admin OGDEN PEARL LETCHWORTH. One of Buffalo’s leading citizens, and a man who stands in the front rank of industrial leaders in this State, is Ogden P. Letchworth. As head of the Pratt & Letchworth Company and other enterprises of national reputation, Mr. Letchworth is widely known as an executive of first-class ability and as a large-minded, sagacious business man who exemplifies the principles of progress and is in the vanguard of the march of modern improvement. Mr. Letchworth is as eminent in citizenship as in the business world.
Ogden Pearl Letchworth was born in Auburn, N. Y., on the 23d of August, 1851. As a boy he attended the public and- high schools of his native city, later entering the Williston Seminary at Easthampton, Mass., from which institution he graduated. In the later ’60’s Mr. Letchworth began his business career, becoming office assistant in his father’s saddlery manufacturing establishment at Auburn, finally being admitted to partnership in the firm of Hayden, Letchworth & Smith.
In 1876 Mr. Letchworth removed to Buffalo, where he became connected with the well-known firm of Pratt & Letchworth, manufacturers of steel and malleable castings. While in this employ he was at different times salesman, stock-keeper, corresponding clerk, purchasing agent, and general manager, which position he continued to hold till 1886, when, on the death of his father, he became a partner. The copartnership existed till the 1st of January, 1896. The firm was then incorporated under the laws of New York State as the Pratt & Letchworth Company, with a paid-up capital of $300,000, Ogden P. Letchworth being chosen President and Josiah Letchworth Secretary and Treasurer. The Pratt & Letchworth Company has the prestige of long standing, for its foundation dates from the establishment of the firm of Pratt & Letchworth in 1848. Originally the concern manufactured saddlery and carriage hardware. Later was added the production of malleable iron and steel castings. The concern controls the Buffalo Malleable Iron Works, the Buffalo Steel Eoundry, the Malleable Iron Works at Brantford, Ont., and the United Hame Company, of which Mr. Ogden P. Letchworth is also President. The plant at Black Rock covers twenty acres, twelve acres being under roof, and includes about fifty buildings. Some 1,400 persons are employed.
Mr. Letchworth is a loyal citizen of Buffalo, to whose interests he is greatly devoted. Not a holder or seeker of public office, he is so closely identified with the vital interests of the community and the general cause of progress that he is in the genuine meaning of the term a public man. His infiuence and his substantial support are thrown into the scale of right, liberality and justice in all movements having for their objects the civil, social or intellectual welfare of the city. Generous by nature and with a keen sentiment of sympathy for those less organized charities and is equally noted for private benevolence. In politics Mr. Letchworth is a Republican. His ambitions do not lead him to become what is commonly called active along $)olitical lines, but he is a firm believer in good government and in the doctrine that public office is a public trust. He has served his party as a member of the Republican League, and is rigidly observant of his duty as a voter and his obligations as an American citizen.
Mr. Letchworth is a member and former president of the National Founders’ Association, trustee of the Gowanda State Homeopathic Hospital, appointed by Governor Black in 1898, trustee of the Queen City Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the Buffalo Historical Society, and the American Scenic and Historic Prevention Society of New York, and belongs to the Buffalo, Park, Ellicott, Country, Buffalo Yacht, and Liberal clubs of this city, the Transportation Club of NewYork, and the Koyal Canadian Yacht Club of Toronto.
On the 18th of June, 1878, Mr. Letchworth was united in marriage to Miss Laura C. Strong of Buffalo.