A Secret Life_ The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland - Charles Lachman [27]
Buffalo was the preeminent inland port in America, a key hub for pioneers heading west, and, from the other direction, shipping wheat east to New York City and beyond, to the great capitals of Europe. In this regard, Buffalo was indispensable to national commerce. And yet, with all this trade, the city was vulnerable and stood on the razor’s edge of obsolescence. Unforgiving winters meant frozen lakes and the end of marine traffic until the spring thaw. The Erie Canal—the source of the city’s prosperity—was slow and inefficient when measured against the locomotive. Those with foresight were already aware that the city had a gun pointed at its heart.
In the beginning, Maria Halpin had a rough time of it. The new store that had brought her to Buffalo failed, and she now found herself looking for work. Main Street was the prime shopping district in the city, and one store in particular, Flint & Kent, drew most of the carriage-trade class; this is where Maria found her first real job in Buffalo. The store had been founded in 1832, selling wholesale dry goods at 188 Main Street. By 1871, it had moved to a more desirable location up the block at 261 Main Street.
With Maria’s sales experience at the celebrated Iron Palace in New York City, Flint & Kent was a natural place of employment for her. The store sold only first-class merchandise that appealed to the well-to-do customer and was recognized for its ambiance of decorum and courteous hospitality. About thirty people worked there when Maria was hired. In no time, she came to realize that the store was a place where the city’s elite came not just to shop but also to socialize.
The busiest time of day at Flint & Kent was the period called the “proper hours,” between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Any shopping before or after was considered vulgar. Gloves were a big sale items, along with hosiery, underwear, elegant plaids, damask napkins, and Irish poplin wraps in all the best makes. In those days, the business of ready-to-wear clothing, mass-produced in predetermined sizes, was still in its infancy. Most women made their clothes at home from patterns, which they copied from Godey’s Lady’s Book. Or a customer could buy fabric from a bolt and take it to her own dressmaker.
The founding partner, William Flint, lived on Mansion Row, at 600 Delaware Avenue, and was sixty-five when Maria was hired. Flint’s background was unremarkable; he’d clerked in a little general store in New Hampshire and at age forty moved to Buffalo, where he achieved success as a merchant prince. Modest, and with a reputation for unimpeachable integrity, Flint was the perfect partner. He preferred a low profile, content to keep the books in the office and leave the glamorous sales operation to Henry M. Kent.
Kent also lived in a mansion on Delaware Avenue. Even in 1871, he was old-fashioned in business matters. He wanted to stick with what he knew: bolts, lace, and hose. Notions or knickknacks—the buttons, trims, embroidery, braids, and ornamentation so necessary in accessorizing clothing—were sold as incidental items at a small counter on the first floor. When a shrewd young store manager suggested expanding the line, Kent responded dismissively, “Send them to Barnum’s.” Barnum’s was Flint & Kent’s down-market competitor on Main Street.
Maria excelled at Flint & Kent. The customers in what was still a frontier town appreciated her big-city sophistication, and she was an intriguing fresh face—“beautiful, virtuous and intelligent.” She had started in the collar-making department, but it was obvious that she was going places.
“I always felt that I had the confidence and esteem of my employers,” Maria said of Messrs. Flint and Kent.
Through her work, Maria got to know many of Buffalo’s leading citizens, one of whom was Emma Folsom, the pretty wife of the lawyer Oscar Folsom, Grover Cleveland