The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1898-03-05
DEATH OF WILLIAM
M. SINCERITY.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE IL

~'N -
Katherine 6 Miskey, who died last Au-
gust. He was graduated from the Central
High School in February, 1850, and i'm
mediately entered the commission and
produce house of J. Palmer x Co., at Della
ware avenue and Market street, where he
remained for ten years, gaining the knowl-
edge of business affairs and methods that
subsequently proved of such great value to
him. He always referred to this part of
his life with great satisfaction. On sever
ing his connection with Palmer x Co., he
went to Chicago to Engage in the commits
sion business for himself and was succeed
ing there when his father called him home
to take charge of the Germantown Passen-
ger Railway, in which he was the principal
stakeholder. Mr.. Singerly found the
affairs of the road in an unsatisfactory con-
dition, but by the energetic management
he gave it and the looping off of useless
expenses and the improvement of the SER
vice converted it into profitable enter
prise.
One of the first acts of Mr. Singerly on
taking charge was the purchase, for small
consideration, of the Girard avenue line.
Friends criticised this acquisition as an act
of bad Judgment, but his sagacity was
proven by the fact that this line soon be-
came one Of the most valuabl, parts of the
system. Towards the close OF his fathers
life he had absolute control of the road,
and upon his death became the owner Of
the stock of the company, valued at $780,
600, and which he subsequently sold to the
Work syndicate for double that sum. AL
though he had been an active street rail-
way man for twenty-five years, when he
sold out he ceased to be stakeholder to
any extent in street railways.
NEWSPAPER PROPRIETOR.
Mr.. Singerly became the owner of the
Philadelphia Record June /, 1877, when
its circulation was only a few thousand
copies. By the application of the same
energy, foresight and business capacity
that had proven so signally successful in
street railway management he more than
repeated his former success. Five years
later he erected the present handsome home
OF the Record, adjoining the Post office
fitting it with all the appliances and fac
ilities needed for the production of mod.
ern newspaper of large circulation. In
1884 Mr.. Sipgerly began fight against
what he regarded as the excessive prices
that were demanded for coal in Philadel-
phia, and made himself the Intermediary
between certain miners and the consumers,
by which means coal was sold at prices
much lower than the retailers were charg.
ing.
In 1890 Mr.. Singerly transferred the
ownership of the Record to company, of
which he remained the principal stock
holder, though upon the failure Of the
bank and trust company, Of which he was
the President, it became known that prac-
tically all his interest in the paper had
been hypothecated, all that remained to
him being his equities, which, under the
plan of settlement, he hoped could be so
employed as to furnish means of paying his
Indebtedness that the actual assets would
not cover.
Another great business enterprise that is
associated with Mr.. Singerly's name was
the building of many hundreds Of houses
in the northwestern part of Philadelphia,
on land owned by the Singerly estate, at a
cost of several million dollars. To carry
out his plans it was necessary to open
Diamond and other streets through the
cemeteries that blocked their way, and this
was accomplished at great cost, involving
the removal of several thousand bodies to
new graves, the laying out and paving of
streets, the opening of a brickyard planning
mill, etc.
One of the things for which Mr.. Singerly
was famous, besides his newspaper and his
paper mills, was his great farm in Mont
gomery county, near Gwynedd Station, on
the North Pennsylvania Railroad lie
bought the nucleus of this farm in 1872 on
the advice of his father, his health having
become impaired by close application to
business matters. In 1873 he moved to
the little farm Of IS acres From this
small beginning the enterprise grew until
the "Rerord Farms embraced 700 acres
which, with Their buildings, equipments
anu the the stock upon them, represented
an investment Of about $3.50 600. The
ground had been brought up to high state
Of fertility, though rather poor when Mr.,
Singerly purchased it. His HoIstein cattle
were the pride Of the farms, though he also
had large ilocks Of high-grade sheen, He
was also interested in the raising of trot-
ting horses in Kentucky
0RGANIZATIOE or THE CHESTNUT STREET
BANK.
In 1887, upon the retirement of Robert
E. Pattison from the office of Governor
MIR. Singerly was active in the formation
OF the Chestnut Street National Bank. of
when the Ex-Governor was the first Presi-
dent, Mr. Singerly being Wei President
When Mr.. Pattison was again called TO the
(InhernatOria1 nl,o;, r.,