Characters in 'City of Light'

Companion Page:
Places and Events in 'City of Light'


Character
Links are to pages with photographs and information

Fictional/Real.
Real unless indicated otherwise

Short Description

Chapter Character is First Mentioned.
Parentheses indicate chapter where the character is important

Albright, John J.

 

Industrialist; major contributor to Albright Art Gallery 1 (Chap. 14)
Albright, Susan Fuller

 

John J. Albright's wife 10
Astor, John Jacob

 

One of America's wealthiest men 22
Atkins, Miss

Fictional

Macaulay lower-school principal 1
Barrett, Louisa

Fictional

Narrator 1
Bates, Daniel Henry

Fictional

Protest leader against Niagara Falls power companies based on J. Horace McFarland 15
Bethune, Louise Blanchard

 

Architect 2
Bethune, Robert

 

Architect; Louise Blanchard Bethune's husband 6
Bull, Police Superintendent

?

  22
Burnham, Daniel

 

Architect who designed Ellicott Square Building 1
Butler (Edward)

 

Owner of The News, one of two principal newspapers at the time 4
Cary, Dr. Charles

 

1852-1931. Professor of Anatomy, Dean of the UB Medical School. Cary hall is named after him. 6
Cary, Evelyn Rumsey

 

Designed Pan-Am official poster; wife of Dr. Charles Cary 6
Cary, Julia Love

 

Widow; sister of Maria Love 11
Cary, Seward

?

One of Maria Love's adult cousins 10
Carrere, John J.

 

Chairman of the Pan-Am Board of Architects 1
Cleveland, Frances Folsom

 

Buffalonian who married Grover Cleveland in the White House 2 (32)
Cleveland, Grover
Buffalonian elected US president 2 (Chap. 11, 32)
Coatsworth, Francesca

Fictional

Fictional character, but there was a prominent Coatsworth family, and Francesca's house is clearly based on the Coatsworth House on Cottage St.  
Coatsworth, Freddie

?

Head of the Coatsworth family; Francesca's cousin 26
Cornell, Dr.

 

Dr. Peter C. Cornell (Katharine's father, not her grandfather), who gave up medicine around 1900/01 to become the local impresario mentioned on page 158.
Fiske, Franklin

Fictional

Relative of Susan Fiske Rumsey; visits Buffalo supposedly to photograph industrial buildings 3 (21)
Fitzhugh, James

 

Acting chief engineer of the Niagara Frontier Power Co. swept to his death in water around Three Sisters Islands 17
Folsom, Frances
Buffalonian who married Grover Cleveland in the White House 2
French, Daniel Chester

 

Famous American sculptor, 1850-1931 1
Fronczyk, Maddie

Fictional

Macaulay student 5
Fronczyk, Peter

Fictional

Brother of Maddie Fronczyk; rising employee of Tom Sinclair 5
Gilder, Richard Watson
Editor of Century magazine; close friend of Pres. Cleveland 3
Halpin, Mrs.

 

Bore Pres. Cleveland's child; institutionalized by Cleveland 4
Hoyt, Dr. Austin

?

Superintendent of the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane 9
Hubbard, Elbert

 

Larkin Soap Co sales genius; founder of Roycrofters 15
Katarzyna

Fictional

Louisa Barrett's Polish servant 1
Krakauer, Frederick

Fictional

Employee of Mr. Morgan who is stationed in Buffalo (Chap 14)
Larkin, John D.

 

Soap manufacturer 4
Letson, Elizabeth

?

Director of the Museum of the Society of natural Sciences 15
Love, Maria

 

Prominent Buffalonian; founder of Fitch Crèche,the first day care center in the US 6 (Chap. 7)
McKinley, Pres. William

 

   
McKinley, Mrs. Ida

 

Wife of Pres. McKinley  
Milburn, John

 

Prominent Buffalonian; President of the Pan-Am Board of Directors; Pres. McKinley died in his house.  
Milburn, Patty

 

Wife of John Milburn 11
O'Flarity, Billy

Fictional

Power company employee 5
Olmsted, Frederick Law

 

America's best known landscape architect. He and Calvert Vaux designed the Buffalo park system, the first city park system in the US 2
Perlmutter, Dr.

Fictional

Assisted pregnant student Abigail Rushman 11
Richardson, H. H

 

Important American architect; designed Buffalo Psychiatric Center 9
Riley, Susannah

Fictional

Macaulay art teacher 2 (17)
Rolf

Fictional

Power company worker who is injured in accident 5
Roosevelt, Alice

 

Wife of Theodore Roosevelt 18
Roosevelt, Theodore

 

Vice-president; inaugurated President at Wilcox house after Pres. McKinley's assassination 18 (19)
Rumsey, Bronson

 

Prominent Buffalonian; family owned the site of the Pan-Am 8
Rumsey, Dexter P.

 

Prominent Buffalonian; family owned the site of the Pan-Am 1
Rumsey, Ruth
Daughter of Dexter Rumsey  
Rumsey, Susan Fiske

Fictional

Cousin of Franklin Fiske 3
Rushman, Abigail

Fictional

Macaulay student 5
Rushman, Fritz

Fictional

Abigail Rushman's father 13
Rushman, Mrs.

Fictional

Abigail Rushman's mother; example of social climber that is satirized in novel  
Saint-Gaudens, Augustus

 

Important American sculptor; sculpted Albright-Knox caryatids 1
Scatcherd, John N.

 

Prominent Buffalonian 1
Sellstedt, Lars

 

Buffalo society portrait painter 4
Sheehan, Mrs.

Fictional

Sinclair servant 2
Sinclair, Grace

Fictional

Louisa Barrett's godchild 1
Sinclair, Margaret

Fictional

Deceased; mother of Grace Sinclair.
Margaret Sinclair. is based on the real-life character of Margaret Winspear (pages 34 and 685). In the novel she married Tom Sinclair, and thus became Margaret Sinclair. So the character Margaret Sinclair is fictional, but she is based on a real person. (Thanks to Gloria Bostaph for this clarification)
1
Sinclair, Tom

Fictional

Grace Sinclair's father; manager of the Niagara Falls power company 2
Speyer (pron. SPY' er), Karl

Fictional

Murdered power company engineer 2
Remington, Mary

 

Established Remington Mission, a settlement house, in Buffalo 21
Statler, Ellsworth

 

Restaurateur at Ellicott Square Bldg.; later will build the Staler Hotel 10
Sullivan, Louis

 

Important Chicago architect who designed the Guaranty-Prudential Building, an important early skyscraper 1
Talbert, Mary

 

Buffalonian; Civil Rights leader who was one of the founders of the NAACP 10 (Chap. 1, 23)
Talbert, Millicent

Fictional

Fictional niece of Mary Talbert 1 (22)
Talbert, William

 

Wealthy realtor ; husband of Mary Talbert  
Urban, George, Jr.

 

Prominent Buffalonian; flour miller 4
Vaux, Calvert

 

Important American landscape architect; he and Frederick Law Olmsted designed the first American park system - in Buffalo! 2
White, Stanford

 

Prominent American architect; member of McKim, Mead & White, the most influential arhitectural firm in the country at the time 1
Williams, George L.

 

Treasurer of the Pan-American Exposition; built the house Buffalonians know as the Butler Mansion on Delaware and North.  
Wilcox, Ansley

 

Prominent Buffalonian; son-in-law of Dexter Rumsey; Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office in his home, now the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Center 4


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