Heredity and environment conspired to make Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward a woman of letters. Her father, the Rev. Austin Phelps, was pastor of the Pine Street Congregational church of Boston at the time of her birth, August 31, 1844. In 1848 he became a professor in the theological seminary at Andover, Massachusetts, and thus his daughter Elizabeth grew up among a circle of thinkers and writers. She received most of her education from her father, but also attended the private school at Andover and the seminary of Mrs. Prof. Edwards, where she took a course of study equal to that of the men’s colleges of to-day. At the age of nineteen she left schooland engaged in mission work at Abbott Village and Factory Settlement, a short distance from her home. It was here she began an acquaintance with the lives and needs of working people, which resulted in books such as “Hedged In†and “Jack, the Fisherman.†Her first story was published in the Youth’s Companion when she was only thirteen years old. In 1864 she published “A Sacrifice Consumed,†in Harper’s Magazine, which earned her right to the title “author.†The book which has given her greatest fame, “The Gates Ajar,†was begun in 1862 and was published in 1868. Nearly one hundred thousand copies were sold in the United States, and more than that number in Great Britain. It was also translated into a number of foreign languages. Probably Mrs. Ward has written more books worth while than any other woman writer of her time. In 1888 Miss Phelps was married to Herbert D. Ward, and has co-operated with him in writing several romances.
George Thorndike Angell was born at Southbridge, Massachusetts, June 5, 1823. He was educated in the public schools and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1846. After study at the Harvard law school he was admitted to the bar in 1851. For thirty-four years he has headed the work for the humane treatment of animals and helpless human beings. In 1868, when a young man of twenty-two, he founded the Massachusetts society for the prevention of cruelty to animals. He has served as its president since its inception, no one being better fitted to fill the position. He has propagated his ideas on humanity to animals by many organizations, and forty-four thousand “bands of mercy†speak for his efficient and zealous management. As an editor and publisher, his activity has been enormous, for in one year his societies sent out 117,000,000 pages of literature. His work for dumb brutes is so well known that it has overshadowed those other forms of philanthropy with which he has to do, and which in the case of an ordinary man would have made him a reputation. The work of the Social Science Association, of which Mr. Angell is a director, is of a varied nature, and ranges from the prevention of crime to the detection of food adulteration, or from the betterment of tenement houses to obtaining a higher standard of citizenship.
Susan Brownell Anthony was born at Adams, Massachusetts, February 15, 1820. Her father, a Quaker, was a cotton manufacturer and gave her a liberal education. When she was seventeen years old her father failed in business and she had to support herself by school teaching, which profession she followed for thirteen years. Aroused at the injustice of the inequality of wages paid to women teachers, she made a public speech on the subject at the New York Teachers’ Association, which attracted wide attention. She continued to work in the teachers’ association for equal recognition continuously and enthusiastically. In 1849 she began to speak for the temperance cause, but soon became convinced that women had no power to change the condition of things without being able to vote at the polls,and from that time on she identified herself with the suffrage movement. She has written a great many tracts and was at one time the editor of a weekly paper called the Revolution. Her work, The History of Woman’s Suffrage, which she prepared in conjunction with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage, attracted wide attention.
Frederick St. George de Lautour Booth-Tucker was born at Monghyr, India, March 21, 1853. He was educated at the Cheltenham college, England, and, after passing the Indian civil service examination, was appointed assistant commanding magistrate in the Punjab. He resigned in order to join the Salvation army in 1881, inaugurated the Salvation Army work in India in 1882, and had charge of the work of the army there until 1891, when he was made secretary for the international work of the organization in London. Since 1896 he has been in charge of the affairs of the army in the United States, in conjunction with his wife, Emma Moss Booth, whom he married, after which he adopted the name of Booth-Tucker. He is the author of a number of religious and other works and has considerable ability as an orator and organizer. Mr. Booth-Tucker has a magnetic personality, and with the practical side of his nature stands him in good stead in connection with his chosen walk in life.
Anthony Comstock, who has been described as the most honest and the best-hated man in New York city, was born in New Canaan, Connecticut, March 7, 1844. He received his education in district schools and academy and later at the High School at New Britain, Connecticut. Early in life he began to earn his own livelihood, and in order to do so followed several vocations in succession. His brother Samuel was killed fighting for the Union cause at Gettysburg, and Anthony, volunteering to fill his place in the regiment, enlisted in the Seventeenth Volunteer Connecticut Infantry and saw much service during the war. He was mustered out in July, 1865. On January 25, 1871, he married Margaret Hamilton. In 1873 he was appointed postmaster inspector in New York, later became prominent in Young Men’s Christian Association affairs, and finally identified himself with the New York society for the suppression of vice. Mr. Comstock’s services in connection with what is his life work are too well known to be recapitulated. Possessing courage, moral and physical, of the highest order and a keen sense of his duties to the community in his official capacity, Mr. Comstock has for years been a terror to evil-doers, especially those who pander to vicious instincts. He has brought nearly 3,000 criminals to justice and has destroyed over 80 tons of obscene literature, pictures, etc. Altogether he is a notable figure in the complex life of New York, and the making of bitter enemies has necessarily followed on Mr. Comstock’s career. But these, many and influential as they are, have never successfully attacked his motives or his integrity.
