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M.C 


GENEALOGY  COLLECTION 


IIIIIIHlfl'iiffillSWlTiK  PUBLIC  LIBRARY 

3  1833  01105  6220 


££j-_    ./2fc/e- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


NEW   YORK 

A  Life  Record  of  Men  and  Women  of  the  Past 


Whose  Sterling  Character  and  Energy  and  Industry  Have  Made 
Them  Preeminent  in  Their  Own  and  Many  Other  States 


BY 


CHARLES  ELLIOTT  FITCH,  L.  H.  D. 

Lawyer,  Journalist,  Educator;  Editor  and  Contributor  to  Many  Newspapers 

and   Magazines;    ex-Regent   New   York   University;    Supervisor 

Federal    Census    (N.    Y.)     1880;    Secretary    New 

York  Constitutional   Convention,   1894 


ILLUSTRATED 


THE  AMERICAN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

INCORPORATED 

BOSTON  NEW  YORK  CHICAGO 

1916 


Both  justice  and  decency  require  that  we  should  bestow  on  our  forefathers 
an  honorable  remembrance — Thucydides 


1233355 


BIOGRAPHICAL 


R^^e^JL^ 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


SAGE,  Russell, 

Man  of  Large  Affairs. 

The  Sage  family  was  without  doubt  of 
Scandinavian  origin,  and  the  name  at 
first  was  Saga.  When  the  Norsemen 
conquered  Normandy,  in  France,  they 
generally  softened  the  final  "a"  tone, 
thus  making  Saga,  Sage,  and  added  a 
French  suffix  to  denote  landed  occupa- 
tion. To  the  first  Norman  Saga  or  Sage 
was  added  ville  or  town,  thus  making  it 
Sageville,  or  Sagetown,  or  land.  As  these 
spread  to  other  countries  the  name  was 
subjected  to  other  changes.  In  Germany 
it  was  Saige  or  Sauge,  the  same  in  Swit- 
zerland, while  in  France  it  was  Le  Sage. 
The  name  is  first  found  in  England  on 
the  Battle  Abbey  Roll,  in  1066.  This 
roll  was  prepared  by  the  monks  of  Battle 
Abbey  at  the  command  of  William  the 
Conqueror,  to  perpetuate  the  names  of 
those  who  took  part  in  the  battle  of  Hast- 
ings, which  gave  him  the  English  throne. 
It  is  there  recorded  Sageville.  All  of 
the  name  in  England,  Scotland  and 
Wales  originated  in  this  way.  The  fam- 
ily was  granted  a  coat-of-arms,  which  is 
used  by  the  American  family. 

David  Sage,  American  ancestor  of  the 
family  in  New  York,  was  born  in  1639,  a 
native  of  Wales.  He  was  one  of  the  first 
settlers  of  Middletown,  Connecticut, 
where  he  is  of  record  in  1652.  He  settled 
upon  a  tract  of  land  now  part  of  the  town 
of  Cromwell,  upon  the  banks  of  the  Con- 
necticut river,  where  some  of  his  de- 
scendants yet  reside.  His  will,  dated 
March  27,  1703,  is  in  the  probate  office 
at  Hartford,  Connecticut.  The  stone 
marking  his  grave  is  still  standing  in  the 


Riverside  cemetery,  on  the  bank  of  the 
Connecticut  river,  at  the  north  end  of 
Main  street,  Middletown,  and  gave  the 
date  of  his  death  as  March,  1703,  o.  s., 
and  his  age  as  sixty-four  years.  He  mar- 
ried Elizabeth,  daughter  of  John  Kirby, 
in  February,  1664.  He  married  (second) 
in  1673,  Mary  Wilcox.  His  grandson, 
Elisha,  was  a  Revolutionary  soldier,  and 
was  father  of  Elisha  Sage,  who  came  to 
New  York,  settled  in  Oneida  county,  and 
married  Prudence  Risley,  probably  in 
Connecticut. 

Russell  Sage,  son  of  Elisha  (2)  and 
Prudence  (Risley)  Sage,  was  born  in  the 
little  settlement  of  Shenandoah,  in 
Verona  township,  Oneida  county,  New 
York,  August  4,  1816,  and  died  at  Law- 
rence, Long  Island,  July  22,  1906.  Two 
years  after  his  birth  his  father  re- 
moved to  a  farm  near  Durhamville,  in 
the  same  county,  and  there  remained 
until  his  death  in  1854.  There  young 
Russell  lived  and  attended  the  district 
schools  in  winter  and  worked  upon  the 
farm  the  remainder  of  the  year  until  he 
was  fourteen  years  of  age,  when  he  was 
sent  to  his  brother,  Henry  Risley  Sage, 
who  had  a  store  in  Troy,  New  York. 
The  work  was  hard,  but  he  had  his  earn- 
ings to  himself  and  improved  himself  by 
diligent  study.  Before  he  was  twenty- 
one  he  had  paid  off  a  mortgage  on  his 
father's  farm,  and  was  the  owner  of  sev 
eral  city  lots,  and  of  a  sloop  which  he 
navigated  from  Troy  to  New  York. 
Later  he  abandoned  his  clerkship  and 
entered  into  partnership  with  his  brother, 
whom  he  was  able  to  buy  out  in  two 
years.  In  1839  he  sold  out  his  store  at  a 
profit,    and    entered   into    the   wholesale 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


grocery  and  commission  business  with 
John  W.  Bates  as  partner.  The  firm  in 
a  short  time  controlled  several  branches 
of  the  trade,  not  only  in  Troy  but  in 
Albany.  He  became  one  of  the  directors 
of  the  Troy  &  Schenectady  railroad,  and 
afterwards  president  of  the  same,  and 
held  office  when  the  railroad  was  united 
with  the  general  system  between  Albany, 
Troy,  and  Buffalo.  At  that  time,  in  1853, 
Mr.  Sage  was  elected  a  director  in  the 
consolidated  company  in  the  New  York 
Central  and  served  six  years.  A  little 
later  he  became  a  large  owner  in  the  La 
Crosse  railroad. 

In  his  earlier  years  Mr.  Sage  was 
deeply  interested  in  public  affairs,  and 
took  a  prominent  part  in  political  mat- 
ters in  the  State  of  New  York.  When  a 
resident  of  Troy  in  1845  he  was  elected 
to  the  board  of  aldermen.  While  hold- 
ing this  office  he  was  also  made  treas- 
urer of  Rensselaer  county,  the  finances 
of  which  were  in  a  tangled  condition.  He 
speedily  straightened  them  out  and  held 
the  office  for  seven  years.  In  184S  he 
was  a  delegate  to  the  National  Conven- 
tion of  the  Whig  party.  He  controlled 
twenty-eight  out  of  thirty-two  New  York 
delegates,  and  took  a  leading  part  in  the 
nomination  of  General  Zachary  Taylor 
for  the  presidency.  It  was  at  his  sug- 
gestion that  the  convention  nominated 
Millard  Fillmore  for  Vice-President, 
which  selection  made  him  President,  for 
General  Taylor  died  while  in  office  and 
Fillmore  succeeded  him.  In  1850  Mr. 
Sage  was  nominated  for  Congress  by  the 
Troy  Whigs,  but  owing  to  the  defection 
of  a  faction  of  the  party  he  was  defeated. 
He  was  again  nominated  in  1852,  and 
was  elected  by  a  small  majority.  Two 
years  later  he  was  returned  to  Congress 
by  the  unprecedented  majority  of  7,000 
votes.  During  his  four  years  in  Con- 
gress the  great  talents  of  Mr.   Sage  in 


financial  matters  found  recognition  in 
his  appointment  as  a  member  of  the  ways 
and  means  committee,  the  most  impor- 
tant committee  of  the  house.  He  served 
also  on  the  invalid  pension  committee 
which  had  charge  of  the  pensions  in- 
curred by  the  Mexican  War,  and  took 
part  in  the  five  weeks'  struggle  which 
finally  resulted  in  the  election  of  Na- 
thaniel Banks  as  speaker.  But  the  incident 
in  his  professional  career  which  brought 
him  most  reputation  was  the  appointment 
of  a  committee  through  his  efforts  to  in- 
quire into  the  condition  of  Washington's 
old  estate  at  Mount  Vernon,  Virginia. 
The  committee's  report  bore  fruit  in  the 
formation  of  the  Mount  Vernon  Asso- 
ciation, the  purchase  of  the  estate,  and 
its  dedication  as  a  permanent  memorial 
to  the  father  of  his  country. 

The  panic  of  1857  which  ruined  so 
many  while  it  left  him  comparatively  un- 
scathed, had  an  important  effect  on  his 
business  career.  He  had  advanced  con- 
siderable money  in  the  La  Cross  railroad. 
To  protect  his  loans  he  found  himself 
compelled  to  advance  still  larger  amounts, 
and  finally  engaged  in  three  legal  pro- 
ceedings to  become  owner  of  the  railroad, 
which  ultimately  extended  into  the  Chi- 
cago, Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  system. 
During  his  career  he  achieved  the  presi- 
dency of  no  less  than  twenty  transporta- 
tion corporations.  He  was  connected  in 
an  official  capacity,  at  one  time  or  an- 
other, with  the  Iowa  Central,  Union 
Pacific,  Missouri  Pacific,  St.  Louis,  Iron 
Mountain  &  Southern ;  Wabash,  Texas 
&  Pacific;  Troy  &  Bennington;  Troy  & 
Boston ;  Delaware,  Lackawanna  &  West- 
ern ;  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul : 
Manhattan  Elevated,  and  other  railroads. 
He  was  one  of  the  largest  stockholders 
in  the  Manhattan  Elevated,  and  took  an 
active  part  in  its  management.  Other 
enterprises  with  which  he  had  been  active 


A 7 anted  Sr.  27.  Effrana/t^ 


aana/ian 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


are  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company ; 
the  Mercantile  Trust  Company;  the  Im- 
porters and  Traders  National  Bank ; 
Western  Union  Telegraph ;  International 
Ocean  Telegraph;  American  Telegraph 
and  Cable  Company;  the  Standard  Gas 
Light  Company,  and  the  Fifth  Avenue 
Bank,  of  which  bank  he  was  one  of  the 
founders  and  the  only  one  living  at  the 
time  of  his  death. 

In  1863  Mr.  Sage  gave  up  his  Troy 
business  altogether  and  removed  to  New 
York  to  devote  himself  to  the  promotion 
of  his  own  and  other  railroads  and  to 
operations  in  stocks.  He  opened  an  office 
in  William  street,  and  gave  his  first  at- 
tention to  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul 
securities.  Later  he  extended  his  inter- 
est to  other  railroads,  and  gradually  en- 
larged his  field  of  operations  until  it  cov- 
ered nearly  the  whole  range  of  stocks 
listed  on  the  Exchange.  One  of  the  fea- 
tures of  Mr.  Sage's  financial  career  was 
his  friendship  with  Jay  Gould.  They  had 
come  together  as  promoters  of  the  At- 
lantic &  Pacific  Telegraph  Company, 
which  was  later  merged  into  the  West- 
ern Union. 

On  December  4,  1901,  Mr.  Sage,  while 
in  his  office,  escaped  instant  death  as  by 
a  miracle.  An  insane  crank,  Henry  W. 
Norcross,  of  Somerville,  Massachusetts, 
entered  the  office,  carrying  a  bag  loaded 
with  dynamite,  and  demanded  that  the 
sum  of  $1,200,000  be  given  to  him  imme- 
diately or  he  would  blow  up  the  build- 
ing. Mr.  Sage,  seeing  that  he  was  in  the 
presence  of  a  madman,  rose  and  retreated 
from  him ;  whereupon  the  maniac  ex- 
claimed: "Well  then  here  goes,"  and 
lifting  the  bag  high  in  the  air  dashed  it 
violently  on  the  floor.  The  explosion 
which  followed  blew  off  the  dynamiter's 
head,  killed  a  clerk,  injured  others,  and 
wrecked  the  office.  Mr.  Sage  received 
wounds,  but  was  able  to  return  to  the 
office  in  a  few  days. 


Mr.  Sage  was  a  man  of  remarkable  and 
varied  powers.  He  could  have  succeed- 
ed in  almost  any  field  of  action  that  he 
might  have  chosen.  He  chose  rather  the 
largest,  hardest  and  most  dangerous  field 
of  all — the  development  of  the  transpor- 
tation system  of  the  country,  for  he  was 
above  all  else,  and  from  first  to  last,  a 
promoter  and  manager  of  railroads.  That 
he  was  also  a  lender  of  money,  particu- 
larly in  his  old  age,  was  merely  an  inci- 
dent in  his  long  and  useful  life.  "He  was 
an  American  and  loved  his  country,"  said 
Henry  Clews  on  hearing  of  his  death. 
"My  aim  in  life,"  so  he  confessed  in  an 
interview  which  was  published  Decem- 
ber 19,  1897,  in  the  "New  York  Herald," 
"has  been  to  do  my  share  in  developing 
the  material  resources  of  the  country.  I 
have  spent  millions  on  the  railroad  sys- 
tem of  the  United  States,  and  am  now 
connected  with  more  than  twenty  thou- 
sand miles  of  railroad  and  with  twenty- 
seven  different  corporations." 

Russell  Sage  was  twice  married,  but 
had  no  children.  He  married  (first)  in 
1841,  Marie,  daughter  of  Moses  I. 
Wynne,  of  Troy,  New  York;  she  died  in 
1867.  He  married  (second)  November 
24,  1869,  Margaret  Olivia  Slocum,  born 
September  8,  1828,  daughter  of  Hon. 
Joseph  Slocum,  of  Syracuse,  New  York. 


STRANAHAN,  James  S.  T., 

Remarkable  for  Public  Spirit. 

The  life  record  of  James  S.  T.  Strana- 
han  began  April  25,  1808,  at  the  old  fam- 
ily homestead  in  Madison  county,  New 
York,  near  Peterboro,  his  parents  being 
Samuel  and  Lynda  (Josselyn)  Strana- 
han.  He  traced  his  lineage  to  Scotch- 
Irish  ancestry,  of  Presbyterian  faith — 
men  of  strong,  rugged,  determined  char- 
acter, and  women  of  virtue,  diligence  and 
culture.  The  first  of  the  name  of  whom 
record  is  left  was  James  Stranahan,  who 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


was  born  in  the  North  of  Ireland  in  1699. 
The  orthography  of  the  name  has  under- 
gone many  changes,  having  been  in  the 
following  forms:  Stranahan,  Stracham 
and  Strahan.  The  name,  however,  is  de- 
rived from  the  parish  of  Strachan,  Kin- 
cardineshire, Scotland.  James  Strana- 
han, the  grandfather  of  him  whose  name 
forms  the  caption  of  this  review,  crossed 
the  Atlantic  to  the  New  World  in  1725, 
locating  in  Scituate,  Rhode  Island,  where 
he  became  a  prosperous  farmer.  He 
afterward  removed  to  Plainfield,  Connec- 
ticut, where  he  died  in  1792,  at  the  ad- 
vanced age  of  ninety-three  years.  His 
namesake  and  eldest  son  served  as  a 
Revolutionary  soldier  in  the  war  which 
brought  independence  to  the  nation,  and 
lived  and  died  in  Plainfield,  Connecticut. 

James  S.  T.  Stranahan  lost  his  father 
when  eight  years  of  age,  and  his  boyhood 
days  were  soon  transformed  into  a  period 
of  labor,  for  his  stepfather  needed  his 
assistance  in  the  development  of  the  farm 
and  the  care  of  the  stock.  However, 
when  the  work  of  the  farm  was  ended  for 
the  season,  he  entered  the  district  schools 
and  there  acquired  his  early  education, 
which  was  later  supplemented  by  several 
terms  of  study  in  an  academy.  From 
the  age  of  seventeen  he  depended  entirely 
upon  his  own  resources.  After  complet- 
ing his  academical  work  he  engaged  in 
teaching  school,  with  the  intention  of 
later  fitting  himself  for  the  profession  of 
civil  engineer  ;  but  the  occupation  of  trad- 
ing with  the  Indians  in  the  northwest 
seemed  to  offer  greater  inducements,  and 
in  1829  he  visited  the  upper  lake  region. 
He  made  several  trips  into  the  wilder- 
ness and  these,  together  with  the  advice 
cf  General  Lewis  Cass,  then  governor  of 
the  territory  of  Michigan,  led  him  to 
abandon  that  plan,  and  he  returned  to  his 
home. 

The  elemental  strength  of  his  character 
was    first    clearly    demonstrated    by   his 


work  in  building  the  town  of  Florence, 
New  York.  From  his  boyhood  he  had 
known  Gerrit  Smith,  the  eminent  capital- 
ist and  philanthropist,  who  in  1832  made 
him  a  proposition  according  to  the  terms 
of  which  he  was  to  go  to  Oneida  county, 
New  York,  where  Mr.  Smith  owned  large 
tracts  of  land,  and  found  a  manufactur- 
ing town.  He  was  then  a  young  man  of 
only  twenty-four  years,  but  the  work 
was  successfully  accomplished,  and  the 
village  of  Florence,  New  York,  was 
transformed  into  a  thriving  little  city  of 
between  two  and  three  thousand.  His 
active  identification  with  things  political 
began  during  the  period  of  his  residence 
in  Florence,  for  in  1838  he  was  elected  to 
the  State  Legislature  on  the  Whig  ticket 
in  a  Democratic  district. 

A  broader  field  of  labor  soon  engaged 
the  attention  and  energies  of  Mr.  Stran- 
ahan, who  in  1840  removed  to  Newark, 
New  Jersey,  and  became  an  active  factor 
in  railroad  building.  In  1844  he  came  to 
Brooklyn,  and  from  that  time  until  his 
death  he  was  a  most  potent  factor  in  the 
commercial  life,  the  political  interests 
and  the  general  upbuilding  of  the  city. 
His  first  official  service  was  as  alderman, 
10  which  position  he  was  elected  in  1848, 
and  in  1850  he  was  nominated  for  mayor, 
but  his  party  was  in  the  minority  and  he 
was  defeated.  His  personal  attributes  at 
that  time  were  not  so  well  known  as  they 
were  in  later  years,  and  thus  he  could  not 
overcome  the  party  strength  of  his  op- 
ponent. However,  his  nomination  served 
the  purpose  of  bringing  him  before  the 
public,  and  in  1854,  when  the  country- 
was  intensely  excited  over  the  slavery 
question,  he  became  a  candidate  for  Con- 
gress, and  although  he  was  a  strong  anti- 
slavery  man  and  the  district  was  Demo- 
cratic, he  was  triumphantly  elected.  In 
1857,  when  the  Metropolitan  Police  Com- 
mission was  organized,  he  was  appointed 
a  commissioner,  and  he  was  one  of  the 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


most  active  members  of  the  board  dur- 
ing the  struggle  between  the  new  forces 
and  the  old  New  York  municipal  police 
force  of  New  York,  Brooklyn  and  Staten 
Island,  who  revolted  under  the  new 
leadership  of  Fernando  Wood,  then 
mayor.  Mr.  Stranahan  had  joined  the 
ranks  of  the  new  Republican  party  on  its 
organization,  and  in  1864  he  was  a  presi- 
dential elector  on  the  Lincoln  and  John- 
son ticket.  In  i860,  and  again  in  1864, 
he  had  been  sent  as  a  delegate  to  the  Re- 
publican National  Convention,  and  at 
both  times  supported  the  Illinois  states- 
man, Lincoln,  for  the  presidency.  Dur- 
ing the  Civil  War  he  was  president  of  the 
War  Fund  Committee,  an  organization 
formed  of  over  one  hundred  leading  men 
of  Brooklyn,  whose  patriotic  sentiment 
gave  rise  to  the  "Brooklyn  Union,"  a 
paper  which  was  in  full  accord  with  the 
governmental  policy,  and  upheld  the 
hands  of  the  President  in  every  possible 
way.  Its  purpose  was  to  encourage  en- 
listments and  to  further  the  efforts  of  the 
government  in  prosecuting  the  war.  Mr. 
Stranahan  had  an  unshaken  confidence 
in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  Union 
cause,  and  his  splendid  executive  ability 
and  unfaltering  determination  were  of 
incalculable  benefit  in  promoting  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  committee.  His  labors,  too, 
were  the  potent  element  in  carrying  for- 
ward a  work  in  which  this  committee 
was  associated  with  the  Woman's  Re- 
lief Association,  of  which  Mrs.  Strana- 
han was  president.  This  work  was  the 
establishment  of  a  great  sanitary  fair, 
which  has  become  historical  and  which 
was  the  means  of  raising  four  hundred 
thousand  dollars  to  carry  on  the  work  of 
the  sanitary  commission  in  connection 
with  the  war.  Mr.  Stranahan  never 
sought  public  office  for  himself  except 
in  the  few  instances  mentioned,  and  then 
his  nomination  came  as  a  tribute  to  his 


ability.  Tn  1888,  however,  he  was  an 
elector  for  Benjamin  Harrison,  and  being 
ihe  oldest  member  of  the  electoral  col- 
lege, was  honored  by  being  appointed 
the  messenger  to  carry  the  electoral  vote 
from  the  State  of  New  York  to  Washing- 
ton. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  give  in  a 
brief  biographical  sketch  an  accurate  rec- 
ord of  the  great  work  which  Mr.  Strana- 
han did  in  connection  with  the  upbuild- 
ing of  Brooklyn.  His  name  is  a  familiar 
one  on  account  of  his  labors  in  behalf  of 
the  park  system.  Under  the  legislative 
act  of  i860  he  became  president  of  the 
Brooklyn  Park  Commission,  and  he  re- 
mained in  office  for  twenty-two  years,  a 
period  in  which  the  growth  of  the  city 
made  demands  for  a  park  system  that 
under  his  guidance  was  developed  and 
carried  forward  to  a  splendid  completion. 
Prospect  Park  is  an  everlasting  monu- 
ment to  him.  He  was  also  the  originator 
of  the  splendid  system  of  boulevards,  the 
Ocean  Parkway  and  the  Eastern  Park- 
way, which  has  provided  in  Brooklyn  a 
connection  of  the  city  with  the  sea  in  a 
system  of  drives  unsurpassed  by  any  in 
the  world.  The  concourse  on  Coney 
Island  also  resulted  from  his  instrumen- 
tality. The  element  which  made  Mr. 
Stranahan's  work  different  from  that  of 
all  others,  was  that  he  could  foresee  possi- 
bilities. It  was  this  which  led  to  the  de- 
velopment of  Coney  Island,  for  to  him  it 
seemed  that  the  natural  boundary  of 
Brooklyn  on  the  southwest  was  the  At- 
lantic Ocean,  and  he  took  steps  to  secure 
the  rare  advantage  of  an  attractive  high- 
way from  the  city  to  the  sea.  It  seems 
that  every  work  with  which  he  was  con- 
nected proved  of  the  greatest  value  to  the 
city. 

The  enterprises  which  he  managed 
were  gigantic  in  volume  and  far-reach- 
ing in  effect.    For  more  than  forty  years 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


he  was  a  director  of  the  Union  Ferry 
Company,  and  under  his  guidance  were 
developed  the  great  Atlantic  docks. 
Erooklyn  had  no  warehouse  on  its  water- 
front and  the  region  which  is  now  the 
Atlantic  docks  was  shallow  water  at  the 
edge  of  the  bay  when  he  came  to  the  city. 
He  foresaw  the  possibilities  of  commerce 
by  establishing  docks  at  this  point,  and 
he  labored  with  a  courage  and  patience 
that  has  scarcely  been  equaled  in  the  his- 
tory of  material  improvements  in  the 
world.  It  was  twenty-six  years  from  the 
time  he  advanced  his  plans  for  the  dock 
system  before  the  Atlantic  Dock  Com- 
pany made  a  dividend  to  its  stockholders, 
and  yet  to-day  its  shipping  returns  are 
greater  than  those  of  almost  any  other 
port  in  the  world.  Only  to  the  civil  engi- 
neer is  the  scope  of  this  wonderful  under- 
taking familiar.  One  who  has  not  stud- 
ied the  science  cannot  conceive  of  the 
amplitude  of  this  work.  Mr.  Stranahan 
was  also  connected  with  the  Brooklyn 
Bridge  Company  from  its  organization, 
and  was  one  of  the  first  subscribers  to  its 
stock;  he  was  a  member  of  the  Board  of 
Directors  of  the  New  York  Bridge  Com- 
pany, and  he  served  continuously  as  trus- 
tee from  the  time  the  work  came  under 
the  control  of  the  two  cities  until  June 
8,  1885.  At  the  meeting  of  the  trustees 
on  that  date,  he  occupied  the  chair  as 
president  of  the  board,  and  at  that  time 
his  term  expired.  He  also  served  con- 
tinuously as  a  member  of  the  executive 
committee,  and  upon  nearly  all  of  the  im- 
portant committees  appointed  during 
construction.  He  foresaw  the  immense 
volume  of  traffic  that  would  be  conduct- 
ed over  this  mammoth  span,  and  insisted 
that  the  original  plans  should  be  altered 
to  insure  to  the  giant  structure  sufficient 
strength  to  enable  it  to  carry  a  train  of 
Pullman  cars.  Mr.  Stranahan  consulted 
with  Commodore  Vanderbilt,  who  agreed 


with  him  in  the  opinion  that  the  time 
would  arrive  when  solid  Pullman  trains 
would  run  in  and  out  of  Brooklyn  from 
and  to  far  western  points. 

Mr.  Stranahan  was  twice  married.  In 
early  manhood  he  wedded  Marianne 
Fitch,  who  was  born  in  Westmoreland, 
Oneida  county,  New  York,  and  was  a 
daughter  of  Ebenezer  R.  Fitch.  For 
three  years,  from  1837  until  1840,  they 
resided  in  Florence,  New  York,  and  dur- 
ing their  four  years'  residence  in  New- 
ark, New  Jersey,  their  two  children  were 
born.  Mrs.  Stranahan  died  in  Manches- 
ter, Vermont,  in  August,  1866,  after 
twenty-two  years'  residence  in  Brooklyn. 
Mr.  Stranahan  afterwards  married  Miss 
Clara  C.  Harrison,  a  native  of  Massachu- 
setts. Before  her  marriage  she  was  one 
of  the  leaders  in  educational  circles  in 
Brooklyn,  and  for  a  number  of  years  was 
principal  of  a  private  seminary  for  the 
higher  education  of  young  ladies,  which 
had  an  enrollment  of  two  hundred  pupils, 
and  fourteen  teachers  and  professors  in 
its  various  departments. 

Mr.  Stranahan  passed  away  in  Sara- 
toga, September  3,  1898,  and  his  funeral 
cortege  was  the  first  that  ever  took  its 
way  to  the  cemetery  through  Prospect 
Park,  Brooklyn. 


BARNES,  Alfred  S., 

Publisher,  Philanthropist. 

Alfred  Smith  Barnes,  son  of  Eli  and 
Susan  (Morris)  (Bradley)  Barnes,  was 
born  in  New  Haven,  Connecticut,  Janu- 
ary 28,  1817.  He  attended  a  Lancastrian 
school  at  Wethersfield,  Connecticut,  but 
upon  the  death  of  his  father,  in  1S27,  re- 
turned home.  At  twelve  years  of  age  he 
was  placed  under  the  care  of  his  uncle, 
Deacon  Norman  Smith,  residing  near 
Hartford.  Here  he  worked  upon  the 
farm  during  the  summer,  and  during  the 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


winter  attended  school  under  the  instruc- 
tion of  Professor  Jesse  Olney.  In  1830 
his  uncle  opened  a  shoe  store  and  in- 
stalled him  as  his  clerk,  but  after  serv- 
ing in  that  capacity  for  about  a  year  he 
became  restless,  desiring  to  engage  in 
the  book  business,  which  he  did  as  soon 
as  an  opportunity  offered,  entering  the 
book  store  of  D.  F.  Robinson,  where  his 
duties  were  those  of  youngest  clerk.  His 
remuneration  was  thirty  dollars  a  year 
and  his  board,  his  home  being  with  Mrs. 
Robinson,  who  displayed  for  him  the 
love  and  solicitude  of  a  mother.  In  1835 
the  firm  of  D.  F.  Robinson  &  Company 
moved  to  New  York,  where  he  com- 
pleted his  clerkship.  In  1838  Professor 
Charles  Davies,  the  mathematician,  called 
upon  him  with  a  letter  from  Hiram  F. 
Sumner,  of  Hartford,  and  this  introduc- 
tion led  to  an  arrangement  for  the  publi- 
cation of  his  mathematical  books.  Mr. 
Barnes  was  to  be  the  nominal  publisher 
at  six  hundred  dollars  per  year,  and  at- 
tended to  the  introduction  of  the  books 
among  the  schools,  and  Professor  Davies 
was  to  be  the  literary  and  office  partner. 
They  located  in  the  city  of  Hartford,  and 
then  and  there  was  founded  what  became 
the  widely  known  house  of  A.  S.  Barnes 
&  Company.  Soon  afterward  they  agreed 
on  equal  terms  as  partners,  Professor 
Davies  reserving  a  copyright 

Mr.  Barnes  at  once  set  out  to  canvass 
the  country  for  Professor  Davies'  books, 
traveling  by  boat  or  stage,  visiting  the 
scattered  schools,  and  the  small  stores 
of  his  own  and  adjacent  states,  and  be- 
came quite  versatile  in  advocating  the 
Davies'  Arithmetics,  which  were  then  in 
their  infancy,  but  came  to  be  studied  by 
millions  of  school  children.  His  efforts 
from  the  outset  were  successful,  he 
always  making  a  favorable  impression  by 
his  frank  and  winning  manner  and  un- 
mistakable sense  of  honor.     In   1840  the 


little  concern  moved  to  Philadelphia  and 
took  quarters  in  a  modest  store  in  Minor 
street,  but  remained  there  only  four  years 
when  it  was  finally  removed  to  New 
York,  occupying  a  building  on  the  corner 
of  John  and  Dutch  streets.  The  business 
steadily  increased,  and  with  an  enlarged 
list  of  publications,  soon  required  the 
two  adjacent  buildings  on  John  street  in 
addition.  In  1867  Mr.  Barnes  purchased 
the  large  building  on  the  corner  of  Wil- 
liam and  John  streets,  to  which  the  busi- 
ness was  again  transferred,  using  the  for- 
mer buildings  in  part  for  the  printing 
office  and  bindery.  These  latter  soon  be- 
came inadequate,  however,  and  necessi- 
tated the  building  of  the  factory,  occu- 
pied by  the  firm  in  Brooklyn,  erected  by 
Mr.  Barnes  in  1880  on  the  site  of  the  old 
First  Baptist  Church. 

In  1848  Professor  Davies  retired  from 
business  connection  with  Mr.  Barnes, 
and  Edmund  Dwight  became  partner  the 
same  year,  retiring  the  following  year, 
when  Mr.  Barnes  took  into  partnership 
his  brother-in-law,  Henry  L.  Burr,  who 
continued  with  him  until  his  death  in 
1865.  S.  A.  Rollo,  a  clerk,  was  admitted 
in  1850.  Following  Mr.  Burr's  decease, 
Alfred  C.  Barnes,  eldest  son  of  Mr. 
Barnes,  became  associated  with  him,  and 
also  his  brother,  John  C.  Barnes.  In 
1867  Henry  W.  Curtiss,  cousin  of  Mr. 
Barnes,  was  admitted,  and  shortly  after- 
ward Mr.  Barnes  took  into  the  firm  his 
son  Henry,  and  later  on  his  nephew, 
Charles  J.  Barnes,  in  1879  his  son  Edwin, 
and  in  1883-84  his  two  youngest  sons, 
Richard  and  William,  were  admitted.  At 
the  death  of  Mr.  Barnes  his  five  sons 
and  nephew  were  left  to  carry  on  the 
business,  which  they  did  until  1890,  when 
with  several  other  school  book  houses  it 
was  merged  into  the  American  Book 
Company.  The  name  of  A.  S.  Barnes  & 
Company  is  still  extant  and  is  associated 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF   BIOGRAPHY 


with  the  publication  of  miscellaneous 
books,  church  hymnals,  etc. 

Mr.  Barnes  was  in  a  remarkable  degree 
a  man  of  affairs,  active,  interested  and 
devoted  to  all  his  duties,  whether  im- 
posed or  assumed.  Aside  from  his  large 
book  publishing  interests,  he  was  at  the 
time  of  his  death  a  director  of  the  Han- 
over National  Bank,  the  Home  Fire  In- 
surance Company,  the  Fidelity  and  Cas- 
ualty Company,  the  Provident  Life  In- 
surance Company,  Rochester  Gas  Com- 
pany, a  trustee  in  the  Brooklyn  Dime 
Savings  Bank,  Cornell  University,  Ithaca, 
the  Polytechnic  Institute  and  Packer  In- 
stitute, both  in  Brooklyn,  a  trustee  of  the 
Long  Island  Historical  Society,  presi- 
dent of  the  Automatic  Fire  Alarm  Com- 
pany, New  York,  and  was  associated 
with  railroads  and  other  institutions.  In 
benevolent  work  he  was  president  of  the 
Brooklyn  City  Mission  and  Tract  Soci- 
ety, connected  with  the  American  Board 
of  Foreign  Missions,  with  the  American 
Missionary  Society  as  one  of  its  execu- 
tive committee,  with  the  Home  Mission- 
ary Society,  trustee  of  the  American 
Tract  Society,  vice-president  of  the  Soci- 
ety for  the  Supression  of  Vice,  and  also 
of  the  Association  for  Improving  the 
Condition  of  the  Poor  of  Brooklyn,  trus- 
tee of  the  Faith  Home  for  Incurables, 
and  also  of  the  Aged  Men's  Home,  both 
of  Brooklyn. 

Mr.  Barnes  was  always  active  and 
heartily  interested  in  religious  affairs. 
In  Philadelphia  he  was  connected  with 
Dr.  Albert  Barnes'  church  and  in  New 
York  with  Dr.  Spring's  church.  On  com- 
ing to  Brooklyn  he  was  made  one  of  the 
deacons  of  the  Church  of  the  Pilgrims 
(Congregational),  to  which  he  brought 
his  letters  soon  after  the  late  Rev.  Dr. 
Richard  S.  Storrs  had  been  called  to  its 
pastorate.  Later,  in  view  of  changing 
his  residence,  he  became  a  member  of  the 


Clinton  Avenue  Church,  and  was  one  of 
the  callers  of  Rev.  Dr.  William  I.  Bud- 
ington  to  its  pastorate,  and  still  later  of 
Rev.  Thomas  B.  McLeod  to  the  same 
church  upon  the  decease  of  Dr.  Buding- 
ton.  He  served  the  church  as  deacon 
and  trustee,  and  was  at  different  times 
superintendent  of  the  Sunday  school. 

Aside  from  his  official  positions,  he 
was  most  liberal  in  advancing  material 
needs  of  the  church  and  its  various  char- 
ities, and  responded  to  every  call  liber- 
ally and  ungrudgingly.  With  Albert 
Woodruff,  of  Brooklyn,  he  inaugurated 
the  Mission  Sunday  school,  as  the  off- 
shoot of  an  established  church,  and  his 
connection  with  the  Warren  Street  Mis- 
sion of  Brooklyn,  as  the  pioneer  of  the 
undertaking,  was  always  a  pleasure  to 
him.  He  was  its  first  superintendent, 
and  accomplished  much  for  its  growth 
and  prosperity  thereafter.  A  very  note- 
worthy incident  in  connection  with  his 
Christian  work  was  the  acquirement  of 
the  church  building  on  Classon  avenue, 
near  Butler  street.  A  mortgage  was 
about  to  be  foreclosed  on  the  property 
and  several  persons  were  interested  in 
buying  it  in.  It  became  a  question  of 
sectarianism,  the  parties  to  the  purchase 
representing  distinct  creeds,  and  Mr. 
Barnes,  believing  the  section  where  it 
stood  was  in  need  of  the  church  of  his 
own  faith,  and  not  finding  any  one  to  co- 
operate with  him,  bought  it  in  himself, 
and  for  years  kept  it  in  his  possession, 
although  giving  its  use  to  a  company  of 
worshipers  and  helping  to  support  the 
minister  in  charge. 

The  uppermost  desire  of  his  heart  was 
unquestionably  to  do  good,  "that  the 
world  might  be  better  for  his  having 
lived  in  it."  His  benefactions  will  never 
be  fully  known ;  he  gave  liberally  and 
often.  The  $25,000  to  the  Faith  Home 
in    Brooklyn,    which    enjoys    its    present 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


quarters  mainly  through  his  gift  and 
efforts,  and  the  $45,000  to  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  of  Cornell 
University,  which  resulted  in  the  erec- 
tion of  Barnes  Hall,  evidenced  some  of 
his  larger  benefactions.  The  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  of  Brooklyn, 
the  Long  Island  Historical  Society,  and 
many  of  the  benevolent  and  educational 
objects  of  the  city  and  elsewhere,  also 
enjoyed  his  munificence  through  his  life- 
time, and  were  as  well  the  recipients  of 
considerable  sums  at  his  death. 

In  politics  he  took  an  active  interest, 
though  he  never  filled  office,  or  desired 
to  do  so;  he  was  satisfied  to  support  good 
and  able  men,  and  was  assiduous  in  influ- 
encing others  to  perform  their  duty.  He 
was  a  Republican  as  to  party,  but  saw 
fit  at  times  to  support  one  of  an  opposite 
faction,  but  never,  it  is  believed,  where 
national  issues  were  involved.  He  was  a 
temperance  advocate,  but  thought  it  not 
essential  to  encourage  a  temperance 
party.  He  argued,  "raise  the  standard 
of  one  of  the  dominant  parties,  and  tem- 
perance and  ail  good  results  will  surely 
follow." 

Mr.  Barnes  married  (first)  November 
10,  1841,  Harriet  Elizabeth  Burr,  born  at 
Henderson  Harbor,  New  York,  Septem- 
ber 27,  1820,  eleventh  child  of  General 
Timothy  and  Mary  (Chapin)  Burr,  of 
Hartford,  Connecticut.  Her  father  re- 
moved with  his  family  in  early  life  to 
Western  New  York,  and  was  stationed 
at  Henderson  Harbor,  on  Lake  Ontario, 
during  the  war  of  1812,  and  later  at  the 
head  of  the  commissary  department  of 
the  United  States  army,  and  while  in 
Hartford,  Connecticut,  was  colonel  of 
the  Connecticut  regiment.  General  Burr 
was  a  descendant  of  Benjamin  Burr  (or 
Burre,  as  he  spelled  the  name)  the 
founder  of  the  Hartford  branch,  who  first 
appeared  as  one  of  the  original  settlers 


of  Hartford  in  1635.  His  name,  which 
appears  in  the  land  division  of  Hartford 
in  1630  as  an  original  proprietor  and  set- 
tler, is  the  first  evidence  we  have  of  his 
presence  in  America,  but  as  the  first  set- 
tlers there  were  from  Watertown,  New- 
town and  other  places  near  Boston,  it  is 
certain  that  he  was  in  Massachusetts 
some  time  before  his  appearance  in  Hart- 
ford, and  he  may  have  been  one  of  the 
eight  hundred  who  came  to  America  with 
Winthrop's  fleet  in  June,  1630.  He  seems 
to  have  been  an  active,  energetic,  thor- 
ough business  man,  and  mingled  but 
little  in  public  affairs,  hence  but  brief 
mention  is  made  of  him  in  the  records 
of  the  colony.  He  was  the  first  of  his 
name  in  Connecticut,  and  was  admitted 
a  freeman  in  1658.  His  allotment  in  the 
land  division  of  Hartford  in  1639  was  six 
acres,  and  he  also  drew  eighteen  acres  in 
the  land  division  of  East  Hartford,  in 
1666.  He  died  in  Hartford,  March  31, 
1681,  and  was  buried  probably  in  one  of 
the  hillside  cemeteries,  long  since  oblit- 
erated. He  gave  his  name  to  Burr  street, 
Hartford,  which  runs  west  from  Main 
street.  Mary  (Chapin)  Burr  was  a 
daughter  of  Deacon  Aaron  Chapin,  of  a 
prominent  family  of  Massachusetts.  Mrs. 
Barnes  was  interested  in  many  charities, 
especially  in  the  Home  for  the  Friend- 
less, and  during  the  civil  war  greatly 
assisted  the  Union  army  through  the  san- 
itary commission. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Barnes  first  located  in 
Philadelphia,  from  whence  they  removed 
to  New  York,  then  to  Brooklyn,  and  in 
1853  began  the  occupancy  of  a  commo- 
dious house  on  Clinton  avenue.  Two 
children  were  born  to  them  in  Philadel- 
phia, one  in  New  York,  three  in  Garden 
street,  and  four  in  Clinton  avenue,  mak- 
ing in  all  a  family  of  ten  children,  five 
sons  and  five  daughters.  In  1866  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Barnes  celebrated  their  silver 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


wedding.  From  1875  to  1881  their  sum- 
mer home  was  the  attractive  cottage  at 
Martha's  Vineyard,  and  the  time  he  was 
able  to  be  there  gave  Mr.  Barnes  perfect 
relaxation  and  contentment.  On  Octo- 
ber 27,  1 881,  only  a  few  weeks  prior  to 
the  fortieth  anniversary  of  their  mar- 
riage, Mrs.  Barnes  died,  this  being  the 
first  severe  blow  Mr.  Barnes  had  experi- 
enced. 

