, leaving a widow and son
and daughter.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

241

CORNELIUS K. GARRISON.
Cornelius Kingsland Garrison was born near West
Point, New York, March 1, 1809. He was descended from
old New York families, his ancestry on both sides being
among the earliest settlers of New Amsterdam. Plis
father, Oliver Garrison, had become reduced to poverty,
and the boy had to begin the business of life at an early
age, he being employed at thirteen in the Hudson River
carrying trade in summer, while studying in winter. At
the age of sixteen he began the study of architecture in
New York City, spending three years in this employ
ment. This was followed by five years of practical life
in Canada, wdiere he was engaged in erecting buildings
and constructing steamers for lake traffic. In this work
he showed great ability, and was so successful that he
was made superintendent of the Upper Canada Company,
a corporation extensively engaged in the development of
the newer regions of the Dominion.
Border difficulties arising between the United States
and Canada, Mr. Garrison soon gave up this position
and returned to the States, where he became engaged in
enterprises in the vicinity of New Orleans and elsewhere
on the lower Mississippi. He was here when gold was
found in California, and at once made his way to Panama,
where he established a bank for the purpose of doing
business with the tide of emigrants to the gold-diggings.
The bank proved very successful, and in 1852 he went
to New York, proposing to establish a branch bank
there. This purpose, however, was abandoned in favor
of an alluring offer made him, that of San Francisco
agent of the Nicaragua Steamship Company, with a
salary of sixty thousand dollars a year.
Mr. Garrison spent his next seven years in California,
during the period of the phenomenal early growth of San
Francisco. The company whose agency he had assumed
was, on his taking charge of its affairs, almost on the
verge of bankruptcy, but within a few months the tide
of its affairs turned, under his skilful management, to a
great prosperity. Indeed, so great was the confidence
which was felt in his ability and integrity, that before he
had been six months in San Francisco he was elected
mayor of the city. This office he administered as he
administered private business, with energy, honesty, and
earnest public spirit, he being the first mayor to suppress
the rampant spirit of immorality that prevailed and estab
lish law and order in the new city. Public gambling and
Sunday theatricals were vigorously rebuked in his first
message, and reform in the finances and other muni
cipal interests urgently demanded. And what he said
he meant. He unceasingly waged war against these

public evils, and during his term of service did much
to purify the polluted atmosphere of the city of the
Golden Gate.
He served as mayor gratuitously, his salary being dis
tributed among the orphan asylums ofthe city. Among
his reforms was the securing good educational facilities
for San Francisco. The industrial development of the
State was much aided by him, he being instrumental in
the building of the first Pacific railroad, in the establish
ment of a steamship line to Australia and China, and
in various other projects for the advancement of the
interests of the Pacific region.
In 1859, Mr. Garrison returned to New York, where
he became concerned in various successful financial enter
prises, and particularly in steamship concerns, he becom
ing one of the leading proprietors of steamships in this
country. To this he owed the familiar title of commo
dore, by which he was afterwards generally known.
During the Civil War he was of great assistance to the
government, Butler's Ship Island expedition in particular
being fitted out by him almost entirely, and at his ex
pense. At a later date he founded the New York and
Brazil Steamship Line, at that time the only mail line
on the Atlantic carrying the American flag. He also
established a large South American trade in connection
with his son, William R. Garrison, and was concerned in
important business enterprises in San Francisco, Chicago,
and St. Louis. He died May 1, 1885. He was a man
of the greatest public spirit and of the warmest senti
ment of benevolence, his charities being numerous but
unostentatious.

242

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

THOMAS H. NORTON.
Captain and Brevet Major Thomas H. Norton
was born at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, April 29, 1840.
He received an academic education at the Linsly In
stitute, at Wheeling, West Virginia, founded by Noah
Linsly, a former philanthropic and public-spirited citizen
of that State. In 1859 young Norton served as a non
commissioned officer in a company of Virginia militia,
which was called upon by the governor of Virginia
to attend the execution of John Brown, at Charlestown,
Virginia, in that year, but Corporal Norton refused to
respond to the summons, and immediately thereafter
severed his connection with the Virginia militia. At the
beginning of the war of the Rebellion he occupied the
position of paymaster at the Belmont Iron- Works, at
Wheeling, West Virginia, and under the first call of
President Lincoln for seventy-five thousand volunteers,
he raised a company of men, principally from among
the employees of the iron-mills, of which his father was
part owner.
On the 1 Ith of May, 1861, he was elected second lieu
tenant of this company, and was mustered into the
United States service by Major James Oakes, United
States army. A few days thereafter the First Regiment
of loyal Virginians, fully organized, but without uniforms,
and only partially armed and equipped, took the field in
defence of the Union. While serving with this regiment,
Lieutenant Norton took part in the engagement at
Philippi, Virginia, on June 3, 1861, in which Colonel
Kelly, commanding the First Virginia Volunteers, with
the co-operation and support of a brigade of Ohio and

Indiana troops, defeated and dispersed the Confederate
forces under Colonel Porterfield; and in recognition of
his services in this affair, Lieutenant Norton was on
August 5, 1 861, appointed captain in the Fifteenth United
States Infantry, and reported for duty at Newport
Barracks, Kentucky, in September following. Being at
that time but little over twenty-one years of age, it is
believed that Captain Norton was the youngest officer
who then held the rank of captain in the regular service.
During the remainder of 1861 and part of 1862, Cap
tain Norton was on recruiting, mustering, and disbursing
duty at Columbus, Ohio, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
At the latter capital he mustered in many of the famous
Pennsylvania regiments that afterwards achieved distinc
tion in the Civil War. Being relieved of this duty in
November, 1862, he joined the Second Battalion Fifteenth
United States Infantry, at Memphis, Tennessee, which
command, after the battle of Chickamauga, in September,
1863, was attached to the Regular Brigade, Second Divi
sion, Fourteenth Corps, Army of the Cumberland.
Captain Norton remained on duty in the field with this
command until the end of the war, participating in the
battles of Missionary Ridge, Tennessee, on November
25, 1863, and all the battles of the Atlanta campaign,
including those of Resaca, New Hope Church, Kenesaw
Mountain, Neal Dow Station, Peach-Tree Creek, the siege
of Atlanta, and battle of Jonesborough, Georgia.
He was brevetted major for gallant and meritorious
services in the above actions, and at the end of the war
was awarded a medal of honor by the legislature of the
State of West Virginia for his services while connected
with the Virginia volunteers.
During the campaign in Georgia, ending with the cap
ture of Atlanta by the army under General Sherman, the
company commanded by Captain Norton was reduced,
by battle and disease, from a full complement of one
hundred officers and men, to one captain, one corporal,
and eight men.
From 1865 to 1870, Major Norton continued to serve
in Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas, performing duty
under the reconstruction laws of Congress, and in 1868
and 1869 was military mayor of the city, and com
manding officer of the post of Jackson, Mississippi. He
was retired from active service December 17, 1870, for
disability incurred in the line of duty, and is now en
gaged in the banking business at his former home, at
Wheeling, West Virginia, and in carrying on mining
operations in Colorado, where he is interested in the
Plomo Gold-Mining and Milling Company, of Costilla
County, and other enterprises.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

243

COLONEL ABRAM B. LAWRENCE.
Colonel Abram B. Lawrence was born of New
England parentage, in Warsaw, New York, May 18,
1834, tracing his ancestry back to the Laurentius family
of Rome, one of whom, also called St. Lawrence, suffered
martyrdom for principle, August 10, 258, and later to
one Lawrence, who removed from Rome to England,
became archbishop of Canterbury, died 916. In 1191,
Robert Lawrence accompanied Richard Cceur de Lion
to the war of the Crusades, and so distinguished him
self in the siege of Acre that he was knighted Sir
Robert of Ashton Hall. Of his lineal descendants,
John Lawrence, in 1630, accompanied Governor Win-
throp to America and settled in New England, from
whom a large and influential membership of the Law
rence family sprang, and during the succeeding genera
tions have been distinguished in business, the professions,
religious, legislative, military, public life, and in the
United States diplomatic service. The parents of
Colonel Lawrence removed from Connecticut to War
saw, New York, 1826, where he was born, as stated.
At the age of twelve he was placed in a book-store in
Warsaw ; at nineteen he accepted a responsible position in
a large publishing house in Buffalo, New York; in 1856
purchased a drug business and removed to Niagara Falls,
New York, where, in 1857, he married Miss Elizabeth
Faulkner, of Wheatland, New York. In response to
filial demands he returned to Warsaw, and in 1859 pro
jected and, with associates, built and operated the War
saw Gas-Light Works ; also became proprietor of and
operated a foundry and machine works until the Civil
War broke out, when he entered the Union army as
quartermaster of the regiment, subsequently famous as
the First New York Dragoons. In 1862 he was placed
on detached service in the commissary and quarter
master's department, Peck's division, Seventh Army
Corps ; was subsequently assigned to duty in Sheridan's
cavalry corps, as quartermaster of the regular cavalry
brigade, etc. ; promoted to " captain and assistant quarter
master;" was assigned to duty at head-quarters, Eigh
teenth Army Corps, and soon after made chief quarter
master, and, in recognition of his services, promoted to
major in the Quartermaster's Department, United States
army, serving thus with the Tenth, Eighteenth, and
Twenty-fifth Corps. Upon the organization of the
Twenty-fourth Army Corps he was assigned, by Presi
dent Lincoln, to duty as chief quartermaster in it with
the rank of lieutenant-colonel. During the memorable
campaign ending with the surrender of General Robert
E. Lee he was designated, by General Grant, chief
quartermaster of the Army of the James. Colonel
Lawrence's services in connection with this army were
particularly distinguished, in recognition of which he
was assigned, by order of General Grant, to receive the

surrender and make disposition of the property of the
Army of Northern Virginia, and to act as chief quarter
master of the United States forces at Appomattox Court-
House. These duties completed, he removed the army
property to Richmond, remained there on duty during
the muster-out of troops and disposition of surplus
army property. In the fall of 1865 he was assigned to
duty in the vicinity of the Rocky Mountains, by order
of Secretary Stanton and rendered efficient service there.
In 1866, upon application for muster-out, he returned to
Warsaw, New York, where he received an honorable
discharge with brevet commissions, " for faithful and
meritorious services during the war." Soon after Colonel
Lawrence engaged with Buffalo capitalists in developing
extensive slate interests in the province of Quebec.
Disposing of his interests in this enterprise, after a few
years of remunerative operations, he returned to Buffalo
and engaged successfully in the lumber and planing-
mill business. Yielding to promised inducements and
also to care for his aged mother, residing there, he
returned to Warsaw, New York, where he engaged in
the furniture trade. In 1876, upon organization of the
Letchworth Rifles, he was commissioned and served six
years as commandant ; subsequently commissioned and
served as ordnance officer, National Guard, State of
New York, Fourth Division. He is a member of the
Grand Army of the Republic ; for several years com
mander of Gibb's Post, Warsaw, New York, which he
organized, besides a number of others, and has been vice-
department commander of New York ; several years a
member of the Council of Administration ; repeatedly a
delegate to the National Encampments. Is a member
of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United
States. A bright member of the Masonic fraternity and
of the higher grades of Masonry.

244

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM J. SEWELL.
Brevet Major-General William J. Sewell was born
in Ireland in 1835. Losing both his parents at an early
age, he came to this country and engaged in business in
New York, after which he made two round voyages to
China and Austria, and sjpent several years in Chicago.
Returning to New Jersey at the breaking out of the Civil
War, he entered the service as captain of the Fifth New

Jersey Infantry, and participated in almost all the battles
of the Army of the Potomac ; was wounded at Chancel-
lorsville, where, in command of the Second New Jersey
Brigade, he captured nine stand of colors of the enemy,
and was wounded severely at Gettysburg. He was pro
moted, grade by grade, and mustered out of service as a
brevet major-general of volunteers, at the close of the
war, to which grade he was also named by a special act
of the legislature of his State in the National Guard of
New Jersey; was a State Senator of New Jersey for
nine years, being president of the Senate whenever his
party was in power, and elected United States Senator
in 1 88 1, serving his full term. Also represented the
Republican party at its National Conventions for five
consecutive terms, each time being chairman of the
New Jersey delegation. He was a member of the
World's Columbian Commission, devoted considerable
of his time to its success, and served upon some of
its most important committees. He is engaged in
railroad business in connection with the Pennsylvania
Railroad system, being an executive officer of several of
its roads.
In 1895, General Sewell was again elected United
States Senator from New Jersey, and is at this date
serving his second term.
General Sewell is a man of positive character, courte
ous in demeanor, and untiring in energy.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

245

RICHARD M. JONES.
Behind every growing institution or movement there
will always be found a man whose character and purpose
mould and animate that institution. The man behind
the William Penn Charter School, of Philadelphia, is
Richard Mott Jones. He was born in the town of China,
Kennebec County, Maine, on the 29th of June, 1843.
His father, Eli Jones, was a man of great energy and
vigor of mind, a self-educated man, and a natural edu
cator. His mother, Sibyl Jones, a direct descendant of
Governor Thomas Dudley, and, like her husband, a
minister of the Society of Friends, was poetical in
temperament, deeply spiritual, and remarkable for her
power of moving all classes of people.
Mr. Jones's early education was gained in various
institutions of widely different type and quality, while
the influences which surrounded him during his growing
years were especially favorable to his development, —
notably that of Eliza P. Gurney, widow of the English
philanthropist, Joseph John Gurney, in whose cultured
home, at Burlington, New Jersey, he passed a period of
his boyhood. In 1867 he graduated from Haverford
College, Pennsylvania, where he had maintained a high
standing both in scholarship and in general literary work.
At graduation he was chosen valedictorian and class-day
orator, and in 1876 alumni orator. On account of his
distinguished services in the cause of education, his
college, in 1879, conferred upon him the honorary degree
of Master of Arts, and in 1891, that of Doctor of Laws.
After his graduation he spent eighteen months as tutor
in one of the famous Quaker homes of Great Britain,
and afterwards an equal period in study on the continent.
Thus fully equipped for his chosen field, he now only
needed experience in the practical management of a
school; and an excellent opportunity was given him by
his appointment to the head-mastership of Oak Grove
Seminary in Maine, a position which he held for four
years. The overseers of the Penn Charter School, the oldest
of the educational institutions of Philadelphia, were at
this time reorganizing their educational work, and seek
ing a man who should be equal to the task of advancing
their school to the first rank. Mr. Jones was chosen for
the post, and the reorganized school was opened under
his head-mastership on the 2d of February, 1875, with
an attendance of seventeen boys. Since that date the
growth of the school, both in the number of pupils and
in material equipment, has been continuous. Handsome
buildings adapted in every particular to the development
and training, both mental and physical, of the four hun
dred and fifty pupils now in attendance, methods of educa
tion suited to the latest and best approved ideas, a staff
of teachers composed of men and women of the highest
training and experience, and all working as a unit to

realize the purposes and hopes of the head-master, are a
mere suggestion of what the past twenty years have ac
complished. Affected with dulness of hearing from his
early manhood, for the last few years Mr. Jones has been
totally deaf; but his high ambitions are being realized in
spite of this misfortune. The qualities which especially
characterize him, and to which his success is in a large
measure due, are great force of character, untiring
energy, remarkable capacity for continuous thought and
work, infinite grasp and patience of detail, executive
ability of the highest order, powerfully aided by the rare
gift of so vividly projecting his ideas as to make them
realities in his own and others' eyes, love of right and
justice, and implicit faith in the readiness of the public to
recognize and appreciate all honest endeavors in their
behalf. His special power with his boys is that of in
spiring them to thoroughness and manly effort, and he
never fails to put new ambition into a student of flagging
zeal. Plis aims have always been, and still are, far beyond
what he has achieved. The sum of these is to make of
the Penn Charter one of the great schools of the world.
He believes that such a school must be a large one, in
order to furnish the boy with the incentive and discipline
not only of numbers but of a staff of high order.
The advance which the Penn Charter has made in the
methods and results of secondary education has had its
influence on every educational institution in Philadelphia,
and Mr. Jones has, directly and indirectly, given impetus
and direction to new movements in education to an extent
which can hardly yet be estimated. He has, in a word,
displayed the qualities and character and management
which have marked the great teachers of England, and
is doing for this school, founded by the father of Penn
sylvania, what Thring did for Uppingham and Arnold
did for Rugby.

246

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WASHINGTON IRVING.
Washington Irving, the first American to gain a
European reputation in the field of authorship, was born
in the city of New York, April 3, 1783. Both his parents
had come from Great Britain, and his father, at the time
of Irving's birth, was a merchant of considerable stand
ing. The son was placed at the study of law, but was
compelled to forego his studies and sail for Europe on
account of illness. During his stay abroad he proceeded
as far as Rome, where he made the acquaintance of
Washington Allston, an event which doubtless added
to his inclination towards literature. On his return to
New York he completed his studies and was admitted to
the bar, but showed no inclination to practise, spending
his time instead in literary ventures.
His first notable contribution to literature was as one
of the authors of the satirical miscellany called Sal
magundi, which he wrote in association with his brother
William and J. K. Paulding, and in which his talent as a
humorist was first prominently displayed. His powers
in this direction were more amply shown in his second
work, the notable " Knickerbocker's History of New-
York," issued in 1809. His original purpose was to
burlesque certain pedantic local antiquaries, but the idea
expanded into a work of striking quaintness and drollery,
the most original of Irving's productions, and in which
the solid and phlegmatic Dutch Burgher was developed
into a distinct literary type. The word Knickerbocker
was coined by him for the occasion.
For several years afterwards Irving devoted himself to
business concerns as a partner in the commercial house
which his brother had established after the death of their
father. The war seriously affected the prosperity of this

business, and the firm finally became bankrupt, a circum
stance which compelled Irving to turn to his pen as a
means of subsistence. He had gone to England in 18 15
to look after the interests of the Liverpool branch of
the business, and there found awaiting him a reputation
which procured him admission into the highest literary
circles, in which his amiable disposition and polished
manners insured him popularity.
In 1820, Murray the publisher, brought out his " Geof
frey Crayon's Sketch-Book," which was then appearing
in America in a periodical form. One of the most inter
esting portions of this book is its description of an Eng
lish Christmas, which is described with a delicate humor
worthy of Addison. It also contains the striking legend
of Rip Van Winkle. This work met with the greatest
success on both sides of the Atlantic, and was followed
in 1822 by " Bracebridge Hall," a work purely English
in subject. The " Tales of a Traveller" appeared in 1824.
The success of his literary ventures had now made
Irving easy in circumstances, and he set out for a tour of
Europe. This ended at Madrid, Spain, where he began
the study of the Spanish archives, a labor which resulted
in his beautifully written " Life and Voyages of Christo
pher Columbus," a work which achieved the greatest
success. It was followed by the " Companions of Colum
bus," and somewhat later by two highly picturesque and
entertaining books, " The Conquest of Granada" and
" The Alhambra," among the best known of Irving's
works. He returned to the United States in 1832, after an
absence of seventeen years, and at once found himself
highly popular, being met with an enthusiastic succession
of fetes and public receptions. After a journey West he
returned to New York, and built himself his delightful
residence on the Hudson, since known as " Sunnyside."
Plis subsequent works include " Astoria," a history of
Astor's fur-trading settlement in Oregon ; " Captain
Bonneville," from the memoirs of a veteran hunter;
" Oliver Goldsmith," " Mahomet and his Successors,"
and " The Life of George Washington." We need say
nothing as to the character of these works ; they are too
well known to call for description.
Irving's home life was broken by a period of four
years' residence abroad, as Minister to Spain. He died
at Sunnyside, November 28, 1859. Irving's works are
characteristically European in style, with the exception of
the " Knickerbocker," in which he displayed the power
of producing a distinctive national type. But they are
so polished in style, easy and flowing in narrative, and
picturesque in description, that they must long hold a
high place among the classical products of the American
pen.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

247

NATHAN P. SHORTRIDGE.
Nathan Parker Shortridge, a merchant of Phila
delphia, was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where
his father, John H. Shortridge, had long resided and
conducted a mercantile business. He was educated at
Dover Academy, in that State, where he proved a very
apt scholar. Having completed his education there, he
came, at the age of sixteen, to Philadelphia, which city
was to form the place of his future residence. Having
obtained in that city a position as office and errand boy
in the dry-goods commission house of D. S. Brown &
Co., he remained connected with that establishment for
years, and gained there a thorough knowledge of and
experience in the business. Here an ambition for com
mercial success, and a native industry and integrity, carried
him forward step by step until in time he attained the
position of head salesman of the house. It took twelve
years of service to reach this position, and he had good
reason to hope that he would soon be made a partner in
the firm, when the house dissolved, and his hopes in that
direction came to an end. Shortly afterwards he asso
ciated himself in business with G. F. Peabody, one of the
members of the late firm, who had established and was
conducting a similar business.
The new firm was organized in 1858, and pushed its
trade with such energy and ability that, largely through
the efforts of Mr. Shortridge, it became eminently suc
cessful, Mr. Peabody being able to retire with a satisfac
tory competence in 1863. The junior partner continued
the business in association with others, the firm title
now becoming Harris, Shortridge & Co. At a later date
new changes took place, and the firm-name was again
changed to Shortridge, Borden & Co. Mr. Shortridge
pushed the business with his wonted energy and achieved
a notable success.
Beyond the limits of his business interests, Mr. Short
ridge established a reputation as a man of unusual finan
cial insight and integrity, and from time to time assumed
relations with various business institutions of the city.
Among these may be named the Philadelphia National
Bank and the American Steamship Company, in both
of which he became a director. He became also a
member of the Finance Committee of the Centennial

Exhibition, and aided materially in the earnest and valu
able work of the body upon which the success of that
grand exposition of the world's industry was mainly
dependent. In November, 1881, Mr. Shortridge was elected a
trustee of the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company,
and since that date has been a member of the finance
committee of that company. During the succeeding
years he became connected with many other corpora
tions and financial institutions, his duties in relation with
which were such as to cause him to retire from active
mercantile business. Of the financial concerns with
which he is at present connected may be mentioned, in
addition to those stated, the Western Saving Fund and
the Delaware (formerly the Delaware Mutual) Insurance
Company. He has also long been connected as a director
with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and with many
of its affiliated companies, among the latter the Phila
delphia and Erie Railroad Company, of which he is
president. Mr. Shortridge was married in 1853 to Miss Elize J.
Rundlett, of Philadelphia. For many years past he has
resided at Wynnewood, in the vicinity of Philadelphia,
where he has a handsome residence.

248

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.
On November 3, 1794, at Cummington, Massachusetts,
was born one who was destined to become one of the
foremost figures in the literary history of our country,
William Cullen Bryant, the distinguished poet of nature
and journalist. His maternal ancestry could be traced
back to John Alden and his wife Priscilla, whose story is
so beautifully told by Longfellow ; while his father, Dr.
Peter Bryant, came from equally remote American an
cestry, which reached this country in 1632. The son
began his collegiate education at Williams College in
1 8 10, but, being dissatisfied with its course of study,
left there at the end of the year with the intention of
entering Yale. He was not able, however, to do so,
owing to his father's limited means, and for some time
pursued his studies at home. It was at this time that
he produced that remarkable poem upon which his
fame as a poet chiefly rests, and which has scarcely a
rival in the whole annals of poetry to be produced by
one so young.
While still a child he had manifested poetic taste, and
many poems and poetic fragments are still extant which
he wrote between the ages of eight and sixteen, consist
ing of odes, satires, scriptural paraphrases, etc. In 1807
he published " The Embargo, a Satire : by a Youth of
Thirteen," which was criticised as beyond the powers of
any boy of that age. These juvenile jiroductions, while
showing a decided literary faculty, were of little value as
poetry, being principally imitations of the style of Pope,
then greatly admired. The suggestion of his great poem
" Thanatopsis" came to him one day when rambling
through the forest and mentally comparing Blair's poem
of "The Grave" with the similar poem by Bishop Porteus,
and having in mind also Kirke White's '' Ode to the

Rosemary." The poem which came into being as a
result of this ramble and meditation on serious topics
was written out, put aside, and apparently forgotten in
the pressure of more immediately practical thoughts
connected with his future life duties.
In 1812 he began the study of law, and in 181 5 was
admitted to the bar as an attorney of the Court of Com
mon Pleas. He began his life as a lawyer in Plainfield,
Massachusetts, but left there at the end of eight months
for Great Barrington, where he continued to practise for
nine years. While at Plainfield he wrote his favorite
" Lines to a Waterfowl," and at Great Barrington was
more successful as an author than a lawyer, his ability
now becoming widely known. His father, then serving as
State senator, accidentally discovered the " Thanatopsis"
and a fragment of another poem and took them to Boston,
where they were published in the North American Review
of September, 1817.
" Thanatopsis produced an immediate and deep im
pression. No American poet had yet written anything
of equal beauty and grandeur. The author was solicited
to become a regular contributor to the Review, and in
the next year made his first appearance as a prose writer
in a review of Brown's " Collection of American Poetry."
From that time forward he continued his literary work,
contributing to Dana's Idle Man and the United States
Literary Gazette, and publishing a thin volume of his
earlier pieces. His work was so favorably received that
in 1825 he abandoned the profession of the law and
made his way to New York, where he soon became ac
quainted with a number of literary and artistic celebrities,
and was induced to accept the editorship of the New
York Reviezv. This enterprise did not succeed, and he
obtained a place on the staff of the Evening Post, while
at the same time assisting in editing the Talisman, an
illustrated annual.
In 1829, on the death of the proprietor of the Evening
Post, Bryant was advanced to the position of editor-in-
chief and part proprietor. His duties in this position put
an end for a long time to any production of poetry, and
his later poems were not numerous, though all of choice
quality. He continued to edit the Post with great ability
till his death, which occurred on June 12, 1878. In 1832
a collection of his poems was published, and in 1850 his
" Letters of a Traveller," descriptive of several years of
journeying abroad. Other volumes of travel were after
wards published, and in 1870 a noble translation of the
"Iliad," followed in 1872 by the "Odyssey." His poems
do not number more than one hundred and fifty in all,
most of them short, yet none of them lacking in that
rich spirit of meditation and profound reflection in which
he particularly excelled.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

249

EDWIN S. STUART.
Edwin Sydney Stuart, ex-mayor of Philadelphia, was
born in that city, December 28, 1853, his father, of
Scotch-Irish descent, having come to America when a
child, and engaged in the cabinet-making business in
Southwark, Philadelphia. Edwin, the oldest son, was
educated in the public schools of the city, and at the age
of fourteen obtained a place as errand boy in Leary's old
book-store, then situated at Fifth and Walnut Streets.
Here he made himself very useful, and gained much
knowledge of men and things from the instructive con
versation of the distinguished authors and public men
who frequented the place. Mr. Leary's health becoming
impaired, much of the burden and care of the business
fell upon his youthful assistant, who proved quite capable
of managing the establishment. In 1874 Mr. Leary died,
and for two years Mr. Stuart conducted the business for
the benefit of the estate. At the end of that time, in
1876, he purchased the business from W. A. Leary, the
executor, and has since conducted it with highly en
couraging success. He removed it after a time to its
present location, No. 9 South Ninth Street, and in these
larger quarters has built up what is the largest establish
ment of its kind in the United States, a store containing
several hundred thousand volumes, many of them those
old, rare, and curious works in which book-lovers
deeply delight. Mr. Stuart has published little, his
most important issue being Watson's "Annals of Phila
delphia," a three-volume work, full of curious informa
tion. Mr. Stuart early took a warm interest in public affairs,
and in 1880, during the Garfield presidential campaign,
he became prominent as a member ofthe Young Repub
lican organization, and was elected its treasurer. This
body did much in promoting the Republican success of
that year. In 1881, some difference of opinion arising
in the club on the management of the State campaign,
the president, Hampton L. Carson, resigned, and in
January, 1882, Mr. Stuart was elected to the presidency
over Mr. Carson, whose name was again presented. Mr.
Stuart was annually re-elected to this position until the
date of his election to the office of mayor, when he re
signed the presidency of the club. The wide-spread in
fluence of the club is largely due to his executive ability.
He was a delegate to the national conventions of
Republican League Clubs at New York in 1887, and at
Baltimore in 1889, and was elected president of the
Pennsylvania State League of Republican Clubs, by a
unanimous vote of the Lancaster Convention of 1888.
He was re-elected at Pittsburg in 1889. In addition to
his duties in connection with the club, he was an elector
on the Blaine ticket in 1884, was a delegate to the con

vention that nominated Harrison in 1888, and has served
in various other capacities of this character.
In 1886 he was nominated for Select Council by the
Republicans of the Twenty-sixth Ward, and elected by
the largest majority ever cast in the ward. He was
renominated in 1889, on which occasion the Democrats
indorsed his candidacy, in consequence of his services
in the improvement of the ward, and he was unanimously
elected. After the adoption, in 1886, of the new charter
of Philadelphia, known as the " Bullitt Bill," an earnest
movement was made for the nomination of Mr. Stuart
to the mayoralty, a movement that would probably have
been successful, but for his positive declination in favor
of Edwin H. Fitler, whose nomination had been decided
upon by a number of the party leaders. In 1890, at the
end of Mayor Fitler's term of office, Mr. Stuart was
made the candidate of the party, and was elected by the
largest majority ever given a candidate for the office of
mayor of Philadelphia. He was inaugurated on April
1, 1 89 1, having arisen from the errand boy of 1867 to
that high position in twenty-four years, and being the
youngest man ever elected to the position.
Mayor Stuart's official record was one marked by
an earnest spirit of reform and an undeviating desire to
advance the interests of the city. Philadelphia made
greater progress in municipal improvements during his
administration than in that of any of his predecessors,
and he carried through important measures of reform
against the severest opposition. He left the office
with the consciousness of having occupied it with the
sole thought of the public good/and with the gratified
feeling of having won the appreciation of all public-
spirited citizens.

32

250

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ROBERT WILSON SHUFELDT.
Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, the subject of the present
sketch, was born in New York City, New York, upon
the first of December, 1850, and is the eldest son of the
late Rear-Admiral R. W. Shufeldt, United States navy.
Before he was fourteen years of age he had attended
schools in New York, New England, New Orleans, and
Havana, Cuba, where he acquired a knowledge of the
Spanish language. During the first year of the war of
the Rebellion, as a boy, he served aboard the " Proteus"
in the East Gulf Squadron, as a warrant officer, return
ing to his home in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1865. Sub
sequently he became a clerk in a gold-broker's office in
Wall Street ; then his father essayed to make a farmer
of him ; failing in this, he was sent West to an uncle,
with the view of giving him an education as a taxider
mist in Chicago, — so difficult was it for the parent to
discover that the son had come into the world as a
naturalist. By the time he was eighteen years of age,
his portfolio was filled with large colored drawings, made
by himself, of mammals and birds, and he had made ex
tensive collections of the subjects themselves for several
years previous. He was entered at Cornell University
in the course of Engineering, but was withdrawn during
the junior year, standing higher in biology than he did
in mathematics. Passing as a draughtsman in the United
States Hyclrographic Office of the Navy Department at
Washington, through his own efforts, in a few years,
he secured a degree of medicine at the Columbian Uni
versity of that city, receiving the prize for the best thesis
of the class, a memoir subsequently published by Ap
pleton & Co., of New York. Upon the 5th of August,
1876, he was commissioned first lieutenant and assistant
surgeon, United States army, passing number four of
his date. After a short service at Fort McHenry, Balti

more, he was ordered West for duty in the field with
troops serving against Indians. A few months prior to
this he had married Miss Catharine Babcock, of Wash
ington, one of the descendants of John Quincy Adams,
and a connection of John Strong Newberry, the dis
tinguished naturalist. By this marriage he has had four
children, three of whom are now living, whilst a favorite
son and the mother have been dead for a number of
years. Dr. Shufeldt's career on the active list in the
army (1876-89) was in many respects most remarkable,
altogether too varied to be entered upon in so brief a
sketch as the present one. In 1882 appeared his first bio
logical memoir ; and it at once attracted attention both in
this country and in Europe, copies of it having been per
sonally acknowledged by Mr. Charles Darwin, Professor
Huxley, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and a long list of
literary and scientific workers. Other productions fol
lowed in rapid sequence, the subjects being, as a rule, de
voted to the anatomy of animals, but shortly other fields
were entered, and the memoirs were frequently profusely
illustrated by their author's own brush and pencil. He
was ordered to Washington and placed in charge of the
Section of Comparative Anatomy of the Army Medical
Museum ; Professor Baird also appointed him an honor
ary curator in the Smithsonian Institution. In the first
institution he built up the entire department, and in the
second, laid the foundation for the Section of Compara
tive Osteology. This extraordinary activity soon engen
dered jealousy of superiors, which in a few years termi
nated in a famous trial. This Mr. Cleveland characterized
as " an outrage," and the record of which a cabinet officer
spoke of as being " the most remarkable in the archives
of the War Department since the establishment of the
republic." Retirement in 1889 followed, since which
time Dr. Shufeldt has been residing near Washington,
where he is entirely devoted to his literary work and
scientific investigations. He has been appointed an asso
ciate in zoology in the Smithsonian Institution; he is
also a member of many learned societies, as the Royal
Anthropological Society of Florence, Italy, the Zoo
logical Society of London, the Academy of Natural
Sciences of Philadelphia, the American Ornithologists
Union, Fellow of the American Association for the Ad
vancement of Science, the Medico-Legal Society of New
York, the Society for Psychical Research of London,
and some twenty others in various parts of the world.
Mainly his published works (covering o\ er five hundred
titles, and illustrated by quite two thousand engravings
of their author's own production) refer to subjects in
comparative morphology, medicine, surgery, psychics,
travel and political science, sociology, and political
economy, and a host of others. They have appeared for
the most part in the proceedings of the learned societies
of London, Edinburgh, Florence, and the United States.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

251

THOMAS C. PLATT.
Thomas Collier Platt was born at Owego, New
York, July 15, 1833. His early education was received
in the schools of his native place, after which he entered
Yale College, and remained there until 1853, when, in his
sophomore year, he was obliged to leave in consequence
of failing health. Though thus forced to withdraw with
out completing his studies, his college, in 1876, conferred
on him the honorary degree of M.A.
On the recovery of his health he embarked in mer
cantile life, in which he pursued a successful career.
We first hear of him in a prominent position in the
business world as president of the Tioga National Bank
of New York State, and also as extensively engaged
in the lumber business in Michigan. Early in life he
manifested a strong inclination towards a political career,
and made his strength and judgment felt in the councils
of his party, the Republican, in which he rapidly advanced
to a prominent position. In 1872 he was rewarded for
his services to the party by an election to the national
House of Representatives, and was re-elected to Congress
in 1874.
During his period of congressional life, Mr. Platt
made his ability felt, and on his return to private life
became an active party leader, advancing to such promi
nence that in 1881, when it became necessary to choose
a United States senator to succeed Francis Kernan, he
was selected for this exalted position by the New York
State Assembly.
Senator Piatt's term of duty was a remarkably brief
one. Entering the United States Senate January 18,
1 88 1, he withdrew from that legislative body on May 16
of the same year, after less than four months of service.
The occasion of this withdrawal was an interesting one.
It arose through a controvery between President Garfield
and the senators and other prominent citizens of New
York in reference to the appointment of a collector of
the customs for New York City. The Executive so
pointedly refused to listen to the advice of the members
from New York, previously always considered in select
ing government officials for that State, that Senators
Conkling and Platt felt compelled to resign their seats
in the Senate, and returned home, where they became
candidates for re-election. An exciting canvass ensued,
but just then the pendulum of public favor swung in the
opposite direction, and they were defeated. Since that
time, although Senator Platt has continued a power in
the Republican party of New York, he has not sought
a return to congressional duties, his time being largely
taken up with personal affairs.

In 1879 he became a director in and the secretary of
the United States Express Company, and in the following
year was elected to the presidency of this company,
which position he still retains. In the same year (1880)
he was appointed on the Quarantine Committee for the
port of New York, and was immediately elected president
of the board. He retained this presidency till January
14, 1 88 1, when he was removed by proceedings on
account of alleged non-residence in New York City. In
1888 he was elected president of the Southern Central
Railroad Company.
These various business and official duties have by no
means removed Mr. Platt from the field of practical
politics, in which he has advanced till to-day he occupies
one of the most prominent positions in the United States.
He was a member of the National Republican Convention
of 1876, and of others since that date, and for several
years was a member of the Republican National Com
mittee. At present he is the unquestioned leader of the
Republican party in New York, a leadership which he
maintains despite the most vigorous opposition from
political and personal enemies, and in which he has
manifested a shrewdness, skill, and genius in the control
of opposing interests and the management of party
factions that are worthy of the highest praise. Among
the various measures for public progress which are due
to his influence may be mentioned the passage of the
bill for the organization of the " Greater New York."
If this is carried to completion, Senator Platt will have,
as the fitting monument to his distinguished career, the
second city on the face of the earth.