The Rev. Wilbur Fiske Crafts was born at Fryeburg, Maine, January 12, 1850. His father was the Rev. A. C. Crafts. In 1869 the future author, lecturer and clergyman graduated from Wesleyan University, Connecticut, subsequently taking the post-graduate course in Boston University.On leaving college he became a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, holding charges for several years therein and laying the foundation for the reputation which now attaches to him. Later, however, Mr. Crafts decided that the tenets of the Congregational denomination were more to his liking, and accordingly accepted a call to a Congregational church in Brooklyn. Still later he became a Presbyterian pastor in New York. Resigning from the ministry, he was made superintendent of the International Reform Bureau, the object of which is to secure moral legislation in the United States and Canada with the assistance of lectures, literature and personal example and influence. He is the author of many works, the majority of which are of a religious nature, or deal with social questions.
Elbridge Thomas Gerry, born in New York city, December 25, 1837, was named after his grandfather, who was one of the vice-presidents of the United States and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Mr. Gerry was educated in the New York public schools, and graduated from Columbia college in 1858. He was admitted to the bar in 1860. He acted as vice-president, until 1899, of the American society for the prevention of cruelty to animals. He was chairman of the New York state commission on capital punishment from 1886 to 1888. Since 1891 he has been president of the annual convention of the New York societies for prevention of cruelty. He is trustee of the general theological seminary of the Presbyterian-Episcopal church and also trustee of the American museum of natural history, and of the New York Mutual Life Insurance company. Besides that, he is a member and director of various corporations and societies. Since 1876 he has been president of the New York society for the prevention of cruelty to children, which society is generally known as the Gerry Society. He has one of the largest private law libraries in the United States. Mr. Gerry is one of those conscientious citizens whose work for the public good has been as continuous as it has been successful.
William R. George was born at West Dryden, New York, June 4, 1866. He was educated in the common schools. His parents came to New York city in 1880, where he later engaged in business. Becoming interested in poor boys and girls, he, during the seasons of 1890 to 1894, took two hundred of them to the country for from two weeks to a month to spend a portion of their school vacations with him. Impressed with the large number of children endeavoring to live by charity, he conceived, in 1894, the plan of requiring payment in labor for every favor the youngsters received, and, in addition, instituted a system of self-government. This was the beginning of a junior republic, which was put into practical operation in 1895 and has continued successfully ever since. He was married November 14, 1896, to Esther B. George, of New York. To Mr. George belongs the credit of inaugurating a novel and praiseworthy method of fostering good citizenship.
The Rev. Dr. Charles Henry Parkhurst was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, April 17, 1842. His father worked on a farm in summer and taught school in winter. Until sixteen years of age Charles was a pupil of the Clinton (Mass.) grammarschool. The two years following he acted as clerk in a dry goods store. At the age of eighteen he began to prepare for college at Lancaster academy. At the end of the course there, he went to Amherst, from whence he graduated in 1866. The following year he became principal of the Amherst high school, remaining there until 1870, when he visited Germany. On his return he became professor of Greek and Latin in Williston seminary, holding that position for two years, during which period he married a Miss Bodman, a pupil of his while a teacher at Amherst. Accompanied by his wife, he next made a trip to Europe to study at Halle, Leipzig, and Bonn. Again in this country he received a call to the pastorate of the First Congregational church in Lenox, Massachusetts, where he soon gained a reputation as an original and forceful pulpit orator. On March 9, 1880, he became pastor of the Madison Square Presbyterian church, New York city, the call being the outcome of his work at Lenox. He immediately began to take a lively interest in city and national politics, and one of his sermons attracted the attention of Dr. Howard Crosby, president of the society for the prevention of crime, in which society Dr. Parkhurst was invited to become a director. A few months later Dr. Crosby died and Dr. Parkhurst was chosen as his successor. Dr. Parkhurst has done more for reform in New York city than any other single individual. His courageous course in connection with the Lexow investigation of certain phases of life in New York will not be readily forgotten.
That which is popularly, if somewhat vaguely, characterized as the “Cause of women†in this country, is closely identified with the name of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Many years of her life were spent in promoting the cause of her sex politically and legally, and that her work has not been fruitless is proven by the fact that as long ago as 1840 she advocated the passage of the Married Woman’s Property bill, which became a law in 1848. That measure alone is sufficient to obtain for Mrs. Stanton the gratitude of her sex. She was born in Johnstown, New York, November 12, 1815, being the daughter of Daniel C. Cady, judge of the New York State Supreme Court. She obtained her education at the Johnstown academy and the Emma Willard seminary, Troy, New York, graduating from the latter institution in 1832. Eight years later she married Henry Brewster Stanton, a state senator, anti-slavery orator and lawyer. From the first Mrs. Stanton identified herself with “Woman’s Rights,†and she it was who called the first woman’s rights convention, the meeting taking place at Seneca Falls, New York, in July, 1848. Continually working on the lines indicated, she has for the last quarter of a century annually addressed congress in favor of embodying woman suffrage in the constitution of the United States. In 1861 she was president of the Woman’s Loyal League, and through the medium of her personality made it a power in the land. From 1865 to 1893 she held the office of president of the Woman Suffrage Association. In 1868 she was a candidate for congress. Her eightieth birthday, which took place in 1895, was celebrated under the auspices of the National Council of Women, three hundred delegates attending the convention.