Mr.  Barnes  married  (second)  Novem- 
ber 7,  1883,  Mrs.  Mary  M.  Smith.  In  the 
spring  of  1884  they  went  on  a  European 
tour,  being  absent  some  thirteen  months, 
and  a  few  months  after  their  return 
moved  into  their  new  home  on  St.  Marks 
avenue,  Brooklyn.  Early  in  the  year  of 
1887  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Barnes  went  on  a 
tour  west,  extending  as  far  as  Alaska. 
This  they  carried  out,  but  owing  to  the 
excessive  heat  they  encountered  and  the 
fatigue  incident  to  so  long  a  journey, 
together  with  some  anxiety  over  certain 
matters  forced  upon  his  mind,  Mr.  Barnes 
was  much  prostrated,  and  on  their  return 
to  Chicago  quite  succumbed,  being 
obliged  to  remain  a  week  at  a  hotel,  and 
was  then  brought  home,  with  barely  suffi- 
cient strength  to  move  about.  Through 
all  the  trying  months  which  followed,  no 
more  devoted  care  and  loving  ministra- 
tions, coupled  with  great  self-sacrifice, 
were  possible  than  those  shown  by  his 
patient  wife.  His  death  occurred  Febru- 
ary 17,  1888. 

One  of  the  best  and  truest  tributes  to 
Mr.  Barnes  as  a  man  and  a  citizen  was 
paid  by  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  T.  DeWitt  Tal- 
mage  at  one  of  the  meetings  in  his 
church : 

The  number  of  men  who  built  Brooklyn  and 
who  have  gone  into  eternal  absenteeism  is  rap- 
idly increasing.  Pausing  a  moment  to-day  on 
the  New  York  and  Brooklyn  Bridge,  I  read  on 
a  stone  pillar  the  names  of  those  who  had  been 
influential  in  the  building  of  that  suspended 
wonder   of   the    centuries.      The    president.    Mr. 


Murphy,  gone.  The  vice-president,  Mr.  Kings- 
ley,  gone.  The  treasurer,  Mr.  Prentice,  gone. 
The  engineer,  Mr.  Roebling,  gone.  So  our 
useful  and  important  citizens  from  all  depart- 
ments are  passing  off.  And  now,  within  a  few 
days,  Alfred  S.  Barnes  departed.  And  yet  he 
has  not  disappeared.  When  our  Historical  Hall, 
and  Academy  of  Music,  and  Mercantile  Library, 
and  our  great  asylums  of  mercy,  and  our 
churches  of  all  denominations  shall  have  crum- 
bled— then,  and  not  until  then,  will  our  splendid 
citizen,  Mr.  Barnes,  have  disappeared;  for  his 
brain  and  heart  and  head  planned  them,  and 
his  munificent  hand  helped  support  them. 
When,  at  n  o'clock  last  Friday  night,  this  noble 
and  gracious  soul  flashed  into  the  bosom  of 
God,  we  lost  as  good  a  citizen  as  Brooklyn  ever 
had.  If  the  queenly  wifehood  that  hovered  over 
his  suffering  pillow  for  four  months,  until  the 
fatigue  and  the  devotion  became  almost  a  mar- 
tyrdom, and  the  prayers  and  the  love  and  the 
devotion  of  his  children,  and  the  anxieties  of 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  fellow  citizens  could 
have  hindered  his  departure,  he  would  again 
have  taken  his  old  place  at  his  family  table,  and 
on  our  philanthropic  platforms,  and  in  the  pews 
of  our  churches.  But  his  work  was  done.  No 
power  could  keep  him  down  out  of  the  supernal 
light  or  back  from  the  rewards  awaiting  him. 
What  a  bulwark  of  credit  was  his  name  to  the 
financial  institutions  he  trusteed  or  presidented! 
What  an  honor  to  the  universities  on  whose 
scrolls  of  directors  his  name  was  permitted  to 
appear!  And  what  a  reinforcement  to  the  great 
benevolence  of  the  day  was  his  patronage.  Out 
of  a  warm  personal  friendship  of  many  years,  I 
must  speak  my  gratitude  and  my  admiration.  In 
business  circles,  for  many  a  long  day,  his  name 
will  be  quoted  as  a  synonym  for  everything 
honorable  and  righteous,  but  my  thought  of  him 
is  chiefly  of  being  the  highest  style  of  Christian 
gentleman.  He  was  one  of  the  few  successful 
men  who  maintained  complete  simplicity  of  char- 
acter. After  gaining  the  highest  position  where 
he  could  afford  to  decline  the  Mayoralty  and 
Congressional  honors,  and  all  political  prefer- 
ment, as  he  did  again  and  again,  he  was  as  art- 
less in  his  manner  as  on  the  day  when  he  earned 
his  first  dollar.  His  illumined  face  was  an  index 
to  an  illumined  soul.  I  have  known  many  lovely 
and  honorable  and  inspiring  and  glorious  Chris- 
tian men,  but  a  more  lovely  or  more  honorable 
or  more  inspiring  or  more  glorious  Christian 
man  than  Alfred  S.  Barnes,  I  never  did  know. 
He  entered  the  Kingdom  of  God  himself  and  all 
his  family  followed  him,  and  upon  them  may  the 


/A^y/^ 


,OCVM. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Charleston  Harbor,  South  Carolina,  from 
1853  to  J856,  when  he  resigned  from  the 
army,  having  then  the  rank  of  first  lieu- 
tenant. He  practiced  law  at  Syracuse, 
New  York,  and  sat  in  the  State  Assembly 
in  1859.  From  1859  to  1861  he  was  also 
an  instructor  of  the  State  militia,  with 
the  rank  of  colonel.  At  the  outbreak  of 
the  Civil  War  he  was  appointed  to  the 
colonelcy  of  the  Twenty-seventh  Regi- 
ment New  York  Volunteers,  and  partici- 
pated in  the  battle  of  Bull  Run,  where  he 
was  wounded.  In  August,  1861,  he  was 
commissioned  brigadier-general  of  vol- 
unteers, and  until  the  summer  of  1862 
was  on  duty  in  the  defenses  of  the 
national  capital.  In  June  he  was  assigned 
to  the  command  of  the  First  Division, 
Sixth  Corps,  and  took  part  in  the  Seven 
Days'  battles  under  General  McClellan. 
On  July  4  he  was  promoted  to  major- 
general,  and  commanded  his  division  in 
the  Maryland  campaign.  Under  General 
Hooker,  he  had  command  of  the  Twelfth 
Corps  in  the  Chancellorsville  campaign, 
and  under  General  Meade  at  Gettysburg, 
he  commanded  the  right  wing  of  the 
army  during  a  portion  of  the  battle,  and 
distinguished  himself  by  saving  Culp's 
Hill  at  a  critical  moment.  After  the  end 
of  the  pursuit  of  the  Confederates  into 
Virginia,  General  Slocum  was  sent  west 
and  from  April  to  August,  1864,  com- 
manded the  District  of  Vicksburg,  Mis- 
sissippi. In  the  Atlanta  campaign,  from 
May  to  September,  1864,  he  commanded 
the  Twentieth  Corps,  under  General 
Sherman.  In  the  March  to  the  Sea,  he 
commanded  the  combined  Fourteenth 
and  Twentieth  Corps,  under  the  desig- 
nation of  the  Army  of  Georgia,  and  also 
in  the  subsequent  campaign  in  the  Caro- 
linas.  After  the  close  of  the  war,  he  re- 
signed from  the  service,  declining  a  com- 
mission as  colonel  in  the  regular  army, 
and  took  up  his  residence  in   Brooklyn, 


New  York,  where  he  engaged  in  the  prac- 
tice of  his  profession.  In  1865  he  was 
the  unsuccessful  Democratic  candidate 
for  Secretary  of  State.  He  was  a  presi- 
dential elector  from  New  York  in  1868. 
He  was  elected  to  the  Forty-first  and 
Forty-second  Congresses  (1869-73),  an<i 
was  a  member  of  the  Forty-eighth  Con- 
gress, elected  from  the  State-at-large. 
From  1876  to  1884  he  was  president  of 
the  Brooklyn  Board  of  Public  Works, 
and  a  member  of  the  East  River  Bridge 
Commission.  He  died  in  Brooklyn,  April 
14,  1894.  A  fine  bronze  heroic  equestrian 
statue  of  General  Slocum  stands  near 
Prospect  Park,  Brooklyn,  and  receives 
special  honors  each  Memorial  Day  from 
the  military  and  Grand  Army  bodies 
making   up   the   procession. 


BROOKS,  Arthur, 

Prominent  Divine. 

Arthur  Brooks,  clergyman,  was  born 
in  Boston,  Massachusetts,  July  11,  1845, 
the  fifth  son  of  William  Gray  and  Mary 
Ann  (Phillips)  Brooks,  and  a  brother  of 
Phillips  Brooks. 

He  was  educated  at  the  Boston  Latin 
School  and  at  Harvard  College,  from 
which  he  was  graduated  in  1867.  He 
pursued  his  theological  course  at  An- 
dover  for  one  year,  and  at  the  Divinity 
School  at  Philadelphia  for  two  years, 
when  he  was  ordained  deacon  at  Trinity 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  Boston,  in 
1870.  He  accepted  the  rectorship  of 
Trinity  Church,  Williamsport,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  was  there  advanced  to  the 
priesthood  by  Bishop  Stevens.  In  1872 
he  accepted  a  call  to  St.  James  parish, 
Chicago,  Illinois,  where  he  rebuilt  the 
church  destroyed  in  the  great  fire,  and 
greatly  advanced  the  growth  of  the  par- 
ish. In  the  summer  of  1874  he  accom- 
panied his  brother,  Phillips,  on  a  visit  to 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Europe,  and  during  the  next  winter  de- 
livered a  lecture  before  the  Anonymous 
Club  in  Chicago,  on  stained  glass,  the 
result  of  his  observations  in  the  English 
cathedrals.  In  the  spring  of  1875  he 
accepted  a  call  from  the  Church  of  the 
Incarnation  in  New  York  City.  The 
obligations  amounting  to  $54,500  resting 
upon  the  church  property  were  liqui- 
dated, missions  were  instituted,  and  nu- 
merous charities  aided.  In  the  spring 
of  1882,  when  the  prosperity  of  the  parish 
seemed  assured,  the  church  was  de- 
stroyed by  fire,  involving  a  loss  of  $75,- 
000.  In  this  emergency  he  accepted  the 
use  of  Temple  Emmanuel  Synagogue, 
proffered  by  Rabbi  Gottheil,  and  there  he 
celebrated  the  festival  of  Easter.  The 
Church  of  the  Incarnation  was  rapidly 
rebuilt,  and  a  magnificent  bronze  bas- 
relief  of  Bishop  Brooks  was  one  of  the 
works  of  art  added  to  its  adornments. 
In  1886,  when  the  work  of  rebuilding 
was  completed,  Mr.  Brooks,  accompanied 
by  his  wife,  visited  Italy,  Greece,  Arabia, 
Palestine,  Asia  Minor  and  Egypt,  and  he 
preached  on  Christmas  Day  of  that  year 
in  the  American  church  in  Rome.  He 
also  traversed  the  desert  of  Arabia  on 
camel  and  horseback,  and  visited  Mount 
Sinai.  He  returned  to  his  parish  in  1887. 
He  took  an  active  interest  in  the  found- 
ing of  Barnard  College  for  women,  lend- 
ing to  it  his  countenance  and  support. 
He  was  present  at  the  church  congresses 
from  their  institution,  and  his  addresses 
were  listened  to  with  great  interest.  His 
last  prominent  public  appearance  was  the 
eighty-second  anniversary  meeting  of 
the  Virginia  Bible  Society,  where  he 
made  the  annual  address.  In  1891  he 
was  selected  to  conduct  a  retreat  for  the 
clergy  in  the  pre-lenten  season  at  New 
Rochelle,  New  York.  The  death  of 
Bishop  Brooks  in  1893  was  a  severe  be- 
reavement, and  it  fell  upon  him  to  pre- 


pare such  biographies  of  his  brother  as 
were  needed  for  immediate  publication. 
Meditating  the  accomplishment  of  a  more 
considerable  work,  he  labored  upon  it  in- 
cessantly until  his  last  illness,  when  it 
had  neared  its  completion.  A  volume  of 
his  sermons,  entitled  "The  Life  of  Christ 
in  the  World,"  was  published  in  1893. 
The  University  of  the  City  of  New  York 
conferred  upon  him  the  honorary  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Divinity  in  1891,  and  he  was 
elected  to  membership  in  the  Victoria 
Institute.  On  June  26,  1895,  ne  em_ 
barked  on  a  voyage  to  England,  hoping 
thereby  to  recuperate  his  health,  but 
growing  worse,  he  sailed  for  home  on  the 
same  steamer,  July  9,  and  died  July  10, 
1895. 

On  October  17,  1872,  he  was  married 
to  Elizabeth  M.  P.  Willard,  of  Williams- 
port,  Pennsylvania. 


CARR,  Joseph  B., 

Soldier,  Man  of  Affairs. 

The  name  of  Carr  is  illustrious  in  the 
military  annals  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
made  so  by  the  life  and  distinguished 
services  of  Brevet  Major-General  Joseph 
B.  Carr,  a  rank  and  title  conferred  "for 
gallant  and  meritorious  services  during 
the  war."  He  was  of  the  second  genera- 
tion of  his  family  in  the  United  States; 
his  parents  being  natives  of  Ireland. 
They  came  to  this  country  in  1824. 

Joseph  Bradford  Carr,  son  of  William 
and  Ann  Carr,  was  born  in  the  city  of 
Albany,  New  York,  August  16,  1828,  died 
at  Troy,  February  24,  1895.  He  grew 
up  in  Albany  and  Troy,  in  which  latter 
city  he  was  in  the  tobacco  business  from 
1842  until  1 861.  He  early  displayed  his 
love  of  a  military  life.  On  arriving  at 
the  age  of  twenty-one  he  joined  the  Troy 
Guards,  served  in  the  ranks  one  year, 
and  was  commissioned  second  lieutenant. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


He  rose  rapidly  through  successive  ranks 
until  he  was  colonel  of  the  Twenty- 
fourth  Regiment  New  York  State  Militia, 
assuming  command  July  10,  1859,  con- 
tinuing until  the  firing  upon  Fort  Sum- 
ter, when  he  at  once  offered  his  services 
to  his  country.  April  15,  1861,  the  Sec- 
ond Regiment  New  York  Volunteers  was 
organized  in  Troy;  on  May  10,  he  was 
elected  colonel ;  four  days  later  the  regi- 
ment was  mustered  into  the  United 
States  service  for  a  term  of  two  years. 
On  May  24  the  regiment  camped  near 
Hampton,  being  the  first  regiment  to  en- 
camp on  the  "sacred  soil  of  Virginia." 
Their  first  battle  was  "Big  Bethel," 
where  they  were  forced  to  retreat;  they 
were  at  Newport  News  until  May  10, 
1862,  when  Colonel  Carr  removed  his 
command  to  Portsmouth,  where  he  was 
assigned  to  the  command  of  a  provisional 
brigade  consisting  of  the  Second  and 
Tenth  New  York  regiments  and  How- 
ard's light  battery.  June  10  he  was 
ordered  with  the  Second  Regiment  to 
report  to  General  McClellan  at  Fair 
Oaks.  He  proceeded  to  the  extreme 
front,  where  he  was  assigned  to  General 
Frank  Patterson's  brigade,  Hooker's  divi- 
sion, Third  Army  Corps  of  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac.  Owing  to  absence  of  its 
regular  commander,  Colonel  Carr  was 
temporarily  assigned  to  the  Third  Bri- 
gade, familiarly  known  as  the  Jersey 
Brigade,  which  he  led  throughout  the 
battle  of  the  Orchards,  June  25,  and 
through  the  historical  "Seven  Days" 
fighting.  On  General  Patterson's  return 
Colonel  Carr  resumed  command  of  his 
regiment  at  Harrison's  Landing.  On 
July  2,  by  order  of  General  Hooker,  he 
superseded  General  Patterson ;  remain- 
ing at  the  head  of  the  brigade  until  pro- 
moted by  President  Lincoln  upon  the 
personal  recommendation  of  General 
Hooker  "for  gallant  and  meritorious  serv- 


ices in  the  field"  to  be  a  Brigadier-Gen- 
eral of  Volunteers,  commission  dating 
from  September  7,  1862.  His  courage 
and  coolness  under  fire  was  illustrated  at 
the  battle  of  Bristoe  Station ;  with  a  mur- 
derous storm  of  shot  and  shell  that  burst 
upon  his  men,  General  Carr  moved  about, 
cheering  them  on  and  encouraging  them 
by  his  own  daring.  His  horse  was  shot 
under  him ;  he  coolly  mounted  an  order- 
ly's horse  and  successfully  charged  the 
enemy.  He  gained  on  that  day  the  title 
of  "Hero  of  Bristoe,"  which  ever  after- 
ward clung  to  him.  He  took  part  in  the 
battle  of  Bull  Run,  August  30  and  31, 
and  at  Chantilly,  September  3,  when  the 
gallant  Kearny  fell.  In  these  battles  he 
fully  sustained  his  reputation  for  cour- 
ageous, daring  conduct.  September  17, 
he  was  transferred  to  the  First  Brigade, 
composed  of  troops  from  Pennsylvania, 
Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire;  De- 
cember 13  and  14.  participated  in  the 
bloody  fight  at  Fredericksburg,  where  he 
lost  heavily  in  officers  and  men.  Janu- 
ary 12,  1863,  he  commanded  an  expedi- 
tion to  Rappahannock  Bridge.  March  30, 
he  was  officially  notified  by  the  Secretary 
of  War  that  the  Senate  having  failed  to 
act  upon  his  nomination,  he  had  ceased 
to  be  an  officer  of  the  army.  General 
Hooker,  then  in  command  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac,  proceeded  at  once  to 
Washington,  and  on  the  following  day 
telegraphed  General  Carr  that  President 
Lincoln  had  reappointed  him,  to  date 
from  March  3,  1863.  At  Chancellorsville, 
May  3,  after  the  death  of  General  Berry, 
he  succeeded  to  the  command  of  Hook- 
er's old  division,  the  white-patched 
heroes.  He  sustained  the  reputation  he 
had  made  on  other  hard-fought  fields, 
and  was  made  the  subject  of  special, 
laudatory  mention  in  the  official  report 
by  Major-General  Sickles,  the  Corps 
commander.    July  1,  1863,  Major-General 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Humphreys  assumed  command  of  the 
division  and  General  Carr  returned  to  his 
brigade.  June  15  he  moved  with  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  to  Gettysburg, 
where  on  July  2  and  3  he  participated  in 
that  memorable  battle.  During  that  fight 
he  was  mounted  upon  a  valuable  horse, 
presented  him  by  friends  in  Troy,  until 
the  noble  animal  fell,  pierced  by  five  bul- 
lets, in  the  fall  injuring  the  general's  leg. 
Exhausted  and  lame  as  he  was,  General 
Carr  refused  to  retire,  but  mounted  an- 
other horse,  and  continued  directing  the 
movements  of  his  brigade.  He  lost 
heavily  in  this  battle — nearly  two-thirds 
of  his  force — while  not  one  of  his  staff, 
orderlies  or  headquarters  horses  escaped 
injury.  After  the  battle  the  division  gen- 
eral and  officers  of  the  brigade  assembled 
at  headquarters  and  complimented  him 
upon  his  gallantry.  Major-General  U.  A. 
Humphreys,  in  his  official  report  of  the 
battle,  spoke  of  him  and  said :  "I  wish 
particularly  to  commend  to  notice  the 
cool  courage,  determination  and  skillful 
handling  of  their  troops  of  the  two  bri- 
gade commanders,  Brigadier-General  Jo- 
seph B.  Carr  and  Colonel  William  R. 
Brewster,  and  to  ask  attention  to  the 
officers  mentioned  by  them,  as  distin- 
guished by  their  conduct."  After  Gettys- 
burg he  was  at  the  battle  of  Wapping, 
and  in  temporary  camp  at  Warrenton, 
Virginia.  October  5  he  was  assigned  to 
the  head  of  the  Third  Division,  Third 
Corps,  advanced  to  Warrenton  Junction, 
and  participated  in  the  battles  at  Brandy 
Station  and  Kelly's  Ford.  In  November 
he  was  one  of  the  principal  actors  in  the 
battles  of  Locust  Grove,  Robinson's  Tav- 
ern, and  Mine  Run.  In  April,  1864,  on 
the  reorganization  of  the  army,  he  was 
assigned  to  the  command  of  the  Fourth 
Division,  Second  Corps  (Hancock's),  re- 
taining command  until  ordered  by  Gen- 
eral Grant  to  report  to  General  Butler, 
commanding  the  Army  of  the  James,  who 
NY-voiin-2  17 


placed  him  in  command  of  the  exterior 
line  of  defense  on  the  Peninsula,  head- 
quarters  at   Yorktown.     Early   in  July, 

1864,  he  was  ordered  by  General  Butler 
to  evacuate  Yorktown  and  report  to  him 
at  the  front  for  assignment.  Obeying  his 
order,  he  was  sent  to  Major-General  E. 
O.  C.  Ord,  who  placed  him  in  command 
of  the  First  and  Third  Division  of  the 
Eighteenth  Corps.  August  4,  he  was 
given  command  of  the  First  Division  of 
the  same  corps  and  occupied  the  right  of 
the  line  in  front  of  Petersburg.  He  re- 
tained this  command  until  October  I, 
when  he  was  placed  in  command  of  the 
defense  of  the  James  river,  headquarters 
at  Wilson's  Landing.  Here  he  remained 
seven  months,  during  which  he  built  two 
important  forts  and  strengthened  the  de- 
fenses. May  20,  1865,  he  was  transferred 
to  City  Point,  where  he  remained  until 
the  close  of  the  war.  June  1,  1865,  he 
was  brevetted  major-general,  "for  gal- 
lant and  meritorious  services  during  the 
war,"  to  rank  as  such  from  March   13, 

1865.  On  being  relieved  of  command,  he 
returned  to  Troy,  where  he  was  mustered 
out  of  the  service. 

January  25,  1867,  he  was  appointed  by 
the  Governor  of  New  York,  major-gen- 
eral of  the  Third  Division  New  York 
State  Militia,  where  he  rendered  valuable 
service  during  railroad  riots  of  1877,  at 
Albany,  dispersing  the  mob  and  restor- 
ing peace  and  order  without  the  sacrifice 
of  life  or  property.  He  remained  in  this 
command  until  his  death  at  Troy  in  1895. 
He  was  given  an  imposing  military 
funeral  on  February  27  from  St.  Peter's 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  Troy.  The 
body  lay  in  state  and  was  viewed  by 
thousands,  officers  of  the  army,  gov- 
ernors, statesmen,  representatives  of 
every  department  of  the  service,  and  a 
vast  concourse  of  his  fellow  citizens  at- 
tended. He  had  won  distinction  by  real 
work  and  gallant  performance  amid  the 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF   BIOGRAPHY 


danger  of  bloody  contests,  and  all   "de- 
lighted to  do  his  memory  honor." 

General  Carr  entered  the  manufactur- 
ing field  as  the  senior  partner  of  J.  B. 
Carr  &  Company,  operating  the  exten- 
sive chain  manufacturing  works  estab- 
lished in  1866,  located  between  Troy  and 
Lansingburg,  and  continued  at  the  head 
of  the  concern  until  his  death.  He  be- 
came a  factor  in  the  development  of  other 
business  enterprises  of  Troy.  He  was  a 
director  of  the  Mutual  National  Bank; 
second  vice-president  and  director  of  the 
Troy  City  Railway  Company.  He  was 
reared  in  the  Catholic  church,  and  never 
departed  from  that  faith.  He  was  a  Re- 
publican, and  received  the  unanimous 
nomination  of  his  party  in  convention  at 
Saratoga,  September  3,  1879,  for  Secre- 
tary of  State.  He  was  elected  by  a  large 
majority;  reelected  in  1881,  and  again  in 
1883.  In  1885  he  was  the  Republican 
candidate  for  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the 
State,  but  was  defeated  at  the  polls.  He 
was  highly  esteemed  at  home  and  abroad, 
many  organizations  bestowing  honorary 
membership  upon  him.  He  was  a  com- 
panion of  the  Loyal  Legion,  and  a  com- 
rade of  Williard  Post,  Grand  Army  of 
the  Republic ;  member  of  the  Second  Reg- 
iment Association;  Third  Army  Corps 
Association;  the  Old  Guard  of  New 
York ;  the  Ninth  Regiment  Troy  Citi- 
zens' Corps;  Burgess  Corps  of  Albany; 
vice-president  Renssalaer  County  Sol- 
diers and  Sailors  Monument  Association ; 
trustee  of  New  York  State  Gettysburg 
Monument  Association ;  the  Troy  and 
Ionic  Clubs  of  Troy.  He  married  Mary 
Gould,  born  in  Canada  in  1837. 


HUN,  Thomas,  M.  D., 

Practitioner,   Instructor. 

Thomas  Hun,  M.  D.,  son  of  Abraham 
and  Maria  (Gansevoort)  Hun,  was  born 
in   Albany,    New   York,    September    14, 


1808,  and  died  at  his  residence,  No.  31 
Elk  street,  Albany,  June  23,  1896.  His 
father  graduated  from  Columbia  College, 
immediately  afterward  took  up  the  study 
of  law,  and  forming  a  partnership  with 
Rensselaer  Westerlo,  half  brother  of  the 
Patroon  of  the  Van  Rensselaer  Manor, 
acted  as  agent  for  Stephen  Van  Rens- 
selaer until  his  death;  He  resided  in  his 
house  on  the  east  side  of  Market  street 
(later  Broadway),  which  was  situated 
about  fifty  feet  south  of  Maiden  Lane, 
which  site  was  later  built  upon  when  the 
Stanwix  Hall  Hotel  was  erected,  and  he 
also  owned  a  well  cultivated  farm  of 
about  three  hundred  and  seventy-five 
acres  extending  along  and  northward 
back  from  the  Normanskill  creek  (at  the 
end  of  Delaware  avenue  in  1900),  which 
place  he  called  "Buena  Vista,"  after  the 
battle  in  which  General  Taylor  figured. 
On  the  brow  of  the  hill,  he  built  a  summer 
residence,  which  his  son  Thomas  recon- 
structed in  1852,  at  about  the  same  time 
the  farm  was  reduced  to  about  twenty- 
five  acres.  He  married,  in  Albany,  Sep- 
tember 22,  1796,  Rev.  John  Bassett  offi- 
ciating, Maria,  daughter  of  Judge 
Leonard  and  Maria  (Van  Rensselaer) 
Gansevoort. 

Losing  both  parents  at  an  early  age, 
Thomas  Hun  and  his  sister  Elizabeth 
were  brought  up  by  their  maternal  grand- 
parents, Judge  and  Mrs.  Leonard  Ganse- 
voort, Jr.  He  received  his  earliest  educa- 
tion as  a  lad  at  a  private  school  conducted 
by  an  Englishman  and  his  wife,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Upfold,  and  in  1818  entered  the 
Albany  Boys'  Academy,  where  he  re- 
mained until  graduation,  following  a 
complete  course  which  fitted  him  for  col- 
lege. He  was  intelligent  and  studious, 
possessing  a  decided  character,  which 
accounted  for  his  always  standing  high  in 
his  various  classes.  Because  of  his  more 
than  customary  preparation  and  industry, 
when  only  sixteen  years  of  age,  he  was 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


able  to  enter  the  junior  class  of  Union 
College,  in  the  fall  of  1824,  following  his 
graduation  from  the  academy,  and  while 
there  his  "chum"  was  the  popular  Pro- 
fessor Isaac  W.  Jackson.  He  graduated 
with  honors  in  1826,  taking  the  degree  of 
A.  B.  After  leaving  college,  he  began  the 
study  of  medicine,  for  which  he  had  a 
decided  leaning,  and  entered  the  office  of 
Dr.  Piatt  Williams,  a  practitioner  of 
eminence  in  Albany.  After  serving  thus 
as  a  student,  he  entered  the  medical 
department  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, in  1827,  and  completing  the  full 
course,  graduated  in  1830  with  the  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Medicine.  He  returned  to 
Albany  and  commenced  to  practice  with 
his  former  instructor,  Dr.  Williams. 

When  the  cholera  epidemic  broke  out  in 
the  summer  of  1832,  a  cholera  hospital 
was  instituted  in  Albany,  and  he  was 
appointed  one  of  the  physicians.  The 
death  rate  was  alarmingly  high,  with 
more  funerals  each  day  than  could  be 
arranged  for,  and  everyone  afraid  to  mix 
with  his  neighbors.  Burning  barrels  of 
tar  filled  the  atmosphere  with  a  heavy 
smoke,  calculated  to  purify  the  air.  Dr. 
Hun's  position  was  unenviable  and  heroic. 
He  discharged  his  duties  with  fortitude 
and  skill,  until  the  closing  of  the  hospital 
in  the  cold  weather,  when  the  scourge 
was  stamped  out.  In  the  spring  of  1833 
he  went  to  Europe  to  prosecute  his 
studies  further,  and  excepting  two  brief 
visits  to  his  home,  remained  there,  resid- 
ing chiefly  in  Paris,  until  1839.  The  six 
years  of  foreign  study  afforded  him  a 
liberal  range  of  experience,  attending  the 
large  hospitals,  and  he  gradually  limited 
his  wider  range  of  the  sciences  to  a 
knowledge  of  practice. 

During  his  last  year  abroad,  the  Albany 
Medical  College  was  organized  and  incor- 
porated, and  before  his  return  home  in 
1839,  ne  was  invited  to  accept  the  profes- 
sorship of  the  Institutes  of  Medicine.   He 


accepted,  and  his  inaugural  address  excited 
considerable  interest  and  admiration  from 
its  large  grasp  of  principles  as  well  as  by 
reason  of  its  lucid  style  and  forcible  illus- 
trations. The  students  came  to  regard 
his  lectures  as  the  most  interesting  and 
instructive,  which  ability  on  his  part 
greatly  increased  the  reputation  of  the 
young  college.  He  continued  these  lec- 
tures until  1858,  when  he  resigned  to  de- 
vote all  his  time  to  his  practice,  which 
had  grown  to  be  the  best  in  Albany,  and 
demanded  this  attention. 

When  the  Albany  Hospital  was  incor- 
porated in  1848,  Dr.  Hun  became  one  of 
the  board  of  consulting  physicians,  and 
had  subsequently  held  the  same  position 
with  St.  Peter's  Hospital,  Albany.  He 
was  made  president  of  the  New  York 
State  Medical  Society  in  1862,  and  his 
inaugural  address  attracted  much  favor- 
able comment,  despite  his  theories  in 
opposition  to  the  traditional  ideas  of 
medical  theory  and  practice.  He  main- 
tained that  neither  medicine  nor  the  phy- 
sician, although  both  were  of  importance 
in  their  place,  ever  cured  disease ;  that  the 
curative  power  rested  in  nature  alone,  and 
the  function  of  the  physician  not  to 
"cure;"  but  to  preside  over,  watch  and 
aid  the  efforts  of  nature  to  cure,  by  recog- 
nizing the  true  character  of  the  disease, 
its  course,  its  processes  and  effects,  also 
the  accidents  and  dangers  to  which  it  is 
liable,  and  thus  to  be  able  to  secure,  as 
far  as  possible,  such  favorable  circum- 
stances, aids  and  conditions  as  may  be 
most  contributory  to  the  restorative 
powers  of  nature.  He  was  unanimously 
called  to  be  dean  of  faculty  of  the  Albany 
Medical  College.  He  was  especially 
noted  as  a  practitioner  for  his  sagacity 
and  accuracy  in  the  diagnosis  of  disease, 
and  also  for  his  calm,  far-sighted  compre- 
hension of  the  constitutional  tendencies 
affecting  the  case  called  to  his  attention. 
He  was  always  studiously  inclined,  con- 


19 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


templative  and  given  to  thought  along 
philosophical  and  metaphysical  lines,  for 
ethical  investigation  was  a  delight  for 
him.  No  physician  in  Albany  ever  stood 
higher  in  the  confidence  of  both  the  pro- 
fession and  the  public.  He  was  a  devout 
Christian,  worshipping  at  the  Episcopal 
Cathedral  of  All  Saints,  a  man  possessing 
the  warmest  of  hearts  for  the  distressed. 
He  had  been  an  alderman,  and  at  his 
death  was  president  of  the  Albany  Acad- 
emy board  of  trustees. 

Dr.  Thomas  Hun  married,  in  Albany, 
New  York,  April  29,  1841.  the  Rev. 
Horatio  Potter,  rector  of  St.  Peter's 
Church  officiating,  Lydia  Louisa,  daugh- 
ter of  Hon.  Marcus  Tullius  and  his  (first) 
wife,  Cynthia  (Herrick)  Reynolds.  She 
was  born  in  Amsterdam,  New  York,  Sep- 
tember 11,  1817,  died  at  her  residence,  No. 
31  Elk  street,  Albany,  January  26,  1876, 
and  was  buried  in  the  Albany  Rural 
cemetery.  Her  father,  Marcus  T.  Rey- 
nolds, an  attorney  of  Albany  and  one  of 
the  ablest  of  his  times,  was  born  in 
Minaville,  Montgomery  county,  New 
York,  December  29,  1788,  son  of  Dr. 
Stephen  Reynolds,  of  Amsterdam,  and 
died  at  No.  25  North  Pearl  street,  Albany, 
July  11,  1864.  Her  mother,  Cynthia 
(Herrick)  Reynolds,  was  daughter  of 
Benjamin  and  Cynthia  (Brush)  Herrick, 
the  latter  a  daughter  of  Richard  Brush  ; 
she  was  born  at  Amenia,  New  York,  De- 
cember 26,  1794,  died  at  Amsterdam,  New 
York,  November  25,  1820.  Benjamin 
Herrick  was  the  son  of  Benjamin  and 
Sarah  (Denton)  Herrick.  Mrs.  Thomas 
Hun  was  widely  known  through  her  en- 
deavors to  alleviate  the  condition  of  the 
poor  and  ignorant,  as  well  as  in  her  own 
circle,  where  she  was  welcomed  as  one 
whose  mind  had  been  enriched  by  a  liberal 
education  and  by  life-long  habits  of  good 
reading  and  reflection,  which  gave  her  a 
graciousness  of  character  and  brilliancy  of 
conversation.     Her  chief  interest  lay  in 


planning  to  reform  what  was  evil  and  to 
aid  those  oppressed  by  undue  hardships, 
in  which  aim  she  was  always  practical  in 
the  carrying  out  of  her  admirable  ideas. 
She  felt  that  the  poor  needed,  even  more 
than  money,  sound  advice  and  cordial 
encouragement.  She  purchased  and 
fitted  up  a  sort  of  model  tenement  house, 
to  occupy  which  became  an  esteemed 
privilege,  and  here  she  watched  over 
them,  inculcating  habits  of  neatness  and 
saving.  She  also  sought  to  establish  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  poor  reading 
rooms  and  a  place  of  cheerful  resort.  In 
many  other  similar  ways  she  led  a  worthy 
life. 


HALL,  John, 

Divine,  Author. 

The  Rev.  John  Hall  was  born  in  County 
Armagh,  Ireland,  July  31,  1829,  son  of 
William  and  Rachel  (Magowan)  Hall. 
His  ancestors  were  natives  of  Scotland. 

He  was  graduated  in  arts  from  Belfast 
(Ireland)  College  in  1846,  and  in  theology 
in  1849,  having  been  matriculated  in 
1842,  and  won  repeated  prizes  in  profi- 
ciency in  church  history  and  Hebrew 
scholarship.  He  was  licensed  to  preach 
in  1849,  and  was  a  missionary  in  the 
province  of  Connaught,  Ireland,  1849-52  ; 
pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church, 
Armagh,  1852-58;  and  of  the  Collegiate 
Church  of  St.  Mary's  Abbey,  Dublin, 
1858-67,  where  he  edited  the  "Evangelical 
Witness,"  built  the  Rutland  Square 
Church,  and  under  appointment  by  the 
Viceroy  of  Ireland  was  made  Commis- 
sioner of  National  Education,  and  re- 
ceived from  Queen  Victoria  the  honorary 
appointment  of  Commissioner  of  Educa- 
tion for  Ireland. 

He  visited  America  in  1867  as  delegate 
to  the  Old  School  Presbyterian  Assembly 
of  the  United  States  at  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 
During  his  visit  he  preached  for  the  con- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


gregation  of  the  Fifth  Avenue  Presby- 
terian Church,  New  York  City,  then  wor- 
shipping on  Nineteenth  street,  and 
received  a  call  as  pastor  which  he 
accepted  after  his  return  to  Ireland.  His 
work  in  this  church  resulted  in  a  new 
church  edifice  erected  in  1873  at  a  cost  of 
over  $1,000,000,  the  largest  Presbyterian 
church  in  New  York  City;  the  Romeyn 
chapel  on  Seventy-fourth  street;  a  mis- 
sion on  Sixty-third  street ;  a  Chinese 
mission  on  East  Fifty-ninth  street,  and 
numerous  other  missions  and  charitable 
institutions  supported  by  annual  contri- 
butions from  the  parent  church  of  over 
$100,000.  In  January,  1898,  he  resigned 
the  pastorate  on  account  of  increasing 
age,  but  withdrew  his  resignation  upon 
the  earnest  demand  of  the  congregation, 
which  promised  him  such  assistance  as 
might  be  required.  He  was  chancellor  of 
the  University  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
1881-91 ;  a  member  of  the  council,  1875- 
98;  a  trustee  of  Princeton  Seminary, 
1859-83 ;  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey, 
1868-98;  of  Wells  College,  Aurora,  New 
York,  and  of  Wellesley  College,  Massa- 
chusetts. He  was  a  member  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Board  of  Church  Erection ; 
chairman  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of 
Home  Missions,  and  chairman  of  the 
committee  on  church  extension,  New 
York  Presbytery.  He  was  a  member  of 
the  New  York  Historical  Society.  He 
received  the  degree  of  A.  B.  from  Belfast 
in  1846;  of  D.  D.  from  Washington  and 
Jefferson  College  in  1865 ;  of  LL.  D.  from 
Washington  and  Lee  University,  and 
from  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  Prince- 
ton, in  1885,  and  from  Trinity  College, 
Dublin,  in  1890;  and  of  S.  T.  D.  from 
Columbia  in  1886. 