252

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JAMES BIDDLE.
Brevet Brigadier-General James Biddle, United
States army, was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
December II, 1832, and is the son of Edward R. Biddle
and Eliza T. Davis, his wife. Edward R. was the son
of Colonel Clement Biddle, deputy quartermaster-general
American army during the Revolution, and his wife, Re
becca Cornell, daughter of the governor of Rhode Island.
He was appointed first lieutenant and regimental quar
termaster, Tenth New York Volunteers, May 2, 1861,
and went to Fortress Monroe with his regiment; was
appointed captain in the Fifteenth United States Infantry,
honorably mustered out of the volunteer service August
31, i86i,and accepted captaincy September 1, 1861 ; was
appointed colonel of the Sixth Indiana Cavalry, by the
Governor of Indiana, November 11, 1862, for services
rendered with that regiment at the battle of Richmond,
Kentucky, and was brevetted major United States army
for services in the same battle. He served at Indianapolis
with his regiment, and in pursuit of the rebel General
John Morgan in his raid into Indiana and Ohio ; shelled
Brandenburg, Kentucky, from the steamer on which his
men were, while Morgan's men were crossing the river
from that town. He went with his regiment into East
Tennessee with General Burnside, and was engaged at
the battle of Campbell's Station, in command of a pro
visional brigade attached to the Ninth Army Corps. Pie
was mentioned complimentary for gallantry and efficient
service by General Potter, commanding the corps.
General Biddle was engaged in the action of Bull's
Gap, East Tennessee, and the siege of Knoxville; was
in many little skirmishes in East Tennessee, accounts
of which appear in the " Rebellion Record." After the
siege of Knoxville, he went to Mount Sterling, Kentucky,
to remount his command, and was placed in command

of the Second Division Cavalry Command, Twenty-third
Army Corps. After serving in Kentucky for a short
time, he was ordered to report to General Stoneman to
proceed to and join General Sherman at Dalton, at which
point he was placed in command of the First Brigade of
Stoneman's Cavalry, belonging to the Twenty-third Army
Corps, and took part in all the principal engagements
and many small skirmishes up to and including Atlanta.
He then participated with General Stoneman in his raid
to the interior of the Confederacy, and was captured
with one regiment of his brigade while holding the rear
guard, after turning back from Macon, Georgia, when the
command was unable to cross the river. He was held
a prisoner for over two months at Macon and Charleston,
South Carolina, where he was placed under fire of our
own batteries. He had a special exchange, and rejoined
his regiment at Chattanooga, Tennessee, from which
place he went to Nashville, where he was placed in com
mand of the Second Brigade, Sixth Division Cavalry
Corps, Military Division of the Mississippi, and was on
the extreme right of the line in command of his brigade
at the battle of Nashville and the pursuit of the rebel
General Hood for several days.
He was brevetted lieutenant-colonel United States army
for gallant and meritorious services at this battle, and was
honorably mustered out of the volunteer service June
29, 1865. He was brevetted as brigadier-general 13th
of March, 1865, for long, gallant, and meritorious ser
vices during the war. General Biddle then rejoined the
Fifteenth United States Infantry, as captain, in July,
1865, and assisted in the reconstruction of the South till
November, 1870. He was transferred to the Twenty-
fourth Infantry September 21, 1866; again transferred to
the Eleventh Infantry April 25, 1869, and finally trans
ferred to the cavalry arm and assigned to the First
Cavalry January 1, 1871. He served in the Modoc War
under Generals Canby and Gillam till April, 1873; was
appointed major in the Sixth Cavalry February 21, 1873,
while in the Lava Beds.
General Biddle was in General Miles's expedition against
the Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Comanches in Northwestern
Texas and the staked plains, 1875-76; was appointed act
ing assistant inspector-general, Department of Arizona,
April 10, 1876, and served as such till November 4, 1880,
wdien he was placed in command of troops in the field
in that department and acted against hostile Chirachua
Apaches ; went with General Crook into Mexico after
Apaches, and had command of the reserve on the border
of Mexico. He was then ordered with his regiment to
New Mexico, and with a battalion of the Sixth Cavalry
drove Geronimo and the Chirachua out of New Mexico.
He was then ordered to Fort Meyer, Virginia. He was
promoted lieutenant-colonel Fifth Cavalry, October 19,
1887, and colonel Ninth Cavalry July 1, 1891.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

253

SAMUEL G. DeCOURSEY.
Samuel G. DeCoursey, president of the Western New
York and Pennsylvania Railroad Company, was born
September 28, 1839, at Queenstown, Queen Anne County,
Maryland. He is descended from a family of the early
settlers in that State, who came to America with Lord
Baltimore, and a large estate held until recently by a
branch of the family bears the name of " Lord's Gift,"
significant of its presentation to the first American De-
Courseys by the founder of the colony. The English
branch of the family — the name there being spelled De-
Courcy — trace their descent from a follower of William
the Conqueror, and have a modern representative in the
Earl of Kinsale, Ireland, who has the unique privilege
of wearing his hat in the presence of England's king.
This honor was granted by King John, in acknowledg
ment of an important service done him by one of the
earlier members of the family.
Mr. DeCoursey's ancestral family also includes Captain
Lambert Wickes, his great-great-uncle, who commanded
during the Revolutionary War the sloop-of-war " Re
prisal," commissioned in Philadelphia in 1776, and the
first vessel commissioned by the United States govern
ment. Captain Wickes did important service to the
American cause. He took Franklin to France as United
States Minister to that country, and, as Gibbon the his
torian tells us, his exploits had a strong influence in in
ducing France to aid the struggling colonies in their war
for independence. Captain Semmes, in his " Thirty Years
Afloat," also refers to Captain Wickes's exploits.
Mr. DeCoursey was educated at St. James's College,
Washington County, Maryland, but left school in his
fifteenth year, and in August, 1854, came to Philadelphia,
where he began his business life in the establishment of
Henry Farnum & Co., then one of the leading dry-goods
importers of the city. After a period of service with
this house, he entered that of Alfred Slade & Co., com
mission dealers in domestic dry-goods. His years of
service with these firms gave him a thorough knowledge
of the business, and in 1863 he started a business enter
prise of his own, in company with two partners, the firm-
name being DeCoursey, Plamilton & Evans. This es
tablishment was situated on Chestnut Street above Third,
its line being that with which Mr. DeCoursey had become
familiar, — dry-goods commission.
In 1864, Mr. DeCoursey married Miss Lizzie Otto
Barclay, daughter of the late Andrew C. Barclay, a
prominent merchant and shipper of the early part of the
century. His fatnily consists of two daughters, Antoin
ette and Emily, and one son, John B. DeCoursey, who is at
present a student in Princeton College. Mr. DeCoursey

continued actively engaged in business until 1876, enter
ing during part of his business life into the manufacture
of linseed oil. Having acquired an interest in the West
ern New York and Pennsylvania Railroad Company, an
enterprise which had attracted much Philadelphia capital,
on a change' in the management of this road, Mr. De
Coursey was elected a member of its Board of Directors,
his ability in which official position soon gained him an
election to the office of vice-president. This position he
held for four years, and so acceptably to directors and
stockholders, that in 1892 he was elected president of
the road. On April 1, 1893, the obligations of the road
being so heavy that it was forced to go into temporary
bankruptcy, Mr. DeCoursey was appointed its receiver.
He is now with others actively engaged in the task of
reorganization, and is hopeful that the concern will be
brought to a stable financial condition within a reason
able period.
The Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad
has its principal termini in Buffalo and Rochester, from
which cities it extends southward by a number of branches
into Pennsylvania.
One of its branches passes Chautauqua en route to
Oil City and New Castle, Pennsylvania, and another
reaches Emporium, in the same State, the total length
of line being about six hundred and fifty miles. At
Emporium it connects with the Philadelphia and Erie
Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and by this con
nection affords the shortest route between Buffalo, Phila
delphia, Baltimore, and Washington. The road does a
valuable business in coal, petroleum, lumber, and other
products.

254

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM SULZER.
During the 1848 revolution in Germany, Thomas
Sulzer, then a student in the Heidelberg University,
joined the patriots, as a comrade of Sigel, Carl Schurz,
and other well-known advocates of constitutional liberty.
He was captured and imprisoned, but contrived to escape
to Switzerland, and in 1851 emigrated to New York.
There he married, and became a citizen and an active
member of the Democratic party. His son, William
Sulzer, was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, March 18,
1863. The family returning to New York shortly after
wards, he received his education in the public schools of
that city, completing it in Columbia College, where he
studied the law. He was admitted to the bar as soon as
he reached his majority, and was not long in attaining
distinction in his profession. He now holds in it an
enviable standing.
But the ambition and native powers of the young
lawyer led him in another direction. While still at col
lege he demonstrated fine abilities in oratory, particularly
on political subjects, and as a member of the Cooper
Union Debating Society won a gold medal for his
masterly handling of the subject, " What was done for
Constitutional Government by the Heroes of the Revo
lution ?" Like his father, he became an earnest Demo
crat, and joined the Tammany Plall Society, in whose
councils he showed such ability in debate that he was
selected by the National Committee to speak in Con
necticut, New York, and New Jersey in the presidential
campaign of 1884, when but twenty-one years of age.
In the succeeding campaigns of 1888 and 1892 he played
the same role, and by his ardent advocacy of the prin
ciples of Democracy and the claims of its candidates
exerted a convincing influence on the minds of many
voters of those States.

Mr. Sulzer's unusual force and acumen as a political
leader were early recognized by his co-workers in Tam
many, and in 1889 he was nominated and elected a
member of the New York State Assembly from the
Fourteenth District. In this body his force and merit
were quickly recognized, his sterling integrity won the
respect of friends and opponents alike, and his vigorous
advocacy of measures tending to the welfare of New
York City was so highly appreciated by his constituents
that they re-elected him year after year, each time by an
increased majority.
We can only briefly state here his record in the As
sembly. He was the author of the laws for the Colum
bian Celebration, the Constitutional Convention, Personal
Registration, Shelter for Lost and Strayed Animals,
Woman's Reformatory, Abolition of Prison Contract
Labor and Imprisonment for Debt, State Care of the
Insane, and various other highly commendable measures.
Other bills which he was instrumental in passing were
those abolishing the Sweating System, and for Freedom
of Worship, the Anti-Pinkerton bill, etc. He has always
been a warm friend and advocate of the rights of the
laboring classes, and to his efforts is due the organization
of free evening lectures for wage-earners.
In 1893, when the Democrats gained a majority in the
Assembly, Mr. Sulzer, who had by that time become
fully recognized as a party leader, was elected to the
Speaker's chair, — being the youngest man to whom such
an honor had ever been accorded in the history of New
York, and the first Speaker from the city representatives
for twenty years. As Speaker he proved himself skilful
and impartial, courteous, shrewd, and courageous, and
was acknowledged by both parties to be one of the
ablest presiding officers the Assembly had ever pos
sessed ; while in previous years, as leader of the Demo
cratic minority, he had manifested an eloquence, an
aggressive spirit, and a varied and peculiar ability that
gave him the highest standing in the ranks of his
party. In November, 1894, Mr. Sulzer was elected to Congress
as representative of his congressional district, being one
of the decimated band of Democrats who survived the
Republican tidal wave of that year. As one of the
youngest members of the Fifty-fourth Congress he has
decidedly made his mark in that body. Among the
measures in favor of human welfare supported by him
was that for the recognition of Cuban belligerent rights,
upon which he made an eloquent appeal on March 2,
1896. Personally Mr. Sulzer is tall and vigorous,
and as strong in intellect as in body. He is a hard
worker, of indomitable perseverance, fluent though not
redundant in speech, quick witted, methodical, and
energetic, and as a legislator his record is without a
stain.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

255

AMOS R. LITTLE.
Amos R. Little is a native of Massachusetts, having
been born at Marshfield, in that State, July 27, 1825.
He is a son of Hon. Edward P. Little, and a grandson
of Commodore George Little, of the United States navy,
who served as an officer during the Revolutionary War,
and was in command of the United States frigate " Bos
ton" during the brief warlike outbreak between France
and this country in 1801. Mr. Little's educational ad
vantages were such as usually fall to the lot of farmers'
sons, it being obtained mostly at home, but to some
extent at boarding-schools in Sandwich and Providence,
Rhode Island.
At the age of nineteen, the adventurous youth bade
farewell to the family homestead, and made his way to
Philadelphia. His ambition was to embark in a mer
cantile career, of whose duties and responsibilities, how
ever, he was entirely ignorant, his previous experience
being that of home-life on a farm. But he possessed the
qualities of energy, integrity, and determination, and no
better foundations for success could have been asked.
His business life commenced in a country store at Miles-
town, Pennsylvania, his remuneration while there being
his board and five dollars per month. Here he remained
a year, gaining his first sight into mercantile traffic. At
the end of this time his eagerness to advance bore him
to the city, where he obtained a position in the wholesale
house of Maynard & Halton, on Market Street, Phila
delphia, his salary being now three hundred dollars per
year. He remained here until 1 849, receiving scanty ad
vances in his salary, and in that year married the daughter
of George Peterson, a retired merchant. In the succeed
ing year he began business in the dry-goods commission
trade, under the firm-name of Little & Peterson. From
time to time afterwards, changes took place in this firm,
it becoming first Withers, Little & Peterson ; then Little
& Stokes; at a later date, Little, Stokes & Company;
and finally, in 1866, Amos R. Little & Company.
Throughout his whole business career Mr. Little was
steadily successful. And in addition to wealth, he won
the higher reward from the business community of a
reputation for strict integrity, honorable dealing, prompt
fulfilment of all his engagements, and a ready and honest

discharge of liabilities. Those qualities, with his busi
ness judgment and caution, carried him safely through
all financial troubles, and kept him in the tide of success
throughout his whole mercantile career.
Mr. Little had in his youthful days acquired a strong
taste for gunning and fishing, which remained wdth him
through life. Twice a year it was his custom to put aside
business cares for a period of indulgence in these open-
air pursuits, a practice to which he attributed his con
tinued sound health. In 1883 he retired from business
with an ample competence, and, in company with his
wife, made a three-years' tour around the world.
Mr. Little's career was not strictly confined to the
demands of the store. He took an active part in the
preliminary steps towards the Centennial Exposition of
1876, being a member of its Board of Finance, on which
he rendered efficient service. He has since then become
connected with some of the most prominent institutions
and corporations of Philadelphia, holding among his
various positions that of a director in the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company. Though no longer engaged in
mercantile trade, he has by no means withdrawn from
active business interests, with which he keeps steadily
in touch.

256

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

H. L. CRANFORD.
Brevet Major H. L. Cranford was born in New
foundland, May 10, 1833. He was taken to New York
by his parents when a child and educated at the Me
chanics' Institute in that city. At the age of fifteen he
entered the dry-goods house of Grant & Barton, and
remained two years in their service, then went to sea for
five years, the first voyage being two years in a whaler.
Afterwards he was in the merchant service, sailing from
the port of New York. At the age of twenty-one he
was second officer of the clipper ship " Panama." At
the age of twenty-two he gave up going to sea and
entered into mercantile pursuits in New York, travelling
for a house extensively in the West and South. In 1857
he embarked in the wholesale dry-goods business with
his brother, the firm-name being J. P. and H. L. Cran
ford, whose store was at the corner of Broadway and
Duane Street. The business was successfully conducted
until the breaking out of the war in 1861. April 18
of the same year he entered the Federal service as first
lieutenant of Company G, Fourteenth New York State
Militia (Eighty-fourth New York Volunteers), generally
known in the service as the Brooklyn Fourteenth. He
participated with his regiment in the first battle of Bull
Run, and the next spring in the taking of Falmouth
and Fredericksburg. In May, 1862, he was detailed by
General C. C. Augur on his staff, and shortly afterwards
on the staff of General John P. Hatch, who succeeded
General Augur. The command was the First Brigade,
First Division, First Corps. He participated in the
engagements (August 21 to 30) of Rappahannock Sta
tion, Sulphur Springs, Gainesville, Groveton, and Second
Bull Run, and on September 14 in the battle of South
Mountain. The brigade carried the heights at the right of the

pike, and never lost a foot of ground until relieved by
General Doubleday's brigade. Major Cranford was
honorably mentioned in this battle, which appears in
the war records of the Rebellion. He served as acting
assistant adjutant-general through the campaigns and
battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellors-
ville. Early in 1863 he was appointed by the President
captain and commissary of subsistence, and continued
to serve as such until the close of the war. He served
on the staffs of Generals John F. Reynolds and Abner
Doubleday at the battle of Gettysburg. In the spring
of 1864 he was ordered to the cavalry corps, and with it
went to the Shenandoah Valley and served throughout
that campaign on the staff of General Wesley Merritt,
and was in the closing campaign from the 26th of
February to the 9th of April, 1865 (when General Lee
surrendered his army), on the staff of General Sheridan,
as chief commissary.
In July, 1865, he resigned his commission and returned
to his home in Brooklyn, New York. Shortly after he
accepted the position of general manager of the Black
Heath Coal Company in Pennsylvania, and served as
such two years. He then returned to Brooklyn, New
York, and went into the asphalt paving business. In
June, 1 87 1, he went to Washington, D. C, where he at
once engaged as general contractor. The streets of
Washington then were unpaved, and the dumping-ground
of refuse of all kinds, and full of mud-holes and filth
always after rain, a disgrace to any country, especially
as its capitol city. At this time various unscrupulous
paving companies came into existence, with the sole
purpose of making what they could out of the stimulus
that Major Cranford gave the street-paving business,
with the result that only pavements laid by him were
lasting, and this, because the honesty, integrity, skill,
and perseverance which have characterized his whole
life were then dominant. The result was that his advice
was sought by the committees of the United States
Congress and the Commissioners of the District of
Columbia. The principal avenues and streets are paved with
asphaltum, a large extent of which was laid by Major
Cranford. Under his guidance, the sidewalks through
out the city are being constructed of granolithic and
artificial stone, he being also the pioneer of that class
of work in the District of Columbia.
Major Cranford was married April 28, 1861, to Mar
garet J. Munn, of Montclair, New Jersey, grand-daughter
of Captain Joseph Munn, of the War of 18 12. He has
had born five children, of whom two survive, — Joseph H.
and H. Percy, who are both associated with him in his
business, Joseph H. being the very efficient general
manager of his large business interests.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

257

JOHN C. FEBIGER.
Rear-Admiral John C. Febiger, United States navy,
was born in Pennsylvania and appointed from Ohio, his
warrant as midshipman bearing date of September 14,
1838. His first service was in the frigate " Macedonian,"
of the West India Squadron, 1838-40. He was then
attached to the sloop-of-war " Concord," mostly upon
the Brazilian coast, during 1841-43. In the latter year
he was wrecked in the " Concord" on the east coast of
Africa, and was then attached to the brig " Chippola,"
purchased by the government at Rio Janeiro, and used to
recover and dispose of the equipment of the " Concord."
He was engaged in this duty until 1844. On May 20 of
that year he was made passed midshipman, and served in
the frigate " Potomac," of the Home Squadron, for two
years. He then made a cruise to the Pacific in the sloop-
of-war " Dale," and was from her transferred to the
" Columbus," seventy-four, in which ship he came home.
Again attached to the sloop-of-war " Dale," he made
a cruise upon the coast of Africa, and upon his return
was employed upon the Coast Survey for several years.
Midshipman Febiger was commissioned lieutenant in
the navy April 30, 1853. In 1858-60, he was attached
to the sloop-of-war " Germantown," of the East India
Squadron, and upon his return, in 1861, was ordered to
the sloop-of-war " Savannah."
Commissioned commander in the navy August 11,
1862. Commanded the "Kanawha," of the West Gulf
Blockading Squadron, in 1862-63, and was in the en
gagement off Mobile Bay, April 3, 1862.
During the year 1863, Commander Febiger com
manded the " Osage," " Neosho," and " Lafayette," of
the Mississippi Squadron; and in 1864-65 commanded
the " Mattabeset," of the North Atlantic Blockading
Squadron. During this period he participated in the
spirited engagement with the rebel ram " Albemarle," in
Albemarle Sound, May, 1864.
In the years 1866-68 he commanded the "Ashuelot,"
of the Asiatic Squadron.
Commissioned captain May 6, 1868, and commanded
the steam-sloop "Shenandoah," of the Asiatic Squadron,
in 1868-69. While commanding the "Shenandoah," he
entered and surveyed Ping- Yang Inlet, on the west coast
of Corea.

From 1869 to 1872 he was surveyor of naval reserved
lands. In 1872-74 he commanded the United States
steamer " Omaha," ofthe South Pacific Squadron. After
this he became a member of the Board of Examiners,
and then commandant of the navy-yard at Washington,
District of Columbia, for nearly four years. He was
then upon special duty in Washington, District of
Columbia, and a member of the Retiring Board.
Promoted to rear-admiral February 4, 1882. Retired
upon his own application July 1, 1882.
Rear-Admiral Febiger is the last living member of
the third generation of that name in this country, two
brothers having died some years since, both having
served in the Civil War, gaining the grades of colonel
and lieutenant-colonel.
The original Colonel Christian Febiger, a native of
Denmark, while on a visit to this country, just previous
to the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, having
had a military education, offered his services to the
authorities and participated in almost all the principal
actions of the war from Bunker Hill to the surrender
at Yorktown. Upon the disbandment of the army he
received the rank of brigadier-general. Having married
at Philadelphia, he settled there, and was afterwards
elected the first State treasurer of Pennsylvania, and died
while holding that office.

33

258

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JOSEPH I. DORAN.
Joseph I. Doran, a prominent lawyer of Philadelphia,
and for many years past associated in practice with Hon.
J. C. Bullitt, was born in Philadelphia, January 17, 1844.
His father, Joseph M. Doran, who was also a native of
Philadelphia, was born October 10, 1800, graduated from
the University of Pennsylvania, studied law, and, by the
energy, ability, and honesty which he displayed in the
practice of his profession, quickly gained not only repu
tation but a large and lucrative business, in which his
success was distinguished. He was an active member
of the convention of 1837 to revise the constitution of
Pennsylvania, being one of the delegates from the city
of Philadelphia. In 1840 he was appointed to the bench
of the Court of General Sessions of Philadelphia, and
served three years in that position. He died June 6,
1859. Mr. Doran received his preliminary education in private
schools, principally that of John W. Faires, by whom he

was prepared to enter the University of Pennsylvania.
He remained, however, at the University but a short
time, and in the fall of i860 he entered the office of
John C. Bullitt, first as a clerk, then as a student of law.
He was admitted to the bar in April, 1865. Two years
subsequently he was admitted to practise in the Supreme
Court of Pennsylvania. Mr. Doran's practice has been
confined to that of railroad and general corporation law.
He is consulting counsel of many corporations, and has
been general solicitor of the Norfolk and Western Rail
road since the organization of that company. Like his
honored father, he has devoted himself with great zeal
and earnestness to his chosen profession, and his business,
during his many years of busy practice, has grown to
large, laborious, and exacting proportions. Preserving
his habits of industry, study, and close application, he
had also brought to the discharge of the manifold duties
of his calling a clear and conscientious conception of
every obligation and an ability as unquestioned in degree
as it had been prolific in emolument. From about 1 880
he had been closely identified with the development, which
started at that time, and which since has been so rapid
and successful, of the coal and iron districts of Virginia
and West Virginia. In 1876 he read an interesting and
suggestive paper before the American Social Science
Convention, on the subject of " Building Associations,"
which attracted much attention. His pamphlet, on " Our
Fishery Rights in the North Atlantic," published in 1888,
was an exhaustive investigation of this intricate and
important subject, and was received generally as a forcible
argument and the best statement of the American side
of the fishery question. The Philadelphia Ledger spoke
of it as a "brief, pungent, and able pamphlet," and the
Boston Evening Transcript considered it "one of the
most satisfactory contributions to the literature of the
fishery controversy." These studies were diversions
from Mr. Doran's close attention to the details of his
large and extending practice, which almost exclusively
occupies his time and thoughts.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

259

STEPHEN B. ELKINS.
Hon. Stephen Benton Elkins, United States senator
from West Virginia, and late Secretary of War, is the
son of a farmer of Perry County, Ohio, where he was
born September 26, 1841. His family removed to Mis
souri during his early life, and he was educated in the
public schools and the University of that State, gradu
ating, in i860, at the head of his class. He then entered
upon a course of legal study, and was admitted to the
bar in 1863. During the war he joined the Union
forces, and for a time served as captain on the Missouri
border. In 1864 he was led, by his adventurous spirit, to New
Mexico, then a rough border country, where life was full
of hardship and danger, but where a man of enterprise
and ability might hope for success. Finding it necessary,
in the practice of his profession, to speak the Spanish
language, — that of two-thirds of the inhabitants, — he
applied himself so closely as to become proficient in that
tongue within a year. He soon gained a large legal
practice, and became so influential in the Territory that
he was elected to its legislature in 1866. In the suc
ceeding year he became attorney-general of New Mexico,
and in 1868 was appointed by President Johnson United
States district-attorney of that Territory, an appointment
which President Grant continued. In this position, it
being his duty to enforce the law prohibiting slavery in
the Territories, he had the satisfaction of freeing from
servitude several thousand peons held practically as
slaves by the Mexican residents.
In 1869, Mr. Elkins was elected president of the First
National Bank of Santa Fe, which position he held for
thirteen years. His income had become large, and was
developed by careful investments in lands and mines
until he eventually became one of the largest land
owners in the country, and extensively interested in
Colorado silver mines. In 1873 his congressional service
began, he being elected as a delegate from New Mexico.
In this new field he gave such satisfaction that he was
re-elected in 1875, while travelling in Europe and in face
of his refusal to serve again. While in Congress he
earnestly advocated the claims of New Mexico for ad
mission to the Union, and gained a national reputation
for ability as a statesman. In 1875 he was chosen a
member of the Republican National Committee, and
served on it during three presidential campaigns, being
elected chairman of the Executive Committee in 1884.
He had become a warm friend of James G. Blaine, and
had much to do with bringing about his nomination to
the Presidency. He was equally instrumental in the
nomination of Benjamin Harrison in 1888 and 1892.
During his congressional career, Mr. Elkins married
a daughter of ex-Senator Davis, of West Virginia, a
woman of great refinement and social ability ; and about

1878 he made West Virginia his place of residence, and
entered there, with his usual energy, upon the work of
developing the railroads and the coal and timber lands
of that State. Success followed these efforts, and he
has for years filled the positions of vice-president of the
West Virginia, Central and Pittsburg Railway Com
pany, and of the Piedmont and Cumberland Railroad
Company, and president of the Davis Coal and Coke
Company. His efforts have brought large amounts of
capital and a considerable increase of population into the
State. On December 17, 1891, Mr. Elkins was appointed
Secretary of War in the Cabinet of President Harrison.
He had previously had a large acquaintance with the
affairs of the War Department in the West, and was
thoroughly qualified for the secretaryship, whose duties
he usefully and successfully performed. In 1892 the
Republicans of the West Virginia Legislature gave him
a complimentary vote for United States senator ; and in
1894 he led the Republicans of the State in a struggle
which for the first time since reconstruction broke the
" solid South." The legislature became Republican, and
Mr. Elkins was elected senator, taking his seat in 1895.
In 1 896 his name was prominently considered among the
Republicans named for the presidential nominations.
Senator Elkins is a member of many of the leading
clubs of New York, in which city his business affairs
have obliged him to pass much of his time. He has
contributed liberally to various New York institutions.
His home is the beautiful country-seat of " Halliehurst,"
at Elkins, West Virginia, a house which stands on a
mountain site which yields a magnificent view. Here
his favorite room is his library, where he spends most of
his time in the company of his large collection of well-
chosen books.

260

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

CHARLES WYLLYS CASS.
Charles Wyllys Cass was born in 1854, of English
Puritan ancestry, who settled in America in 1644. His
mother was a sister of General Dawson, of the United
States army ; his granduncle was General Lewis Cass, a
noted figure in American history; his father, General
Georo-e Washington Cass, a distinguished financier and
pioneer in the development of the transportation interests
of the- United States. He built the first iron bridge,
organized the first steamboat line on the Monongahela,
which river, by locks and dams, he made navigable.
He extended the Adams Express across the mountains,
consolidated the company, and became its first president.
For twenty-five years he was president of the Pittsburg,
Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad, and his management
became a model of railway operation. Through life he
was closely identified with the larger interests of American
development. His most signal service, the farthest-
reaching in its benefits to mankind, was, in connection
with his son, Charles Wyllys Cass, the demonstration of
the wheat-growing power of the great Northwest, thus
cheapening bread to every human being, and continuing
the supremacy of his country as a wheat producer in all
the markets of the world. The celebrated Dalrymple
farm of the Red River of the North was founded and
operated by George Washington Cass, and the subject
of this sketch, as proof to the world of the resources of
the vast and then unknown Northwest Territory of the
Union. In a seven-hundred-word sketch facts alone are pre
sented, comment is left to the reader. Charles Wyllys
Cass as the son and business associate of his father, was

a keen observer and active worker in this striking period
of national development, and his recognized ability as a
man of affairs found force and direction in this practical
school of commercial and financial giants.
He is a graduate of Princeton, of Columbia Law-
School, a student for three years in the universities of
Europe, and for ten years was the successor of Samuel
J. Tilden as counsel for the Pittsburg and Fort Wayne
Railroad, from which he retired to establish, in 1894, the
Cass Realty Corporation of New York City, a financial
institution having the same profound influence upon all
investments as had the Dalrymple farm on the world's
cereals. The Cass Realty Corporation is founded on the steady
growth of cities and the undisputed fact that improved
real estate on Manhattan Island is not only the safest,
but also the most regularly profitable investment in any
part of the world. For over two years' actual operation
the corporation has paid six per cent, annual interest
quarterly to its depositors, and also has put aside to
their credit, in addition to their principal, over fifty
thousand dollars of surplus. This splendid result has
been secured in a period of shrinkage of general values,
when forty per cent, of the countiy's railway mileage
has become bankrupt, and recorded business failures
have reached the appalling total of fifteen thousand
annually. With this result in panic times, what may not
be expected in years of business prosperity ?
A man is known by his works.
Brevity admits of no explanatory details of this invest
ment institution. They are fully and cheerfully furnished
on application to the Cass Realty Corporation, No. 209
East Twenty-third Street, New York. The basic prin
ciple is that depositors of any amount ($1, $100, $1000,
or more) acquire title as shareholders to the choicest
income-bearing real estate of New York City, in which
property alone deposits are invested, and depositors not
only get this rent as interest but also the steady advance
in the value of their property in addition. From a
guarantee fund depositors may withdraw their deposits
when needed.
The successful operation of this first institution of its
kind marks an era in investments, and when its full effects
are felt and understood, the name of Charles Wyllys Cass
will be carved high in the temple of American civic
fame as one who opened to his countryman of moderate
means an investment system absolutely safe, with re
demption on demand, a fair income in interest, and an
increase of principal. His friends and fellow-citizens
may justly place his name on the honored scroll of the
nation's leaders.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

261

JOHN P. S. GOBIN.
Brevet Brigadier-General John P. S. Gobin, named
for his grandfather, Rev. John Peter Shindel, was born
January 26, 1837, at Sunbury, Pennsylvania. On the
paternal side he descended from good old Revolutionary
stock, his great-grandfather, Charles Gobin, being captain
in one ofthe Berks County Associated Battalions during
the struggle for Independence, serving in the Jersey cam
paign, and in the summer of 1780 on active duty on the
frontiers of Pennsylvania. His grandfather, Edward Go-
bin, was a soldier in the War of 181 2-14. General John
P. S. Gobin received an academic education, learned the
art of printing, and was admitted to the Northumberland
County bar in 1858. When the Civil War threatened,
before the firing upon Sumter, he tendered his services to
Governor Curtin, was accepted, and, on returning to Sun
bury, commenced the organization of what eventually was
Company F, Eleventh Pennsylvania, being commissioned
first lieutenant. His company participated in the first fight
at Falling Waters, and volunteered to remain in the ser
vice at the request of General Patterson. After the expira
tion of the three months' campaign he reorganized the
company, and September 2, 1861, was mustered in as cap
tain of Company C, Forty-seventh Regiment. This com
mand first served in Smith's division of the Army of the
Potomac, but in January, 1862, was ordered to Florida,
and the regiment garrisoned Fort Taylor on the island
of Key West, and Fort Jefferson at the Dry Tortugas.
Subsequently it went on an expedition up St. John's River,
seizing Jacksonville and the fort at St. John's Bluff. It
may be here mentioned that the Forty-seventh captured
the " Governor Milton," a war steamer, near Palatka, —
the only steamer taken by infantry during the Rebellion.
In the summer of 1862 the regiment was sent to Hilton
Head, South Carolina, to assist in the attack on the
approaches to Charleston, and participated in the battle
of Pocotaligo. In the report of Brigadier-General Bran-
nan, commanding the Department of the South, re
ferring to Captain Gobin and others by name, in con
nection with that action, occurs the following : " I
have great pleasure, on the recommendation of their
respective commanders, in bringing to the favorable
consideration of the department the following officers
and men who rendered themselves specially worthy of
notice by their bravery and praiseworthy conduct during
the entire expedition, and the engagements attending it."
It returned to Key West, and again to Hilton Plead to
assist in the operations in that locality. Returned to
Key West in the summer of 1863. In the autumn of
the foregoing year the Forty-seventh was the first regi
ment which re-enlisted under the so-called Veteran order.
Subsequently the command participated in the Red River
expedition. At the battle of Pleasant Hill, Captain
Gobin was especially commended for bravery by General

J. W. McMillan, who recommended him to Governor
Curtin for promotion. For services rendered in that
campaign he was detailed by General Banks to conduct
all the prisoners captured on the expedition to New
Orleans. In July, 1864, the regiment came North, and
joined General Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley.
Promoted to the majority, Major Gobin participated in
that famous campaign, and commanded the regiment at
the battle of Cedar Creek. Major-General McMillan,
commanding the First Division of that corps, wrote Gov
ernor Curtin, commending Colonel Gobin's conduct.
In 1865, Hancock's Veteran Corps was organized, and
the Forty-seventh was assigned to it, Major Gobin having
been promoted lieutenant-colonel and colonel of the
regiment. When the spring campaign opened, Colonel
Gobin, having been brevetted brigadier-general March
13, 1865, was for a time in command of the Second
Brigade, First Division, of the Nineteenth Army Corps,
co-operating with Grant, heading for Lynchburg. On
the day of the assassination of President Lincoln they
were ordered to Washington. The Forty-seventh par
ticipated in the grand review, and after it was over the
regiment was again sent South. Ordered at first to
Savannah, subsequently to Charleston, General Gobin
was placed in command of that city, and at the same
time made Provost Judge. All the courts having been
suspended, he was the only judicial officer in that city
during the reconstruction period, and the regiment was
finally discharged January 9, 1866. Returning home,
General Gobin resumed the practice of the law at Leb
anon. Pie is now brigadier-general of the National
Guard of Pennsylvania, a member of the Grand Army
Republic, the Loyal Legion, Past Grand Master of the
Grand Encampment of Knights Templars of the United
States, and a member of the State Senate since 1884.

