sey, recently deceased, was the "architect of his own
fortune," and by industry and application to business, became a money
broker in the city of Philadelphia; who becoming indisposed from a
chronic affection, was obliged to retire from business for many years
previous to his death. Had Mr. Cassey been favored with health, he
doubtless would have become a very wealthy man. His name and paper was
good in any house in the city, and there was no banker of moderate
capital, of more benefit to the business community than was Joseph
Cassey. He also left a young and promising family of five sons, one
daughter, a most excellent widow, and a fortune of seventy-five thousand
dollars, clear of all encumbrance.

Stephen Smith, of the firm of Smith and Whipper, is a remarkable man in
many respects, and decidedly the most wealthy colored man in the United
States. Mr. Smith commenced business after he was thirty years of age,
without the advantages of a good business education, but by application,
qualified himself for the arduous duties of his vocation. For many
years, he has been known as the principal lumber merchant in Columbia,
Lancaster Co., Pa., and for several years past associated with W.
Whipper, a gentleman of great force of character, talents, and business
qualifications, Mr. Smith residing in Philadelphia. Smith and Whipper,
are very extensive business men, and very valuable members of the
community, both of Lancaster and Philadelphia counties. By the judicious
investment of their capital, they keep in constant employment a large
number of persons; purchasing many rafts at a time, and many thousand
bushels of coal. It is not only the laborer in "drawing boards," and the
coal hauler and heaver, that are here benefitted by their capital, but
the original owners of the lumber and coal purchased by them, and the
large number of boatmen and raftsmen employed in bringing these
commodities to market.

In the winter of 1849, these gentlemen had in store, several thousand
bushels of coal, two million two hundred and fifty thousand feet of
lumber; twenty-two of the finest merchantmen cars running on the railway
from Philadelphia to Baltimore; nine thousand dollars' worth of stock in
the Columbia Bridge; eighteen thousand dollars in stock in the Columbia
Bank; and besides this, Mr. Smith was then the reputed owner of
fifty-two good brick houses of various dimensions in the city of
Philadelphia, besides several in the city of Lancas