yards of the trade were those of Constantine & Co., and had extended so that they covered the three blocks from 4th to 7th Streets, and from Lewis Street to East River. Logs were consigned from the producing countries, largely from Mexico, to commission merchants in New York, and the vessels were discharged at these yards. After a cargo of logs had been measured and piled they were offered for sale.

The auction sales had been discontinued, and the log business had become concentrated almost entirely into the hands of Peter M. Dingee, who finally gained the title of "King of the Mahogany business". He had commenced in the so-called wood trade as a truckman, and during the auction period had become so well-known to the distributors of Mahogany Lumber that out-of-town buyers frequently commissioned him to bid for them at the auction sales. He was a forceful man and a man of vision, and through this small beginning he arose to the place in the trade that I have mentioned.

In 1880 my brother Jerome, who had a very good position with the First National Bank of Middletown, N.Y. resigned his position and joined me in business. Soon thereafter we incorporated under the name of WILLIAM E. UPTEGROVE & BRO. Our firm became prominent in the Mahogany trade and divided honors in that respect with a firm that had come down through three generations in the business.

At one time when the Pullman Palace car Co. were expanding their service and for a number of years were building sleeping cars and parlor cars at their plant in the town of Pullman, just out of Chicago, the President of that Company, George M. Pullman caused an invitation to be sent to the firm I have just mentioned and to our firm, to visit him in Chicago in order to discuss Mahogany matters with him.

I responded in person and had a most pleasant interview with Mr. Pullman, during which he asked many questions, and at the close inquired of me when I would be returning to New York, and upon replying that I would take the Pennsylvania Limited that afternoon, he said he also was taking that train and would see me. It so happened that my berth was in the car in which Mr. Pullman occupied the drawing-room. He was very sociable and sat down in the seat with me and told me the history of the invention of the Pullman car. He also invited me to dine with him.

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