Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1905-08-21
WHO THOMAS r. RYAN Is.
Man Who Has Engineered the Settle.
ment of the Equitable.

New York TmeS.-ThOmaS FOrCune
Ryan, who arranged the settlement by
which the Hyde majority holdings OF
the stock of the Equitable life as
surance society were purchased and
trusteed for the benent OF policy
holders, has become, by easy stages,
one OF the foremost men in Wall
street. For many years tle public
have looked upon Mr.. Ryan essentially
as a street railroad man because OF
his work in creating and controlling
the Metropolitan street railway sys-
tenn. The Metropolitan has been
only a part of Mr.. Ryan's business
activities, and financiers regard his
work of combining and reorganizing In
the steam railroad field as more i'm
portant than his operations in trac-
tons and public utilities. According
to ais personal trends Mr.. Ryan re-
CARDS the forming of the Richmond
terminal company, in the early
eighties, as one Of the most important
transactions of his career. By 1t ali
the southern railroad lines were
brought into close working arrange,
ments Later they were separate
and the bulk of the properties came
under control of the Georgia railway
and banking company, which controls
the Georgia Central railroad. That
was another big steam railroad deal
in which Mr.. Ryan figures. his other
two most important financial transac>
lions in the steam railroad line being
the Hooking Valley litigation and the
Pere Marquette reorganization.
1t was while these transactions were
under way that Mr.. Ryan, in : sc, be-
came associated with the late William
c. Whitney and brought about the
consolidation of the surface traction
lines into the Metropolitan system
Prior to that time Mr.. Ryan had been
associated with such men as Jay
Gould, Samuel j. Tilden, William r.
Travers and John B. Travor.
Mr.. Ryan was the original promoter
of the Metropolitan company, and
since that enterprise was engineered
he has gradually extended his opera
tons until they give him large in
terests in almost all the gas, electric
and other puplic utility corporations OF
the city and of the northern section of
New Jersey. The Consolidated gas
company and it's constituent cor
porations, as well as the New York
Edison company and the lighting COM
panies in che other boroughs OF
Greater New York all include Thomas
F. Ryan among their most important
stockholders. He also is big stock
holder in the American tobacco com
pany.
Mr.. Ryan is the active head OF the
Morton trust company, INTO which he
came When the consolidation was eff
fected with the State trust company,
and is also a power in the Bank OF
Commerce. The Southern railway,
the Seaboard Air Line and I. e Staten
Island traction companies also are in
cluded in the list of Ryan properties.
Mr.. Ryan's rise to his present
aff1uence and influence came from the
most humble beginning. He was born
in Nelson county, Virginia, October
II, 1851, and therefore is less than
81 years old. His parents were poor
farm people, but came of excellent
Scotch-Irish ancestry. The American
branch of the family dated back to be-
fore the revolution. His parents died
When young Ryan was but five years
old, and he went to live with a grand
mother. When Is years old he went
to Baltimore and entered dry goods
house, but soon obtained employment
in a bank. He afterward went to
New 4ork and attached himself to a
Wall-street house. He became a
member of the stock exchange in 1874.
This was year after his marriage to
Miss Ida M. Barry of Baltimore
From the time of Mr.. Ryan's entry to
the stock exchange. when member
ships were worth about $4,000 each,
his rise was steady and rapid. Mr..
Ryan has five sons.