Mrs. Phoebe Appersin Hearst was born in 1840. After an education in the public schools she became a teacher in them until 1861, when she married the late United States Senator George F. Hearst from California, who died, in 1891, leaving her and her son, William Randolph Hearst, a fortune of many millions. W. R. Hearst is the well-known newspaper owner and publisher. Mrs. Hearst has established kindergarten classes and the manual training school in San Francisco, kindergartens and the kindergarten training school in Washington, District of Columbia; has made donations to the American university at Washington, gave $200,000 to build a national cathedral school for girls, has established working girls’ clubs in San Francisco, is the patron of a school for mining engineers at the University of California, and, as a memorial to her husband, has built and endowed libraries in a number of mining towns in the west. In connection with the plans for the projected University of California, she has also agreed to erect two buildings to cost between three and four million of dollars.
Daniel K. Pearsons was born at Bedford, Vermont, April 14, 1820, and was educated in the public schools. Entered college at Woodstock, Vermont, and was graduated as a physician, practicing in Chicopee, Massachusetts, until 1857. He removed to Ogle county, Illinois, and became a farmer, 1857 to 1860, and in the latter year began the real estate business in Chicago, which he continued until 1887, when he retired from business but remained a director of the Chicago City Railway Company and other corporations. He has made handsome donations to various colleges and charities there, including $280,000 to the Chicago theological seminary and $200,000 to Beloit college. He has also contributed to the treasuries of several other educational establishments. Mr. Pearsons seems to be a pupil of Mr. Andrew Carnegie in some respects, inasmuch as he has a profound belief in the wisdom of distributing his money for praiseworthy purposes during his lifetime.
The dominant quality of the character of the wife of Bishop Henry Codman Potter, of the diocese of New York, is undoubtedly charity. Her maiden name was Elizabeth L. Scriven, and she was born in 1849 in New York, coming of good American stock. She has been married twice, her first husband being Alfred Corning Clark, who in his lifetime controlled the Singer sewing machine interests and who also had extensive real estate holdings in the metropolis. When Mr. Clark died he left an estate of an estimated value of about $30,000,000, the bulk of which, after a liberal allowance made to his four children, went to his widow. All her life Mrs. Potter has given largely to charity and philanthropic enterprises. She has done excellent work in New York in connection with improvements in tenement houses, those that she owns being ideal dwellings in regard to construction, light, ventilation and sanitary arrangements. At Cooperstown, New York, which is her home, Mrs. Potter has spent large sums of money in beautifying the village. She gives annually a dinner to a thousand poor persons, and has along list of private pensioners. Her marriage to Bishop Potter took place on October 1, 1902, at Cooperstown.
The maiden name of the wife of President Roosevelt was Edith Kermit Carow, and she, like her husband, comes of one of the most distinguished of the older families of New York. Born in the metropolis in the old Carow mansion, Fourteenth street and Union square, her father was Charles Carow, and her grandfather General Tyler Carow, of Norwich, Connecticut. She was educated at a school kept by a Miss Comstock on West Fortieth street. She was married to the President on December 2, 1886, at St. George’s church, Hanover square, London, the ceremony being performed by Canon Cammadge, who is a cousin of Mrs. Roosevelt. Fortune has never been more kind to Mr. Roosevelt than when she gave him the amiable and beautiful woman who bears his name. The Roosevelt children seem to have inherited many of the attractive qualities of their mother.
Mrs. Russell Sage was born at Syracuse, New York, in 1828. She was the daughter of the Hon. Joseph Slocum. Educated at first in private schools of Syracuse, it had been intended that she should go to college later, but financial disaster altered the plans of the family. After working at home to help her mother for some time, she started for Mount Holyoke college, intending to do housework in that institution in order to pay for her board. On her way thither she was taken sick in Troy, and when she recovered she, at the request of her uncle, entered the Troy female seminary. In 1869 she became the second wife of Russell Sage, the financier. Mrs. Sage’s charities are large; she has built a dormitory costing $120,000 in the Emma Willard seminary and gives annually large sums of money to various hospitals and other praiseworthy institutions.
Mrs. Jane Lathrop Stanford was born at Albany, New York, August 25, 1825. Was educated in the public schools there, and in 1848 married Leland Stanford. In 1855 she went with her husband to California. Mr. Stanford took a prominent part in the public affairs of the state, and in 1861 was elected its governor. A son was born, who died when sixteen years of age in Florence, Italy. Mr. Stanford founded the university which bears his name, in memory of his boy. Since her husband’s demise Mrs. Stanford has given further endowments to the institution, the total amount of which is said to be several million dollars. She has also given liberally to other educational institutions.
Anson Phelps Stokes, Sr., financier and public-spirited citizen, was born in New York, February 22, 1838, being the son of James and Caroline (Phelps) Stokes. He was educated in private schools and in 1855 married Helen Louise, daughter of Isaac Newton Phelps. Becoming connected with the firm of Phelps, Dodge & Co., merchants, he afterward became a partner in the banking firm of Phelps, Stokes & Co., of New York. He is director and trustee of a number of philanthropic institutions and hospitals, owns interests in varied corporations and is a prominent member of several clubs whose objects it is to promote municipal and legislative reform. Mr. Stokes has written two books on financial questions.