262

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

J. FRA1LEY SMITH.
J. Frailey Smith, late vice-president of the Union
League, was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, January 10,
1834. His father, John Frederick Smith, was a native
of Reading, but during the early childhood of his son
removed with his family to Philadelphia, where he after
wards resided. His grandfather, Frederick Smith, was
attorney-general of Pennsylvania from 1823 to 1828,
and associate judge of the Supreme Court of the
State from 1838 until his death. His great-grandfather,
Rev. Johann Frederick Smith, who was the first of the
family to come to this country, became eminent as a
divine of the Lutheran Church in Pennsylvania, and was
one of the pioneers of that denomination in America.
Of his long period of pastoral service in this State, seven
teen years were spent as minister of St. Michael's Lu
theran Church, of Germantown, his term of service at
this church including the period of the Revolutionary
War. At a later date he became pastor of Zion Church,
at Fourth and Cherry Streets, which, until its recent
demolition, was one of the leading historical buildings
in Philadelphia. Here he served until his death, in 18 12.
Mr. Smith received his education in the public schools
of this city, and graduated from the Central High School
in 1850, when sixteen years of age. Plis business life
began immediately afterwards in the mercantile house
of Wyeth, Rogers & Co., which he left in 1852 to enter
the old dry-goods commission house of Slade, Gemmill
& Pratt. Here he continued as an employee of the
firm till 1858, acquiring a thorough knowledge of the
business, and developing such a mercantile capacity that

in the last-named year he was admitted as a partner
into the firm, its name being changed to Alfred Slade
&Co. Mr. Slade dying some years afterwards, Mr. Smith
became associated with Mr. Jarvis Slade under the firm-
name of Slade, Smith & Co., and on the dissolution of
this firm, at a later date, he entered the dry-goods com
mission house of Lewis, Boardman & Wharton as a
special partner. In 1886 he became an active partner
in the firm of Lewis, Wharton & Co., successors to the
above, and in the following year retired from active busi
ness. He continued, however, to make the store of
Lewis, Brothers & Co., to which the firm-name was
changed (238 and 240 Chestnut Street), the locality of
his office.
During the Civil War Mr. Smith was earnest and
devoted in his loyalty to the government, and was ever
ready, with generous heart and open hand to respond
to any demands upon his patriotism or charitable aid.
He became a member of the Union League in the begin
ning of its career, and was one of its directors almost
from its inception. At the time of the election of Hon.
George H. Boker to the presidency of the League, this
position was offered Mr. Smith, but declined by him in
favor of Mr. Boker, an older and, in his view, better
qualified man. He was thereupon elected first vice-
president, which office he retained until his death.
On the organization of the Northern Pacific Railroad
Company, which succeeded the Jay Cooke failure in
1873, Mr. Smith was chosen a member of its Board of
Directors, in which he continued to serve during the
remainder of his life. He became also a director in the
Merchants' National Bank. In 1879, at the time of ex-
Governor Hartranft's appointment as postmaster of Phila
delphia, Mr. Smith was prominently named and supported
for the position by the leading merchants of the city.
Pie was also named as General Hartranft's successor,
and it was stated that he had been appointed the even
ing before he died, though a few days before he had ex
pressed his intention to decline a nomination to the office,
if tendered to him. He died June 26, 1880.
Mr. Smith as a merchant gained a high reputation for
unsullied honor and untiring industry, while his fine
business ability was rewarded with an unusual degree
of prosperity. Outside of business relations he was a
man of happy disposition and wide popularity, one who
was never satisfied unless those around him shared in
his contentment, while in all the relations of life he was
guided by the delicate tact and fine feeling which char
acterize the true gentleman.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

263

JOSHUA L. CHAMBERLAIN.
Major-General Joshua L. Chamberlain, at the
breaking out of the war, was professor of rhetoric and
oratoiy in Bowdoin College. Leave of absence being
granted him to visit Europe to prosecute his studies, he
tendered his services to the government, and entered the
army as lieutenant-colonel of the Twentieth Regiment,
Maine volunteers, on the 8th of August, 1862. He
served continuously in the First Division of the Fifth
Corps, finally commanding it, and was mustered out of
service January 16, 1866, as brevet major-general of
United States volunteers. Being of a family of mili
tary traditions and proclivities, and having received the
elements of a military education in early life, he naturally
and rapidly adapted himself to the severe ordeal of being
called suddenly to a responsible position in the midst of
a great war, and at its gravest crisis.
He had an active and honorable part in all the battles
of the Army of the Potomac, except Mine Run and the
Wilderness, from the time of his joining it to the end
of the war. He was several times wounded, at one time
so severely that his recovery was without precedent.
From the effects of this he will seriously suffer all his
life. At Gettysburg, July 2, 1863, he held the extreme left
flank of the Union line. His conduct in the memorable
defence of Round Top won for him the admiration of
the army and public fame. It was recognized also by
the government in the bestowal of a medal of honor
for distinguished personal gallantry.
In August of that year he was placed in command of
Butterfield's renowned old " Light Brigade." Early in
1864 two brigades of the old First Corps, formerly
Doubleday's division, were assigned to him as a veteran
brigade in the Fifth Corps, to which was added a fine
new regiment, the One Hundred and Eighty-seventh
Pennsylvania. With this splendid brigade he made the
magnificent and terrible charge at Petersburg, on June
18, for which General Grant promoted him on the field to
the rank of brigadier-general, issuing a special order to
that effect, which was ratified by the President and the
Senate. In the last campaign, General Chamberlain, with two
brigades, had the advance of the infantry with Sheridan,
and his command had the brilliant opening fight on the
Quaker Road, March 29, 1865. His conduct here again
drew attention from the government, and he was imme
diately promoted to the brevet rank of major-general " for
conspicuous gallantry and meritorious services in action."
At Appomattox Court-House, on the 9th of April, his
corps commander says, " General Chamberlain had the
advance, and was driving the enemy rapidly before him
when the flag of truce came in." At the formal sur
render of Lee's army he was designated to command the

parade when that army laid down the arms and colors
of the Confederacy. It is characteristic of the general
that he received the surrendering army with a salute of
honor. On the disbandment of the Army of the Potomac he
was one of the few general officers retained in the ser
vice ; and on the reorganization of the regular army he
was offered a colonelcy with the brevet of major-general.
Declining these, he was offered several diplomatic ap
pointments abroad, but preferred to return to private
life. He was shortly afterwards elected governor of
Maine by the largest majority ever given in that State,
and was three times re-elected. He was major-general
commanding the militia of Maine at the time of the
political troubles in that State, in 1880, when there was
for a considerable time no legal or acting civil govern
ment, and by his prudence and command of public con
fidence he held the peace of the State unviolated amidst
the plots of contending factions and imminent danger of
civil war. His masterly conduct in this crisis drew the
admiration of the whole country.
He was professor of Public Law and president of
Bowdoin College for several years. He is an eloquent
orator and writer, and his services are in much request
on important public occasions.
He married, in December, 1855, Miss Frances C.
Adams, of Boston, who is a lineal descendant of Mabel
Harlekenden, conspicuous in early New England history
as of royal lineage, being a direct descendant of Joan of
Beaufort and Ralph Neville, whose line is so distinguished
in European history.
His paternal ancestors, as were those of his wife, were
officers in the American wars of their time. On the
mother's side he is of Huguenot descent, and has been
for some years vice-president of the Huguenot Society.

264

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ANDREW C. SINN.
Andrew C. Sinn, well known in this city for twenty-
five years as a partner in the leading wholesale dry-goods
house of Philadelphia, and more recently as president
of one of our most prominent banking institutions,
was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, February
3, 1826. His early life was spent on a farm, and his
education such as was to be had in the rural districts
of the State at that early date in the century. His
first school years were spent in the Presbyterian school
at Brandywine Manor and in a private school kept
by his father. During this period a new school law
was passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature, and public
schools opened, in which his education was completed
in the meagre fashion possible in the common schools
of that date.
Mr. Sinn's record as a Philadelphian began in 1840, in
which year he came to this city to begin his business
training as a boy in the wholesale dry-goods house of
Samuel Hood & Company. In this establishment nearly
the whole of his later life was passed, he growing up in
it from boyhood to mature life, and continuing in it
through all its changes for a period of half a century.
In his younger days, indeed, with the versatile fancy of
young manhood, he tried his fortune at several other
occupations, such as country store-keeping, school-
teaching, and farming. But none of these lines of busi
ness proved permanently to his taste, and he returned to
the store, in which the most of his remaining life was to

be passed. His business capacity and activity were early
perceived by the firm, and he was advanced step by step
until he became a partner in the business, remaining
such for twenty-five years.
During the fifty years of his connection with the
house, its business enormously increased, expanding
from one hundred thousand dollars to ten million dollars
per annum, and thus doing one hundred times more
business at the end than at the beginning of this period.
In 1840, when he entered the establishment, the dry-
goods jobbing business in Philadelphia was in a very
primitive state as compared with its condition to-day.
At that time the goods sold during the day were in
voiced at night by aid of the illumination given by an
oil-lamp in the middle of the store, reinforced by the
light of a tallow candle held by a boy. In 1841 the
firm crossed the street to a store on the opposite side,
in which gas, then a somewhat new agent of illumina
tion in this city, had been introduced, the change being
voted a great improvement by all concerned. To one
who looks upon the establishment of the firm to-day,
with its great globes of electric lights, the progress in
the art of store-illumination in half a century of time
must appear almost magical.
From this date the business of the firm steadily in
creased until the commercial revolution of 1857. It con
tinued to struggle through the deep waters of financial
panic till i860, when it was obliged to compromise with
its creditors. It is pleasant to be able to say that in
1880, twenty years later, the last of the old indebted
ness (over one hundred thousand dollars) was paid, and
the house cleared of the final relic of its debt. In 1888,
the firm, then trading under the name of Hood, Bon-
bright & Company, sold its entire business to John
Wanamaker. Mr. Sinn remained with the establishment during two
of the years in which it remained under Mr. Wana-
maker's control, and then was offered and accepted the
position of president of the Merchants' National Bank,
of which he had been a director during the six preceding
years. This position he still retains. Of this bank it
will suffice to say that it has passed through two periods
of severe financial revulsion during the term of his presi
dency, yet within this period has doubled its deposits,
and has now three times the surplus it had four years
ago. Mr. Sinn deserves much of the credit for this
marked progress of the bank under his control. He
died in 1895.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

265

DANIEL W. FLAGLER.
Brigadier-General Daniel W. Flagler (chief of
ordnance, United States army) was born in New York
March 24, 1835, and graduated at the Military Academy
June 24, 1 86 1. He was promoted brevet second and
second lieutenant of ordnance the same day, and first
lieutenant August 3, 1861, and captain March 3, 1863.
. <Ie served during the rebellion of the seceding States,
1861 to 1865 ; in drilling volunteers at Washington, D. C,
July 1— 1 5, 1861 ; in the Manassas campaign and in the
defences of Washington July- and August, 1861 ; assistant
ordnance officer at Allegheny Arsenal, Pennsylvania, and
on foundry duty at Fort Pitt Foundry, Pittsburg, Penn
sylvania, inspecting ordnance for fitting out the Mississippi
River Flotilla, August to December, 1861 ; as chief of
ordnance to General Burnside's expedition to North
Carolina, December, 1861, to August, 1862; in charge
of transportation of siege-train across country, New-
Berne to Fort Macon, North Carolina, and of construc
tion of approaches and batteries in front of Fort Macon,
March and April, 1862; in the Maryland campaign
(Army of the Potomac) as assistant ordnance officer
and aide-de-camp September and October, 1862; as
chief ordnance officer, November, 1862, to November,
1863,- in hospital October and November, 1863; on
inspection duty at the West Point Foundry, New York,
November, 1863, to May, 1864; assistant to chief of
ordnance, United States army, Washington, District of
Columbia, May, 1864, to June, 1865, and inspecting
arms, Army ofthe Potomac, February, 1865 ; in charge of
Tredegar Iron Works, Richmond, April and May, 1865.
General Flagler participated in the battle of Bull Run
July 21, 1861 ; the battle and capture of Roanoke Island
February 7-8, 1862 ; battle of New-Berne, North Carolina,
March 14, 1862, and in command of mortar batteries in
bombardment of Fort Macon, resulting in capture April
26, 1862 ; engaged in the battle of South Mountain Sep
tember 14, 1862; battle of Antietam September 17, 1862;
engaged in the battle of Fredericksburg December 13,
1862; battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, May 2-4,
1863, and battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 1-3,
1863. He was brevetted captain March 14, 1862, for gallant
services at battle of New-Berne, North Carolina, major
April 26, 1862, for gallant services at siege of Fort Ma
con, North Carolina; lieutenant-colonel March 13, 1865,
for distinguished services in the field during the war of
the Rebellion.
After the war closed he was employed on a tour of
inspection of Western arsenals, with chief of ordnance,
United States army, May, 1865 ; in charge of receiving
arms from disbanded volunteers from Delaware and Penn
sylvania at Wilmington, Delaware, and Philadelphia and
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, May and June, 1865 ; on special

ordnance inspection duty in Kentucky, Tennessee, Geor
gia, and Alabama, June to September, 1 865 ; assistant
ordnance officer, Watervliet Arsenal, New York, October
to December, 1865 ; in command of Augusta Arsenal and
Powder- Works, Georgia, January, 1866, to May, 1871,
having charge also of Confederate ordnance establish
ments, depots, and stores, and disposal of same, at At
lanta, Macon, Athens, and Savannah, Georgia, January,
1866, to January, 1869; and on special ordnance inspec
tion duty at Fort Fisher, North Carolina, December,
1866; Selma, Alabama, February, 1869; and Fort
Pickens, Florida, February, 1871 ; in command of Rock
Island Armory and Arsenal June, 1 871, to May 31, 1886;
member of Board on Heavy Gun-Carriages, at New
York, January to March, 1883 ; special inspection of
Fort Union Arsenal, New Mexico, with view of break
ing up same, September, 1880; on board at Indianap
olis, Indiana, in regard to removal of Indianapolis Ar
senal, January, 1883; on ordnance inspection duty, San
Antonio, Texas, Fort Lowell, Arizona, and Benicia,
California, February and March, 1883; in command of
Frankford Arsenal, Pennsylvania, May 31, 1886, to No
vember 11, 1889; president of Board on Site for Gun
Foundry March 22 to May 14, 1887 ; president of Board
on Comparative Merits of Morse and Service Reloading
Cartridges, March 3 to May 1, 1888; on special duty to
select site and make plans for Columbia Arsenal, Ten
nessee, May 29 to June 30, 1888 ; president of Board for
Testing Rifled Cannon and Projectiles in 1889; in com
mand of Watertown Arsenal, Massachusetts, from No
vember 29, 1889, to 1 89 1.
Pie was promoted major June 23, 1874; lieutenant-
colonel August 23, 1881; colonel September 15, 1890;
and was appointed brigadier-general and chief of ordnance
January 23, 1891.

34

266

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

GEORGE MASON WHITAKER.
George Mason Whitaker, a prominent and well-
known newspaper man of Boston, editor and publisher of
the New England Farmer, is a native of Southbridge,
Massachusetts, born July 30, 185 1, son of Thomas and
Harriet A. Mason Whitaker. His father was born at Bing-
ley, England, and his mother is of the Mason family
which traces back to the early days of Medfield, Dedham,
and Roxbury. Of this family was the eminent musical
leader, Dr. Lowell Mason, of Boston. Mr. Whitaker
was fitted for college at the Nichols Academy in Dudley,
and was graduated from Bowdoin in the class of 1872,
among the Phi Beta Kappa delegation, three years later
receiving the degree of A.M. He learned the trade of
a printer, and before leaving college was at professional

work as editor of the Southbridge Journal, having, in
1 87 1, bought a half interest in that paper. He con
tinued as editor of the Journal, subsequently purchasing
the second half of the property, till 1886, when he pur
chased the Nezv England Farmer, which he has since
edited and published with marked success, having placed
it in the very front rank of agricultural journalism. He
was one of the founders of the Bowdoin College Orient.
In 1877 he founded the Temple Star, the organ of the
Temple of Honor, a temperance fraternal order, which
he published for ten years, and for five years he has
published Our Grange Homes, an edition of the New
England Farmer, devoted especially to the grange. He
is much interested in educational work, and for several
years did good service on the school board of South-
bridge and on the library committee there. He holds at
present, by appointment of the governor (first appointed
in 1 89 1 and reappointed in 1893 and 1895), the position
defined by statute as " assistant to the secretary of the
State Board of Agriculture in the work of the dairy
bureau," which is substantially what in other States
would be called " dairy commissioner." He has been
the State head of the Temple of Honor ; was secretary
of the Massachusetts Press Association four years (1881
-85), vice-president one year (1886), and president two
years (1886—87); was treasurer ofthe Suburban Press
Association for ten terms and president three terms (1891
-92-93) ; and is serving his sixth term as treasurer of
the Boston Press Club, of which he has also been vice-
president. He was married, in 187 1, to Miss Allie E.
Weld, who is an officer of the New England Woman's
Press Association and well known as a newspaper
writer. They have two children, — Lillian and Ethel
Whitaker.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

267

WILLIAM H. BROWN.
William H. Brown, chief-engineer of the Pennsylvania
Railroad, was born in Little Britain Township, Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania, February 29, 1836. Although
Mr. Brown is now sixty years old, he has enjoyed only
fifteen opportunities of celebrating his natal day.
Mr. Brown received his education at the Central High o
School, Philadelphia, an institution which is the Alma
Mater of many of the successful men of to-day. After
leaving the school, Mr. Brown turned his attention to
engineering as a profession, and up to April, 1861, he
had assisted in the surveys of a number of new lines of
railroad, and had also served with the city surveyor of
the Third District of Philadelphia.
When Colonel Thomas A. Scott became assistant
Secretary of War, in charge of transportation of troops
and munitions of war, he cast about him for the brightest
young men as aides in the various departments. Mr.
Brown had developed a fine reputation in his profession,
and in October, 1861, he was selected by Colonel Scott
as engineer of the United States military railroads in
Northern Virginia, with office at Alexandria; and he
served with signal ability in this capacity through the
trying times of the Bull Run battles and the battles of
Front Royal. In November, 1862, he was assigned to
assist in the completion of the Pan Handle Railroad as
assistant engineer, in charge of the Second Division, and
one year later was appointed principal assistant engineer
of that line. In October, 1864, when the Pan Handle
Road was about completed, Mr. Brown was transferred
to the Pittsburg Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
On March 17, 1865, he was appointed engineer of the
Oil Creek Railroad, of which Mr. Frank Thomson was
then superintendent. In July, 1865, he entered the
service of the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad as principal
engineer, and in September, 1867, was appointed engineer
of road of the same line. He held this important posi
tion until March, 1869, when he was transferred to
Altoona, and placed in charge of the construction of the
maintenance of way and car-repair shops. In January,
1870, Mr. Brown returned to practical railroad con
struction, and was successively resident engineer of the
Middle Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, chief-
engineer of the Sunbury and Lewistown Railroad,
superintendent of the Lewistown Division, superintend
ent of the Bedford Division, until August 1, 1874, when
he was promoted to his present high position of chief-
engineer of the Pennsylvania Railroad. During his
long and varied career, Mr. Brown has had direction of
some of the most important engineering works of the
century, and has won an enviable reputation in his special
field. His fine executive ability, his restless energy, and
the facility with which he has always met and overcome
the most serious obstacles has often led to his selection

when any difficult work was to be accomplished. These
notable characteristics found manifestation in his war
experience. One of the most remarkable instances of
his prowess was the building of the bridge over the
Shenandoah River at Front Royal, Virginia, four hun
dred and thirty feet long, in forty-eight hours. Another
was the construction of a military bridge over the Rap
pahannock River near Culpeper, Virginia, in four days.
Valuable services were also rendered by him in rebuilding
bridges and relaying tracks after the flood which created
such wide-spread destruction to Pennsylvania Railroad
property in May, 1889. Other works which bear witness
to Mr. Brown's engineering ability are the maintenance
of way shops, the car-repair shops, and the new Juniata
shops at Altoona , the rebuilding of the Union Station,
and the reconstruction of the yards at Pittsburg after the
riots of 1877 ; the old Broad Street Station, Philadelphia,
and the Filbert Street elevated railroad ; three station
houses at Jersey City, the Jersey City Elevated Rail
road, train-shed, and station, and the magnificent new
Broad Street Station. With all these works of a special
nature, which would almost seem sufficient to occupy
the working-time of an ordinary man, he has kept
his eyes constantly on the task of bettering and im
proving the roadway and bridges of the Pennsylvania
Railroad. Under his supervision the iron bridges of the line have
been replaced with stone, curves have been eliminated,
and grades have been changed or reduced. The accom
plishment of this work alone has served to place the
Pennsylvania Railroad in the front rank of American
railways. With such responsibilities, Mr. Brown is a
very busy man, but being inured to labor by experience
and habit, and blessed with a vigorous constitution, he
discharges his arduous duties with the utmost ease.

268

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JOHN S. WHITE, LL.D.
Among the educational institutions of New York City
there is none with a better claim to recognition and com
mendation than the Berkeley School for Boys, which,
under the broad and skilful management of its capable
head-master, Dr. John S. White, has attained a markedly
high standing among American schools. Dr. White is
of good old Puritan stock, and may be looked upon as
a most excellent product of the Boston schools. Born
at Wrentham, Massachusetts, he passed through the
Chapman grammar, English high, and Latin schools of
Boston, winning first medals in each, and then entered
Harvard University for the completion of his educational
career. He was graduated in 1870, with the highest
classical honors. Since then his fine scholarship has
been recognized in the degree of Doctor of Laws con
ferred on him by Trinity College in 1879, and by his
election as a Fellow of several foreign societies.
Dr. White, having chosen for his life-work the profes
sion of teacher, began his labors as master in the Boston
Latin School, with which he remained connected for four
years. He then accepted the position of head-master of
the Brooks Academy, Cleveland, Ohio, continuing there
for the succeeding six years. Pie resigned from this in
stitution in 1880 to establish the institution with which
he has since been connected as head-master and pro
prietor, the Berkeley School in New York. His labors
in the Brooks Academy were marked by the highest
skill, efficiency, and completeness as an instructor, and
on his resignation, the esteem in which he was held by
the directors and patrons of the school was expressed
in a highly flattering series of resolutions, of which we

have space only for a brief quotation: "Resolved, That
not alone in efficiency, completeness, and success as a
school, but in that elevated tone of manliness which lends
to education its choicest charm, and which he has been
so successful in infusing, he has marked with us a new
departure, so radical and enduring that regrets for his
loss are tempered by the constant sense of our perma
nent gain."
Having resolved to possess a school of his own, Dr.
White opened, in the autumn of 1880, an institution at
252 Madison Avenue, New York, which his friend, Presi
dent Gilman, of Johns Hopkins University, named " The
Berkeley," in honor of George Berkeley, Bishop of
Cloyne, and the greatest benefactor of early education
in America. This school, conducted in accordance with
the most advanced modern ideas of education, was pros
perous from the start, and in the fourth year its full ac
commodation for one hundred and fifty pupils was taken
up, while numbers of applicants could not be received.
In consequence of this, in 1884 a new edifice, at No. 6
East Forty-fourth Street, was occupied. This has since
been replaced by the very handsome and commodious
structure, occupying the four city lots 18 to 24 West
Forty-fourth Street, which the school now occupies. In
addition, the school possesses a boarding department at
Morris Heights, rights of exercise in the gymnasium of
the Berkeley Athletic Association, Nos. 19 and 21 West
Forty-fourth Street, and the Berkeley Oval, comprising
ten acres of play-grounds at Morris Dock, and a boat-
house on Harlem River, only seventeen minutes from
the school by rail.
The Berkeley is the costliest and most perfectly
equipped private school-building in the world. It is a
handsome Ionic structure, five stories in height, abso
lutely fire-proof, and with most ingenious and efficient
arrangements for heating and ventilation. Part of the
ground is occupied by an armory which yields a floor
space of nearly nine thousand feet for drill purposes.
Internally the building is strikingly handsome, a portion
of its ornamentation being the reproduction of a section
of the frieze of the Parthenon at Athens.
The Berkeley School possesses a corps of masters of
the highest scholarship and experience, and the fine re
sults of its work are shown in the high rank attained by
its graduates in the leading colleges. Untrammelled by
traditions and uncontrolled by stereotyped methods, Dr.
White has steadily sought to introduce new ideas into
his work, taking the utmost pains to interest the pupils
in their studies, and to infuse into their minds thoughts
rather than words. The present standing of the school
sufficiently indicates his success in this effort.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

269

MOSES KING.
Moses King, the distinguished editor and publisher,
has a reputation beyond the boundaries of this country.
Although an Englishman by birth, born in London on
April 13, 1853, he is in every other way an American;
being brought to this country when five years of age
and naturalized when hardly twenty-one.
Soon after coming to America his parents settled in
St. Louis, Missouri, and for seven years he attended the
public schools, where he was always first in rank.
When he was only twelve years old his parents returned
to England and left him and his older brothers to sup
port themselves and to carve out their own careers. All
have been notably successful, and two of them — Law
rence L. King and Goodman King — are among the
best-known men of St. Louis.
Moses King began work as an errand boy for the
Great Western Despatch, an adjunct of the United States
Express. His first year's pay was a dollar a week, and
the next six months he had an advance of fifty cents a
week. In 1866 he became office-boy for the Western
Insurance Company, and after its consolidation with
the Excelsior Insurance Company, he was elected assist
ant secretary, being the youngest person holding such a
position, and his salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year
being exceptionally large for one of his age. When the
Chicago fire ruined this company he established King's
Insurance Agency, still a well-known concern of St.
Louis, but he sold his interest to his brother to do
what few men have ever done under similar condi
tions. He was always ambitious to learn, and obstacles
seemed to stand in the way of his securing an educa
tion. Being put to work at twelve years, he had had
but little schooling. While an office-boy he attended
night schools, and once, when doing well as a clerk, he
was about to enter the Missouri State University, at
Columbia, but after virtually securing his admission he
found it was not worth taking. He never lost his desire
for an education, and at twenty-two years, after being in
active business for ten years, and while earning two thou
sand dollars a year, he determined to abandon everything
to graduate from Harvard University. In January, 1876,
he left St. Louis and shortly reached Phillips Exeter
Academy, only to find the head-master, Professor A. C.
Perkins, and the other professors, Cilley, Wentworth,
and Penned, urging him to return to business, maintain
ing that it was practically useless for a person of his age
to try to get through Harvard, for, although many enter
late in years, but few finish the academy course, and none
complete the university course. When they saw that
he was determined to go on they agreed to let him enter
the class that had already far advanced, provided he
could prepare himself sufficiently by the beginning of
the spring term, which he did by the aid of three

private tutors. Studying all the vacation, doing the
next year the work of two classes in the academy, and
tutoring the succeeding vacation under Professor Pen
ned, he entered Harvard in 1877, after a preparation of
a year and seven months, whereas the prescribed course
was four years, — the shortest preparation made by any
one at Exeter in the century of its existence.
After entering college, he began editing and publish
ing, and probably no one has graduated from Harvard
who while there did so much work outside of his studies.
He graduated in 1881, and while at college issued " Har
vard and Its Surroundings;" "King's Handbook of
Boston;" "King's Handbook of Boston Harbor;"
" King's Pocketbook of Cincinnati ;" " Benjamin Peirce :
A Memorial Volume ;" " The Back Bay District and the
Vendome ;" and The Harvard Register, an illustrated
monthly magazine. His college course, although in
tended to fit him as a lawyer, seemed destined to fit him
as an editor and publisher.
He published Science, a weekly scientific journal of
the highest order, whose founder was Alexander Graham
Bell, the inventor of the telephone; and later became
business manager of" Bradstreet's," the journal of trade,
finance, and public economy. He then became an owner
and vice-president of the Rand- Avery Company, Boston's
greatest printing establishment. In 1889 he set out to
make " King's Handbook of the United States," and
with the co-operation of Matthews, Northrup & Com
pany, of Buffalo, produced an edition of one hundred
thousand cloth-bound books, at a cost of $100,000.
He married, in 1881, Bertha Cloyes, the daughter of
Lothrop J. and Eliza B. Cloyes, of Cambridge, a branch
of the Cloyes family of Vermont, whose names appear in
the annals of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Their
three children are Moses King, Jr., Ethel King, and
Cloyes King. Their home is in Newton, near Boston.

270

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM B. MANN.
William Benson Mann, so well known in the legal
and political circles of Philadelphia, is the son of the
Rev. William Mann, who for nearly half a century con
ducted a classical school in this city, while at the same
time acting as minister of a Methodist Episcopal Church.
The subject of our sketch was born in Burlington County,
New Jersey, in 18 16, where his father at that time con
ducted the Mount Holly Academy. He was brought to
Philadelphia, in 1821, by his parents, who located in the
old Northern Liberties district. Educated in his father's
school, he served there for years as assistant teacher,
but in the mean time studied law, and was admitted to
the bar in 1838.
The young lawyer's ability was soon manifested, both
in his profession and in the field of politics, into which
he quickly entered. Pie was only twenty-eight years
old when he received the Whig nomination for mayor
of the Northern Liberties. But the district was strongly
Democratic, and, though he ran far ahead of his ticket,
he was defeated. In 1850, William B. Reed ran for dis
trict-attorney, and was defeated according to the returns.
But fraud was suspected and a contest made, in which
Mr. Mann acted as one of the counsel for the contestant.
Mr. Reed won the office, largely through the legal skill
of Mr. Mann, and for reward offered him the position of
assistant district-attorney. In 1853, Mr. Reed was re
elected, and Mr. Mann was reappointed. In 1856, he
received the nomination himself from both the Republican
and American conventions, and was elected, his vote
running three thousand ahead of the other candidates
on his ticket. In 1859, he was re-elected on the People's

ticket, and in 1862 and 1865, by the Republican party,
his majority in the last year being over ten thousand.
He thus served eighteen years in the district-attorney's
office, six as assistant and twelve as chief. During all
this time he attended to the business in person, except
some few months when he was absent with the army,
during which he was allowed a deputy by special act of
the legislature. This absence was in the position of
colonel of the Second Regiment Pennsylvania Volun
teers, which he had been instrumental in raising, and
accompanied to the field. His home duties, however,
were too important to permit an extended absence, and
when the army went into winter quarters in November,
1 86 1, he resigned and returned to his civic office.
In his eighteen years of ferreting out and bringing
to justice the criminals of a great city, Colonel Mann
showed a legal acumen and forensic skill which raised
him to the highest reputation among his fellow-citizens
and members of the bar. His management in the various
murder cases which came under his hands was remark
ably adroit, and he had the expertness of a detective in
making his way through the cloud of mystery within
which such cases are usually shrouded. In his legal
practice, after leaving the district-attorneyship, his forensic
ability was equally manifest, and this was particularly
the case in contested election cases, the management of
which fell into his hands. To his skill and ingenuity
the Republican office-holders of the city of the campaign
of 1868 owed their seats. In reference to this trial we
may quote from the Evening Telegraph, of February
16, 1870:
" We had only yesterday to refer to the fact that the
Republican party had reason to be thankful to Hon.
William B. Mann for the result of the contested election
cases. Reading over the opinion of the majority of the
court affords us a better opportunity of ascertaining the
real services rendered by this gentleman. The reasoning
and deductions of Mr. Justice Agnew are evidently de
rived chiefly from and based upon the very able, lawyer
like, and logical arguments of Mr. Mann ; and it will be
remembered that the grouping together of the testimony
and arrangement of the facts with such systematic pre
cision as would strike the attention of the court below,
was the work of this same gentleman. We doubt very
much if there is any lawyer in this country who, in
cases of this character, possesses the genius for concen
tration and presentation of facts which is the character
istic of Hon. William B. Mann."
Nothing in praise of Mr. Mann's legal ability needs to
be added to this. It will suffice to say, in conclusion,
that in 1876 he became prothonotary of the Common
Pleas Court, which office he still retains.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

271

JOHN WHITNEY BARLOW.
Colonel J. W. Barlow, of the United States army
corps of engineers, was born in Wyoming County, New
York, June 26, 1838. Five years later his family re
moved to Walworth County, Wisconsin, where his father
became a farmer and the children attended the neighbor
ing schools. In 1856 he entered West Point as a cadet,
where he continued till the fall of Fort Sumter in 1861,
when, with a majority of his classmates, he signed a
petition to the War Department, begging for immediate
graduation for active service. In consequence, the class
was graduated May 6, two months before the usual time,
and ordered to Washington upon duty.
Commissioned second lieutenant in the artillery, he
was made instructor of volunteer troops, a number of
regiments being drilled by him. On May 15 he received
the commission of first lieutenant, and, in connection with
a regular battery, took part in the battle of Bull Run.
He was subsequently attached to Battery M, Second
Artillery, and served with it through the Peninsula cam
paign. After the evacuation of Yorktown, this battery,
accompanying the cavalry, engaged a part of the enemy's
rear guard in a skirmish near Williamsburg. The men
of his section being swept away by a rush of cavalry,
Lieutenant Barlow, with a single soldier, threw one of
the guns into battery, loaded and fired it in the face of
the advancing enemy, repulsing them with severe loss.
At the battle of Hanover Court-House, being sent
with one gun to the picket line, he, with several rounds
of canister, repelled the advance of a Confederate regi
ment. Subsequently, the battery drove a rebel battery
from the opposite ridge, and forced it to abandon one of
its guns, which was picked up as a trophy by a New
York regiment. For his gallant service in this engage
ment he received General McClellan's commendation on
the field, and was afterwards brevetted captain. At the
close of the campaign, being prostrated by camp fever,
he was sent to West Point as assistant professor of
mathematics. On June 18, 1863, Captain Barlow was assigned to the
command of Company C, Battalion of Engineers, with
which he served at Gettysburg and in other engage
ments until February, 1864, being promoted captain of
engineers July 3, 1863. From February 26 to June 20,
1864, he was again on duty as assistant professor of
mathematics, and subsequently served in the Atlanta
campaign of General Sherman's army, being brevetted
major for gallant and meritorious services July 22, 1864.
On November 13, 1864, he was placed in charge of the
defences of Nashville, including extensive field-works
and fortifications. For gallantry in the subsequent bat
tles of December 15-16, he received the brevet rank of
lieutenant-colonel. After the close of the war, Colonel Barlow served as

superintending engineer in the construction of Fort
Clinch, Florida, till November, 1867, and of Fort Mont
gomery, New York, and harbor improvements on Lake
Champlain till July, 1870. He was promoted major of
engineers April 23, 1869, and served on General Sheri
dan's staff as chief-engineer of the Military Division of
the Missouri to July, 1874, during which period he was
engaged on several scientific expeditions, especially the
exploration of the head-waters of the Missouri and the
Yellowstone, and the wonderful region of Yellowstone
National Park, of which he made a detailed report in
1 87 1. In 1872, while accompanying a surveying expe
dition for the Northern Pacific Railroad, the party was
attacked by about one thousand Indians under Sitting
Bull. The savages were repulsed by the escort of four
hundred men. His official report of this expedition was
highly commended by General Sherman.
Colonel Barlow has since served on various boards of
engineers, and in charge of several districts of engineer
ing work ; on fortifications and harbor improvements,
Long Island Sound, 1874 to 1883; on harbor improve
ments, Lakes Superior and Michigan, till 1886; and on
the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers till 1891, where
he completed and opened to navigation the Muscle
Shoals Canal.
He was promoted lieutenant-colonel of engineers
March 19, 1884, and colonel of engineers May 10, 1895.
From 1 891 to 1896 he acted as senior commissioner ofthe
International Boundary Commission between the United
States and Mexico west of the Rio Grande, resurveying
the line, and establishing two hundred and fifty-eight
monuments as permanent marks. In the winter of 1895-
96, while preparing the reports and maps of the boundary
survey he also served as supervisor of the engineering
works in the Southwest Division.

272

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

HENRY HOLMES.
Henry Holmes, a carpet manufacturer of Philadel
phia, is a native of Ireland, having been born in County
Antrim of that country, in or near the year 1836, of a
family which claims descent from the Earls of Home,
border chieftains of Scotland. His parents emigrated to
this country in 1845, when he was but a small boy, being
the youngest of twelve children, then all living. They
settled in Philadelphia, in which city Mr. Holmes has
since resided. His education was obtained at the Harri
son Grammar School, famous for being the scene of the
commencement of the Kensington anti-Catholic riots,
the fiercest and most threatening outbreak of mob vio
lence that ever occurred in Philadelphia, and which was
quelled only after serious destruction of property and
loss of life.
Mr. Holmes was taken from school at an early age
and began the business of life in his father's shop, in
which was carried on the trade of stair-carpet weaving.
Here he gained a sufficient familiarity with the business
to enable him, when of suitable age, to begin business on
his own account, in connection with two of his brothers,
they starting in a very small way in the autumn of 1857.
It was by no means a promising period in which to ven
ture in business. A season of panic was upon the land,

and for two or three years the business affairs of the
country continued seriously depressed, not fully recover
ing, in fact, until after the outbreak of the war. After
a year or two of struggle against the discouraging con
ditions of the times, Mr. Holmes's brothers withdrew,
leaving him to carry on the business alone, which he
continued to do with much energy and perseverance,
weathering all the threatening rocks of business trouble.
He has since remained alone, with the exception of two
years, in which one of his brothers again took part in the
business. Of those who were engaged in the carpet
manufacture at that time (1857) Mr. Holmes alone re
mains actively engaged, all his early competitors being
dead or having withdrawn, with the exception of the
Bromley Brothers, who at that period were connected in
business with their father, under the firm-name of John
Bromley. Mr. Holmes's firm is the only one that re
mains unchanged.
He began business, as has been said, in a very humble
way, having but four old-fashioned hand-looms. At
present he occupies the large establishment known as
the Sherman Carpet Mills, at the corner of Trenton
Avenue and Auburn Street, whose weaving plant con
sists of sixty-three ingrain power-looms, and eleven
broad or art-square looms, an outfit which has the large
productive capacity of about seven hundred thousand
square yards of carpet per year. As may be perceived,
the production of the works has steadily grown until Mr.
Holmes to-day occupies a prominent position among the
carpet-weaving fraternity of Philadelphia. It need hardly
be said that the carpet business, which had its origin in
the years of Mr. Holmes's first humble venture, has now
grown to be among the greatest of Philadelphia's many
important manufacturing interests.
Mr. Holmes was married in 1859 to Miss Craig, a lady
of a well-known Philadelphia family. His family consists
of five sons and a daughter now living, several of his
children having died. Socially, he is a member of the
Masonic fraternity, and of the Manufacturers' and Co
lumbia Clubs. Politically, he has always been a strong
advocate of the Republican principles, in common with
most of his fellow-manufacturers. He is a member of
the Presbyterian Church, and a gentleman of domestic
habits and quiet life.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

273

JAMES HENRY WORMAN, Ph.D., LL.D.
James Henry Worman, Ph.D., LL.D., editor-in-chief
of the Outing Magazine, was born in Germany, February
28, 1845, of a stock to whom he owes much, and through
whom, on both sides of the ancestral line he inherited
that virility and scholarly instinct which has ever charac
terized his work as author and editor. Nor was he less
fortunate in his early surroundings, for nowhere in the
world have the foundations of sound knowledge and
thoroughness of method been laid so wisely and applied
so successfully as in the German schools and the curric
ulum of the period during which his life character was
being formed. While a student in the University of Ber
lin and scarce eighteen years old, he had compiled, and
found a publisher for, a school-book of universal history,
a prelude and prognostication of the breadth of his scope,
no less than a tribute to the systematic mental training
he had undergone.
From the University of Berlin to the Sorbonne, in
Paris, was but a natural sequence to one whose linguistic
impulses were even then straining for a cosmopolitan
field, and it was while a student in Paris that the oppor
tunity came which opened the New World to his scholastic
ambition, for there, in 1864, he met Dr. John McClintock,
the scholarly editor of McClintock & Strong's Ency
clopaedia, whose discriminating eye marked the young
student as a valuable aid, and enlisted him among the
band of savants who were to make the Encyclopaedia's
reputation. The next year, young Worman came to
America, and in a very short time was ensconced as
Professor of Modern Languages in Knox College,
Galesburg, Illinois, where he first conceived the series
of text-books based on a theory entirely original, and
which, as the most natural of the natural methods, has
been so eminently popular for helps in the mastery of
German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Latin. Text
books that to this day have a constant and regular sale
in a field in which fresh competitors are constantly
arising. In 1867, Drew Theological Seminary was
founded at Madison, New Jersey, and there Dr. Worman
filled the dual capacity of instructor in modern and
Oriental languages and librarian, a fact to which that
corporation owes much of the merit of its library. In
1870 death ended the career of Dr. John McClintock,
and Dr. Worman assumed the responsibility of seeing
his great undertaking to a successful conclusion.
Nor did the labor entailed thereby or his contributions
to the National Repository Magazine and many another
storehouse of literature exhaust the knowledge or the
mental activity that welled over into, among things, the
Chautauqua movement, wherein for seven years Dr.
Worman labored as senior professor of the University
and as director of the Southern Chautauqua University
and of the Round Lake Summer School.

