Adrian Joline

Background

Adrian Hoffman Joline was born on June 30, 1850 at Sing Sing (now Ossining), New York, the oldest of the three children of Col. Charles Oliver Joline and Mary Evelyn Hoffman. His maternal lineage is traceable to Martin Hoffman, of Swedish origin, who came to Kingston, New York, in 1657.

Education

Adrian got his preparation for college partly at Mount Pleasant Academy, Sing Sing, and partly under the private tuition of Dr. James I. Helm. His father's military connections brought the lad in touch with courts martial during the Civil War, and this experience may have suggested to him a lawyer's calling. At least, after graduation from Princeton in 1870, he went to the Columbia Law School and was graduated in 1872.

Career

After the graduation from the Columbia Law School in 1872, in his practice Joline specialized in cases relating to trusts, mortgages, and railroads. He became counsel and chairman of the board of directors of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad Company and a director of a number of other corporations.

When the Metropolitan Street Railway and New York City Railway companies went into bankruptcy in 1907, he was appointed one of the receivers. His success in restoring order from chaos won for him great praise, but his devotion to the task seriously undermined his health.

Joline's avocation was the collecting of autographs and rare books and his joy in this pursuit is reflected in his Meditations of an Autograph Collector (1902), The Diversions of a Book-lover (1903), At the Library Table (1910), and Rambles in Autograph Land (1913), edited by Mrs. Joline after his death.

When he told the directors of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad Company that "government ownership with politicians in control would result in the payment by the public of large dividends out of the pockets of the public", and classed William Jennings Bryan among those who did not appear to have given the subject "any intelligent attention, " Woodrow Wilson, then president of Princeton, expressed by letter to him his entire agreement and added: "Would that we could do something, at once dignified and effective, to knock Mr. Bryan once for all into a cocked hat. "

Five years later, when Wilson and Bryan were fraternizing politically, Joline, whose fad never permitted him to destroy a letter, showed the epistle of 1907 to a friend. Then the newspaper reporter learned about it and the specter stalked through the land in the headlines of the press).

After 1905 Joline was senior member of the firm of Joline, Larkin & Rathbone.

He died on October 15, 1912, and was interred at the Dale Cemetery, Ossining, New York.

Achievements

• Adrian Hoffman Joline's major achievement was in his successful serving on the board of directors of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad Company and in a number of other corporations. His success in restoring order from chaos at the time, when such major companies as the Metropolitan Street Railway and New York City Railway went into bankruptcy in 1907, won for him great praise and recognition in the corporative world. Joline was also a great collector of autographs and rare books, whose dedication to this pursuit was reflected in his written works, such as Meditations of an Autograph Collector (1902), The Diversions of a Book-lover (1903), At the Library Table (1910), and Rambles in Autograph Land (1913).

Works

More photos

• book

  • Meditations of an autograph collector

    (This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)

  • At the Library Table

    (This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)

  • Rambles in Autograph Land: -1913

    (Originally published in 1913. This volume from the Cornel...)

Views

Quotations: Many contemporary tendencies found in him an ardent antagonist: "The majority of railway accidents in this country are due to the relaxed discipline resulting from the labor-union tyranny, " was a statement which he made before the New Jersey State Bar Association, June 15, 1907. This declaration was followed by another to the effect that the yellow press was "the yellow peril before which an oriental invasion fades into insignificance".

Personality

Adrian Joline was fortunate in possessing a remarkable memory and the faculty of expressing his thoughts clearly.

Connections

Adrian Joline was married, in 1876, to Mary E. Larkin, daughter of Francis Larkin of New York.

Father:

Charles Oliver Joline

colonel

Mother:

Mary Evelyn Hoffman

Wife:

Mary E. Larkin

References

• Genealogy of the Hoffman Family: Descendants of Martin Hoffman, With Biographical Notes (Classic Reprint)
• Who's Who in America, 1912 - 1913, Vol. VII 7: A Biographical Dictionary Of Notable Living Men And Women In The United States