rward being admitted to a junior partnership. In 1886, the firm of
Ross W. Weir & Co. was formed to engage in the roasting of coffee and
importing and jobbing of teas at 105 Front Street. In 1887, the business
was removed to 58-60 Front Street. When the corporation of Ross W. Weir,
Inc. was formed in 1915 to take over the business of E.J. Gillies & Co.
Inc., Mr. Weir became president and treasurer of the combined
organization.

[Illustration: COL. WILLIAM P. ROOME, NEW YORK]

_Pioneer Wholesale Coffee Roasters_

A reference to other pioneers in the wholesale coffee-roasting trade may
not be amiss here, even though it involves a repetition of some names
that have been given special mention in the case of New York. In the
list that follows are included the most prominent firms and the best
known names that helped make roasted coffee history in the United States
in the nineteenth century, particularly from 1845 to 1900:

NEW YORK. The most prominent firms in the business in New York in the
sixties were: Thomas Reid & Co., Globe Mills; Geo. A. Merwin & Co.; Levi
Rowley, Star Mills; A.B. Thorn; Fischer & Lehmann, later Fischer &
Thurber, and Fischer, Kirby & Brown; Knickerbocker & Cooke; A.D.
Thurber; Wm. J. Stitt & Co.; Samuel Wilde's Sons.

In the seventies, in addition to most of the above list, there were:
Pupke & Reid; Arbuckle Bros.; Edward A. Phelps, Jr.; Bonnett, Schenck &
Earle; Fischer & Lansing; J.G. Worth; Jackson & Co.; Charles Conway;
Neidlinger & Schmidt; James L. Arcularius; S.M. Beard, Sons & Co.; H.K.
Thurber & Co.; Wright Gillies & Bro.; Bennett & Becker; Great American
Tea Co.; Brown & Scott.

Between 1876 and 1900 the following well known names appeared in the
trade: Frederick Akers; Eppens-Smith Co., afterward Eppens, Smith &
Wiemann Co., and later Eppens Smith Co.; B. Fischer & Co.; R.P. McBride;
Fitzpatrick & Case, afterward A.C. Fitzpatrick & Co.; Great Atlantic &
Pacific Tea Co.; Loudon & Johnson; Edwin Scott; Peter Haulenbeek,
afterward Haulenbeek & Mitchell, and Haulenbeek Roasting & Milling Co.;
Joseph Stiner & Co.; Austin, Nichols & Co.; Bennett, Sloan & Co.;
Gillies Coffee Co.; Benedict & Gaffney, afterward Van Loan, Maguire &
Gaffney; Ross W. Weir & Co.; Union Pacific Tea Co.; Hillis Plantation
Co.; Edwin J. Gillies & Co.; Jones Bros.; Holland Coffee Co.; Samuel
Crooks & Co.; Benedict & Thomas.

[Illustration: PIONEER COFFEE ROASTERS OF THE NORTHERN AND EASTERN
UNITED STATES

1--W.