Dr. Lyman Abbott is an illustration of the fact that a young man who is gifted with more than ordinary intellect and even genius need not be discouraged, even if his first intentions regarding his life work come to naught by force of circumstances or unlooked-for developments within himself. He was born December 18, 1835, in Roxbury, Massachusetts, being the son of Jacob and Harriet Abbott. Graduating from the College of the City of New York in 1853, he took a course at Harvard, after which, and in accordance with his prearranged plans, he took a law course, was admitted to the bar and began to practice. But his literary instincts and religious convictions resulted in his finally abandoning the law. After a good deal of writing for a number of publications and more theological studies, he was finally ordained a Congregational minister in 1860, being made pastor of a church at Terre Haute, Indiana, in the same year. Leaving Indiana, he came to New York and took charge of the New England Congregational Church in that city. In 1869 he resigned the pastorate in order to devote himself to literature. He edited the Literary Record Department of Harper’s Magazine and was associate editor with Henry Ward Beecher on the Christian Union. He succeeded Mr. Beecher as pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, in May, 1888, but resigned in 1898 and is once more prominent in religious literary circles. On October 14, 1857, he married Abby F. Hamlin, daughter of Hannibal Hamlin, of Boston. He is the author of a great many works of a religious nature and of others which deal with social problems. At present he is editor of The Outlook, of New York city.
Theodore Ledyard Cuyler, the clergyman whose striking sermons have made him famous the world over, was born at Aurora, New York, January 10, 1822. He was educated at Manheim, New Jersey, and Princeton college, from which he graduated in 1841. After spending a brief period in traveling in Europe, he entered the theological seminary at Princeton, from which he graduated in 1846, and was ordained by the presbytery in 1848. His first charge was at a small church near Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, where he remained for six months. He was then called to the Presbyterian church of Burlington, New Jersey. In 1849 he became pastor of the Third Presbyterian church of Trenton, New Jersey, and in 1853 he was invited to the Market Street Dutch Reformed Church, New York city. He was one of the leaders in the great revival of 1858, and in 1860 he was called to the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian church, Brooklyn. This was a young church and was not in a very prosperous condition, but the new pastor infused life into it from the first, and, in 1861, his congregation commenced the building of a new church at the corner of Lafayette avenue and South Oxford street. This building was completed in March, 1862, and cost $60,000. In 1893 Dr. Cuyler withdrew from active charge of the church and determined to devote the remainder of his years to the ministry at large. Dr. Cuyler was married, in 1853, to Annie E. Mathist, of Newark, Ohio, and has two children. His writings and printed sermons have been widelycirculated. Among them are: Thought Hives, Stray Arrows, The Empty Crib, The Cedar Christian. One of his most famous tracts, Somebody’s Son, had a circulation of over one hundred thousand copies. Many of his articles and tracts have been translated into several languages, and his contributions to the religious press have been more numerous than those of any living writer.
Edward Everett Hale was born in Boston, April 3, 1822, and after passing through the public schools entered the Boston Latin school. He was graduated from Harvard in 1839, and for two years acted as usher in the Latin school, studying theology in the meantime. On October 13, 1852, he married, at Hartford, Connecticut, Emily Baldwin Perkins. He has been a prominent promoter of Chautauqua circles and was the founder of the “Lend-a-Hand†clubs. He has probably traveled as much and delivered more lectures than any other man in this country. The fact that the catalogue of Harvard university lists more than one hundred and thirty titles of books and pamphlets on varied subjects of which he is the author shows how prolific has been his pen. Fiction, drama, narrative, poetry, theology, philosophy, politics—all are treated by him in a masterly way. He is never dull or common-place, but invariably suggestive and practical. One of his masterpieces is A Man Without a Country, which was written in war time. This story alone would have given him lasting fame. Yet it is not as an author, a great scholar, a great teacher, a great orator, or a great statesman that Dr. Hale will be remembered, but, as William Dean Howells has said, his name will go down in history as “a great American citizen.â€
Benjamin Fay Mills was born at Rahway, New Jersey, June 4, 1857. His father was a clergyman. Educated in the public schools and at Phillips academy, Andover, he graduated from Lake Forest university, Illinois, in 1879. In the same year he married Mary Russell, and in the year following he was ordained pastor of the Congregational church at Rutland, Vermont. From 1886 to 1897 he acted in an evangelistic capacity and conducted meetings throughout the country. In 1897 he withdrew from the orthodox church and inaugurated independent religious movements in the Boston music hall and Hollis street theatre. Since 1889 he has been the pastor of the First Unitarian church, Oakland, California. He is eloquent, magnetic and convincing and has the gift of playing on the emotions of an audience in a manner possessed by few speakers within or without the church.
