Chapter XXXV

G. G. & S. S. Howland did an immense business in all those years alluded to, and after the firm was changed to Howland & Aspinwall their extensive operations did not decrease.

In the Pacific trade these merchants had no equals. From 1831 to 1840, they did the largest general business of any firm in the city of New York.

They did a heavy business from both the East and West Indies; also from the Mediterranean and England. They owned several Liverpool packets, among them the "John Jay," "William Brown," and "Crawford." They owned at least seventeen or eighteen ships.

I have read in the papers of to-day that old General Paez has just safely reached La Guayra, on his return from the United States, where he has long been an exile.

Twenty-eight years ago, old Paez was in his glory and President of Venezuela. At that time the Howland concern did the largest business with that country. They had a resident agent, John M. Foster, at Carracas, and traded regularly at Puertо Cavello and La Guayra. Old Doctor Litchfield was their agent at the former port, and J. S. McKaighen at the latter. Both were United States consuls. Packets owned by the Howlands sailed between these two ports and New York regularly. One was the brig "Elizabeth," another the "Flight," another the brig "Stag."

Captain Anderson, as nice a little fellow as ever trod a deck, commanded the "Stag" for a long time. Howland & Aspinwall, when the civil war broke out, sold her to the government of Venezuela for $14,000. She was made a man-of-war in that service. Captain Anderson fell over her taffrail at sea and was drowned.

John S. Manson was also agent of this great house at La Guayra.

Mr. Briggs, of the large grocery house of J. & N. Briggs, in South street, was one of their captains (brig "Elizabeth.") So was Captain Munday, who is still in New York, and one of our oldest and most respected sea captains.

The brig "Elizabeth" was sold to the house of March & Schermerhorn, who had been clerks in other years to the Howlands. Schermerhorn is dead, and March is buried somewhere West in a lead mine.

The Pacific business of the Howlands was an immense concern. They sent out cargoes valued as high as $250,000 each. The voyage was made up to Valparaiso, Lima, and up to Mazatlan. These ships took cargoes composed of everything, from a cambric needle to a hoop pole. Iron ware, bars, steel, provisions, salt, brandies—in small barrels to go on mules' backs—wines, bales of domestics, fireworks, Chinese crackers, gunpowder, muskets, lead, spelter, costly flaming crimson and scarlet crape shawls, crockery ware, and in fact a country store on a mammoth scale.

There is only one place in this wide world where such a cargo can be made up, and that place is the city of New York.

The Howlands sent out supercargoes with these ships. They were in most cases clerks in the employ of the house, and who had lived with them some time. In this way Samuel M. Comstock (once of the firm) became connected with the house. He was sent out supercargo to the Pacific.

At Mazatlan, Barr & Kennedy did business for Howland & Aspinwall. Mr. Barr is now in New York, and Mr. Kennedy, of whom we have written very liberally in a previous chapter, is in Scotland.

Samuel Shaw Howland married a daughter of John Hone. One of his sons, Meredith, is in the present concern. William Edgar, the general partner with W. H. Aspinwall, is now in Paris. He married a Miss Parsons, for his first wife. His second was a Parisian lady.

One daughter of Mr. Howland, Anabella, married Rufus Leavitt. The Leavitts, David, Rufus and John, were originally from Bethlehem, Conn., and came to New York poor boys. John and Rufus Leavitt, were for many years the greatest dry goods concern in the city.

Abbey Howland, another daughter, married a Wolcott. He was a son of Judge Frederick Wolcott, of Litchfield, Conn., who was a brother of Oliver Wolcott, one of General Washington's Secretaries of the Treasury, and son of the first Governor of Connecticut. His brother Oliver was also Governor of Connecticut. Oliver's descendants are all dead.

Another Miss Howland, Louisa, married James Brown, of the firm of Brown, Brothers & Co. Young Brown was accidentally shot on the fourth of July on the piazza of his father-in-law's house at Flushing.

He was slinging a grass hammock, when one of his little brothers-in-law accidentally fired off a pistol loaded with a marble. It killed him dead.

Gardner G. Howland for his first wife married Miss Edgar. His second wife was the beautiful Louisa Meredith, a daughter of William Meredith, one of the most eminent men in Baltimore. She was a great belle in the city of belles. She is now a widow, and resides in Washington Square, next to Fifth avenue, and is mother of two children. The son is named G. G., after his father, and is a member of the present firm of Howland & Aspinwall. The other child is a little girl.

When Gardner G. Howland retired from the great house as an active partner, he went to work to get up the Hudson River Railroad. He was a director in 1840. He was a great deal of his time at his country seat at Flushing, and in fact, he never interfered with the affairs of the old house. He died one Sunday morning. He was taken ill in church seven or eight years ago, and died half an hour after he reached home. Samuel died two years later in Rome. His body was brought home.

When G. G. lived at 8 State street, on one occasion old Joseph, his father, and his mother were there on a visit. One evening a quadrille was got up, and in it danced the grand-parents, the parents, and the grand-children.

A brother of G. G. and S. S. Howland was named Joseph. He died on a coffee estate, owned by G. G. and S. S., near Matanzas. He was never married. He had been a clerk with his father at New London, but never with his brothers in New York. A sister of the Howlands married James Roosevelt, (his third wife.)

