Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1869-05-19

pany, Nicholson File Company,
Boston Wheat and Bread Company,
United States Flax Manufacturing
ompany, Providence and New
York Steamship Company. This
view scarcely gives an idea of the
immensity Of the enterprises, into
many of which they become engaged
by taking hold of the failing enter
prises of others. The immensity
of the whole can only be judged
from the immensity of any one of
the undertakings named in the fore
going list. All are so great in them
selves that the successful conduct of
any of them would stamp man as
eminently successful in business,
and give him the prestige and
social influence of great wealth.
BROWN AND IVES.
The house of Brown Il Ives ante
dates the Revolutionary war. 1t be-
gan IA a commercial house long be-
fore cotton spinning was thought OF,
much less had become staple manu-
facture and the source of wealth and
power. Always cminently conserV-
ative, the house have adhered to old
customs and ways to a remarkable
deg zee, ard to this day the account
books which contain the record Of
their business are marked, The
Colony of Rhode Island - and the
style of the house has been Brown *
Ives for SO long time that the MEM
ory Of man runEeth not to the con-
trary. Forty years ago Nicholas
Brown and Thomas Boynton Ives
composed the firm. They were
succeeded in the business by their
Ial,,,
bert II. Ives, the present members,
OF the house, and, as they signed
themselves the other day, "sole
partners" Mr.. Brown is Il man of
about seventy years of age, andMr.
Ives may be, perhaps five years
younger. They are both gentle
men of refined tastes and cultiva-
ted intelIects-highly respectable,
but eminently conservative,
they say here in Rhode Is
land ; aud as an evidence of this,
| may say Mr.. Browns private Ii
brary contains probably the richest
collection of MSS. and of rare and
curious books relating to America to
be found anywhere among the collec-
tors OF this specially. Old Jolal
Brown, the father of Nicholas, who
distinguished as one of the men who
captured the Gaspee, in Providence
river, in l772, and who was a very
prominent man Throughout his
whole life, laid the corner stone of
Rhode Island College, now Brown
University, upon its removal from
Warren to Providence, in 1910. Mich
olas Brown afrerward contribu-
ted largely toward the University
and the name was changed in his
honor, while the old college building
took the name of 'Iopen College,
after the wife of Thomas b. Ives.
Among the contributions of the pres
ent family are some gifts to the uni
versities, to the Butler Hospital and
and the Rhode Island Hospital, just
completed. Though John Carter
Brown and Robert II. Ives ale the
sole partners Of the firm; the whole
family connections are familiarly
spok en- of here as Brown Il Ives ,
Mrs. Goddard is a sister Of Mrs Ives.
She has five sons, Thomas, William,
Moses b. l., Frank, and Robert, and
two daughters, one of whom married
Thomas Is. sheppard, and ule ether
William Binney, n son of Horace
Binney, Esq, of Philadelphia. a
daughter of Mr.. Ives married Prof
Gammell formerly Of brown Univer.
sity, and now supposed to lend the
force of his intellectual abilities to
the JOH51ldt newspaper wherever
the interests of Brown { Ives are
concern ed. John Garter Brown and
Robert II. Ives may he the partners
though it is asserted that Mrs God
dard'S money remains in the house,
and the GOddards are the agents OF
the great mill at IOnsdale but all
these are the people whom Sprague
had in his mind as Brown <
Ives, the great family, the million
dollars. | may as we'll say here as at
any other place, that the person re-
ferred to by Senator Sprague as los
ing his life in the late war, by mis-
take of 1.-the million dollars,n III
the character of the man on whose
stan he was PLACED, was = son of Mr.
Robert II. Ives. Tie young man
served with Gen. Rodman, of Rhode
Island, and was killed at Antietam,
Nobody knows anything with alb
solute certainty in relation To the
business Of Brown Il Ives, even THEN
employees being sworn 10 secrecy in
these matters. They have very few
outside Investments, and cannot be
said to be "eXteuded'' even in the
sense ia which u may be truiy said
Of the Spragues. Their property Is
mostly in landed estates, and 1t r.
an Old saying here that "EFown i
Ives buy and buy, but never sell y
Almost in the very heart of this
city there are acres OF land lying like
the laborers in the Scripture, all the
day idle, which they viii neither
sell nor improve. Many nf theii
l.. -,
about them wonderfully in contrast
| TO the elegance of their mills, as de-
| scribed in one Of Sprague's speeches
| bat if they seldom make repairs foi
| the accommodation af their tenants
| neither do they raise the rents. Bul
/ when they turned their attention
| from commercial enterprises 10 cot
| ton spinning, "shamed" SpSagu,
SAYS, "igto employing some Of theiI
! immense resources in the busines.
Of the people about them,n they
! built what are here called "yery
/ fine mills," though their rival calb
| them extTavagant To i degree az Il
4 incite others 10 initiate them tot hei
ruin. Their print works are at Ions
/ dale, where they have the Hope
/ mill, called after the materna
/ branch OF the Ives family at phlau.A =
on tic Paw tuket, and the ;'Ashton'
mill, on the line OF the Providence
ami Worcester Railroad, in the val
/ ley OF the 3lacks,on. They haV
also Il large interest in the Black
stone Manufacturing Company-Mr
/ Alexander Duncan, the father o
William duncan, al Duncan, Cher
man < Co, being the other mem beI
/ This establishment was built up b,