Franklin Alter
The name of Franklin Alter is found high on the roll of Cincinnati's capable, distinguished and honored citizens. He has ever tried to make all his acts and commercial moves the result of definite consideration and sound judgment. There have never been any great ventures or risks in his career but on the contrary he has practiced honest, slow-growing business methods which have been based upon the foundation of energy and well developed systems. It is not alone in the field of business, however, that his labors have been a valued contribution to the upbuilding of Cincinnati. In other connections he has done important public service and it is due to his efforts that the city has been saved several millions of dollars thorough management of municipal affairs entrusted to his care. In a business way he is perhaps best known as the president of the American Tool Works and as vice president of the Farms and Shippers Tobacco Company. Although in his eighty-first year and deserving the right to retire from the cares of business he continues in active connection with affairs through a sense of duty to his many hundreds of employees.
Mr. Alter was born at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, October 28, 1831, and has therefore now attained the age of eighty years. His education was acquired in the schools of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and he early faced the necessity of providing for his own support. He spent a portion of his young manhood in Baltimore, Maryland, and after three years in that city went to Pittsburgh on a vessel that would carry him down the Ohio river, his destination being New Orleans. He landed at Cincinnati, intending to remain but a brief period, but business conditions which he found here and the future outlook of the city were so bright and encouraging that he determined to remain. He immediately sought a position and his alert enterprising manner soon won him a clerkship in the hardware house of R. W. Booth & company. Diligence and determination were the foundation principles of his advancement and three yeas after first becoming connected with the business he was admitted to a partnership and was made general manager of what was then one of the most extensive concerns of Cincinnati. His connection with the business continued until 1862, when he disposed of his
interests and became one of the organizers of the firm of Prichard, Alter & Company, manufacturers and jobbers of boots and shoes. Mr. Alter bent his indefatigable energy and sound business judgment to the management of the interests for the new company, which was soon established upon a paying basis. Later he purchased Mr. Prichard's interest and after other changes in the personnel of the partnership organized the firm of Alter, Forwood & Company, under which style was conducted the largest business of the kind in the city. In September, 1892, he organized the Alter & Julien Company, its successors, the Julien-Conhenge Company being now one of the leading shoe manufacturing concerns of Ohio, engaged in the manufacture of ladies' fine shoes.
While never taking useless risks, Mr. Alter has never feared to venture where favoring opportunity has led the way and in critical moments his sound judgment has been proven in his able and successful management of important affairs. The disturbances in banking circles which made the year 1884 a memorable one called for the splendid business ability and keen insight of Mr. Alter as a financier, for in that year he was elected president of the Exchange National Bank of Cincinnati, of which he had been a director from its organization in 1881. His wise control of its affairs brought the bank safely through that critical period and in 1881 he was instrumental in effecting its consolidation with the Cincinnati National Bank. Not wishing to give his time entirely to the banking business, Mr. Alter did not care to become president and accepted the vice presidency of the consolidated concerns. He is now a director of the First National Bank of Cincinnati and in commercial circles has extended his effort to several important corporations. In 1902, he became the president of the American Tool Works Company, of which his son, Robert S. Alter, is secretary. He is likewise the vice president of the Farmers and Shippers Tobacco Company of Cincinnati, yet his attention has not been confined to business affairs to the exclusion of all other interests.
The public zeal has demanded his service and his work of retrenchment in public expenditures would alone entitle him to definite consideration as a leading citizen of Cincinnati. Some years ago he was called to the position of a member of the board of control, which was created by the legislature to check frauds on the county and supervise and regulate the expenditure of public money. His fellow members of the board elected him as president and in this connection he saved to the county several million dollars. In 1899 he was appointed a member of the board of trustees of the sinking fund of Cincinnati and on the expiration of his first term of five years he was reapppointed by the superior court. In his political views Mr. Alter is a democrat, yet was strongly supported for the office of the member of the board of control by leading republicans who recognized this superior capabilities for the duties of the position. In this connection a contemporary biographer has written: " His wide experience as a financier, his personal integrity and his intimate acquaintance with the taxpaying community rendered him peculiarly desirable for his office of trust and
responsibility. He belongs to that class of civilians who ably serve the public, regardless of party lines, and who take part in public affairs for the purpose of making office holding subservient to the peace and well being of the people." He has often been solicited to run for mayor of the city but positively declined to become a candidate, as his extensive business interests would not admit of his giving the necessary time to the office.
Other city, state and federal positions have been tendered him but he has always declined, owing to the demands of his private business affairs. He is one of Cincinnati's most liberal and public-spirited residents and no movement pertaining to the welfare and progress of the city seeks his aid in vain. Strong in his individuality, strong in his ability to plan and perform, strong in his honor and his good name, he stands today in the light of success just where he stood in early manhood as the advocate of all that is best in citizenship and all that is notable in business and in private life. No one more deserves the somewhat hackneyed but always expressive title of a self-made man, for as the result of close application and energy intelligently applied, he is today one of the most prosperous residents of Cincinnati, but high above his success he cherishes the respect and honor of his fellowmen, which has been worthily won and well merited. Mr. Alter is a member of all the leading clubs and business organizations of the city and helped in the organization of many of the. He is senior warden at the Avondale Episcopal church and active in charitable and church work.
From Cincinnati, The Queen City, Volume III, by Rev. Charles Frederic Goss, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1912