There have been a great many clergymen in the Potter family, and doubtless the Right Reverend Henry Codman Potter, bishop of the diocese of New York, had an inclination for the pulpit which was an ancestral inheritance. He is the son of Bishop Alonzo Potter, of Pennsylvania, and was born at Schenectady, New York, May 25, 1835. He was educated at the Philadelphia Academy of the Protestant Episcopal church, and later at the theological seminary in Virginia. Graduating therefrom in 1857, he was at once made a deacon and one year later was ordained to the priesthood. Until 1859 he had charge of Christ P. E. church, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, when he was transferred to St. John’s, P. E. church, Troy, New York; for seven years he was rectorof that parish. He then became an assistant of Trinity P. E. church, Boston, and in May, 1868, was made rector of Grace P. E. church, New York. For sixteen years he was identified with the affairs of that famous church. In 1883 he was elected an assistant to his uncle, Bishop Horatio Potter, who presided over the diocese of New York. A short time after entering on his duties as such, his uncle withdrew from active work and the care of the diocese fell upon the younger man. On January 2, 1887, Bishop Horatio Potter died and was succeeded by his nephew. His diocese is the largest in point of population in the United States. Eloquent, earnest and devoted to his life work, Bishop Potter commands the love and respect of all of those with whom he comes in contact.
William Taylor was born in Virginia May 2, 1821. Reared on a farm, he learned the tanning business. He entered the Methodist ministry in 1842. Going to California with the “Forty-niners†as a missionary, he remained there until 1856. He next spent a number of years traveling in Canada, New England and Europe. After conducting missionary services in Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, he visited South Africa and converted many Kaffirs to Christianity. From 1872 to 1876 he organized a number of churches in India and in South America. He also established mission stations on the Congo and elsewhere in Africa. He has written a number of books, the most interesting of which is, without doubt, The Story of My Life. In 1884 he was made missionary bishop for Africa.
John Heyl Vincent, bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church and chancellor of the Chautauqua system, was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, February 23, 1832. He was educated at Lewisburg and Milton, Pennsylvania, and as a mere boy gave evidence of the religious trend of his nature. When only eighteen years of age he was a preacher, and many of his then sermons are said to have been both eloquent and convincing. After studying in the Wesleyan Institute of Newark, New Jersey, he joined the New Jersey Conference in 1853, was ordained deacon and four years later was made pastor. He had several charges in Illinois between 1857 and 1865, and during the next fourteen years brought into being a number of Sunday school publications. He was one of the founders of the Chautauqua Assembly and was the organizer of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, of which he has held office of chancellor since its inception. In 1900 he was made resident bishop in charge of the European work of the church with which he was associated. He is preacher to Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Wellesley and other colleges. As an author of helpful and interesting religious works, Dr. Vincent is well known to all students of American literature.
One of the influential educators in Canada is Dr. William Peterson, President of that powerful and progressive educational institution, McGill University. Dr. Peterson’s policy in the conduct of the university is to maintain a harmonious relationshipbetween classical education and the scientific training which is now so greatly in demand. That the university is kept well abreast of the times in scientific teaching and equipment is indicated by the fact that a recent addition to the institution has been a school for instruction in all branches of railroading. Dr. Peterson keenly realizes that the future development of Canada will depend in a very considerable measure upon the extension of the Dominion’s railway system—that in the railroad business there will, perhaps, be more and greater opportunities for young Canadians than in any other one branch of industry. Another proof of the scientific thoroughness at McGill is the high standing held by the University’s medical and engineering schools, but Dr. Peterson holds fast to the belief that no education is complete without a familiarity with the classics. He is himself an accomplished classical scholar.
After spending his boyhood in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, where he was born in 1856, he became a student at the Edinburgh University, and there distinguished himself. He won the Greek travelling fellowship, and continued his classical study at the University of Göttingen. Returning to Scotland, he was elected to the Mackenzie scholarship in the University of Edinburgh and went to Oxford University, where he added to his scholastic laurels. He became assistant Professor of Humanity in Edinburgh University, and in 1882 was appointed Professor of Classical and Ancient History and head of the faculty in University College, Dundee. Here he remained until 1885, when he was chosen to succeed Sir J. W. Dawson as Principal of McGill University, Montreal. He has received honorary degrees from St. Andrews and Princeton universities, and is regarded not only as a scholar of unusual attainments, but as a man possessing in marked degree the executive ability necessary to successfully conduct the affairs of a great university.
Perhaps the most important financier in Canada is Senator George A. Cox of Toronto, who is regarded as the Dominion’s closest parallel, in financial activity, to J. Pierpont Morgan of New York. His interests are extensive and widely varied. He is the president of the Canadian Life Assurance Company, president of two fire insurance companies, president of the Central Canadian Loan and Savings Company, and is one of the ruling spirits in the great project to build the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. He has a very considerable amount of capital invested in the United States.
Senator Cox was born sixty-four years ago in the village of Colborne. His father was a shoemaker in humble circumstances. The ability of Senator Cox, as a boy, attracted the attention of a neighbor, who educated him. When he became a young man he went to the town of Peterboro and embarked in the photographic business. He afterwards became an express agent, and also occupied himself with soliciting insurance for the Canadian Life Assurance Company. He engaged in politics, and for seven years was mayor of Peterboro. When the Midland Railway became involved in financial difficulties, he was one of the Canadians asked to reorganize the road. He at once became the dominating factor in this work and in 1878 was made president of the Midland line. The vigor and ability which he brought to his task soon put the decrepit railway company onits feet again. It afterward became the Midland Division of the Grand Trunk Railway. Besides his insurance and railway affiliations Senator Cox is largely interested in Canadian banks and lands.
