Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-14
STARTED AS A CLERK
interesting Early Career of
Stuyvesant Fish.
HE HAD NOTED ANCESTORS
Descended From Dutch Colonial
Governor.
WALKED TO SAVE CAR FARE
How He Worked His Way Up to the
Presidency Of Great
Railroad. 4
Written for The Star.

Written for The Star.
To many readers OF the present genera
ton Stuyvesant Fish, more than ordinarily
prominent just now because of the stand
he has taken in insurance matters, is mere
ly a rich railroad president who has a row
with E. H. Hartman. But to those who
know, the name Stuyvesant Fish recalls
more than one bit of the nations history
of which every citizen has a right to be
proud
Stuyvesant Fish is the youngest son of
the late Hamilton Fish, governor of New
York state fifty-odd years ago, and Secre-
tary of State under Grant. He is grand
son of that Nicholas Fish who served in
the war of the revolution with such dis
tinction as to win the rank of lieutenant
colonel, and, for so young man. an I'M
usual degree of admiration and confidence
from Gen. Washington.
Nicholas Fish was the intimate friend
and the executor of Alexander Hamilton,
and for that reason he named his oldest son
Hamilton. This son married, in 1903, the
daughter of Peter Stuyvesant-a descend
ant of the famous Dutch colonial governor
of the same name-and Margaret Living
ston. Hence the names Hamilton Fish and
Stuyvesant Fish. Hamilton Fish married
Julia kean of the same New Jersey family
famous in revolutionary times, to which
United States Senator John kean of New
Jersey belongs
Stuyvesant Fish, then. has the blood of
lighters ana St6leSIiieI III HIS veins, ana II
heredty counts for anything, ought to put
UP an extraordinary good fight for what he
considers the right thing in insurance.
What Mr.. Fish Is Like.
Stuyvesant Fish is fifty-four years old,
tall, erect, with aquiine features, a rather
bristling mustache under his strong nose,
and a penetrating eye, while his bearing Is
more like a soldiers than a railroad presi-
dents.
Though belonging to a family of wealth
as well as honorable ancestry, Stuyvesant
Fish had to work like a poor mans son
when young. He was graduated from Co
lumbia College, but got his preparatory
training in the public schools.
In 1871, at twenty, having just left coll
lege, he was put to work in a very minor
place in the Office of the president of the
Illinois Central railroad, the line of which
he is himself now president. His pay was
so small that he had to have an allowance
from his father. 1t was only $50 a month,
though, and, born to riches as he was, this
wasn't enough, and he was often so hard
up that he had TO walk from his boarding
house TO the Office.
According to one yeracious chronfcler of
the hardships rich men have to undergo
as boys, when this one complained to his
father, the latter asked him how much the
street-car fare a day between house
and office.
Three cents each way" replied Stuyve-
SAINT.
six cents altogether" was the elder
mans comment. We'll, I'd keep right on
walking. It's more economical than riding.
You'll wear out some shoe leather. but not
six cents worth every day..
For some reason in spite of the fact that
he had such magnificent chance to save
money while working IN the Illinois Cen
trail office, young Fish didn't remain clerk
there very long, but got job in the
banking Office of Morton Bliss & Co. There
he made good to such an extent that In
1874 when he had been in the office three
years, he had risen to be managing clerk.
BY 1876 he was thought OF enough conse-
quence to be placed on the directorate OF
the road In whose presidents office he had
first worked for wages.
After that his rise with the road was
rapid. He was made second vice president
in 1888, and year later advanced to the
vice presidency. In 1887 he became presf-
dent. During all his years of rise, and for
years afterward, he was on terms OF the
closest business and personal friendship
with E. II. Hartman. The late Nicholas
Fish, former diplomat and banker at the
time of his extraordinary death three or
four years ago, was closely identined with
the banking firm of Hartman Il Co., and
over and over again, in the days when the
Illinois Central stockholders were finding
fault with the Fish management OF the
road Stuyvesant Fish and e. II. Harri-
man stood together shoulder to shoulder,
and beat their opponents every time.
Yet today they seem as far apart as the
poles, both with regard to insurance and
railroad problems, and there have been
several newspaper reports of late that Har-
riman had planned to gobble up the Illinois
Central and GUST Fish from his presidency.
A Big Railroad.
The Illinois Central railroad, with line
reaching from Chicago on the shore OF Lake
Michigan to New Orleans on the gulf, and
with so many branch lines that its mileage
runs up into the thousands is a veritable
institution in Illinois and the other states
for which 1t furnishes so much Transports
tom Its first passenger train entered Chi
cage in 1853. though 1t had some track in
operation two years earlier, and its semi
centennial was celebrated In 1900. 1t was
not the pioneer railroad Into Chicago. but
1t was the first to reach paying basis, and
also the first to establish a surbuban serv-
ice, in 1864. then putting on three trains q
day, each way. between Hyde Park and the
city,
| II was the first railroad to advertise sales
of lands received by state grant, because 1t
wanted settlers along the line. The road
had d hard time lust before the civil war,
owing TO bad crops, which discouraged set
tiers and lessened its freight receipts. Ney-