His  published  works  include  "Family 
Prayers  for  Four  Weeks"  (1868)  ; 
"Prayers  for  Home  Reading"  (1873) ; 
"God's  Word  Through  Preaching" 
(1875) ;  "Familiar  Talks  to  Boys"  (1876) ; 


and  "A  Christian  Home"  (1883).  Dr. 
Hall  died  at  Bangor,  County  Down, 
Ireland,  September  17,  1898,  and  the 
remains  were  returned  to  America  and 
buried  in  Woodlawn  Cemetery,  New 
York  City. 

He  was  married,  June  15,  1852,  to 
Emily,  daughter  of  Lyndon  Bolton,  of 
Dublin,  Ireland,  and  of  their  children, 
Robert  William  became  Professor  of 
Analytical  Chemistry  in  the  University 
of  the  City  of  New  York;  Richard  John, 
Professor  of  Surgery  in  the  College  of 
Physicians  and  Surgeons,  New  York  City, 
died  in  Santa  Barbara,  California,  Janu- 
ary 23,  1897 ;  Thomas  Cuming,  became 
Professor  of  Theology  in  Union  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  New  York  City ;  Bolton, 
was  graduated  at  Princeton  in  1875 ; 
Emily  C.  was  the  only  daughter. 


MARVIN,  Selden  E., 

Soldier,  Man  of  Affairs. 

General  Selden  Erastus  Marvin,  son  of 
Hon.  Richard  Pratt  and  Isabella  (New- 
land)  Marvin,  was  born  August  20,  1835, 
in  Jamestown,  Chautauqua  county,  New 
York,  and  died  January  19,  1899,  in  New 
York  City.  His  father  was  a  well  known 
lawyer,  jurist,  and  antiquarian.  Selden 
Erastus  Marvin  received  his  education  in 
the  public  schools  and  academy  of  James- 
town, and  at  Professor  Russell's  private 
school  in  New  Haven,  Connecticut.  While 
residing  in  Jamestown  he  became  inter- 
ested in  military  affairs  and  was  quarter- 
master of  the  Sixty-eighth  Regiment, 
National  Guard.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
Civil  War  he  tendered  his  services  to  the 
government.  On  July  21,  1862,  he  was 
commissioned  adjutant  of  the  One  Hun- 
dred and  Twelfth  Regiment  New  York 
Volunteers  and  mustered  into  the  United 
States  service,  and  served  until  detailed 
as  assistant  adjutant-general  of  Foster's 
brigade,  with  the  army  of  Southern  Vir- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


ginia,  through  the  Peninsula  and  Charles- 
town  campaigns,  until  August  2.7,  1863, 
when  he  was  appointed  additional  pay- 
master of  United  States  volunteers,  and 
was  assigned  to  duty  in  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac ;  he  resigned  December  27,  1864, 
to  become  paymaster-general  of  the  State 
of  New  York  on  the  staff  of  Governor 
Fenton.  On  January  1,  1867,  he  was 
appointed  adjutant-general  of  the  State 
of  New  York.  As  paymaster-general  he 
disbursed  upwards  of  twenty-seven  mil- 
lion dollars.  As  adjutant-general  he 
inaugurated  and  carried  into  practical 
effect  reforms  in  the  national  guard  which 
were  greatly  needed. 

After  his  term  of  adjutant-general 
expired,  he  engaged  in  banking  in  New 
York  City  as  a  member  of  the  firm  of 
Morgan,  Keene  &  Marvin ,  until  the 
spring  of  1873,  when  they  dissolved.  On 
January  1,  1874,  he  went  to  Troy,  New 
York,  as  the  representative  of  Erastus 
Coming's  interests  in  the  iron  and  steel 
business  carried  on  by  the  firm  of  John  A. 
Griswold  &  Company,  and  while  there 
organized  the  Albany  &  Rensselaer  Iron 
and  Steel  Company,  March  1,  1875.  This 
corporation  was  a  consolidation  of  the 
establishment  of  John  A.  Griswold  & 
Company  and  the  Albany  Iron  Works, 
and  General  Marvin  was  elected  a  direc- 
tor, secretary  and  treasurer.  On  Septem- 
ber 1.  1885.  this  concern  was  succeeded 
by  the  Troy  Steel  and  Iron  Company, 
which  went  into  the  hands  of  a  receiver 
in  1893.  General  Marvin  continued  as 
director,  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the 
company  until  its  business  was  closed  up, 
November  1,  1895.  He  was  for  several 
years  a  trustee  and  vice-president  of  the 
Albany  City  Savings  Institution,  and  on 
June  1,  1891,  became  its  president.  He 
was  a  director  and  in  1894  was  made 
president  of  the  Hudson  River  Telephone 
Company,  and  was  the  principal  organizer 
and    promoter    of    the    Albany     District 


Telegraph  Company,  of  which  he  became 
president  in  1895.  He  was  always  active 
in  religious  matters,  and  soon  after  the 
formation  of  the  Diocese  of  Albany,  was 
elected  its  treasurer  and  treasurer  of  its 
board  of  missions,  serving  until  his  death. 
He  was  vestryman  of  St.  Luke's  Church, 
Jamestown,  and  later  of  St.  Peter's 
Church,  Albany,  and  was  also  a  member 
of  the  Cathedral  Chapter.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities, 
having  been  appointed  by  Governor 
Morton,  March  27,  1895.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber and  trustee  of  the  Corning  foundation, 
on  which  is  built  St.  Agnes'  School,  the 
Child's  Hospital,  St.  Margaret's  House, 
Graduate  Hall  and  the  Sister  House  in 
Albany.  He  was  also  a  member  of  the 
board  of  managers  of  the  Domestic  and 
Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  church  in  the  United 
States,  a  member  of  the  Fort  Orange 
Club,  and  actively  connected  with  several 
other  institutions  of  Albany. 

He  married,  September  24,  1868,  Kath- 
arine Langdon,  daughter  of  Judge  Amasa 
J.  and  Harriet  (Langdon)  Parker,  of 
Albany,  New  York,  born  August  28,  1846, 
died  July  1,  1907.  Children:  1.  Selden 
Erastus,  who  succeeded  to  the  charge  of 
his  father's  estate.  2.  Grace  Parker,  born 
September,  1872,  married,  June  6,  1901, 
Rupert  C.  King,  of  New  York  City ;  chil- 
dren :  i.  Catherine  Marvin,  deceased ;  ii. 
Rupert  Cochrane,  Jr.,  born  July  29,  1908. 
3.  Langdon  Parker,  September  16,  1876, 
graduated  from  Harvard  University,  1898, 
and  LL.  B.,  Harvard  Law  School,  1901 ; 
private  secretary  for  Hon.  Elihu  Root  on 
Alaska  boundary  commission  in  London, 
1903 ;  resides  in  New  York  City.  4. 
Edmund  Roberts,  August  10,  1878,  gradu- 
ated from  Harvard  University,  1899.  5. 
Richard  Pratt,  August  18,  1882,  died  Sep- 
tember 6,  1883.  6.  Katharine  Langdon, 
August  6,  1889. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


DEAN,  Amos, 

Lawyer,  Jurist,  Author. 

Than  Hon.  Amos  Dean,  LL.  D.,  no  one 
in  the  city  of  Albany  ever  gained  a  higher 
position  of  respect  and  merited  popu- 
larity. He  was  born  in  Barnard,  Ver- 
mont, January  16,  1803,  and  died  in 
Albany,  New  York,  at  his  residence,  No. 
31  Elk  street,  January  26,  1868.  His 
father  was  Nathaniel  Dean,  and  his 
mother  was  Rhoda  (Hammond)  Dean. 

Like  many  other  prominent  lawyers 
and  jurists  who  found  prominence  in  New 
York  State,  Amos  Dean  acquired  his  early 
education  in  the  common  schools,  at 
which  he  fitted  himself  with  the  idea  of 
teaching.  He  supported  himself  while 
pursuing  his  academic  course  preparatory 
to  entering  college,  and  went  to  Union 
College  in  1823,  from  which  he  was 
graduated  in  1826.  His  uncle,  Jabez  D 
Hammond,  was  at  this  time  a  distin- 
guished lawyer  and  writer,  in  partner- 
ship with  Judge  Alfred  Conkling.  It  was 
in  their  office  that  he  began  studying  law, 
where  he  was  most  diligent,  and  enjoyed 
the  nice  distinctions  and  philosophy  of 
law  as  a  science.  To  him  the  study  had  a 
fascination,  and  he  was  remarkably  well 
prepared  when  admitted  in  1829.  During 
the  early  years  of  his  practice  he  was  asso- 
ciated with  Azor  Tabor,  then  an  eminent 
counsellor.  He  never  assumed  to  attain 
celebrity  as  an  advocate  before  juries, 
where,  in  those  days,  a  lawyer  usually 
made  his  mark  in  the  world  at  large  by 
publicity,  although  he  possessed  marked 
abilities  as  an  orator.  His  amiability  of 
disposition,  his  natural  reserve,  his 
kindly  nature,  his  guilelessness  and  his 
overflowing  charity,  repelled  him  from  the 
theatre  of  professional  strife  and  conflict, 
and  he  was  particularly  adapted  to  the 
duties  of  the  office  and  the  counsel  room. 
It  was  there  he  displayed  fine  traits  of 
wisdom,  prudence  and  sagacity.     Having 

23 


a  character  of  unimpeachable  integrity, 
he  readily  won  clients,  success  and  fame. 

The  great  benefit  he  had  obtained  by 
his  own  endeavors  to  pursue  courses  of 
study  when  young,  caused  him  to  appre- 
ciate the  necessity  for  furnishing  advan- 
tages for  others,  and,  impelled  by  this 
idea,  he  conceived  the  plan  of  establishing 
associations  for  the  mental  improvement 
of  young  men.  On  December  10,  1833, 
he  gachered  about  him  a  few  of  his  young 
friends  and  expounded  to  them  his 
project.  No  sooner  was  the  matter  made 
public  than  seven  hundred  and  fifty  young 
men  enrolled,  and  on  December  13  he  was 
elected  president  of  the  organization 
which  had  assumed  the  title  "Young 
Men's  Association  for  Mutual  Improve- 
ment in  the  City  of  Albany."  It  was 
incorporated  March  12,  1835,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  establishing  and  maintaining  a 
library,  reading-room,  literary  and  scien- 
tific lectures,  and  other  means  of  promot- 
ing both  moral  and  intellectual  improve- 
ment. It  continued  a  debating  society 
many  years,  and  acquired  a  collection  of 
paintings.  From  this  beginning  hun- 
dreds of  kindred  institutions  have  started 
and  have  been  a  blessing  to  the  country. 
Mr.  Pean  was  associated  with  Doctors 
March  and  />rmsby  in  1833,  in  establish- 
ing the  Albany  Medical  College,  which 
later  was  to  be  a  department  of  Union 
University.  From  the  day  of  opening 
until  1859  he  was  its  Professor  of  Medical 
Jurisprudence,  and  when  the  Law  Depart- 
ment of  the  university  was  established, 
he  was  appropriately  chosen  one  of  its 
professors,  in  which  sphere  his  talents 
shone  most  brightly. 

He  became  even  better  known  as  an 
author,  and  in  that  field  wielded  a  wide 
influence.  He  took  a  keen  interest  in  the 
developing  science  of  phrenology,  when 
little  had  been  done  in  that  line,  deliver- 
ing a  series  of  lectures  which  were  after 
incorporated    in    a   book    and    made    him 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


known  as  an  authority  on  that  interesting 
subject.  He  was,  when  young-,  the 
author  of  a  "Manual  of  Law,"  which  was 
of  great  service  to  business  men ;  but  he 
never  lived  to  see  the  publication  of  his 
chief  literary  undertaking,  "A  History  of 
Civilization,"  which  consisted  of  seven 
large  volumes  of  about  six  hundred  pages 
each,  printed  by  Joel  Munsell  in  1868. 
His  "Philosophy  of  Human  Life"  was 
published  by  Marsh,  Capen,  Lyon  & 
Webb,  of  Boston,  in  1839,  and  "Dean's 
Lectures  on  Phrenology,"  by  the  same 
house  in  1835.  He  spoke  frequently 
before  public  gatherings  on  occasions 
other  than  his  lectures,  delivering  the 
annual  address  before  the  Albany  Insti- 
tute in  1833,  the  annual  address  before 
the  Senate  of  Union  College,  and  a  eulogy 
upon  the  death  of  Jesse  Buel  before  the 
State  Agricultural  Society.  His  indus- 
trious research  and  native  ability  were 
abundant  reason  to  attract  attention  to 
whatever  he  undertook.  For  his  virtues 
in  private  life  that  eminent  journalist, 
Thurlow  Weed,  spoke  in  warmly  glowing 
terms  on  his  demise,  saying:  "Herein,  if 
possible,  his  character  was  higher  and 
nobler  than  in  any  other  walk  of  life.  To 
the  qualities  which  we  have  described,  he 
united  a  pleasing  address,  a  quiet  de- 
meanor, a  generosity  of  sentiment  and  an 
absence  of  guile  that  endeared  him 
strongly  to  the  circle  of  his  companion- 
ship." 


WILLIAMS,  Chauncey  P., 

Financier. 

Chauncey  Pratt  Williams,  son  of  Josiah 
and  Charity  (Shailer)  Williams,  was  born 
at  Upper  Middletown  (Cromwell),  Con- 
necticut, March  5,  1817,  died  May  30, 
1894,  at  Jerseyfield  Lake,  Hamilton 
county,  New  York. 

Mr.  Williams  spent  the  last  sixty-nine 
years  of  his  life  in  Albany,  and  became 


through  his  own  activities  identified  with 
every  progressive  public  movement  in 
that  city.  He  was  proud  of  the  rugged 
character  of  his  ancestor  immigrant  from 
whom,  he  declared,  had  sprung  a  race  of 
hardy,  industrious  farmers  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary period,  reflecting  advantage- 
ously in  himself.  That  they  were  of 
robust  constitutions  and  lived  longer  than 
the  average  life  is  evidenced  by  the  fact 
that  the  combined  lives  of  the  first  five 
generations  in  America  covered  a  period 
of  nearly  two  and  a  half  centuries.  Al- 
though none  had  become  very  wealthy, 
by  their  industry  and  frugality  they  were 
able  to  live  well  and  none  of  them  knew 
want.  It  is  known  that  they  were  greatly 
respected  as  business  men  of  integrity. 
There  are  no  records  which  do  not  reflect 
credit  upon  the  successive  generations. 
Invariably  the  earlier  branches  of  this 
family  reared  large  families,  and  their 
children  were  always  well  trained. 

When  Mr.  Williams  was  but  sixteen 
years  old  he  had  made  such  excellent  use 
of  the  advantages  within  his  reach  that  he 
was  fitted  to  take  a  clerkship  in  the  em- 
ploy of  T.  S.  Williams  &  Brothers,  who 
were  carrying  on  an  extensive  commer- 
cial business  in  Ithaca.  He  was  transferred 
to  the  Albany  branch  of  this  firm  in  1835, 
where  they  conducted  a  large  lumber 
business  in  Albany's  famous  "Lumber 
District,"  when  it  was  in  its  greatest 
business  glory,  and  four  years  later  suc- 
ceeded to  the  business  with  Henry  W. 
Sage  as  a  partner. 

It  was  in  banking  circles  that  Mr. 
Williams  made  his  life  record  and 
achieved  a  standing  as  the  Nestor  of 
Albany  bankers.  He  took  charge  of  the 
Albany  Exchange  Bank  in  1861,  when 
the  outlook  was  disastrous  in  financial 
circles,  the  capital  of  the  institution 
largely  impaired,  and  the  duty  of  upbuild- 
ing looked  insurmountable.  Instead  of 
continuing    to   dissolution,    as   was    con- 


24 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


templated,  he  extricated  the  bank  and 
placed  it  in  the  front  rank.  He  suc- 
ceeded in  making  it  a  loan  agent  of  the 
United  States  Treasury,  and  throughout 
the  Civil  War  made  his  bank  a  center  of 
distribution  for  the  government  loans 
issued  to  carry  on  gigantic  military  oper- 
ations necessary  to  save  the  country.  In 
fact,  his  bank  was  regarded  as  a  rallying 
point  of  cheer  in  the  darkest  hours  of  the 
Republic.  He  practiced  the  principles  of 
sound  finance  so  successfully  that  when 
in  1865  the  bank  terminated  its  existence 
as  a  State  institution  to  reorganize  under 
the  national  banking  law,  it  returned  not 
alone  all  its  capital,  but  upwards  of  fifty- 
four  per  cent,  in  surplus  earnings,  besides 
paying  its  regular  dividends  from  the  be- 
ginning of  1863.  Under  his  wise  manage- 
ment it  repaid  to  its  stockholders  in 
dividends  more  than  one  and  a  half  times 
the  amount  of  its  capital  beyond  accumu- 
lating a  reserve  amounting  to  about 
seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  capital.  As 
the  president  of  this  bank,  his  reputation 
became  so  widely  known  that  he  was 
frequently  called  upon  to  address  gather- 
ings, and  his  advice  on  large  matters  was 
often  sought.  He  withdrew  from  this 
institution  in  1887;  but  continued  as 
president  of  the  Albany  Exchange  Sav- 
ings Bank  up  to  the  time  of  his  death. 

Mr.  Williams  exerted  his  great  influence 
against  the  greenback  theory  of  an  un- 
limited paper  issue  which  threatened  to 
demoralize  the  currency  and  degrade  the 
country's  credit,  speaking  on  the  plat- 
form and  through  the  medium  of  his  pen, 
so  that  his  influence  was  widely  spread  to 
good  effect.  He  gained  a  reputation  by 
his  successful  resistance  of  the  illegal 
taxation  of  the  shareholders  of  national 
banks,  believing  that  they  were  taxed  at  a 
greater  rate  than  other  monied  capital  in 
the  hands  of  citizens.  Not  desiring  to 
involve  his  bank  in  this  matter,  he  took 
up  the  fight  individually,  and  bringing  the 


issue  to  a  test  in  1874,  by  refusing  to  pay 
the  tax  on  the  shares  which  he  owned,  so 
that  his  household  effects  were  levied 
upon  and  sold  by  the  authorities ;  but  at 
the  end  of  seven  years  of  litigation  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court  sustained 
his  position. 

He  was  a  strong  opponent  of  slavery, 
and  as  the  treasurer  of  the  Kansas  Aid 
Society  founded  in  Albany  in  1854,  sent 
out  to  Kansas  one  of  the  first  invoices  of 
Sharpe's  rifles  with  which  to  arm  settlers. 
Although  exempt  by  age,  he  sent  a  sub- 
stitute who  fought  in  the  Civil  War.  He 
had  also  a  political  career,  broadly  inter- 
ested as  he  was  in  affairs  of  his  city,  and 
was  elected  alderman  in  1849.  From 
1842  to  1857  he  was  repeatedly  the  candi- 
date of  the  Liberal  party  for  Congress. 
He  was  a  founder  of  the  Congregational 
church  of  Albany,  and  every  good  cause 
found  in  him  a  staunch  friend.  One  of 
the  reasons  for  the  success  attained  by 
Mr  Williams  was  his  wonderful  thor- 
oughness and  his  determination  to  stand 
by  his  principles.  He  had  a  fine  con- 
stitution which  enabled  him  to  accom- 
plish a  great  amount  of  work  without 
tiring.  His  love  for  study  as  a  means  of 
gathering  more  knowledge  kept  him  ever 
young  and  concerned  in  public  mercan- 
tile affairs. 

Chauncey  Pratt  Williams  married  at 
Whitesboro,  New  York,  September  13, 
1842,  Martha  Andrews,  born  in  Bristol, 
Connecticut,  daughter  of  Reuben  and 
Ruth  (Parmelee)  Hough. 


FARRELL,  John  H., 

Journalist. 

John  Henry  Farrell,  son  of  James  and 
Winifred  (McGoewey)  Farrell,  was  born 
on  the  Abbey  farm  on  the  west  bank  of 
the  Hudson,  just  south  of  the  city  of 
Albany,  in  Bethlehem  township,  Septem- 
ber 1,  18m 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


He  received  his  education  in  a  private 
school,  and  later  went  to  St.  Charles  Col- 
lege, Baltimore,  Maryland.  He  was 
hardly  more  than  a  lad,  however,  when 
he  commenced  his  association  with  news- 
papers, which  career  was  to  be  so  won- 
derfully successful,  even  if  the  result  were 
the  outcome  of  much  worriment  and 
requiring  great  acumen  when  embarking 
for  himself.  In  1855  he  entered  the  em- 
ploy of  the  late  Luther  Tucker,  who  was 
both  proprietor  and  editor  of  "The  Culti- 
vator and  Country  Gentleman,"  remain- 
ing associated  with  that  publication  for 
fifteen  years.  During  this  period  he  fre- 
quently contributed  to  the  columns  of 
"The  Argus."  "Express"  and  the  "Albany 
Evening  Journal,"  and  also  at  the  same 
time  editing  the  telegraphic  matter  com- 
ing from  the  front,  for  in  1863  he  had 
accepted  the  appointment  of  editor  of 
telegraph  for  the  Associated  Press,  which 
supplied  reports  to  all  the  Albany  papers. 
Throughout  the  Civil  War  he  found  this 
work  much  to  his  liking,  and  it  inciden- 
tally broadened  his  mind.  On  January  1, 
1870,  he  became  city  editor  of  "The 
Argus,"  succeeding  Hon.  Daniel  Shaw. 
About  this  time  he  considered  forming 
the  "Sunday  Press"  in  conjunction  with 
the  publication  of  "The  Knickerbocker." 
On  May  1,  1870,  the  first  issue  of  the 
"Sunday  Press"  appeared,  published  by 
Myron  H.  Rooker,  James  Macfarlane,  E. 
H.  Gregory,  John  T.  Maguire  and  James 
H.  Mulligan,  who  were  severally  city 
editors  of  local  dailies ;  but  in  September 
the  last  three  sold  their  interests  to  Mr. 
Farrell.  On  June  1,  1871,  he  retired  from 
"The  Argus"  to  devote  himself  to  the 
"Sunday  Press,"  and  to  secure  the  free- 
dom to  publish  a  daily  in  connection 
therewith.  When  Messrs.  Farrell, 
Rooker  and  Macfarlane  failed  to  secure 
"The  Knickerbocker,"  they  organized  the 
"Daily  Press,"  and  its  first  issue  appeared 
February  26,  1877.    Mr.  Farrell,  however, 


26 


was  able  on  August  11,  1877,  to  purchase 
"The  Knickerbocker"  and  consolidated  it 
with  the  "Daily  Press."  In  March,  1891, 
after  twenty-one  years  of  partnership,  Mr. 
Farrell  sold  his  half  interest  in  the  papers 
to  his  partners  for  $50,000,  and  he  forth- 
with purchased  the  "Evening  Union,"  as 
also,  that  same  summer,  "The  Evening 
Times,"  and  the  "Albany  Daily  Sun," 
combining  all  three  under  the  title  "The 
Times-Union,"  perceiving  a  great  oppor- 
tunity and  field  for  a  penny  evening  news- 
paper which  could  present  the  best  news 
in  more  attractive  style  than  before,  deal- 
ing with  interests  of  all  classes  impar- 
tially, and  conducted  on  independent  lines 
in  politics.  His  plant  at  the  starting  was 
on  the  south  side  of  Beaver  street,  about 
midway  between  Broadway  and  Green 
street ;  but  the  quarters  were  exceedingly 
cramped  even  for  a  paper  beginning  its 
career,  and  leaving  no  room  for  expansion. 
His  paper  commenced  growing  in  popu- 
larity from  the  very  first,  for  unquestion- 
ably he  published  the  most  satisfactory 
newspaper  in  the  city  and  section,  and 
shortly  he  acquired  the  property  at  the 
southwest  corner  of  Green  and  Beaver 
streets,  formerly  used  by  the  "Albany 
Morning  Express,"  at  that  time  secured 
by  the  "Albany  Evening  Journal"  and 
once  occupied  as  lodge  rooms. 

Mr.  Farrell's  ability  as  an  editor  who 
perceived  what  the  public  wanted  and 
understood  just  how  to  present  it  in  most 
modern,  attractive  dress  without  lowering 
the  standard,  was  only  surpassed  as  a 
proprietor  who  could  so  plan  his  campaign 
in  all  its  details  as  to  bring  as  well  as 
merit  success,  was  indicated  more  and 
more  as  each  year  passed,  by  its  rapidly 
increasing  circulation.  His  success  was 
all  acquired,  not  given  to  him  by  inheri- 
tance, by  dint  of  close,  persistent  applica- 
tion to  practical  principles  which  he  was 
capable  of  evolving.  He  was  known  to 
give  as  much  attention  to  all  the  details, 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


whether  a  matter  concerning  the  press 
or  engine  room,  with  the  compositors,  or 
affecting  the  editing  of  news,  taking  a 
hand  in  the  work  of  almost  every  depart- 
ment daily.  Thus  he  knew  his  tools, 
which  were  his  men,  most  thoroughly, 
which  was  accomplishing  its  full  intent. 
For  twenty  years  his  name  appeared  in 
the  legislative  red  book  as  the  Senate 
reporter  for  the  New  York  Associated 
Press,  back  in  the  days  of  the  Old  Capitol 
(removed  in  1883),  and  during  all  that 
period  he  never  missed  doing  his  duty, 
except  when  sickness  prevented  attend- 
ance. 

He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
United  Press,  and  for  many  years  its  vice- 
president.  During  its  first  year  of  exist- 
ence he  and  Mr.  Jenkins,  of  the  "Syracuse 
Herald,"  managed  its  affairs.  He  was 
elected  president  of  the  New  York  State 
Press  Association  at  its  annual  conven- 
tion held  at  Lake  George  in  1895,  by  the 
unanimous  vote  of  over  three  hundred 
editors.  He  was  a  Democrat,  ever  anxious 
to  see  his  party  win,  and  both  his  sup- 
port and  counsel  were  matters  much  to 
be  desired.  Mayor  Swinburne  appointed 
him,  a  park  commissioner,  at  the  time 
when  its  affairs  were  controlled  by  a 
board  of  citizens  instead  of  by  a  city 
department.  In  financial  circles  he  was 
an  active  associate  on  a  number  of 
boards,  as  director  of  the  Albany  City 
National  Bank,  vice-president  of  the 
Home  Savings  Bank  and  director  of  the 
Commerce  Insurance  Company.  He  was 
a  trustee  of  St.  Agnes'  Cemetery  Asso- 
ciation, and  invaluable  as  such,  taking  the 
work  of  its  larger  affairs  upon  his  shoul- 
ders and  bringing  about  an  increase  in  its 
size,  value  and  beauty.  As  a  trustee  of 
the  Albany  Hospital  for  Incurables  he 
rendered  service  never  to  be  forgotten, 
and  served  also  as  trustee  of  the  Cathedral 
of  the  Immaculate  Conception.  He  was  a 
charter  member  of  the  Fort  Orange  Club, 


and  a  life  member  of  the  Catholic  Sum- 
mer School  at  Cliff  Haven,  on  the  shore 
of  Lake  Champlain,  an  institution  whose 
interests  he  advanced  materially  on  its 
inauguration.  He  was  a  trustee  of  St. 
Vincent's  Orphan  Asylum  of  Albany  and 
of  the  Mohawk  &  Hudson  River  Humane 
Society,  and  member  of  the  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  the  Albany  Institute  and  of 
the  Eastern  New  York  Fish  and  Game 
Protective  Association.  St.  John's  Col- 
lege, Fordham,  conferred  on  him  the  de- 
gree of  A.  M.,  in  1891. 

He  was  a  man  of  unbounded  energy, 
resourceful  and  progressive  in  spirit.  No 
man  was  more  companionable,  and  per- 
sons found  him  ready  to  discuss  topics 
of  the  day  with  rare  perspicuity  and 
acumen,  especially  as  concerned  great 
policies.  He  was  kind  to  a  fault  in  others 
who  were  weak,  zealous  in  safeguarding 
interests  committed  to  his  care.  As  he 
was  beloved  and  held  as  an  idol  by  his 
immediate  family,  it  is  little  wonder  that 
others  spoke  well  of  him.  His  acts  of 
charity  were  conducted  unostentatiously, 
with  frequency  and  humane  kindliness, 
by  a  hand  which  never  seemed  closed  to 
the  worthy  in  distress.  It  is  a  fact  to  be 
recalled  by  those  who  knew  him.  best,  that 
he  frequently  made  it  a  point  in  his  daily 
life  to  seek  ways  in  which  to  bring  joy 
to  those  in  need  of  cheer,  regardless  of 
whether  such  appealed  or  not,  and  in  this 
way  he  is  remembered  by  many  of  the 
hundreds  who  worked  under  him.  His 
success  was  abundant,  and  due  to  con- 
sistency of  method  and  steadfastness  of 
purpose  which  he  ever  kept  in  view.  If 
he  was  ever  guilty  of  the  natural  indis- 
cretion of  losing  his  temper  or  being 
ruffled  by  unpleasant  contact  with  any- 
one, he  concealed  the  fact  with  a  self- 
control  which  never  prevented  him  from 
continuing  the  work  in  hand  under  low 
pressure  and  avoiding  all  hindrance  by 
friction.       Naturally    warm-hearted    and 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


polished  in  his  manner,  his  suavity  and 
kindly  word  counted  much  in  preserving 
each  acquaintance  as  a  friend. 

About  a  month  before  his  death,  a  sud- 
den and  not  entirely  unexpected  sickness 
occurring  at  his  office  obliged  him  to 
abandon  attending  to  business  at  his 
establishment,  and  alarmed  by  the  serious 
nature  of  his  illness,  for  several  weeks  his 
family  had  the  best  physicians  constantly 
in  attendance  ;  but  on  the  evening  of  Feb- 
ruary 2,  1901,  the  long  and  fruitful  life 
was  ended.  He  was  buried  from  his  resi- 
dence, No.  598  Madison  avenue,  with  a 
public  service  held  in  the  Cathedral  of  the 
Immaculate  Conception,  and  laid  to  rest 
in  St.  Agnes'  Cemetery. 

John  Henry  Farrell  married  Mary 
Veronica  Gibbons,  at  Fordham,  New 
York,  June  3,  1869.  She  was  born  in  New 
York  City,  November  10,  1840.  Her 
father  was  John  Gibbons,  born  in  Ireland, 
a  prominent  contractor  in  New  York 
City,  concerned  in  the  erection  of  the  old 
reservoir  on  Forty-second  street  and 
Fifth  avenue,  and  died  in  that  city.  Her 
mother  was  Mary  McLoughlin,  born  in 
Ireland,  died  at  Fordham,  New  York. 


SHEARMAN,  Thomas  G., 

Lawyer,  Author. 

The  city  of  Brooklyn  is  known  through- 
out the  world  as  the  "City  of  Churches," 
not  so  much  because  of  the  number  of  its 
religious  institutions  as  because  of  their 
influence  on  the  community.  That  Ply- 
mouth Church  has  been  the  most  potent 
factor  in  the  accomplishment  of  these 
wonderful  results  goes  without  saying. 
Next  to  Mr.  Beecher,  the  man  who 
exercised  the  greatest  influence  and 
probably  did  more  than  any  other  man 
to  shape  its  policy,  was  Thomas  G. 
Shearman.  He  was  a  man  of  broad  and 
liberal  views,  of  cool  judgment,  calm, 
deliberate  and  dispassionate  in  his  utter- 


28 


ances,  and  withal  intensely  earnest,  sel- 
dom failing  to  carry  conviction  except  to 
the  most  prejudiced  minds.  At  the 
weekly  prayer-meeting  his  voice  was 
always  heard,  and  his  sayings  as  well  as 
Mr.  Beecher's  were  quoted  by  the  press 
and  echoed  and  re-echoed  from  one  end  of 
the  country  to  the  other. 

Thomas  Gaskill  Shearman,  who  might 
be  termed  one  of  the  "Old  Guard"  of 
Plymouth  Church,  was  born  in  Birming- 
ham, England,  November  25,  1834.  He 
came  to  New  York  at  the  age  of  nine 
years  with  his  father,  who  was  a  phy- 
sician, his  mother  coming  later.  Early 
overtaken  by  misfortune  through  his 
father's  invalidism,  he  was  thrown  on  his 
own  resources,  and  was  self-educated  and 
self-made ;  his  intellect  was  hammered 
out  upon  the  anvil  of  adversity.  At  the 
age  of  twelve  he  was  out  in  the  world  for 
himself,  his  school  days  ended  forever. 
At  fourteen  he  entered  an  office  where  he 
received  one  dollar  per  week  for  the  first 
year,  and  two  dollars  for  the  second.  Out 
of  his  little  store  of  wealth  he  allowed 
himself  three  cents  each  day  for  luncheon ; 
but  when  he  heard  of  Macaulay's  "His- 
tory of  England"  he  reduced  his  allow- 
ance to  two  cents,  and  after  two  months 
bought  the  first  volume. 

In  1857  he  removed  from  New  York  to 
Brooklyn,  and  two  years  later  he  was 
admitted  to  the  bar.  The  ensuing  seven 
years  were  spent  in  writing  law  books, 
editing  journals,  and  in  other  work  of  this 
character.  He  earned  for  himself  even  at 
that  early  period  a  reputation  for  accur- 
acy and  thoroughness,  and  was  known  to 
the  members  of  the  profession  as  a  pains- 
taking student.  His  work  attracted  the 
attention  of  that  eminent  jurist,  David 
Dudley  Field,  and  in  i860  Mr.  Field 
employed  him  as  secretary  to  the  Code 
Commission.  In  1868  Mr.  Field  and  his 
son  Dudley  took  Mr.  Shearman  into  co- 
partnership.   This  was  regarded  as  a  high 


earnest,  sel- 

:|on  except  to 
*■  At  tie 
voice  was 
'gs  as  well  as 
by  the  press 
W  one  end  of 


n,  who  might 
i  Guard"  of 
n  in  Binning- 
&  1834.  He 
age  of  nine 
was  a  phy- 
iater.  Early 
through  his 
hrown  on  his 
educated  and 
hammered 
j.  At  the 
the  world  for 
ided  forever, 
fice  where  he 
k  for  the  first 
second.  Out 
1  he  allowed 
for  luncheon; 
aulay's  "His- 
d  his  allow- 
two  months 

Jew  York  to 
ater  he  was 
isuing  seven 
law  hooks, 
work  of  this 
lself  even  at 
for  accor- 
known  to 
1  as  a  pains- 
ttracted  the 
list,  David 
Mr.  Field 
0  the  Code 
Id  and  his 
n  into  co- 
ed as  a  high 


v/t£??noL* 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


honor  for  so  young  a  professional  man, 
Mr.  Shearman  being  then  only  thirty-four 
years  of  age.  Five  years  later  in  1873, 
the  firm  of  Field  &  Shearman  dissolved, 
and  Messrs.  Shearman  and  Sterling 
(John  W.  Sterling),  both  members  of  the 
firm  of  Field  &  Shearman,  entered  into 
close  professional  relations  under  the 
name  of  Shearman  &  Sterling. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Mr.  Shear- 
man figured  largely  in  proceedings  in 
which  the  Erie  Railroad  Company  was 
made  a  conspicuous  litigant.  Injunctions 
were  the  order  of  the  day,  and  Mr.  Shear- 
man earned  even  from  those  who  opposed 
him  the  name  of  being  one  of  the  ablest 
legal  strategists  as  well  as  one  of  the  best 
informed  railroad  lawyers  in  the  country. 
His  originality  in  devising  new  and  more 
effective  methods  in  litigation  subjected 
him  to  much  criticism,  but  these  methods 
were  literally  copied  by  his  opponents  and 
critics.  His  practice  of  serving  injunc- 
tions by  telegraph,  which  was  the  most 
severely  criticised  at  the  time,  has  since 
been  sanctioned  by  the  highest  courts  in 
England,  as  well  as  by  some  of  the  most 
prominent  American  judges.  After  the 
close  of  the  Henry  Ward  Beecher  trial, 
resulting  in  the  acquittal  of  Mr.  Beecher, 
mainly  through  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Shear- 
man, Shearman  &  Sterling  were  retained 
in  numerous  litigations  arising  out  of  the 
famous  gold  speculations  of  1869,  in  all 
of  which  they  were  successful.  They  were 
also  largely  employed  in  the  foreclosure 
of  railway  companies,  the  organization 
and  administration  of  various  corpora- 
tions, etc. 

Mr.  Shearman  always  took  an  active 
interest  in  public  questions.  From  his 
youth  up  an  advocate  of  the  total  aboli- 
tion of  slavery,  he  worked  vigorously 
with  the  Republican  party  from  1856  to 
1868,  but  was  never  a  candidate  for  office. 
In  respect  to  tariff,  prior  to  i860,  he  was 
a  "protectionist,"  but  he  then  became  a 


convert  to  free  trade.  From  1880  during 
the  remainder  of  his  life  he  devoted  much 
time  to  the  promotion  of  absolute  free 
trade  and  the  abolition  of  all  indirect 
taxation.  He  made  numerous  addresses 
and  published  several  pamphlets  upon 
these  subjects,  which  awakened  much 
interest  in  different  parts  of  the  country. 
Mr.  Shearman  was  probably  as  well 
known  as  a  public  economist  as  for  his 
great  legal  attainments.  Among  his 
most  important  works,  all  of  which  are 
recognized  as  standard  publications,  are 
"Tillinghast  &  Shearman's  Practice" 
(1861-1865);  "Shearman  &  Redfield  on 
Negligence"  (1869-8S)  ;  "Talks  on  Free 
Trade"  (1881);  "Pauper  Labor  of  Eu- 
rope" (1885)  ;  "Distribution  of  Wealth" 
(1887);  "Owners  of  the  United  States" 
(1889)  ;  "The  Coming  Billionaire"  (1890) ; 
and  "Crooked  Taxation"  (1891). 

Mr.  Shearman  married,  January  29, 
1859,  Miss  Elmira  Partridge,  a  daughter 
of  James  Partridge,  of  Brooklyn.  He 
died  September  30.  1900. 


FITZPATRICK,  James  C, 

Civil  War  Correspondent. 

James  Charles  Fitzpatrick,  son  of  John 
Fitzpatrick,  a  dry  goods  merchant  of 
Eighth  avenue,  New  York  City,  and  his 
wife,  Johanna  Tracy,  was  born  November 
14,  1841,  in  New  York  City.  He  was 
educated  in  the  public  schools  of  that 
city,  and  in  1859  was  graduated  from  the 
College  of  the  City  of  New  York,  receiv- 
ing the  degree  of  A.  B.,  attaining  high 
honors  and  standing  at  the  head  of  his 
class  in  both  Latin  and  Greek.  The  fol- 
lowing year  he  received  the  degree  of  A. 
M.  from  the  same  institution.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  Greek  letter  fraternity 
Theta  Delta  Chi,  and  was  one  of  the  most 
popular. 

Mr.  Fitzpatrick  began  his  professional 
career  as  a   writer  of  short   stories,   the 


29 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


major  part  of  his  earlier  efforts  being  con- 
tributions which  he  sold  to  the  "New 
York  Ledger."  In  1861  he  became  one 
of  the  staff  of  the  "New  York  Herald," 
which  was  a  line  which  suited  his  inclina- 
tion since  the  time  he  received  his  earliest 
training,  and  in  which  he  in  time  was 
well  known  as  he  advanced.  Upon  the 
breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War  he  was 
assigned  to  field  duty  as  a  war  corre- 
spondent, and  during  most  of  that  serious 
conflict  was. attached  to  the  Ninth  Army 
Corps.  For  a  time  he  was  an  aide-de- 
camp, with  the  rank  of  captain,  to 
General  Burnside,  who  commanded  the 
Ninth  Corps.  He  reported,  among  other 
campaigns,  the  sieges  of  Vicksburg  and 
Knoxville,  the  battle  of  Fredericksburg, 
both  attacks  on  Fort  Fisher,  and  the  en- 
gagements in  the  Wilderness.  In  the 
latter  campaign  he  was  for  a  short  time  a 
prisoner  in  the  hands  of  the  Confeder- 
ates. During  the  war  he  also  contributed 
drawings  of  incidents  in  the  field  to 
"Leslie's  Weekly,"  which  made  a 
specialty  of  illustrating  the  entire  conflict 
as  thoroughly  as  possible,  and  these  draw- 
ings by  him  have  recently  been  repro- 
duced in  a  set  of  two  large  volumes  be- 
cause of  their  great  historical  value  to 
students  of  the  Civil  War.  He  was  thus, 
it  may  easily  be  seen,  one  of  the  most 
versatile  and  useful  of  those  who  recorded 
the  incidents  of  the  war,  and  practically 
were  making  history. 