Senator Cox attributes much of his success to the fact that he is a good judge of human nature. He has long made a point of surrounding himself with clever young men who are able to develop and zealously put into operation the hints which he freely gives them. Senator Cox’s personality is of a kind which inspires enthusiasm on the part of those who are working with and for him. He is genial and never stands on formality in his contact with the young men whom he has around him. In this respect he more closely resembles Andrew Carnegie than any other captain of industry. Senator Cox lives in modest style in Toronto. He is quiet in his tastes, and greatly dislikes anything suggestive of display or self-aggrandizement. He is a close personal friend of most of the political leaders in the Canadian Liberal Party, and of many of the financial powers in the United States. The Earl of Aberdeen appointed him to the Senate of Canada in 1896. He is a prominent member of the Methodist Church, and has long interested himself in the welfare of Victoria University in Toronto.
The most important retail merchant in Canada is Timothy Eaton. He began his career as an apprentice in a small shop in a village in Ireland, and now has an establishment which employs the services of six thousand persons, and which is by far the largest and best equipped retail store in the Dominion.
It was in a shop in the town of Port Gleone, in the north of Ireland, that Mr. Eaton obtained his first experience as a storekeeper. Here he served an apprenticeship of five years, receiving no pay until the end of his term of service, when he was given the sum of one hundred pounds. To convey an idea of the long hours that he used to devote to the services of his employer in Ireland, Mr. Eaton likes to tell about how he used to watch the donkey carts passing through the village streets to the market-town of Ballymena at five o’clock every morning, when he was taking down the shutters. While he had very little time in those days to devote to anything but his regular work, he was fond of books, and readChambers’s Journal, an unusual literary selection for a lad of his education and position. In this publication he read one day an article on the then almost unknown process of manufacturing artificial gas. This so interested him that with the help of a companion he made with his own hands a small gas plant, and by means of it succeeded in lighting the store. Before that there had been no gas light in that section of Ireland. The innovation of the young apprentice aroused great interest and curiosity on the part of the people of the countryside. They flocked to the shop to view the miracle of the new light. This proved to be a valuable advertisement for the establishment, and it lifted young Eaton into a position of prominence in the community.
He felt, however, that there were no chances in Ireland for the degree of success of which he dreamed. The potato famine and other misfortunes had laid the country prostrate. Everybody was talking about the golden prospects in America, and great numbers were emigrating to the promised land. One of Timothy Eaton’s elder brothers decided to join the exodus, and Timothy himself lost no timein making up his mind to go with him.
After crossing the Atlantic they made their way to the town of St. Marys, in Ontario, and there started a very small store, being glad to accept produce in payment for their goods. Another brother came to St. Marys. One of these remained there permanently, while Timothy Eaton, not satisfied with the possibilities in St. Marys of the mercantile expansion which he had in mind, went to Toronto, and started a modest store on one of the lower streets. This was in 1869. In 1883 he had a larger establishment. In 1887 he had added to his general store equipment a small factory for the purpose of eliminating the charges of middlemen and thus conserving the interests of his customers by reduced prices. The factory was an unqualified success. By means of it, and through Mr. Eaton’s general methods, the establishment steadily grew until, at the present time, he has a store which from a comparative point of view may be regarded, perhaps, as the most successful in the world. Mr. Eaton’s pay roll includes nearly six thousand names, while the largest retail store on earth, which is located in Chicago, where the population is many times greater than that which can be reached by Mr. Eaton, employs only about twenty-five hundred more persons. It will be seen that this Chicago establishment is only one-half larger than the Eaton store. Indeed, the factories of the latter are larger than those of any establishment which deals directly with retail buyers.
The two leading elements in Mr. Eaton’s remarkable success have been his store-system, regarded by leading retail merchants as a model, and his constant endeavor to save money for his customers. It is to this end that he conducts his business on a cash basis, and that he has established his factories. He is a very firm believer in bringing goods direct from the maker to the consumer. In a single department in his manufacturing section, for instance, there are over a thousand sewing machines which produce nearly seven thousand garments a day for sale exclusively in the store. The money which Mr. Eaton has been able to save by this policy of producing his own goods is directly applied to the reduction of prices. The fact that his patrons feel that they are obtaining maximum value at minimum cost is the chief reason of the store’s great and constantly growing trade.
Another very prominent factor in his success has been his strict rule of allowing absolutely no misrepresentation. He very strongly feels that truth is a most important element in any permanent success in storekeeping and in life in general. In addition to Mr. Eaton’s constant vigilance in the interest of his patrons, he has always in mind the well-being of his employees. He was one of the pioneers in the movement for shorter hours, believing that opportunities for legitimate rest and recreation give those who are in his service an added zeal and energy which materially increase the satisfaction of buyers and has a direct beneficial effect upon the profits and progress of the store.
While Mr. Eaton is proud of his success, he by no means takes all the credit to himself. It is his idea that the quality which has chiefly enabled him to build up this great commercial unit lies in his ability to pick out the right man for the right place. Each employee is held to a personal responsibility, and is given to understand that he or she is considered a possibility for the higher positions in the establishment. Every clerk understands that promotion is to be obtainednot by favoritism, but on the strength alone of conscientious and intelligent effort.
