George V. Forman

George V. Forman (1841-1922) was a founder of VanderGrift, Forman & Company, which became part of the Standard Oil Company.^[1] Forman was also a prominent Buffalo banker in the late 1800s and early 1900s, founding the "The Fidelity Trust and Guaranty Company" which later merged with the Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company to become M&T Bank.^[2]

Early life

George V. Forman was born in 1841 to Hamilton Forman (1808-1879) and Mary Van (Syckel) Forman (1822-1913).^[3] He was born near Milford, New Jersey in 1841. After graduating from Princeton University in 1861, he practiced law in Trenton, New Jersey. Later he moved to Oil City, Pennsylvania, where with Capt. J. J. Vandergrift, he established the "Oil City Trust Co.," of which Forman was president for a time.^[4]

"Manufacturer's & Traders National Bank" on the left and "Fidelity Trust Company" on the right, 1916

Business career

While a resident of Olean, New York, and a member of the "Exchange National Bank of Olean," Forman organized the "Eastern Oil Co.". incorporated in West Virginia. He then came to Buffalo, New York to be president of the company.^[4]

In May 1893, Forman, along with John J. Albright, John Satterfield, and Franklin D. Locke, founded The Fidelity Trust and Guaranty Company of Buffalo, New York,^[2] of which he became president.^[5] In 1909, E. B. Green was commissioned to build the "Fidelity Trust Building", today known as "Swan Tower" and owned by Ellicott Development Co., located at 284 Main Street in Buffalo.

Forman, a very punctual man, according to Anson Goodyear, "every morning left his house at a certain hour and met George Williams at his house just above North Street, to walk to the Fidelity Building together. Mr. Forman boasted a very prominent corporation and leaned backward to achieve his balance. Mr. Williams was emaciated and bent forward to achieve his. It was a procession on which people checked their watches."^[4]

Personal life

Forman was married to Martha C. Forman, also from New Jersey, with whom he had three children. In 1893, Forman built the beaux arts classical mansion, now known as the "Forman-Cabana House," for his family at 824 Delaware Avenue in Buffalo, New York in the present day Delaware Avenue Historic District. The home was designed by Green & Wicks with E. B. Green serving as the principal designer. The home is fronted by prominent columns and features yellow Roman brick, the round arched front entrance has flanking paired fluted Ionic pilasters.^[4]

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  Forman Residence on Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, New York

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  Forman Residence on Delaware Avenue (when it was owned by Oliver Cabana, Jr.)

George V. Forman died in Oct. 22, 1922.^[4][5] He is buried at Mount View Cemetery in Olean, Cattaraugus County, New York^[3]

Descendents

George Forman and his wife had three children:^[4]

• Howard Arter Forman (1870-1931) - came to Buffalo where in 1892, he married Georgia M. (Green) Forman (1871-1955) of Lockport. Georgia was the daughter of George C. Greene, General Counsel for the Lake Shore Railroad, and Emma Greene.^[6] Howard served as vice-president of "Eastern Petroleum," of which Forman was president. Howard and Georgia lived for some years on North Street in Buffalo. During World War I, he was Federal Fuel Administrator for Buffalo. After the war, he and Georgia separated and by the early 1920s he had moved to Lexington, Kentucky, where he died in 1931. Georgia lived at 77 Oakland Place in Buffalo (currently the residence of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Buffalo) and served for more than a decade on the Board of Managers of Children's Hospital. Georgia Forman was a contributor to the Room of Contemporary Art at the Albright Art Gallery.^[6] Together, Howard and Georgia had:
  • David Forman of Williamsville, NY - one of the founders of the Buffalo Sabres; inducted into the Buffalo Sabres Hall of Fame in 1986.^[7]
  • Francis G (Forman) Byers (1895- ) of Akron, Ohio - married J. Newton Byers Jr.
  • Georgia Elliott (Forman) Collyer (1898-1994)^[8] of Akron, Ohio - married John L. Collyer (1893-1979),^[9] an executive with the Goodrich Corporation and the former chairman of The Business Council^[10][11]
  • Lawrence Carter Forman (1905-1988) of Greenwich, CT - Lawrence first married Jane Weed and they had one daughter. Lawrence and Jane divorced in 1937. Lawrence’s second wife was Millicent Ruth Bickford (1911-1986), who was born in York, Ontario in Canada, the daughter of Gen. Harold Childe Bickford (1876-1956) and Mary (Davidson) Bickford (1881-before 1959), and with whom he had a daughter. Millicent’s uncle was the Most Rev. Randall Thomas Davidson, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
    • Jane W. (Forman) Sheets - married Henry B. Sheets, Jr. (son of Col. and Mrs. Henry B. Sheets of Buffalo) in 1951.

• George Alfred Forman (-1925) - resided at 1260 Delaware Ave. in Buffalo, New York, an 11,229-square-foot mansion he had built in 1915 by E.B. Green. George was the founder, president and principal stockholder of "Southwestern Petroleum Company," a West Virginia corporation with offices in Buffalo. He was reportedly worth $5 million (equivalent to $67,467,000 in 2016)^[12] when he died about the steamer Berengaria as the liner was about to dock at Plymouth, England in 1925.^[13] After George's death, his widow remarried Harry B. Spaulding.^[14]
  • George A. Forman Jr. (1911-2004) - married Renee Marguerite (Allou) Forman (1904-2000) on Nov. 2, 1936^[15][14]
  • Lucile (Forman) Palmer Scherbatow (1915-1998) - Lucile first married Morton Palmer but the marriage ended in divorce. In 1971, Lucile married Prince Kyril Scherbatow (1903-1993), the son of Prince Paul Scherbatow of the Rurik dynasty, a colonel and aide de camp to Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia, commander of the Russian Army on the Western and Turkish fronts in World War I. His mother, Princess Anna Bariatinsky (1879-1942), a daughter of General Vladimir Bariatinsky (1843-1914), was lady-in-waiting to Empress Alexandra (1872–1918) of Russia.^[16]

• Mary Martha (Forman) Goodyear - who married Anson Goodyear (son of Charles W. Goodyear) on June 29, 1904.^[17] Conger was president of the Great Southern Lumber Company, vice-president of the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad, and helped establish the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, of which he was the first president (1929–39) as well as a member of the board of trustees. The marriage ended in divorce. Together, they had four children:
  • George Forman Goodyear (1906-2002) - who married Sarah (Norton) Goodyear
  • Mary (Goodyear) Kenefick (b. 1907) - who married Theodore Kenefick
  • Anson C. Goodyear, Jr. (b. 1911)
  • Stephen Goodyear (1915-) - who married Mary (Robins) Goodyear

Legacy

In December 1925, the Fidelity Trust Company, with $35 million in assets, merged with Manufacturers and Traders Bank, founded in 1856, with $64 million in assets, under the new name Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company. The $100 million company was headed by Fidelity's President, 36-year-old Lewis G. Harriman. Harriman and a group of investors including A. H. Schoellkopf, from the founding family of the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company, and James Forrestal, who would become the first United States Secretary of Defense, owned enough shares to control both Fidelity and M&T.^[18]

References