We later find Dr. Worman emerging from the reclusive
atmosphere of the library and the study into that of
action, amidst the clash and controversy of the metro
politan press, wherein his pen was eagerly, editorially,
sought. For a space these distractions swerved him
from the monopoly of the literary workshop, but his
final break into the greater world was yet to come.
Two other chairs of learning were first filled, one at the
Adelphi, Brooklyn, and the other, and final one, at the
Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, Tennessee, from
1883 to 1886. In that year came the beginning of the
end, when he had hold of the business and editorial'
reins of The Saratogian, which he raised to the highest
point of commercial and literary credit. Then came
the opportunity, which all the preliminary knowledge
and experience were to lead up to, and in 1888 he
became the controlling spirit and editor-in-chief of the
Outing Magazine, on which his life-work may be said
to have been done, and when the mind travels back
to the magazine of that period and to the conditions of
American life, it may be said that the work is one that
entitles him to be considered one of the men of the
century. It is something to have raised up to the highest
pinnacle of success the foremost magazine in the world
on the art and literature of sports and pastimes, but it is
still more to have created the very atmosphere which
renders it possible for such a demand to exist, — to have
awakened the lethargic conscience of the American peo
ple to the deadening effects and national dangers conse
quent to the neglect of out-door life and its exhilarating
and life-giving force, and to have nurtured into a con
trolling force the corrective pastimes that have forestalled
the threatened danger of degeneration, is an enduring
service to the country, exemplifying yet again the might
that lies behind the pen.

35

274

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

MATHIAS WILSON McALARNEY.
Mathias Wilson McAlarney, son of John (1802-
1876) and Catharine Wilson (1812-1892) McAlarney,
was born June 7, 1840, in Mifflinburg, Union County,
Pennsylvania, and was educated at the Bucknell Univer
sity, in Lewisburg. He learned the trade of printer in
the office of the Lewisburg Chronicle, and afterwards
removed to Coudersport, Potter County, where for six
years he published the Potter Journal, a weekly news
paper. During the war Mr. McAlarney was the provost-
marshal of the Eighteenth Pennsylvania district, and as
such was intrusted with a number of important missions
for the government. While thus engaged, and while

editing and publishing his newspaper, he found time to
study law with Hon. Isaac Benson, of Potter County,
and on February 27, 1867, he was admitted to the bar.
In May of the same year he removed to Harrisburg,
where he began the active practice of law. In 1868 Mr.
McAlarney was appointed clerk to the commission to
settle the damages done the residents of the border
counties by the Confederates in the raids during the
rebellion, and in 1 871, by appointment of Governor
Geary, he was attorney for the commonwealth in con
nection with the same work in the County of Cumber
land. In 1874 he was an aspirant for the Republican
nomination for district-attorney of Dauphin County, and
would undoubtedly have been nominated, but his ap
pointment as postmaster of Harrisburg took him out of
the field. Mr. McAlarney served as postmaster until
April, 1887, being the choice of Presidents Grant, Hayes,
and Garfield. He purchased for the government the
ground upon which the United States post-office was
erected, and was appointed disbursing agent during the
construction of the building. On the completion of the
work he was appointed custodian of the building. From
1874 until the close of 1882, he was actively engaged as
an editorial writer on the Harrisburg Daily Telegraph,
and in the fall of 1883, he purchased a controlling
interest in the Harrisburg Publishing Company, pub
lishers of the Daily and Weekly Telegraph, and has con
tinued from that time as the manager of the publishing
company, and editor of the Telegraph. In 1867, Mr.
McAlarney married Ada, daughter of Jacob D. Hoffman,
and they have two children, Martha Worden and John
Hart. Three children died in infancy.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

275

TATTNALL PAULDING.
A century and more ago the name of Paulding be
came famous in American history through the capture
by John Paulding and two companions of Major Andre,
of the British army, on his way from West Point to
New York, after his interview with the traitor, Benedict
Arnold. It is a matter of history how Major Andre
failed in his attempt to bribe his stanch ly patriotic
captors, and how he was tried, convicted, and executed
as a spy. Mr. Paulding's son rose to distinction as rear-
admiral in the United States navy. Colonel Tattnall
Paulding, the son of the latter, is a native of the State of
New York, where he was born in the year 1840.
In April, 1 861, at the outbreak of the Civil War, when
about twenty-one years of age, Mr. Paulding enlisted in
the ranks of the Seventh Regiment of New York, and
went with it into active service. He remained with that
regiment only until May 14 following, when he received
the appointment of lieutenant in the Sixth United States
Regular Cavalry, with which command he served through
the war, participating in the various memorable battles of
the Army of the Potomac. On the third day of the hotly-
contested battle of Gettysburg he was made prisoner by
the enemy, and passed nine months of bitter experience
in Libby prison, at Richmond. Upon his liberation he
rejoined his regiment and continued in active service
until July, 1866, when he resigned, having in the mean
time been promoted through the various grades up to
that of lieutenant-colonel, by brevet, for gallant services.
After leaving the army, Colonel Paulding located in
the city of Philadelphia, — his father being at that time
governor of the Naval Home in that city, — and entered
upon the study of the law, which he soon relinquished
in order to undertake more active business. In 1870 he
commenced the fire insurance business as an agent and
broker, becoming a member of the firm of Carstairs &
Paulding, then well-known fire underwriters in Phila
delphia. This firm subsequently became Carstairs, Pauld
ing & Beckwith. In 1871 he became the Philadelphia
agent and representative of the Commercial Union of
England, which then first extended its business to this
city, and subsequently of the London and Lancashire
Company of Liverpool, and other offices of high stand
ing at home and abroad. In all these companies Mr.
Paulding enjoyed the fullest confidence of the home
officers, and worked efficiently in the development of
their business. He was a particularly successful under
writer in the various fields assigned to his guidance by
his companies, his success arising alike from his practical
experience and from his close study of the principles of
the business, which made him thoroughly familiar with
its theory; in a word, he took pride in his profession
and worked therein with earnest energy and intelligence.
It was doubtless this devotion to and his evident

mastery of the science of his chosen profession, as well
as his sterling character and recognized ability, that
attracted to Colonel Paulding the attention of the di
rectors of the old Delaware Mutual Safety Insurance
Company, when in 1889-90 a radical change was con
templated, not only in the name but in the old-time
methods of business of that institution, and a competent
person was sought to carry the proposed changes to a
definite completion, and place the Delaware on an equality
with its confreres of the city in which it dwelt. Colonel
Paulding was selected as the man who could pilot the
company safely through its troubles, and the presidency
was tendered to and accepted by him. He at once
entered upon the onerous duties imposed by the high
position occupied by him, and the confidence of the
directors has been fully warranted by their newly-elected
president's devotion to the interests confided to his
keeping. A few words as to the early history of this sterling
old company will not be amiss. It was chartered in 1835
under the name of the Delaware County Insurance Com
pany, being then located in Chester, Pennsylvania. In
1838 it was removed to offices in the Merchants' Ex
change, of Philadelphia, and in 1843 its name was
changed to Delaware Mutual Safety Insurance Company,
it having adopted the mutual principle, under which the
profits, after paying dividends to stockholders, were to be
annually divided in scrip among the insured. In 1853,
the property on the southwest corner of Third and
Walnut Streets was purchased, and the present sub
stantial and commodious building erected thereon. The
company now bears the name of Delaware Insurance
Company. Under the able management of Colonel
Paulding we may safely predict for it an increased future
prosperity.

276

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

FREDERICK R. SMITH.
Frederick R. Smith, commander United States navy,
retired, was born at Wiscasset, Maine. Appointed from
Maine, September 24, 1858; Naval Academy 1858-61;
attached to steam-frigate " Colorado," flag-ship West
Gulf Blockading Squadron, 1861; relieved Fort Pickens;
boat expedition to Pensacola Navy- Yard to cut out the
rebel privateer " Judith," under the immediate command
of Captain T. Bailey, United States navy. Steamer " Flam
beau" as acting master and navigator, 1862; South
Atlantic Blockading Squadron, 1862-63; promoted to
lieutenant and ex-officer August 1, 1862; engagement
with Fort McAllister; boat expedition to Bull's Island,
South Carolina; present at Admiral Dupont's first fight
at Charleston, 1864; United States steam-sloop "Ticon-
deroga," flag-ship of Flying Squadron, West Indies;
Admiral Lardner served as flag-lieutenant and senior
watch-officer; executive officer steamer " Rhode Island,"
North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, 1864-65; both
attacks on Fort Fisher ; commanded detachment of sea
men in the land assault ; commanded landing party from
" Rhode Island," which, together with the men landed
from Her British Majesty's gun-boat " Lily" afforded pro
tection to the foreign merchants at Cape Haytien City
during the Selnam Revolution. Commissioned a lieu

tenant-commander, July 25, 1866; United States steamer
"Ashuelot" 1865-69; navigator while convoying the
ironclad " Miantonomah" across the Atlantic to Queens-
town, Ireland; did duty as navigator until arrival at
Hong-Kong, China, when made executive officer, and
finally commanded the " Ashuelot" until detached, 1869-
70; equipment duty Boston Navy- Yard, 1871 ; com
manded United States ironclad " Ajax" on voyage from
Key West, Florida, to League Island Navy- Yard, 1872;
executive officer United States flag-ship " Severn," North
Atlantic Squadron, 1871 ; executive officer United States
steamer " Iroquois," North Atlantic Station, reception
fleet Grand Duke Alexis, of Russia, 1872; ordnance
duty, navy-yard, Boston, 1873 ; inspector of ordnance
at Key West, 1874; executive officer United States
steamer " Lancaster," flag-ship South Atlantic Squadron,
1875; senior aide to Commander Cooper, commanding
navy-yard, Pensacola. Commissioned a commander,
April 6, 1875; commanding ironclad " Saugus" on
voyage from Pensacola to Port Royal, South Carolina.
A member of Watson's Post, No. 30, Grand Army of
the Republic.
Received the following letter from Admiral D. D.
Porter, United States navy.
Washington, D. C, February 3, 1875.
Sir,— Having applied to me for a letter stating what I know
about your services and your reputation as an officer, I take
pleasure in saying you served under my command on board the
United States steamer " Rhode Island," and was handsomely
mentioned by your commanding officer, Captain Trenchard, in
both attacks on Fort Fisher, in one of which you led a detachment
of men in the assault.
I also made a passage in the "Rhode Island" and had an
opportunity to witness the most excellent discipline that was
maintained throughout the ship, and have reason to know that
your services were always performed with ability. I believe that
your moral character is beyond reproach.
Very respectfully, DAVID D. PORTER, Admiral.
To Lieutenant-Commander F. R. Smith, U. S. N.,
Washington, D.C.
Respectfully submitted,
FREDERICK R. SMITH, Retired,
Commander, United States Navy.

MEN OF TLIE CENTURY.

277

ALFRED VAIL.
Alfred Vail was born at Morristown, New Jersey,
on the 25th day of September, 1807, his father being
Judge Stephen Vail, the proprietor of the Speedwell
Iron-Works (situated one mile north of Morristown),
afterwards famous as those in which was forged the shaft
of the " Savannah," the first steamship that crossed the
Atlantic, and, too, later, where were made the cranks,
tires, and axles of the first American locomotive.
After completing his boyhood schooling at the old
" Morris Academy," at Morristown, he became identified
with his father's business, in which, with his brother
George, he remained until he had attained his majority,
in compliance with his father's wish that his two sons
should fit themselves to succeed to the management of
his works.
Alfred Vail, from an early age, had a marked fondness
for study and investigation in matters relating to the
natural sciences, and his aspirations for a broader and
more systematic mental culture, and a higher degree of
attainment than was possible under the conditions sur
rounding him at the works, were with difficulty repressed.
Upon reaching his majority, his inclination for a more
appropriate field of labor could no longer be restrained,
and he determined to prepare himself for the ministry.
He went to the academy at Bloomfield, New Jersey, and
in 1832, at the age of twenty-five, entered the University
of the City of New York, from which he graduated in
October, 1836.
His health having become impaired by his long and
arduous application, and his physical condition pre
cluding the prosecution of his theological studies, he
was under much uncertainty as to his future course,
when, on the 2d of September, 1837, as one of the
group of spectators in the room of Professor S. F. B.
Morse, of the University Building, he saw for the first
time the apparatus devised by the latter to demonstrate
his idea of an electric telegraph.
The exhibition produced a profound effect upon the
mind of Alfred Vail (then about thirty, and fifteen years
the junior of Morse), his inherent and acquired knowl
edge of mechanics and construction convincing him that
it was possible to embody this grand conception in a
concrete form, and his mind formed a distinct conception
of the vast scope and future importance of the invention.
Finding that Morse was without the means to develop
his crude apparatus, Alfred Vail entered into a partner
ship agreement with him on September 23, 1837, by the
terms of which it was stipulated that Alfred Vail should
construct, at his own expense, and exhibit before a
Committee of Congress, " one of the telegraphs of the
plan and invention of Morse."
Both men soon went to Speedwell with the apparatus,
and Alfred Vail entered upon the fulfilment of his part of

the contract with zeal and enthusiasm, and soon finding
grave defects in Morse's system, thrust his apparatus
aside, and, alone and unaided, devised an entirely new
mechanism embracing all that constitutes the so-called
Morse Telegraph of this day, — viz., the Recording re
ceiver, the sending key, and the dot-and-dash alphabet,
all of which, by the terms of their contract, were pat
ented in the name of Morse.
Upon the passage of the bill appropriating thirty
thousand dollars to build an experimental line between
Washington and Baltimore, on March 3, 1843, Alfred
Vail was appointed " assistant superintendent of United
States Telegraphs," and became engaged in superintend
ing the construction of this line, which, being finished
to Baltimore, was inaugurated on May 24, 1844, by the
sending of the so-called " historic message," " What hath
God wrought ?" by Morse at Washington, and received
by Alfred Vail at Baltimore.
In 1845, Alfred Vail wrote and published the first
work upon the Electric Telegraph, which had a wide
sale in this and other countries, being translated into a
number of foreign languages.
Alfred Vail invented the first printing telegraph and
the original of the well-known Wall Street " ticker," in
which no changes have been made beyond those of form
of construction. He superintended the construction of
the line from Baltimore to New York, and was an officer
and director of the Magnetic Telegraph Company until
1850, when, having purchased a home in Morristown, he
retired there to enjoy his well-earned leisure.
His fondness for genealogical research turned his
attention to the history of the Vail family, and from that
time until his decease, on the 19th of January, 1859, his
time was devoted to this pursuit, the work, however, at
his death unfortunately being uncompleted.

278

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ALBERT BARNITZ.
Captain and Brevet Colonel Albert Barnitz,
United States army, was born at Everett, Bedford
County, Pennsylvania, March 10, 1835. At the breaking
out of the war of the Rebellion, he was pursuing the
study of law in the office of an eminent jurist at Minne
apolis, Minnesota, whither he had gone from Cleveland,
Ohio, after some preparatory study at Kenyon College,
and in a local law-school. But the importunate beating
of war-drums, and the startling cry " to arms !" caused
him to relinquish his cherished opportunities and to
hasten back to Cleveland, where, waiving all claims to
immediate preferment, he at once enlisted as a private
soldier in the Second Ohio Cavalry, then organizing on
University Heights, — but was later enrolled as a sergeant.
The regiment with which he was now associated had a
remarkable and altogether exceptional career. It served
in five different armies, under twenty-four generals, and
campaigned through thirteen States and the Indian Terri
tory ; fought in ninety-five battles and minor engage
ments, and marched an aggregate distance of twenty-
seven thousand miles.
Captain Barnitz, meanwhile, won his way, step by step,
to the rank of major, the command of the regiment,
however, devolved upon him at a critical time, while he
yet held the rank of captain, and throughout the entire
Appomattox campaign, wherein the regiment, under the
eye of Custer, and justifying his enthusiastic commenda
tion, habitually led the charge, or bore the brunt of onset,
in every desperate crisis ; and in the battles of Dinwiddie
Court-House, Five Forks, Sailor's Creek, and Appomat
tox Station, well sustained its old-time prestige, and
fought with even more than its accustomed valor; crown-

ing its achievements by the spirited repulse at Appomattox
Court-House of the attempted sortie of a Confederate
cavalry brigade, while efforts towards capitulation were
in progress.
It is historically stated that " from the 27th of March
to the surrender of Lee (Colonel Barnitz being meanwhile
in command) the Second captured and turned over to
the provost-marshal eighteen pieces of artillery, one
hundred and eighty horses, seventy army wagons, nine
hundred prisoners, and small arms not counted."
Upon the reorganization of the army, in 1866, Colonel
Barnitz was commissioned captain of G Troop, Seventh
United States Cavalry, and subsequently brevetted major,
lieutenant-colonel, and colonel in the regular army.
He served with the Seventh Cavalry, and in command
of his troop and detachments, on independent scouts and
other expeditions, in Indian campaigns in Kansas, Colo
rado, Texas, and the Indian Territory ; marching many
thousand miles, and participating in numerous engage
ments with the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Apaches, Kiowas,
Comanches, and Sioux. He was with General Hancock's
expedition on the Plains, in the spring of 1867, and par
ticipated in the seizure and destruction of the Cheyenne
village. He was with General Sully in pursuit of the
hostile tribes to the border of the Staked Plains, and
in attendant engagements in 1868. He accompanied
General Custer on the toilsome campaign, through bliz
zards and trackless snow, which culminated at the battle of
Washita, Indian Territory, November 27, 1868, in which
engagement Colonel Barnitz, at daybreak, led the attack
from below the village, and later, while separated from
his command, in an effort to head off a large party of
Indians escaping to their ponies, killed, in a hand-to-hand
encounter, three warriors, by one of whom he had been
previously shot through the body, just below the heart,
— the wound being pronounced mortal, at the time, by
the surgeons present. The colonel was twice seriously
wounded during the war of the Rebellion. He was
retired from active service December 15, 1870, and
makes his occasional home at Cleveland, Ohio. He was
admitted to the bar in 188 1, but has never engaged in
active practice of the law, as he prefers to travel with his
family, and meanwhile writes occasional letters for the
Cleveland Leader. He has gained some celebrity as a
poet, having written several war-poems of remarkable
vigor, and others not less meritorious. His graphic war
correspondence for the Cincinnati Commercial, over the
signature "A. B.," is still favorably remembered.
Colonel Barnitz is a son of Dr. Martin E. Barnitz and
Martha McClintic, of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, who
emigrated to Ohio in 1835. He is also a grandson of
Captain John McClintic, renowned in the War of 1812.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

279

DAVID B. MACOMB.
Chief-Engineer David B. Macomb, United States
navy, was born near Tallahasse, Florida, February 27,
1827. He was appointed third assistant-engineer in the
navy, January 11, 1849, from Pennsylvania. His first
duty was in the office of the engineer-in-chief, Navy
Department, Washington, D. C, 1849-50; coast-survey
steamer "Bibb" 1850-51; promoted to second assist
ant-engineer, February 26, 185 1, remaining attached to
the coast-surveying steamer " Bibb," as her senior engi
neer, until December, 1852, and was then ordered to the
steamer " John Hancock," attached to the squadron of
the United States Exploring Expedition to the North
Pacific Ocean, China and Japan Seas, under Acting Com
modore Cadwalader Ringgold, United States navy, which
acted in conjunction with Commodore M. C. Perry,
United States navy, in concluding the treaty of amity
and commerce with Japan, 1853-55; promoted to first
assistant-engineeer June 26, 1856, and ordered to the
steam-frigate " Wabash," flag-ship of Commodore Pauld
ing, United States navy, commanding the Home Squad
ron, 1856-57; ordered to duty on frigate "Saranac,"
attached to the Pacific Squadron, 1858-59; promoted to
chief-engineer September 21, i860; ordered to the steam-
frigate " Niagara," which conveyed the Japanese ambas
sadors back to Jeddo, now Tokio, Japan, i860. Re
turned to Boston April 23, 1861, and then first learned
that Fort Sumter had been fired upon and surrendered
to the South Carolina State forces, and that several other
States had seceded from the Union. The " Niagara" was
immediately ordered to the New York Navy- Yard, and,
after taking on board some fresh stores and outfits, she
left New York May 3, 1861, for blockade duty off
Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia,
being the first war-vessel ordered on that service. The
" Niagara," being the flag-ship of Flag-Officer William
W. McKean, was the leading vessel in the bombardment
and reduction of Fort McRae and Pensacola Navy- Yard,
October, 1861, detached from the "Niagara," February
23, 1862, and March 9, 1862, ordered to special duty in
superintending the building and fitting out of the iron
clad monitors " Nahant," " Nantucket," and " Canonicus,"
1862-63, ar]d upon the completion of the latter vessel
was ordered as her chief-engineer; and in May, 1863,
she was sent to Norfolk, Virginia, to join the James
River fleet of ironclads and gun-boats, and North
Atlantic Blockading Squadron, under Acting Rear-Ad
miral S. P. Lee, United States navy, 1863-64. The
"Canonicus" was at the reduction of " Houlett's House"
batteries, June 21, 1864; and at battles of Dutch Gap
and Deep Bottom, August 13, 1864; and before Fort
Fisher December 23 and 25, 1864; and at the final
reduction and surrender of that place January 13-15,
1865 ; and immediately after the surrender (that night)

the " Canonicus" and " Monadnock" were ordered off
Charleston, South Carolina, to assist in the blockade of
that place, and participated in the bombardment and
occupation of Charleston by the Union forces February
18, 1865, the " Canonicus" throwing the last hostile shot
at the retreating rebels on Sullivan's Island in the early
morn of that day. After the evacuation the " Canoni
cus" was sent in pursuit of the rebel ironclad and ram
" Stonewall," and went to Havana, Cuba, in company
with other vessels of that squadron, Commodore Sylvan us
W. Gorden, commanding; the "Canonicus" being the
first American ironclad to enter a foreign port. The
" Canonicus" returned to the United States June 26,
1865 ; inspection duty in laying up the ironclads at
League Island, Philadelphia, and of government works
and machinery at Baltimore, Maryland, 1865-66; duty
at navy-yard, Pensacola, Florida, 1866-67; ar>d at navy-
yard, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 1868-70; steam-
frigate " Tennessee," having on board the United States
commissioners sent by President Grant to San Domingo,
1871 ; fleet-engineer of the North Atlantic Fleet, 1871-
73; again at navy-yard, Portsmouth, N. H., 1879-82;
president of the board organized under act of Congress,
August 5, 1882, for survey and appraisal of the great
amount of accumulated stores and material during and
since the war, 1882-83 ; on duty at the navy-yard, Boston,
Mass., 1884-89. Retired February 27, 1889, with the
relative rank of commodore, having arrived at the age of
sixty- two and served forty years and over in active service.
Commodore Macomb resides in North Cambridge,
Mass., where, in the society of his wife, daughters, and
grandchildren, and with his books and papers, he enjoys
the remainder of a life spent in the service of his country.
Chief-Engineer Macomb made and applied the first
fresh-water maker in any vessel of the United States navy.

28o

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

CHARLES B. FOSDICK.
Charles B. Fosdick, a " veteran in the leather trade
of the United States," was born in the city of New
York, August 31, 1824. He comes from an old Amer
ican family, being descended from one of the former
Huguenot settlers of New York. His school education
was completed in early life, and at the age of twelve he
began his experience in business life, and shortly after
wards was launched upon a commercial and manufactur
ing career, which was continued without interruption to
the present time.
His enterprise led in the direction of the tanning and
leather business, upon which he entered forty-five years
ago in the famous " Swamp" district of New York, and
with which he has been steadily connected since. Those
concerned in this line of business have gained a reputa
tion among New York business men for caution and
conservatism in their methods. These useful business
qualities have been particularly displayed by Mr. Fos
dick, and the confidence and esteem in which he is
held by his fellow-tradesmen is evidenced by the fact
that, on the organization of the Hide and Leather
National Bank, in 1891, he was at once chosen as its
president. The stock of this institution, which has a
capital of five hundred thousand dollars, is chiefly held
by a number of prominent members of the hide and
leather trade, — each man's holding being limited to fifty

shares. It became exceptionally prosperous under Mr.
Fosdick's direction, acquiring a large and profitable
volume of business in the few years during which he
remained at its head: He became also a director in
several other banking institutions, such as the Hamilton
Bank and the Second National Bank. Of the last-
named bank he was elected president in July, 1894,
having resigned his presidency of the Hide and Leather
Bank the previous month. This position he still retains.
He is also a director of the Oregon Railway and Navi
gation Company and of various other business corpo
rations. Mr. Fosdick has been for years a prominent citizen
of New York, taking part in movements for the better
ment of municipal affairs, and is particularly notable for
his long-continued and useful service upon the Grand
Jury of that city. In connection with the last-named
service, the following quotation will be of interest:
"There is no man in New York who has served so
often upon the Grand Jury as he has; and, owing to
his thorough mastery of everything relating to the work
of that august tribunal — the ' Palladium of Liberty,' as
Horace Greeley designated it — Mr. Fosdick is invariably
made foreman, and the presentments upon matters of
great public moment are usually drawn up and read
by him in open court. Many of the suggestions that
he has made from time to time in his official capacity
have afterwards been embodied in the laws and statutes
of this commonwealth."
This eulogium is well deserved. Mr. Fosdick was
first made foreman of the Grand Jury of New York City
ten years ago, and since then he has held this position
in every succeeding session of that body. He occupied
the chair as foreman on the occasion of the indictment
of the " boodle" aldermen, and also on that of the
investigation of the case of Sheriff Flack. These are
but two out of numerous important matters with which
he has been called upon to deal.
Mr. Fosdick also served as a commissioner of lunacy
in the celebrated Stephanie murder case. A previous
commission had found Stephanie insane ; but that in
which he acted reversed this decision and pronounced
the culprit sane. The report of this second commission
was received and accepted by the court, and in conse
quence thereof Stephanie was put on trial, convicted of
murder, and sentenced to State's prison for life.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

281

WILLIAM STONE WOODS.
Dr. William Stone Woods, the well-known president
of the National Bank of Commerce, Kansas City, Mis
souri, was born at Columbia, in that State, November 1 ,
1840, being a son of James Harris Woods, of Madison
County, Kentucky. Dr. Woods, after a preliminary train
ing, entered the Missouri State University, from which
he graduated in 1861. He afterwards entered upon the
study of medicine, studying at first in the St, Louis
Medical College, and afterwards in the Jefferson Medical
College of Philadelphia, from which he graduated in
1864. Returning to Missouri, he practised medicine for
several years in Monroe County, of that State. He
then, for a year, conducted a drug-store in Paris, a town
of the same county. His next enterprise was in a
different line of business, but one which he correctly
judged would be profitable. He established a wholesale
grocery business at the terminal of the Union Pacific
Railroad, which he moved westward, keeping pace with
the progress of the road, until he reached Salt Lake
City. The undertaking proved successful.
Dr. Woods next made his way to Rocheport, Boone
County, Missouri, and established there in 1869 the
Rocheport Savings Bank. This was a business for
which he was specially fitted by nature, as his later
career has abundantly demonstrated. His careful and
conservative, yet progressive, policy, and his honorable
dealings have won him general confidence and patron
age in his several financial enterprises. The Rocheport
institution, under his careful and capable management,
became one of the most successful banks in that part of
the State, and was in a flourishing condition when he left
it, in 1880.
In the last-named year Dr. Woods removed to Kansas
City, where he became a member of the firm of Grimes,
Woods, La Force & Co., then the largest wholesale dry-
goods establishment in that city. During his first two
years of connection with this house he served as manager
of its extensive business. This firm is now known as
the Sanford Brothers Dry-Goods Company. Dr. Woods
did not long remain actively concerned in its business.
His tastes led him towards financial operations, and six
months after his arrival in Kansas City he bought out
Mr. Powell, the president of the Kansas City Savings
Association, and succeeded him in the presidency, taking
charge of the bank in 1882. His attention, however,
has by no means been confined to banking, he having
become extensively interested in other enterprises. In
connection with his brother, James M. Woods, he was
for a time largely engaged in the cattle trade in the

black hills of Dakota. His brother, who was a practical
stockman, managed the enterprise, in which government
contracts were taken to supply beef to the forts and the
Indians. After about eight years profitable connection
with this enterprise, Dr. Woods sold out his interest to
his brother in 1882. He, with E. L. Martin and others,
owned a tract of coal-lands in Missouri, as an outlet for
which a railroad was built. Gradually, as railroad facili
ties were demanded in other directions, this road was
extended, and has now assumed important proportions
as the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad. Dr.
Woods is a large stockholder in this road.
In 1882 the Kansas City Savings Association changed
its name to the Bank of Commerce, which in 1887 be
came the National Bank of Commerce, the capital being
increased from an original one hundred thousand dollars
to one million dollars. Dr. Woods has continued at its
head as president, and under his management it has
grown to be one of the leading banking institutions of
the West. Quiet and reserved in manner, he is a man
of great force of character and marked business talent,
with a generous spirit, which is shown in his establishing
in business a number of young men, reared under his
direction. He is in this way interested in a number of
banking firms. He is also extensively interested in real
estate. Dr. Woods married, in 1866, Bina McBride. They
have one daughter, Julia, who is married to Arthur
Grissom, a Kansas City literary man. In politics the
doctor is a Democrat. In manner he is cordial and
genial, his principal recreation is in fishing, to which
sport he is devoted, and in which he spends a portion of
each summer.

36

282

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

LEHMAN P. ASHMEAD.
Lehman P. Ashmead was born in Philadelphia, near
old St. Peter's Church, Third and Pine Streets. His
ancestors were men of strong bodies and vigorous minds,
and passed their lives in useful activity. He inherits the
strong family constitution. John Ashmead, the pioneer
of the family, came from Cheltenham, England, in 1682,
settling at Germantown, a few months before the arrival
of William Penn. Both Mr. Ashmead's great-grand
fathers were Revolutionary officers, — Captain John Ash
mead, a noted seaman who made one hundred voyages
to all parts of the world between the years 1758-80, and
in 1779 commanded the Congress navy brig " Eagle," of
ten guns, and successfully landed on the Delaware, from
the West Indies, a cargo of much needed gunpowder to
supply the Continental troops ; and Surgeon George
Lehman, who was with the army at Valley Forge ; both
were subsequently captured at sea and confined in Dart
moor Prison, England.
The subject of this sketch was under private instruction
until the age of fourteen years, and then took a position
in the old American Sunday-School Union, Philadelphia,
where he remained two years, when he was transferred
to more responsible duties with the old Philadelphia,
Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company, of which
his brother, the late W. L Ashmead, was superintendent.
October 19, 1841, President Tyler appointed him mid
shipman in the United States navy, was six months on
the 74-gun ship " North Carolina" at New York, and then
to the frigate " Congress" (on which ship the late Admiral
Porter was junior lieutenant) on her first three years'
cruise to the Mediterranean and Brazil stations. In
August, 1843, he made a visit to Jerusalem and the
Holy Land, at a period when travel in that section was
attended with great peril. He continued in the " Con

gress" till the end of her cruise, and subsequently was
attached to the United States steamer " Princeton" and
frigate " Cumberland." While in the service, his record
was of the highest grade. In 1846 he married, in New
Bedford, Massachusetts, the only daughter of James H.
Howland, whose lineal ancestor was a Pilgrim of the
" Mayflower" in 1620, who outlived all the other Pilgrims
landing from that famous vessel. Mr. Ashmead resided
in New Bedford about fifteen years, having resigned hon
orably from the navy. He engaged largely in whaling
and developing enterprises, was a member of City Coun
cils and prominent in the front ranks of the citizens of
that place. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he went
to West Virginia to take possession of a valuable coal
property in which he was interested with other Northern
owners, shipping coal down the river to Southern cities.
Here, although surrounded by disloyal men who were
his personal friends, his patriotism was not in the least
affected, their influence failing to swerve him from his
sense of duty in the cause of the Union. He escaped
many risks of his life and confinement in Libby prison.
He could have resumed his position in the navy, and
did offer his services, but his personal attention was im
peratively demanded in efforts to protect the property.
When in Philadelphia, in 1862, he was active in organizing
a three years' regiment for the war, volunteering himself,
and marched in the ranks of the Gray Reserves to the
battle-ground of Antietam. His two sons at the Penn
sylvania Military Academy — fourteen and sixteen years
of age — also went with the battery when General Stuart
invaded Carlisle. His eldest boy subsequently enlisted
in a three years' regiment. At the close of the war, Mr.
Ashmead went to Virginia and organized the Richmond
Granite Company, employing a large number of men, and
making the first introduction of Virginia granite to the
Philadelphia market. The pedestal of the marble statue
of Washington in front of Independence Hall he had cut
and finished at the quarries by Virginia stone-dressers
(ex-Confederate soldiers). In 1868, President Johnson
appointed him Naval Officer of Philadelphia, but the
Senate during that Congress failed to confirm any ofthe
President's appointments. Mr. Ashmead was one of the
earnest, constant members of the Executive Committee
of the first Citizens' Municipal Reform Association of
Philadelphia, and out of which grew the Committee of
One Hundred, since carrying on the work of reform.
In 1888 he took an active part in having established
a Refuge Station for shipwrecked whalemen at Point
Barrow, Arctic Ocean. It is a trait of Mr. Ashmead to
be prominent in all he undertakes, not for applause, but
rather from an innate positive force of character. • Pos
sessing a firm spirit, with genial, amiable disposition, he
merits and has the esteem and confidence of his many
friends both at home and abroad.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

283

HON. SAMUEL SLOAN.
Hon. Samuel Sloan, president of the Lackawanna and
Western Railroad, was born December 25, 18 17, in the
village of Lisburn, County Down, one of the north
eastern counties of Ireland, seven miles from the city of
Belfast. His ancestors were of the Scotch Presbyterian
faith, and blended the hardihood of the Scotch with the
acuteness of the Irish race. In 1798 some of them
emigrated to America and settled in Kentucky, wdiere
they prospered. Twenty years later William Sloan,
Samuel's father, came to New York, when the latter was
but two years of age. Mr. Sloan was soon admitted into
the old established house of William Crowley, in Water
Street, which was extensively engaged in the Bristol
trade. In his youth Samuel became a pupil in the
first New York public school, No. I. He subsequently
entered the Columbia College grammar school. He
was an apt pupil. At fifteen years of age his chances
of acquiring an advanced education were suddenly ter
minated by the sudden death of his father. At that
early age he was compelled to face the world unaided
and with others, in a great measure, dependent upon
him. He was at once taken into the Irish importing
house of McBride & Co. In this employment, as a
junior clerk, young Sloan soon acquired a reputation for
sagacity, faithfulness, integrity, and general aptitude for
business, which served to greatly advance him. His
connection with this house lasted nearly twenty-five
years. On April 8, 1844, Mr. Sloan married Miss Margaret
Elmendorf, of Somerville, New Jersey, a daughter of
one of the oldest and most prominent families of that
State, and took up his residence in Brooklyn, where he
resided for a number of years. He was elected to the
State Senate of New York State in 1857, and in 1859
was elected a director of the Hudson River Railroad,
and in the following February was elected its president.
He retired from the same in January, 1864, and was soon
after elected a director of the Delaware, Lackawanna
and Western Railroad, and was elected president of the
system in 1867. Under his management the road rapidly
developed, and by leases and construction it reached tide
water over the Morris and Essex Railroad, Lake Ontario
by the Syracuse, Binghamton and New York, and the
Oswego and Syracuse Railroads, Utica and Richfield
Springs by the Utica, Chenango and Susquehanna Rail

road, and Buffalo in 1882 over the new line, the New
York, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, thus forming
a complete system draining the great Pennsylvania coal
region to the north, west, and tide-water, and making
another line for freight traffic between the great lakes
and the seaboard. The road has steadily grown in size
and importance until now it has nine hundred and one
miles of road and two thousand one hundred and twelve
miles of track, leased and operated.
It was mainly through the efforts of Mr. Sloan that
the great Bergen Tunnel was built. At the beginning
of the war, while president of the Hudson River Rail
road, Mr. Sloan was an active member of the Union
Defence Committee of the city of New York. This
committee was intrusted by the city authorities with the
expenditure of one million dollars, advanced, to promptly
equip and forward troops to the front. This committee
was an element of great strength to the United States
government, and was so recognized throughout the
country. Mr. Sloan is essentially an American; he is
the product of our American institutions, and one of a
class of men that can only be produced on American
soil. In 1894, Mr. Sloan celebrated his golden wedding,
an event which awakened great interest among his hosts
of friends, receiving congratulations from all over the
land. His long life has been one of devotion to duty,
and, making use of his opportunities, he has amassed a
fortune by his pluck and determined will.