A celebrated department store proprietor in New York City not long ago remarked to a Canadian merchant who informed him that he had come to the New York establishment to obtain hints on the best system of store management, “Why, it is not at all necessary for you to come down here for this information. You have a man in Canada, Timothy Eaton, who can tell you a good deal more about this than most of us can. In fact, we always keep our eyes on him with a view of obtaining fresh suggestions as to methods.â€
One of the most successful railroad men of this continent is Sir Thomas G. Shaughnessy, president of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. By means of a particularly virile personality and a remarkable capacity for hard work, Sir Thomas has raised himself to his present high position from the bottom of the ladder. He owes absolutely nothing to the extraneous circumstances of birth or fortune. His education has been chiefly obtained in the school of experience; yet Sir Thomas adds to his conspicuous knowledge of man and affairs a culture that would do credit to a university graduate.
Though Sir Thomas is always associated in the public mind with Canada for the reason that his most important work has been done in the Dominion, he was born in 1853 in Milwaukee. His school days ended at the age of sixteen, when he obtained a place in the office of the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway as a clerk in the purchasing department. During a period of ten years the young man slowly rose in this department until, on the strength of his ability and alertness, he was promoted to the place of a general storekeeper for the railroad. Mr. Shaughnessy took hold with an acceleration of the powers which had brought him his steady promotion. Work in the office began to move more swiftly than ever before. Each man was held to a very strict accountability in the performance of all his duties, and yet with a new spirit of contentment and zeal for the reason that Mr. Shaughnessy was very considerate to those under his direction. He was quick to criticise, but was equally quick to praise. No man who had ever held a position of authority in the company was more popular with his subordinates.
But Mr. Shaughnessy’s abilities were too great for his position. William C. Van Horne, who had recently become general manager of the young Canadian Pacific Railway, had known Mr. Shaughnessy in Milwaukee, and asked him to take a place of purchasing agent in the new company. This was in 1882. He became assistant to the general manager in 1884, and the next year was promoted to the office of assistant to the president. He became a full-fledged vice-president in 1891. Mr. Shaughnessy was the right-hand man of the president of the road, Sir William C. Van Horne, and when the latter resigned the presidency in 1899 it was obvious that the man in all respects best equipped to succeed him in the very important position of executive head of the longest railroad in the world was Mr. Shaughnessy. The latter was knighted by the Prince of Wales, then Duke of York, in Ottawa, Canada, 1901.
The work of Sir Thomas as president has been notable. He has had a careful regard not only for the interest of the line, but also of Canada. During his incumbency of the presidency the Canadian Pacific systemhas been greatly extended. It now employs over thirty-five thousand persons and buys products of the labor of fifty thousand more. Within the last two years it has paid Canadians over one hundred millions. The progressive management of the line under the direction of Sir Thomas Shaughnessy has greatly stimulated the prosperity of the Dominion, and on this account the Canadians feel that Sir Thomas has been one of the Dominion’s most valuable citizens.
The Hon. William Stevens Fielding, considered one of Canada’s ablest men, stands high in the administration of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, holding the important place of Minister of Finance. He attained distinction by the path of newspaper work. Mr. Fielding was born in Halifax of English parentage in 1848, and at the age of sixteen entered the business office of theMorning Chronicle. This was perhaps the most influential newspaper of the Maritime Provinces, and counted among its contributors numerous men of intellect and influence. It was from them that young Fielding imbibed his political views and became imbued with the spirit of broad patriotism which has since distinguished him.
Soon after he formed his connection with theChroniclehe was promoted to a place as reporter, and was most zealous and thorough in this sphere. Before he was twenty he had commenced to write editorials. For two decades Mr. Fielding remained with theChronicle, rising by degrees to the place of editor, and at the same time taking an active part in the political campaigns in Halifax. He was elected in the elections of 1882 to a seat in the Nova Scotia Legislature, and rose so rapidly that within a few months he was offered the premiership of the Province. He declined the honor on this occasion, but soon afterward organized a government at the request of some of the other leaders, and took upon himself the duties of provincial secretary, which also involved the work of financial administrator. His government was so effective that for years it controlled the affairs of the Province. When Sir Wilfrid Laurier became premier of the Dominion in 1896 he appointed Mr. Fielding Minister of Finance, and the latter was returned by the constituency of Shelbourne and Queens to the Dominion House of Commons. It was Mr. Fielding who introduced the measure for the preferential tariff which has been so conspicuous a feature of the Laurier administration. Mr. Fielding is regarded as one of the strongest members of the cabinet.
The Hon. Charles Fitzpatrick, Minister of Justice in the Canadian Government, and one of the ablest of the Dominion’s lawyers and political leaders, was born of Irish parentage in the Province of Quebec in 1851. His father was a lumber merchant. He was graduated from Laval University in Quebec, studied law and began practice in the city of Quebec, where he rapidly rose to prominence. He had acquired such a reputation at the bar when he was thirty-four years old, that the half-breeds and others who rallied to the support of Louis Riel when the latter was imprisoned and about to be tried for his life, retained Mr. Fitzpatrick as the man best fitted to defend their leader. In this case he opposed a number of the ablest lawyers in Canada, and while his client, Riel, was condemned to death, Mr. Fitzpatrick’s eloquence and command of legal principles attractedwide attention. He has since appeared in many of the most important cases that have been tried within the Dominion.
