Hall, Henry, America's successful men of affairs

([New York] :  New York Tribune,  1895-1896.)

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252
 

AMERICA S    SUCCESSFUL    MEN.
 

ROBERT MACY GALLAWAY, merchant and banker, born in New York city,
Aug. 4, 1837, is of Scottish descent, the Gallaways having come to America in 1800.
His father, Daniel Ayres Gallaway, was engaged in the iron business, and educated
his son at Yale College, whence he graduated in the class of 1858. The young man
then found occupation as clerk in his father's store and has since been actively engaged
both in mercantile pursuits and as an officer of corporations. He was elected president
of The Merchants' National Bank in January, 1892, and has since conducted the affairs
of this institution with prudence and success. By reason of his active part in the
development of the elevated railroad system of the city, he served as vice president
under William R. Garrison and Jay Gould for eleven years. He is now a director of
The Manhattan Railway, The United States Rubber Co., The Bank of New Amsterdam,
and The Bowery Savings Bank. Mr. Gallaway was inarried in 1868, to Miss Elizabeth
A., daughter of Dr. Merrill W. Williams, and their children are, Merrill W., John M.,
and Mary. He has long been prominent and is a member of the Union League,
Metropolitan, and Riding clubs, the New England Society and St. Andrew's Society.

THOflAS GARNER, manufacturer, who died in this city, Oct. 16, 1867, in his
seventieth year, was one of the best known and most successful business men of New
York during the first part of the present century. At an early age, in partnership
with his brother, James, he began the sale of dry goods in this city, but from insuffici¬
ent capital failed in 1832, afterward paying his obligations in full and re-establishing
himself within a few years. His conduct in this matter was an indication of his char¬
acter, Mr. Garner being everywhere esteemed for his business probity and his upright
life. He attained distinction through his energetic and successful efforts to establish
the cotton manufacturing industry in this country. Little by little, he extended his
enterprise in this direction until his factories had grown to enormous proportions.
He owned large mills in Cohoes, Rochester, Little Falls, Pleasant Valley and New¬
burgh, N. Y., and Reading, Pa., as well as print works at Wappinger's Falls and
Haverstraw, N. Y. The product of these mills was marketed by the commission house
of Garner & Co., in New York city. Mr. Garner gained a fortune of several millions,
which descended to his wife, Harriet, and their children, Thomas and William T.
Garner, and Mrs. Josephine A. Graham, Mrs. Frances A. Lawrence and Mrs. Anna
James. He gave $100,000 in his will to public institutions. Thomas died shortly after
his father. The great business of Garner & Co. is yet conducted by trustees of the
estate, who are at present John J. Lawrance and Adrian Iselin.—His son, WILLIAfl T.
GARNER, born in 1840, lost his life July 20, 1876, in consequence of the capsizing of
his yacht, the schooner Mohawk, during a squall in New York harbor. He was care¬
fully educated and then associated himself with the affairs of Garner & Co. At his
father's death, he became executor of the estate and senior partner in Garner & Co.,
and managed the widespread and varied interests of the firm with such prudence,
energy and sagacity, that he gained a fortune twice as large as his father's. Mr.
Garner made an heroic effort to rescue his wife, Mary Marcellite, from the cabin of the
Mohawk, when the yacht capsized, and both perished together. Their daughters were,
Florence, now Lady Gordon-Cumming, Adele, who died at the age of four, and another.

CORNELIUS KINGSLAND GARRISON, railroad president, born near West Point,
N. Y., March i, 1809, died in this city. May i, 1885. He sprang from families who
were among the earliest settlers of the Island of Manhattan.      Compelled to seek
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