284

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

CYRUS NEWLIN PEIRCE, D.D.S.
Cyrus Newlin Peirce was born in Byberry, Philadel
phia, March 5, 1829, his father, Cyrus Peirce, being for
merly of Chester County, Pennsylvania, and his mother,
Ruth S. Peirce, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The
family descended originally from the Percys of England,
and were noted for longevity, there having been more than
one centenarian among them. Mr. Peirce received his
preliminary education in the public schools of Byberry,
and afterwards worked on his father's farm until twenty-
one years of age, when he resolved to carry out a long-
cherished intention of obtaining a more liberal educa
tion. For this purpose he entered the New York Central
College, at Cortland, New York, an institution which was
one of the first to adopt the manual labor system, offer
ing to poor students an opportunity to support them
selves by their own labor while acquiring a collegiate

education. There was a farm attached to the college
for this purpose, on which the ambitious young student
worked for fourteen months, dividing his time between
labor and study. At the end of this time he was seized
with a severe attack of typhoid fever, and returned to
Philadelphia as soon as able to travel.
When convalescent, Mr. Peirce, having decided to pre
pare himself for the profession of dentistry, entered the
office of Dr. F. M. Dixon as a student, associating med
icine with dentistry in his studies. He continued here
for two years, attending lectures at the Pennsylvania
Dental College, while gaining practical experience in Dr.
Dixon's office. He graduated in 1854, and immediately
began the practice of the profession, in which he became
very successful, attaining, and still holding, an eminent
position as a dentist.
In 1858 Dr. Peirce was elected to the chair of Oper
ative Dentistry and Dental Physics in the Pennsylvania
College of Dental Surgery, a professorship which he
retained till 1865, and to which was added in i860 the
post of dean of the college. In 1865 he resigned both
these positions, and since then has held no official posi
tion other than that of Lecturer on Dental Surgery at
the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, these
lectures being established as part of the general medical
course of the institution.
Dr. Peirce was married, in 1857, to Miss Charlotte
Woodward, of Auburn, New York, to whose faithful aid
and co-operation he attributes much of his success in
life. For many years he has taken an active interest in
general reform and charitable movements, both in social
and religious matters, and for some years has been pres
ident of the Society for Ethical Culture of Philadelphia.
He is also much interested in science, and has long been
a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phil
adelphia, of whose council he is at present a member.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

285

AMZI LORENZO BARBER.
Amzi Lorenzo Barber was born at Saxton's River, Windham
County, Vermont, on June 22, 1843, the son of the Rev. Amzi D.
Barber, a self-educated Congregational clergyman of great strength
of character, who when a student at Lane Theological Seminary,
Cincinnati, left that institution because the faculty had prohibited
the discussion of the slavery question, and walked across Ohio to
Oberlin, where he entered Oberlin College. He is still engaged
in ministerial work at Castalia, Ohio, though eighty-five years of
age. He was of Scotch-Irish, and his wife of French-English,
descent, so their son inherited the characteristics of four nations.
The family moved to Ohio in 1852, in which State Mr. Barber
attended various schools, including the High School of Cleveland,
and in 1862 entered Oberlin College at the head of his class in the
preparatory department. An attack of pneumonia forced him to
leave college for a year, which he spent in the wilds of Northern
Michigan. Returning to his studies, he graduated in 1867 as
Bachelor of Arts, subsequently receiving from his Alma Mater the
degree of Master of Arts. To meet the expenses of his college
course he had worked on farms in the summer and taught school in
the winter season. While pursuing a post-graduate course in the
Theological Department of Oberlin College he was invited by
General O. O. Howard, then at the head of the Freedmen's Bureau,
to take charge of the normal department of Harvard University,
and entered upon that duty, at Washington, in April, 1868. He
subsequently took charge of the preparatory department, and was
afterwards elected professor of Natural History, which he resigned
in 1872, and engaged in the real estate business in Washington.
In the succeeding year, 1873, came the great business panic,
producing a marked depression in prices which continued for
several years, and seriously affected real estate. Many people
engaged in this business lost heavily, but Mr. Barber, who held on
to his investments, ultimately sold out at a handsome profit. His
success in this field of enterprise led him into a new line of opera
tions. Forced by his landed investments to appreciate the value
of good streets, he perceived the excellent adaptability of the
asphalt pavement to the city of Washington, and in 1878 he
engaged in this business, one which he has since then actively
continued to the immense advantage of the National Capital and
other cities. In the years that succeeded his first efforts in this
direction Mr. Barber laid this new material on many miles of
Washington streets, and, as the demand for asphalt paving grew,
he extended his operations to other cities. By 1883 his business
had grown so extensive that he found it necessary to incorporate
the Barber Asphalt Paving Company, in order to systematize the
work and efficiently carry out his many contracts. During the
four years from 1882 to 1886 he averaged one thousand miles of
railroad travel weekly, one-third of his nights being passed in
Pullman sleeping cars. He estimates that he has travelled four
hundred thousand miles (including eighty thousand miles of ocean
travel) in establishing the business of which he is the head.
In 1887, Mr. Barber, desirous of obtaining an ample supply of
the best raw material, leased from the government of Great Britain
the celebrated asphalt lake of the island of Trinidad for a period
of forty-two years. This lake, one hundred and fourteen acres in
area, contains an almost inexhaustible supply of this useful mate
rial. To operate this concession, the Trinidad Asphalt Company
was organized in 1888. Mr. Barber is the leading stockholder,
director, and officer of the two corporations named, whose capital
and surplus now aggregated nearly $7, 000,000. Down to the
present time there have been laid more than twenty million yards,

or over one thousand miles of Trinidad asphalt pavement, in eighty
cities of the United States, at a total cost of more than $60,000,000.
For this work the Trinidad Asphalt Company has supplied nearly
all the material, more than half of which has been laid by the
Barber Asphalt Paving Company, the material for the remainder
having been supplied by Mr. Barber to some thirty different paving
firms. The pavement thus laid is to-day recognized as the standard
pavement of the United States, and companies are being formed
for the purpose of introducing it into foreign countries.
Mr. Barber was married in 1868 to Celia M. Bradley, of Geneva,
Ohio, who died in 1870. In 1871 he married Julia Louise Langdon,
daughter of J. Le Droict Langdon, formerly of Belmont, New York.
In 1875-76 he took the course of lectures in the Law Department
of Columbian University of Washington. He was subsequently
admitted to the bar, but has never entered into regular practice.
He has long served as one of the trustees of Oberlin College. He
was a director of the Citizens' National Bank of Washington and
of the Washington Loan and Trust Company, but was forced to
retire from both of these through the demands of his own business.
He is a member of many scientific and social organizations,
including various clubs and other institutions of New York City,
the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Society of Arts, in
London, and the Royal Thames Yacht Club of London. Yachting
is his favorite pastime, and for several years past he has lived with
his family during much of the summer season in his steam yacht,
visiting the many places of interest along the Atlantic coast. In
the winter of 1893-94 he made a yachting trip through the Medi
terranean, visiting its principal points from Gibraltar to Palestine.
In 1880, Mr. Barber, in association with Senator Sherman and
others, purchased the Stone property, of 1 20 acres, on the outskirts
of Washington. Under his management the sale of this land
was remarkably successful and yielded large profits. He reserved
the choicest part of this property for his own use, and built on
it the handsome mansion known as "Belmont," the permanent
home of the family. His library and picture gallery here contain
many rare and choice works of art. His summer residence is
"Ardsley Tower," at Irvington, on the Hudson, and he has also
recently purchased the Robert L. Stuart mansion, on Fifth Avenue,
at Sixty-eighth Street, New York, where the family will hereafter
spend part of the winter of each year.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

NICHOLAS ROWE, M.D.
Dr. Nicholas Rowe, well known among the lovers
of field sports as the editor of the American Field, a
favorite organ of the sporting fraternity, was born in the
island of Barbadoes, March 10, 1842, his father being an
English clergyman, stationed there in charge of a mission
of the Episcopal Church. After spending his early
years in this island, he came to Brooklyn, New York,
where he studied medicine and graduated as an aurist.
His inclinations, however, led him more strongly in the
direction of field sports, towards which he had a warm
predilection, and he soon gave up the profession of
medicine to enter that of sporting journalism.
Dr. Rowe's work in this field began with contributions
to Turf, Field, and Farm, Wilkes's Spirit of the Times,
and Rod and Gun, under the nom de plume of " Mohawk,"
which pseudonyme made him a favorite with sportsmen,
and a terror to all who were recreant to the honor of
true sportsmanship. On March 4, 1876, he assumed the
editorial management of the journal then known as the
Chicago Field, making Chicago his place of residence
during the remainder of his life. This paper, devoted to
sporting interests, was then young and struggling, having
attained no great share of public favor. But Dr. Rowe
had not long assumed its editorial chair before it became
evident that new life had been infused in the sheet, and
it began, a rapid growth in circulation, making its way
quickly to the front rank of sportsmen's journals. Its
vigorous, fearless, honest, and critical editorials attracted
attention throughout the land, and its perusal soon
became a necessity to every genuine American lover of
field sports. So great had its circulation become by

1 88 1 that Dr. Rowe, on July 2 of that year, changed its
name to the American Field, as more in accordance with
the position of a paper that had readers in every State
of the Union. He also organized a stock company, the
American Field Publishing Company, in which he be
came the editor and manager of the much enlarged and
improved sheet.
The influence and activity of the editor of the Field
were such as eventually to give it a circulation in all
English-speaking countries, while it became a power in
all movements of progression in sportsmanship. Laws
for the protection of game and fish were enacted, prose
cution of offenders rigidly pushed, and the world of
sport advanced in a hundred ways, and this largely
through the incessant advocacy of all measures of reform
and advancement by the indefatigable editor of the
Field. On March 11, 1876, Dr. Rowe inaugurated a regular
system of correct kennel registrations, and in 1878
published the first volume of the " National American
Kennel Stud Book." Other volumes of this have been
issued from time to time by the American Kennel Com
pany, until now there are eleven volumes, the later ones
being- entitled " American Kennel Club Stud Book."
He continued through life strongly interested in the
kennel interests of this country, and from 1872 to 1874
imported many dogs from England, believing that their
blood was far superior to that of the native strain. From
these numerous fine dogs have been bred. Among the
celebrated litters bred by him was the Cambridge, — Dido
II. litter, one of which, Dad Wilson, sold for one thou
sand dollars. He took an active part in starting one of
the first bench shows in America, at Mineola, Long
Island, New York, in 1874, and continued ever afterwards
a stanch supporter of bench shows.
Dr. Rowe was an active member of many sportsman's
clubs, and acted as president, director, or committee
member of many such associations, being president at
the time of his death of the United States Field Trial
Club, the Continental Field Trial Club, and the Ameri
can Coursing Club. He was stricken with locomotor
ataxia in 1893, which was followed by Bright's disease,
and during the succeeding years he suffered greatly,
though benefited by a period spent in Texas and Cali
fornia. He returned to Chicago in the autumn of 1895,
and died there March 10, 1896, on his fifty-fourth birth
day. The character of Dr. Rowe was marked by
courtesy, generosity, and charitable warmth of heart.
No appeal for assistance was ever made to him in vain,
though he had an iron will in support of what he viewed
as the right.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

287

AUGUSTUS P. CLARKE, M.D.
The subject of this sketch comes from a prominent
American family, being in the eighth generation of
descent from Joseph and Alice Clarke, members of the
Dorchester Company who came from Plymouth, Eng
land, in 1630. The family was one of great antiquity
in England, and can be traced back to Nicholas Drury,
who served under John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster,
in the Spanish expedition of 1386. Dr. Clarke's great
grandfather, Ichabod Clarke, was a captain in the Revo
lutionary War, and his grandfather, Edward Clarke,
served in the War of 1812. His mother, Fanny Peck
Clarke, was descended from John Peck, who came to
Hingham, Mass., in 1638, and was of an old Yorkshire
family. Her father served in the War ofthe Revolution.
Augustus Peck Clarke was born at Pawtucket, Rhode
Island, September 24, 1833, prepared for college in the
University Grammar School, of Providence, entered
Brown University, and graduated with the degree of
Master of Arts, in 1861. While still in college he
began the study of medicine under the eminent surgeon
Dr. L. L. Miller, of Providence, and in 1862 graduated
as Medical Doctor from the Harvard Medical School.
In August, 1861, Dr. Clarke entered the army as assist
ant surgeon ofthe Sixth New York Cavalry, and as such
served in the Peninsula campaign of 1862, being at the
siege of Yorktown and in several of the seven days' battles
before Richmond. He was taken prisoner at the battle of
Savage's Station, but was permitted to continue his pro
fessional services, and remained with the wounded until
all were exchanged. He was promoted surgeon of the
Sixth Cavalry, May 5, 1863, and served with it in all the
operations of that year. At the beginning of Grant's
campaign of 1864, he was made surgeon-in-chief of the
Second Brigade of the First Cavalry Division, and was
subsequently promoted surgeon-in-chief of this division.
As such he was actively engaged in all the movements
conducted by General Sheridan, and continued his labors
until the division was disbanded, July 1, 1865. During
his long service he participated in more than eighty-two
engagements, was frequently complimented in reports,
and was recommended for brevet lieutenant-colonel and
colonel " for faithful and meritorious conduct during the
eventful term of his service."
The war ended, Dr. Clarke went abroad, and studied
in the medical schools and hospitals of Lturope, devoting
himself particularly to obstetrics, gynaecology, and sur
gery. On his return, in 1866, he entered upon practice in
Cambridge, Mass., where he quickly gained a reputation
as an able practitioner, which has steadily grown since.
While enjoying this high reputation in general practice,
he is especially distinguished for his skill in surgery and
gynaecology, and was one of the earliest advocates of
the use of antiseptic treatment in surgical operations.

Dr. Clarke is a member of the Massachusetts Medical
Society, and has been one of its councillors. He is a
member of the American Academy of Medicine, the
American Medical Association, and the American Asso
ciation of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and served
as president of the Gynaecological Society of Boston, in
1891-92, and vice-president of the Pan-American Medi
cal Congress in 1893, and of the American Medical
Association in 1895-96. He was a member of the
Ninth International Medical Congress, Washington,
1887; of the Tenth, Berlin, 1890; of the Eleventh,
Rome, 1894; and is a member of the Twelfth, to be
held in Moscow, Russia, in 1897. He has served as a
delegate to other foreign medical bodies, and is con
nected with other home medical associations, and is also
a member of the Loyal Legion of the United States,
and of its board of officers of 1894-96.
Dr. Clarke has made important researches in gynae
cology and abdominal surgery, and has contributed to
the press and to medical societies and journals a large
number of learned papers on these subjects. He is also
the author of a volume of poems, issued in 1896, and of
" Clarke's Kindred Genealogies," now in press.
He has been consulting physician to the Middlesex
Dispensary since 1892, Professor of Gynaecology and
Abdominal Surgery in the College of Physicians and
Surgeons of Boston since 1893, and dean of the faculty
since 1894. Pie has served also as president of the
Cambridge Art Circle, a member of the Cambridge City
Council and alderman, and belongs to various clubs and
fraternal and other associations. He was married in
1 86 1 to Miss Mary H. Gray, author and poet, daughter
of the late Gideon Gray, and has two daughters, Inez
Louise, Bachelor of Arts, of Harvard Annex, and Gene
vieve, who is now pursuing the study of medicine.

288

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

""WiKJHBl

JOHN B. STETSON.
John Balleson Stetson, hat manufacturer of Phila
delphia, was born in Orange, New Jersey, May 5, 1830.
His father was a hatter, and he learned that trade in his
father's workshop, continuing to follow it, in that section
of the country, until 1865, when he came to Philadelphia
with the hope of finding there better opportunities for
business progress. Up to that time he had collected no
capital, and began business in this city in January, 1865,
with only industry and energy to sustain him. His first
shop was in a small room at Seventh and Callowhill
Streets, where he made and delivered most of his own
work. He began with repairing, but, having gained a
reputation for honest and tasteful work, was soon able
to manufacture hats, taking care that nothing not of
sterling quality should leave his shop.
In 1866, Mr. Stetson moved to Fourth Street above
Chestnut Street, and there progressed so well that his
goods were soon in wide demand, and he was obliged,
year after year, to increase the dimensions of his estab
lishment. In 1869 he began to employ travelling sales
men, his business previously having been local only.
His office and sales-rooms were removed, in 1872, to a
new locality, suitable to accommodate his now large
business. This was the block bounded by Montgomery
Avenue, Fourth, and Cadwalader Streets, a large tract,
which has since, in successive stages, been covered by
buildings five and six stories high, which form what is
perhaps the largest and best-equipped hat-factory in the
world. The number of operators averages about eight

hundred and fifty, of whom about one hundred and fifty
are women. The productive capacity of the establish
ment is about one hundred and fifty dozen of fur and
felt hats daily, the value of the annual output being
nearly two millions of dollars.
Mr. Stetson is a man of benevolent instincts, and is
earnestly interested in the welfare of his operators. In
his factory nine hours are a day's work, and the week
ends at Saturday noon. With the workshops he has
associated a number of institutions, unique and highly
useful in character, and instigated by his warm spirit of
human good will. These are located in rooms at one
end of the large pile of factory buildings, and include
religious, social, and benevolent institutions for the good
of the workmen. Among them is a large Sunday-school,
started for his employees, but open to many people of
the neighborhood, its place of meeting being a hand
some hall which is capable of seating two thousand
persons. Beneath this is a spacious library and reading-
room, supplied with three thousand choice volumes and
the leading newspapers and periodicals. There is also a
parlor for evening social meetings, while every week-day
at noon prayer-meetings are held here. There is a study
for those in charge of the Sunday-school, and an armory
for the guns and equipments of a military company
organized from among the younger hands.
An organization was formed in 1885, known as the
John B. Stetson Union, on the same basis as the Young
Men's Christian Association. In addition, there is a
charitable organization, known as the Mysterious Twelve,
a Guard of Honor, composed of boys from twelve to
nineteen years of age, and other societies. Entertain
ments, for the operators and their friends, are given
every Saturday evening, at which a full orchestra is
engaged, and every other evening of the week is in
some way profitably engaged.
One of the most useful of these institutions is that
known as the Medical Department, which is under the
charge of Dr. Carl Seiler, and in which the operators
and members of the associations are treated at a nominal
price, or gratuitously when necessary. A new building,
five stories in height, has been erected for this department.
There is, in addition, a John B. Stetson Building Asso
ciation, also a beneficial, to which all contribute, Mr.
Stetson most of all. Mr. Stetson's benevolence, while
thus exerted for the good of his workmen, reaches to
other institutions. He has given fifty thousand dollars
to the Young Men's Christian Association, and is con
nected with or has liberally aided many of the charitable
institutions of Philadelphia.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

289

HERBERT CALVIN HINDS.
Herbert Calvin Hinds, clergyman, was born at Cos-
sayuna, Washington County, New York, June 22, 1857.
He was born in a house which has always been known
as "the lightning-splitter," and which still stands upon
the bank of one of the beautiful ponds at the outlet of
Cossayuna Lake. In perfect accord with the religious
interest which prevailed at the time of his birth, he
early set out to obey his God-given impressions, and
began a careful preparation for the sacred office. Plis
early home-training was of a marked religious character,
and the beneficial effects have been observed in the earn
est contest for " the faith once delivered to the saints"
which followed. A mother's faith consecrated him to
God's service, and a father's generosity enabled him to
cany out his purposes and become a chosen vessel unto
God and made meet for the Master's use. As in the
case of many a farmer's son, with courage, patience, and
perseverance, and in spite of discouragements and ob
structions, and with a definite object before him, he has
labored earnestly to succeed.
He was educated at the district schools until he reached
the age of seventeen. In February, 1875, he entered the
State Normal School at Albany, and two years later
graduated with credit, and was chosen to read his essay
at the commencement exercises of his class. In the
autumn of 1877 he entered the preparatory school of
Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pa., and the
following autumn the Boys' Academy at Albany, N. Y.
January 6, 1879, he entered Union College, at Schenec
tady, and graduated with honor in the class of 1882.
At the completion of his course he was elected by the
faculty a member of Phi Beta Kappa Society, one of
the orators on commencement day to compete for the
Blatchford medals, and by the members of his class the
class orator. On commencement day in the oratorical
contest he received honorable mention. In September,
1882, he entered the Theological Seminary at Princeton,
N. J., and, in connection with his theological studies, took
a special course in philosophy under Dr. McCosh for the
degree of A.M. After the three years at Princeton he
took charge of the Park Place Chapel, in Schenectady,
N. Y., where he labored with earnestness and satisfaction
from May, 1885, to April, 1886. As it was not thought
to be wise to organize a Third Presbyterian Church for
Schenectady, he resigned and spent till August in study
and travel in Europe. On his return, he went to Amster
dam and supplied the pulpit of the Presbyterian Church
during the enforced absence of the pastor on account of
ill-health. At the earnest solicitation of the people, he
began and continued persistent efforts looking forward to
the organization of a Second Presbyterian Church, and,
in February, 1887, the new church came into being with
eighty members, and was christened Emanuel. The

church building was completed the following autumn. In
September of this same year, he accepted a unanimous
call to become the pastor of the Second Reformed Church
at Schenectady, N. Y. During this pastorate of three and
one-half years, the membership ofthe church was greatly
increased, a large floating debt was paid, an extension was
built to the chapel, and the church and the Sunday-school
were brought into a highly prosperous condition. On the
first of March, 1891, in answer to a unanimous call, he
took charge of the Ninth Presbyterian Church of Troy
and thus became the second pastor in the history of the
organization. Having charge of the largest church in
the presbytery, and with the Sabbath-school membership
larger than any other school in the surrounding cities,
the pastor is a very busy man, but he labors with the
regularity of a machine, and thereby accomplishes much
more than others who have more time for study, and one
of the most striking characteristics of his work is his
business-like way of doing things. The Ninth Presby
terian Church is known throughout the surrounding
territory as " the working church." As a preacher he is
much sought after by the young people, and his sermons
have proved to be sufficiently interesting to secure the
presence of a large company of young men as well as
young women at the Sabbath services. He feels the
truth, and has the happy gift of making others feel it.
He sympathizes with the erring, and has the faculty of
making them realize that Christ desires to help them.
He has an earnest delivery that carries conviction, and
expresses his thoughts in language of unusual felicity.
He has frequently been invited to deliver lectures from
pulpit and platform, and, in many instances, has complied
with such requests ; but he has always regarded this kind
of work his avocation rather than vocation, for his heart
delights most in the duties of the pastor and the preacher.

37

290

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JAMES BARR FERREE.
James Barr Ferree, merchant and financier, son of
Richard Ferree, was born at the old Ferree homestead,
on Strasburg Pike, twelve miles below Lancaster, Penn
sylvania, July 14, 1806. His father was a great-grand
son of the illustrious Mary Ferree, a French refugee,
whose husband having been slain in the Huguenot per
secutions, came to America in 1705 with her four sons
and one daughter, and settled in Pequea Township, Lan
caster County, on a grant from William Penn, who had
interested himself in her behalf and presented her to
Queen Anne, who gave her farming utensils for use in
her new home.
At the age of seventeen Mr. Ferree left home to
become a clerk for his elder brother George, in his gen
eral store at Maytown, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,

whom he subsequently bought out. On May 27, 1829,
he married Miss Mary Ann Patterson, daughter of
Samuel Patterson, whose father, Samuel Patterson, was
sergeant in Colonel Thomas Porter's battalion, and served
in the battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777. The
younger Samuel Patterson achieved some celebrity from
being the first farmer in Lancaster County to discontinue
giving grog to his hands.
In 1 83 1, Mr. Ferree removed to Mount Joy and con
tinued a general merchandise business there, erecting
what was at that time the largest brick store and dwell
ing in the county. In 1838 he was elected register of
wills for Lancaster County, and attended to his official
duties at Lancaster in addition to his large mercantile
business. In 1844 he disposed of his business and pro
perty in Mount Joy and removed to Philadelphia, where
for five years he was the junior member of the firm of
Bryan & Ferree, wholesale dry-goods jobbers, subse
quently conducting the business in his individual name.
In 1855 he founded the banking house of Ferree &
Sterrett, which was afterwards known as Ferree & Com
pany on the admission of his son, Samuel Patterson
Ferree, to partnership.
When the National Bank Act was passed, he was one
of the first to see the advantages of it, and had the pre
liminary papers prepared to organize the First National
Bank of Philadelphia ; but other parties having filed
their papers before him the matter was dropped, but he
was one of the promoters and largest stockholders of
the Third National Bank of Philadelphia, and subse
quently organized the National Bank of the Republic of
Philadelphia, of which he was the first president.
Mr. Ferree retired from active business in 1875, and
died May 14, 1878, in bis seventy-third year. He had
seven children, of whom four survived him.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

291

ALBERT M. PALMER.
Albert Marshman Palmer, distinguished among the
theatrical managers of his period in New York City,
was born at North Stonington, Connecticut, July 20,
1838. It is interesting to note as a coincidence and his
torical fact that with his advent began the distinctive
control of the American stage by American managers.
Mr. Palmer's father was the Rev. Albert Gallatin
Palmer, D.D., of a family distinguished in colonial his
tory, a pastor of the Baptist Church, much beloved, of
fine reputation and fine abilities, known also as the author
of a book of poems and other writings. His mother
was of an old Connecticut family, Sarah A. Langworthy.
He finished his schooling by graduating from the law
class of the University of New York in i860. Soon
after he assumed a responsible and confidential position
under Mr. Barney, collector of the port of New York.
In 1866 he assumed charge ofthe Mercantile Library, at
that time a post of distinction, and it was from those
literary surroundings that he was called to theatrical
management. Mr. Sheridan Shook, proprietor of Union
Square Theatre, seeing that his house, devoted to vaude
ville entertainments, was making no headway, turned to
him as a man of affairs. Mr. Palmer consented to conduct
the theatre, provided that he should have entire control
and change the policy and character of the establishment ;
henceforth the house was to take rank. At that time
Wallack's and Daly's seemed to occupy the whole field
for popular favor. The first season demonstrated that
they had a competitor, and before the second was finished
the formerly unconsidered Union Square Theatre was
the most popular and profitable house in the city.
Its history for ten years was indeed remarkable.
It is conceded that no such company as was gathered
together in such plays, for example, as " The Two Or
phans," has since been seen in New York. Owing to
Mr. Palmer's selection of players many of the younger
actors developed into the stars of a succeeding period.
Mr. Palmer has preserved a record in inlaid volumes of
photographs, biographies, criticisms, autograph letters of
authors, actors, etc., which will remain one of the most
valuable historical evidences known in theatrical history.
The plays there produced were, as may be said of his
subsequent productions, of lasting and vital interest.
Dion Boucicault's adaptation of " Led Astray" was one
of the first pieces to draw the attention of the town to
the excellence of the management. In 1874, " The Two
Orphans" established the house in recognition, and this
very brilliant performance, after having been admired for
a season or so, is remembered as the perfection of the
romantic drama. This play has been continually before
the public since that time ; its success, owing to the pro
duction and adaptation, having been greater here than
in France or England. "A Celebrated Case," "The

Rantzaus," " Rose Michel," " The Danicheffs," " A Pari
sian Romance," and many other plays were there given
for the first time. American authors, such as Bronson
Howard, in "The Banker's Daughter," and Bartley
Campbell, in " My Partner," there made their real be
ginnings as successful dramatists.
In 1882, Mr. Palmer, having accumulated a fortune by
this loyalty to the best tastes of the public, retired from
the management, but after a period of rest in Europe was
sought by Mr. Mallory, of the Madison Square Theatre,
and assumed entire control of that house. He secured
the same results as before. His management has been
marked by the recurrence of vital plays ; thus, it was
not long before the town was delighted with " Jim the
Penman." Many other plays of high character followed,
such as " Saints and Sinners," " Elaine," " A Pair of
Spectacles," etc. Mr. Palmer's career at this house
closing with one the most pleasing and successful of
pieces ever written by an American author, " Alabama."
In 1890, Mr. Palmer secured the theatre long known as
" Wallack's," which now became known as " Palmer's,"
and there have been produced a number of plays entirely
worthy of his long and successful career. A few years
later he came into control of the Garden Theatre, and
has since extended his management to other cities.
Perhaps the most remarkable success and production of
his career has been his most recent, the dramatization by
Paul Potter of Dumaurier's novel " Trilby." Mr. Palmer
has had, in a most marked degree, the confidence and
respect of the profession. Since 1888 he has been presi
dent of the Actors' Fund, accomplishing infinite good ;
he is also a member of the Goethe Society, the Players'
Club, the Union League Club, etc. Mrs. Palmer has
also been conspicuous in her relations to the profession,
having established the Professional Women's League, etc.

292

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ISAAC HODGEN TRABUE.
Isaac Hodgen Trabue, city founder, was born in
Russell County, Kentucky, at his father's iron-works, on
the 25th of March, 1829. His family were of Huguenot
extraction. His grandfather, General James Trabue,
was seven years a commissary-general in the Virginia
line, army of the Revolution, two years of which time
he was a prisoner at Quebec. After the Revolution, he
was a Kentucky pioneer. General Trabue married Jane
Porter, a cousin of the author of the " Scottish Chiefs."
Colonel Trabue was the son of Wharton Trabue, who
operated and owned iron-works on the Cumberland
River, and was also a Christian minister. Colonel Trabue
was educated at Georgetown, Kentucky, being for a time
the pupil of Hon. James G. Blaine, and was graduated
in law from the Transylvania University, Lexington,
Kentucky, in 1854. In 1859 he was aide to Governor
Magoffin, of Kentucky, with the rank of colonel.
In the beginning of the late war he espoused the cause
of the Union, and helped turn the tide of Kentucky's
neutrality for the Union.
In June, 1861, he carried the first company of volun
teers from the blue hills of Jefferson County, Kentucky,
to Camp Jo Holt, to be mustered into the Union army
under General Rousseau ; Kentucky's neutrality forbade
their being mustered in on her soil.
He was a colonel under Anderson and Sherman. He
put his slaves in the service of the United States as
hospital nurses and workmen in the quartermaster's
department. . The United States being crippled for supplies, he left
Sherman and furnished coal, a sinew of war, to the

steamers employed by the government, from his mines
on the lower Ohio, mining millions of bushels with
refugees, guerillas, and negroes that could not have been
mined in any other way, without which coal Grant and
the Army of the Cumberland would have been short of
supplies. After the war he practised law and became a political
leader in Kentucky. He bore the Republican banner
as candidate for Congress in the First Kentucky District
in 1872. Was elector for the State-at-large for Peter
Cooper in 1876. Was the Greenback candidate for
treasurer of Kentucky in 1877, and ran on the Green
back ticket for attorney-general of Kentucky in 1879.
Was elector for the State-at-large for General B. F.
Butler in 1884. Winning these distinctions as an able
champion of the great greenback financial theory.
Colonel Trabue has been an ardent and distinguished
lover and amateur master of chess, beating, in 1883,
Zukertort, the then champion of the world, and endowed
a chess tournament in 1885 ; also the city of Trabue or
Punta Gorda, De Soto County, Florida. His family has
been conspicuous, his brother, G. F. Q. Trabue, was the
father of the Know-Nothing party of Kentucky, and
one of the most eloquent attorneys and stump-speakers
of his time.
He married, in 1865, Miss Virginia Taylor, the
daughter of General James and Charlotte Taylor, of
South Carolina. Charlotte Taylor was the only lady
entomologist in the country. She was the daughter of
William Scarborough, who, in 18 19, built and sent the
first steamship, the " Savannah," of Savannah, Georgia,
across the Atlantic.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

293

JAMES W. QUEEN.
James W. Queen, a prominent optician of Philadel
phia, was born in this city in 181 1, being the son of
Thomas and Mary Queen, of Philadelphia. During the
War of 181 2-1 5 with Great Britain, his father was en
gaged in the duty of protecting Wilmington, Delaware,
against an expected attack by the ships of the enemy,
which had sailed up the Chesapeake Bay and burned
the public buildings of Washington. The son, then a
young infant, was taken to see him while employed in
this important work. At the youthful age of seven the
future optician entered the service of Fryer & Anderson,
who kept at that time a fine dry-goods establishment
at Second and Chestnut Streets, from which section of
the city the fashionable retail trade had not yet departed
on its later journey westward. After a period of service
in this establishment he was sent to school, attending,
during 1824-25, the D. Watson School, on Fourth Street
near South Street, a school in which Edwin Forrest and
many other eminent men were educated. He proved a
veiy attentive student, and became proficient in his studies.
On leaving school he entered the McAllister optical es
tablishment, the leading house in that line of business in
the city. Here he not only gained a thorough knowl
edge of the business, but the respect and commendation
of his employer, Mr. McAllister speaking of him in later
years as the best young man he had ever brought up in
his business. He was possessed of a natural mechanical
ingenuity, which aided him greatly in the line of business
he had adopted, and which showed itself while he was
still young in a number of inventions, and in later years in
important improvements in optical instruments. Among
the products of his youthful ingenuity was a miniature
locomotive, while he showed his artistic faculty by
engraving, when hardly twenty years of age, a number
of excellent views of prominent buildings in Philadel
phia. The progress of the young optician with his employer
was so rapid and satisfactory that he was taken into
partnership in 1836, when he was still quite young, the
partnership continuing until 1852, when it was dissolved.
Mr. Queen started business on his own account in the
succeeding year, the location of his establishment being
No. 924 Chestnut Street. During this period he had
shown himself not only a thorough man of business,
pleasant and affable to customers and active in advancing
trade, but had also kept up his inventive faculty, his im
provements in instruments adding notably to the trade
of the house. In 1841, upon the discovery by Daguerre
of his new process of taking pictures by the aid of sun
light, Mr. Queen at once began experimenting with it,
and was very successful, producing a number of excellent
daguerrotypes. He conducted business for himself as actively and suc

cessfully as he had done in connection with Mr. McAl
lister, his instruments being of acknowledged superiority,
while the reputation of his house spread throughout
America and Europe. He retired from business about
the close of the war, having acquired a competence, and
desiring to spend the remainder of his life in rest and
quiet enjoyment. He had long been interested in the
development of the microscope, and much of his later
leisure was given to microscopy, which continued a par
ticularly attractive pursuit, it being one of his special
enjoyments to gather about him small evening parties
of microscopists or of persons given to philosophical
thought and study. In manner he was quiet and unas
suming, and very methodical in habit, a quality which
had stood him in good stead during his years of business
life. After retiring from business, Mr. Queen made a
journey to Europe, and while there collected much
material of an interesting character, including the work
of inventors, fine photographs, and other articles of
interest and value, which he enjoyed showing and ex
plaining to his friends. He got together also a fine
collection of coins, many of them of much worth and
rarity. From the time he was fifteen years of age, Mr. Queen
took a deep interest in religious matters. He became a
member of Dr. Brainard's Presbyterian Church at Fourth
and Pine Streets, — the Old Pine Street Church, as it was
called. In this church he took an active part, and after
wards became a member of Calvary Church, on Locust
Street above Fifteenth Street. He was a member of the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania and interested in its
progress, giving it much historical material. Mr. Queen
died at Cresson, Pennsylvania, July 12, 1890.

