Chapter XIV

"Do you class Mr. A. T. Stewart among the Old Merchants?" asked a very aged merchant of the author. I replied "if a man who has been engaged in commercial business under his own name steadily for forty years, less one, is not an old merchant, it will be difficult to find one." It is true that a merchant who conducts his business, as does Mr. Stewart, does not run much risk. Mr. Stewart sells for cash. He adds a moderate profit to his cost price, and while he keeps insured is not likely to lose much. The shipping merchant runs far more risk. The fluctuations in foreign markets may ruin him in a brief space. So too with the great commission merchant, who sells large amounts on time. A severe pressure in the money market, may cause an unusual number of failures, and he may lose beyond his ability to pay what he has guarantied. There are risks and there are losses in every kind of business. Some cannot be avoided.

A very remarkable firm once existed in this city under the style of Hicks, Lawrence & Co. They were the great domestic dry goods auctioneers of their day. Their store was in Pearl street, between Fulton and Beekman streets. It was a Quaker firm. The head of the house was Willet Hicks. He was the father of the wife of Dr. Cheeseman. Another of the firm was Cornelius W. Lawrence, who was many years mayor, and also Collector of the Port. In the firm was his brother Joseph Lawrence (now of the firm of Lawrence & Trimble), also Richard Lawrence. Cornelius W. Lawrence retired from this firm with a large fortune. Old Mr. Hicks was very rich and wished to retire. The other members begged him not to do so, or at least to leave his name in the firm. Mr. Hicks complied, unfortunately for himself, and let his name remain, although he did not attend to the business. At that time Joseph retired rich, leaving only Mr. Hicks and Richard Lawrence in the firm.

The panic of 1837 burst upon them, and they broke all to smithereens. Old Mr. Hicks, who had so kindly consented to let his name remain, became a ruined man. He was stripped of everything. Luckily he had a daughter, and the last years of his life were spent under the roof of his son-in-law, Dr. Cheeseman, who has achieved as high and well-deserved a reputation as any medical man in this city or in the Union. Another daughter of Mr. Hicks married C. W. Lawrence. She died, and Lawrence then married a Miss Prall. She died, and the ex-mayor then married his cousin, a Miss Lawrence.

The Ex-Collector and ex-mayor, old Cornelius, had the ice cream and strawberries of everything in life—in commerce, in politics, in wives, in finances and in religion. Mr. Lawrence lived for a long time up Broadway, near the old Tabernacle. He had a peculiar way of carrying his spectacles in his hand, behind his back while he looked at all the pretty girls he met.

One of them led him a sad. dance. Mr. Lawrence, the most respected man in this city, was led into an ambuscade and made the victim of a plot. It was a sad business, lost the old gentlemen a great amount of money, and caused him any quantity of mental misery.

C.W. Lawrence, who has been so successful in all of his undertakings, is now dead. What a melancholy history is that of Hicks, Lawrence & Co.

Another auction concern was that of Corlies, Haydock & Co. They sold crockery ware as well as dry goods. They were all Quakers. Their store was at the corner of Pine and Pearl streets. All of the old members of the firm are dead except two. They died rich, if that is any consolation to the families left behind, which it must be undoubtedly. The living are Thomas Pearsall and Joseph Corlies; the latter lives up near Madison park.

While talking of auctioneers, I will mention that there was a large auction house once, composed of Haggerty, Austin & Co. This house separated in 1886. Old John Haggerty formed a firm called John Haggerty & Sons. David Austin formed a firm called Austin, Spicer & Co., and William E. Wilmerding, lately deceased, formed a firm called Wilmerding, Priest & Mount—three auction firms out of what had been one. Mount had been a clerk with Adee, Timpson & Co. Mr. Priest had been a book-keeper to Haggerty, Austin & Co., and W. E. Wilmerding was one of the partners in that firm.

John Haggerty took into partnership his sons John A. Haggerty, J. Ogden Haggerty, and Clement Haggerty.

Afterward the firm was changed to Haggerty, Draper & Jones, the old John not being in it, but his place was supplied by J. Ogden Haggerty. Simeon Draper, a son-in-law of old Mr. Haggerty, was of this firm. The other partner was Arthur T. Jones. Simeon Draper had previously been in business under the firm of S. Crumby & Draper.

I have prepared a lengthy sketch of Mr. John Haggerty, and it will be found before this book is finished. He was a merchant in the city sixty years ago. His family stands among the first. It is ancient and it is aristocratic. His boys were all great dandies thirty years ago; and many a lovely girl has "set her cap," for one of the sons of Mr. John Haggerty. He lived in Broadway, where the Astor House now stands, for many years, until he sold his house and lot to Astor, and then he moved into Chambers street, opposite the Park. He was an intensely smart and energetic man. His children were all counted among the fashionables, and were frequenters of the balls at the old City Hotel in the palmy days of New York, before it got crowded.

Old Mr. Haggerty is still alive, living on a splendid farm near Flushing, Long Island. He is now nearly ninety years old, and as active and industrious as a man of thirty. He is the first man on his place to get up in the morning, and invariably wakes up his hired men.

A great copper merchant in former years was old Harman Hendricks. His store was in Mill street, where the old Jewish synagogue used to be, but is now called South William street. His manufactory was at Belleville, New Jersey. Mr. Hendricks was a born New Yorker, of the Jewish persuasion—honest, upright, prudent, and a very cautious man. He lived in Greenwich, near Morris street, for many years—in fact, until he died. That was twenty years ago. He died immensely rich, leaving over three millions of dollars. His real estate was in the Sixth to Seventh avenues, from Twentieth to Twenty-second streets; also out near where Mayer Wood lives, thirty acres on Broadway. Had he lived until now, as he never sold property, he would have been worth twelve millions. His heirs are worth at least seven millions. His sons continue the same business, in the same store, (except being rebuilt) where they have kept for fifty years. The firm is changed from Hendricks & Son to Hendricks Brothers. He had four sons, Uriah, Washington, (dead,) Henry and Montague. The three living sons comprise that firm now. Uriah is worth three millions. He was the original partner of his father, and is rich in his purse and rich in his family, having eight-teen living children, and the finest and handsomest set in the country. They are from five to twenty-six years old. He married a Miss Tobias, and his brother Henry married a sister.

Mr. T. J. Tobias is a very aged man, was once an eminent merchant, and is now engaged in the wine and liquor trade, and has on hand now some of the oldest and choicest wines to be found in the United States. He recently celebrated his golden wedding, having been married fifty years.

Mr. Tobias is English by birth, a nephew of Morris Tobias, the celebrated watch and chronometer maker of London. His store is in New street, near Fitch's great stores. He died since the above was written.

Mr. Hendricks left several daughters. One married Mr. Gomez, (recently dead.) One married Benjamin Nathan, a broker in Wall street. Another, (since deceased,) married Benjamin Hart, a brother of E. B. Hart, Surveyor of the port. One married Mr. Tobias, and one is not married. With all the revulsions in trade, the credit of the house for half a century has never been questioned, either in this country or in Europe, and to-day in Wall street, their obligations would sell quite as readily as government securities bearing the same rates of interest. No man stood higher in this community while he lived, and no man has left a memory more revered than Harman Hendricks. When he died, the synagogue which he attended lost one of its best friends, and the rising generation of that numerous family could not have a better example.