In  1867  he  was  sent  to  Albany  to  report 
the  proceedings  of  the  Constitutional 
Convention  of  that  year,  held  in  the  State 
Capitol.  He  likewise  represented  "The 
Herald"  in  the  Legislatures  of  1867-68. 
In  1870  he  was  made  financial  editor  and 
subsequently  city  editor,  manager  of  the 
newly  founded  New  York  "Evening  Tele- 
gram," and  correspondent  in  charge  of 
the  "Herald"  Bureau  in  the  city  of  Wash- 
ington. In  1881  ill  health  caused  him  to 
resign     from    the    "Herald"     staff,     and 


although  for  two  short  periods  he  was 
financial  editor  of  the  "New  York  Star" 
and  of  the  "Brooklyn  Citizen,"  the  greater 
part  of  his  writings  in  later  life  consisted 
of  contributions  of  a  miscellaneous  nature 
to  many  periodicals  and  newspapers.  In 
politics  he  was  a  Republican.  He  died  in 
Brooklyn,  New  York,  July  18,  1901. 

Mr.  Fitzpatrick  married,  at  Albany, 
August  4,  1869,  Marion  Aurelia  Mattoon. 
Children:  1.  Mary  Ransom,  born  in 
Brooklyn,  New  York,  May  I,  1870;  gradu- 
ated at  Cornell  University;  in  1910, 
principal  of  public  school  No.  34,  Brook- 
lyn. 2.  David  Mattoon,  born  at  Brook- 
lyn, New  York,  July  6,  1874;  by  act  of 
Legislature  changed  name  to  David  Mat- 
toon ;  married,  at  Albany,  December  22, 
1906,  Jennie  E.  Beckford.  3.  John  Tracy, 
born  at  Washington,  D.  C,  January  6, 
1878;  graduated  from  Cornell  Univer- 
sity ;  admitted  to  bar  of  New  York  State, 
1903;  assistant  legislative  reference  libra- 
rian at  State  Capitol,  Albany.  4.  James 
Stoddard,  born  at  Washington,  D.  C, 
April  4,  1879;  married,  at  Albany,  June 
25,  1900,  Laura  P.  Hefferman.  5.  Jesse 
Arnette,  born  at  Brooklyn,  New  York, 
August  5,  1881 ;  married,  January  1,  1901, 
Florence  Broderick ;  civil  engineer.  6. 
Marion  Aurelia,  born  at  Brooklyn,  New 
York,  December  28,  1884;  graduate  of 
Cornell  University,  1907;  teacher  in  high 
school,  Hornell,  New  York.  7.  Sarah 
Hungerford,  born  at  Brooklyn,  New 
York,  September  7,  1887. 


MORTON,  Henry, 

Scientist,  Educator. 

Henry  Morton  was  born  in  New  York 
City,  December  11,  1836,  son  of  the  Rev. 
Henry  Jackson  and  Helen  (McFarlan) 
Morton,  and  grandson  of  General  Jacob 
and  Catherine  (Ludlow)  Morton.  He  at- 
tended the  Episcopal  Academy  at  Phila- 
delphia,   and    was    graduated    from    the 


30 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


University  of  Pennsylvania,  A.  B.,  1857, 
A.  M.,  i860,  and  took  a  post-graduate 
course  in  chemistry.  With  his  fellow  stu- 
dents, Charles  R.  Hale  and  Samuel  H. 
Jones,  he  translated  the  Hieroglyphic, 
Demotic  and  Greek  texts  on  the  Rosetta 
Stone,  and  prepared  the  report  on  the 
same  published  by  the  Philomatheon  So- 
ciety in  1859,  for  which  he  made  all  the 
chromo-lithographic  drawings.  He  studied 
law,  1857-59,  and  was  instructor  in  chem- 
istry and  physics  at  the  Academy  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  Philadel- 
phia, 1859-69.  He  was  lecturer  on  me- 
chanics at  the  Franklin  Institute  in  Phila- 
delphia ;  was  professor  of  chemistry  in  the 
Philadelphia  Dental  College  in  1863;  was 
appointed  professor  pro  tempore  of  chem- 
istry and  physics  in  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  during  the  absence  abroad 
of  Professor  John  E.  Frazer  in  1867-68, 
and  in  1869,  when  the  professorship  was 
divided,  he  filled  the  chair  of  chemistry. 
He  was  appointed  resident  secretary  of 
the  Franklin  Institute  in  1864,  delivering 
many  lectures  on  light  in  the  Academy  of 
Music  and  Opera  House,  Philadelphia, 
which  attracted  much  notice  in  Europe 
and  America,  and  was  made  editor  of  the 
"Journal"  of  the  Franklin  Institute  in  1867. 
He  became  president  of  Stevens  Institute 
of  Technology  at  Hoboken,  New  Jersey, 
founded  from  a  bequest  of  Edwin  A. 
Stevens  in  1870.  The  building  was  then 
being  constructed,  and  President  Morton 
selected  the  faculty  and  arranged  the 
course  of  instruction.  He  was  in  charge 
of  a  party  under  the  auspices  of  the 
United  States  Nautical  Almanac  office, 
which  made  photographs  of  the  total 
eclipse  of  the  sun  in  Iowa,  August  7, 
1869,  securing  many  successful  plates.  In 
this  connection  he  discovered  the  true 
cause  of  the  "bright  line"  seen  on  photo- 
graphs of  "partial  phases"  during  solar 
eclipses.  His  paper  on  this  subject  was 
presented  by  M.  Fay  to  the  French  Acad- 


emy. (See  Comptes  Rendus,  Volume  69, 
page  1234).  He  was  a  member  of  a 
private  expedition  to  observe  the  total 
solar  eclipse,  July  29,  1878,  at  Rawlins, 
Wyoming  Territory.  He  was  appointed 
a  member  of  the  lighthouse  board  in  1878, 
to  succeed  Joseph  Henry,  deceased,  held 
the  office  until  1885,  and  conducted  inves- 
tigations on  fog  signals,  electric  lighting, 
fire  extinguishers  and  illuminating  buoys. 
The  honorary  degree  of  Ph.  D.  was  con- 
ferred on  him  by  Dickinson  College  in 
1869  and  by  the  College  of  New  Jersey  in 
1871  ;  also  the  degree  of  Sc.  D.  by  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania  and  LL.  D. 
by  Princeton  University,  both  in  1897. 
He  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Ameri- 
can Philosophical  Society  in  1867;  the 
National  Academy  of  Science ;  the  Amer- 
ican Chemical  Society  and  the  American 
Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers  in  1873. 
He  is  the  author  of  many  articles  on 
chemistry  and  physics,  published  in 
scientific  journals  of  America  and  Europe. 
He  was  one  of  the  ninety-seven  judges 
who  served  as  a  board  of  electors  in  Octo- 
ber, 1900,  in  determining  the  names 
entitled  to  a  place  in  the  Hall  of  Fame, 
New  York  University.  He  served  as  a 
scientific  expert  in  numerous  important 
cases  of  patent  litigation,  and  by  reason 
of  the  revenue  so  derived  was  enabled  to 
contribute  to  the  endowment  and  enlarge- 
ment of  the  Stevens  Institute,  to  an  aggre- 
gate amount  of  $140,000  up  to  1901.  This 
includes,  besides  a  workshop  fitted  up  in 
1880,  contributions  to  the  fund  for  the 
erection  of  a  chemical  building  and  an 
endowment  fund  for  the  same  of  $80,000, 
as  well  as  a  new  boilerhouse  and  boilers 
to  supply  the  entire  group  of  buildings, 
costing  over  $15,000.  In  1901  he  took  a 
lively  interest  in  the  expedition  to  ex- 
cavate the  ruins  of  Ur  of  the  Chaldees, 
and  to  secure  the  early  setting  out  of  the 
same  he  guaranteed  the  expenses  for  the 
first    year.     On    February    6,    1902,    the 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


institute  was  further  enriched  through  the 
efforts  of  President  Morton  by  the  Car- 
negie Laboratory  of  Engineering  erected 
at  a  cost  of  $65,000  by  Andrew  Carnegie. 
He  was  married,  in  1863,  to  Clara  Whit- 
ing Dodge,  of  New  York  City.  She  died 
September  20,  1901,  at  his  country  resi- 
dence, Pine  Hill,  Ulster  county,  New 
York.  Dr.  Morton  died  in  New  York 
City,  May  8,  1902. 


MURRAY,  David, 

Educator,  Litterateur. 

This  distinguished  scholar  and  teacher 
was  born  at  Bovina,  Delaware  county, 
New  York,  October  15,  1830.  His  parents 
were  Scotch,  of  the  old  Murray  clan  of 
Perthshire.  They  came  to  America  in 
1818  and  joined  the  Scotch  colony  settled 
near  Delhi.  His  mother's  name  was  Jean 
Black. 

With  his  elder  brother,  the  late  Judge 
Murray,  David  Murray,  attended  the 
Delaware  Academy,  at  Delhi,  New  York. 
He  prepared  for  college  at  the  Ferguson- 
ville  Academy,  and  entered  the  sophomore 
class  of  Union  College,  graduating  in 
1852,  being  one  of  the  orators.  His  class- 
mates speak  of  his  personal  influence  for 
good  during  his  student  life,  as  well  as 
his  perfect  standing  in  all  of  his  recita- 
tions. He  was  president  of  the  literary 
and  debating  societies,  and  of  his  class  at 
its  meetings  and  other  functions. 

On  his  graduation,  he  commenced  his 
lifework  as  an  educator  in  the  Albany 
Academy,  first  as  assistant,  then  as  Pro- 
fessor of  Mathematics,  and  in  1857  he  was 
appointed  principal  of  the  institution, 
which  under  his  charge  attained  a  high 
reputation  for  efficiency,  also  becoming 
financially  prosperous.  The  trustees 
gave  him  the  most  flattering  testimonials 
in  1863,  when  he  resigned  to  become  Pro- 
fessor of  Mathematics  and  Astronomy  in 
Rutgers  College.    Here  he  built  up  a  dis- 


tinguished reputation  as  a  successful 
organizer  and  administrator.  He  was 
always  interested  in  ways  beyond  his 
professorship,  and  was  instrumental  in 
establishing  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa,  His- 
torical, and  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation societies,  being  elected  the  first 
president  of  these  several  societies.  Also 
in  both  Albany  and  New  Brunswick  he 
was  active  in  church  and  Sunday  school 
work.  There  is  abundant  testimony  from 
his  old  students  of  the  lasting  impression 
for  good  upon  their  characters.  One  of 
them  writes:  "What  astonished  us  most 
was  the  ease  and  habitual  courtesy  with 
which  he  made  us  understand  that  order 
and  close  attention  to  work  were  neces- 
sities in  his  classroom,  and  how  many 
secrets  still  undiscovered  waited  for  our 
search.  His  approval  became  our  stand- 
ard. We  felt  it  a  privilege  to  be  his 
student,  and  we  grew  to  glory  in  him." 

In  1873  ne  was  called  to  the  great  work 
of  guiding  the  Japanese  to  establish  their 
system  of  education  upon  western 
methods.  The  embassy  from  Japan,  con- 
sisting of  Prime  Minister  Iwakura  and 
his  associates,  who  visited  America  in 
1871,  invited  David  Murray  to  become 
superintendent  of  educational  affairs  in 
Japan,  and  adviser  to  the  Imperial  Minis- 
ter of  Education.  This  position  he  filled, 
according  to  the  testimony  of  the  officials 
in  Japan,  in  the  most  satisfactory  and 
faithful  manner  from  1873  to  I&79- 
Kindergarten  and  public  schools,  un- 
known under  the  old  empire,  were  estab- 
lished throughout  the  country ;  normal 
schools  for  the  male  and  female  teachers  ; 
the  Imperial  University  in  Tokio  was 
reorganized  on  modern  methods ;  and 
schools  for  higher  education,  museums 
and  libraries,  were  planned  and  organized. 
On  leaving  Japan,  the  Emperor  gave  him 
the  following  letter:  "It  is  now  many 
years  since  you  accepted  the  invitation  of 
my  government  to  enter  its  service.    You 


32 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


have  performed  your  duty  with  the  ut- 
most fidelity,  and  given  most  important 
aid  to  my  subjects  in  the  administration 
of  educational  affairs.  I  am,  therefore, 
greatly  pleased  with  your  services  and 
highly  appreciate  your  zeal  and  ability." 
The  Emperor  also  decorated  him  with 
the  "Order  of  the  Rising  Sun"  in  recog- 
nition of  his  work,  December,  1878. 

Since  his  death,  his  memory  has  been 
honored  in  Japan  by  a  sketch  of  his  life 
and  work,  published  in  the  Japanese 
"Educational  Magazine,"  by  Viscount 
Tanaka,  who  was  vice-minister  of  educa- 
tion, associated  with  Dr.  Murray  through- 
out his  connection  with  Japan.  Also  the 
Japanese  Minister  and  Peace  Commis- 
sioner Takahira,  in  public  speeches,  said 
David  Murray  was  the  man  who  laid  the 
foundation  of  their  modern  system  of 
education.  Prime  Minister  Iwakura  said 
at  an  official  dinner,  "you  have  opened  to 
us  a  pathway  to  the  world  of  knowledge. 
No  longer  shall  we  wander  from  the  true 
way."  The  Japanese  Minister  at  Wash- 
ington and  Consul-General  in  New  York 
were  represented  at  his  funeral.  The 
"Tokyo  Times"  in  a  notice  of  his  depart- 
ure in  1879  said:  "During  his  extended 
residence  here,  Dr.  Murray  enjoyed  a 
degree  of  regard  and  held  a  position  of 
influence  surpassed  by  no  foreigner  of  any 
nationality." 

Dr.  Murray  arrived  in  America,  Sep- 
tember, 1879,  and  in  December  was  called 
to  Albany  as  secretary  of  the  Regents  of 
the  University  of  the  State  of  New  York. 
It  is  said  that  he  established  this  office 
on  a  firm  and  valuable  business  working 
foundation,  which  it  lacked  when  he 
undertook  it.  Unhappily,  when  his  office 
was  moved  to  the  new  capitol,  the  ven- 
tilation being  imperfect,  his  room  became 
impregnated  with  sewer  gas.  His  health 
and  physique  being  most  perfect,  it  was 
not  until  1886  that  he  broke  down  with  a 
N  Y-Vol  III — 3  1 


severe  attack  of  pachy-meningitis.  A 
long  rest  and  voyage  to  Europe  restored 
him,  however,  and  he  resumed  and  car- 
ried on  his  work  until  the  spring  of  1889, 
when  he  resigned  and  took  up  his  resi- 
dence in  New  Brunswick.  Here  he 
devoted  himself  to  literary  work,  writing 
for  the  Putnam  series  the  "Story  of 
Japan."  At  the  time  of  his  death  he  was 
preparing  to  bring  this  work  down  to  the 
present  time.  Baron  Kentaro  Kaneko, 
LL.  D.,  in  recognition  of  Dr.  Murray's 
services  to  Japan,  has  made  a  valuable 
addition  to  the  book. 

About  1896  Dr.  Murray  wrote  for  the 
United  States  Educational  Bureau  at 
Washington  the  "History  of  Education  in 
New  Jersey."  For  the  extensive  book  on 
"The  Public  Service  of  the  State  of  New 
York"  he  contributed  that  portion  relat- 
ing to  the  organization  and  work  of  the 
regents.  While  in  Rutgers  he  published 
a  "Manual  on  Land  Surveying;"  also  in 
"Scribner's  Magazine,"  in  1873,  a  popular 
exposition  of  the  transit  of  Venus ;  and 
in  1874  he  was  with  Professor  Davidson 
and  party  at  Nagasaki  at  the  time  of  the 
transit. 

He  contributed  to  and  edited  the  "His- 
tory of  Delaware  County,"  New  York. 
For  the  Philadelphia  Centennial  he  pre- 
pared the  volume  on  "Japanese  Educa- 
tion ;"  and  for  the  American  Historical 
Association  an  article  on  "The  Anti-Rent 
Episode."  He  gave  lectures  on  Japan  at 
Union  University  and  Johns  Hopkins 
University.  In  1876  he  prepared  and 
published  a  pamphlet  and  open  letter  to 
Congress,  urging  the  restoration  of  the 
Japanese  indemnity  fund,  $750,000.  Later 
this  indemnity  was  returned  to  Japan. 

He  was  called  upon  for  numerous 
addresses  and  monographs.  He  was  a 
trustee  of  Union  and  Rutgers  colleges, 
the  Albany  Academy;  secretary  of  the 
trustees  of  Rutgers  College;  treasurer  of 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


John  Wells  Hospital  for  ten  years ;  and 
secretary  and  treasurer  of  the  special 
committee  of  the  New  Brunswick  Theo- 
logical Seminary.  He  held  and  executed 
his  duties  of  these  later  institutions  up 
to  March  i,  1905,  and  died  March  6  of 
that  year,  ending  a  life  of  more  than  fifty 
years  af  almost  ceaseless  activity. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Fort  Orange 
Club,  Albany ;  University  Club,  New 
York  City ;  City  Club,  New  Brunswick ; 
vice-president  and  councillor  of  the 
Asiatic  Society,  Japan ;  honorary  member 
of  the  Imperial  Educational  Society, 
Tokyo,  Japan ;  the  New  Jersey  Historical 
Society ;  and  the  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  He  re- 
ceived the  degree  of  Ph.  D.  from  the 
University  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
and  that  of  LL.  D.  from  Union  and 
Rutgers  colleges. 

Dr.  Murray  was  a  man  who,  wherever 
his  residence  might  be,  made  himself  felt 
in  the  community  for  good.  He  was  not 
a  great  talker,  but  the  word  fitly  spoken 
where  it  was  needed,  of  appreciation  of 
work  well  done,  of  counsel  to  the  student, 
was  never  wanting,  as  the  numerous 
testimonies  since  his  death  give  evidence 
with  a  most  pathetic  tenderness.  He  was 
a  wise  and  calm  and  self-reliant  man, 
eminently  modest,  not  elated  by  success 
or  disturbed  by  failure.  He  gave  time 
and  thought  more  than  he  could  well 
s^are  to  the  tasks  which  others  devolved 
upon  him,  and  the  days  were  not  long 
enough  for  the  services  which  he  was 
ready  to  undertake  in  behalf  of  objects 
dear  to  his  heart.  His  motto  was 
"Charity  beareth  all  things,  believeth  all 
things,  hopeth  all  things,  endureth  all 
things." 

He  married,  in  1867,  Martha  A.  Neilson, 
granddaughter  of  Dr.  John  Neilson,  of 
New  York  City. 


HUNTINGTON,  Frederic  D., 

Prelate,  Author. 

The  Right  Rev.  Frederic  Dan  Hunting- 
ton, first  bishop  of  Central  New  York, 
and  ninety-third  in  succession  in  the 
American  episcopate,  was  born  at  Had- 
ley,  Massachusetts,  May  28,  1819,  the 
youngest  of  seven  sons  of  the  Rev.  Dan 
and  Elizabeth  Whiting  (Phelps)  Hunt- 
ington, grandson  of  William  and  Bethia 
(Throop)  Huntington  and  of  Charles  and 
Elizabeth  (Porter)  Phelps,  and  a  de- 
scendant of  Simon  Huntington,  who  was 
born  in  England  in  1629,  settled  with  his 
mother  in  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  in 
1633,  and  was  one  of  the  founders  of  Nor- 
wich, Connecticut,  1660.  His  father,  born 
October  11,  1774,  was  a  graduate  of  Yale 
College,  Bachelor  of  Arts,  1794,  Master  of 
Arts,  1797,  and  Williams  College,  Master 
of  Arts,  1798;  tutor  at  Yale,  1796-98; 
Congregational  minister,  subsequently 
Unitarian  ;  published  "Personal  Memoirs" 
(1857),  and  died  m  1864. 

Frederic  Dan  Huntington  was  gradu- 
ated at  Amherst  College  as  valedictorian 
in  1839,  and  received  his  Master  of  Arts 
degree  in  1842.  He  was  graduated  from 
Harvard  Divinity  School  in  1842,  and  the 
same  year  became  pastor  of  the  South 
Congregational  (Unitarian)  Church,  Bos- 
ton, Massachusetts,  which  he  served  until 
1855.  He  was  the  first  preacher  to  Har- 
vard University  and  Plummer  professor 
of  Christian  morals,  on  the  Plummer 
foundations,  1855-60.  He  was  also  chap- 
lain and  preacher  to  the  Massachusetts 
Legislature  for  one  year.  In  i860  he  re- 
tired from  the  Harvard  University  and  in 
March  of  that  year  was  confirmed  in  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  church  at  Cam- 
bridge, was  ordained  deacon  in  Boston  in 
September,  i860,  and  priest  in  March, 
1861.     He  was  called  as  rector  of  Em- 


1233355 

ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


manuel  Parish,  Boston,  on  its  organiza- 
tion in  1861,  and  was  rector  there  until 
consecrated  bishop  of  Central  New  York, 
April  8,  1869,  by  Bishops  Smith,  East- 
burn,  Potter,  Clark,  Coxe,  Neely,  Morris, 
Littlejohn  and  Doane,  after  having  de- 
clined the  bishopric  of  Maine  in  1866.  He 
organized  the  "Church  Monthly"  with 
the  aid  of  Dr.  George  M.  Randall,  in  1861, 
and  became  president  of  St.  Andrew's 
Divinity  School,  Syracuse,  New  York,  in 
1877.  Amherst  College  conferred  upon 
him  the  honorary  degrees  of  Doctor  of 
Divinity  and  Doctor  of  Laws,  in  1855  and 
1887,  respectively,  and  Columbia  Univer- 
sity gave  him  that  of  S.  T.  D.  in  1887. 
Bishop  Huntington  was  the  first  presi- 
dent of  the  Church  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  the  Interests  of  Labor. 
He  was  the  author  of:  "Sermons  for  the 
People"  (1836;  ninth  edition,  1869); 
"Christian  Living  and  Believing"  (i860)  ; 
"Lectures  on  Human  Society  as  Illustrat- 
ing the  Power,  Wisdom  and  Goodness  of 
God"  (i860)  ;  "Elim,  or  Hymns  of  Holy 
Refreshment"  (1865) ;  "Lessons  for  the 
Instruction  of  Children  in  the  Divine 
Life"  (1868);  "Helps  to  a  Holy  Lent" 
(1872)  ;  "Steps  to  a  Living  Faith"  (1873)  '> 
"Introduction  to  Memorials  of  a  Quiet 
Life"  (1873) ;  "The  Pastoral  Letter  of  the 
House  of  Bishops  at  the  General  Conven- 
tion of  1883"  (1883)  ;  "Forty  Days  with 
the  Master"  (1891),  and  of  occasional 
contributions  to  church  periodicals  ot. 
timely  topics  affecting  the  interests  of 
the  working  class. 

He  was  married,  in  1843,  to  Hannah 
Dane,  daughter  of  Epes  Sargent,  and  sis- 
ter of  Epes  Sargent,  the  poet.  Their  son, 
James  O.  S.  Huntington,  founded  the 
Order  of  the  Holy  Cross  in  New  York 
City  in  1881,  and  became  known  as 
"Father  Huntington."  He  was  rector  of 
the  Church  of  the  Holy  Cross,  New  York, 
and  was  a  missioner  and  conductor  of  re- 
treats  in   various   parts   of   the    country. 


The  headquarters  of  the  order  were  re- 
moved to  Westminster,  Maryland,  in 
1892.  Another  son,  the  Rev.  George  P. 
Huntington,  D.  D.,  was  rector  of  St. 
Paul's  Church,  Maiden,  Massachusetts, 
and  St.  Thomas'  Church,  Hanover,  New 
Hampshire,  and  professor  of  Hebrew  in 
Dartmouth  College,  also  joint  author  of 
"The  Treasury  of  the  Psalter."  Bishop 
Huntington  died  in  Hadley,  Massachu- 
setts, September  11,  1904. 


LANDON,  Judson  S., 

Lawyer,  Jurist,  Author. 

Judson  Stuart  Landon,  third  son  of 
William  and  Phoebe  (Berry)  Landon, 
was  born  in  Salisbury,  Connecticut,  De- 
cember 16,  1832,  died  in  Schenectady, 
New  York,  September  7,  1905  He  was 
born  in  that  part  of  the  town  known  as 
"Lime  Rock,"  and  while  an  infant  was 
removed  to  the  homestead  on  "Tory  Hill," 
where  his  father,  grandfather  and  great- 
grandfather had  lived,  and  where  he 
passed  his  early  life,  attending  the  little 
old  schoolhouse  that  stands  on  the  slope 
of  the  hill. 

He  was  educated  in  the  Amenia  Semi- 
nary, Dutchess  county,  New  York,  and 
New  York  Conference  Seminary,  and  in 
1853  was  a  teacher  of  Latin  and  mathe- 
matics in  Princetown  Academy,  south  of 
Schenectady.  He  spent  a  year  attending 
Yale  Law  School  in  1854,  was  principal 
of  Princetown  Academy  in  1855,  and  in 
1856  was  admitted  to  the  bar  and  began 
the  practice  of  his  profession  in  Schenec- 
tady, where  he  subsequently  resided.  In 
1855  Union  College  conferred  upon  him 
the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts,  and  Rutgers 
College  that  of  Doctor  of  Laws  in  1885. 
He  was  a  supporter  of  Republican  princi- 
ples, and  in  1856  was  elected  district  attor- 
ney of  Schenectady  county,  and  reelected 
in  1859.  In  1865  he  was  appointed  county 
judge,  and  in  the  same  year  was  elected 


35 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


for  a  term  of  four  years,  which  he  served ; 
in  the  meantime  was  elected  a  delegate  to 
the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1867  in 
the  Fifteenth  Senatorial  District. 

His  public-spirited  liberality  as  a  citi- 
zen brought  his  influence  to  bear  in  favor 
of  every  popular  advance.  The  improve- 
ment of  the  water  and  sewer  service  of  his 
city  owed  much  to  his  support,  as  did 
also  its  hospital  and  public  school  sys- 
tems. In  1872-73  he  was  city  attorney, 
and  in  the  latter  year  was  elected  justice 
of  the  supreme  court  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  for  the  fourth  district,  and  on  the 
expiration  of  his  term  of  fourteen  years 
in  1887,  was  unanimously  and  without  op- 
position nominated  and  reelected  for  a 
second  term,  of  fourteen  years,  which  ex- 
pired in  1901.  From  1884  he  served  as 
one  of  the  justices  of  the  general  term  of 
the  third  department,  designated  by  Gov- 
ernors Cleveland  and  Hill,  until  desig- 
nated by  the  latter  to  act  as  associate 
judge  in  the  second  division  of  the  Court 
of  Appeals  in  1891,  where  he  served  dur- 
ing the  existence  of  that  division,  when 
he  returned  to  the  Supreme  Court,  where 
he  was  assigned  to  the  appellate  division 
of  the  third  department  of  the  Supreme 
Court  by  Governor  Morton  in  1895.  In 
1889  he  was  designated  an  associate  judge 
of  the  Court  of  Appeals  by  Governor 
Roosevelt,  where  he  served  until  the  ex- 
piration of  the  term  for  which  he  was 
elected.  In  1902  Governor  Odell  ap- 
pointed him  a  member  of  a  committee  of 
fifteen  to  report  to  the  next  Legislature 
concerning  the  condition  of  the  statutes 
and  laws  of  the  State,  and  in  1904  he  was 
appointed  by  the  legislature  a  member  of 
the  board  of  statutory  consolidation: 
Among  other  public  services  undertaken 
by  him  were  efforts  to  arouse  the  world 
to  secure  universal  peace  and  inter- 
national arbitration.  His  judicial  career 
was  marked  by  fairness  and  industry.  As 
a  criminal  judge,  his  conscientious,  pains- 


taking and  conspicuous  fairness,  com- 
bined with  a  sympathy  for  the  accused 
which  tempered  justice  with  mercy,  as 
judicial  discretion  allowed,  won  the  ap- 
proval and  admiration  of  the  people,  the 
bar  and  the  bench.  When  his  second 
term  of  office  expired,  his  counsel  and 
advice  were  sought  in  important  and  in- 
teresting business  and  litigation,  chiefly 
in  the  court  of  appeals. 

He  early  took  an  active  and  efficient  in- 
terest in  public  affairs  and  in  politics.  He 
attended  the  Chicago  convention  of  i860 
that  nominated  Abraham  Lincoln  for 
President,  and  was  firm  and  unwavering 
in  his  support  of  the  government  during 
the  rebellion.  Judge  Landon  gave  twen- 
ty-seven years'  service  on  the  board  of 
trustees  of  Union  College,  and  four  years 
of  that  period  was  president  ad  interim, 
administering  the  college,  advising  and 
leading  the  faculty,  giving  lectures  to  the 
senior  classes,  and  doing  all  this  gratui- 
tously and  continuously  for  four  years. 
His  lectures  to  the  senior  class  on  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  his 
lectures  before  the  Albany  Law  School, 
were  valuable  contributions  to  public  edu- 
cation. As  an  author  he  produced  a 
widely  celebrated  work  entitled  "The 
Constitutional  History  and  Government 
of  the  United  States,"  the  fruitage  of  long 
and  patient  study  of  the  principles  under- 
lying American  political  institutions.  He 
was  deeply  interested  in  local  history,  col- 
lected many  original  documents,  and  pre- 
pared addresses  and  monographs  such  as 
his  "The  Burning  of  Schenectady  in  1690." 
For  "Historic  Cities  of  America"  he  pre- 
pared the  chapter  on  the  old  Dutch  town 
of  Schenectady.  He  prepared,  delivered 
and  printed  many  addresses  and  lectures, 
and  was  ever  ready  to  serve  the  call  of  the 
people  for  instruction  or  entertainment. 
It  was  said  of  him  that  he  had  a  faculty 
for  friendship.  He  married,  April  26, 
1856,  Emily  Augusta  Pierce. 


36 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


WELLS,  William, 

Educator,  Lecturer,  Writer. 

Professor  William  Wells,  Ph.  D,  LL. 
D.,  was  born  in  New  York  City,  1820, 
died  at  Schenectady,  New  York,  Decem- 
ber 12,  1907.  His  boyhood  and  youth 
were  passed  in  Philadelphia,  Pennsyl- 
vania, where  his  parents  removed  when 
he  was  nine  years  of  age.  His  academic 
education  was  obtained  in  Philadelphia, 
where  he  made  good  progress  toward  that 
mastery  of  foreign  tongues  which  later 
made  him  famous.  In  1846  he  made  his 
first  visit  to  Europe.  He  spent  a  year  in 
Vienna,  as  an  unofficial  attachee  of  the 
American  legation,  also  pursuing  studies 
at  the  University.  Then  he  went  to  Ber- 
lin, where  he  matriculated  at  the  univer- 
sity and  entered  upon  a  course  of  study 
which  led  in  due  time  to  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Philosophy  in  1848.  Those 
were  the  days  of  revolution  in  Europe, 
when  Louis  Phillipe  was  driven  from  the 
throne  of  France,  when  the  Crown  Prince 
of  Prussia,  afterwards  the  Emperor  of 
Germany,  William  I.,  was  compelled  by 
popular  hatred  to  leave  his  country  for  a 
time ;  when  Hungary  was  in  open  revolt 
against  Austria,  and  when  the  Chartist 
agitation  threatened  revolution  even  in 
England.  Professor  Wells  was  deeply 
interested  in  these  great  events  happen- 
ing around  him.  He  had  an  interesting 
experience  in  the  Berlin  riots  that  taught 
him  that  he  was  not  able  to  cope  with 
the  Prussian  cavalry.  He  next  went  to 
the  German  parliament  at  Frankfort-on- 
the-Main,  as  secretary  to  the  special 
American  Embassy  to  that  body.  He  re- 
mained during  the  entire  session  as  corre- 
spondent of  the  "New  York  Herald,"  then 
went  to  Paris,  where  he  spent  a  college 
year  as  a  student  at  the  Sarbonne  and  the 
College  de  France.  Afterwards  he  trav- 
eled over  a  large  part  of  Europe,  return- 


ing to  the  United  States  in  185 1.  He 
spent  a  year  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  where 
he  had  the  honor  and  pleasure  of  making 
the  address  of  welcome  to  Louis  Kossuth, 
on  the  occasion  of  the  Hungarian  patriot's 
visit  to  that  city. 

In  1852  he  was  elected  Professor  of 
Modern  Languages  in  Genesee  College, 
Lima,  New  York.  There  he  remained 
twelve  years,  during  part  of  the  time  act- 
ing also  as  principal  of  the  Genesee  Wes- 
leyan  Seminary.  In  1865  he  was  called 
to  the  Chair  of  Modern  Languages  and 
Literature  at  Union  College,  Schenectady, 
New  York,  thus  beginning  the  connec- 
tion that  was  maintained  unbroken  for 
over  forty  years.  In  1872  he  received  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  from  the  Indi- 
ana Asbury  University,  now  known  as 
De  Pauw  University.  In  1887  the  pro- 
fessorship at  Union  College  was  enlarged 
by  the  addition  of  the  lectureship  on  cur- 
rent history.  In  the  interest  of  that  work 
he  visited  the  southern  States  of  the 
Union,  the  West  Indies,  Mexico,  Central 
America,  Alaska,  California,  the  Rocky 
Mountain  region,  and  later  made  an  ex- 
tended tour  comprising  every  country  of 
Europe  from  the  North  Cape,  with  its 
strange  vision  of  the  midnight  sun,  to 
Greece  and  Constantinople,  Asia  Minor, 
Egypt,  to  the  Cataracts  of  the  Nile  and 
the  other  countries  of  Northern  Africa. 
On  his  return  from  this,  his  fourth  visit 
to  the  Old  World,  he  was  welcomed  home 
by  the  alumni  of  Union  College  with  a 
hearty  demonstration  in  New  York  har- 
bor, which  attested  the  deep  respect  and 
affectioa  with  which  he  was  regarded  by 
Union  College  men.  The  results  of  his 
observations  and  reflection  during  his 
tours  were  embodied  in  a  series  of  lec- 
tures, delivered  annually  to  the  senior 
class  and  the  general  public. 

In  the  spring  of  1890  Dr.  Wells  cele- 
brated  his   seventieth   birthday   and  the 


37 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


fiftieth  anniversary  of  his  entrance  upon 
the  profession  of  teaching,  the  same  year 
marking  the  completion  of  a  quarter  cen- 
tury's work  at  Union  College.  Fifteen 
years  longer  he  continued  his  connection, 
when  the  burden  of  years  proved  too 
heavy  and  he  was  retired  professor  emeri- 
tus. His  beautiful  home  was  on  the  col- 
lege grounds  and  there  he  celebrated  his 
eighty-seventh  birthday,  April  4,  1907. 
He  was  beloved  of  the  students,  to  whom 
he  had  endearingly  become  "Uncle  Billy." 
At  a  meeting  of  the  Chicago  Alumni  As- 
sociation twenty-five  alumni  of  the  col- 
lege banqueting  at  Chicago  sent  him  this 
telegram :  "Twenty-five  nephews  from 
Chicago  and  the  Northwest  extend  heart- 
iest greeting,  and  best  wishes  for  many 
years  more  with  Old  Union."  His  activ- 
ities were  not  confined  by  college  walls. 
By  voice  and  pen  he  was  long  known  as 
one  of  the  foremost  educators.  He  lec- 
tured in  all  the  great  cities  of  the  United 
States  from  Boston  to  San  Francisco.  He 
was  the  first  European  correspondent  of 
the  "New  York  Herald,"  and  during  his 
last  great  tour  abroad  was  special  corre- 
spondent of  the  "New  York  Mail  and  Ex- 
press." For  over  twenty  years  he  was 
in  charge  of  the  foreign  department  of 
the  "Methodist  Review,"  and  was  a  fre- 
quent editorial  and  general  contributor  to 
all  the  leading  papers  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  church.  Able  articles  from  his 
pen  also  appeared  in  the  "Independent," 
"Scribner's  Monthly"  and  the  "Century 
Magazine."  He  was  associated  with  Dr. 
Taylor  Lewis  in  the  preparation  of  the 
"Book  of  Genesis  for  Lange's  Commen- 
tary," and  translated  the  Book  of  Ecclesi- 
astes  for  the  same  work.  When  the  phil- 
anthropist, Daniel  Drew,  had  in  contem- 
plation the  founding  of  Drew  Theological 
Seminary,  Professor  Wells  was  one  of  the 
men  who  were  called  upon  for  advice  and 
assistance.    He  took  an  active  part  in  the 


foundation  of  the  seminary  and  was  ever 
after  on  the  board  of  trustees.  He  was  a 
devoted  Methodist  and  for  twenty-five 
years  superintendent  of  the  Sunday 
school  of  State  Street  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church  at  Schenectady.  He  was 
elected  and  served  as  lay  delegate  to  the 
general  conference  of  his  church  in  1872, 
the  first  year  laymen  were  admitted  as 
delegates.  He  was  again  elected  to  the 
general  conference  of  1876  and  served  as 
one  of  the  secretaries  of  that  conference. 
At  his  death  fitting  memorials  were 
passed  by  different  bodies,  from  which  we 
quote  the  faculty  in  part : 

He  was  not  only  immensely  useful  to  the  col- 
lege by  his  scholarship  and  attainment,  but  made 
for  himself  a  place  in  the  hearts  of  the  students, 
which  he  kept  long  after  graduation.  For  nearly 
half  a  century  he  has  been  closely  and  affec- 
tionately connected  with  every  one's  thought  of 
the  college.  As  a  personal  friend  Professor 
Wells  was  loved  and  honored,  not  only  by  the 
faculty,  students  and  alumni  of  Union,  but  far 
more  widely;  for  his  sympathy  and  interests  had 
brought  him  into  connection  with  many  per- 
sons and  many  institutions,  and  he  came  to  no 
work  or  occupation  where  he  did  not  attain  the 
affection  as  well  as  the  respect  of  those  with 
whom  he  was  associated. 

The  passing  years  but  added  to  the  kindliness 
of  his  nature,  to  his  devotion  to  the  College,  and 
to  his  love  for  his  pupils  of  the  past  and  pres- 
ent. Not  inappropriately  was  he  called  "The 
Grand  Old  Man  of  Union  College." 

Professor  Wells  married,  July,  1854, 
Alice  Yeckley,  born  at  Gorham,  Ontario 
county,  New  York,  March  15,  1836,  died 
at  Schenectady,  April  26,  1906.  She  was 
educated  at  Genesee  Wesleyan  Seminary 
and  Genesee  College  (afterwards  Syra- 
cuse University).  They  removed  to 
Schenectady  in  1865,  and  there  resided 
until  death.  Like  her  husband,  Mrs. 
Wells  was  a  devoted  Christian  worker  in 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  espe- 
cially in  missions  and  work  among  the 
young.     She  was  for  many  years  presi- 


38 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


dent  of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary 
Society  of  the  First  (State  Street)  Church 
and  for  twelve  years  president  of  the 
Woman's  Auxiliary  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association.  She  organized 
and  was  president  of  the  Mother's  Club 
connected  with  the  Young  Women's 
Christian  Association.  She  was  closely 
identified  with  the  social  life  of  the  col- 
lege, and  in  all  respects  was  a  worthy 
helpmeet  and  companion.  One  child, 
Alice  M.  Wells,  survived  her  parents,  re- 
siding in  Schenectady.  New  York. 


