H.

WILLIAM ALEXANDER HADDEN, born in Flushing, Long Island, about 1811,
died in New York city, April 2, 1880. He was a son of David Hadden, a native of
Aberdeen, Scotland, 1773, and of Ann Aspinwall, his wife. Having gained a thorough
knowledge of the linen trade in the store founded by his father, the subject of this
memoir devoted his whole life to the importation of Irish linens, and the tranquil,
capable and prosperous prosecution of their sale in this country. He was married in
1849 to Frances Sanderson, daughter of James Elnathan Smith. Of their three children,
two are living, James E. Smith Hadden and Harold Farquhar Hadden.

QEORQE HAGEMEYER, merchant and manufacturer, a native of Castle in
Germany, born in 1837, died in Cornwall on the Hudson, June 14, 1892. His parents
were farmers and proprietors of a large grist mill.

When fifteen years of age and after the death of his parents, the subject of this
memoir removed to Rotterdam, and thence crossed the ocean to the United States in
1852, by a sailing vessel, the voyage lasting forty six days. He reached New York city in
December. The possessor of only a small amount of money, he was compelled to be
saving from the start. A short time after his arrival in the metropolis of the new
world, his older brother John gave him employment in a saw mill in Downing street,
at that time considered the best mill in this city. Older brothers are sometimes incon¬
siderate, and John restricted the freedom of his younger brother so much, that the latter
found he could do better elsewhere. Going to Yonkers, where he had been offered a
position in G. Copcut & Co.'s saw mill, he devoted himself diligently to his work, and
in less than a year had mastered the proper management of a saw. But, possibly a
trifle homesick, he longed to be back to New York, and finally returned to his friends
and his brother's mill in Downing street. Six months later, however, he again disagreed
with his employer, and leaving his position, this time he had the enterprise to remove
to Boston. After a short stay in Boston, and while employed in a saw mill there, he
had the misfortune to meet with a serious accident, one of his legs being completely
cut off by a circular saw. He was then seventeen years old. To many natures thi«
disaster would have proved such a discouragement as to have taken away ambition,
blighted all prospect of advancement in life, and resulted in a subsequent career of
commonplace and routine effort. But Mr. Hagemeyer was not daunted. The calamity
served rather to call forth all the resources of which he was possessed.

After remaining several months in a hospital, he returned to New York city. As
he was then unfitted for laborious work in the mill or for his trade as a sawyer, he
undertook the cigar manufacturing business to support himself. After making cigars
by hand for two years, he was offered a position as buyer of timber by Copcut &
Co., who admired his energy and saw in him the making of an enterprising and sue.
cessful merchant. Accepting the offer, he sailed from New York for the Honduras
coast and for two years purchased the mahogany timber required by Copcut & Co.
While this experience proved of great value to him, financially and otherwise, it was
suddenly ended by an attack of fever, and Mr. Hagemeyer returned to New York.

At the age of tw^enty-two, he had saved considerable money and was then taken