HON. PATRICK C. COSTELLO
Hon. Patrick Carroll Costello, like his cousin, Patrick H., who was also his partner in business, was for many years one of the most prominent figures in Oneida county, not merely as a successful business man but as an active leader of the Republican party.
He was born in 1830, in the parish of Mohill, County Leitrim, Ireland his family being one of the ancient Irish septs, and for a number of generations engaged in the manufacture of leather. His father, William Costello, and his grandfather, Thomas Costello, were both successful tanners. Mr Costello was educated in the public schools, which he attended until nearly fifteen years of age, during the latter part of this period also working somewhat at the tanning trade, chiefly in the currying department.
In 1845 when fifteen years of age, Mr. Costello came to the United States, and at once located at New Hartford, Oneida county, N. Y., where he found employment in the currying business. He remained here until nearly 1848, and then removed to Camden, N. Y., where he entered into partnership with his cousins, Patrick H. and John Costello. This firm purchased the Camden tannery. Upon the death of John Costello, in 1850, the cousins continued the partnership under the firm style of P & P. Costello, and during the nest quarter of a century made their business one of the best known and most succcessful among the leading leather enterprises of the country. In 1873 they formed a partnership with H. G. Lapham, under the firm name of Lapham, Costello & Co. This association continued for ten years, giving place in 1886 to the firm of P. C. Costello & Co., composed of its present head, P. C. Costello. Patrick H. Costello, and the latter's two sons, Alfred and John H. The death of Patrick H. Costello, at his daughter's home in Brooklyn, N. Y., December 17, 1890, of pneumonia and paralysis of heart, reduced the firm to three partners, the firm name of P. C. Costello & Co. remaining unchanged.
In addition to the Camden tannery, which became an extensive establishment as the business developed, the firm acquired the large tannery and bark-lands of Dwight F. Morse, at Williamstown; while still later they purchased 25,000 acres of hemlock timber land in Potter county, Pennsylvania, where they built up the village of Costello, and erected the largest tannery in the world, consuming about 25,000 cords of bark annually. On account of the scarcity of bark, tanning was entirely suspended at Camden, N. Y., in 1884, although the name which had become so famous was of course still retained, the present "Camden leather" being made at Costello, Pa.
Throughout the earlier history of the business, both partners were employed in the manufacture of leather and established wide reputations as skillful tanners. But with the development of the enterprise, and the removal of commercial head, quarters to New York city, the two great departments of the extensive business of the firm were managed by the two cousins, P. C. and P. H. Costello, respectively, the former managing, the commercial and financial department, and changing his residence to New York city, for that purpose, while the latter, with his sons, had entire direction of the practical manufacture of leather. During the many years of his residence in Camden, Mr. P. C. Costello was actively interested in the welfare of the village, filling such local offices as president of the village corporation and of its Board of Education. He was the firm friend of Roscoe Conkling, and a leader of the Republican party in this section of the State. He was a member of the assembly of the State in 1859, and in 1868 was a Grant presidential elector.
With his removal to New York city in 1873, however, Mr. Costello abandoned all actively in the direction of politics to devote his energies exclusively to the development of the business of his house. He thus continued until 1893, when the firm of P. C. Costello & Co. sold out its business to the United States Leather Company. Of this great corporation, as director and member of its executive committee, Mr. Costello has been one of the managing officers since its organization.
Mr. Costello is a member of the Republican Club of New York city and of various other clubs and societies of New York and Brooklyn. He was married in 1855 to L. A., daughter of Edward Goodyear, of an old New England family, and a cousin of Charles Goodyear, the well known inventor of vulcanized rubber. Mr. Costello has three surviving children: a son, Harry Costello, now at school at Boonville, N. Y., preparing for Hamilton College, and two daughters, Anna, wife of E. W. Ropes, and Bertha who is unmarried.
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