TILLINGHAST,  Charles  Whitney, 

Man  of  Affairs. 

Charles  Whitney  Tillinghast,  second 
son  of  Benjamin  Allen  and  Julia  Ann 
(Whitney)  Tillinghast,  was  born  in  East 
Greenwich,  Rhode  Island,  May  23,  1824. 
He  obtained  his  early  education  in  pri- 
vate schools  and  then  entered  Kent  Acad- 
emy in  East  Greenwich,  Rhode  Island. 
His  educational  progress  was  brilliant 
and  he  frequently  earned  many  honors  by 
his  intellectuality.  Subsequently  he  be- 
came a  student  at  Talcot's  private  school 
at  Lanesboro,  Massachusetts,  and  his  pur- 
suits there  were  crowned  with  many 
achievements. 

He  accompanied  his  parents  to  Troy, 
New  York,  in  1830,  and  from  that  time 
on  to  his  death  his  interests  were  centered 
in  that  city.  In  1840  he  entered  the  hard- 
ware and  iron  business  as  a  clerk  for 
Warren,  Hart  &  Lesley,  which  firm  was 
succeeded  by  J.  M.  Warren  and  C.  W. 
Tillinghast,  under  the  name  of  J.  M.  War- 
ren &  Company.  In  1864  Thomas  Allen 
Tillinghast  became  a  member  of  the  firm, 
and  June  10,  1879,  he  died;  February  10, 
1887,  the  firm  was  incorporated  as  J.  M. 
Warren  &  Company,  with  Joseph  M. 
Warren,  president ;  Charles  Whitney 
Tillinghast,  vice-president;  H.  S.  Darby, 
treasurer ;  and  Joseph  J.  Tillinghast,  sec- 


retary. Other  incorporators  were  Charles 
Whitney  Tillinghast,  2nd.,  son  of  Thomas 
Allen  Tillinghast,  F.  A.  Leeds  and  H. 
Frank  Wood.  September  9,  1896,  Joseph 
M.  Warren  died  and  Charles  Whitney 
Tillinghast  succeeded  to  the  presidency 
of  the  company,  November  30,  1897. 
Joseph  Joslin  Tillinghast,  who  had  suc- 
ceeded to  the  vice-presidency  when  his 
brother,  Charles  W.,  was  elected  presi- 
dent, died  and  was  succeeded  by  his 
nephew,  Charles  Whitney  Tillinghast, 
2nd.  The  original  house  of  J.  M.  Warren 
&  Company  was  inaugurated  in  1809, 
when  Jacob  Hart  and  Henry  Mazro  estab- 
lished a  hardware  business  in  Troy. 
There  were  firm  changes  and  in  1836  Wil- 
liam H.  Warren  became  a  member  of  the 
firm  that  has  ever  since  been  in  the  War- 
ren name.  When  Mr.  Tillinghast  first  be- 
came connected  with  the  business,  the 
books  were  kept  in  pounds,  shillings  and 
pence,  postage  between  New  York  and 
Troy  was  eighteen  and  three-quarter 
cents.  A  private  firm  started  an  express 
that  delivered  letters  for  ten  cents,  which 
rate  continued  until  the  government  re- 
duced the  postage  to  five  cents.  The  firm 
of  J.  M.  Warren  &  Company  carry  on  a 
large  hardware  jobbing  business,  and  in 
their  one  hundred  years  of  business  life 
have  made  but  three  changes  in  location, 
all  of  which  were  within  a  few  hundred 
feet  of  the  original.  The  rapid  growth  of 
the  business  was  largely  due  to  the  per- 
sonal efforts  of  Mr.  Tillinghast.  Follow- 
ing his  advent  into  the  firm  the  business 
increased  to  such  a  volume  that  addi- 
tional space  was  demanded,  and  they 
erected  the  warehouse  on  Front  street 
connecting  by  a  bridge  with  the  main 
store  situated  on  the  corner  of  Broadway 
and  River  streets,  and  in  1870  the  large 
and  spacious  building  on  the  same  corner 
was  constructed  and  has  since  been  the 
home  of  the  concern.  In  the  early  days 
of  this  house  nearly  all  the  hardware  sold 


39 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


was  imported  from  England  and  Ger- 
many, orders  had  to  be  placed  from  four 
to  six  months  in  advance  and  all  goods 
were  manufactured  to  order,  no  stock 
being  carried  by  manufacturers.  A  num- 
ber of  employees  have  been  with  the  firm 
for  over  a  quarter  of  a  century;  Samuel 
Kendrick,  their  first  traveling  salesman, 
was  with  them  thirty-five  years,  and  Wil- 
liam Bennett  was  in  charge  of  the  iron  de- 
partment fifty  years.  In  1872  the  com- 
pany purchased  the  Troy  Stamping  Com- 
pany's plant  in  South  Troy  and  manufac- 
ture there  tin  and  sheet  iron  ware. 

Mr.  Tillinghast's  activity  in  the  com- 
mercial life  of  Troy  was  marked  by  un- 
flagging industry,  intelligent  application 
to  business,  and  the  highest  probity  and 
integrity,  which  characterized  his  entire 
life.  He  helped  to  foster  and  develop  the 
financial  and  business  enterprises  that 
are  now  the  city's  pride.  He  was  vice- 
president  of  the  United  National  Bank 
of  Troy  and  the  Troy  Savings  Bank; 
director  of  the  Security  Trust  Company ; 
director  of  the  Rensselaer  &  Saratoga 
Railroad  Company,  which  was  the  first 
railroad  to  enter  Troy,  and  on  his  retire- 
ment from  the  directorate  in  1908  the 
board  of  directors  passed  resolutions  of 
appreciation  and  regret.  He  was  one  of 
the  first  trustees  of  the  Fuller  &  Warren 
Company  which  was  incorporated  De- 
cember 31,  1881,  and  was  also  most  in- 
strumental in  the  establishment  and  ad- 
vancement of  the  Walter  A.  Wood  Com- 
pany, of  Hoosick  Falls,  New  York.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  Troy  Citizens' 
Corps  prior  to  the  war  of  the  rebellion, 
and  when  the  Old  Guard  was  organized, 
July  25,  1879,  as  an  auxiliary  body,  Mr. 
Tillinghast  was  chosen  president  and 
participated  in  1878  with  the  company 
in  the  public  escort  at  the  funeral  of 
Colonel  James  R.  Hitchcock  in  New 
York.  He  was  an  honorary  member  of 
the  corps  at  the  time  of  his  death. 


Mr.  Tillinghast  was  one  of  the  first  to 
start  the  project  for  a  new  post-office 
building  in  Troy,  obtaining  the  petitions 
and  statistics  for  the  same,  and  he  was 
one  of  the  five  citizens  named  as  a  com- 
mission to  select  a  site  for  the  govern- 
ment building.  His  only  connection  with 
municipal  life  was  for  a  short  period 
when  he  served  as  president  of  the  pub- 
lic improvement  commission.  He  was 
deeply  interested  in  Troy's  volunteer  fire 
department,  and  was  one  of  the  charter 
members  of  the  old  Washington  volun- 
teer steamer  company,  having  served  as 
its  secretary  and  later  as  its  captain.  In 
subsequent  years  he  directed  his  atten- 
tion to  the  Arba  Read  steamer  company, 
and  was  one  of  the  citizens  who  pur- 
chased the  first  engine  for  the  company 
from  private  funds.  He  was  instrumen- 
tal in  the  establishment  and  organization 
of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion in  1895  and  was  one  of  the  first  trus- 
tees. He  was  also  one  of  the  organizers 
and  trustee  of  the  Public  Library  of 
Troy,  trustee  of  Marshall  Infirmary, 
trustee  of  the  Episcopal  Church  Home, 
and  for  several  years  president  of  the 
Emma  Willard  Seminary.  In  June,  1896, 
when  the  movement  was  inaugurated  to 
construct  the  Samaritan  Hospital,  Mr. 
Tillinghast  was  one  of  the  first  citizens 
to  respond  and  pledge  his  support,  and 
his  interest  in  the  development  and  prog- 
ress of  the  institution  never  abated.  He 
was  a  close  friend  of  the  late  Rev.  John 
Ireland  Tucker,  D.  D.,  who  for  more  than 
half  a  century  was  rector  of  the  Church 
of  the  Holy  Cross,  and  an  intimate  friend 
of  Bishop  William  Croswell  Doane,  of 
this  diocese. 

Aside  from  his  business  activity  and 
remarkable  record,  the  work  in  which 
Mr.  Tillinghast  found  most  pleasure  and 
gratification  was  his  connection  with  the 
Troy  Orphan  Asylum.  He  served  as 
vice-president    of    the    institution    from 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


1872  to  1876,  and  was  then  made  presi- 
dent, which  office  he  occupied  at  the  time 
of  his  death.  It  was  his  life  work  and 
for  it  he  was  honored  and  esteemed.  In 
his  forty  years'  interest  in  the  welfare  of 
the  orphans  he  never  missed  visiting  the 
asylum  every  Sunday  afternoon  unless 
detained  by  illness  or  absence  from  the 
city.  Each  of  those  visits  was  eagerly 
looked  forward  to  by  the  little  ones,  who 
recognized  in  him  a  protector  and  guar- 
dian of  the  true  Christian  type.  He  sel- 
dom journeyed  to  the  asylum  without 
carrying  a  large  package  of  candy  for 
the  children  who  always  surrounded  him. 
His  interest  in  the  institution  grew  from 
the  time  the  asylum  was  housed  in  its 
first  building  on  Eighth  street,  and  it 
was  principally  through  his  labors  that 
the  present  beautiful  home  was  erected 
on  Spring  avenue.  His  philanthropic 
acts  carried  the  institution  through  many 
storms.  In  addition  to  being  unwearied 
in  his  devotion  to  the  interests  of  the 
asylum,  he  was  marvelously  successful 
in  enlisting  the  interests  of  others  in  its 
behalf.  On  May  10,  1892,  when  the 
corner-stone  of  the  new  building  was  laid. 
Mr.  Tillinghast  delivered  an  address.  Mr. 
Tillinghast  was  a  member  of  St.  John's 
Episcopal  Church ;  he  was  elected  ves- 
tryman July  13,  1879,  elected  warden 
March  29,  1880,  and  was  senior  warden 
at  the  time  of  his  death.  He  was  one  of 
the  founders  of  St.  Luke's  Episcopal 
Church  and  a  member  of  its  first  vestry; 
the  first  services  were  held  at  that  church, 
May  17,  1868.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
standing  committee  of  the  Albany  dio- 
cese and  was  chairman  of  the  general 
committee  of  the  Church  Congress.  He 
was  a  Republican  all  through  the  exist- 
ence of  that  party. 

Mr.  Tillinghast  was  by  nature  an  able 
and  far-seeing  business  man,  of  indomit- 
able perseverance  and  energy,  he  never 


considered  such  a  word  as  failure  when 
beginning  the  accomplishment  of  any 
task  he  had  set  himself  to  perform.  Many 
of  the  best  enterprises  of  Troy  have  been 
aided  by  his  wise  counsel  and  means. 
His  beneficences  have  been  large  and  nu- 
merous, his  acts  of  philanthropy  per- 
formed in  an  unostentatious  manner,  he 
was  an  earnest  humanitarian  and  spent 
much  of  his  busy  life  in  unselfish  devo- 
tion to  the  welfare  of  his  fellowmen. 
Many  of  those  who  knew  Mr.  Tilling- 
hast had  but  slight  knowledge  of  the  im- 
portant positions  he  came  to  fill,  and  the 
weighty  responsibilities  he  carried  for 
himself  and  others.  He  was  quiet  in 
manner  and  a  pleasing  conversationalist. 
Progressive  in  his  ideas,  still  his  nature 
was  so  tempered  that  he  was  successful 
in  every  undertaking  he  began.  He  was 
a  man  of  unquestioned  integrity  and  his 
career  was  marked  by  deeds  of  kindness 
that  will  live  while  memory  lasts.  The 
magnitude  of  the  operations  of  the  com- 
mercial house  of  which  he  was  at  the 
head  are  alike  monumental  to  the  genius 
of  the  eminent  citizen  who  has  finally 
answered  the  Master's  call.  Mr.  Tilling- 
hast married,  December  1,  1852,  Mary 
Bowers  Southwick,  of  Troy.  He  died 
April  27,  1910. 


BLESSING,  James  H., 

Manufacturer,  Inventor,  Public  Official. 

For  fully  fifty  years  Mr.  Blessing  was 
actively  engaged  in  business  in  Albany, 
although  not  born  there,  and  he  was 
known  more  or  less  intimately  by  busi- 
ness men  and  others  from  the  South  End, 
where  his  plant  had  been  and  thrived  for 
a  great  many  years,  to  the  North  End, 
where  later  was  his  establishment  with 
office,  and  from  the  river  to  the  Pine 
Hills  section,  for  his  political  life  had 
brought    him    into   contact    with    people 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


outside  the  business  centers  of  the  city. 
To  all  of  these  people  he  was  much  more 
than  a  common  friend,  for  they  regarded 
him  as  a  man  of  sterling  integrity  and 
business  principles,  as  one  possessing 
uprightness  of  character  and  actuated  by 
the  noblest  purposes.  Frequently  they 
sought  him  for  his  sound  advice,  often 
for  genial  and  generous  encouragement, 
and  at  times  for  charitable  help.  They 
never  went  to  him  in  vain.  It  was  not 
uncommon  for  him  to  offer. 

James  Henry  Blessing  was  born  at 
French's  Mills,  near  Sloan's,  in  Albany 
county,  September  14,  1837.  His  father 
was  Frederick  I.  Blessing,  and  his 
mother  was  Lucinda  (Smith)  Blessing. 
When  he  was  about  five  years  of  age  his 
parents  moved  into  Albany,  and  he  was 
able  thus  to  attend  the  city's  schools 
near  where  they  lived.  At  the  age  of 
twelve  he  secured  a  position  as  a  clerk 
in  a  grocery  store,  but  this  did  not  prove 
to  his  liking.  It  was  so  uncongenial  that 
he  cast  about  for  something  else  to  do, 
in  which,  with  his  heart  in  his  work,  he 
might  the  better  count  upon  success  to 
reward  patient  effort.  He  abandoned  the 
position  in  1853  and  became  an  appren- 
tice in  the  machinist  trade,  which  evi- 
dently well  suited  his  natural  inclination 
and  accounts  for  his  success  all  through 
life.  The  new  position  was  with  the  large 
firm  of  F.  &  T.  Townsend,  and  there  he 
completed  his  term  of  instruction  in  1857, 
but  remained  with  this  firm  until  1861. 
This  was  at  the  time  when  Albany  was 
cast  into  excitement  over  the  outbreak 
of  the  Civil  War.  It  was  a  place  where 
recruiting  was  going  on  beneath  tents 
erected  in  the  broad  streets,  and  a  drum- 
mer upon  the  outside  kept  people's 
patriotism  at  a  glow.  With  the  late  Gen- 
eral Frederick  Townsend,  he  worked 
hard  over  the  invention  of  a  novel  form 
of    a    breech-loading    rifle    intended    for 


army  use.  From  its  improvement  over 
older  mechanical  devices  they  contem- 
plated great  results,  and  their  endeavors 
were  induced  largely  through  patriotic 
motives,  for  General  Townsend  shortly 
recruited  a  regiment  in  Albany  with 
which  he  departed  for  the  front,  while 
Mr.  Blessing  likewise  entered  the  serv- 
ice in  defense  of  the  Union,  but  applying 
his  ability  in  his  individual  field.  Mr. 
Blessing  entered  the  United  States  navy 
as  an  acting  assistant  engineer.  He  was 
very  acceptable,  for  he  was  an  expert 
and  thoroughly  interested  in  his  line.  He 
participated  in  both  battles  of  Fort  Fish- 
er. His  enlistment  dated  under  Commo- 
dore Porter,  March  29,  1864,  and  he 
served  continuously,  receiving  promo- 
tions. From  1862  to  1864  he  was  con- 
nected with  the  construction  department 
of  the  New  York  Navy  Yard  at  Brook- 
lyn. No  matter  what  honors  came  to 
him  afterward,  he  cited  that  period  of 
his  life  with  greatest  pride,  for  its  scope 
was  the  nation's  existence,  the  later  honor 
a  city's  advancement.  Following  the 
close  of  the  war,  he  was  engineer  in 
charge  of  the  steam  machinery  of  the 
Brooklyn   City   Railroad   Company. 

He  returned  to  Albany  in  1866  to  ac- 
cept the  position  of  superintendent  of 
the  extensive  foundry  and  machine  works 
of  Townsend  &  Jackson,  in  the  southern 
part  of  the  city  and  upon  the  Hudson 
river  front.  It  was  in  its  day  the  most 
important  works  of  this  character  for 
many  miles  around,  having  succeeded  to 
the  firm  with  which  he  had  served  his  ap- 
prenticeship, and  the  management  had 
fullest  confidence  in  his  ability.  In  the 
year  1870  Mr.  Blessing  invented  the  "re- 
turn steam  trap,"  which  has  become  well 
known  and  is  used  generally  in  nearly  all 
parts  of  the  globe.  It  was  regarded  as  a 
great  step  in  advance,  and  his  friends, 
perceiving  this,  were  willing  to  back  him 


42 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


financially.  Leaving  the  Townsend  & 
Jackson  firm  in  1872  he,  with  General 
Frederick  Townsend,  engaged  in  the 
business  of  manufacturing  and  selling 
steam  traps  under  the  firm  name  of 
Townsend  &  Blessing.  The  business 
proved  a  success,  and  in  1875  the  Albany- 
Steam  Trap  Company  was  formed,  with 
three  stockholders — General  Townsend, 
the  late  Henry  H.  Martin  and  Mr.  Bless- 
ing. 

Mr.  Blessing's  mechanical  training  had 
developed  many  novel  and  useful  inven- 
tions, among  them  steam  engines,  steam 
pumps,  steam  traps,  steam  boilers,  valves, 
steam  packing,  pump  governors,  steam 
and  oil  separators,  friction  clutches,  boiler 
purifiers,  water  filters  and  many  other 
useful  contrivances  which  the  firm  manu- 
factured. The  breadth  of  his  training 
and  experience  led  many  persons  busily 
engaged  upon  inventions  to  come  to  him, 
and  it  was  often  the  case  that  his  assist- 
ance, freely  given,  helped  to  bring  about 
the  perfection  of  a  mechanical  appliance 
which  had  failed  to  work  until  he  gave 
it  his  attention.  Often  people  came  to 
him,  that  at  his  word  credence  would  be 
placed  in  their  work. 

Before  his  election  as  mayor  of  Albany, 
he  had  held  but  one  public  office,  that  of 
supervisor.  He  represented  the  Fifth 
Ward  on  the  board  in  the  years  1894-95, 
and  during  the  latter  year  was  the  presi- 
dent of  that  body.  After  the  mayoralty 
term  he  retained  an  interest  in  politics  ; 
but  having  declined  to  accept  a  second 
nomination,  because  of  the  time  demand- 
ed from  his  business  and  through  im- 
paired health,  he  sought  no  other  office, 
yet  continued  as  vice-president  of  the 
Fifth  Ward  Republican  organization, 
and  was  a  delegate  from  his  ward  to  the 
convention  nominating  Mayor  McEwan. 
He  was  elected  the  sixty-first  mayor  at 
the  election  held  November  7,  1899,  head- 


ing the  Republican  ticket,  and  was  the 
first  man  of  that  party  to  be  elected 
mayor  for  a  period  of  some  twenty  years. 
The  significance  of  this  is  that  he  ac- 
complished what  a  dozen  other  leading 
Albany  Republicans  had  failed  to  achieve. 
Out  of  the  total  of  22,848  votes  cast,  he 
received  12,364,  and  Judge  Thomas  J. 
Van  Alstyne,  Democrat,  9,995  votes.  He 
had  turned  a  continuous  Democratic  ma- 
jority into  a  handsome  Republican  vic- 
tory, and  took  office  on  January  1,  1900, 
officiating  through  two  full  years.  He 
was  the  first  mayor  to  serve  under  the 
new  charter  granted  to  cities  of  the  sec- 
ond class,  and,  while  experimental  in 
some  ways,  his  administration  has  gone 
into  municipal  history  as  one  of  the  most 
successful  and  satisfactory.  During  his 
term,  among  many  important  civic 
events,  were  the  city's  endeavor  to  cope 
with  the  serious  strike  of  the  traction 
line;  Public  School  No.  12  was  com- 
pleted ;  the  first  public  bath  was  opened ; 
the  city  was  draped  in  mourning  for  Mc- 
Kinley ;  reconstruction  of  the  Central 
railroad's  bridge  across  the  Hudson  was 
completed ;  the  Chamber  of  Commerce 
was  organized ;  an  enormous  ice  gorge 
at  Cedar  Hill  threatened  the  business  in- 
terests, the  freshet  being  the  greatest  in 
forty-three  years,  and  being  twenty  feet 
above  the  normal  required  city  relief  by 
the  police  navigating  the  streets  in  boats  ; 
the  Pruyn  Library  was  given  to  the  city 
and  accepted  in  a  speech  by  him ;  the 
Albany  Institute  united  with  the  Albany 
Historical  and  Art  Society ;  a  children's 
playground  was  inaugurated  in  Beaver 
Park ;  the  cruiser  "Albany"  was  placed  in 
commission  ;  reconstruction  of  the  Cen- 
tral railroad's  viaduct  crossing  Broad- 
way; coal  famine  because  of  the  strike 
in  Pennsylvania  fields;  Albany  County 
Bar  Association  incorporated ;  curfew 
law  advocated  at  common  council  hear- 


43 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


ings ;  the  new  and  costly  Union  Railway 
station  opened;  Albany  connected  with 
Hudson  by  an  electric  line ;  Chinese  Min- 
ister Wu  Ting-fang,  LL.  D.,  a  guest  of 
the  city;  the  John  Marshall  centennial 
ceremonies  held  in  the  assembly  cham- 
ber; annexation  of  Bath  to  Rensselaer; 
Dana  Park  opened  and  dedicated  by  Mr. 
Blessing;  the  Schenectady  railway  run- 
ning its  first  electric  cars  into  Albany; 
statistical  record  at  the  filtration  plant 
inaugurated ;  completion  of  the  resurfac- 
ing of  Madison  avenue  with  asphalt;  the 
Humane  Society  acquired  its  own  build- 
ing, and  improvements  instituted  in 
many  of  the  schools.  These  constitute 
the  affairs  with  which  he  was  directly 
concerned,  either  because  of  his  advocacy 
and  consideration  in  some  form  as  the 
city's  executive,  or  through  his  personal 
solicitude;  and  they  go  to  show  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  city's  interests  in  vari- 
ous directions  as  affected  by  his  connec- 
tion therewith,  while  in  many  minor  ways 
there  was  a  steady  improvement  in  which 
all  citizens  benefited.  In  these  ways  his 
term  will  remain  memorable.  Mr.  Bless- 
ing was  a  member  of  the  American  Soci- 
ety of  Mechanical  Engineers,  of  the  Al- 
bany Institute,  and  the  Capital  City  Re- 
publican Club.  He  was  an  attendant  of 
the  Baptist  church,  and  resided  at  No. 
107  Eagle  street. 

Mr.  Blessing  married  (first)  at  Albany, 
September  15,  1857,  Martha  Hutson,  who 
died  July  17,  1866 ;  children  :  Martha,  mar- 
ried Charles  W.  Backus,  and  died  in  New 
York  City,  January  5,  1907;  Lucinda, 
died  in  infancy.  Mr.  Blessing  married 
(second)  at  Pittsfield,  Massachusetts, 
November  9,  1870,  Mrs.  Mary  (Gilson) 
Judd.  residing  in  Albany  in  1910.  County 
Treasurer  John  W.  Wheelock  married 
Miss  Judd,  a  daughter  of  his  second  wife, 
and  both  residents  of  Albany.  Mr.  Bless- 
ing had  also  two  sisters  living  in  Albany 


— Miss  Lucretia  Blessing  and  Mrs.  Sarah 
J.  Laning. 

Mr.  Blessing  was  not  a  man  of  robust 
health,  although  active  in  attention  to 
business,  and  after  suffering  for  a  little 
more  than  a  week  with  an  attack  of 
grippe,  at  the  end  sank  rapidly  and  died 
early  in  the  morning  of  February  21, 
1910.  Having  always  lived  a  quiet, 
domestic  life,  the  funeral  was  held  at  his 
home  to  avoid  public  demonstration,  the 
Rev.  Creighton  R.  Storey,  pastor  of  the 
First  Baptist  Church,  officiating,  and 
Mayor  James  B.  McEwan  issued  a  proc- 
lamation, ordering:  "As  a  mark  of  ap- 
preciation of  the  impress  made  by  him 
upon  the  life  of  our  city,  it  is  ordered  that 
the  flags  be  placed  at  half  staff  upon  all 
the  city's  public  buildings,  until  after  his 
funeral,  and  that  the  heads  of  city  depart- 
ments and  members  of  the  Common 
Council  attend  his  funeral  with  the 
Mayor,  in  a  body." 


CUYLER,  Theodore  L., 

Distinguished  Divine. 

From  early  manhood  the  Rev.  Theo- 
dore Ledyard  Cuyler,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  de- 
voted his  labor,  his  thought  and  his  en- 
ergy to  the  uplifting  of  his  fellow  men, 
and  his  name  and  work  formed  the  most 
important  chapter  in  the  history  of  the 
Lafayette  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church 
of  Brooklyn,  New  York. 

He  was  born  in  Aurora,  New  York, 
January  10,  1822,  and  traced  his  descent 
from  Huguenots  and  Hollanders  who 
came  to  the  shores  of  the  new  world  at 
an  early  day.  Members  of  the  family 
were  particularly  prominent  at  the  bar. 
His  grandfather  practiced  with  success 
in  Aurora  for  many  years,  and  his  father, 
B.  Ledyard  Cuyler,  also  attained  to  an 
eminent  position  in  the  legal  profession, 
but  died  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-eight 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


years.  The  care  of  the  son  fell  to  the 
mother,  a  woman  of  strong  Christian 
character,  who  had  marked  influence 
upon  the  life  of  her  son.  She  always 
cherished  the  hope  that  he  might  enter 
the  ministry,  and  a  little  pocket  Bible 
which  she  gave  him  he  learned  to  read 
when  four  years  of  age.  Others  of  the 
family  hoped  that  he  would  become  a 
lawyer,  believing  that  he  could  attain  dis- 
tinction in  that  profession,  and,  while  he 
had  the  mental  ability  to  become  eminent 
therein,  he  determined  to  enter  a  calling 
that  led  him  into  close  contact  with  his 
fellow  men.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  be- 
came a  student  in  Princeton  College,  and 
three  years  later  was  graduated  with 
high  honors.  The  following  year  was 
spent  in  Europe,  where  he  formed  the 
acquaintance  of  Thomas  Carlyle,  Wil- 
liam Wordsworth  and  Charles  Dickens, 
and  his  visits  to  those  celebrated  English 
writers  were  among  the  most  pleasant 
memories  of  his  life.  Travel  broadened 
his  knowledge,  and  his  mind  was  stored 
with  many  interesting  reminscences  of 
the  sights  and  scenes  which  he  viewed 
when  abroad.  Upon  his  return,  his 
father's  family  again  urged  him  to  be- 
come a  member  of  the  bar,  but  his 
mother's  influence  and  other  agencies  in 
his  life  were  stronger.  When  a  young 
man  he  was  asked  to  address  a  meeting 
in  a  neighboring  village.  Several  in- 
quirers professed  a  religious  belief  that 
evening,  saying  that  the  young  man  had 
made  the  way  plain  to  them.  This 
brought  to  him  a  recognition  of  his  influ- 
ence and  power,  and  he  resolved  to  de- 
vote his  activities  to  the  cause  of  the 
Master.  His  preparatory  studies  for  the 
ministry  were  pursued  in  the  Princeton 
Theological  Seminary,  where,  on  the 
completion  of  a  three-years'  course,  he 
was  graduated  in  May,  1846. 

His  first  ministerial  services  after  being 


licensed  to  preach  was  as  supply  to  the 
church  at  Kingston,  Pennsylvania,  where 
he  remained  for  six  months.  Not  long 
afterward  he  accepted  the  charge  of  the 
Presbyterian  church  in  Burlington,  New 
Jersey,  where  his  labors  were  so  success- 
ful that  it  was  felt  he  should  be  employed 
in  a  broader  field.  Accordingly,  he  left 
Burlington  to  take  pastoral  charge  of  the 
newly  organized  Third  Presbyterian 
Church  in  Trenton,  New  Jersey,  where 
he  remained  until  the  summer  of  1853. 
In  May  of  that  year  he  received  a  call 
from  the  Shawmut  Congregational 
Church  in  Boston,  but  declined  it,  and 
accepted  a  call  from  the  Market  Street 
Reformed  Dutch  Church  in  New  York 
City,  where  he  felt  his  field  would  be 
broader  and  more  congenial  by  reason 
of  the  greater  demands  it  would  make 
upon  him.  His  work  there  at  once  at- 
tracted public  attention.  His  earnest- 
ness, his  clear  reasoning,  his  logical  argu- 
ments and  his  brilliant  gifts  of  oratory, 
attracted  large  audiences,  and  his  work 
among  young  men  was  particularly  suc- 
cessful. For  seven  years  he  continued 
as  pastor  of  that  congregation,  and  in 
i860  entered  upon  his  important  work 
in  connection  with  the  Lafayette  Avenue 
Presbyterian  Church  of  Brooklyn,  New 
York.  The  exodus  from  New  York  to 
Brooklyn  was  beginning  to  be  felt  about 
this  time,  and  the  need  for  better  church 
accommodations  in  the  latter  city  had 
long  been  so  pressing  as  to  engross  the 
attention  of  many  earnest  Christians.  A 
conference  on  the  subject  was  held  May 
16,  1857,  by  a  number  of  gentlemen  con- 
nected with  Dr.  Spear's  "South"  Church, 
and  it  was  decided  to  form  a  "new- 
school"  church.  Soon  after  its  organiza- 
tion, Professor  Roswell  D.  Hitchcock,  of 
the  Union  Theological  Seminary  of  New 
York,  supplied  the  pulpit,  and  during  his 
ministry   there   the   church   society,   first 


45 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


numbering  but  forty-eight  souls,  in- 
creased so  rapidly  that  the  little  brick 
chapel  was  found  inadequate  to  contain 
the  audiences.  It  was  a  season  of 
spiritual  awakening  all  over  the  land, — 
the  revival  of  1858, —  and  Park  Church 
(as  it  was  then  known)  shared  in  the 
general  improvement  and  met  the  de- 
mand upon  its  accommodations  by  build- 
ing an  addition.  In  January  of  the  fol- 
lowing year  (1859)  Professor  Hitchcock 
resigned,  and  was  succeeded  as  pulpit 
supply  by  the  Rev.  Lyman  Whiting,  ot 
Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  who  six 
months  later  also  resigned,  and  for  an 
additional  six  months  the  congregation 
was  without  a  regular  minister. 

About  this  time  Dr.  Cuyler  was  offered 
the  pastorate,  but  the  outlook  of  his  own 
church  was  then  so  promising  that  he 
declined  the  call.  Shortly  afterward, 
however,  the  Dutch  church  began  to  fal- 
ter in  its  project  of  planting  its  new  edi- 
fice in  the  new  and  growing  part  of  the 
city.  With  keen  foresight.  Dr.  Cuyler 
anticipated  the  rapid  change  that  was 
soon  to  transform  unpopulated  districts 
of  Brooklyn,  and  believed  that  it  would 
prove  a  splendid  field  for  Christian  labor. 
It  was  then  he  took  into  consideration 
the  offer  of  the  pastorate  of  the  Park 
Church.  He  visited  the  Fort  Greene  sec- 
tion of  Brooklyn,  and  then  informed  the 
committee  which  waited  on  him  that  if 
their  congregation  would  purchase  the 
plot  at  the  corner  of  Lafayette  avenue 
and  Oxford  street  and  erect  thereon  a 
plain  edifice  large  enough  to  accommo- 
date about  two  thousand  people,  he 
would  accept  the  call.  It  seemed  a  great 
undertaking  for  the  little  congregation, 
with  its  membership  of  only  one  hundred 
and  forty  people,  but  the  committee 
agreed  to  the  proposition,  and  within  ten 
days  the  purchase  of  the  land  was  effect- 
ed, at  a  cost  of  $12,000.    At  an  additional 


cost  of  $42,000  there  was  erected  a  splen- 
did stone  structure,  modeled  after  Rev. 
Henry  Ward  Beecher's  church,  and  hav- 
ing also  the  same  seating  capacity.  Work 
began  on  the  new  edifice  in  the  fall  of 
i860,  and  on  March  12,  1862,  the  com- 
pleted church  was  dedicated.  This  was 
practically  the  work  of  Dr.  Cuyler,  who 
in  April,  i860,  was  formally  installed  as 
pastor. 

He  entered  upon  his  work  with  an  en- 
thusiasm born  of  strong  determination, 
firm  convictions  and  noble  purpose.  His 
brilliant  oratory  soon  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  Brooklyn  citizens,  and  his  forceful 
utterances,  showing  forth  the  divine  pur- 
pose, appealed  to  the  understanding  of 
thinking  people.  The  church  grew  with 
marvelous  rapidity,  and  as  rapidly  as  pos- 
sible Dr.  Cuyler  extended  the  field  of  his 
labors.  In  1866  there  were  more  than 
three  hundred  additions,  and  he  felt  that 
its  growing  strength  justified  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  mission.  Accordingly,  in 
Warren  street,  the  Memorial  Mission 
School  was  organized,  the  direct  outcome 
of  which  was  the  Memorial  Presbyterian 
Church,  which  became  one  of  the  strong- 
est and  most  prosperous  in  that  section 
of  the  city.  The  Fort  Greene  Presby- 
terian Church  also  had  its  origin  in  one 
of  Dr.  Cuyler's  mission  schools  which 
was  established  in  1861,  with  a  member- 
ship of  one  hundred  and  twelve.  The 
Classon  Avenue  Church  was  also  another 
direct  branch  of  the  Lafayette  Avenue 
Presbyterian  Church.  In  the  twenty-five 
years  following  its  incorporation,  Dr. 
Cuyler's  congregation  contributed  $70,- 
000  to  city  missions,  and  its  gifts  as  re- 
ported for  the  year  1888  exceeded  $53,000. 
The  Sunday  school,  the  Young  People's 
Association  and  the  various  charitable 
and  benevolent  organizations  became  im- 
portant adjuncts  of  the  church  work. 
The    church    membership    in    1890    was 


46 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF   BIOGRAPHY 


nearly  2,400,  and  the  Sunday  school  num- 
bered 1,600  ranking  the  third  largest  in 
the  General  Assembly. 

With  all  these  extensive  and  important 
undertakings  under  his  supervision,  Dr. 
Cuyler  also  did  the  work  of  pastor  as  well 
as  of  teacher  and  leader,  and  perhaps  no 
man  in  the  Christian  ministry  ever  more 
endeared  himself  through  the  ties  of  love 
and  friendship  to  his  parishioners.  For 
thirty  years  he  remained  pastor  of  the 
Lafayette  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church, 
and  then  voluntarily  severed  his  relations 
therewith.  He  addressed  his  people  in 
the  following  words  on  Sunday,  Febru- 
ary 2,  1890: 

Nearly  thirty  years  have  elapsed  since  I 
assumed  the  pastoral  charge  of  the  Lafayette 
Avenue  Church.  In  April,  i860,  it  was  a  small 
band  of  one  hundred  and  forty  members.  By 
the  continual  blessing  of  Heaven  upon  us,  that 
little  flock  has  grown  into  one  of  the  largest  and 
most  useful  and  powerful  churches,  in  the  Pres- 
byterian denomination;  it  is  the  third  in  point 
of  numbers  in  the  United  States.  This  church 
has  now  2,330  members;  it  maintains  two  mis- 
sion chapels;  has  1,600  in  its  Sunday  school,  and 
is  paying  the  salaries  of  three  ministers  in  this 
city,  and  of  two  missionaries  in  the  South.  For 
several  years  it  has  led  all  the  churches  of 
Brooklyn  in  its  contributions  to  foreign,  home 
and  city  missions,  and  it  is  surpassed  by  none 
other  in  wide  and  varied  Christian  work.  Every 
sitting  in  this  spacious  house  has  its  occupant. 
Our  morning  audiences  have  never  been  larger 
than  they  have  this  winter.  This  church  has 
always  been  to  me  like  a  beloved  child.  I  have 
given  to  it  thirty  years  of  hard  and  happy  labor, 
and  it  is  my  foremost  desire  that  its  harmony 
may  remain  undisturbed  and  its  prosperity  may 
remain  unbroken.  For  a  long  time  I  have  in- 
tended that  my  thirtieth  anniversary  should  be 
the  terminal  point  of  my  present  pastorate.  I 
shall  then  have  served  this  beloved  flock  for  an 
ordinary  human  generation,  and  the  time  has 
come  for  me  to  transfer  this  sacred  trust  to 
some  one  who,  in  God's  good  providence,  may 
have  thirty  years  of  vigorous  work  before  him 
and  not  behind  him.  If  God  spares  my  life  to 
the  first  Sabbath  of  April  it  is  my  purpose  to 
surrender  this  pulpit  back  into  your  hands,  and 
I  shall  endeavor  to  cooperate  with  you  in  the 


search  and  selection  of  the  right  man  to  stand 
in  it.  I  will  not  trust  myself  to-day  to  speak  of 
the  sharp  pang  it  will  cost  me  to  sever  a  con- 
nection that  has  been  to  me  one  of  unalloyed 
harmony  and  happiness.  When  the  proper  time 
comes  we  can  speak  of  all  such  things,  and  in 
the  meanwhile  let  us  continue  on  in  the  blessed 
Master's  work  and  leave  our  future  entirely  to 
His  all-wise  and  ever  loving  care.  On  the  walls 
of  this  dear  church  the  eyes  of  the  angels  have 
always  seen  it  written,  "I,  the  Lord,  do  keep  it, 
and  I  will  keep  it  night  and  day."  It  only  re- 
mains for  me  to  say  that  after  forty-four  years 
of  uninterrupted  ministerial  labor  it  is  but  rea- 
sonable for  me  to  ask  for  relief  from  a  strain 
that  may  soon  become  too  heavy  for  me  to  bear. 

A  feeling  of  the  greatest  sorrow  was 
manifest  throughout  the  congregation, 
many  of  whom  had  grown  up  under  his 
active  pastorate.  On  April  16,  in  the 
church  parlors,  a  farewell  reception  was 
held,  on  which  occasion  a  purse  of  $30,- 
000  was  presented  to  Dr.  Cuyler — one 
thousand  dollars  for  each  year  of  his 
service  as  pastor,  the  gift  indicating  in 
unmistakable  manner  the  love  which  his 
congregation  bore  for  him. 