294

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

FREDERICK A. BURNHAM.
Frederick A. Burnham, president of the Mutual
Reserve Fund Life Association, was born in Burrillville,
Rhode Island, on January 7, 185 1. He is a lineal
descendant from an old English family of note in its
day, and which, on the accession of Charles II. to the
throne of Great Britain and Ireland, found itself com
pelled to emigrate to America. This step was taken in
consequence of its active participation in the Puritan
Revolution and the affairs of the commonwealth, and its
pronounced opposition to the house of Stuart. Its en
forced emigration, as is well known, was shared by many
of the same political views.
Mr. Burnham received his primary education at the
old Bacon Academy, situated at Colchester, Connecticut,
where he obtained a good educational groundwork. He
then continued his studies at the college at Middletown,
where he obtained a full collegiate education and stood
high among his fellow-students, graduating with high
honors as the valedictorian of his class. Having chosen
the field of legal practice as his future profession he
entered as a student at the Albany Law-School, where
he took a full course of study, graduated, and was ad
mitted to practise at the bar in 1873. Immediately after
his admission to the bar Mr. Burnham removed to New
York City, and entered there upon the practice of his
profession, giving his particular attention to commercial
and insurance law, to which branches of the profession
his inclination strongly led him. In these fields of legal
activity he was quickly successful, and in time gained a

large practice, his reputation for deep knowledge of the
law and skilled advocacy of his client's claims bringing
him numerous important suits, which involved large
interests. His success in many of these suits was so
marked as to place him at the head of the junior bar of
New York City.
Mr. Burnham's early interest had been directed to the
channels of charity and benevolence, and he made a
thorough study of the several benevolent organizations
of New York City, becoming so familiar with their
purposes and workings as to make him a recognized
authority in all such enterprises.
In 1877 he joined the Society of Freemasons, in
which he took a deep and abiding interest, and rapidly
passed through its several subordinate stations, display
ing signal ability in the work ofthe Order. He advanced
to the important position of Chief Commissioner of Ap
peals, a post which he retained for many years, and
in which his opinions were noted for the clearness with
which they were expressed and the strength of their
logic. Passing, stage by stage, through all the grades
of the Order, he attained eventually its highest level of
Grand Master of New York. In this exalted position his
services to the Society have been invaluable, and through
his able administration of its interests the Craft has
attained a degree of prosperity and usefulness hitherto
unknown in its history.
Mr. Burnham's skill in insurance law is of the highest
order, and was recognized in his selection as the head of
the legal department of the Mutual Reserve Fund Life
Association, a post at once of honor and responsibility.
In this important position the association found him a
legal adviser of the highest powers, and by his ability
and care he succeeded in detecting and frustrating
various frauds attempted to be perpetrated upon the
company, by the signal defeat of which he saved many
thousands of dollars annually for the honest policy
holders, and at the same time more firmly established
the reputation for equity and honesty long enjoyed by
the association.
At the bar and in all the commercial undertakings
with which Mr. Burnham has been connected, as well
as in his social relations with his fellow-man, he has
always been a leader and director, winning friends in
numbers, and admired and esteemed by all those with
whom he comes into contact.
Upon the death of President Harper, Mr. Burnham was
unanimously elected to succeed him as president of the
Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association on July 3, 1895.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

295

JAMES F. SULLIVAN.
James F. Sullivan was born in 1846, close by the
home of Spenser, the author of " The Faerie Queen," at
Grange, a few miles from Mallow, Ireland. Shortly after
the death of his father, John Sullivan, which occurred
when he was a little child, he was brought by his mother,
Ellen Supple Sullivan, the daughter of John Upton
Supple, to Philadelphia, where he and all of the family
have since resided. When seven years old, he was sent
to the public schools of this city. On leaving school he
was employed by Field Brothers, a firm of which John
Field, late postmaster of Philadelphia, was the head.
Here he acquired a knowledge of the business in which
he has since been engaged, and in 1866, before reaching
the age of manhood, he started business in connection
with his oldest brother, Jeremiah J. Sullivan, as whole
sale dealers and importers of hosiery, dress trimmings,
and white goods. The firm, named Sullivan & Brother,
was at first located at 112 and 114 North Fourth Street,
and has been highly successful in its business operations.
Mr. Sullivan travelled widely in its interest through the
United States and Europe, and through his exertions
made direct connections with the manufacturers of cer
tain lines of textiles which had before sold all their
goods through commission houses. Good management
and energetic work have made the business of the firm
continuously successful ; it has the distinction of never
having been a defendant in a lawsuit of any kind, and
to-day it stands as one of the foremost houses in its line
of business in the United States.
Mr. Sullivan, after leaving school, realized the impor
tance of a thorough education, and for fifteen years
afterwards devoted most of his leisure time to a course
of systematic study, under capable tutors. He was
married in 1886, at Long Branch, to Lulue Romaine,
oldest daughter of Washington R. Nichols, of New
York. He has for years been connected with many of
our leading financial and other institutions, and has been
very active in the work of municipal reform. He is a
member of the Academy of Natural Sciences, the His
torical Society of Pennsylvania, and several clubs, and a
trustee of the Catholic High Schools. PI c took an active
part in the reorganization of the Finance Company of
Pennsylvania, and was one of the founders of the Inde
pendence National Bank, in both of which institutions
he is a director, as also in the Mechanics' Insurance
Company. For many years Mr. Sullivan has been interested in
the development of the passenger railway system of Phila
delphia, and particularly of the Frankford and South
wark, now leased to the Electric Traction Company, of
which his brother, Jeremiah J. Sullivan, is president.

He is a director of this company and of the Green and
Coates, and is vice-president of the Lehigh Avenue
Company. He is interested also in several iron, steel,
and textile manufactories in different parts of the country,
and is vice-president of the Midvale Steel Company.
Mr. Sullivan, while giving so much of his time and
attention to business affairs, has been mindful of his duty
as a citizen, and has been active in the reform movement
in city, State, and national affairs. Since the organization
of the Citizens' Municipal Association, he has been an
earnest member of its Executive Committee, and has
done much useful work in securing the proper paving of
streets, building of bridges and sewers, and similar city
improvements. Six months before the collapse of the Keystone and
Spring Garden National Banks, and the notable investi
gation that followed by a committee of Councils at the
suggestion of the Citizens' Municipal Association, he
called special attention in a detailed report to the abuses
that prevailed in the office of the City Treasurer, in the
practice of loaning immense sums of city money without
authority of law to the banking institutions above
named, and to other favorites among the banks of the
city. He suggested that it would be best for the city
that its money should be loaned only to such regular
depositaries as would pay a reasonable rate of interest
therefor, so as to remove from the City Treasurer the
temptation to loan it at interest for his own personal profit.
The outcome of this method of operation has fully
proved the wisdom of Mr. Sullivan's suggestions, and
the city authorities have acted in accordance with good
advice, after sustaining heavy loss through the defalcation
of their trusted financial agent.

296

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JAMES MARSHALL.
Rev. James Marshall, D.D., president of Coe Col
lege, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was born of Scotch-Irish
parentage on his father's side and of the Stilwell family,
several generations of Americans, on his mother's side.
Western New York, Livingston County, was his native
place, and for forty-five years he has claimed a home in
Nunda, New York, and where he now has a permanent
country home. His early life was spent on a farm, which
he left when fifteen years old for Canandaigua Academy,
taught district school when a little over sixteen, prepared
for college, then concluded he could never go, on account
of finances, was in business with his brother in Akron
and Salem Ohio, and while at Salem, in 1852, when about
eighteen, was chosen by the town to make the speech of
welcome to Louis Kossuth, on his way from the East to
the West, began the study of law in Akron, and in the fall
of 1853 went on to Yale College, and graduated in 1857.
He was absent a portion of his college life from his class
selling books through New England and New Jersey,
was very successful and paid his own way through col
lege. The class of 1857, of Yale, has turned out some
prominent men, — Presidents Northrup, DeForest, Strong,
of Minneapolis, Talladega, and Rochester Theological
Seminary respectively, and Professors Eaton, Wheeler,
and Brown, of Yale, Professor Blake, of Brown University,
Professor M. C. Tyler, of Cornell University.
Dr. Marshall studied law in Syracuse, after graduation,
in the office of Sedgwick, Andrews & Kennedy, and there
his life purposes were changed from pure convictions of
duty to the gospel ministry. As a stepping-stone to
Princeton Theological Seminary, he taught a young
ladies' school in Syracuse. Pie refounded the Young
Men's Christian Association, originated city missions,
and organized the first mission Sunday-school in Syra

cuse, all of which are still flourishing, and the Sabbath-
school proved to be the nucleus of the present Memorial
Presbyterian Church. After a year at Princeton, he
received a commission as chaplain, United States army,
directly from President Lincoln, and assigned after licen
sure and ordination by the Presbytery of Onondaga,
New York, to the Chesapeake General Hospital, near
Fortress Monroe, Virginia. Four years of ceaseless
service till July, 1866, when he was mustered out. Mar
ried Miss M. Jeannie McNair, of Mount Morris, New
York. His last work in the army was collecting money
in co-operation with Rev. E. P. Roe and Miss D. L. Dix,
and erecting the soldiers' monument near Hampton, Va.
Mr. Marshall was the only officer of the board that did
not change from the beginning of the work, in 1864, to
the completion of the monument, in 1867. His health
failing before all the money was raised and the monu
ment erected, he went to Washington, and secured the
valuable aid of Miss D. L. Dix, the great philanthropist.
Dr. and Mrs. Marshall travelled and studied over three
years' abroad, in London, Paris, Heidelberg, and Edin
burgh. While Dr. Marshall was studying theology,
Mrs. Marshall was a student of literature and history,
and a constant correspondent of The Presbyterian and
the home paper. After their return to the United States,
Mr. Marshall organized the Westminster Presbyterian
Church, in Troy, New York, built up the Presbyterian
Church in Hoboken, New Jersey, and founded the Church
of Christ for the People in New York City, called the
DeWitt Memorial Church, on Rivington Street. Mr. M.
K. Jesup becoming interested built the new church as a
memorial to Dr. Thomas DeWitt at an expense of nearly
$80,000. Dr. Marshall's seven years' work in New York
was a new departure in city mission work and was a phe
nomenal success. He had calls to the headship of several
institutions from 1883 to 1887, when in September, 1887,
he entered upon the duties as president of Coe College,
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he still resides as the head
of this college. During his presidency there has been
a perfect transformation from a school with local repu
tation and moderate standard to a college of the first
class, whose curriculum is equal to the best, and is most
closely followed in conferring the degrees of A.B., Ph.B.,
Sc.B., and C.EB. All departments have been thoroughly
equipped, and the college, in a beautiful city of twenty-five
thousand, is among the best in the State. Mr. Marshall
has written and published a great many sermons, war ser
mons, thanksgiving sermons, baccalaureate sermons, eulo
gies of Lincoln, Grant, etc., and miscellaneous addresses.
His wife, Mrs. Jeannie McNair Marshall, died in Cedar
Rapids in November, 1892, and is buried in Mount
Morris, New York. She was highly educated, a most
graceful writer, and some of her hymns will live among
the best used in the sanctuary service.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

297

HENRY CLARK JOHNSON.
Henry Clark Johnson, well known for his prominence
in the educational world, is a native of Homer, Cortland
County, New York, where he was born June 11, 185 1.
He received his early education from private tutors and
at the famous old Cortland Academy, where he was
graduated in 1867. During the two succeeding years
he studied Roman law and comparative jurisprudence
under the late Professor James Hadley, of Yale College,
and in 1869 entered Cornell University. He graduated
at this institution with the degree of A.B. in 1873, bearing
off honors in the commencement exercises. Afterwards,
having decided on the study of the law, he entered the
office of the late Hon. William H. Shankland, ex-justice
of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals of the
State of New York, at Cortland, and also the Law
Department of Hamilton College. He graduated from
the latter with the degree of LL.B. in 1875, and was
admitted to practise in all the courts of New York
State. Mr. Johnson's inclination, however, turned more
strongly to the profession of teaching than that of law.
A ripe scholar, and with a thorough classical training,
he accepted a position, shortly after his graduation, from
Hamilton College, as head master of Ury School, Phila
delphia, where he remained during the school years
1875-77. Subsequently he accepted a similar position
in St. Paul's Cathedral School, Garden City, Long Island,
and in 1879 was chosen as principal of the City High
and Normal Schools of Paterson, New Jersey, which he
retained till January, 1880.
Mr. Johnson's next tutorial position was the more
congenial one of professor of Latin Language and Litera
ture in Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,
which he accepted on his retirement from the Paterson
schools, and retained during the succeeding eight years,
leaving it, finally, to accept the position of president of
the Central High School of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He remained in this important position from November,
1888, to January 1, 1894, during which he, in addition to
the onerous duties devolving upon him as president,
filled the chair of constitutional and international law in
that institution, and also acted as principal of the School
of Pedagogy for Men.
On the date above named, January 1, 1894, Mr. John
son withdrew from the profession in which he had been
actively engaged for nearly twenty years, with the pur
pose of embarking in the one for which he had specially
prepared, that of legal practice. Entering as a member

into the newly-formed law firm of Chandler, Johnson &
O'Sullivan, he began the practice of the law in New
York City, and has been actively engaged in it since, he
being at present counsel for numerous large corporations.
The firm devotes itself to general practice, with probate
and corporation law as specialties. In 1877, in recogni
tion of his ability and scholarship, he was given the
honorary degree of M.A. by Hobart College.
Professor Johnson has not confined himself to edu
cational and legal duties, but has also been actively
engaged in editing editions of leading ancient authors.
His labors in this field embrace an edition of " The First
Three Books of Homer's Iliad," " The Satires of Aulus
Persius Flaccus," " The Agricola and Germania of
Tacitus," " The Bucolics and Georgics of Virgil," " The
^Eneid of Virgil," and " The Laelius sive de Amicitia
of Cicero." He has also edited " The Tenth General
Catalogue of the Phi Upsilon Fraternity," and has issued
numerous monographs on classical subjects.
As an outcome of his legal profession, Professor John
son is a member of the United States District, Circuit,
and Supreme Courts, and of the Court of Claims.
Socially he belongs to numerous societies, including the
Phi Beta Kappa, the American Philological Association,
the American Society for the Advancement of Science,
the American Society of Political and Social Science,
the Association of the Bar of New York, and many
New York and Philadelphia social clubs. He is also a
member of all the Masonic bodies to the thirty-second
degree and of the " Mystic Shrine."

33

298

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

PETER C. HAINES.
Colonel Peter C. Haines, Corps of Engineers, was
born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 6, 1840, and
graduated at the Military Academy June, 1861. He was
promoted first lieutenant Second Artillery, June, 1861,
and served in the Army of the Potomac until March,
1863, having been engaged in the first battle of Bull
Run, siege of Yorktown, battles of Williamsburg, Han
over Court-House, and Malvern Hill.
In July, 1862, he was transferred to the Corps of
Topographical Engineers, but served with the artillery
until the latter part of September, 1862, participating in
the second battle of Malvern Hill, South Mountain, and
Antietam, as well as several skirmishes prior and subse
quent thereto.
In the second battle of Malvern Hill his battery com
mander, Captain Benson, was mortally wounded, and the
command devolved upon him. This he continued to ex
ercise until the latter part of September, 1862, when he
was assigned as topographical engineer at the head
quarters of the Army of the Potomac. Subsequently
he was assigned as chief topographical engineer of the
Centre Grand Division, Army of the Potomac, until
March, 1863, participating in the battle of Fredericks
burg. He was then transferred to the Army of the
Tennessee. As chief engineer of the Thirteenth Corps,
Army of the Tennessee, he particijjated in the turning

movement on Vicksburg, in the battles of Port Gibson,
Champion Hills, Black River Bridge, Jackson, the two
assaults on Vicksburg, and conducted the entire siege
operations in front of the Thirteenth Army Corps.
After the surrender of Vicksburg, he participated in the
campaign which resulted in the capture of Jackson, Mis
sissippi. In April, 1864, he joined General Banks's army
returning from the Red River campaign, and in July was
assigned to duty as chief engineer of the Department of
the Gulf.
Early in 1865 he was offered the command of a regi
ment of New Jersey volunteers, but, owing to the few
engineer officers at that time available, he was not allowed
by the War Department to accept it. In June following,
however, he was appointed by Governor Parker colonel
of the Tenth New Jersey Volunteers.
Colonel Haines received the brevet of captain for " gal
lant and meritorious services in the battle of Hanover
Court-House," of major for " gallant and meritorious ser
vices in the siege of Vicksburg," and of lieutenant-colonel
for " gallant and meritorious services during the war."
Since the war Colonel Haines has been engaged on
various engineering works of a civil and military nature.
For three years he was in command of the engineer post
of Jefferson Barracks. Subsequently he served as light
house engineer, and as member and engineer secretary
of the Light-House Board. He constructed the bridge
across the Potomac River at Georgetown, D. C, on the
piers of the old Aqueduct, the bridge across the eastern
branch at the foot of Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington,
D. C, and the large iron pier at Fort Monroe, Virginia.
He inaugurated and carried well on towards completion
the work of reclaiming the Potomac Flats, whereby a
pestilential swamp in front of the capitol of the country
was converted into about six hundred and fifty acres of
firm land suitable for a park. Besides serving as a mem
ber of the Board of Engineers for Fortifications and
River and Harbor Works, of the Board of Ordnance and
Fortification, and of numerous other boards on river and
harbor improvements, he has been charged with the sur
veys and improvements of numerous harbors and rivers,
with the construction of the defensive works at Hamp
ton Roads, Virginia, at Washington, D. C, at Portland,
Maine, at Baltimore, Maryland, and at other places ; and
as division engineer of the Southeast Division, extending
from Philadelphia to Mobile. He was appointed colonel
of the Corps of Engineers, August 13, 1895.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

299

COLEMAN SELLERS.
Dr. Coleman Sellers, one of the best known engineers
and inventors in this country and abroad, was born in
Philadelphia on January 28, 1827. His preliminary
education was received in private schools in this city
and afterwards at the academy of Anthony Bolmar of
West Chester. His practical experience for his future
profession began, in 1846, as draughtsman in the Globe
Rolling Mills of Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was advanced
in the course of a few years to the position of super
intendent. He afterwards entered the service of Niles
& Co., locomotive builders, of Cincinnati, and during
this engagement gave practical evidence of his ability as
a mechanical engineer and manager of works.
In 1856 he returned to Philadelphia at the solicitation
of his kinsman, composing the firm of William Sellers &
Co., and entered their establishment as its chief engineer.
In due course he was admitted to partnership, and
continued therein until 1888, when he retired from active
connection with the concern, his health, at the time,
requiring an extended absence abroad.
While chief engineer with William Sellers & Co., the
inventive and mechanical ability possessed by Dr. Sellers
assisted materially in giving the establishment the promi
nence which it has attained ; and more than thirty patents
bear his name, all being of great utility and value. One
of the first and most notable of these patents was his
coupling device for connecting shafting, which he in
vented in 1857. This has come into wide use and is
important as the essential feature in establishing the
modern system of interchangeable parts in shafting.
In 1866 he invented and patented an arrangement of
feed discs for lathes and other machine tools, which was
the first practical solution of the problem of infinite
gradation of feeds, and is a device of considerable
importance. His other inventions during this period
were chiefly confined to new forms of tools and modi
fications of existing machines, and have done much in
advancing the efficiency of machinery and mechanical
appliances. Dr. Sellers also deserves credit for certain useful
suggestions outside of his immediate field of labor. The
use of absorbent cotton for surgical operations was first
thought of and recommended by him as early as 1861.
It has now become indispensable to surgeons. He also
proposed the employment of glycerin to keep photo
graphic plates wet, and has, in short, always shown
himself possessed of great originality in practical thought,
and has done his full share towards the advancement of
the world in useful arts.
Since his return to active life he has confined himself
to consulting engineering practice to which his long
experience admirably adapted him. For some years
past his attention has been largely devoted to the de

velopment of the water-power of Niagara Falls. In
1889 he was called upon by capitalists interested to
consider the practicability of the project, and upon his
advice the enterprise was undertaken. He represented
America in the International Niagara Commission of
five members, with Lord Kelvin as chairman, which, in
1890, was established in London, to consider the various
methods of utilizing the power of the Falls, and since
that time he has been the active engineering head of the
work, both as consulting engineer of the Cataract Con
struction Company and president and chief engineer of
the Niagara Falls Power Company.
Dr. Sellers has long been an active member of the
Franklin Institute and is one of its Board of Managers.
In 1 88 1 he was appointed to the honorary chair of
professor of mechanics in that institution, and was its
president from 1870 to 1875. In 1884 he was made
president of the American Society of Mechanical Engi
neers. Besides being a member of the leading engineering
societies of this country, he is a member of the Institution
of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Mechanical Engi
neers of Great Britain, and the Geneva Society of Arts.
In 1877 the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olaf was
conferred upon him by the king of Sweden in recognition
of his valued services in his profession. He is a member
of the American Philosophical Society of Pennsylvania,
and was one of the founders and for a time president
both of the Photographic Society and the Pennsylvania
Museum and School of Industrial Art of Philadelphia.
He was a member of the Seybert Commission of the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania for the investigation of the claims
of spiritualism, being chosen in consequence of his active
and clear perception of the laws governing cause and
effect and his knowledge of sleight of hand, in which he
has been an expert since boyhood.

3°o

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

AUGUSTUS J. PLEASANTON.
General Augustus James Pleasanton, long known
for his active interest in military affairs in the State of
Pennsylvania, was born at Washington, D. C, August 18,
1808. Entering the United States Military Academy at
West Point, he graduated from that institution in 1826,
and entered upon military service under the government
in Fortress Monroe, where he performed garrison duty
in the Artillery School of Practice. He was also engaged
in topographical labors. On June 30, 1830, he resigned
from the army and entered upon the study of law, having
decided to adopt this as the profession of his life. On
his admission to the bar, he entered into practice in the
courts of Philadelphia, in which he continued to practise
for some years.
General Pleasanton, however, did not permit his civil
occupations to wean him completely from military affairs.
On the contrary, he took an active interest in the organ
ization and development of the Pennsylvania militia, in
which organization he attained the rank of major in 1833,
and of colonel in 1835. Plis next active service was in
1838-39, during the political disturbances in Harrisburg
at that period. He served on that occasion as assistant
adjutant-general and paymaster-general of the State.
During the violent anti-Catholic riots in Philadelphia in
1844, Colonel Pleasanton took an active and vigorous
part. He was by nature daring and courageous, and, in
his stern endeavor to quell the outbreak, was wounded
by armed rioters in the Southwark District of the city.

General Pleasanton did not confine his attention to
legal and military affairs, but became actively engaged
in other business concerns, accumulating in time a large
fortune, and becoming an extensive holder of real estate.
He was by nature of positive and vigorous character,
essentially a " man of affairs." This was strikingly shown
in his presidency ofthe Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount-
joy and Lancaster Railroad, which he held in the years
1839-40, and in which he found himself antagonized by
strong and corrupt political influences. Entering into
the contest with the energy of an honest devotion to the
interests of the stockholders, he determinedly combated
those who wished to control the road for partisan and
speculative purposes, and succeeded in defeating their
designs. On the outbreak of the Civil War, General Pleasanton
was past middle-age, and much less suitable for active
service in the field than his distinguished brother, General
Alfred Pleasanton, who was born in 1824, and was con
sequently sixteen years the younger. His service was,
therefore, confined to the important duty of organizing
the military forces of the State. On May 16, 1861, he
was appointed brigadier-general of the Pennsylvania
militia, and had intrusted to him the organization and
subsequent command during the war of a home guard
of ten thousand men, composed of cavalry, infantry, and
artillery, and designed for the defence of Philadelphia in
case of need. Such a need very near came during the in
vasion ofthe State by the Confederate army in 1863, and
strenuous preparations were made for the defence of the
city in case of the threatened defeat of the Union forces.
After the war General Pleasanton devoted much atten
tion to his estate and to the estate of Joseph Dugan,
deceased, of which he was trustee. His leisure was
given to the care of a farm which he had near Philadel
phia, and where he paid much attention to the action
of the colored rays of light on vegetable and animal
life. His experiments in this- field of study attracted
much attention at the time, and seem to have been the
logical predecessors of those that have recently led to
the discovery of the X-rays, a discovery accounted
among the greatest and most useful of modern times.
General Pleasanton was several times married. Per
sonally, he was a man of the highest honor and integrity.
While young he was strikingly handsome, and continued
of attractive presence throughout life, being in his later
years a distinguished-looking old man. He died July
26, 1894.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

301

JAMES A. BEAVER.
James Addams Beaver, the son of Jacob Beaver and
his wife, Ann Eliza Addams, was born October 21, 1837,
in Millerstown, Perry County, Pennsylvania. Pie comes
of Pennsylvania-German ancestry, and on four lines
thereof is the representative of Pennsylvania soldiers
who fought in the war for independence. He entered
the academy at Pine Grove Mills and afterwards Jefferson
College, at Canonsburg, from which he graduated in
1856. He then entered the law office of the Hon. H. N.
McAllister, and was admitted to the bar of Centre
County in January, 1859.
Being a member of the Bellefonte Fencibles at the
outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted with his company
at the first call for troops, and entered the service as first
lieutenant in the second regiment of Pa. Volunteers
April 21, 1861. The regiment joined the column which
operated under the command of General Patterson in the
Shenandoah Valley, being present at the skirmish of
Falling Waters. He assisted in organizing the Forty-
fifth Regiment of Pa. Volunteers, and was mustered as
lieutenant-colonel with the regiment October 18, 1861.
He served with the regiment for more than a year, most
of the time upon the sea islands of South Carolina. In
September, 1862, he was commissioned by Governor
Curtin colonel of the One Hundred and Forty-eighth
Regiment, Pa. Volunteers. At the battle of Chancellors-
ville, where he greatly distinguished himself, he received
a severe wound. During the invasion of Pennsylvania
by General Lee, in 1863, although not entirely recovered
from his wound, Colonel Beaver assisted General Couch,
the commander of the Department of the Susquehanna,
in organizing troops for the emergency sent to the aid of
General Meade. He shortly after rejoined his regiment,
and was in active service during the movements of the
Army of the Potomac from Culpeper Court-House and
in the Mine Run campaign in the autumn of 1863. He
participated in all the battles of the Wilderness campaign,
and received the surrender of General Stuart at Spott-
sylvania. In the attack at Cold Harbor he especially
distinguished himself, taking command of his brigade
(Fourth Brigade, First Division, Second Corps) after the
field officers who ranked him were killed or disabled.
He continued in command of this brigade, and at Peters
burg, on the 16th of June, was severely wounded in
the first assault upon the enemy's works. He returned
to his division just as it received the terrible onset of the
enemy at Ream Station on the 25th of August. He had
just assumed command of his brigade when he received
a wound in the right thigh, in consequence of which it
was found necessary to amputate the leg at the hip-joint.
Being incapacitated for active service, and at his own
request, he was honorably mustered out December 22,
1864, " on account of wounds received in battle." Prior

to this he had been brevetted brigadier-general for
" highly meritorious and distinguished conduct through
out the campaign."
Upon his recovery, General Beaver resumed the prac
tice of his profession at Bellefonte. In the organization
of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, in 1870, he was
appointed major-general of one of the divisions, and
in its final reorganization was commissioned brigadier-
general of one of the three brigades.
Prior to the gubernatorial campaign of 1882, General
Beaver's name was brought prominently before the people
of Pennsylvania, and he was unanimously nominated for
governor by the Republican convention. Dissensions,
however, arose in the Republican ranks, and an inde
pendent movement defeated the ticket. Four years
afterwards, however, he was nominated and elected to
the office. During his incumbency of the executive
office he carried out such a line of policy as commended
itself to the people of the State, and received the cordial
endorsement of all right-thinking citizens.
In 1895 an act was passed for the organization of the
Superior Court, and June 28, 1895, Governor Hastings
commissioned General Beaver one of the judges. At the
ensuing November election he was elected to the office
for the term of ten years, from January, 1896.
In 1889, Dickinson College, of Carlisle, Pa., and Han
over College, of Indiana, Pa., conferred upon him the
honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. He has been for
many years a trustee of the Pennsylvania State College,
of Washington and Jefferson College, and of Lincoln
University. General Beaver was married December 26, 1865, to
Mary Allison McAllister, daughter of the late Hon. H.
N. McAllister. Of their children, three sons, Gilbert
Addams, Hugh McAllister, and Thomas, survive.

302

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

FRANCIS M. BROOKE.
Francis M. Brooke, ex-president of the Commercial
Exchange of Philadelphia, was born July 4, 1836, in
Radnor Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, a
descendant of the early English and Welsh settlers of
this province, who served the colony, state, and nation in
many offices of honor and trust with credit to themselves
and benefit to the object. His great-grandfather served
as an officer in the War of Independence, possessed a
large estate in what is now Montgomery County, and
was actively and extensively engaged in manufacturing
and other enterprises. His grandfather occupied a large
farm near what is known as the Gulf, in Radnor, adjoin
ing Montgomery County. His father was the Hon.
Hugh Jones Brooke, who for nearly half a century
served in various public capacities, and for many years
was a State Senator of Pennsylvania, his influence in the
political affairs of the State being large and commanding.
His mother was the daughter of Nathaniel Longmire, a
lace manufacturer of Nottingham, England, whence he
emigrated with his family to Philadelphia during her
girlhood. Philadelphia is particularly indebted to him
for its present system of market-houses, he being the
originator and for a long time the president of the Far
mers' Market Company. Delaware County is equally
indebted, since Media, its country-seat, owes much of
its development to his influence and efforts. He erected
there from his own means the Chestnut Grove House,

Brooke Hall Female Seminary, and many private resi
dences, and was largely instrumental in the construction
of the Philadelphia, Media and West Chester Railroad.
Another important service rendered by him was the
location near Media of the Pennsylvania School for
Feeble-Minded Children. He was largely instrumental
in securing from the State legislature appropriations
for the building and maintenance of this the leading
institution of its kind.
Francis M. Brooke, son of the gentleman just described,
was educated in the public schools of Radnor Township
till 1852, when he entered Haverford College. He re
mained there two years, when impaired health prevented
the completion of his course of study. He had decided
on the study of the law, and when his health was restored
he entered as a law student the office of Edward Hop
per, in Philadelphia, at the same time attending lectures
in the Law Department of the University of Pennsylva
nia. He was admitted to practise at the Philadelphia
bar in 1859, and shortly afterwards opened an office in
Media, where he quickly gained a large and profitable
practice. In 1863, Mr. Brooke was elected district-attorney of
Delaware County, a position which he filled for a year,
when his health again becoming impaired, he was reluc
tantly obliged to withdraw from the practice of the law,
public and private, and devote himself to some less ex
hausting pursuit. With the belief that a mercantile life
would afford better opportunities for physical exercise,
and be less of a mental strain, he entered the grain trade
in Philadelphia, in partnership with his brother, Hunter
Brooke, the firm-name being F. M. & H. Brooke. Having
ample capital, the new firm was enabled to establish its
business on a broad scale at the start, and has steadily
prospered, it being now one of the leading houses in
that branch of trade in the city.
Mr. Brooke allied himself early in his mercantile career
with the Commercial Exchange, in which his recognized
ability induced the members to place him on important
committees, particularly those involving matters of legis
lation affecting the commerce of Philadelphia. In 1878
he was elected president of the Exchange. He acted in
a representative capacity for the Exchange in the Centen
nial Exposition of 1876, the Bi-Centennial celebration of
1882, and the national Constitutional celebration of 1887,
in all of which his energy and ability proved important
elements of success. He is at present a director or
president of many important corporations.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

3°3

WALTER A. BROWNELL.
Walter A. Brownell, educator and scientist, was
born at Evan's Mills, New York, on March 23, 1838,
the son of Brisbin A. Brownell. Graduating from Gou-
verneur Seminary as valedictorian of his class, he entered
Genesee College, receiving his diploma in the classical
course. After graduation he accepted the professorship
of Latin in Falley Seminary, at Fulton, New York, and
in 1865 became principal of Red Creek Seminary, from
which he was called at the end of three years to accept
the principalship of Fairfield Seminary. This position
he also retained three years, greatly upbuilding the
school, and resigning in 1871 to accept a similar posi
tion in the Syracuse High School. In 1872 he became
professor of geology and chemistry in this school, which
position he has held for twenty-four years.
When Professor Brownell entered upon this depart
ment there was in the school neither physical apparatus
nor funds for supplying it. He at once instituted courses
of lectures which he continued through a series of years,
procuring means with which he secured two thousand
five hundred dollars' worth of chemical and physical
apparatus. During his vacations he engaged in geo
logical field work in America and Europe. The fruit
of these explorations he gave to the school, which,
through his efforts, has a collection of minerals and
fossils numbering about thirty thousand. Dr. Brownell
has classified this collection scientifically so that every
specimen is in perfect order for illustration. In addition
to this work he gave much time to other lines of scientific
investigation, and during the summer vacation of 1876
engaged in chemical analysis in the Harvard College
laboratory. In this year he received the degree of Ph.D.
from Hamilton College.
In 1 88 1 he was called to the chair of mineralogy in
the vacation summer school for teachers at Martha's
Vineyard, Massachusetts. This department was enlarged
the following year by the addition of geology, which
double department he held four successive seasons, having
in his classes professors in geology from various colleges
and other institutions of learning in the United States.

In this work he was the successor of Dr. Alexander
Winched, the famous geologist of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Dr. Brownell is well known as a lecturer, and also
through his writings that have appeared occasionally
upon scientific topics. He is a member of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, and was
one of the original Fellows of the Geological Society
of America.
In addition to his literary work, Dr. Brownell is an
active business man and prominently interested in public
matters about him. His extensive travel has enlarged
his view of practical problems, and he is active in various
political, philanthropic, and religious affairs in Syracuse.
In his domestic life he is highly favored. While in
college he met Helen M. Davis, of Livonia, New York,
a talented student and educator, who afterwards became
his wife. Their only son, George G. Brownell, graduated
at Syracuse University, and was for some time employed
in a geological investigation of Central Africa, and sub
sequently in the study of the Romance languages in
France, Italy, and Spain. He is now continuing the
same studies in Johns Hopkins University.

3°4

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM FREDERICK NORTH.
William Frederick North, the treasurer of the
Real Estate Trust Company of Philadelphia, at No.
1 340-42 Chestnut Street, was born in Philadelphia, June
10, 1845. He was educated in the schools of that city
and has spent his life in the city. He is a son of George
Washington North, of Philadelphia, and grandson of
Colonel Caleb North, of Revolutionary fame, — colonel of
the Eleventh Pennsylvania Regiment, of the Continental
army. His mother was Catharine Margaret Clemson,
daughter of Thomas Clemson, an old and highly re
spected citizen of Philadelphia.

In 1865, Mr. North entered the employ of the Lehigh
Coal and Navigation Company in the bond and stock
department. In 1870 he retired from that company to
engage in the stock-brokerage business with his brother,
George H. North, under the firm-name of George H.
North & Company, at No. 125 South Third Street.
In 1885 he assisted in the formation of the Real Estate
Trust Company of Philadelphia, at No. 321 Chestnut
Street, and in a few months was elected treasurer of
the company, and as such has rendered very efficient
and energetic assistance in the rapid development of
that company, which company now ranks as one of the
conservative reliable financial institutions of the city.
In 1863, Mr. North entered the militia as a member of
C Company, First Regiment, National Guards of Penn
sylvania (then known as the Gray Reserves), and in the
same year went to the front with that regiment at the
time ofthe battle of Gettysburg. He afterwards became
a member of the Veteran Corps of that regiment.
Mr. North is a stanch member of the Republican
party, but has never taken any active part in politics.
He has always been identified with musical circles,
having considerable talent in that line. He is a member
of the board of directors of the Insurance Company of
the State of Pennsylvania, and is also connected with
the boards of several minor corporations. Is a member
of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Society of
Sons of the Revolution of Pennsylvania, the Art Club
of Philadelphia, the Colonial Club of Germantown, and
the Germantown Cricket Club, at Manheim. Mr. North
is married and has one child, a daughter.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

305

JAMES MADISON DRAKE.
Brevet Brigadier-General James Madison Drake
was born in Washington Valley, Somerset County, New
Jersey, March 25, 1837. He is a descendant of Colonel
Jacob Drake, of the Western New Jersey Battalion,
Continental troops. At the age of six years Drake
entered his father's printing-office in Elizabcthtown,
where he acquired much useful knowledge, and became
proficient in the " art preservative of all arts." At the
age of twelve years he was a rapid and correct compos
itor. In 1854 young Drake began the publication, at
Trenton, New Jersey, of the Mercer Standard, a large-
sized literan- paper of acknowledged excellence. Later,
he started the Evening Express, an afternoon paper.
Subsequently he became a reporter on the State Gazette.
In the political campaign of i860 Drake issued a lively
campaign sheet entitled the Wide Azoake. At the age
of twenty-one years he was elected an alderman of
Trenton, and at the end of the term was re-elected. In
1859 he organized the American Hose Company. He
was four times elected foreman of the company.
When the news of the fall of Sumter reached Trenton,
Drake organized a company of firemen, and a few days
later accompanied it to the national capital, having been
appointed ensign of the Third New Jersey Militia Regi
ment. He carried the colors ofthe regiment throughout
the campaign, having had the honor of unfurling them
on Virginia soil a few hours previous to the landing and
death of Ellsworth, May 24, 1861. In October, 1861,
Drake enlisted in Company K, Ninth New Jersey Volun
teers (riflemen), and was appointed a sergeant.
In June, 1863, First-Sergeant Drake was appointed
second lieutenant of Company D, this being the first
instance of a transfer in this command. Lieutenant
Drake was the only commissioned officer with his com
pany during his connection with it — May 16, 1864 — when
he and his command were captured in the battle of
Drewry's Bluff. General Charles A. Heckman, com
manding the brigade, was captured while making his
way to Drake, who had not fallen back with his regi
ment. General Heckman and Lieutenant Drake, a few
hours afterwards, entered Libby prison together. When
Grant's guns were heard thundering through the Wilder
ness, Drake and his companions in captivity were hustled
off to the interior, the first stop being at the pen in Dan
ville. Subsequently Drake was again transported to
Columbia, then to Augusta, and from thence to Macon.
He assisted in digging one of the five tunnels at Macon,
and had his trouble for his pains, the plan having been
betrayed. Subsequently Drake was transferred to Sa
vannah, the United States Marine Hospital grounds being
used as the pen. Here Drake and others dug three
tunnels, but in each instance they failed to escape. In
September, when the yellow fever raged in Charleston,

Drake and his companions were transported to that city
and confined in the jail-yard as hostages.
On October 6, Drake and six hundred other officers
were marched to a train of cars and started for Columbia.
Captain Harry H. Todd, Eighth' New Jersey; Captain J.
E. Lewis, Eleventh Connecticut; and Captain Alfred
Grant, Nineteenth Wisconsin Volunteers, had previously
arranged with Drake to effect their escape from the train,
and when it had crossed the Congaree River the four
men sprang from the box-car, guarded by seven armed
Confederates, and were free. They soon found them
selves environed by formidable difficulties. They were
hundreds of miles from a place of refuge, in the midst
of implacable enemies, without guide, compass, cooking
utensils, money, or food. After a remarkable tramp
through the Carolinas and East Tennessee he reached
the Union lines at Knoxville, in forty-nine days, after
enduring the most terrible privations, tramping bare
footed in the snow over the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Upon Drake's return to his regiment he was commis
sioned captain. He was mustered out at Greensboro',
North Carolina, April 13, 1865, carrying to his home a
medal of honor from Congress " for distinguished gal
lantry during the war." After the war, Captain Drake
removed to Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he engaged in
the newspaper publishing business, in which he was
eminently successful. In 1896 he transferred his print
ing establishment to his sons, — William McDowell Drake
and James Madison . Drake, Jr. Captain Drake was
brevetted brigadier-general by the legislature of his
native State. General Drake since the war has com
manded the Veteran Zouaves of Elizabeth, New Jersey,
whom he took across the continent in 1886, and in the
winter of 1891 made a tour of the Southern States with
his famous command.

