Biographical Sketches of Monroe County, New York Residents

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George ELLWANGER

pages 1173-1174

He who builds up a great enterprise does for his country as important a work as he who pro­tects its interests upon the battlefield or he who formulates its laws in the council chambers of state or nation. The trend of civilization has ever been westward and upon the frontier outposts have been found men of stalwart courage and of marked ability who have recognized and utilized opportunities and resources and have builded to their labor a monument in large undertakings which have resulted from their diligence and enterprise. Such a one was George ELLWANGER, who was a pioneer in the nursery business in western New York. His life record, too, indicated how great are the advantages which America offers to her adopted sons. No caste or class fettered his ambition and the dignity of labor is here appreciated as in no other country. George ELLWANGER in early manhood wisely determined to make his home in the United States.

He was born December 2, 1816, at Gross-Heppach, in the Remsthal, called "the garden of the fatherland," in the kingdom of Wurtemburg, Germany, and amid the vineyards with his father and brothers he labored during his youth, finding enjoyment in the occupation which proved to him an alluring field for the labors of life. A liberal general education acquired in the schools of the neighborhood was supplemented by specific training of four years in a leading horticultural institution in Stuttgart, and there he continuously advanced toward that perfection which brought him so goodly a measure of success in his later years. Ambitious for advantages that would prove tangible assets in a business life, he came to the United States in 1835 and for a brief period resided at Tiffin, Ohio, but the Genesee valley as he passed westward left with him a strong mental picture that proved too attractive to resist and accordingly after a few months he returned to Rochester, where he entered the horticultural establishment of the firm of REYNOLDS & BATEHAM, the first of its kind in this city. The succeeding four years were spent as an employe [sic] and in 1839 by purchase he became proprietor of the business and at the same time acquired eight acres of land on Mount Hope avenue, a tract which formed the nucleus of the Mount Hope Nurseries, which subsequently became so celebrated. The following year Patrick BARRY was admitted to a partnership that covered the succeeding half century and was only terminated by the death of Mr. BARRY in June, 1890. The business proved profitable from the beginning and as settlement increased in the west they shipped their goods more and more largely to those newer districts toward the setting sun until at length ELLWANGER & BARRY’S nursery goods were sold in every section of the United States, while a large export trade was also enjoyed. Additional property was purchased here to meet the growing demands of the business and they likewise established the Toronto Nurseries in Canada and the Columbus Nurseries in Ohio in order to facilitate shipments and bring the western and northern trade nearer to a base of supplies. After the death of Mr. BARRY the old firm name was continued, Mr. ELLWANGER remaining at the head of the house until his own demise. The generation to which he belonged represented a different type of business men. They maintained a higher standard of commercial ethics, and the house of ELLWANGER & BARRY never for a moment slipped back from the honorable policy established at the outset. It was always their endeavor to please their patrons by supplying stock of the highest quality, gaining a fair profit on their sales, yet never overreaching another in a business transaction. The firm name, therefore, became synonymous with commercial integrity and the records of Mr. ELLWANGER and of Mr. BARRY both furnish an example that is indeed worthy of emulation. The former became widely known in financial circles through close association with the banking interests of Rochester, being successively a director of the UNION and FOUR CITY BANKS and a trustee of the MONROE COUNTY SAVINGS BANK and the ROCHESTER TRUST & SAFE DEPOSIT COMPANY. The ROCHESTER GAS COMPANY also profited by his services and sound advice as a director, and he was connected in similar official capacity with the EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY and the ROCHESTER & BRIGHTON STREET RAILWAY COMPANY.

In 1846 occurred the marriage of George ELLWANGER and Miss Cornelia BROOKS, a daughter of General Micah BROOKS, a pioneer of western New York. They had four sons, George H., Henry B., William D. and Edward S., to whom liberal educational advantages were afforded as were also the means of study and travel abroad. The eldest son became a prominent factor in the conduct of the nursery business.

Mr. ELLWANGER passed away in November, 1906, full of years and honors. He was not only known as a preeminently active and successful business man but one whose devotion to the city was marked by many tangible proofs. He studied the city's needs and its possibilities, labored to meet the former and to enlarge the latter, working not only for the interests of the moment but also for the welfare of the future. He retained in remarkable manner the vigor and strength of manhood and long after he had passed the Psalmist's allotted span of three score years and ten he was an active factor in business life. To have attained to the extreme fullness of years and to have had one's ken broadened to a comprehension of all that has been accomplished within the flight of many days, is of itself sufficient to render consonant a detailed consideration of such a life in a work of this order, but in the case at hand there are more pertinent, more distinguishing elements -those of usefulness, of high honor, of marked intellectuality, of broad charity which lift high in reverence the subjective personality of one who stood as one of nature's noblemen, "four square to every wind that blows." No shadows darkened any period of his long, honorable and eventful life and it therefore becomes an important public duty to perpetuate his memory. His example stands as an object lesson to those who come after him and though dead he still speaks.