admin CHARLES A. POOLEY is one of the foremost lawyers of the State and has for many years been known as the legal representative of large business interests and as a prominent citizen of Buffalo.
Mr. Pooley is of English ancestry. His father, the late William Pooley, was born in Cornwall, England, and was a son of Richard Pooley, a considerable land holder in that part of the country. William Pooley as a young man came to America about 1845 and five years later settled in Buffalo. For a number of years he successfully carried on a lumber and planing mill industry here. Retiring from that business in 1876, until his death in 1902, he devoted himself to the care of his property. He was a man of strong traits of character and sterling citizenship, and was held in high esteem in the community.
William Pooley married Mary A. Menary, of Scotch-Irish parentage. Her family settled in Canada about 1845. The surviving children of the marriage are: Elizabeth J. (Mrs. Charles W. Holloway, Charles A., and George C. Pooley, and Minnie M. (Mrs. George C. Finley), all of whom live in Buffalo.
Charles A. Pooley was born in Buffalo November 17, 1854. He gained his elementary education at Public School No. 1; afterward attending Central High School, graduating in the class of 1873. On leaving school Mr. Pooley engaged in the lumber business, which he followed three years. This occupation he found not wholly congenial to him and he began the study of law on the 1st of January, 1876. His studies were completed in the office of the late Senator A. P. Laning, and in April, 1879, he was admitted to the bar. He began practice with the firm of Laning, McMillan & Gluck, later becoming a member of the firm of McMillan, Gluck & Pooley. Subsequently was formed the well-known law partnership of McMillan, Gluck, Pooley & Depew, which was one of the foremost legal firms in the State and handled the business of some of our largest corporations. On the death of Mr. Gluck, the firm became McMillan, Pooley, Depew & Spratt, and when Mr. McMillan retired the association was continued as Pooley, Depew & Spratt, later Pooley & Spratt, which firm was dissolved in February, 1907, and Mr. Pooley has continued his practice alone.
Mr. Pooley has for many years been one of the prominent legal advisers of the New York Central lines, which he now represents in Genesee and Orleans Counties, as well as in special proceedings before the Public Service Commission, and in other matters in Western New York. It speaks well for the esteem in which Mr. Pooley is held by his fellow members of the bar that he has been prominently mentioned for judicial honors. When by the elevation of Judge Albert Haight to the Court of Appeals on the 1st of January, 1895, a vacancy occurred on the Supreme Court bench of the Eighth Judicial District, Mr. Pooley was strongly endorsed for the appointment, the petition to Governor Morton being signed by a great number of representative lawyers without regard to political affiliation. It would be hard to conceive a higher compliment to a member of the legal profession than to be so emphatically endorsed to succeed a jurist of the standing of Judge Haight. In the summer of 1895 Mr. Pooley’s name was again prominently brought forward as that of a desirable candidate for the Republican nomination to the Supreme Court bench.
Typically a lawyer, Mr. Pooley has always been closely devoted to his profession. He is a progressive citizen, taking a keen interest in the welfare and institutions of Buffalo, and keeping himself in line with civic advancement and the general interests of the community. He is a trustee of the Law Library of the Eighth Judicial District and served for three years as a Director of the Buffalo Library. He has received high Masonic honors, being a Mason of the 32d degree, a member and Past Master of De Molay Lodge, No. 498, F. & A. M., and a member of Buffalo Chapter, E. A. M. He has also served, a term as District Deputy Grand Master of the State of ‘New York for the 25th Masonic District.
On the 4th of June, 1884, Mr. Pooley married Carrie Adams, daughter of Hon. S. Cary Adams of Buffalo. Their children are: Harriet A., born in 1885, a student at Vassar College; Charles W., born in 1886, a student at Harvard University, and Margaret H. Pooley, born in 1895.
SOURCE: Memorial and Family History of Erie County New York; Volume I