39

306

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

JAMES E. GORMAN.
Of the active and influential young men in the junior
bar, few have more friends in the profession and out of
it than James E. Gorman, who is a Philadelphian by
birth and a High School boy, receiving there that valu
able groundwork of education and ideas of equity and
the duties of citizenship which a lawyer finds so valuable
in after-life. Born in the city of Philadelphia in i860, he
attended and was educated in the public schools, and after
graduating from the Central High School, in 1877, at the
age of seventeen years, began the study of law, and was
admitted to the bar March 5, 1883, soon after becoming
of age, since which time he has been in active and con
tinuous practice. The extent and character of the prac
tice of his preceptor required studious and industrious
habits, to which this young lawyer attributes much of the
success that has attended his career at the bar. With an
extensive law practice he combines and has conducted
for over ten years a large real estate business in the
northern section of the city, where he has resided most
of his life, and with whose interests, political, financial,
and social, he has been more than ordinarily interested
and identified. He has been one of a number of pro
gressive citizens who have by their enterprise and zeal
made Germantown Avenue the business centre for that
section of the city popularly known as Cohocksink. Pie
was the organizer, and, at present, in his capacity as secre

tary and treasurer, is the active manager of the Mutual
Savings Bank, which for the past few years has been con
ducting an extensive and successful banking business in
the upper section of the city of Philadelphia. He is now,
and has been during the past eleven years, secretary of
the Triumph Building and Loan Association No. 2, Erie
Building Association, Continental Building Association,
and the Triumph Building Association, and solicitor of
the Oakdale Building and Loan Association and the
North Philadelphia Building and Savings Association,
whose aggregate assets now amount to $506,000. While
his practice is general, he is most frequently engaged in
the Orphans' Court in the settlement of estates.
He is an active practitioner in the Common Pleas,
however, and especially skilful in cases requiring an in
timate and thorough knowledge of real estate law, and,
while his appearance in the Supreme Court is not fre
quent, his clear, concise, and clever arguments disclose
ability worthy of an older and more experienced prac
titioner. He is one of the organizers and members of
the Young Men's Democratic Association, a member of
the Hibernian Society, and one of the original members
of the Catholic Historical Society. Like many other
young lawyers, he owes much of his success to his con
nection with literary societies, many of which, even be
fore he became of age, he represented at national conven
tions, and was accorded the honor at the convention of
the Young Men's Literary Union, held in Richmond,
Virginia, of the appointment by Right Rev. Bishop
Keane, now rector of the Catholic University at Wash
ington, of the chairmanship of the executive committee

of this organization.

He has been heard upon the stump in several cam
paigns, and is considered an effective and eloquent
speaker. He has always been active in municipal poli
tics, and his voice and services have always been directed
to the advancement of the interests of the city, and for
its good government. He is a firm believer in the dis-
association of politics from the government of our city,
maintaining that the same criterion should be applied in
selecting public municipal officials that is adopted in our
private business selections, the most worthy and enter
prising and reliable only to be worthy of our confidence
and support.
Pie enjoys the confidence of his clients and the respect
of the bench and bar, and this, after all, is the realization
of the hope and ambition of every lawyer.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

307

THOMAS EWING.
Brigadier- and Brevet Major-General Thomas
Ewing was born at Lancaster, Ohio, August 7, 1839.
He is the third son of the distinguished statesman and
lawyer of that name. He graduated at Brown Univer
sity and at the Cincinnati Law-School. In 1856 he
married Miss Ellen Cox, a daughter of the Rev. William
Cox, a graduate of Princeton Seminary, distinguished for
his zeal and eloquence. In 1856 he settled in Kansas
and took a strong hand in defeating the conspiracy to
force the pro-slavery constitution on Kansas. In 1858-
59 he practised law at Leavenworth in partnership with
Captain (afterwards General) William T. Sherman and
his brother, Hugh Ewing. In i860 he was elected chief-
justice of the Supreme Court of the new State for six
years, and filled the office with marked ability until 1862,
when he recruited and was appointed colonel of the
Eleventh Kansas Infantry. That fall he commanded his
regiment in the engagements fought by the Army of the
Frontier in Arkansas, and for conspicuous gallantry in
the desperate battle of Prairie Grove was commissioned a
brigadier-general by special order of President Lincoln.
In June, 1863, he took command of the District ofthe
Border, comprising Western Missouri and Kansas, where
the smouldering fires of the old free- state struggle had
burst into furious and insuppressible flames when the great
war broke out. Outlaws on both sides ravaged the border
until the Missouri side had been depopulated, wasted, and
burned to the subsoil. The vendetta reached its climax
in the horrible massacre at Lawrence, in July, 1863, which
was followed by Ewing's Order No. 11, compelling the
few scattered inhabitants of parts of three border counties
of Missouri, who were serving as spies and purveyors for
the guerillas, to move to the nearest military posts or
eastward from the troubled border. This order was ap
proved by General Schofield and President Lincoln.
Its results were most beneficent. It caused little hard
ship to non-combatants, and the support of the guerillas
being withdrawn, the ferocious vendetta ended at once
and forever.
Early in 1864, General Ewing took command of the
District of St. Louis, comprising all of Southeast Mis
souri. Soon after, General Sterling Price suddenly crossed
the Arkansas River and invaded Missouri with an army
of twenty-two thousand men. His objective point was
St. Louis, which had been stripped of its garrison. Time
was indispensable to collect troops to defend St. Louis
and drive Price from the State. On the 26th of Septem
ber, 1864, Ewing was despatched by General Rosecrans,
then commanding the department, to check and delay
Price's army, if possible, at the terminus of the Iron
Mountain Railroad, ninety miles south of St. Louis.
He collected ten hundred and eighty men and encoun
tered Price's advance in a defile of the Boston Mountains,

four miles south of Pilot Knob. Ewing was slowly
forced back into Fort Davidson, a small earth-work at
the end of the railroad. Price thereupon sent Shelby's
division to cut Ewing off from retreating on St. Louis,
while with Marmaduke's and Fagan's divisions, on the
afternoon of the 27th of September, he assaulted the
fort. He was repulsed with great slaughter, leaving on
the plain more killed and wounded than the entire num
ber of Ewing's command. He then placed batteries on
Shepherd's Mountain, which overhangs the fort, and
commenced to shell the garrison, when darkness sus
pended the conflict.
Late that night Ewing spiked his guns, except two
which he took with him, and, blowing up the magazine,
slipped through the enemy's lines by an unfrequented
road and struck out for St. Louis. At daybreak he en
countered Shelby's pickets, and thereupon turned west
and, marching rapidly all night, reached a ridge dividing
the Cortois from the Huzza, where the enemy overtook
him next morning. With his two field-guns he held the
pursuers at bay until dark, when he had to descend to the
plain. Here he was heavily outnumbered and nearly
surrounded, but by desperate fighting and marching
reached Harrison Station, four miles distant, where,
finding a large quantity of railroad ties, he intrenched
his command so formidably that night that the next day
the enemy abandoned the pursuit. By this campaign he
so delayed and crippled the invading army as to secure
the safety of St. Louis and contribute largely to Price's
expulsion from the State.
Since the war, General Ewing had been conspicuous at
the bar and in Congress and as Democratic candidate for
governor of Ohio. For ten years he practised law suc
cessfully, chiefly in New York City. He died in New
York City, January 20, 1896.

3o8

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

CHARLES F. MANDERSON.
General Charles Frederick Manderson was born,
of Scotch-Irish ancestry, February 9, 1837, at Philadel
phia, Pennsylvania, and received his education in the
schools of that city. Removing at nineteen years of age
to Canton, Ohio, he there studied law, and was admitted
to the bar in 1859. He was elected city solicitor of
Canton in i860, and re-elected the following year.
He enlisted as a private in the Canton Zouaves, an
independent company, on the day the news of the firing
on Fort Sumter was received, and immediately afterwards
joined with Samuel Beatty, an old Mexican soldier, in
raising a company of infantry. This company was re
cruited in a single day, he being made its first lieutenant.
In May, 1861, Captain Beatty was made colonel of the
Nineteenth Ohio infantry and Manderson became captain
of Company A of that regiment.
His command was among the first troops to occupy
West Virginia, the Nineteenth Ohio becoming part of the
brigade commanded by General Rosecrans in General
McClellan's army of West Virginia. The regiment took
part creditably in the first field battle of the war, July 1 1,
l86i,and Captain Manderson was specially mentioned in
the official report of this engagement. In August, 1861,
he re-enlisted his company for three years or the war,
and remained with the Nineteenth Ohio throughout,
rising through the grades of major, lieutenant-colonel, and
colonel. January 1, 1864, over four hundred survivors of
the regiment re-enlisted with him as veteran volunteers.
His promotion to major was made for distinguished
gallantly and exceptional service at the battle of Shiloh,
and at the battle of Murfreesboro, in which the regiment
behaved with remarkable gallantly, and lost nearly half
its force in killed and wounded, Major Manderson was
warmly recommended for exhibiting " the utmost cool

ness and daring." He was similarly commended for his
daring courage in the battle of New Hope Church, the
official report highly praising the splendid conduct of the
regiment, and saying, " Conspicuous for gallantry and
deserving of special mention is Colonel C. F. Manderson
of the Nineteenth Ohio." On September 2, 1 864, he led
his demi-brigade in a desperate charge on the enemy's
works at Lovejoy's Station, Georgia, and was severely
wounded in the spine and right side. He was here
spoken of as " always conspicuous for gallantry and skill."
As the ball was not extracted and caused him much
disability, he was obliged to resign the service in April,
1865. Before resigning he received the brevet rank of
brigadier-general of volunteers, to date March 13, 1865,
" for long, faithful, gallant, and meritorious services during
the War of the Rebellion," a distinction which he owed
to the recommendation of army commanders in the field.
General Manderson returned to Canton, Ohio, and
there resumed the practice of law. He was twice elected
district-attorney for Stark County. In 1867 his name
was offered for the Republican candidate for Congress
in a strong Republican district, and he came within one
vote of nomination.
In 1869, General Manderson removed to Omaha,
Nebraska, where he quickly became prominent in legal
and political affairs. He was a member of the Nebraska
State Constitutional Convention of 1871 and of 1874,
receiving the nomination of both political parties. He
became city attorney of Omaha, which position he held
for six years, and obtained signal success in the trial of
important municipal cases and attained high rank in his
profession. Politically, he received the highest honor which Ne
braska could confer, being elected United States Senator
as a Republican, his term beginning March 4, 1883. He
was re-elected to the Senate in 1888 without opposition,
and with exceptional marks of approbation from the
Legislature of Nebraska. His term expired March 4,
1895, and he declined to be a candidate for a third term,
preferring to retire to private life. During the second
session of the Fifty-first Congress he was unanimously
elected president pro tempore of the Senate. This unan
imous choice was without precedent, and was the highest
compliment which the Senate could have paid to one of
its members. He was chairman of the Joint Committee
on Printing, and a member of several other committees,
to which he gave highly valuable service.
On his retirement from the Senate he accepted the
position of general solicitor of the Burlington system of
railroads west of the Missouri River, which position he
now fills. For many years he has been an active com
rade of the Grand Army of the Republic, and for three
years was commander of the Military Order of the Loyal
Legion of the District of Columbia.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

309

COLONEL WILLIAM D' ALTON MANN.
Colonel Mann, well known on both continents as the
inventor of Mann's boudoir car, and now the directing
spirit of Tozvn Topics, the brilliant New York weekly,
was born in Sandusky City, Ohio, September 27, 1839.
He was educated for the profession of civil engineering,
but, at the outbreak of the war, entered the army in the
First Michigan Cavalry as a captain. In 1862 he organ
ized at Detroit, Michigan, the First Mounted Rifles,
which afterwards became the Fifth Michigan Cavalry,
and Daniel's horse battery. He was so successful in
getting these organizations ready for the field that, at
the request of the governor of Michigan, he organized
another cavalry regiment and battery, known as the
Seventh Michigan Cavalry, and Gunther's horse battery.
These troops became what was known in the Army of
the Potomac as the Michigan Cavalry Brigade, that
earned so much reputation under the great Sheridan.
In 1864, Colonel Mann devised most valuable improve
ments in the accoutrements for troops, for which he
received patents, and which were extensively adopted in
the United States army and the Austrian army, and
which returned to Colonel Mann a fortune in royalties.
After the close of the war, Colonel Mann settled in
Mobile, Alabama, engaging in various industrial enter
prises. He was a pioneer in the manufacture of cotton-seed
oil, erecting for that purpose the largest mill and refinery
then existing.
He became the proprietor of the old Mobile Register,
and for years directed its policy when it was the leading
paper of the South. He took an active interest in politics,
and was the first candidate of the Democratic party for
Congress from the Mobile district, under " reconstruc
tion," receiving a large majority of the votes, but was
counted out by the carpet-bag managers of the recon
struction State government. In 1871 he devised the
boudoir car, and spent the next ten years in introduc

ing that marvellous improvement in facilities of travel
throughout Europe. In 1883 he returned to this country,
settling in New York and founding the Mann Boudoir
Car Company. The boudoir cars became well known
throughout the United States, and combined a great
number of improvements and comforts which have more
or less since been adopted into the various sleeping and
parlor cars in use in this country. So great was their
popularity and the company prospered to such an extent
that his great rival, the Pullman Company, found it
advisable to buy out the plant and patents of Colonel
Mann's company. In 1 891, Colonel Mann purchased
Tozvn Topics, and now devotes his entire attention to its
management, having made of it a most successful journal,
with a circulation world-wide wherever English is read.
Colonel Mann is a great devotee of out-door sports,
particularly horseback-riding, shooting, and fishing. He
is a member of several clubs in this country and Europe,
and a companion of the Military Order of the Loyal
Legion.

310

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

CLARKE MERCHANT.
Clarke Merchant, a leading dealer in metals in
Philadelphia, was born at Oglethorpe Barracks, Savannah,
Georgia, September 20, 1836. He comes from a dis
tinguished and patriotic stock. His grandfather, George
Merchant, fought in the War of 18 12, and was afterwards
mayor of Albany, and New York State treasurer. His
father, Charles Spencer Merchant, was one of the first
cadets admitted to West Point, and served through all
the grades of the army until August, 1863, when he was
retired with the rank of colonel. In March, 1865, he
received the brevet rank of brigadier-general " for long
and faithful services in the army." He died in 1879.
General Merchant had several sons, one of whom died
from a wound received while in service against the
Seminole Indians of Florida. Clarke Merchant was
entered in the United States Naval Academy as a cadet,
and graduated as a midshipman in 1857. His first
cruise in that capacity was on the sloop-of-war " German-
town" to the East Indies, China, and Japan. Afterwards,
when United States Minister Ward was sent to Peking,
Mr. Merchant was made executive officer of the steamer
" Toey-wau," which was chartered to convey the minister
to the Chinese capital. He was present when the
English squadron was defeated by the Chinese forts
on the Pei-ho River, and his vessel towed the boats
containing the English sailors and marines into action.
Commodore Tatnall on this occasion made the memorable
declaration that " blood is thicker than water," and under
this sentiment proceeded to render valuable assistance to
the British combatants.
Subsequently, Mr. Merchant was sent to the Medi
terranean on the steamer " Susquehanna," and on the
outbreak of the Civil War was appointed to the " Pensa
cola." But as this vessel needed repairs he was ordered

to the Pacific Squadron, when he was appointed flag-
lieutenant under Admiral Montgomery, and afterwards,
when Admiral Bell succeeded to the command, -was
made flag-lieutenant and ordnance officer ofthe squadron.
Desiring, however, more active service than could be
had in the Pacific, he, in common with many officers
of the squadron, applied for service in the Atlantic.
The request was granted, and on his arrival in the East
he was appointed second lieutenant on the " Roanoke,"
then at New York. On the arrival of that frigate in
James River he was made executive officer. At the
close of the war he was ordered to the Naval Academy
at Newport as executive officer of the frigate " Constitu
tion," used there as a training-ship, Lieutenant Merchant's
duty being as instructor to cadets. He resigned from
the navy in 1865, with a view of engaging in a business
life and came to Philadelphia, where he became a mem
ber of the firm of Carman, Merchant & Shaw, agents in
that city for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company.
The business of this firm came to an end in the dis
covery of coal in the Pacific States, and Mr. Merchant
entered into business alone, as agent for the New Bedford
Copper Company, his trade being principally in sheathing
metal. To this he soon added sheet copper, and, his
business growing, took a larger store in 1868 at 517
Minor Street. His next move was to 507 Market Street,
where he remained ten years. While there, about 1878,
he added tin plate to the line of goods handled, and
eventually made an arrangement with the tin manufac
turers of Wales by which he gained a controlling position
in this line of trade. His house now handles the entire
product of some of the leading brands of roofing tin.
The growth of his business rendering more space
necessary, Mr. Merchant moved to 525 Arch Street, and
subsequently to 5 17 Arch Street, where he now occupies
a store specially erected for the business, and strengthened
to bear the great weight of brass, tin, iron, and other
metals which make up the stock of the firm. Some
years ago, Mr. Merchant began to guarantee the brands
of tin plate handled by him, and to stamp the grade, size,
and weight on the plates, so that purchasers would know
precisely what the)- were buying. This system has revolu
tionized the tin trade, dealers and manufacturers generally
having been obliged to adopt it. The good faith it indi
cated has inured to the advantage of the firm of Merchant
& Co., whose trade has steadily grown, and who now
have branch offices in New York, Chicago, and London,
managed by young men sent from the Philadelphia office.
Mr. Merchant married, in 1863, Miss Sarah S. Watts,
daughter of Hon. Henry M. Watts, at one time United
States Minister to Austria. His son, Henry W., is now
a member of the firm. Mr. Merchant is a member of
the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and an American
of warmly patriotic sentiments.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

3"

WILLIAM JAMES HOGG.
The portrait of this sketch represents the third gener
ation of a family which has been prominently identified
with the marvellous development of the carpet manu
facturing industry for over fifty years, and may be con
sidered to rank among the pioneers of this branch of
manufacture in this country.
The present representative of this family, William
James Hogg, is not a native of Worcester, Mass., being
one of the many enterprising young men whose brains and
capital have been attracted to Worcester as a promising
field for business enterprises, and whose skill and energy
have aided in making thecitya great manufacturing centre.
The genealogical record of the family in this country
begins with William Hogg, a wealthy linen manufacturer,
born in Scotland, who came to this country early in the
present century and settled in Northumberland County,
Pennsylvania. His son, William Hogg (2), a stanch
Scotch Presbyterian, removed to Philadelphia, and en
gaged in the manufacture of shawls and other woollen
fabrics, and in 1832 he began the manufacture of carpets.
The business became prosperous, and in 1846, having
amassed a competence, he withdrew, and was succeeded
by his son, William Hogg (3), who continued the business,
in connection with a younger brother James, until 1850,
when it was dissolved, and thereafter conducted by the
senior through many prosperous years.
William Hogg (3) was born in Philadelphia in 1820,
and died June 8, 1883. He married Catharine L. Horner,
the daughter of an old and well-known Philadelphia
family, who still survives him. William James Hogg is
the eldest son of this union. He was born in Philadelphia,
July 5, and was educated at Dr. Faires's school, Phila
delphia, and Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania.
William James Hogg began his business life with his
father in 1 868, and acquired an interest in the firm in 1 87 1 .
In July, 1879, he came to Worcester, and, in company
with his father, bought the Crompton Carpet Company,
changing the name to the Worcester Carpet Company,
the firm-name being William James Hogg & Co. Wil
liam James retained his interest in the Philadelphia house
until 1882, when he bought out his father's interest in the
Worcester Carpet Company, being the sole proprietor.
In 1883 he built a new mill, enlarging the weaving
capacity of the mills one-third, and in 1884 he added to
this plant the factories known as the Pakachoag Worsted
Mills, and engaged in spinning his own worsted yarns.
The facilities of power for running this plant were im
proved by Mr. Hogg buying the Stillwater Pond and
Dam. A year later this plant was further enlarged to
meet the demands of a growing business. The product
of the Worcester Carpet Company's Mills is Wilton and
Brussels carpets, and rugs of the finest grades.
In 1887, Mr. Hogg, in connection with Herbert L.

Stockwell, bought the Stoneville Worsted Mills, at
Auburn, which was refitted with new machinery for
the manufacture of worsted and woollen yarns. This
property also contains a large amount of land, excep
tionally good water-power, and numerous cottages.
William James Hogg married Frances Happoldt in
1 87 1, the third daughter of Mr. George F. Happoldt, of
Philadelphia, and has three sons and two daughters
living, the eldest son, William F., being now associated
with William James Hogg, making the fourth generation
of carpet manufacturers in this country.
Like his father, who was largely interested in real
estate in Philadelphia, Mr. Hogg has for several years
been a large investor in building lots in the south
western section of Worcester, where he owns large
tracts of lands, which he has improved by opening new
streets and building a number of modern houses.
Mr. Hogg is a Republican, and a firm believer in the
principle of protection to American industries. He is a
director ofthe Quinsigamond Bank and Worcester Board
of Trade, trustee of the Worcester Five-Cent Savings
Bank, and a member of two other banks. He is a member
of Piedmont Congregational Church, and is largely inter
ested in charitable work and associations, many of which
are deeply indebted to his generosity. He also ranks
high in the Masonic order, and is a member of four clubs,
having been president of one of them for two years.
In 1891 he purchased as a summer residence " Hillside
Farm," the former home of the famous temperance
lecturer, the late John B. Gough, and his success there
as a breeder of pure bred Jersey cattle is unsurpassed
even by his manufacturing industry.
Mr. Hogg has won a prominent place in business
circles, is widely known as a successful manufacturer, a
liberal and public-spirited citizen, and a genial gentleman.

312

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM F. McCULLY.
William Freeland McCully was born in Philadel
phia, December 8, 1839, his father, James McCully, being
a prominent Democratic citizen of the old Southwark
District, which he served, officially, as one of the Com
missioners, and also as a member of its School Board,
he being greatly interested in the public school system
of education. The son received his education in the
public schools of the city, his school life ending in the
Central High School at the age of sixteen, at which age
he was apprenticed to E. J. Hincken, one of the pro
prietors of the Sunday Dispatch, to learn the trade of
pressman. Having completed his term of apprenticeship
and mastered the craft, he was given the charge of the
press-room of the paper as foreman, and remained in this
position till 1859, when he accepted a similar position on
the Evening Bulletin. With that journal he has since re
mained connected, advancing from pressman to business
man. ^er, and from that post to publisher. Pie had pur
chased a number of shares in the stock of the publishing
company, and in 1873 he was taken into the firm, retain
ing the post of business manager, in which he had for
years shown himself so efficient.
The interest in the public schools shown by the elder
Mr. McCully was shared by his son, who early took an
active part in the management of the schools of his
ward, and when but twenty-two years of age was elected
a member of the School Board of the Third Section, and
chosen by his fellow-members president of the Board.
This position he held for three years, when he became

ineligible for re-election from having moved out of the
ward. During the days ofthe old Volunteer Fire Department,
Mr. McCully was closely connected with it, having be
come a member of the Hibernia Fire Engine Company
before he was eighteen years of age. At a subsequent
date he was elected recorder and treasurer of that or
ganization, and on the formation ofthe honorary associa
tion of members of the company called the " Old Guard,"
in 1865, he was elected a member of it, having served
nine years as an active fireman. When this association
was officially organized he was made its president, which
position he still holds. He is also president ofthe Hiber
nia Fire Company, which still keeps up its organization
despite the fact that the active duties of the volunteer
firemen have long been at an end. In January, 1894,
he was elected president of the Volunteer Fireman's
Association. When the Paid Fire Department was organized, De
cember 31, 1870, Mr. McCully was elected by the City
Councils a member of the new Board of Fire Commis
sioners organizing the present Paid Fire Department,
and served till 1875. In May, 1 881, he was re-elected by
Councils to fill an unexpired term ; and in February,
1883, was again elected for a full term. In 1875 he was
offered by his party a nomination to the office of Magis
trate, and in 1880 was nominated for Recorder of Deeds,
but declined both on the plea of a pressure of other duties.
On the various occasions in which the volunteer fire
men have taken part, in recent years, in public demon
strations, Mr. McCully has prominently officiated. On
Washington's Birthday, 1870, when the fire department
dedicated' a monument to David M. Lyle, late chief-
engineer of the department, he acted as chief-marshal
of the parade, and has occupied a post of honor on
anniversary and other occasions. On one of the reunions
of the company, he was presented with a handsome gold
watch and chain and Masonic mark (valued at seven
hundred dollars) in token of the appreciation of his ser
vices by his fellow-members.
Mr. McCully has been connected with the Americus
Club since its organization, being one of the original roll
of life members, and for twelve years its secretary. He
is also a prominent member of the Masonic order, being
a Past Master of Mt. Moriah Lodge, No. 155 ; a member
of Harmony Chapter, R. A. M., No. 52; a member of
Philadelphia Commandery, No. 2, Knights Templars ; a
Past Master of Philadelphia Council, and a member of
the Consistory.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

3i3

MOST REV. PATRICK J. RYAN.
Archbishop Ryan, long known as one of the most
learned and eloquent divines of the Roman Catholic
Church, is a native of Ireland, where he was born at
Thurles, County Tipperary, in 1831. While still a child
his predilection for the priesthood was manifest, and his
school-life in Dublin was followed by a term of theo
logical study in Carlow College, an institution noted for
the thoroughness of its training. Here he proved a
close student, and won first premiums in philosophy and
theology, and an appointment as prefect of the Lay
House. He completed his course and was ordained a
subdeacon in 1852, and immediately afterwards left Ire
land for America, which he had chosen as the scene of
his future labors. His destination was St. Louis, where
he was cordially received by the bishop of the diocese,
and at once appointed to the chair of Sacred Eloquence
in the Theological Seminary, being also given the privi
lege of preaching in the Cathedral, though not yet a
priest. These honors were due to the impression which his
great zeal and commanding talents had made on his
superiors, who predicted for him a brilliant future. In
1853 he was ordained to the priesthood, and made assist
ant rector of the St. Louis Cathedral. In 1856 he was
appointed rector, and in i860 was given charge of the
parish of the Annunciation, in which he built a fine
church edifice and a parochial school. During the Civil
War he was active in charitable pursuits, acting as chap
lain of the Gratiot Street Military Prison and Hospital,
where his kind and genial ministrations were of the high
est service to the prisoners and the wounded, many of
the inmates being induced by his unselfish devotion to
their needs to embrace religion and become professing
Christians. After the war Mr. Ryan became rector of St. John's
Church, in St. Louis, and in 1866 attended the Second
Plenary Council at Baltimore, where he preached a ser
mon on " The Sanctity of the Church," which attracted
wide attention from the learning and eloquence displayed.
During this period he also delivered many public lectures
in Missouri and the adjoining States, laboring with an
incessant diligence which only a man of robust consti
tution could have endured. On several occasions he
lectured before the members of the State Legislature,
with a power and eloquence that drew members of all
denominations to hear his attractive addresses.
This period of severe labor was followed by a year's
travel in Europe, during which he visited Rome on the
celebration of the eighteenth centenary of St. Peter's
death, and received the high distinction of being invited
by the Papal authorities to deliver the English course of
Lenten sermons in that city. This is considered one of
the greatest honors that can be conferred upon a priest,

and is bestowed only on orators ot the highest reputa
tion for eloquence and power.
On his return to America in 1868, he was appointed
Vicar-General of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, and ad
ministered the diocese during the absence of the arch
bishop at Rome. He performed his duties in this office
so admirably that, in 1872, at the request of Archbishop
Kenrick, he was consecrated Coadjutor Bishop of St.
Louis, with the title of Bishop of Tricomia, in Palestine.
He visited Rome again in 1883, on which occasion he
once more preached in that city, and was promoted to
the rank of Archbishop of Salamis, though still continu
ing Coadjutor of St. Louis. In 1884 he received the
appointment of Archbishop of the Diocese of Phila
delphia, a position which he has since filled with the
highest respect from men of all creeds and professions.
At a social reception tendered him on this occasion,
he was most warmly welcomed to Philadelphia in an
address by Bishop Stevens of the Protestant Episcopal
Church. In 1888, Archbishop Ryan again visited Ro^e, on
which occasion he preached the sermon on the laying of
the corner-stone of the National Irish Church in that
city. He also delivered an address to Pope Leo XIII.,
on the occasion of presenting to him a gift from the
President of the United States. Of Archbishop Ryan's
lectures and sermons many have been published, some of
them going through several editions and becoming very
popular. Several addresses were delivered by him at
the World's Columbian Exposition, the most important
being on the Educational Exhibit. It may be said, in
conclusion, that Archbishop Ryan, while modest and un
assuming to a marked degree, stands to-day as one of
the most conspicuous and most loved and honored pre
lates of the Roman Catholic Church in America.

40

3i4

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

WILLIAM STEVENS PERRY, D.D.
William Stevens Perry, Protestant Episcopal Bishop
of Iowa, was born at Providence, Rhode Island, January
22, 1832, being the oldest son of the late Stephen and
Katharine W. Perry. On his father's side he is descended
from John Perry, who reached New England in 1636, in
company with John Eliot, the celebrated missionary to
the Indians. On his mother's side he is descended from
William Stevens, a privateersman in the Revolution, and
his son of the same name, a lieutenant in the War of 1 8 1 2.
From the schools of his native city Mr. Stevens
entered Brown University, and in 185 1, Harvard College,
where he graduated in the class of 1854. He afterwards
spent several months in the Virginia Theological School,
near Alexandria, and then returned to Watertown, Massa
chusetts, where his family then resided, to take charge
of an effort to found an Episcopal church in the adjoin
ing town of Newton. This effort proved successful, the
now prosperous Grace Church was organized, and after
being connected with it in minor duties, and continuing
his theological studies, he was ordained deacon in its
temporary place of worship by Bishop Eastburn, of
Massachusetts. On April 7, 1858, he was ordained
priest by the same prelate, in St. Paul's Church, Boston,
his uncle, Rev. William Bacon Stevens, of St. Andrew's
Church, Philadelphia, being the preacher.
Beginning his ministerial duties as assistant to the
rector of St. Paul's, in 1857-58, he became rector of
St. Luke's, Nashua, New Hampshire, in 1858, of St.
Stephen's, Portland, Maine, in 1861, of St. Michael's,
Letchfield, Connecticut, in 1864, and of Trinity, Geneva,
New York, in 1869, remaining in the latter post of duty
till 1876. Early in 1876, Dr. Perry was offered the po
sition of foreign secretary to the Board of Missions,
and subsequently that of president of Kenyon College,

Gambier, Ohio, both of which he declined. Shortly
afterwards, a unanimous election to the presidency of
Hobart College, Geneva, New York, being tendered him,
he accepted, and entered upon the duties of this office.
He had previously served in this institution (without
salary) as professor of history from 1871 to 1874. He
continued rector of Trinity and president of Hobart
until his consecration to the episcopate, in 1876.
During his term of ministerial service Dr. Perry was
busily engaged also in general church work. He was a
deputy from the New Hampshire diocese to the general
convention of 1859, and has been present at every trien
nial convention since that time. He was associated with
Rev. Francis L. Hawks in preparing and publishing an
annotated edition of the early records of general con
vention legislation. This work, completed by himself,
was published in three volumes in 1874. In 1868, on
the death of Dr. Hawks, he was appointed by the con
vention " historiographer" of the American church.
This important official position he still retains.
Dr. Perry received the honorary degree of M.A. from
the University of Bishops' College, Canada, in 1859; of
D.D. from Trinity College, Hartford, in 1869; of LL.D.
from William and Mary College, Virginia, in 1876, and
from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1894; of D.D. (Oxon.),
from Oxford University, England, in 1888; and of
D.C.L. from several colleges. He was unanimously
elected bishop of Iowa in May, 1876, and was conse
crated to the episcopate in Trinity Church, Geneva, on
September 10 of that year. During his episcopate
Bishop Perry has consecrated fifty churches, has held
over one hundred ordinations, and has founded two large
church schools at Davenport, Iowa ; St. Katharine's Hall,
for girls, and Kemper Hall, for boys. In 1895 he estab
lished a church hospital in the same city. During his
episcopate the members of his churches, clergy, and con
gregations have increased threefold.
Bishop Perry is probably the most voluminous writer
of the American Episcopal Church, his list of writings
comprising about one hundred and twenty-five separate
titles. They are chiefly historical. Pie is at present
engaged in preparing a history of " The Episcopate in
America," which promises to be of high historical value.
Others of his important works are " Papers relating to
the History of the Church in Virginia" and "Historical
Collections of the American Colonial Church."
He is an hereditary member of the Society of the
Cincinnati, by virtue of the Revolutionary services of his
great-grandfather, Lieutenant Abel Perry, and was for a
number of years chaplain-general of the order. He is a
member also of many historical and other societies. He
was married in 1 862 to Sarah Abbott Woods, daughter
of Rev. Thomas M. Smith, formerly president of Kenyon
College.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

315

SAMUEL BELL.
Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Bell was born
in Reading, Pennsylvania, April 25, 1827. He is the son
of the late Judge Samuel Bell, of Reading, and a man of
thorough training, having received a most liberal edu
cation. Prior to the breaking out of the war he was a
member of the wholesale house of Knight & Bell, in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but at the call for volunteers
he gave up his business as a merchant and enlisted as a
private in April, 1861, and served in the three months'
campaign with the First Troop, Philadelphia City Cav
alry. He was afterwards selected by Governor Curtin as one
of the commissioners on the draft for Philadelphia, and
subsequently was appointed additional paymaster in the
regular army by President Lincoln, with the rank of
major, and he, in this position, stood in the foremost rank
for integrity of character and efficiency in the perform
ance of his duties, for which he was brevetted lieutenant-
colonel by President Johnson. When the Rebellion
closed he resigned his commission, and again became a
private citizen, and so remained until he received the
appointment of deputy United States naval officer at
Philadelphia. In this position he proved himself of great
value to the government, and made himself a general
favorite with the commercial and business men. This
post he afterwards resigned at the instance of Judge
McKennan, in order to accept, April 12, 1870, the post of
clerk of the United States Circuit Court for the Eastern

District of Pennsylvania, which he now fills, with honor
to the court and with great satisfaction to the legal pro
fession. Colonel Bell is also one of the Board of Council
and chairman of the Committee on Education of the
Lincoln Institution of Philadelphia. He has been one
of the most active members of the Philadelphia Union
League since its organization, and is one of the oldest
members of the Philadelphia City Troop. He was
elected a member of the Military Order of Loyal Legion
of the United States November 4, 1 874, and still keeps
up an interest in military matters.