Mr. Fitzpatrick’s entry into public life was made in 1891, when he was elected a member of the House of Commons of the Province of Quebec, representing his native county. He held this seat until 1896, when he was a successful candidate for the Dominion House of Commons. His general ability and his attainments as a lawyer had by this time become so conspicuous that when in the same year Sir Wilfrid Laurier organized his government he appointed Mr. Fitzpatrick to the position of Solicitor General. In 1900 he was re-elected, by a large majority, a Liberal member from Quebec, in a constituency that was largely Conservative. In 1902, on the elevation of the Hon. David Mills to the Supreme Court bench, Mr. Fitzpatrick was called to his present post of Minister of Justice.
The political success of Mr. Fitzpatrick is made the more notable by the fact that ninety per cent. of the voters of Quebec are French Canadians, while he himself is an Irishman.
In addition to his powers as an orator, his grasp of legal principles and his strong personal magnetism, one of his predominant traits is energy. It has been said of him that in the days of his youth he was in the habit of rising so early in the morning that he had his cases carefully analyzed and his plan of action formulated before other lawyers were out of bed. At present his most absorbing interest is the project for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway line across the continent. It was he who drew up the contract for the undertaking, and he has been its chief defender, in its legal aspects, against the many attacks to which it has been subjected by the opponents of the government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
Mr. Fitzpatrick attributes his zest for work to the fact that he has always been an outdoor man. During his early years his reputation as an athlete was as great in Quebec as was his fame as a lawyer. He married a daughter of the late Lieutenant Carors, and thus became intimately identified with one of the oldest of the French-Canadian families, which dates back to the early days in Canadian history.
There is no more enthusiastic believer in the future of Canada than Mr. Fitzpatrick. In 1903 he made a tour of the Northwest, and has expressed himself as astonished at its marvelous resources. It is his opinion that the projected Grand Trunk Pacific line, adding another railway to the transportation facilities of this territory, will develop it into one of the richest and most productive regions, not only in grain, but in minerals, the world has ever known.
The Hon. George William Ross, Premier of the Province of Ontario, was born near London, Ontario, in 1841. His father was a Scotchman, who, after migrating to Canada, became a prosperous farmer. Mr. Ross began his active life as a country school teacher. The government of the Province of Ontario established in 1871 a system of school inspectors, and he was appointed to one of these places. In the general election of the following year, Mr. Ross was chosen to represent the Conservative party in the western division of his native county, and was elected to the Dominion House of Commons. It was particularly his ability as an orator that brought him this honor. He was a member at the time of the Sons ofTemperance, and it was at the meetings of this society that he seized his first opportunities to develop and display his gifts as a public speaker. He has said since that this experience in talking on his feet was invaluable to him, and he advises all young men who desire to acquire the gift of public speaking to join a debating society or other organization whose members are willing to listen to budding eloquence.
Mr. Ross was made Minister of Education for the Province of Ontario in 1883, and in 1887 succeeded in having passed a law for the federation of the denominational colleges of Toronto into a single unit, The University of Toronto. He inaugurated other educational reforms, and materially raised the standard of public education in the Province. Mr. Ross relinquished his work in this special field in 1900 to become Premier of Ontario. He has been prominently identified with movements in the cause of temperance, and holds honorary degrees in five Canadian universities. One of his distinguishing qualities is versatility. He is interested in astronomy, and has a marked literary bent, having written biographical sketches and some poetry.
In spite of the fact that Lord Mount Stephen has not resided in Canada for a number of years, he must be included in any group of important workers in the Dominion. He played a leading part in the upbuilding of the Canadian commonwealth. The vital importance of his work for the Canadian Pacific Railway cannot be overlooked. Lord Mount Stephen and Lord Strathcona were the two great personalities which carried the project of the transcontinental line through a dark period of financial storm and stress. Lord Mount Stephen reorganized or built several other railroads in Canada, and was very closely identified with many of the Dominion’s most important commercial movements.
Like so many other men who have achieved remarkable success in Canada, Lord Mount Stephen is a Scotchman, having been born in that country in 1829. In his childhood he was a herdboy on the Highlands, and served as an apprentice in Aberdeen. He afterward obtained employment in London, and in 1850 migrated to Canada, where his uncle, William Stephen, was engaged in the woolen business. The young man was taken into partnership, and upon his uncle’s death bought his interest in the firm, which steadily grew in importance in the manufacture of woolen goods. Lord Mount Stephen’s financial standing at this time is indicated by the fact that he became a director in Canada’s leading banking institution, the Bank of Montreal, of which he was afterward vice-president. It was owing to this financial eminence, as well as to his great ability, that he was able to build a magnificent structure of success out of what appeared at that time to be the wreck of the project for the Canadian Pacific Railroad. In recognition of his services for her domain across the ocean, Queen Victoria knighted him in 1886, and a few years afterwards raised him to the peerage with the title of Lord Mount Stephen, a title suggested by the peak in the Rockies called Mount Stephen, which itself had been named after the able Scotchman. Lord Mount Stephen retired from the presidency of the Canadian Pacific Railroad in 1888, and has spent most of his time since then in England. He has, however, retained some of his interests in Canada, and has remembered numerous hospitals and other institutions with generous contributions.