However,  his  friends  were  not  limited 
to  his  own  congregation,  for  through  his 
writings  he  had  become  known  through- 
out the  civilized  world,  and  he  had  many 
admirers  among  those  who  have  been 
helped  by  his  earnest  and  inspiring 
words.  He  was  a  constant  contributor 
to  the  religious  journals  of  the  country, 
including  the  "Christian  Intelligencer," 
"Christian  Work,"  "The  Watchman," 
"Christian  Endeavor  World,"  "Evangel- 
ist" and  "Independent."  He  prepared 
about  four  thousand  articles  for  the 
press,  and  wrote  seventy-five  tracts, 
many  of  which  were  republished  in  Eng- 
lish, German  and  Australian  newspapers. 
In  1852  he  published  a  volume  entitled 
"Stray  Arrows,"  containing  selections  of 
his  newspaper  writings.  He  was  the 
author  of  eighteen  published  volumes,  of 
which  "Cedar  Christian,"  "Heart   Life," 


47 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


"Empty  Crib,"  "Thought  Hives,"  "Point- 
ed Papers  for  the  Christian  Life,"  "God's 
Light  on  Dark  Clouds"  and  "Newly  En- 
listed" were  reprinted  in  England,  where 
they  had  a  large  sale.  The  "Empty  Crib" 
was  published  after  the  death  of  a  be- 
loved boy,  nearly  five  years  of  age,  and 
the  subsequent  loss  of  a  beautiful  and 
accomplished  daughter  was  the  occasion 
of  his  writing  a  marvelously  touching 
production  entitled  "God's  Light  on  Dark 
Clouds."  In  addition  to  the  works  men- 
tioned, he  was  author  of  the  following: 
"How  to  be  a  Pastor,"  "The  Young 
Preacher,"  "Christianity  in  the  Home," 
"Stirring  the  Eagle's  Nest"  and  other 
sermons,  and  "Beulah  Land."  A  selec- 
tion from  his  writings,  entitled  "Right  to 
the  Point,"  was  published  in  Boston. 
Six  of  his  books  were  translated  into 
Swedish  and  two  into  Dutch. 

To  a  man  of  Dr.  Cuyler's  nature  the 
needs  of  the  world  were  ever  manifest  and 
elicited  his  most  hearty,  earnest  and  de- 
voted cooperation.  The  great  benevolent 
movements  and  reform  measures  re- 
ceived his  aid,  and  he  labored  earnestly 
in  behalf  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  mission  schools,  the  Chil- 
dren's Aid  Association,  the  Five  Points 
Mission,  and  the  Freedmen;  while  his 
work  in  the  National  Temperance  Soci- 
ety was  a  most  potent  influence  in  pro- 
moting temperance  sentiment  among 
those  with  whom  he  came  in  contact  as 
teacher  and  preacher.  He  served  as  presi- 
dent of  the  National  Temperance  Society 
of  American.  In  1872  he  went  abroad  as 
a  delegate  to  the  Presbyterian  Assembly 
in  Edinburgh,  Scotland,  on  which  occa- 
sion he  won  the  warm  friendship  of  many 
eminent  Presbyterian  divines  of  Great 
Britain.  His  friends  were  drawn  from 
the  most  cultured  and  intelligent,  and 
these  included  Spurgeon,  Gladstone, 
Dean    Stanley,    Dickens,    Carlyle,    Neal 


Dow,  Lincoln,  Horace  Greeley  and  John 
G.  Whittier. 

In  1853  Dr.  Cuyler  was  united  in  mar- 
riage to  Annie  E.  Mathiot,  a  daughter  of 
the  Hon.  Joshua  Mathiot,  a  member  of 
Congress  from  Ohio.  Her  labors  ably 
supplemented  and  rounded  out  those  of 
her  husband.  She  was  in  hearty  sym- 
pathy with  him  in  all  of  his  church  work 
and  in  his  efforts  for  the  upbuilding  of 
man,  and  in  a  no  less  forceful,  but  in  a 
more  quiet  way,  her  influence  was  ex- 
erted for  the  benefit  of  God's  children. 
From  the  time  of  his  retirement  from 
the  ministry  until  near  the  close  of  his 
life  Dr.  Cuyler  devoted  his  time  to 
preaching  and  lecturing  in  colleges  and 
to  literary  work.  A  monument  to  his 
splendid  accomplishments  is  found  in  the 
Cuyler  Chapel  of  the  Lafayette  Avenue 
Presbyterian  Church,  which  was  named 
in  his  honor  by  the  Young  People's  As- 
sociation of  that  organization  in  1892. 
A  large  mission  church,  seating  one  thou- 
sand people  and  erected  in  1900  by  the 
Lafayette  Avenue  Church,  in  Canton, 
China,  was  named  the  Theodore  L.  Cuy- 
ler Church.     He  died  February  26,  1909. 


DUTCHER,  Silas  B., 

Man  of  Affairs,  Philanthropist. 

Silas  B.  Dutcher  was  born  July  12, 
1829,  on  his  father's  farm  on  the  shore 
of  Otsego  Lake,  in  the  town  of  Spring- 
field, Otsego  county,  New  York,  son  of 
Parcefor  Carr  and  Johanna  Low  (Frink) 
Dutcher,  grandson  of  John  and  Silvey 
(Beardsley)  Dutcher,  great-grandson  of 
Gabriel  and  Elizabeth  (Knickerbocker) 
Dutcher,  and  great-great-grandson  of 
Ruloff  and  Janettie  (Bressie)  Dutcher, 
who  were  married  at  Kingston,  New 
York,  in  1700,  and  in  1720  removed  to 
Litchfield  county,  Connecticut.  Ruloff 
Dutcher  is  believed  to  have  been  a  grand- 


48 


t/rtA 


~> 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


son  of  Dierck  Cornelison  Duyster,  under- 
commissary  at  Fort  Orange  in  1630, 
whose  name  appears  in  deeds  of  two 
large  tracts  of  land  to  Killian  Van  Rens- 
selaer. His  maternal  grandparents  were 
Stephen  and  Ann  (Low)  Frink,  and  his 
maternal  great-grandparents  were  Cap- 
tain Peter  and  Johanna  (Ten  Eyck)  Low, 
and  his  great-grandfather  was  an  officer 
in  the  Continental  army.  Johanna  Ten 
Eyck  was  a  descendant  of  Conrad  Ten 
Eyck,  who  came  from  Amsterdam,  Hol- 
land, to  New  York  in  1650,  and  owned 
what  is  now  known  as  Coenties  Slip,  New 
York  City.  Another  of  his  ancestors  was 
William  Beardsley,  who  was  born  at 
Stratford,  England,  in  1605,  came  to 
America  in  1635,  settling  at  Stratford, 
Connecticut,  four  years  later,  and  an- 
other one  was  Harman  Janse  Van  Wye 
Knickerbocker,  of  Dutchess  county,  New 
York. 

Silas  B.  Dutcher  attended  the  public 
schools  near  his  father's  farm  each  sum- 
mer and  winter  from  the  age  of  four 
until  the  age  of  seven  years,  and  after 
that  he  had  a  little  more  schooling  in  the 
winter  season,  and  one  term  at  Cazenovia 
Seminary.  He  began  teaching  winter 
schools  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  and  taught 
every  winter  until  he  was  twenty-two, 
working  on  his  father's  farm  during  the 
remainder  of  each  year.  In  the  fall  of 
185 1,  owing  to  a  temporary  loss  of  his 
voice  which  prevented  him  from  teach- 
ing, he  found  employment  at  railroad 
construction,  but  soon  became  a  station 
agent  and  subsequently  a  conductor,  and 
for  more  than  three  years  was  employed 
on  the  old  Erie  Railway  from  Elmira  to 
Niagara  Falls,  New  York.  He  then  went 
to  New  York  and  entered  mercantile 
business,  to  which  he  devoted  his  ener- 
gies through  the  terrible  panics  of  1857 
and  i860  without  severe  misfortune.  In 
1868  he  was  appointed  Supervisor  of  In- 
n  Y-Voi  in— «  49 


ternal  Revenue,  a  position  which  he  at 
first  declined,  but  was  urged  by  his 
friends  to  accept.  Against  his  own  judg- 
ment, and,  as  events  proved,  greatly  to 
the  detriment  of  his  financial  interests, 
he  took  the  office.  He  was  unable  to  give 
attention  to  his  own  business,  his  partner 
was  not  equal  to  its  management,  and  he 
soon  discovered  that  all  he  had  accumu- 
lated by  twelve  years  of  hard  work  was 
scattered  and  gone,  and  he  was  obliged 
to  sell  the  real  estate  he  owned  to  meet 
his  liabilities. 

Even  as  a  boy  he  had  been  more  or 
less  interested  in  politics.  His  grand- 
father was  a  Democrat,  and  Silas  B. 
Dutcher  was  often  called  upon  to  read 
his  Democratic  newspaper  to  him;  his 
father  was  a  Whig,  and  the  result  was 
that  he  had  an  opportunity  at  an  early 
age  to  learn  something  of  the  claims  of 
both  parties.  Before  he  was  twenty-one 
he  became  interested  in  the  question  of 
freedom,  or  the  extension  of  slavery  in 
the  territories — the  most  vital  question 
of  that  day — and  while  yet  little  more 
than  a  boy,  in  1848,  did  some  effective 
campaign  speaking  for  General  Taylor. 

When  he  went  to  New  York  Mr. 
Dutcher  resolved  to  have  nothing  to  do 
with  active  politics,  but  the  breaking  up 
of  a  Republican  meeting  in  the  Bleecker 
building  in  the  Ninth  Ward  brought  him 
out  most  decisively,  and  he  was  quite 
active  politically  from  1856  to  1861.  In 
1857  he  was  president  of  the  Ninth  Ward 
Republican  Association ;  in  1858-59  he 
was  chairman  of  the  Young  Men's  Repub- 
lican Committee;  and  in  i860  he  was 
president  of  the  Wide-Awake  Associa- 
tion. During  the  last  year  mentioned  he 
became  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Super- 
visors of  the  county  of  New  York.  His 
business  demanded  his  attention,  and 
there  were  other  reasons  why,  in  the  fall 
of  1861,  he  moved  to  Brooklyn  in  order 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


to  sever  his  relations  with  that  body. 
William  M.  Tweed  was  a  member  of  the 
board  at  that  time,  and  began  to  develop 
some  of  the  schemes  which  eventually 
caused  his  downfall.  Mr.  Dutcher  was 
not  willing  to  vote  ignorantly  on  any 
question  or  to  act  upon  the  representa- 
tions of  other  members,  who  he  believed 
held  their  personal  interests  above  the 
interests  of  the  county.  As  a  resident  of 
Brooklyn  he  again  resolved  to  keep  out 
of  politics,  but  the  riots  of  1863  brought 
him  in  close  relations  with  active  Repub- 
licans, and  he  found  himself  again  in  the 
political  harness.  He  held  the  office  of 
Supervisor  of  Internal  Revenue  from 
1868  until  1872,  a  period  of  four  years, 
at  first  under  appointment  of  Hugh  Mc- 
Cullough,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
and  later  under  appointment  of  President 
Grant.  In  November,  1872,  he  was  ap- 
pointed United  States  Pension  Agent,  re- 
signing that  office  in  1875  to  accept  a 
position  in  the  employ  of  the  Metropoli- 
tan Life  Insurance  Company,  which  he 
held  until  appointed  United  States  Ap- 
praiser of  the  Port  of  New  York  by 
President  Grant,  which  latter  position  he 
held  until  1880.  He  was  Superintendent 
of  Public  Works  of  the  State  of  New 
York  from  1880  until  1883,  appointed  by 
Governor  Cornell.  At  the  close  of  his 
term  in  the  last  named  office,  President 
Arthur  requested  him  to  accept  the  office 
of  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue,  to 
which  he  replied  that  he  had  held  office 
fourteen  years,  and  that  all  he  had  to 
show  for  that  service  was  a  few  old 
clothes ;  that  if  he  accepted  the  position 
tendered  him  and  held  it  one  or  more 
years,  he  would  retire  with  about  the 
same  quantity  of  old  clothes  as  he  had  at 
the  beginning,  and  so  much  older  and  less 
available  for  other  business,  and  that  the 
remainder  of  his  life  must  be  devoted  to 
making  some  provision  for  his  wife  and 


children,  and  consequently  he  must  de- 
cline further  office-holding. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  charter  com- 
mission which  framed  the  charter  of 
Greater  New  York,  appointed  by  Gov- 
ernor Morton,  and  was  appointed  a  man- 
ager of  the  Long  Island  State  Hospital 
by  Governor  Black,  and  reappointed  by 
Governor  Roosevelt.  He  was  a  Whig 
from  1850  to  1855,  and  became  a  Repub- 
lican at  the  organization  of  that  party. 
After  locating  in  Brooklyn  he  was  the 
chairman  of  the  Kings  County  Repub- 
lican Committee  for  four  years,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Republican  State  Committee 
for  many  years,  and  was  the  chairman  of 
the  Republican  Executive  Committee  of 
the  State  in  1876.  He  served  as  a  dele- 
gate to  several  Republican  national  con- 
ventions, and  was  on  the  stump  in  every 
presidential  campaign  from  1848  to  1888. 

From  the  time  he  became  a  resident  of 
Brooklyn  until  the  consolidation  was 
consummated,  Mr.  Dutcher  was  an  ad- 
vocate of  the  consolidation  of  Brooklyn 
and  New  York.  As  a  member  for  four 
years  of  the  Brooklyn  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, he  exerted  all  his  influence  for  the 
advancement  of  the  public  schools.  As 
a  member  of  the  Charter  Commission  for 
Greater  New  York,  he  labored  earnestly 
to  secure  equal  taxation  and  home  rule 
for  the  public  schools,  believing  that  the 
system  and  management  were  better  than 
in  Manhattan,  and  better  than  any  other 
submitted  to  the  community.  No  work 
of  his  life  gave  him  more  satisfaction 
than  the  results  in  the  charter  on  these 
two  points.  He  also  took  an  active  in- 
terest in  Sunday  school  affairs,  and  was 
superintendent  for  ten  years  of  the 
Twelfth  Street  Reformed  Church  Sun- 
day school,  at  a  time  when  it  was  one  of 
the  largest  schools  in  the  State. 

Mr.  Dutcher  resumed  business  to  some 
extent  in  1885,  when  he  formed  a  copart- 


50 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


nership  with  W.  E.  Edminster  in  a  fire 
and  marine  insurance  agency,  which  ex- 
isted for  a  number  of  years.  He  was  one 
of  the  charter  trustees  of  the  Union  Dime 
Savings  Institution  of  New  York  City, 
organized  in  1859,  and  became  its  presi- 
dent in  1885.  In  the  spring  of  1901  he 
was  invited  to  and  accepted  the  presi- 
dency of  the  Hamilton  Trust  Company. 
He  was  for  twenty  years  a  director  in  the 
Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Company, 
and  was  a  director  in  the  Garfield  Safe 
Deposit  Company  and  the  Goodwin  Car 
Company.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Dutch  Reformed  Church,  treasurer  of  the 
Brooklyn  Bible  Society,  one  of  the  man- 
agers of  the  Society  for  Improving  the 
Condition  of  the  Poor,  a  member  of  the 
Brooklyn  and  Hamilton  clubs  and  of  the 
Masonic  fraternity,  and  president  of  the 
Association  of  the  Brooklyn  Masonic 
Veterans  in  1896. 

When  Mr.  Dutcher  took  up  his  resi- 
dence in  Brooklyn  the  population  of  the 
city  was  about  275,000.  What  is  now  the 
Park  Slope  was  then  open  fields.  The 
small  settlement  known  as  Gowanus  was 
all  there  was  south  of  Flatbush  avenue. 
He  witnessed  the  city  grow  from  a  little 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  million  souls  to 
more  than  a  million  and  a  quarter,  the 
Park  Slope  transformed  into  one  of  the 
finest  residential  sections  of  the  city,  and 
the  three  or  four  churches  in  that  part  of 
Brooklyn  increase  in  large  measure.  He 
knew  every  one  of  Brooklyn's  mayors 
from  George  Hall,  the  first  executive, 
down  to  the  time  of  his  death,  and  also 
knew  personally  every  Governor  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  from  William  H. 
Seward  to  Benjamin  B.  Odell,  except 
Governor  William  C.  Bouch  and  Gov- 
ernor Silas  Wright.  His  political  career 
was  one  to  note  with  respect.  He  was 
never  an  applicant  for  any  office  that  he 
filled,  and  he  never  became  a  dependent 


on  a  political  office.  Every  public  em- 
ployment to  which  he  was  called  was  a 
business  employment  and  he  fulfilled  its 
duties  in  a  way  to  prove  his  fitness  for 
private  employment  and  his  life  exhibited 
a  union  of  public  and  private  service 
which  was  creditable  citizenship. 

Mr.  Dutcher  married,  February  10, 
1859,  Rebecca  J.  Alwaise,  a  descendant 
of  John  Alwaise,  a  French  Huguenot, 
who  came  to  Philadelphia  in  1740.  Her 
grandmother  was  a  descendant  of  John 
Bishop,  who  came  from  England  in  1645, 
and  settled  at  Woodbridge,  New  Jersey. 
The  children  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dutcher 
were :  DeWitt  P.,  Edith  May,  Elsie  Re- 
becca, Malcomb  B.,  Jessie  Ruth  and  Eva 
Olive.  Mr.  Dutcher  died  February  10, 
1909. 


DE  VINNE,  Theodore  L., 

Art  Printer,  Author. 

Theodore  Low  De  Vinne,  one  of  the 
most  accomplished  printers  of  his  day, 
and  a  founder  of  the  New  York  Typothe- 
tse,  was  born  in  Stamford,  Connecticut, 
December  25,  1828,  son  of  the  Rev.  Dan- 
iel and  Joanna  Augusta  (Low)  De  Vinne. 

He  acquired  a  common  school  educa- 
tion, and  at  an  early  age  entered  the 
office  of  "The  Gazette,"  at  Newburgh, 
New  York,  and  learned  the  printer's 
trade,  remaining  there  four  years.  In 
1849  he  came  to  New  York  City  and  took 
employment  in  the  printing  house  of 
Francis  Hart,  and  ten  years  later  he  be- 
came junior  partner  in  the  firm  of  Fran- 
cis Hart  &  Company.  At  the  time  of  the 
death  of  Mr.  Hart  in  1877,  Mr.  De  Vinne 
became  manager  of  the  business,  and  in 
1883  it  was  incorporated  by  Theodore  L. 
De  Vinne  &  Company.  Mr.  De  Vinne 
became  world-wide  known  as  a  most  ac- 
complished printer,  and  recognized  as  a 
foremost  leader  in  improvement  in  the 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


art  of  typography.  He  printed  the  "St. 
Nicholas"  magazine  from  1873,  and  "The 
Century"  from  1874.  He  was  one  of  the 
founders  and  the  first  secretary  of  the 
New  York  Typothetse,  and  president  of 
the  United  Typothetae  of  America,  1887- 
88;  a  president  of  the  Grolier  Club,  and 
a  prominent  member  of  the  Aldine  Asso- 
ciation, and  of  numerous  art  and  literary 
clubs  both  in  the  United  States  and  in 
Europe.  He  was  a  frequent  contributor 
to  leading  art  journals  and  other  period- 
icals, and  was  author  of  the  following 
published  volumes:  "Printer's  Price 
List"  (1869) ;  "Invention  of  Printing" 
(1876) ;  "Historic  Types"  (1884) ;  "Chris- 
topher Plantin"  (1888) ;  "Plain  Printing 
Types"  (1900) ;  "Correct  Composition" 
(1901);  "Title  Pages"  (1902);  "Book 
Composition"  (1904) ;  "Notable  Printers 
of  Italy  During  the  Fifteenth  Century" 
(1910).  Columbia  and  Yale  Universities 
conferred  upon  him  the  honorary  degree 
of  Master  of  Arts. 

He  married,  in  1850,  Grace  Brockbank, 
daughter  of  Joseph  Brockbank,  of  Wil- 
limantic,  Connecticut;  she  died  May  7, 
1905.  Mr.  De  Vinne  died  February  16, 
1914. 


JAMES,  Henry, 

Prolific  Author. 

Henry  James  was  by  common  consent 
one  of  the  leading  American  writers  of 
his  day,  yet  one  of  the  least  frequently 
read  by  the  masses. 

He  was  born  in  New  York  City  on 
April  15,  1843,  son  of  the  Rev.  Henry 
James,  a  noted  clergyman  and  Sweden- 
borgian.  His  brother,  the  late  William 
James,  attained  world-wide  fame  as  a 
psychologist. 

Henry  James's  education  gave  wide 
latitude  to  his  inclinations.  After  spend- 
ing many  years  in  the  schools  of  Switzer- 


land and  France,  he  returned  to  Amer- 
ica and  entered  the  Law  School  of  Har- 
vard University.  In  191 1  Harvard  hon- 
ored him  with  the  Degree  of  Humane 
Letters.  Even  before  crossing  the  ocean 
for  the  first  time  as  a  youth,  Mr.  James 
had  been  deeply  interested  in  the  society 
of  other  lands.  He  himself  relates  how 
he  spent  many  boyhood  hours  pouring 
over  the  pages  of  "Punch,"  absorbing 
English  traditions  and  atmosphere,  for 
which  he  held  the  greatest  admiration. 
While  a  student  at  Harvard  his  literary 
inclinations  were  disclosed.  It  was  his 
wont  to  shut  himself  up  in  his  room  for 
several  days  at  a  time,  refusing  food,  ex- 
cept what  was  brought  to  him,  and  de- 
voting himself  entirely  to  the  task  of 
evolving  plots,  characters,  skillful  de- 
scription and  dialogue.  While  at  that 
institution  he  came  under  the  influence 
of  James  Russell  Lowell. 

In  1869  he  went  abroad  for  the  second 
time,  on  this  occasion  to  make  his  home 
in  Paris.  He  soon  found,  however,  that 
London  and  nearby  spots  in  England 
fitted  his  temperament  better.  He  pur- 
chased a  fine  estate  at  Rye,  on  the  sea- 
coast  of  Sussex,  about  seventy  miles  from 
London.  He  returned  to  this  country 
but  once  since,  and  then  after  an  absence 
of  twenty-five  years.  The  European  war, 
beginning  in  1914,  seemed  to  have 
touched  his  heart  harder  than  did  the 
American  struggle  of  half  a  century  be- 
fore. He  was  deeply  disappointed  when 
he  realized  the  United  States  did  not  in- 
tend throwing  its  armed  forces  to  the  as- 
sistance of  the  allies  and  the  succor  of 
Belgium. 

In  1915  Mr.  James  became  a  British 
subject.  In  a  statement  he  gave  the  fol- 
lowing reasons  for  changing  his  allegi- 
ance:  "Because  having  lived  and  work- 
ed in  England  the  best  part  of  forty 
years;  because  of  my  attachment  to  the 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


country,  my  sympathy  with  it  and  its 
people ;  because  of  long  friendships,  asso- 
ciations and  interests  formed  here,  all 
have  brought  to  a  head  a  desire  to  throw 
my  moral  weight  and  personal  allegiance, 
for  whatever  it  may  be  worth,  into  the 
scale  of  the  contending  nations  in  the 
present  and  future  fortune." 

Mr.  James  was  made  welcome  by  the 
English.  The  King  bestowed  upon  him 
the  Order  of  Merit,  through  the  medium 
of  Lord  Bryce.  There  are  only  eleven 
civilian  members  of  this  order,  which  was 
instituted  as  a  mark  of  special  distinc- 
tion for  naval  or  military  service,  or  for 
work  in  art,  literature  and  science. 

Not  long  afterwards  Mr.  James  was 
taken  seriously  ill.  While  his  malady 
was  not  of  an  acute  nature,  he  was  told 
by  his  physicians  that  it  would  prove 
fatal  within  a  few  months.  He  was  one 
of  the  few  novelists  said  to  have  never 
been  interviewed.  He  always  refrained 
from  answering  critics  and  from  explain- 
ing passages  in  his  books.  In  his  works 
published  since  1908  Mr.  James  wrote  a 
special  preface  to  each,  giving  its  history 
and  certain  autobiographical  notes  which 
he  knew  would  be  appreciated  by  his 
many  admirers.  His  use  of  language 
was  masterly.  He  was  so  conscientious 
of  detail  that  he  sacrificed  simplicity  to 
such  an  extent  that  his  long,  involved 
sentences  became  a  tradition.  He  was 
noted  for  his  unfailing  flow  of  words,  and 
his  subtle  blendings  and  shadings  of 
thought.  Throughout  his  many  works 
were  cryptograms  of  a  type  most  puz- 
zling to  his  readers. 

Among  his  works  were:  "Watch  and 
Ward,"  1871 ;  "A  Passionate  Pilgrim," 
1875  ;  "Doderick  Hudson,"  1875  ;  "Trans- 
atlantic Sketches,"  1875 ;  "The  Amer- 
ican," 1877;  "French  Poets  and  Novel- 
ists," 1878;  "The  Europeans,"  1878; 
"Daisy  Miller,"  1878;  "An  International 


Episode,"  1879;  "Life  of  Hawthorne," 
1879;  "A  Bundle  of  Letters,"  1879;  "Con- 
fidence," 1879;  "Diary  of  a  Man  of  Fifty," 
1880;  "Washington  Square,"  1880;  "The 
Portrait  of  a  Lady,"  1881 ;  "Siege  of  Lon- 
don," 1883;  "Portraits  of  Places,"  1884; 
"Tales  of  Three  Cities,"  1884;  "A  Little 
Tour  of  France,"  1884;  "Author  of  Bell- 
traffic,"  1884;  "The  Bostonians,"  1886; 
"Princess  Casamassima,"  1886;  "Partial 
Portraits,"  1888;  "The  Aspern  Papers," 
1888;  "The  Reverberator,"  1888;  "A  Lon- 
don Life,"  1889;  "The  Tragic  Muse," 
1890;  "Terminations,"  1896;  "The  Spoils 
of  Poynton,"  1897;  "WhatMaisie  Knew," 
1897;  "In  the  Cage,"  1898;  "The  Two 
Magiis,"  1898;  "The  Awkward  Age," 
1899;  "The  Soft  Side,"  1900;  "A  Little 
Tour  in  France,"  1900;  "The  Sacred 
Fount,"  1901 ;  "The  Wings  of  the  Dove," 
1902;  "The  Better  Sort,"  1903;  "The 
Question  of  Our  Speech  and  the  Lesson 
of  Balzas  (lectures),  1905;  "American 
Scene,"  1906;  "Italian  Hours,"  1909; 
"Julia  Bride,"  1909;  "Novels  and  Tales" 
(24  vols),  1909;  "Finer  Grain,"  1910; 
"The  Outcry,"  191 1,  and  "Small  Boys 
and  Others,"  1913. 

When  in  191 5  Mr.  James  took  up  his 
permanent  residence  in  England,  and  be- 
came a  British  subject,  his  health  was 
failing,  and  his  death  occurred  on  Febru- 
ary 28,  1916,  at  his  residence  in  Chelsea. 


HARRIMAN,  Edward  Henry, 
Capitalist,  Financier. 

Edward  Henry  Harriman  was  born  at 
Hempstead,  Long  Island,  February  25, 
1848,  son  of  Rev.  Orlando  and  Cornelia 
(Neilson)  Harriman,  grandson  of  Or- 
lando and  Anna  (Ingland)  Harriman,  and 
great-grandson  of  William  Harriman,  a 
native  of  Nottingham,  England,  and  a 
member  of  the  Worshipful  Company  of 
Stationers  in  London,  who  came  to  Amer- 


53 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


ica  in  1795  and  settled  in  New  York  City. 
His  father  was  a  man  of  broad  education, 
and  as  a  young  man  served  as  junior  prin- 
cipal of  the  academy  at  Ossining,  New 
York.  He  took  orders  in  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church,  was  assistant  rector  at 
Tarrytown,  New  York,  and  for  five  years 
was  rector  of  old  St.  George's  Church,  at 
Hempstead,  Long  Island ;  his  later  years 
were  passed  in  Jersey  City,  New  Jersey. 
Edward  H.  Harriman  was  educated  at 
Trinity  School,  New  York  City,  and  in 
Jersey  City,  New  Jersey.  He  began  his 
business  career  as  a  clerk  in  a  broker's 
office  in  Wall  street,  New  York  City.  He 
manifested  great  aptitude  for  the  details 
of  the  business,  and  soon  realized  the 
possibilities  of  large  financiering.  At  the 
age  of  twenty-two  he  opened  a  brokerage 
office  in  his  own  name  and  made  his  ap- 
pearance on  the  floor  of  the  Stock  Ex- 
change as  a  member  and  trader.  In  1872, 
two  years  later,  he  founded  the  banking 
firm  of  Harriman  &  Company,  with  James 
and  Lewis  Livingston  as  partners,  and 
his  younger  brother,  William  M.  Harri- 
man, subsequently  became  identified  with 
the  firm.  Shortly  after  the  year  1890  Mr. 
Harriman  began  to  give  his  entire  time 
and  abilities  to  railroad  interests,  com- 
mitting the  banking  business  to  his 
brother,  William  M.  Harriman,  with 
Nicholas  Fish  and  Oliver  Harriman  (a 
cousin)  as  partners.  From  the  outset, 
Edward  H.  Harriman  was  successful  in 
his  enterprises,  and  was  recognized  as  an 
operator  of  remarkable  foresight  and 
judgment.  His  first  active  interest  in 
railways  grew  out  of  his  acquisition  of 
stock  in  the  Sodus  Bay  &  Southern  and 
the  Ogdensburg  &  Lake  Champlain  rail- 
roads, two  small  lines  in  northern  New 
York,  in  both  of  which  he  became  direc- 
tor. In  1883  he  was  elected  a  director  of 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company, 
and  with  which  his  service  continued 
until    his    death.      He    was    elected    vice- 


president  of  the  company  in  1887,  but  re- 
signed the  position  in  1890.  In  1893  he 
participated  in  a  reorganization  of  the 
Erie  Railroad  Company,  undertaken  by 
J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  and  his  signal  suc- 
cess in  this  transaction  led  him  to  devote 
his  activities  toward  the  constructive  re- 
organization of  other  lines.  Having  made 
a  thorough  study  of  railways  and  railway 
management,  he  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  there  was  urgent  necessity  for  their 
expansion  and  improvement — an  enlarge- 
ment of  their  capacity  to  serve  the  public. 
Many  important  roads  were  then  in  a 
demoralized  financial  condition,  and  some 
of  them  practically  bankrupt.  They  were 
poorly  equipped,  and  various  western 
roads  particularly  were  without  adequate 
traffic  on  account  of  crop  failures  and  a 
general  paralysis  of  business.  Mr.  Harri- 
man was  made  a  director  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  Company  in  December, 
1897,  was  elected  chairman  of  its  execu- 
tive committee,  May  23,  1898,  and  presi- 
dent, June  7,  1904,  which  offices  he  held 
until  his  death.  The  Union  Pacific  sys- 
tem, was  soon  brought  to  comprise  the 
Union  Pacific,  the  Oregon  Short  Line, 
and  the  Oregon  Railway  &  Navigation 
roads.  After  the  death  of  Collis  P.  Hunt- 
ington in  1900,  the  Union  Pacific  re- 
sources were  used  to  secure  the  controll- 
ing interest  in  the  Southern  Pacific  Com- 
pany, this  carrying  control  of  the  Central 
Pacific  railway,  the  Oregon  &  California 
railroad,  the  Southern  Pacific  railroad, 
the  South  Pacific  Coast  railway,  and  Mor- 
gan's Louisiana  &  Texas  Railroad  & 
Steamship  Company,  as  well  as  many 
short  feeder  roads.  Mr.  Harriman  be- 
came a  director  and  chairman  of  the  exec- 
utive committee  of  the  Southern  Pacific 
Company  in  April,  1901,  and  president  on 
September  6,  offices  he  also  held  until  his 
death.  The  Southern  Pacific  Company 
also  operated  a  line  of  boats  from  Galves- 
ton and  New  Orleans  to  New  York.    The 


54 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


services  rendered  by  Mr.  Harriman  to 
the  great  region  served  by  the  Union 
Pacific  and  Southern  Pacific  systems 
directly,  and  indirectly  to  the  entire  coun- 
try, are  incalculable.  While  managing 
the  immense  interests  of  his  systems  so 
as  to  make  them  profitable,  Mr.  Harriman 
also  devoted  them  to  the  service  of  the 
public,  frequently  without  compensation. 
When  San  Francisco  was  visited  by  an 
earthquake  and  conflagration,  he  at  once 
realized  that  the  sufferers  could  be  re- 
moved from  hunger  and  suffering  more 
quickly  than  they  could  be  relieved  by 
gathering  and  carrying  supplies  to  them, 
and  accordingly  he  removed  two  hundred 
thousand  people  and  their  belongings  to 
the  surrounding  country.  Besides  a  gen- 
erous personal  contribution,  he  ordered 
his  railways  to  transport  without  cost  the 
gifts  of  food  and  supplies  which  the 
American  people  sent  to  the  stricken  city, 
and  in  this  way  his  railroads  gave  prob- 
ably about  a  million  dollars  in  free  freight 
service. 

In  1899,  while  planning  an  outing  to 
Alaska  for  his  family,  Mr.  Harriman  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  making  it  a  scientific 
expedition.  After  consultation  with  the 
officers  of  the  Washington  Academy  of 
Sciences,  a  number  of  noted  scientists 
were  made  members  of  the  party,  among 
them  five  biologists  and  zoologists,  three 
ornithologists,  five  botanists,  three  geolo- 
gists, a  glaciologist,  an  anthropologist, 
an  entomologist,  three  artists,  two  physi- 
cians, a  mining  engineer,  a  forester,  a 
geographer,  two  taxidermists  and  two 
photographers.  Mr.  Harriman  bore  the 
entire  expense  of  the  expedition,  and  pub- 
lished a  record  of  its  results  in  three 
sumptuous  volumes.  In  1903-04  Mr. 
Harriman  was  president  of  the  New  York 
State  Commission  appointed  by  Governor 
Odell  to  participate  in  the  Louisiana  Pur- 
chase Exposition,  and  in  that  capacity 
delivered  one   of  the   opening  addresses. 


He  was  very  fond  of  children,  and  the 
most  conspicuous  illustration  of  the  prac- 
tical character  of  this  interest  is  the  Boys' 
Club  of  New  York,  the  oldest  and  largest 
club  of  its  kind  in  the  world,  of  which  he 
was  president  from  the  time  he  organized 
it  in  1876  until  his  death.  He  erected  a 
club  house  at  a  cost  of  nearly  $250,000, 
and  habitually  paid  its  financial  deficits, 
at  times  amounting  to  more  than  a  thou- 
sand dollars  a  month.  In  the  club  rooms 
ten  thousand  boys  from  the  so-called 
slums  of  New  York  find  free  facilities  for 
giving  expression  to  their  talents  and  am- 
bitions, absolutely  without  any  formal 
attempt  at  religious  or  moral  instruction. 

Unquestionably  Mr.  Harriman  will  be 
remembered  as  one  of  the  most  notable 
financiers  and  railroad  men  of  the  world. 
In  boldness,  broadness  and  accuracy  of 
conception  and  in  vigor  and  success  of 
execution,  he  had  no  equal  in  contempo- 
rary business,  and  in  the  short  span  of 
years  that  his  activities  covered,  no  single 
individual  in  the  world's  financial  and  in- 
dustrial history  ever  accomplished  greater 
results  or  rendered  more  substantial  pub- 
lic service  in  the  development  and  admin- 
istration of  private  enterprise.  His  bril- 
liant achievements  brought  great  honor 
to  his  name,  but  their  price  to  him  was 
death,  for  in  the  fulness  of  his  success  he 
died  a  martyr  to  labor  and  responsibility. 
No  man  of  such  character  and  accom- 
plishments could  escape  opposition  and 
criticism,  but  these  to  Mr.  Harriman  were 
but  spurs  to  greater  and  better  endeavors, 
and  the  great  good  he  did  in  the  promo- 
tion of  commerce  and  the  development  of 
the  resources  of  the  West  will  be  the 
measure  by  which  his  life's  work  will  be 
tested.  Personally  Mr.  Harriman  was  a 
congenial  companion,  a  great  favorite 
among  his  associates,  and  always  a  leader 
in  whatever  was  going  on  in  the  club  and 
social  life  of  New  York  City. 

Mr.  Harriman  married,  at  Ogdensburg, 


55 


EXCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


New  York,  September  10,  1879,  Mary  W., 
daughter  of  William  J.  Averell,  who  bore 
him  six  children.  He  had  an  intense  love 
for  the  family  circle,  and  he  inculcated  in 
his  children  a  proper  regard  for  the  con- 
ventionalities of  fine  breeding,  a  due  ob- 
servance of  their  responsibilities  towards 
the  various  charitable  institutions  of  the 
metropolis.  To  carry  out  one  of  the  plana 
initiated  by  him,  Mrs.  Harriman,  within 
a  few  months  after  his  death,  conveyed 
to  the  State  of  New  York  from  the  Harri- 
man estate  ten  thousand  acres  and  the 
sum  of  $1,000,000  for  the  extension  and 
development  of  a  State  park,  which  was 
designed  through  the  assistance  of  other 
large  gifts  to  preserve  as  a  public  park 
along  the  west  bank  of  the  Hudson  river, 
one  of  the  most  picturesque  landscapes  in 
the  world,  extending  from  Fort  Lee  to 
Newburgh,  over  a  distance  of  sixty  miles. 
While  Mr.  Harriman  maintained  a  city 
residence  in  New  York,  his  country  home 
was  on  an  estate  of  25,000  acres  at  Arden, 
in  the  Ramapo  Hills,  Orange  county.  New 
York,  where  his  death  occurred,  Septem- 
ber 9,  1909. 


POTTER,  Henry  C, 
Prelate  of  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 

Henry  Codman  Potter  was  born  in 
Schenectady,  New  York,  May  25,  1834, 
son  of  Alonzo  and  Maria  (Nott)  Potter, 
his  mother  being  a  daughter  of  the  famous 
Eliphalet  Nott,  for  sixty-five  years  presi- 
dent of  Union  College.  His  father  was 
Bishop  of  Pennsylvania ;  his  uncle,  Hora- 
tio Potter,  Bishop  of  New  York ;  of  his 
brothers,  Clarkson  Nott  Potter  was  a 
Congressman  from  New  York  for  sev- 
eral terms ;  Robert  B.  Potter  was  a  briga- 
dier-general in  the  Civil  War;  Howard 
Potter  was  a  distinguished  banker:  Ed- 
ward T.  Potter  was  a  well-known  archi- 
tect, and  Eliphalet  Nott  Potter  was  presi- 


dent of  Union  and  afterward  of  Hobart 
College. 

Henry  Codman  Potter  was  educated  at 
the  Episcopal  Academy  in  Philadelphia, 
and  graduated  from  the  Theological  Sem- 
inary of  Virginia  in  1857.  He  was  or- 
dained to  the  priesthood  October  15,  1858, 
and  was  at  once  called  to  be  rector  of 
Christ  Church,  Greensburg,  Pennsyl- 
vania. In  1859  ne  was  called  to  St.  John's 
Church,  Troy,  New  York,  and  seven 
years  later  went  to  Boston  as  assistant 
minister  on  the  Green  foundation  of  Trin- 
ity Church,  which  position  he  held  for 
two  years.  In  May,  1868,  he  was  called 
to  the  rectorship  of  Grace  Church,  New 
York  City,  where  for  fifteen  years  he 
labored  unceasingly,  not  only  in  the  serv- 
ice of  the  church,  but  as  a  citizen  devot- 
ing himself  freely  to  the  betterment  of 
the  City  of  New  York  along  social  and 
educational  lines.  During  this  period  his 
uncle,  Bishop  Horatio  Potter,  of  New 
York,  was  advanced  in  years,  and,  having 
asked  for  an  assistant,  in  1883  Henry  C. 
Potter  was  elected  Assistant  Bishop,  and 
was  consecrated  at  Grace  Church,  Octo- 
ber 20,  1883.  He  at  once  entered  upon 
episcopal  duties,  Bishop  Horatio  Potter 
almost  immediately  withdrawing  from 
active  administration,  leaving  the  burden 
of  the  work  upon  the  nephew,  and  who 
from  the  beginning  manifested  his  emi- 
nent fitness  for  the  task.  Bishop  Horatio 
Potter  dying  in  1887,  Henry  C.  Potter 
entered  upon  the  bishopric  of  a  diocese 
the  largest  in  point  of  population  of  his 
church  in  America,  and  having,  at  the 
time  of  his  death,  405  clergymen,  257 
church  edifices,  256  parishes  and  mis- 
sions, 81,388  communicants,  3,820  Sun- 
day school  teachers,  and  41,835  Sunday 
school  scholars. 