316

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ISAAC H. CLOTHIER.
Isaac H. Clothier, of the widely-known retail dry-
goods establishment of Strawbridge & Clothier, is a
native of Philadelphia, in which city he was born Novem
ber 5, 1837. His parents were members of the Society
of Friends, and his education was principally obtained in
the schools of that society, his school-life ending at the
age of seventeen, when he entered the importing dry-
goods house of George D. Parrish & Co. In this estab
lishment he remained six years, gaining a valuable train
ing in mercantile business, and displaying that activity
and commercial aptitude which have been the elements
of his success in life. He left this house at the age of
twenty-three to enter into business for himself, in associ
ation with George Morris and Edmund Lewis. This firm,
known by the name of Morris, Clothier & Lewis, con
ducted a successful cloth business for eight years, their
establishment being situated on Second Street above
Chestnut Street.
In 1868 Mr. Clothier accepted proposals from Justus
C. Strawbridge to enter into partnership with him, and
on the ist of July of that year the retail dry-goods estab
lishment of Strawbridge & Clothier was founded in the
location which it still occupies, at the northwest corner
of Market and Eighth Streets. It began in a store of
modest dimensions, and in a comparatively small way,
but the business ability of the firm was shown alike in
their choice of location and the skill and activity with

which they pushed their interests, and from the start the
enterprise was successful. The business grew, indeed, with
such rapidity that an enlargement of the establishment
became necessary every few years, the first of these being
made in 1875, and others successively in 1877, 1878, 1881,
and 1882. In 1887 the trade of the firm had grown so
great that an extensive enlargement became necessary,
and the large building previously occupied by Hood, Bon-
bright & Co. was added to the already seemingly ample
store, giving a ground area of over fifty thousand square
feet, with a height of five stories. The establishment, as
thus extended, probably covers a greater area than any
other in America devoted to the retail sale of dry-goods.
During the period within which this firm has been in ex
istence there have been marked changes in the methods
of conducting retail business in Philadelphia. The era
of great general stores has come, and in this expansion
of business ideas and facilities Strawbridge & Clothier
have kept pace with their competitors, and now possess
an establishment which has no superior of its kind in
this country.
Mr. Clothier has been active in the business from his
first connection with it, and for the past fifteen years has
been its leading spirit ; as, while Mr. Strawbridge has
retained his interest in the firm, but has not given close
or continuous attention to the business, while Mr. Clo
thier's interest and activity remain as great as at the
beginning. His time and attention are naturally in great
part absorbed by the responsibilities of his large business
establishment, but he finds time for other duties, educa
tional, charitable, etc. He has been for many years an
active manager of Swarthmore College, and has contrib
uted largely, in money as well as in time and labor, to
the success of this institution. He is also a director of
the Merchants' Fund, the Girard Trust Company, the
Mortgage Trust Company of Philadelphia, etc.
Strawbridge & Clothier are actively identified with
everything relating to the prosperity of Philadelphia and
its citizens, but this is principally as a firm, since, person
ally, Mr. Clothier is retiring in disposition and averse to
personal notoriety. His home is near Wynnewood Sta
tion, Pennsylvania Railroad, seven miles from the city,
and he has a summer home on Conanicut Island, oppo
site Newport, Rhode Island. He was married in 1864
to Miss Jackson, daughter of William Jackson, of Phila
delphia. Pie is a member of the Society of Friends, and
attends the Meeting held at Fifteenth and Race Streets,
Philadelphia.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

317

JAMES DOUGLAS WELLS.
James Douglas Wells, a familiar figure in the insur
ance circles of New York City, is a Canadian by birth,
having been born in the Province of Ontario. Whether
or not we accept the dictum that Canada is a good place
to emigrate from, it must be admitted that it has sent
many able men to the United States, who have become
successful and desirable elements of our population. In
the front rank of these we may place the subject of our
sketch. Mr. Wells's father, prior to his appointment by the
Canadian government to the position of sheriff of the
counties of Prescott and Russell, conducted an extensive
business in Ontario, in which the son, while still quite
young, — though after receiving a liberal education, —
was given a position, and received a thorough business
training. He gained here, indeed, an experience that
has been of the utmost value to him, and which proved
an excellent foundation for his subsequent successful
career. He was a born insurance man, possessed of those
faculties and tendencies which inevitably lead to promi
nence in that field, and it can be easily understood how
he ultimately drifted into this line of business. His ex
perience in this field of activity was obtained during his
management of certain life insurance companies across
the border, whose business he successfully prosecuted.
His success in this direction led him, about the year
1884, into connection with the Mutual Reserve Fund
Life Association of New York, whose system appeared
to him as the proper one on which the business of life
insurance should be conducted, and of which he became
the first manager in the Dominion of Canada.
As regards the value of the service rendered by Mr.
Wells to this company, and the ability displayed by him
in furthering its interests among the frugal population of
the Dominion, we need but point for evidence to the en
viable position now occupied by the Mutual Reserve in
the confidence and esteem of the Canadian people, the
magnificent volume of choice business which it has ac
quired in that country, now amounting to nearly twenty-
five millions of dollars, and the large and increasing
amount written there from year to year. His immediate
connection with the Canadian field of activity ended in
1890, when President Harper, of the Mutual Reserve,
called him to the home office of that association to take
charge of its Agency Department. But, on leaving
Canada, he did not leave its business to drift away from
the association. His wide knowledge and experience in
field work enabled him to make a happy choice of com
petent men to succeed him in the management of the
interests of the association in the region in which he had
so ably worked, and he has in this way contributed
largely to the continued growth and prosperity of the

Mutual Reserve among our neighbors beyond the north
ern boundary of the United States.
The able management displayed by Mr. Wells in his
control of the Agency Department of the company has
been recognized by his promotion to other fields of
activity in its home office, and he is now its second
vice-president and chairman of the Executive Com
mittee. In this responsible position he shows himself
always prompt and alert in discharging the many
duties which devolve upon him, and in administering
the affairs of the large field under his supervision, and
none of the corps of active workers in the association
surpass him in earnest and intelligent devotion to its
interests. Mr. Wells is a man of high popularity not only with
the managers and agents in the field, but also with his
brother officers, with whom he comes into daily and
familiar contact, and with the employees of the associa
tion generally. In fact, in business life he is at all times
genial and approachable, and possesses that quality of
kindly consideration for the feelings of others which
justly makes a man popular among his associates, and
goes far to soften the rough grinding of the wheels of
business life.
Mr. Wells has taken no active and prominent part in
political affairs since making his home in the United
States, although he hails from a family prominent in
Canadian politics, his brother, the Hon. R. M. Wells,
being the late speaker of the Canadian Parliament.
Socially Mr. Wells has made himself a welcome figure
by his genial and amiable disposition. He is a member
of the Toronto, Lotus, Midwood, Knickerbocker, Marine
and Field, and Arkwright Clubs, and his house is always
open to his friends, and he may fairly be looked upon as
the embodiment of generous hospitality.

3i8

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

EDWARD M. PAXSON.
Hon. Edward M. Paxson, late chief justice of the
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, was born at Bucking
ham, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, September 3, 1824.
He is of English descent, and his family may be traced
to Bycot House, Buckingham, Bucks County, England,
where they had resided from the days of William the
Conqueror. The American branch of the family came
to this country about 1682, as a part of the colony of
Friends founded by William Penn. The parents of
Judge Paxson were Thomas and Ann Paxson, his mother
being descended from a family that came from Ireland
prior to the Revolution. He received his education in
the schools of the Friends' Society, and showed such
unusual intellectual powers that when but fifteen years
of age he succeeded in winning a prize, consisting of a
complete library set of the " Waverley Novels," offered
by the Saturday Courier for the best essay or tale.
His school studies ending, he conceived the idea of
establishing a newspaper in his native county, and to
prepare himself for this enterprise learned the art of
printing. He then founded the Nezvtozvn Journal, at
Newtown, Bucks County, and edited and conducted it
with such skill and ability as to attract much favorable
attention. In 1847, having conducted the Journal with
an accompanying printing-office for five years, he sold it
and removed to Philadelphia, where he founded a paper
called the Daily Nezvs. This was sold in its turn, after a
year's existence, and the young editor turned his attention
to the study of the law, towards which he had long felt
an inclination. His studies were conducted under Hon.
Henry Chapman, of Doylestown, and ended on April 24,
1850, with his admission to practice at the bar. After a
short term of practice at Doylestown, he removed to

Philadelphia, where he opened an office, and, by energy
and earnestness, in a few years built himself up a large
and lucrative practice.
By the time of the beginning of the Civil War, Mr.
Paxson had gained a very extended and profitable legal
business, and was in receipt of an excellent income.
During the war he was a firm and zealous supporter of
the cause of the government, and politically a stanch
Republican, from the principles of which party he has
never swerved. In 1869 he was selected by Governor
Geary to fill the vacancy on the bench of the Philadel
phia Court of Common Pleas, occasioned by the appoint
ment of Judge F. Carroll Brewster to the post of attorney-
general of the State. This act of the executive was
heartily endorsed in professional circles, while Judge
Paxson gave such general satisfaction by his judicial
ability on the bench that at the close of the term he
received the unanimous nomination of the Republican
party for the office. He was elected by a majority much
beyond that for the rest of the ticket, the people thus,
without regard to party lines, testifying their respect and
confidence in one who had shown himself a learned and
upright judge. His later record on the bench of the
Common Pleas added so greatly to his reputation that
his name was soon mentioned in connection with higher
judicial honors, and in 1874 he received the nomination
for justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Penn
sylvania, and was elected to this exalted post, the election
being the first held under the new constitution of the
State. As a justice of the Supreme Court, Judge Paxson
quickly took a leading position among his colleagues,
and maintained it by his industry, learning, and fine
judicial powers. A master of the law, his opinions were
remarkable for clearness, terseness, and logical exactness,
yet they all show careful preparation and deep thought.
His industry was untiring, and he was conscientious
to the last degree, making a scrupulously thorough ex
amination of every matter that came before him for
judgment. Many most important cases, involving in
the aggregate millions of dollars, which came before
the Supreme Court during his connection with it, were
intrusted by his associates to his decision, they thus
testifying to their deep confidence in his judgment and
integrity. No judge on the Supreme Bench of the State
ever stood higher than he in the respect and esteem of
the community, and when, in January, 1879, he became,
by seniority, chief justice of the State, his accession to
this dignity was greeted with general satisfaction. In
1893 he resigned the office of chief justice to accept that
of receiver of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad
Company, and is at present engaged in the difficult task
of seeking to settle the involved affairs of that corpo
ration.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

319

JUDSON NEWELL CROSS.
Captain Judson Newell Cross, the son of Rev.
Gorham Cross, for fifty-three years a Congregational
minister at Richville, New York, and of Sophia Mur
doch Cross, of Vermont, was born January 16, 1838, at
Philadelphia, Jefferson County, New York. He was
educated at Oberlin College, Ohio, and was the second
to sign the roll at Oberlin, April 20, 1861, when a hun
dred college students enlisted in a half-hour and became
the somewhat famous Company C, Seventh Ohio Infantry.
He was elected first lieutenant April 29, 1861, served
through the several campaigns in West Virginia, and
was editor of the Ohio Seventh at Weston, West Virginia,
published July 4, 1861, the first paper published by
Union soldiers on secession type, press, and territory.
Lieutenant Cross was severely wounded in the arm and
shoulder, and taken prisoner, at the battle of Cross Lanes
in West Virginia, but while in the rebel camp hospital
after the battle of Carnifax Ferry, September 10, 1861,
Major Rutherford B. Hayes, subsequently President,
built a raft, and, crossing the swift mountain-stream, the
Gauley River, recaptured him. He was thence taken to
the Marine Hospital at Cincinnati.
On November 25, 1861, he was promoted captain of
Company K, Seventh Ohio Infantry, and served as re
cruiting officer at Cleveland, Ohio. On the anniversary
of his recapture, September 11, 1862, he married, at
Oberlin, Ohio, Clara Steele Norton, a descendant of John
Steele, the leader of the founders of Connecticut. He
rejoined his regiment early in 1863, but on account of
his wound resigned on February 9, and began the study
of law at the Albany Law Schools. Soon after, on June
13, he was commissioned first lieutenant in the Fifth
Veteran Reserve Corps, and promoted captain October
28, 1863.
In December, 1863, Captain Cross was placed in com
mand of the military post at Madison, Indiana, where
he remained until April, 1 864, when he was made adjutant-
general of the Military district of Indiana, and chief of
staff of the commanding general of that district. In
July, 1864, he was appointed assistant provost-marshal
of the District of Washington, D. C, and in November,
provost-marshal of Georgetown, D. C, and soon after
special mustering officer, to muster for pay, at Annapolis,
Maryland, the returned prisoners of war from Anderson-
ville. In 1864 he suggested to General Grant a plan
for demolishing the forts around Petersburg and Rich
mond by dropping nitro glycerin and torpedoes from
balloons, a plan of warfare likely to come into vogue
in future wars. About the same time he suggested a
plan for a photographic, descriptive, and military record
of every soldier in the United States. He resigned
his commission and was honorably discharged March
16, 1865.

Returning to his law studies at Columbia College and
Albany Law Schools, he graduated in the spring of
1866, and began the practice of law at Lyons, Iowa,
where for about ten years he was a partner of the Hon.
A. R. Cotton. In 1871, he was elected mayor of the
city of Lyons, and in 1875 came to Minneapolis, his
present place of residence, and formed a law partnership
with his old classmate, now Judge H. G. Hicks. In
1879, in a series of articles, he called attention to the
necessity of a railroad from Minneapolis and St. Paul
around the north shore of Lake Michigan to the east,
which resulted in the construction of the great " Soo" line.
He was three times elected city attorney of Minneapolis,
and held the office from 1883 to 1887. He was the origi
nator of the novel " patrol limits" ordinance of Minne
apolis, which limited the licensing of saloons to the
business centre of the city, where the saloons could be
actively watched by the police. He also brought suits
which compelled the railroads passing through the city
to sink their tracks about fourteen feet and build iron
bridges over four of the principal avenues of the city.
In 1 89 1 he was appointed on the Board of Immigration
Commissioners to Europe. While in England he fer
reted out and reported to the government the method
of sending inmates of English prisons to the United
States, through the agency of the Prisoners' Aid Soci
eties, at the expense of the British government.
In 1895, in a letter to President Dole of the Hawaiian
republic, he proposed that Hawaii should annex itself to
the United States and, as a Territory of this country,
send a delegate to Congress. For this seemingly new
political suggestion he showed precedents in the self-
annexation of San Salvador to the United States and
the other Central American provinces to the Mexican
empire and Colombian republic in 1822.

320

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

ARCHIBALD A. McLEOD.
Archibald Angus McLeod is, as his name indicates,
of Scotch descent. He was born in the year 1848, and
was thus one of the youngest men ever intrusted with
such extensive railroad interests as came under his con
trol. After obtaining a fair academical education, he
studied civil engineering, and began his railroad career
while still a youth, as rod-man in the surveys for the
Northern Pacific Railroad. As he grew older and at
tained experience, his force of character, executive ability,
and devotion to duty brought him rapid progress in his
profession, so that by 1882 he had attained the respon
sible but inconspicuous position of general manager of
the Elmira, Cortlandt and Northern Railroad. The
Philadelphia and Reading Railroad was then in the
midst of a desperate struggle for existence, and in such a
condition that only a man of ability and resources could
hope to rescue it from failure. In this state of affairs Mr.
McLeod was chosen for the difficult task, and the work
of rejuvenation of the Reading placed in his hands.
Pie found the Reading largely destitute of facilities
adequate to its business. Its physical condition was
wretched and its equipment antiquated. It greatly
lacked passenger and freight depot facilities; its road
bed was imperfect; it needed sidings and increased
trackage ; its bridges and tunnels were too narrow for
modern cars ; its motive power was inadequate ; the
coal cars were generally of small capacity and light
construction, and in all respects the road was behind
the age.
Such were the condition of affairs which confronted
Mr. McLeod when he entered upon the management
of the company. Fortunately for him, he possessed
the best attributes of his sturdy and tenacious race.

Courage, pertinacity, a strong sense of right and justice,
and a quick mental grasp of subjects submitted to his
decision, were marked characteristics of the man, and to
them was added a physique capable of great endurance.
All these faculties were needed. He had to transform
the road; virtually to rebuild it in great part, with an
empty treasury, backed by a nearly bankrupt company.
These seemingly insuperable difficulties did not deter
him. With tireless energy he went to work, and in a
marvellously short space of time modernized the road,
laying many miles of new track, building new stations,
establishing storage plants for coal, erecting warehouses,
and leasing or purchasing wharves. All this was done
without increasing the percentage of expense. On the
contrary, a notable decrease was effected, while the
rapidity with which the interests of the road were
expanded startled the railroad world. When he took
hold of the road it was a circumscribed coal line, Phila
delphia and the coal regions being its terminal points.
When he resigned it had made wide-spread connections
with other roads, and had facilities extending to all the
chief industrial centres.
The splendid terminal station of the Reading Railroad
in Philadelphia is another monument to the genius of
Mr. McLeod. He warmly supported the belt line in
that city, was connected with the Pennsylvania Ware
house Company, and from his efforts arose the North
Atlantic Steamship Line, which later developed into the
N. A. Trident Line. In 1893 Mr. McLeod resigned his
presidency of the Reading Railroad and removed to
New York, in which city he has since resided, and in
which his great ability and surpassing energy have been
as strongly felt as in his former places of residence. In
New York he at once turned his attention to the question
of rapid transit, perhaps the most important of recent
problems in that city. He has developed plans which
seem effectually to solve this difficult question, and at a
cost so much below that of other plans suggested as to
have won for them almost universal approval.
In the years that have elapsed since his removal to
New York, Mr. McLeod has won a leading position in
the financial and transportation interests of that city with
the same ease and facility as he did in Philadelphia, and
has attained unquestioned prominence in railroad and
banking circles. Although he has not accepted the
presidency of any large railroad, he is connected in an
advisory capacity with several prominent roads, and is
making his genius for business and management felt in
every corporation with which he is connected. Mr.
McLeod, in short, is a man of wonderful ability, splendid
physique, and surprising energy, is still in the' prime of
life, and has, doubtless, before him a long future of useful
labor and abundant success.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

!2I

CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW.
Chauncey M. Depew, whose name has become almost
a household word in this country, was born at Peekskill,
New York, April 23, 1 834. On his father's side he comes
from Huguenot stock, his ancestors having left France
on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and founded
New Rochelle, in Westchester County, New York. On
his mother's side he is descended from Roger Sherman,
of historical fame.
After a preliminary education in his native place, Mr.
Depew entered Yale College, from which he graduated
in 1856. He subsequently studied law at Peekskill, and
was admitted to practise at the bar in 1858. He had
already manifested a decided tendency towards politics,
and developed that oratorical ability to which he owes
his wide-spread reputation. While still studying law, he
was recognized as a valuable aid to his party, the Re
publican, and was sent as a delegate to the Republican
State convention of New York in 1858. In 1859 he
began legal practice, but in the same year took the stump
in the political campaign, in which he showed marked
power as a political orator.
In i860, Mr. Depew became a candidate for the State
legislature, and was elected, though his district was
Democratic. He was re-elected in 1862, and during this
term served as chairman of the Committee on Ways and
Means. In 1863 he received the Republican nomination
for Secretary of State of New York. In the campaign
he showed an industry and capacity that have rarely
been equalled. For six weeks he made speeches twice
a day, and with such effect that he was not only elected,
but received the triumphant majority of thirty thousand.
At a later date he was offered the post of United States
minister to Japan, which he finally declined after retain
ing the commission in his possession, under considera
tion, for some months.
In 1866, Mr. Depew withdrew from political life to
devote himself to his profession, and was appointed by
Vanderbilt attorney for the New York and Harlem Rail
road. In this position he showed such industry and skill
that in 1869 he was made attorney for the New York
Central and Hudson River Railroad, — formed by con
solidation in that year. Ten years later the entire Van
derbilt system of railroads was placed under his legal
care, and he was made a director in the board of each
road. This important field of duty gave him an abun
dance of labor, much of it requiring the highest legal
skill, but in 1872 he ran for lieutenant-governor of the
State as the candidate ofthe " Independent Party" which
arose that year. This party proved very short-lived, and
Mr. Depew's candidacy died with it.
In 1 874 he was made regent of the University of the
State of New York, and was appointed on the commis
sion to superintend the erection of the State capitol. In

1881, at the time of the resignation of Senators Conklin
and Platt from the United States Senate, Mr. Depew
became one of the candidates for the vacant seats. The
struggle was a protracted one, his force growing till on
the twenty-fourth ballot he lacked but ten votes of elec
tion. The murder of President Garfield ended the strug
gle. It became imperative that New York should be
represented in the Senate, and Mr. Depew withdrew his
name in favor of his leading opponent.
In 1882, on the retirement of Mr. William H. Vander
bilt from the presidency of the New York Central, and
the election of Mr. J. H. Rutter in his place, Mr. Depew
was made second vice-president. The new president
died in 1885, and Mr. Depew was elected to the presi
dency in his place. This important post he has since
then continued to fill. He is also president of the West
Shore Railroad Company. Among other positions which
have been occupied by him are those of president of the
Union League and of the Yale Alumni Association,
director in the Union Trust Company, the Western
Union Telegraph Company, the Equitable Life Assurance
Company, and St. Luke's Hospital, and member of the
New York Chamber of Commerce.
As a lawyer, Mr. Depew has been a remarkably hard
worker. He is best known, however, for his telling
oratory, which has been heard effectively in national
Republican conventions (as in his striking presentation
of ex-President Harrison's claims at the last conven
tion), at the Chicago World's Exposition, and on many
other important occasions, and which is not only bril
liantly incisive, but is irradiated with a rich humor
which has had much to do with his wide reputation.
This latter power is particularly displayed on social
occasions, and he is voted the best after-dinner speaker
in America.

41

322

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

HOMER LEE.
Homer Lee is a descendant of the well-known family
of Lees, of Ditchley, England, and comes in direct descent
from the first American of the family, who emigrated to
this country in 1641. He was born at Mansfield, Ohio,
where his father, John Lee, carried on the business of
engraving, which he early taught his son. While still
quite young, Mr. Lee went to Toledo, and learned the
business of enamelling from a firm in that city. His
next movement was to Cincinnati, where he became
skilled in the art of chasing. Thus equipped, and still
a young lad, he applied for a position to the American
Bank-Note Company, in Cincinnati, which, perhaps for
tunately for himself, he failed to secure. Certainly his
failure in this application led to his soon after embarking
in business for himself.
Finding no employment in the West, he went to New
York, and there apprenticed himself to a steel-engraver,
his first year's salary to be #100, with half of what he
could earn by overwork. His apprenticeship soon ended,
however, his employer failing before the completion of
his first year's work. Mr. Lee, thus thrown upon his
own resources, resolved, though he had not yet reached
the age of manhood, to embark in business on his own
account. He had managed to save about $300, and with
this he began an engraving business in Liberty Street,
under the firm-name of Homer Lee &Co., in which the
" Co." was but a dignified addition, with no representa
tive. But by renting desk-room to a fine-looking old
gentleman, he contrived to offset his own very youthful
aspect. For several years the firm of Homer Lee & Co. had
a struggle for existence. Some orders came in, but only
such as Mr. Lee could himself execute. But at the end
of this time he had the fortune to secure a large contract

from an Ohio railroad. This he offered to the American
Bank-Note Company, approaching this concern now in
a different position from his former humble application
for work. The contract netted him $1000, which addi
tion to his working capital proved the turning-point in
his business career. Orders in abundance now came,
and in 1881 he organized the Homer Lee Bank-Note
Company, with a capital of $30,000, which amount was
soon after increased to $500,000, and by the excellence
of its work was admitted on the New York Stock Ex
change. Mr. Lee became vice-president, treasurer, and
manager of this company, its president being Colonel
William L. Strong, of the Central National Bank, now
mayor of the city of New York. Other members of the
company were Hon. Calvin S. Brice, General Samuel
Thomas, Hon. Hugh J. Jewett, and A. D. Juilliard.
The progress of this corporation has been highly satis
factory, mainly through the skill, judgment, and intelli
gent management of Mr. Lee. The plant, which is in
the Tribune building, has become one of the largest en
graving establishments in the world, and the work pro
duced by it has a very wide acceptance, it being held
as a good delivery not only on the New York Stock
Exchange but on the Paris Bourse, the London, Berlin,
and Frankfort Exchanges.
Mr. Lee invented and introduced into the Treasury
Department, despite much opposition, a new system of
printing goverment securities by steam-power, having
underbidden the Engraving Bureau for the postal note
contract. An expert report from him induced Secretary
Folger to take final action in the Brockway bond case,
by which was broken up the most successful gang of
counterfeiters in this country. He was also largely
instrumental in inducing Congress to pass an act making
it a crime to counterfeit foreign bank-notes in this country.
Such a law, strangely enough, had existed in regard to
postage-stamps, but not to bank-notes.
Aside from his active business connections, Mr. Lee
is strongly interested in social and art matters. He was
one of the three original founders of the Ohio Society
of New York, and for several years its secretary. He is
a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Colonial,
Salmagundi, and Lotos Clubs, the Sculpture Society,
and Society of the American Revolution, a Mason of
the thirty-second degree, a trustee of St. John's Guild,
etc. While still an apprentice he received a prize
medal from the Paris Exposition for skill in engraving.
Pie is also an able artist, and is an exhibitor at the
National Academy of Design. His private collection of
paintings is one of the finest on the west side of New
York. Mr. Lee was also one of the incorporators of the
United States Savings Bank, and the Legal Surety
Company.

MEN OF THE CENTURY.

323

WILLIAM HENRY EGLE.
William Henry Egle, the efficient State librarian of
Pennsylvania, was born at Harrisburg, in that State,
September 17, 1830, being descended from German and
Swiss ancestors, who came to this country prior to 1740,
and members of whose descendants served in the French
and Indian, the Revolutionary, and the 18 1 2 Wars. He
was educated in the schools of Harrisburg and the
Harrisburg Military Institute, and subsequently spent
three years in the office of the Pennsylvania Telegraph,
most of the time as foreman. In 1853 he became editor
of the Literary Companion and of the Daily 'Times, and
during the following two years served as a teacher and
as mailing clerk in the post-office till the fall of 1857,
when he resigned to enter the medical department of
the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated from that
institution in 1859.
Entering upon the practice of medicine in Harrisburg,
he continued thus engaged till 1862, when he went to
Washington to assist in the care of the wounded, in re
sponse to a telegram from Adjutant- General Russell, of
Pennsylvania. In September, 1862, he was commissioned
assistant-surgeon of the Ninety-sixth Pennsylvania Vol
unteers, and served as such in and after the battle of
Antietam. During the Gettysburg campaign of 1863
he served as surgeon of the Forty-seventh Pennsylvania,
and, after a period of home practice, was appointed, in
August, 1864, by President Lincoln, surgeon of volun
teers. Accepting this appointment, he was ordered to
Camp Nelson, Kentucky, to examine the colored regi
ments then being raised in that State. He subsequently
took part in the famous and ill-fated attempt to destroy
the "salt works" in Southwestern Virginia, and was
afterwards ordered to the Department of the James,
under General Butler, as surgeon of the One Hundred
and Sixteenth (colored) Infantry. He subsequently
served as executive medical officer of Birney's division
till the close of the war, and until December, 1865, as
chief medical officer of Jackson's division, at Roma, on
the Rio Grande. He then resigned the service and
returned home.
Resuming in part the practice of his profession, he
was, in 1867, appointed examiner for pensions, in which
office he continued for four years, and for twenty years
was annually elected physician to the Dauphin County
prison, which he finally resigned in 1887. In March, of
the last-named year, Dr. Egle was appointed State libra
rian by Governor Beaver, an appointment which the
Senate promptly confirmed. He was reappointed, in
1 89 1, by Governor Pattison, and was again appointed, in
1894, when he was confirmed by the Senate and com
missioned by Governor Hastings. The highly efficient
condition of the Pennsylvania State Library, which has

is

raised it into the front rank of American libraries
largely due to his able management.
Upon the organization of the National Guard of Penn
sylvania, in 1870, Dr. Egle was appointed surgeon-in-chief
of the Fifth Division, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
He was subsequently transferred to the Eighth Regiment,
and in 1885 was appointed surgeon-in-chief of the Third
Brigade. He is the senior medical officer of the National
Guard of the State, and served in the capacity of surgeon
during the disturbances of 1871, the railroad riot of
1877, and the Homestead affair of 1892.
Having long had a taste for historical research, he
began, in 1865, on his return from the army, a " History
of Pennsylvania," which was published in 1876, and of
which twelve thousand copies were sold by the date of
the second edition of 1883. He has published a number
of other historical works, embracing county histories,
genealogical records, etc., and numerous biographical
sketches of prominent Pennsylvanians, of the members
of the Constitutional Convention of 1776, etc., and was
coeditor of many volumes of the Pennsylvania archives
and editor of others.
In 1878, Lafayette College conferred on him the
honorary degree of Master of Arts. He has been
elected a corresponding member of several American
historical societies and learned societies of England and
France, and was one of the founders and the first pre
siding officer of the Pennsylvania German Society. He is
a member of the Loyal Legion and the Grand Army of
the Republic, and also of the Society of the Cincinnati,
and of the Societies of Colonial Wars, Sons of the Revo
lution, and the War of 1812-14. He is a member of
the Dauphin County Medical Society, of the Academy
of Medicine at Harrisburg, and of the Association of
Military Surgeons of the United States.

INDEX.

PAGE
Adams, Josiah R.  in
Adams, Rev. Ezra E., D.D  44
Appleton, Daniel, Colonel  64
Appleton, William H  21
Arthur, Chester Alan  160
Ashmead, Lehman P  282
Ayer, Nathan W  183
Bache, Alexander Dallas  150
Bacon, Edward R  138
Baeder, Charles  105
Baird, Absalom  . 187
Baldwin, Christopher C  206
Barber, Amzi Lorenzo  285
Barlow, John Whitney  271
Barnitz, Albert  278
Bates, Delevan; General  227
Beardslee, Lester A  175
Beaver, James A. ..... ¦  301
Bell, Samuel  315
Bennett, James Gordon  114
Biddle, Chapman, Colonel  59
Biddle, James  252
Bliss, Cornelius N  171
Bogert, Edward F  213
Bonnell, J. Harper  233
Bonner, Robert . . . . :  74
Boyd, David M.,Jr  92
Boyd, George W  93
Boynton, Nathan S  123
Brandreth, William  218
Brewster, Frederick Carkoll, Judge 18
Brooke, Charles W  48
Brooke, Francis M  302
Brooks, Edward  170
Brown, William H  267
Browne, William Henry  210
Brownell, Walter A  303
Bryant, William Culi.en  248
Bryce, Lloyd  61
Buckingham, Charles L  89
Burnham, Frederick A  294
Burt, Andrew S  '92
Cadwalader, Charles E  66
Campbell, James H  57
Carpenter, Philip  35
Carty, Jerome  io4
Cass, Charles Wyllys  260
Caven, Joseph L  i78
Chamberlain, Joshua L  263
Childs, George W  211
Church, William Conant  82
Clarke, Augustus P., M.D  287
Clem, John Lincoln, Major and Quarter
master  J57
Clothier, Isaac H  3l6

PAGE
Coates, George Morrison  26
Cochrane, John, Brigadier-General . . 94
Conkling, Roscoe  147
Cooke, Augustus P., Captain  40
Cooke, Jay  101
Cope, Edward D  96
Crabtree, Jonas  179
Cramp, Charles H.  224
Cramp, William  22
Cranford, H. L.  256
Cross, Judson Newell ....... 319
Daggett, Aaron S  . 165
Daly, Charles P. ......... . 36
Dana, Charles A.  199
Dankoler, Harry Edward  109
DeCoursey,' Samuel G  253
De Koven, Reginald  143
Depew, Chauncey M. \ . '  321
De Peyster, Frederic  8
De Peyster, John Watts  9
Dobson, John  122
Dodge, William E  132
Doran, Josei'h I. .  258
Drake, Francis Marion  174
Drake, James Madison  305
Drexel, Anthony J  31
Drexel, Francis Anthony  230
Eaton, Rev. Homer . .  131
Eckert, George B., Captain  203
Edgerton, Alonzo J. -  184
Edison, Thomas A  182
Egle, William Henry  323
Elkins, Stephen B  259
Elkins, William L  116
Elverson, James  113
Ely, Smith  158
Esling, Charles H. A  142
Ewing, Thomas  307
Farmer, Aaron D  62
Farmer, William W  63
Farquhar, Arthur B  136
Fay, Sigourney W. .  200
Febiger, John C . ¦  257
Ferree, James Barr  290
Ferris, Rev. Isaac, D.D  80
Fish, Hamilton  135
FitzGerald, Thomas, Colonel .... 214
Flagler, Daniel W  265
Fosdick, Charles B  280
Garrison, Cornelius K  241
Gerry, Elbridge T  41
Gillis, James H  103
Gobin, John P. S  261

PAGE
Gorman, James E  306
Grant, Ulysses S  5
Graves, George S  146
Gray, Henry W  228
Greeley, Horace  20
Green, John P  58
Haines, Peter C  298
Halderman, John A.  95
Hamersley, James Hooker  189
Hamersley, John W  1S8
Harper, Fletcher  53
Harper, James  50
Harper, John  51
Harper, Joseph Wesley  52
Harris, Franklin M  120
Harrison, Benjamin  6
Harrity, William F. ¦  195
Hawthorne, Julian .  . 140
Hayes, Rutherford B. .  7
Heath, Harvey Eugene.  112
Henry, Guy V., Lieutenant-Colonel and
Brevet Brigadier-General  177
Hichborn, Philip  118
Hinds, Herbert Calvin  289
Hoagland, Cornelius Nevins .... 161
Hogg, William James  311
Holmes, Henry  272
Houghton, George H., D.D  162
Huey, Samuel B  11
Huey, Samuel Culbertson  10
Hunt, Rev. Sanford  12
Huntington, Collis P  60
Huntington, William R., D.D. , . . 190
Hutchison, Chalmers W  237
Hutchison, Melville W  169
Irvin, Elihu C  159
Irving, Washington  246
Jacobs, Michael  78
Jayne, David, M.D  86
Johnson, Henry Clark  297
Jones, David Phillips  191
Jones, Richard M  245
Jordan, Peter A  173
Keim, George DeB  133
Ketchum, Edgar, Major  205
King, Charles  32
King, Moses  269
Lambert, William H., Major  81
Landreth, David  83
Lawrence, Aisram B., Colonel .... 243
Lee, Homer  322
Lee, Samuel Phillips, Rear-Admiral . 84
325

326

INDEX.

PAGE
Leggett, Francis H  166
Leslie, Frank  176
Lewis, Alfred E  125
Lewis, Ellis  145
Lillard, Benjamin  231
Lippincott, Joshua B  13
Little, Amos R  255
Littleton, William E  221
Machette, Henry Clay, Paymaster
(Lieutenant-Commander) ....... 141
Macomb, David B  279
Magee, Christopher  239
Manderson, Charles F  308
Mann, William B  270
Mann, William D'Alton, Colonel . . 309
Marshall, James  . 296
McAlarney, Mathias Wilson .... 274
McAleer, William  72
McClure, Alexander K  98
McClurg, Alexander C  130
McCullough, John G  77
McCully, William F  312
McLeod, Archibald A  320
McMichael, Clayton  69
McMichael, Morton  68
Meade, George G., General  33
Merchant, Clarke  310
Mills, A. G  54
Mills, Anson  238
Mills, D. 0  25
Mills, William Howard  185
Molineux, Edward Leslie, General . 39
Morehouse, George Read, M.D. . . 216
Morse, Lyman D  207
Muckle, Mark Richards  38
Munn, Orson Desaix  119
Munyon, James M  193
Mutchmore, Rev. Samuel A. . . . . 87
Myers, Theodore W  117
Noble, John Willock  124
North, Frederick William  304
North, George H  209
Norton, Thomas H  242
Oellers, Richard G  71
Ogden, Robert C  88
Oliphant, Samuel Duncan, Brevet Briga
dier-General  128
Oliver, Paul A  194
Packard, Silas S  no
Palmer, Albert M  291
Parsons, Lewis B  198
Paulding, Tattnall  275
Paxson, Edward M  318
Peirce, Cyrus Newlin, D.D.S  284
Peirce, Thomas May  202

PAGE
Perkins, George Hamilton, Captain . 149
Perry, William Stevens, D.D  314
Phcenix, Daniel  204
Pinto, Francis E. ......;.. . 197
Platt, Thomas C .......... 251
Pleasanton, Augustus J  300
Pook, Samuel Hartt  115
Porter, Fitz-John  222
Pugh, Charles Edmund  152
, Pulford, John  102
! Pulitzer, Joseph  19
Queen, James W  293
Rawle, William  107
Reed, Nathan A., Jr  156
: Reid, Whitelaw  34
; Remey, George C  97
' Remey, William B., U.S.M.C, Colonel 56
: Rhoades, Henry Eckford  121
! Roach, John  24
| Roberts, George B. .  90
j Rodney, Robert Burton  99
: Rorke, Allen B,  75
Rothermel, Peter F., Sr  180
\ Rothermel, Peter F., Jr  181
: Rowe, Nicholas, M.D  286
Rowell, George P  67
1 Rush, Richard  167
Rust, Nathaniel J  215
Ryan, Abraham H  217
Ryan, Most Rev. Patrick J  313
Scott, Alfred B  225
Scott, George A  240
Sellers, Coleman  299
Sellers, William  168
Sewell, William J  244
Sheppard, Isaac A  43
Sherman, William T., General .... 151
Shipley, Samuel R  45
Shock, William H  155
Shortridge, Nathan P  247
Shufeldt, Robert Wilson  250
Singerly, William M  232
Sinn, Andrew C  264
Sloan, Hon. Samuel  283
Smith, Charles Emory  163
Smith, Frederick R  276
Smith, J. Frailey  262
Smith, Joseph Mather, M.D  127
Snowden, Archibald Loudon .... 73
South, George W  37
Spalding, Albert G  212
Starin, John H  30
Stephens, Horatio S  148
Stetson, John B  288
Steurer, Charles David  70
Stevens, Thomas Holdup, Rear-Admiral 137

PAGE
Stevenson, Howard A  15
Stevenson, Samuei  14
Stewart, Alexander T  29
Stewart, John A  85
Stoddart, Joseph M., Sr  42
Stryker, William S  196
Stuart, Edwin S  249
Stumpf, Anthony  76
Sullivan, James F  295
Sulzer, William  254
Swallow, S. C, D.D  129
Sweitzer, Nelson B  229
Tappan, Herman  106
Terry, Henry C  219
Thompson, James  46
Thompson, J. Walter  17
Thompson, Samuel G  47
Thoms, William M  164
Thomson, Frank  91
Tilford, Frank  154
Trabue, Isaac Hodgen  292
Trask, Spencer  27
Tremain, Henry E., General  220
Trenchard, Edward  65
Trenchard, Stephen Decatur. . . . 201
Tuttle, Nathaniel  49
Vail, Alfred  277
Vail, Lewis D  235
Van Nostrand, David  28
Walke, Henry, Rear-Admiral .... 100
Wanamaker, John  79
Warhurton, Charles E.  139
Watson, John Crittenden ...... 223
Wattles, John Denison  208
Wells, James Douglas  317
Wells, William  234
West, George  236
Wharton, Joseph  16
Wheaton, Frank  186
Whitaker, George Mason  266
White, John S., LL.D  268
White, Stephen V  23
Wiedersheim, John A  226
Wilson, Theodore D  144
Woods, William Stone  281
Woodward, George A., Colonel ... 108
Woodward, William Roswell, Assist
ant Paymaster  134
Worden, John Lorimer, Rear-Admiral. 153
Worman, James Henry, Ph.D., LL.D. 273
Yoder, Charles T  126
Young, John Russell  55
Zeller, Theodore  172

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