Charles Alexander Tomes (October 25, 1854 – July 28, 1933)[1] was an American merchant in the Far East in the employment of Shewan, Tomes & Co.
Early life
C. A. Tomes was born on October 25, 1854, in New York City. He was the eldest son of Eleanor Tomes (née Hadden) (1820–1894),[2] and Francis Tomes Jr. (1813–1898),[3] who was a prominent merchant who owned until 1877 a large Victorian mansion, on Putnam Avenue in Greenwich, Connecticut, that had been designed by Calvert Vaux with a landscape design by Frederick Law Olmsted.[4]
His paternal grandparents were Maria (née Roberts) Tome, and Francis Tomes Sr., who was born in Chipping Campden, England. His uncle was Robert Tomes, a physician and diplomat.[4] His maternal grandparents were Ann (née Aspinwall) Hadden and David Hadden, a prosperous Scottish born merchant who lived in New York for most of his life.[5][6]
St. George Building, head office of the Shewan, Tomes & Co. with the flag of the firm hoisted around 1908.
Tomes' father ran the family's importing business, Francis Tomes & Co., which his grandfather had started in 1815 and managed until the 1940s.[4] He was admitted to his father's firm at 6 Maiden Lane in New York in October 1877. During the economic crash of the 1870s, the business, which had thrived through the U.S. Civil War, went bankrupt.[8] Between 1887 and 1888, he made a trip around the world,[7] before moving to Shanghai, and later Hong Kong, with a letter of recommendation from John Murray Forbes.[4]
In 1879, he began working for Russell & Company in Hong Kong, then one of the largest mercantile firms in the Far East. In 1885, he was admitted as a partner. Russell & Company went out of business in 1891 bankrupt in 1892.[9] Tomes and Robert Shewan, both former employees of Russell and Company, acquired the remains of the operation and changed its name to Shewan, Tomes & Co., of which Tomes became Tai-pan, in 1895.[10]
In 1901, Shewan, Tomes & Co. contributed to the foundation of helped the China Light and Power Company,[10] and a new steamship company between the U.S. and China, Japan, and the Philippines known as the Pan-American Steamship Company.[11]
Personal life
On March 20, 1890, married Harriot Constance Budd Hancock, at St. John's Cathedral in Hong Kong.[12] She was the daughter of Alfred Hancock of Scotland and Harriot Elizabeth Rider, née Budd.[5] The couple lived at "Gough Hill" on Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, and in New York City, at 993 Park Avenue, which was built by Bing & Bing. They were the parents of five children, including:[5]
Alexander Hadden Tomes Sr. (b. 1891), who married Elizabeth St John Whiting, the daughter of William Sawin Whiting of Boston,[5] in 1921.[13]
Gertrude Margaret Tomes (b. 1893), who married Major R. D. Crawford of the British Royal Artillery, in 1916.[14]
Francis H. Tomes, who married Lelia Baldwin, the eldest daughter of W. Barton Baldwin in 1931.[15]