Bishop  Potter's  labors  in  Grace  Church, 
while  he  was  yet  a  rector,  formed  an 
epoch  in  church  history,  and,  it  may  also 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


be  said,  made  a  new  chapter  in  sociology. 
Here  he  defined  the  mission  of  the  church 
as  one  that  should  meet  man's  human  as 
well  as  his  spiritual  needs.  The  tide  of 
population  had  been  rapidly  sweeping 
northward  and  away  from  Grace  Church. 
The  question  of  removal  was  mooted,  but 
the  young  rector  resolutely  turned  his 
face  toward  the  poor,  the  lowly,  the  hum- 
ble, and  the  needy  of  the  neighborhood, 
and  wrought  out  a  quality  of  Christian 
socialism  that  promoted  sociability  and 
drew  the  neighborhood  together  in  a  com- 
mon interest.  Under  his  rectorship  the 
influence  of  Grace  Church  extended  itself 
in  many  directions.  The  chapel  in  East 
Fourteenth  street  was  continued  as  a  suc- 
cessful mission.  Grace  House,  Grace 
Church  Day  Nursery  and  the  chantry 
were  added  to  the  group  of  church  build- 
ings, while  the  beauty  of  the  edifice  itself 
was  much  enhanced,  increased  by  the  ad- 
dition of  the  graceful  marble  spire,  the 
chimes,  a  new  chancel,  and  new  windows. 
Mr.  Potter,  while  yet  a  rector,  was  secre- 
tary of  the  State  Charities  Aid  Associa- 
tion, and  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Char- 
ity Organization  Society ;  and  he  was 
also  secretary  of  the  house  of  bishops  for 
fifteen  years,  a  service  which  was  of  great 
value  to  him  and  when  he  himself  came  to 
be  a  bishop.  He  passed  part  of  one  sum- 
mer at  the  pro-cathedral  in  Stanton  street, 
in  order  to  observe  for  himself  the  condi- 
tions under  which  the  poor  dwell  in  one 
of  the  most  crowded  districts  of  New 
York.  As  a  member  of  the  National  Civic 
Federation,  he  was  frequently  called  upon 
as  an  arbitrator  in  controversies  between 
employers  and  employees.  As  bishop  he 
administered  the  diocesan  affairs  with 
wisdom  and  great  breadth  of  view,  and 
his  time  and  strength  were  spent  unceas- 
ingly to  build  up,  to  vitalize  and  to  ex- 
tend the  work  of  his  church.  His  inter- 
est extended  throughout  the  entire  do- 
main   of    conscientious    citizenship.      On 


various  public  occasions  his  voice  was 
raised  at  moments  when  it  found  an  echo 
throughout  the  land,  three  instances  being 
especially  notable.  The  first  was  on  the 
occasion  of  the  Washington  centennial 
celebration,  of  which  President  Nicholas 
Murray  Butler,  of  Columbia  University, 
said :  "I  like  to  remember  the  service 
Bishop  Potter  did — and  it  was  a  bold 
service — -when  he  stood  on  a  historic  occa- 
sion in  the  pulpit  of  old  St.  Paul's  and  in 
the  presence  of  a  President  of  the  United 
States  said  what  was  in  his  heart  about 
corruption  in  our  public  life  and  the  cor- 
roding influence  of  the  spoils  system  in 
politics.  The  whole  nation,  east  and 
west,  north  and  south,  rose  to  its  feet  in 
splendid  appreciation,  not  only  of  his 
courage,  but  of  the  sure  instinct  which 
led  him  to  seize  that  dramatic  moment 
to  say  to  every  American  what  under 
other  circumstances  perhaps  but  few 
Americans  would  have  heard."  Again, 
in  1895,  there  was  a  movement  for  the  re- 
form of  city  politics,  and  an  effort  to 
throw  off  the  yoke  of  Tammany,  but  the 
men  to  whom  the  city  should  have  been 
able  to  turn  in  her  hour  of  need  had  no 
better  remedy  to  suggest  than  an  alliance 
with  the  machine  of  the  opposing  political 
party.  Only  a  group  of  citizens,  members 
of  the  comparatively  unimportant  good 
government  clubs,  had  the  courage  to 
protest  against  such  a  sacrifice  of  princi- 
ple. In  vain  they  appealed  to  the  leading 
men  of  New  York  to  aid  them  in  their 
effort,  but  only  Bishop  Potter  clearly  saw 
the  issue  and  made  it  plain  in  a  letter 
which  was  posted  on  the  boardbills  all 
over  the  city  as  a  campaign  appeal.  The 
third  occasion  was  when  the  alliance  be- 
tween the  city  police  and  criminals  had 
been  forced  upon  his  knowledge  by  the 
neglect  and  insolence  with  which  the  pro- 
tests of  the  vicar  of  the  pro-cathedral  in 
Stanton  street  were  received  by  the  local 
police  captain,  and  where  the  conditions 


57 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF   BIOGRAPHY 


were  such  that  the  young  girls  of  the 
neighborhood  were  not  safe  in  the  streets. 
His  public  letter  to  Mayor  Van  Wyck 
opened  the  eyes  of  the  people  to  the  ex- 
istent frightful  conditions,  and  caused  a 
real  moral  awakening,  if  not  the  defeat 
of  the  Tammany  candidate  at  the  ensuing 
election.  Characteristic  of  his  entire 
career  was  his  activity  in  public  affairs, 
and  he  valued  such  extra-clerical  oppor- 
tunities as  a  part  of  the  prophetic  func- 
tion of  his  ministry.  At  the  same  time 
he  was  never  too  remote  a  Christian  to 
be  out  of  reach  of  human  relations,  nor 
too  much  a  man  of  the  world  to  forget 
the  sacredness  of  his  calling. 

The  project  of  building  the  magnifi- 
cent Cathedral  of  St.  John  the  Divine, 
though  conceived  in  the  mind  of  Bishop 
Horatio  Potter,  would  have  ended  in 
failure  but  for  the  unceasing  efforts  of 
his  bishop-nephew,  Henry  C.  Potter.  In- 
corporated in  1873,  the  work  progressed 
slowly  with  no  great  degree  of  public  in- 
terest, but,  after  many  vicissitudes  during 
a  period  of  eight  years,  the  cornerstone 
was  laid  in  1892,  and  at  the  time  of  his 
death  about  $3,500,000  had  been  contrib- 
uted for  its  erection.  The  honorary  de- 
grees conferred  upon  Bishop  Potter  were: 
Doctor  of  Divinity  by  Harvard,  Union 
and  Oxford  (England)  ;  Doctor  of  Laws 
by  Union,  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
Yale,  Cambridge  (England),  and  St.  An- 
drews (Scotland),  and  Doctor  of  Civil 
Law,  Bishops  College  (Canada).  He  was 
the  author  of  "Sisterhoods  and  Deacon- 
esses" (1873);  "The  Gates  of  the  East" 
(1877)  ;  "Sermons  of  the  City"  (1881)  ; 
"Waymarks"  (1892);  "The  Scholar  and 
the  State"  (1897)  ;  "Addresses  to  Women 
Engaged  in  Church  Work"  (1898)  ;  "God 
and  the  City"  (1900)  ;  "The  Industrial 
Situation"  (1902)  ;  "Man,  Men  and  Their 
Masters"  (1902)  ;  "The  East  of  To-Day 
and  To-morrow"  (1902)  ;  "Law  and 
Loyalty"  (1903) ;  "The  Drink  Problem" 


(1905)  ;  "Reminiscences  of  Bishops  and 
Archbishops"  (1906).  Bishop  Potter  was 
married  first,  in  1857,  to  Eliza  Rogers 
Jacobs,  of  Spring  Grove,  Lancaster,  Penn- 
sylvania ;  and  (second)  in  1902,  to  Mrs. 
Elizabeth  Scriven  Clark,  widow  of  Alfred 
Corning  Clark,  of  Cooperstown,  New 
York.  Bishop  Potter  died  at  Coopers- 
town  on  July  21,  1908,  and  on  October  20, 
the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  his  conse- 
cration, his  body  was  placed  beneath  the 
floor  of  the  altar  in  the  crypt  of  the  great 
cathedral  which  owed  so  much  to  his 
effort. 


ALVORD,  Thomas  G., 

Lawyer,  Legislator. 

Thomas  Gold  Alvord  was  born  at 
Onondaga,  New  York,  December  20,  1810, 
of  English  and  Dutch  antecedents.  His 
paternal  ancestor,  Alexander  Alvord,  emi- 
grated to  this  country  from  Somerset- 
shire, England,  in  1634,  and  settled  in 
East  Windsor,  Connecticut.  His  mater- 
nal ancestor,  Abram  Jacob  Lansing,  came 
from  Holland  in  1630  and  located  at  Fort 
Orange  (now  Albany),  New  York.  He 
became  the  patroon  of  Lansingburgh, 
which  place  is  named  after  him.  A  num- 
ber of  his  ancestors  were  soldiers  in  the 
Revolution,  and  his  paternal  grandfather 
served  also  in  the  French  and  Indian 
wars.  His  father,  Elisha  Alvord,  mar- 
ried Helen  Lansing,  at  Lansingburgh. 

Thomas  Gold  Alvord  received  his  early 
education  at  the  academy  at  Lansing- 
burgh, New  York,  and  afterward  matri- 
culated at  Yale  College,  from  which  he 
was  graduated  at  the  age  of  eighteen. 
He  subsequently  studied  law,  and  in 
October.  1832,  was  admitted  to  the  bar. 
In  January.  1833,  he  entered  upon  the 
practice  of  his  profession  at  Salina,  now  a 
portion  of  Syracuse,  New  York.  In  1846 
he  gave  up  his  law  practice  and  engaged 
in  the  manufacture  of  lumber  and  salt,  in 


58 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


which  he  attained  a  high  degree  of  suc- 
cess. In  i860  Mr.  Alvord  gave  up  the 
lumber  part  of  his  business  and  there- 
after devoted  himself  entirely  to  the 
manufacture  of  salt.  He  held  various 
local  offices  at  Salina,  and  in  November, 
1843,  was  elected  to  the  New  York  As- 
sembly, and  from  that  time  forward  his 
name  was  prominently  connected  with 
the  history  of  his  native  State.  From 
1864  to  1866  he  was  Lieutenant-Governor 
of  New  York,  and  from  1867  to  1868  was 
a  member  and  vice-president  of  the  State 
Constitutional  Convention.  In  1861  Mr. 
Alvord  was  made  permanent  presiding 
officer  of  the  Union  Convention  which 
met  in  Syracuse  in  that  year.  He  rend- 
ered valuable  service  to  New  York  as  a 
legislator,  displaying  great  ability  in  the 
formulating  of  salutary  laws  and  the  tact 
to  secure  their  adoption  ;  his  cogent  logic, 
directness  of  speech,  acute  discernment, 
and  ready  grasp  of  every  point  at  issue, 
together  with  his  untiring  industry,  im- 
posing presence  and  commanding  man- 
ner, making  him  a  power  in  the  New 
York  Assembly.  Mr.  Alvord  was  speaker 
in  1858  and  1864,  and  was  the  first 
speaker  of  the  Assembly  when  it  met  in 
1879  m  the  new  capitol  at  Albany,  and 
occupied  the  new  chamber  for  the  first 
time.  He  died  in  Syracuse,  New  York, 
October  25,  1897. 


PIERREPONT,  Edwards, 

Lawyer,   Jurist,   Diplomat. 

Edwards  Pierrepont,  a  distinguished 
New  York  lawyer  and  jurist,  was  a 
native  of  Connecticut,  born  at  North 
Haven,  March  4,  1817,  son  of  Giles  Pier- 
repont and  Eunice,  daughter  of  Jonathan 
Munson,  and  great-grandson  of  Joseph 
Pierrepont,  who  settled  in  North  Haven, 
his  father  having  given  a  valuable  prop- 
erty to  the  town  for  public  use.  The  pro- 
genitor of  the  family  in  this  country,  John 


Pierrepont,  was  the  younger  son  of  a 
great  family  in  Nottingham,  England, 
and  came  to  the  United  States  in  1650, 
settling  at  Roxbury,  now  a  suburb  of 
Boston,  Massachusetts.  Six  years  after 
coming  to  America,  he  purchased  three 
hundred  acres  of  land  in  Roxbury,  and 
there  married  Miss  Stow,  of  Kent,  Eng- 
land, who  was  the  mother  of  his  son 
James,  one  of  the  chief  founders  and 
promoters  of  Yale  College. 

Edwards  Pierrepont  was  prepared  for 
college  by  the  Rev.  Noah  Porter  (after- 
ward president  of  Yale  College),  and 
entered  that  institution  and  graduated 
with  the  class  of  1837,  receiving  one  of 
the  highest  class  honors,  that  of  class 
orator.  In  1840  he  was  graduated  from 
the  New  Haven  Law  School.  He  entered 
upon  the  practice  of  his  profession  at 
Columbus,  Ohio,  in  partnership  with  P. 
C.  Wilcox  of  that  city.  In  1846  he  per- 
manently located  in  New  York  City, 
where  he  had  resided  for  some  time.  In 
1857  he  was  elected  judge  of  the  Superior 
Court  of  that  city,  and  resigned  in  i860 
in  order  to  resume  his  practice.  Judge 
Pierrepont  took  a  deep  and  patriotic 
interest  in  the  Civil  War.  His  first 
speech,  and  which  brought  him  promi- 
nently before  the  public,  was  made  a  year 
and  a  half  before  the  outbreak  of  hos- 
tilities, in  which  he  forecast  the  dread- 
ful struggle.  He  was  one  of  the  most 
active  members  of  the  noted  Union  De- 
fence Committee,  and,  when  the  Massa- 
chusetts troops  were  attacked  in  Balti- 
more, in  April,  1861,  and  all  communica- 
tion with  the  national  capital  cut  off, 
Judge  Pierrepont  was  selected  as  one  of 
a  committee  of  three  to  make  their  way 
as  best  they  could  to  Washington,  his 
associates  being  William  M.  Evarts  and 
Thurlow  Weed.  In  1862  he  was  appointed 
by  President  Lincoln,  in  connection  with 
General  John  A.  Dix,  to  act  as  a  conv 
missioner  to  try  the  prisoners   of  state 


50 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


that  were  confined  in  the  different  forts 
of  the  United  States.  In  1864  he  took  a 
prominent  part  in  the  effective  alignment 
of  the  War  Democrats  who  favored  the 
reelection  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

In  1867,  Judge  Pierrepont  was  elected 
a  member  of  the  convention  for  framing 
a  new  constitution  for  the  State  of  New 
York,  and  served  on  the  judiciary  com- 
mittee with  great  efficiency.  He  was 
also  in  the  same  year  employed  by  Hon. 
W.  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State,  and 
Henry  Stanbury,  Attorney-General,  to 
conduct  the  government  prosecution 
against  John  H.  Surratt,  indicted  for 
being  a  party  to  the  murder  of  President 
Lincoln.  In  1868,  President  Grant  ap- 
pointed Judge  Pierrepont  to  the  position 
of  United  States  Attorney  for  the  District 
of  New  York,  which  he  occupied  until 
1870,  when  he  resigned.  He  at  once  be- 
came one  of  the  most  active  members  of 
the  Committee  of  Seventy,  formed  to  take 
action  against  the  "ring  frauds"  in  the 
New  York  City  municipal  government. 
In  1871,  when  the  Texas  &  Pacific  rail- 
road was  organized  under  charter  by  the 
United  States,  he  was  made  a  director, 
counsel,  and  treasurer  of  the  road,  and  the 
following  year  visited  Frankfort  and 
London  on  business  for  the  company. 
Judge  Pierrepont  was  proffered  the  ap- 
pointment of  Minister  to  the  Court  of 
Russia  by  President  Grant  in  May,  1873, 
but  declined  the  honor.  In  1875  he 
accepted  the  portfolio  of  Attorney-Gen- 
eral of  the  United  States  in  President 
Grant's  cabinet.  While  filling  this  posi- 
tion he  argued  for  the  government  all  the 
more  important  cases,  among  which  were 
the  noted  Arkansas  Hot  Spring  case,  and 
the  Pacific  railway  case.  He  was  also 
called  upon  by  Hamilton  Fish,  Secretary 
of  State,  to  give  an  opinion  upon  a  great 
question  of  international  law  in  which 
were  discussed  the  questions  of  nation- 
ality  and   acquired   nationality,   and   his 


opinion  gave  him  a  wide  reputation  both 
in  Europe  and  America.  In  1876  he  was 
appointed  Envoy  Extraordinary  and 
Minister  Plenipotentiary  to  the  Court  of 
St.  James.  When  President  Grant 
visited  Europe  during  the  second  year  of 
Judge  Pierrepont's  mission,  the  latter 
named  urged  upon  the  Queen's  ministers 
the  propriety  of  according  the  same  pre- 
cedence to  the  former  President  of  the 
United  States  that  had  been  given  to  the 
ex-ruler  of  France.  This  was  gracefully 
acceded  to,  and  other  countries  followed 
the  precedent  set  by  Great  Britain. 
While  abroad,  Judge  Pierrepont  devoted 
much  attention  to  the  financial  system  of 
England.  He  returned  to  the  United 
States  in  1878,  and  at  once  resumed  the 
practice  of  his  profession,  at  the  same 
time  taking  an  active  interest  in  financial 
questions,  and  writing  considerably  upon 
the  subject.  In  1887  he  wrote  an  article 
advocating  an  international  treaty,  claim- 
ing that  by  convention  the  commercial 
value  of  the  silver  dollar  might  be 
restored.  He  also  published  various 
orations  and  addresses.  Judge  Pierre- 
pont was  awarded  the  honorary  degree  of 
LL.  D.  from  Columbian  College,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  in  June,  1871,  and  in  1873 
Yale  College  conferred  upon  him  the 
same  degree.  During  his  residence  in 
London,  Oxford  bestowed  upon  him  the 
degree  of  D.  C.  L.,  the  highest  honor  the 
university  confers.  He  died  in  New  York 
City,  March  6,  1892. 


SWINBURNE,  John, 

Sanitationist. 

Dr.  John  Swinburne,  whose  fame  prin- 
cipally rests  upon  the  creation  of  the 
quarantine  station  in  New  York  Harbor, 
was  born  at  Deer  River,  Lewis  county, 
New  York,  May  20,  1820.  His  father 
dying  when  he  was  only  twelve  years 
old,  at  that  early  age  he  was  called  upon 


60 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


to  face  the  realities  of  life  by  not  only 
self-support,  but  by  contributing  to  the 
maintenance  of  his  mother  and  her  other 
children.  He  labored  upon  a  farm  during 
the  summer,  and  attended  the  public 
schools  in  winter.  His  meager  educa- 
tional advantages  were  supplemented  by 
a  two  years'  course  at  the  Fairfield  Acad- 
emy, and  in  1842  he  entered  the  Albany 
Medical  College,  from  which  he  was 
graduated  in  1846,  first  in  his  class,  hav- 
ing entirely  maintained  himself  during 
his  years  of  study.  He  had  mastered  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  anatomy,  and 
was  at  once  appointed  college  demon- 
strator in  that  department,  and  occupied 
the  position  for  four  years.  He  then 
established  a  private  school  of  anatomy, 
which  he  afterwards  closed  in  order  to 
attend  to  the  demands  of  a  very  exacting 
personal  practice.  In  1859  and  1861  he 
read  papers  before  the  New  York  State 
Medical  Society  that  were  published  in 
the  society  reports.  In  the  latter  year, 
the  first  of  the  Civil  War  period,  General 
John  F.  Rathbone  appointed  him  chief 
medical  officer  in  charge  of  the  sick  at  the 
depot  for  the  sick  at  Albany,  New  York. 
In  April,  1862,  the  need  of  surgeons  on 
the  battle-field  having  become  most 
urgent,  he  tendered  his  services  to  Gov- 
ernor Morgan  as  volunteer  surgeon  with- 
out compensation,  and  he  was  at  once 
commissioned,  and  ordered  by  General 
McClellan  to  repair  to  Savage  Station, 
which  was  about  to  become  an  important 
point  in  the  opening  military  campaign. 
There  he  established  a  depot,  having 
been  given  full  powers  and  command  so 
far  as  pertained  to  a  surgeon  in  charge 
of  sick  and  wounded.  When  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  retreated  from  Savage 
Station  on  June  29th,  thousands  of 
wounded  soldiers  were  necessarily  left  on 
the  battle-field,  and  although  Surgeon 
Swinburne  was  free  to  retire  with  the 
army,  as  did  the  majority  of  the  surgeons, 


he  remained  to  care  for  the  sick  and 
wounded,  braving  capture  rather  than 
desert  his  post,  remaining  for  a  month, 
and  until  all  the  wounded  had  been  re- 
moved. His  humane  conduct  and  pro- 
fessional ability  won  the  esteem  of  the 
Confederate  authorities,  who  appreci- 
atively recognized  the  fact  that  he  had 
paid  the  same  attention  to  their  own 
wounded  soldiers  as  he  did  to  those  of  the 
Federal  army.  Dr.  Swinburne  applied  to 
General  Stonewall  Jackson  for  a  pass  to 
visit  the  various  hospitals  in  the  vicinity 
where  the  wounded  Federal  prisoners 
were  confined,  and  the  general,  in  grant- 
ing the  pass,  in  a  very  complimentary 
note  informed  him  that  he  was  not  to  be 
considered  a  prisoner  of  war,  and  that 
the  pass  would  safeguard  him  through  the 
lines  wherever  he  desired  to  go. 

In  1864,  Governor  Seymour  appointed 
Dr.  Swinburne  to  the  position  of  Health 
Officer  of  the  Port  of  New  York,  and  the 
Republican  Legislature  at  once  confirmed 
the  appointment.  He  was  reappointed 
by  Governor  Fenton  in  1867.  When  he 
assumed  control  of  quarantine  duties, 
there  were  absolutely  no  provisions  for 
effectually  carrying  out  its  purpose ;  the 
only  means  was  a  floating  hospital,  and 
this  vessel  in  a  leaky  condition.  During 
his  administration,  continuing  from  1864 
to  1870,  Dr.  Swinburne  succeeded  in  con- 
structing, at  a  minimum  cost  of  $750,000, 
and  in  face  of  the  greatest  opposition,  the 
docks  and  buildings  in  the  lower  bay, 
known  as  Swinburne  Island  and  Hoffman 
Island,  both  built  on  banks  that  were  near 
the  surface  at  low  tide,  and  which  to-day 
constitute  the  best  quarantine  in  the 
world. 

After  his  retirement  from  his  position, 
and  while  traveling  in  Europe,  in  1870, 
Dr.  Swinburne  was  invited  to  form  the 
American  Ambulance  Corps  for  service 
during  the  Franco-Prussian  War.  From 
his  arrival  in  Paris,  September  7,  1870,  to 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


his  departure,  March  18,  1871,  his  efforts 
and  those  of  his  assistants  were  such  as  to 
excite  the  astonishment  of  the  people  and 
the  admiration  of  the  medical  profession. 
The  ambulance  service  was  conducted  on 
the  most  extensive  scale,  with  results  that 
far  surpassed  those  obtained  by  the 
French  surgeons,  and  the  entire  expense 
was  defrayed  by  Americans  residing  in 
Paris.  The  French  government  decorated 
Dr.  Swinburne  a  chevalier  of  the  Legion 
of  Honor  and  with  the  Red  Cross  of 
Geneva  in  acknowledgement  of  his 
services.  After  he  returned  from  Europe 
he  settled  at  Albany,  New  York,  where 
he  soon  had  an  extensive  practice.  He 
was  elected  mayor  of  that  city  in  1882, 
but  his  election  was  contested,  and  he 
obtained  his  seat  only  after  fourteen 
months  litigation.  As  a  Republican,  he 
was  elected  to  Congress  in  1884.  He 
established  the  Swinburne  Dispensary, 
wherein  ten  thousand  persons  were 
annually  treated,  entirely  at  his  own 
expense.  As  a  medical  and  surgical 
expert,  he  was  perhaps  more  frequently 
called  to  the  witness  stand,  in  the  most 
important  medico-legal  cases,  than  any 
other  member  of  the  medical  profession 
in  the  State. 

Dr.  Swinburne's  biographer  has  writ- 
ten that  "There  is  something  phenome- 
nally grand  in  the  active,  self-denying 
and  busy  life  of  John  Swinburne  as  a 
surgeon  on  the  battle-field;  as  a  health 
officer  contending  with  the  terrible  dis- 
eases of  cholera,  small-pox  and  yellow 
fever,  saving  the  people  from  their  de- 
structive ravages  for  years,  and  finding 
the  means  not  only  to  check  but  to  sup- 
press these  diseases ;  as  a  philanthropist, 
establishing  sanitariums,  hospitals  and 
dispensaries  for  the  care  and  treatment 
of  the  poor.  His  quiet  benevolence,  yet 
bold  aggressiveness  in  fighting  error  and 
corruption  in  high  places,  both  in  profes- 
sional and  official  stations,  gave  his  life  a 


charm  unequaled  in  the  past,  and  has  won 
for  him  the  admiration  of  the  masses  of 
the  people."  Dr.  Swinburne  died  at 
Albany,  New  York,  March  28,  1889.  His 
biography  was  compiled  and  published  by 
the  Citizens'  Association  of  Albany,  New 
York. 


AUGUR,  Christopher  C, 

Soldier  of  Mexican  and  Civil  Wars. 

General  Christopher  Colon  Augur  was 
born  in  New  York  in  1821.  He  entered 
the  United  States  Military  Academy  at 
West  Point,  was  graduated  in  1843,  and 
during  the  next  two  years  served  on 
frontier  duty.  In  1845  he  was  brevetted 
second  lieutenant  of  the  Fourth  Infantry, 
and,  joining  with  his  command  the  Army 
of  Occupation  in  Texas  under  General 
Taylor,  took  part  in  the  advance  to  the 
Rio  Grande  in  1846.  He  was  promoted 
to  first  lieutenant  February  16,  1847,  an<i 
served  through  the  remainder  of  the 
Mexican  War  as  aide-de-camp  to  General 
Hopping,  after  whose  death  he  was  called 
to  the  staff  of  General  Caleb  Cushing,  and 
was  engaged  in  the  battles  of  Palo  Alto 
and  Resaca  de  la  Palma.  On  August  1, 
1852,  he  was  promoted  to  captain,  and 
acquitted  himself  with  great  courage  and 
judgment  in  the  Indian  troubles  in 
Oregon  during  1855-56. 

The  threatening  conditions  in  the  south 
caused  his  recall  to  the  east  early  in  1861. 
On  May  14th  he  was  commissioned  major 
of  the  Thirteenth  Infantry,  and  placed  in 
command  of  the  cadets  at  West  Point. 
On  November  12th  following  he  was  com- 
missioned brigadier-general  of  volunteers, 
and  given  command  of  a  brigade  in  Mc- 
Dowell's corps  in  the  defences  about 
Washington.  In  July,  1862,  he  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  command  of  a  division  under 
General  Banks  in  the  Army  of  Virginia, 
and  served  through  the  Rappahannock 
campaign,   receiving  a  severe   wound   in 


62 


^\  w 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


the  battle  of  Cedar  Mountain,  Virginia. 
For  distinguished  and  meritorious  serv- 
ice in  that  battle  he  was  appointed  major- 
general  of  volunteers  August  9,  1862,  and 
brevetted  colonel  in  the  regular  army. 
General  Augur  was  relieved  from  active 
service  shortly  after  the  fall  of  Harper's 
Ferry,  upon  being  appointed  by  Congress 
a  member  of  the  military  commission 
charged  with  investigation  of  the  sur- 
render of  that  important  post.  He  re- 
joined his  command  in  November,  and 
accompanied  General  Banks  through  the 
Louisiana  campaign  in  1862.  In  1863  he 
was  placed  in  command  of  the  district  of 
Baton  Rouge,  Louisiana;  was  promoted 
to  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  First  Infantry, 
July  1,  1863,  and  commanded  the  left  wing 
of  the  army  besieging  Port  Hudson,  Mis- 
sissippi, which  surrendered  July  9th.  He 
received  the  brevet  of  brigadier-general 
March  13,  1865,  for  gallant  service  at  the 
capture  of  Port  Hudson,  and  the  brevet 
of  major-general  at  the  same  date  for  gal- 
lant and  meritorious  service  in  the  field 
during  the  war.  Thereafter  General 
Augur  continued  in  service  as  com- 
mander of  various  military  departments, 
commanding  at  Washington,  1863-66.  He 
received  promotion  to  the  colonelcy  of  the 
Twelfth  United  States  Infantry,  March 
15,  1866,  and  was  mustered  out  of  the 
volunteer  service  September  1st.  He 
commanded  the  Department  of  the 
Platte  until  1871,  having  been  commis- 
sioned brigadier-general  of  the  United 
States  army  March  4,  1869;  and  com- 
manded   other    departments — of    Texas, 

until  1875 ;  °f the  Gulf  until  l878 ;  and  °f 

the  South  and  of  Missouri  until  1885, 
when  he  was  retired. 

On  August  15,  1886,  General  Augur 
was  dangerously  wounded  by  a  negro 
ruffian  whom  he  attempted  to  chastise  for 
using  foul  language  in  front  of  his  house 
in  Washington.     General  Augur  died  in 


COLFAX,  Schuyler, 

Statesman,  Vice-President. 

Schuyler  Colfax  was  born  in  the  city 
of  New  York,  March  23,  1823,  being  a 
posthumous  child.  He  was  a  grandson 
of  General  William  Colfax,  who  was  born 
in  Connecticut  in  1760,  and  was  captain 
commandant  of  Washington's  guards.  At 
the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War  Cap- 
tain Colfax  married  Hester  Schuyler,  a 
daughter  of  General  Philip  Schuyler,  and 
their  third  son  was  named  Schuyler.  He 
occupied  the  position  of  teller  in  the  Me- 
chanics' Bank  of  New  York  City,  and 
died  while  he  was  still  a  young  man. 

Schuyler  Colfax,  son  of  Schuyler  Col- 
fax above  mentioned,  attended  common 
schools  in  New  York,  but  before  he  was 
eleven  years  of  age  went  into  employment 
in  a  store.  His  mother  married  again 
and  with  her  family,  including  Schuyler, 
went  to  Indiana,  settling  in  New  Carlisle. 
Young  Schuyler's  stepfather,  Mr.  Mat- 
thews, having  been  elected  auditor  of  St. 
Joseph  county,  made  his  stepson  his 
deputy,  and  took  him  to  South  Bend, 
which,  from  that  time  forward,  became 
the  home  of  Mr.  Colfax.  Here,  while  dis- 
charging his  regular  clerical  duties,  young 
Colfax  took  an  interest  in  journalism,  and 
during  two  winters  was  in  Indianapolis 
as  senate  reporter  for  the  "State  Journal." 
In  1845  Mr.  Colfax  became  editor  and 
proprietor  of  the  St.  Joseph  "Valley 
Register,"  and  the  new  paper  soon  came 
to  be  considered  one  of  the  very  best  in 
the  State,  and  achieved  a  wide  circulation. 
As  a  Whig,  Mr.  Colfax  was  a  very  ardent 
admirer  of  Henry  Clay.  He  was  a 
member  and  one  of  the  secretaries  of  the 
Whig  National  Convention  of  1848,  which 
nominated  General  Taylor  for  the  presi- 
dency. In  1851  Mr.  Colfax  was  nomi- 
nated by  the  Whigs  of  his  district  as  their 
candidate  for  Congress,  and  lacked  few 
votes  of  being  elected,  although  the  dis- 


63 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


trict  was  normally  strongly  Democratic. 
In  1852  he  was  a  delegate  to  the  National 
Convention  which  nominated  General 
Scott  for  the  presidency.  General  Scott 
was,  however,  defeated,  and  the  begin- 
ning of  the  last  days  of  the  old  Whig 
party  had  come.  In  1854  Mr.  Colfax  was 
nominated  for  Congress  by  the  People's 
Convention,  called  in  opposition  to  the 
principles  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill, 
and  was  elected  by  a  very  large  majority. 
He  entered  the  memorable  Thirty-fourth 
Congress  on  the  first  Monday  of  Decem- 
ber, 1855,  and  was  prominent  in  the  excit- 
ing struggle  which  resulted  in  the  elec- 
tion of  Nathaniel  P.  Banks  of  Massachu- 
setts as  speaker,  upon  the  one  hundred 
and  thirty-fourth  ballot.  Mr.  Colfax  soon 
came  into  prominence  in  Congress,  and 
was  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  effec- 
tive orators  in  the  newly  formed  Republi- 
can party.  He  was  continued  in  Congress 
by  successive  reflections  until  1869.  He 
had  by  this  time  become  prominently 
known  through  the  country  for  his  strong 
anti-slavery  sentiments,  and  his  temper- 
ance principles  and  practice.  He  was  one 
of  the  acknowledged  leaders  of  the  oppo- 
sition to  the  Lecompton  constitution,  and 
generally  to  the  admission  of  Kansas  as 
a  slave  State.  When  the  great  political 
conflict  broke  out,  Mr.  Colfax  was  in  the 
thick  of  it.  "He  held  that  success  was  a 
duty,  due  not  only  to  Republican  prin- 
ciples, but  to  the  age  and  the  country, 
and  that  any  concession,  short  of  prin- 
ciple, necessary  to  insure  that  success, 
was  not  only  wise  and  expedient,  but  also 
patriotic  and  obligatory."  In  the  Thirty- 
sixth  Congress  Mr.  Colfax  was  made 
chairman  of  the  committee  on  the  post 
office  and  post  roads,  and  to  him  is  given 
the  credit  for  the  establishment  by  Con- 
gress of  the  daily  overland  mail  from  the 
western  boundary  of  Missouri  to  San 
Francisco. 
After  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  to  the 


Presidency,  great  pressure  was  brought 
to  bear  upon  him  for  the  appointment  of 
Mr.  Colfax  to  a  place  in  his  cabinet  as 
Postmaster-General,  but  the  President 
appointed  Montgomery  Blair  to  that 
office.  During  the  Civil  War,  Mr.  Colfax, 
in  his  place  in  Congress,  continued  to 
actively  sustain  by  voice  and  vote  the 
principles  which  he  had  always  held.  On 
the  organization  of  the  Thirty-eighth 
Congress  he  was  elected  speaker  upon  the 
first  ballot,  being  the  first  newspaper 
editor  ever  elected  to  the  speaker's  chair. 
In  this  position  Mr.  Colfax  made  a  most 
favorable  impression  upon  both  parties 
by  his  courtesy,  and  by  his  thorough 
knowledge  of  parliamentary  law.  A 
notable  incident  of  his  career  as  speaker 
occurred  in  April,  1864.  Mr.  Long,  of 
Ohio,  made  a  speech  from  his  place  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  in  which  he 
practically  abandoned  the  Union  to  its 
fate,  declaring  the  rebellion  to  be  in  the 
right,  and  the  war  organized  by  the  north 
to  be  unjust  and  wrong.  Under  the 
excitement  produced  by  this  speech,  Mr. 
Colfax  left  the  speaker's  chair,  calling  for 
another  member  of  the  House  to  preside, 
and  went  upon  the  floor  of  the  House  to 
move  the  expulsion  of  Mr.  Long,  and 
supporting  the  motion  with  a  stirring  and 
aggressive  speech.  He  afterward,  how- 
ever, modified  his  resolution  of  expulsion 
by  changing  it  to  one  of  censure,  in  which 
form  it  was  passed  by  a  large  majority. 
On  May  7,  1864,  Mr.  Colfax  was  pre- 
sented by  citizens  of  his  own  State  with 
a  set  of  silver  of  beautiful  design  and 
artistic  execution,  as  a  testimonial  of  their 
regard  for  his  public  services.  Mr.  Col- 
fax was  twice  reelected  as  speaker,  each 
time  by  an  increased  majority.  On  April 
14,  1865,  Congress  having  adjourned,  as 
he  was  about  to  start  on  an  overland 
journey  to  California  and  Oregon,  he 
visited  the  White  House  in  the  early 
evening    and    bade     President     Lincoln 


64 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


good-bye.  The  President  invited  him  to 
accept  a  seat  in  his  box  at  Ford's  Theatre, 
for  that  evening,  but  the  invitation  was 
declined  on  account  of  Mr.  Colfax's  prior 
engagements.  On  that  night  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  shot  by  the  assassin,  J.  Wilkes  Booth. 
After  his  return  from  Washington  to 
South  Bend,  Indiana,  Mr.  Colfax  deliv- 
ered one  of  the  most  eloquent  of  all  the 
eulogies  on  the  Martyred  President,  and 
repeated  it  by  request  on  April  30th,  in 
Chicago. 

In  May,  1868,  Mr.  Colfax  was  nomi- 
nated by  the  Republican  National  Con- 
vention at  Chicago  for  Vice-President  on 
the  ticket  with  General  Ulysses  S.  Grant, 
and  entered  upon  the  position  of  president 
of  the  Senate  on  March  4,  1869.  In  1871 
General  Grant  offered  him  the  position  of 
Secretary  of  State  in  his  cabinet,  but  the 
offer  was  declined.  In  1872,  although  his 
name  was  mentioned  for  renomination  for 
Vice-President,  he  was  defeated  in  the 
convention.  In  December  of  the  same 
year,  he  declined  the  position  of  editor- 
in-chief  of  the  New  York  "Tribune."  In 
1872  and  1873  the  character  of  Mr.  Col- 
fax, as  was  the  case  with  several  other 
of  the  most  prominent  men  in  Congress 
and  out  of  it,  was  attacked  on  account  of 
the  Credit  Mobilier  scandal.  It  was 
charged  against  persons  thus  accused  that 
they  had  accepted  certificates  of  stock  or 
money  from  the  officials  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railway  Company,  as  compen- 
sation for  their  influence  in  Congress  in 
behalf  of  the  company's  schemes.  An 
investigation  by  the  judiciary  committee 
of  the  House  resulted  in  a  report,  which, 
while  it  technically  acquitted  Mr.  Colfax 
of  having  committed  any  offense  after  he 
became  Vice-President,  nevertheless  did 
not  entirely  relieve  him  from  public 
suspicion  on  this  point.  As  a  conse- 
quence, Mr.  Colfax  suffered  during  the 
remainder  of  his  life  from  what  he  and 


his  friends  asserted  were  unjust  and  un- 
reasonable charges. 

Mr.  Colfax  passed  the  latter  part  of  his 
life  at  his  home  in  South  Bend,  Indiana, 
frequently  delivering  public  lectures  in 
his  own  and  other  States.  He  died  in 
Mankato,  Minnesota,  January  13,  1885. 


STANFORD,  Leland, 

Man  of  Large  Affairs,  Philanthropist. 

Leland  Stanford  was  born  in  Albany 
county,  New  York,  March  9,  1824,  son  of 
Josiah  Stanford,  a  prosperous  farmer, 
who  also  took  contracts  for  the  building 
of  roads  and  bridges  and  aided  in  the 
construction  of  the  Albany  &  Schenectady 
railroad  (now  a  part  of  the  New  York 
Central  system),  one  of  the  earliest  in 
America. 