Wm. H. Aspinwall had a brother, G. Woolsey Aspinwall, who was a long time clerk in the South street house. He joined a Mr. Pope in Philadelphia, and established a house there, under the firm of Pope & Aspinwall. Mr. Pope had been some years the agent of G. G. & S. S. Howland, at Tobasco, where he had made $20,000. Woolsey Aspinwall married Miss Hare, a great Philadelphia beauty. Never was a commercial house started under more favorable auspices, but alas! it did not last. The new house in Philadelphia was anxious to outdo Howland & Aspinwall, the old house in New York. But the place was not equal, and they had neither the means nor the talent. So Pope & Aspinwall suspended, after a short but exciting mercantile career in the Quaker City. Mr. A. died, and Mr. Pope went to New Orleans.

W. H. Aspinwall left the active management of the affairs of Howland & Aspinwall in 1850 and '51 to go into the Pacific Railroad and Panama Steamship Company. He founded the city of Aspinwall and gave his own name to it.

In connection with his new enterprise, there was one time when his vast fortune was in jeopardy. It was saved by sheer luck. The California operations made an immense fortune for himself as well as many others.

All the members of the firm, since its foundation fifty years ago by G. G., have been relatives, brothers, cousins and nephews, except Mr. Comstock, who is now interested with Mr. Aspinwall.

At one time they had Mr. Samuel Byerly in the concern, but it was only for a short time, and then he went West. He had been very much overrated. He led the firm into a speculation in furs, by which they lost $200,000. His partners at once were satisfied he should leave.

W. H. Aspinwall is a good man, and he is a great merchant. Good fortune sits gracefully upon his shoulders. He is a generous-hearted man. He is remarkable for his generosity, and his lenience to the debtors to his house. The amounts due such a concern every year by important parties who have failed, are enormous. Holding a high idea of man's honesty, Mr. Aspinwall has a general rule permitting all such debtors to settle up in their own way, and pay ten cents or one hundred on the dollar, as they see fit, and promptly signs their release.

Mr. W. H. A. is a great patron of the fine arts, and owns a gallery of paintings. He is vastly rich. He has had the benefit of much foreign travel, and commenced his career with a good solid education. He is very courteous. Once a week his gallery is open to those who have more taste than money.

Of course there is no commercial honor that the various Howlands and Aspinwalls have not received during the past half century.

By this I mean they have been honored by being directors in every bank, insurance company, railroad or other monopoly, when they could be induced to accept office; but in their cases it was generally to get their powerful names and active enterprise.

They have flourished too, in the annals of the Chamber of Commerce.

I have never known any of the members of the great firm to be politicians. The founder Gardner G., was a "King on Change." Nobody outranked him there, and that was his highest ambition. He had an utter contempt for any person who became a merchant without having served a regular apprenticeship as clerk.

On one occasion, when a person bearing the aristocratic name of Jay had been transferred from a doctor's office to a partnership in a large mercantile house, owing to the influence of a rich father-in-law, Mr. Howland entered their counting-room one day, and taking up a sample of cotton said:

"Look here, John. Do you know what this is?"

"Cotton," replied the amazed junior partner.

"Bless your heart, I did not think you knew so much," was the sarcastic reply of the thoroughbred Howland.

The business done now by Howland & Aspinwall is entirely different from what it was years ago. They are more bankers than merchants, and are immensely rich and responsible.

There are two Howlands in the concern. One is G. G., a son of the founder, Meredith, a son of Sam, and J. Lloyd Aspinwall is a son of W. H.

The graduates from the great house are not to be counted. I refer particularly to young men who have clerked it with the Howlands for some time, until they had acquired a thorough knowledge of business, and then gone into it on their own account. Many of them I remember, but not all.

There was a Mr. Carrington. He was of the firm of John Hone & Co. afterwards.

There was a W. A. Lawrence, of the firm of W. A. Lawrence & Munsell, in Pine street. They dealt heav- ily in silks. Mr. Lawrence finally went out to Canton. He was drowned off the poop of the ship "Rainbow," and was smoking a cigar when he fell overboard. He struck his head, was killed, and his body was shipped for New York. The ship was lost, but the body was recovered and brought home by another vessel, and buried in Greenwood.

Schermerhorn and March were both clerks. Samuel Comstock, partner now with W. H. Aspinwall. Pope & Aspinwall, alluded to before. George Hart of the firm of Pinkerton & Hart, in the Mediterranean trade.

Jonathan Thompson, son of the old Collector of the Port of same name. He is of the firm of Thompson & Adams.

William Macfarlane, a broker in Wall street. George Gallagher, a son of one of the firm of Murray & Gallagher, alluded to before.

Wm. Newton Adams, who was once consul at La Guayra-dead now. Murdock Mathewson, a nephew of Charles Edmunston & Co., of Charleston, South Carolina, where M. is now in business.

Moses Taylor, a son of the rent collector of John Jacob Astor, was also a clerk with G. G. & S. S. Howland. I alluded to him in the last chapter. His father died in the employ of Mr. Astor. Moses went with G. & S. S. H. when very young, and served his time out, and then left for causes already explained. He at first started a little Matanzas business, and imported cigars from other ports of Cuba.

Old Mr. Astor also always backed up Moses when he needed aid. Moses worked hard for many years. He became rich, and in 1837, when others failed, Moses was reaping a harvest of gold. He was a speculator in notes at two or three per cent. a month-a most excellent and easy way of making money. Finally he became a millionaire and President of the City Bank.

His partner was named Pyne, a son of Thomas Pyne, the old seal skin broker in Wall street.

Peter V. King was a clerk with Moses. He was a brother of Mrs. Henry Shelton, alluded to in a former chapter.