Leland  Stanford,  fourth  of  Josiah  Stan- 
ford's seven  sons,  passed  his  early  life 
on  his  father's  farm,  "Elm  Grove,"  and 
at  school  nearby.  At  the  age  of  twenty 
he  took  up  the  study  of  law,  and  in  1845 
entered  the  office  of  Wheaton,  Doolittle 
&  Hadley  in  Albany.  A  few  years  later 
he  moved  to  Port  Washington,  Wiscon- 
sin, on  Lake  Michigan,  where  he  prac- 
ticed law  four  years  with  moderate  suc- 
cess. In  1852  the  loss  by  fire  of  all  his 
property,  his  library  included,  wrecked 
his  plans;  and  he  determined  to  push 
further  west.  In  the  summer  of  that  year 
he  reached  California,  where  three  of  his 
brothers  were  established  in  business  in 
the  mining  towns.  Receiving  him  into 
partnership,  he  was  placed  in  charge  of  a 
branch  establishment  at  Michigan  Bluff, 
in  Placer  county.  In  this  new  occupation 
he  developed  business  qualities  of  which 
he  had  been  unconscious,  and  four  years 
later  he  established  himself  in  San  Fran- 
cisco, where  he  founded  an  independent 
mercantile  house  which  soon  became 
known  as  one  of  the  most  substantial  on 
the  Pacific  coast. 


Y-Vol  III — s 


65 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


On  the  formation  of  the  Republican 
party,  Mr.  Stanford  became  interested  in 
politics,  and  in  i860  was  made  a  delegate 
to  the  national  convention  at  Chicago 
which  nominated  Abraham  Lincoln  for 
the  Presidency.  On  Lincoln's  inaugura- 
tion in  1861,  Mr.  Stanford  spent  some 
time  in  Washington,  and  the  President 
repeatedly  advised  with  him  in  regard  to 
the  political  attitude  of  the  Pacific  coast. 
In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  he  was 
elected  by  an  overwhelming  majority  to 
the  governorship  of  California,  an  office 
which  he  occupied  with  such  conspicu- 
ous success  and  such  general  popular 
approval,  that  on  his  retirement  from 
office  a  joint  resolution  was  voted  by  both 
parties  in  both  branches  of  the  Legisla- 
ture tendering  to  him  "the  thanks  of  the 
people  of  California  for  the  able,  upright 
and  faithful  manner  in  which  he  has  dis- 
charged the  duties  of  Governor  for  the 
past  two  years."  Prior  to  his  election  as 
Governor  Mr.  Stanford  had  been  chosen 
president  of  the  newly  organized  Central 
Pacific  Railroad  Company,  and  after 
leaving  the  executive  -chair  he  devoted  all 
his  energies  to  the  execution  of  the  great 
task  of  building  the  Pacific  slope  section 
of  the  transcontinental  railway.  The 
apparently  insuperable  difficulties  en- 
countered and  overcome  in  laying  the 
track  from  Ogden  to  San  Francisco,  par- 
ticularly through  the  passes  of  the  Sierra 
Nevadas,  have  often  been  described.  The 
cost  of  construction  of  this  portion  of  the 
line  alone,  a  hundred  miles  in  length,  was 
more  than  $20,000,000.  On  May  10,  1869, 
Mr.  Stanford  drove  the  last  spike  of  the 
Central  Pacific  road,  thus  completing 
the  route  across  the  continent.  The 
entire  Central  Pacific  system,  with  its 
leased  lines,  eventually  embraced  a  mile- 
age of  4,303  miles.  It  also  operated  the 
Sacramento  &  Colorado  River  Steamship 
line,  making  a  total  mileage  of  4,793  miles. 
Mr.  Stanford  was  also  president  of  the 


Occidental  &  Oriental  Steamship  Com- 
pany, the  Japan  &  China  line  running  in 
connection  with  the  Central  Pacific 
system. 

He  married,  in  1848,  the  daughter  of  the 
late  Dyer  Lathrop,  sheriff  of  Albany 
county,  whose  father  was  an  officer  in  the 
Revolutionary  War.  It  was  many  years 
after  the  marriage  before  a  child  was 
born  to  them — a  son,  who  was  given  his 
father's  name,  and  to  whose  future  the 
parents  became  entirely  devoted.  The 
child  grew  to  be  sixteen  years  of  age,  and 
was  remarkably  bright,  intelligent  and 
affectionate.  In  1884,  while  the  family 
was  sojourning  at  Florence,  Italy,  the  lad 
was  taken  ill  with  typhoid  fever,  and 
soon  passed  away.  A  most  remarkable 
occurrence  is  told  in  this  connection. 
While  Governor  Stanford  was  watching 
by  his  boy's  bedside,  wearied  with  the 
prolonged  care,  he  dropped  asleep,  and 
in  that  sleep  he  dreamt  that  his  son  said 
to  him:  "Father,  don't  say  you  have 
nothing  to  live  for ;  you  have  a  great  deal 
to  live  for;  live  for  humanity,  father." 
While  this  dream  was  passing  through 
the  brain  of  the  father,  death  took  the 
child.  So  utterly  prostrated  by  his  Joss 
was  Mr.  Stanford  that  but  for  the  impres- 
sion of  his  dream,  and  the  reflections  upon 
it,  the  most  serious  consequences  might 
have  occurred  to  himself.  Determined  to 
carry  out  the  idea  suggested,  he  made  up 
his  mind  to  found  the  great  university 
which  bears  his  son's  name — the  Leland 
Stanford  Junior  University.  This  institu- 
tion, to  which  he  gave  83,000  acres  of 
land,  valued  at  $8,000,000,  is  located 
twenty-eight  miles  from  San  Francisco, 
is  entirely  unsectarian,  and  affords  equal 
facilities  to  both  sexes.  The  entire  endow- 
ment of  the  institution  is  estimated  at 
$20,000,000.  The  estate,  called  "Palo 
Alto,"  contains  a  lot  of  about  ten  acres 
which  is  used  as  a  burial  place  by  the 
Stanford    family    and    for    persons    con- 


66 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


nected  with  the  university.  In  1885  Mr. 
Stanford  was  elected  as  a  Republican  to 
the  United  States  Senate  from  California, 
to  succeed  J.  T.  Farley,  Democrat.  In 
1891  he  was  reelected.  As  a  Senator, 
Mr.  Stanford  took  a  prominent  part  in 
legislation,  and  was  an  earnest  advocate 
of  plans  for  the  relief  of  the  people  from 
financial  burdens. 

Mr.  Stanford  was  a  liberal  patron  of 
art,  and  possessed  a  valuable  collection  of 
paintings  at  his  elegant  residence  in  San 
Francisco.  "Stanford  Farm,"  his  favorite 
country  seat,  is  situated  at  Menlo  Park,  in 
the  Santa  Clara  valley,  about  forty  miles 
from  San  Francisco.  A  magnificent  villa 
stands  in  the  center  of  four  hundred  and 
fifty  acres  of  park  and  lawn.  Thousands 
of  superb  trees  make  this  estate  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  arboreta  in  the 
world,  the  owner's  aim  having  been  to 
gather  there  a  sample  of  every  tree  which 
can  be  made  to  grow  in  the  soil  of  Cali- 
fornia. At  one  time  Mr.  Stanford  also 
had  a  residence  in  New  York  City.  After 
his  election  to  the  Senatorship  he  took  a 
house  in  Farragut  Square,  Washington, 
close  by  the  residence  of  Baron  de  Struve, 
Minister  from  Germany.  He  died  at  his 
home,  "Palo  Alto,"  California,  June  20, 
1893- 


CROSBY,  Howard, 

Clergyman,  Educator. 

The  Rev.  Howard  Crosby  was  born  in 
New  York  City,  February  27,  1826,  a 
great-grandson  of  William  Floyd,  one  of 
the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, and  a  grandson  of  Dr.  Ebenezer 
Crosby,  who  was  surgeon  to  Washing- 
ton's Life  Guard  during  the  Revolution- 
ary War,  and  subsequently  a  professor 
in  Columbia  College.  His  father,  Wil- 
liam B.  Crosby,  inherited  from  Colonel 
Henry  Rutgers  nearly  all  of  the  present 
seventh   ward   of   New   York,   and,   until 


John  Jacob  Astor  accumulated  his  vast 
landed  property,  was  one  of  the  largest 
real  estate  owners  of  his  time.  He  de- 
voted himself  to  the  care  of  his  property, 
and  to  deeds  of  public  benevolence  and 
private  charity. 

Howard  Crosby,  son  of  William  B. 
Crosby,  entered  the  University  of  the 
City  of  New  York  at  the  age  of  fourteen, 
graduated  when  eighteen,  and  at  twenty- 
five  was  appointed  to  the  professorship  of 
Greek  in  that  institution.  In  the  follow- 
ing year  he  was  elected  president  of  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  of 
New  York.  In  1859  he  was  made  Pro- 
fessor of  Greek  in  Rutgers  College,  New 
Brunswick,  New  Jersey,  then  under  the 
presidency  of  Theodore  Frelinghuysen, 
to  which  institution  his  great-uncle, 
Colonel  Henry  Rutgers,  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary army,  had  given  his  name  and 
liberal  donations.  Meantime  Professor 
Crosby  was  also  a  theological  student, 
and  in  1861  he  was  duly  ordained  in  the 
ministry  and  became  pastor  of  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church  of  New  Brunswick, 
also  retaining  his  professorship.  In  1863 
he  resigned  both  positions  to  accept  the 
pastorate  of  the  Fourth  Avenue  Presby- 
terian Church  of  New  York.  In  the  fol- 
lowing year  he  was  elected  one  of  the 
council  of  the  University  of  the  City  of 
New  York,  and  not  long  afterward  was 
chosen  its  vice-president,  a  position  he 
held  until  the  time  of  his  death.  In  1870 
he  was  elected  chancellor  of  the  univer- 
sity, and,  still  retaining  his  pastorate,  he 
served  in  that  capacity  until  1881.    From 

1872  to  1881  he  was  one  of  the  American 
company   of   revisers   of  the    Bible.     In 

1873  he  was  chosen  moderator  of  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian 
church,  and  in  1877  was  its  delegate  to 
the  Pan-Presbyterian  Council  in  Edin- 
burgh, Scotland.  In  addition  to  his 
clerical  and  educational  work,  Dr.  Crosby 
was  active  in  benevolent  and  reformative 


67 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


affairs  of  a  public  character.  In  1877  he 
founded  and  acted  as  president  of  the 
Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Crime,  an 
organization  seeking  by  means  of  'state 
and  municipal  legislation,  to  restrict  the 
use  of  spirituous  liquors,  and  his  labors 
in  that  direction  received  such  general 
approval  that  in  1888  he  was  appointed 
by  the  Legislature  a  member  of  the  State 
commission  to  revise  the  excise  laws. 

Dr.  Crosby  wrote  commentaries  on  the 
Books  of  Joshua  and  Nehemiah,  and  on 
the  entire  New  Testament,  a  volume  of 
Yale  lectures,  as  well  as  ten  other  works 
of  a  religious  or  semi-religious  character, 
besides  scores  of  pamphlets,  and  almost 
innumerable  articles  for  the  reviews.  He 
took  an  active  part  in  the  advancement  of 
the  international  copyright  law,  and  was 
a  member  of  the  American  committee  to 
revise  the  New  Testament.  The  degree 
of  D.  D.  was  awarded  him  by  Harvard 
College  in  1859,  that  of  LL.  D.  by  Co- 
lumbia University  in  1871.  Dr.  Crosby 
died  of  pneumonia,  in  New  York  City, 
March  29,  1891. 


BELKNAP,  William  W., 

Civil  War  Soldier,  Cabinet  Official. 

General  William  Worth  Belknap  was 
born  in  Newburg,  New  York,  September 
22,  1829,  son  of  General  William  Gold- 
smith Belknap,  who  was  prominent  in  the 
Mexican  War,  and  was  brevetted  briga- 
dier-general for  services  at  the  battle  of 
Buena  Vista. 

William,  W.  Belknap  entered  Princeton 
College  in  1848,  and  after  his  graduation 
became  a  student  in  the  law  office  of 
Hugh  Caperton,  of  Georgetown,  D.  C. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1851,  and 
removed  to  Keokuk,  Iowa,  where  he 
opened  a  law  office,  and  formed  a  part- 
nership with  R.  P.  Lowe,  afterward  Gov- 
ernor of  the  State.  He  became  prominent 
as  a  lawyer  and  as  a  Democratic  politi- 


cian, and  in  1857  was  elected  a  member  of 
the  State  Legislature.  On  the  outbreak 
of  the  Civil  War,  he  was  commissioned 
major  of  the  Fifteenth  Regiment  Iowa 
Volunteers,  and  at  the  battle  of  Shiloh 
covered  himself  with  honor.  Here  he  was 
severely  wounded,  but  remained  on  the 
field  until  the  close  of  the  first  day's 
fighting.  Throughout  the  war  the  fullest 
confidence  was  reposed  in  Belknap  by 
Grant,  Sherman,  McPherson,  and  every 
other  general  under  whom  he  served. 
Every  promotion  which  he  received  he 
won  on  the  battlefield.  In  1864,  after 
the  battle  of  Atlanta,  he  was  promoted  to 
the  rank  of  brigadier-general,  and  placed 
in  command  of  the  Iowa  Brigade,  at  the 
head  of  which  he  marched  to  the  sea 
under  Sherman,  and  at  the  close  of  the 
war  he  was  in  command  of  the  Fourth 
Division  of  the  Seventeenth  Army  Corps. 
General  Belknap  was  offered  a  field 
officer's  commission  in  the  regular  army, 
but  declined  it.  In  1865  he  was  appointed 
collector  of  internal  revenue  in  Iowa,  and 
he  held  that  position  until  October  13, 
1869,  when  General  Grant  appointed  him 
Secretary  of  War.  He  held  this  place 
until  March  7,  1876,  when  he  was  charged 
with  official  corruption,  and  was  permit- 
ted to  resign.  He  was  afterward  im- 
peached by  the  House  of  Representatives 
before  the  Senate,  on  the  accusation  that 
he  promised  to  appoint  Caleb  P.  Marsh 
to  the  charge  of  a  trading  department  at 
Fort  Sill,  in  consideration  of  a  sum  of 
money  to  be  paid  quarterly  to  Belknap  or 
his  agent.  The  impeachment  proceedings 
were  quashed  in  the  Senate  on  the  ground 
of  lack  of  jurisdiction,  but,  on  the  ques- 
tion of  guilty  or  not  guilty,  thirty-seven 
voted  guilty,  and  twenty-three  not  guilty. 
It  was  generally  believed  among  those 
best  informed  regarding  the  details  of  this 
scandal,  that  General  Belknap  was  inno- 
cent of  complicity  as  to  the  improper  acts 
charged   against   him,   and   that   he   was 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


even  ignorant  of  the  facts  of  the  case. 
After  his  retirement  from  public  life, 
General  Belknap  resided  for  some  time  in 
Philadelphia,  but  from  1876  until  the  time 
of  his  death  he  lived  in  Washington,  and 
carried  on  the  practice  of  law  success- 
fully. He  was  found  dead  in  his  bed  on 
October  13,  1890,  and  is  supposed  to  have 
died  some  time  on  the  previous  day, 
which  was  Sunday,  October  12th.  Gen- 
eral Belknap  was  three  times  married ; 
his  first  wife  was  a  sister  of  General  Hugh 
T.  Reid ;  after  her  death  he  married  Miss 
Carita  Tomlinson,  and  after  her  death, 
in  1870,  he  married  her  sister,  Mrs.  John 
Bower,  of  Cincinnati. 

AGNEW,  Cornelius  Rea, 

Physician,    Sanitationist. 

Cornelius  Rea  Agnew  was  born  in  New 
York  City,  August  8,  1830,  son  of  William 
and  Elizabeth  (Thomson)  Agnew.  His 
early  ancestors  were  Huguenots,  who  in 
consequence  of  persecutions  fled  to  Ire- 
land, and  settled  near  Belfast,  where  they 
intermarried  with  Scotch-Irish  families 
and  became  identified  with  the  Reformed 
Presbyterian  church.  The  first  of  the 
family  in  America  was  John,  grandfather 
of  Dr.  Agnew,  who  established  a  large 
commission  and  shipping  business  in 
New  York  City. 

Dr.  Cornelius  Rea  Agnew  received  his 
early  education  in  private  schools,  and 
entered  Columbia  College  in  his  six- 
teenth year,  and  from  which  he  was 
graduated  in  1849.  He  began  the  study 
of  medicine  under  Dr.  J.  Kearney  Rogers, 
a  surgeon  and  eye  specialist,  and  con- 
tinued his  studies  in  the  College  of  Phy- 
sicians and  Surgeons,  New  York  City, 
from  which  he  was  graduated  in  1852,  and 
in  the  New  York  Hospital.  He  practiced 
medicine  for  a  year  in  what  is  now 
Houghton,  on  Lake  Superior,  and  then, 
having  been  offered  an  appointment  as 


surgeon  of  the  Eye  and  Ear  Infirmary  of 
New  York  City,  he  went  to  Europe  to 
further  prepare  himself  for  the  duties  of 
that  position.  After  studying  in  the  hos- 
pitals of  Dublin,  London  and  Paris,  he 
returned  to  New  York  City,  where  in 
addition  to  his  position  in  the  Eye  and 
Ear  Infirmary,  he  also  cared  for  a  large 
general  practice,  and  acquired  great 
experience  in  eye  and  ear  diseases.  In 
1858  he  was  appointed  Surgeon  General 
of  the  State  of  New  York.  During  the 
Civil  War  he  served  for  a  time  as  medical 
director  of  the  State  Volunteer  Hospital 
in  New  York  ;  and  was  subsequently  head 
of  the  society  to  obtain  medical  supplies 
for  regiments  passing  through  New  k'ork 
to  the  seat  of  war.  In  1864  he  indus- 
triously aided  in  organizing  the  United 
States  Sanitary  Commission,  on  which 
he  served  with  unremitting  zeal.  Dr. 
Charles  J.  Stille  says,  in  his  "History  of 
the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission :" 
"Dr.  Agnew  exhibited  a  practical  skill, 
executive  ability,  and  at  all  times  a  per- 
fect generosity  of  personal  toil  and 
trouble  in  carrying  on  the  commission's 
work,  which  gave  him  during  its  whole 
progress  a  commanding  influence  on  its 
councils.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
the  life-saving  work  of  the  commission  at 
Antietam,  the  relief  which  it  afforded  on 
so  vast  a  scale  after  the  battles  of  the 
Wilderness,  and  the  succor  which  it  was 
able  to  minister  to  the  thousands  of  our 
soldiers  returning  to  us  from  rebel 
prisons,  diseased,  naked  and  famishing, 
owed  much  of  their  efficiency  and  success 
to  plans  arranged  by  Dr.  Agnew,  and 
carried  out  at  personal  risk  and  incon- 
venience under  his  immediate  superin- 
tendence." With  Drs.  Wolcott  Gibbs  and 
William  H.  Van  Buren,  Dr.  Agnew  drew 
for  the  United  States  Quartermaster's 
Department  plans  which  were  subse- 
quently carried  out  in  the  Judiciary 
Square  Hospital  at  Washington,  and  par- 


69 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


tially  followed  in  the  pavilion  hospital 
system  of  the  war.  He  was  one  of  four 
who  founded  the  Union  League  Club  in 
New  York  City  in  aid  of  the  national 
cause  at  the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion. 
In  1868  he  founded  the  Brooklyn  Eye  and 
Ear  Hospital,  and  in  1869  the  Manhattan 
Eye  and  Ear  Hospital  of  New  York.  He 
was  for  many  years  a  manager  of  the  New 
York  State  Hospital  for  the  Insane  at 
Poughkeepsie,  and  he  served  as  trustee 
and  subsequently  as  president  of  the  New 
York  school  board.  He  served  as  secre- 
tary of  the  first  society  organized  in  New 
York  for  sanitary  reform,  and  aided  in 
preparing  the  first  draft  of  the  city  health 
laws. 

Dr.  Agnew  was  a  member  of  the 
Medico  Chirurgical  Society  of  Edinburgh, 
Scotland;  the  New  York  Academy  of 
Medicine,  Pathological  Society  and  Medi- 
cal and  Surgical  Society ;  the  American 
Ophthalmological  Society,  of  which  he 
was  also  president,  and  the  New  York 
Academy  of  Sciences,  and  president  of 
the  Medical  Society  of  the  State  of  New 
York.  He  wrote  voluminously  on  medical 
subjects  for  many  scientific  journals,  and 
also  published  several  short  works  in 
pamphlet  form.  He  died  in  New  York 
City,  April  18,  1888. 


BUTTERFIELD,  Daniel, 

Volunteer  Soldier  of  the  Civil  'War. 

General  Daniel  Butterfield  was  born  at 
Utica,  New  York,  October  31,  1831.  He 
was  graduated  from  Union  College  in  his 
eighteenth  year,  and  afterward  for  a  time 
was  engaged  in  the  service  of  the  Mohawk 
division  of  the  New  York  Central  rail- 
road. He  subsequently  became  general 
superintendent  of  the  eastern  division  of 
the  American  Express  Company. 

From  his  youth  he  had  an  ambition  for 
military  life.  He  served  in  the  New  York 
militia  in  the  Seventy-first  and  Twelfth 


regiments  from  185 1  to  1861,  and  was 
colonel  of  the  latter  regiment  at  the 
breaking  out  of  the  rebellion,  when  he  led 
it  to  the  front,  and  was  with  the  advance 
into  Virginia.  He  was  soon  commis- 
sioned lieutenant-colonel  in  the  United 
States  regular  army,  and  brigadier- 
general  of  volunteers.  He  served  through 
the  Peninsular  campaign,  was  wounded 
at  Gaines's  Mills,  and  covered  the  retreat 
to  and  from  Harrison's  Landing.  He 
took  part  in  all  the  battles  of  August  and 
September,  1862,  and  was  promoted  to 
major-general  of  volunteers  November 
29th,  and  commissioned  colonel  of  the 
Fifth  United  States  Infantry,  July  1,  1863. 
He  commanded  the  Fifth  Corps  at  Fred- 
ericksburg, Virginia,  and  was  chief-of- 
staff  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  in  the 
Chancellorsville  and  Gettysburg  cam- 
paigns, and  was  wounded  in  the  battle 
of  Gettysburg,  Pennsylvania.  In  1863  he 
was  transferred  to  the  Army  of  the  Cum- 
berland, and  became  chief-of-staff  of  the 
consolidated  Eleventh  and  Twelfth 
corps  under  General  Hooker  at  Lookout 
Mountain,  Tennessee,  Missionary  Ridge, 
and  several  subsequent  actions.  He 
commanded  a  division  of  the  Twentieth 
Corps  in  the  Georgia  campaign  under 
General  Sherman,  and  was  brevetted 
brigadier-general  and  major-general  in 
the  regular  army  for  gallant  and  meritor- 
ious services.  He  was  the  originator  and 
author  of  the  system  of  army  corps 
badges,  flags,  and  other  identifying  de- 
vices adopted  in  the  Army  of  the  Poto- 
mac, and  after  followed  in  other  armies. 
He  was  the  author  of  a  standard  work  on 
"Camp  and  Outpost  Duty  for  Armies  in 
the  Field."  After  the  war  General  But- 
terfield had  charge  of  the  recruiting 
service,  and  of  the  forces  in  New  York 
harbor,  commanding  Governor's  Island, 
David's  Island,  and  Bedloe'-s  Island,  1865- 
69. 

Resigning  from  the  army,  General  But- 


70 


rtA  OF  BIO 


terfield  became  Assistant  Unite<! 
Treasurer  in  New  York  City  and  after- 
wards organized  and  built  a  r.vi 
Central  America.    He  planned,  organized 
and  commanded  the  civic  parade  on  the 
third  day  of  th  m  Centennial 

celebration  in 
the   largest  movement  of 
public  demonstration  ever  k 
continent  or  in 
organized  and 
stration    it  th 
man,   as 
Howarc 

elected   president  of  the   Si 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  of  which  body  he 
was  the   pri 

thirty   years   a   trustee   of   the    Citizens' 
Savings   Bank   in   New   York   City,   and 
was  in   1893  the  only  living  member  of 
that  board  who  had  been  with  the  bank 
from  its  foundation.     He  was  president 
of  the  National  Bank  of  Cold  Spr 
country  home.     He  declined  the  Republi- 
can nomination  for  Congress  in  the  Tenth 
Congressional  District  of  Nyew  York  City 
in  1 891. 
.    In  Septem! 
Westmiti 
field    ma;  1  i 
New  York,  thi 
Canon  Farrar  perfom 
He  died  in  1001. 


GRACE,  William  R., 

Financier,  Mayor  of  New  York. 

Hon.  William  Russell  Grace,  eldest  son 
of  James  and  Ellen  Mary  (Russell) 
Grace,  was  born  at  Riverstown,  Cove  of 
Cork,  County  Queens,  Ireland,  May  10, 
1832.  He  early  displayed  that  bold,  deter- 
mined, and  self-reliant  spirit  which  char- 
acterized his  ancestors.  At  the  age  of 
••.  believing  that  the  rural  districts 
of  Ireland  held  no  future  for  him,  he  left 
school  and  home,  and,  working  his  way 


■ling  vessel,  came 
City      There    he    obtained    emp' 
but  two  years  later  returned  to  his  home 
His  father,  in  the  hope   of 
'.unities  in   South  America 
fortunes,  em- 
:;  i  the  son  ac- 
it    land. 
I 

■ 


i 

3 

co  mi 

- 

- 

iiient.    Calla^  wj, 

called  1 

1  ■ 

ii 

he  busi- 

brotl  irief  stay 

reland, 

n  the  northern 

ntered  into  a 

st  bination     against    the 

•    ■;>  c  matter  of  wages,  he 

o  their  selfish 

nrrahgement,  paid  the  highest  rates  pre- 


7' 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


vailing  elsewhere,  and  in  the  end  com- 
pelled the  other  proprietors  to  join  in  the 
same  course  of  fair  dealing.  With  the 
full  recovery  of  his  health  Mr.  Grace  felt 
an  impatience  to  resume  active  business 
life,  and,  placing  the  Irish  property  in  the 
charge  of  his  brother,  John,  he  located 
in  New  York  and  in  1868  established  the 
house  of  W.  R.  Grace  &  Company.  In 
this  venture  his  abilities  secured  for  him 
a  high  degree  of  success  from  the  begin- 
ning, and  his  firm  has  long  been  one  of 
the  most  eminent  in  the  shipping  trade  in 
the  American  metropolis,  and  one  of  the 
most  widely  known  throughout  the 
world.  At  the  same  time  the  original 
Peruvian  concern  continued  its  career 
with  increasing  prosperity.  In  1886  it 
became  the  agent  of  various  foreign 
creditors  of  Peru  for  the  settlement  of 
claims ;  and  under  this  arrangement, 
through  the  management  of  Michael  P. 
Grace,  an  adjustment  was  effected  in  1890 
which  involved  the  payment  of  the  enor- 
mous sum  of  $290,000,000  in  gold. 

In  1891  Mr.  Grace  organized  and  estab- 
lished the  New  York  &  Pacific  Steamship 
Company,  Limited,  with  seven  large 
steamships,  constructed  specially  for  the 
requirements  of  the  trade  of  his  house, 
plying  between  New  York  and  Guaya- 
quil, Ecuador,  by  way  of  the  Straits  of 
Magellan.  Incidental  to  his  business  in- 
terests, he  acquired  valuable  nitrate  of 
soda  properties  in  Chili,  and  sugar  estates 
and  cotton  mills  in  Peru,  besides  taking  a 
leading  part  in  railway  development  in 
both  countries.  In  New  York  City,  aside 
from  his  immediate  interests,  he  was 
identified  with  many  other  large  business 
enterprises.  He  was  president  of  the 
Export  Lumber  Company,  the  Ingersoll 
Sergeant  Drill  Company,  and  the  Hamil- 
ton Banknote  Company,  vice-president  of 
the  Fernbrook  Carpet  Company,  director 
of  the  Lincoln  National  Bank,  the  Lin- 
coln   Safe    Deposit    Company,   and    the 


Terminal  Warehouse  Company,  and  re- 
ceiver of  the  Continental  Life  Insurance 
Company,  whose  affairs  he  wound  up 
satisfactorily. 

As  a  citizen  of  New  York,  he  was 
actuated  at  all  times  by  an  earnest  and 
conscientious  public  spirit.  A  Democrat 
in  political  belief  and  national  affiliations 
he  represented  that  section  of  his  party 
which  was  opposed  to  the  domination  of 
Tammany  in  the  metropolis.  In  1880 
and  again  in  1884  he  was  elected  mayor  of 
the  city  as  the  candidate  of  the  anti-Tam- 
many element  of  the  Democracy.  Both 
his  administrations  were  characterized  by 
a  thorough  and  vigorous  application  of 
the  principles  of  municipal  government 
for  which  he  stood,  reform  of  corrupt 
abuses,  and  elevation  of  the  standards  of 
public  service.  His  name  will  always  be 
remembered  in  the  history  of  the  city  as 
that  of  one  of  its  best  mayors.  In  the 
sphere  of  national  affairs  also  he  exer- 
cised a  commanding  influence,  being  de- 
voted heart  and  soul  to  the  ideas  and 
policies  represented  by  Grover  Cleveland, 
and  contributing  powerfully  to  the  elec- 
tion of  Mr.  Cleveland  in  1884  and  1892. 
The  movement  to  erect  a  monument  to 
General  Grant  at  Riverside  Park  began 
during  his  administration,  and  the  Grant 
Monument  Association  was  organized 
with  Mayor  Grace  as  president.  He  bent 
his  whole  energies  to  accomplish  the 
object,  and  over  half  a  million  dollars 
was  raised.  The  association  subsequently 
came  under  the  management  of  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  General 
Horace  Porter  being  the  leading  spirit, 
the  remainder  of  the  money  was  raised, 
and  the  monument  was  completed. 

In  his  private  character  Mr.  Grace  was 
a  man  most  loyal  to  obligations  and 
friendships,  and  of  forceful  but  genial  and 
charming  personality.  His  charities  were 
extensive,  and  were  distinguished  by  a 
particularly  practical  tendency.    In  1879, 


-J2 


Brevel  Major  < 


the  year  of  the  great  famine  in  Ireland,  he 
contributed  half  of  tl  of  the 

United  States    wars:  lation," 

besides      paying      in 


- 


Many   of  his  benevolenc 

public  distress,   in  New 

elsewhere,  were 

religious  orgai   . 

were  not  sent  i  . 

source  of  which 

to  a  very  few. 

wife  and 

gave,  in  r8 

establishment   ■ 

training  scho"; 

girls,  in 

supper  he  left 

an  additional  amount  of  $ioo.ooo  in  his 

will.     He  was  president  for  many  years 

of  the  Sevilla  Home  for  Children 

property,  under  his  care,  was  in 

more  than  three  times  in  value. 

He  purchased  a  beautiful  property  at 
land,  for  a  summer 
home,  which  he  named  "Gracefield,"  for 
estral  home  i  ..ere  he 

found  peace  a: 
of  business  Hi 
joymen; 
partook  of  his 

He  married 
Gilchrisl 
Mary  Jane  (Si  i 
in  New  York  City.  Ma 


AVERELL,  William  W., 

Cavalry  Leader  in  Civil  War. 

General  William  Woods  Averei: 
liant  cavalry  officer  in  the  Civil  War,  was 
born  at  Cameron,  Steuben  coun.- 
York,  November  5,  1832,  th 
birth  being  not  far  from  the  loc 
the  Soldiers'  Home  at  Eath,  New 

:   ndfather  was    a  captain  in    the 
Revolutionary  War. 

He  was  appointed  to  the  Unites 


Point  on  July 

ed  from  that  institu- 

ank  of    brevet 

.  ed  Rifles.    In 

commissioned 

h  which  rank 

in   frontier, 

ieclined 

he  Sixth 

.     .1861, 

h(    san 

nounl  rifl< 

I 

I  of  the  Third 

a    Volunteer  -^iment. 

-igned  to  the 

ac,  and  he  was  actively  en- 

■     its  various  engagements,  notably 

:d,  Virginia,  for  which  he 

March  17,  18 

ip  Mountain,  Virginia,  where  he 

nant-colone! 
xpedition  in  Virgin 
e  brevet  of  colonel,  Deeer 
1863,  for  gallant  and  merit, 
and  that  of  brigadii      - 

it    and    meri 
• 

service  Gen. 
iptain 

■ 

1 
has  climbed  im  340 

nee 

it  John- 
'  verell    to    be 
.ted  States  to 
1869  he    re- 
turned to  the  s  and  engaged 
in  business,  ident  of  the 
Asphaii                                   ny.     He   was 
the  invi                                    f  electric  con- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


duits,  and  a  process  by  which  ore  is  con- 
verted into  steel  at  a  single  operation.  He 
was  placed  on  the  retired  list  of  the  army 
with  the  rank  of  captain  and  brevet 
major-general.  He  was  assistant  inspec- 
tor-general of  the  Soldiers'  Home  of  the 
United  States.     He  died  in  1900. 


SMALLEY,  George  W., 

Newspaper   Correspondent. 

George  Washburn  Smalley,  familiarly 
known  in  England  as  "the  Dean  of  Amer- 
ican Correspondents,"  was  born  at 
Franklin,  Massachusetts,  June  2,  1833, 
and  died  in  London,  England,  April  4, 
1916.  He  was  graduated  from  Yale  Col- 
lege in  1853,  read  law  at  Worcester,  Mas- 
sachusetts, in  the  office  of  George  F. 
Hoar,  and  after  a  course  of  study  at  the 
Harvard  Law  School  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  1856,  and  practiced  in  Boston, 
Massachusetts,  until  1861.  By  conviction 
a  radical  in  affairs  public,  political  and 
social,  he  had  been  actively  affiliated  with 
Garrison,  Phillips,  and  their  associates. 

At  the  opening  of  the  Civil  War  he 
entered  the  service  of  the  New  York 
"Tribune"  as  correspondent  in  the  field, 
going  to  South  Carolina,  and  thence  to 
Virginia,  and  was  with  the  Union  army 
in  the  campaigns  of  the  Shenandoah  and 
the  Potomac.  After  the  battle  of  Antie- 
tam  (September  17,  1862),  in  which  he 
served  as  a  volunteer  aide  to  General 
Joseph  Hooker,  Mr.  Smalley  rode  horse- 
back thirty  miles  to  a  railroad  train  for 
the  north,  hastened  as  fast  as  it  would 
carry  him  to  New  York  City,  wrote  his 
famous  account  of  that  battle  on  the  cars 
while  en  route,  and  furnished  it  to  his 
journal  in  season  to  enable  the  "Tribune" 
to  publish  his  accounts  of  the  engagement 
in  advance  of  all  its  contemporaries.  The 
letter  was  worthy  to  make  his  reputation 
as  a  war  correspondent,  for,  written  at 
the  speed  with  which  it  was  produced,  it 


was  unsurpassed,  perhaps  unequaled,  by 
any  effort  of  the  kind  made  during  the 
whole  four  years  of  the  conflict.  It 
fixed  his  place  in  journalism,  if  he  chose 
to  have  one.  The  same  year  he  was  mar- 
ried to  Phoebe  Gamant,  of  Boston,  Mas- 
sachusetts, adopted  daughter  of  Wendell 
Phillips,  and  was  attached  to  the  editorial 
staff  of  the  New  York  "Tribune."  Dur- 
ing the  draft  riots  in  the  summer  of  1863 
in  the  city  of  New  York,  he  was  one  of 
four  members  of  the  editorial  corps  who 
were  associated  in  organizing  and  con- 
ducting the  defence  of  the  "Tribune" 
building  against  the  rioters.  The  build- 
ing is  spoken  of  by  one  of  their  number 
as  having  been  a  perfect  arsenal  of  ex- 
plosives after  the  Monday  night  in  July 
when  an  attack  was  made  upon  it  and 
repelled  by  the  police. 

In  1866  Mr.  Smalley  went  to  Europe  at 
a  day's  notice,  to  observe  and  report  for 
"The  Tribune"  the  war  between  Prussia 
and  Austria.  In  May,  1867,  he  went  to 
England  with  power  to  organize  "The 
Tribune's"  European  bureau,  and  estab- 
lished himself  in  that  city  permanently 
as  its  manager.  In  the  Franco-Prussian 
War  (1870)  he  went  to  the  field,  and  his 
letters  and  dispatches  to  "The  Tribune" 
from  the  seat  of  that  struggle  were  all 
received  at  London,  where  they  were 
edited  by  the  bureau  established  under 
Mr.  Smalley's  supervision,  and  then 
transmitted  by  cable  to  New  York.  The 
partnership  between  the  London  "Tele- 
graph" and  the  New  York  "Tribune"  in 
the  collection  and  issue  of  this  news,  thus 
executed  by  Mr.  Smalley,  was  pronounced 
by  the  English  war-historian  Kinglake 
"an  era  in  the  journalism  of  Europe." 
Since  that  time,  while  holding  a  continu- 
ous residence  in  London  as  the  represen- 
tative of  "The  Tribune,"  Mr.  Smalley  left 
England  from  time  to  time  for  profes- 
sional visits  to  Paris,  Berlin,  and  other 
political  centers.     Upon  occasions  of  in- 


74 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


terest  and  through  his  letters  to  the 
"Tribune,"  the  American  public  was  kept 
apprised  of  the  events  of  European  and 
especially  of  English  affairs  and  society, 
in  what  has  been  doubtless  the  best  for- 
eign correspondence  of  any  American 
journal.  In  1878  Mr.  Smalley  was  ap- 
pointed special  commissioner  from  the 
United  States  to  the  Paris  Exposition. 
In  1890  he  published  "London  Letters 
and  Some  Others,"  in  two  volumes.  In 
191 1  he  published  his  "Anglo-American 
Memories,"  followed  in  1912  by  a  second, 
which  contained  intimate  accounts  of  the 
many  prominent  men  he  had  met  and 
great  events  he  had  observed  and  re- 
ported, and  which  attracted  much  atten- 


BRIGGS,  Charles  A., 

Theologian. 

The  Rev.  Charles  Augustus  Briggs,  one 
of  the  most  scholarly  theologians  and 
independent  thinkers  of  his  day,  was  born 
in  New  York  City,  January  15,  1841,  son 
of  Alanson  and  Sarah  Mead  (Berrian) 
Briggs. 

He  was  a  student  at  the  University  of 
Virginia  from  1857  t0  i860.  In  1861,  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion,  he  served 
for  three  months  with  the  army,  then 
entered  the  Union  Theological  Semi- 
nary of  New  York,  remaining  until  1863. 
For  three  years  he  was  engaged  in  mer- 
cantile pursuits  in  New  York  City,  then 
going  to  Germany,  where  he  studied  at 
the  University  of  Berlin  until  1869.  Re- 
turning home,  he  was  ordained  by  the 
Presbytery  of  Elizabeth,  New  Jersey, 
June  30,  1870,  and  the  same  year  became 
pastor  of  the  church  in  Roselle,  New 
Jersey,  which  he  served  until  1874,  when 
he  was  called  to  the  Union  Theological 
Seminary,  and  where  he  occupied  the 
chair  of  Hebrew  and  Cognate  Languages 
until  1890.     In  1891,  by  the  munificence 


of  Mr.  Charles  Butler,  a  chair  of  Biblical 
Theology  was  endowed,  and  Dr.  Briggs 
was  installed  therein  until  1904,  and  leav- 
ing it  to  become  Professor  of  Theology 
and  Symbolics,  and  so  serving  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life.  From  1880  to  1890 
he  was  editor  of  the  "Presbyterian  Re- 
view." In  1892  he  was  brought  to  trial 
for  heresy  before  the  Presbytery  of  New 
York,  and  was  acquitted ;  but  the  fol- 
lowing year  was  suspended  by  the 
General  Assembly.  He  later  connected 
himself  with  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
church,  and  became  deacon  in  1899,  and 
priest  in  1900. 

His  brilliant  scholarship,  exactness  in 
investigation,  enthusiasm  and  courage 
brought  him  world-wide  fame.  At  the 
centenary  celebration  of  the  University 
of  Edinburgh  in  1884,  the  degree  of  Doc- 
tor of  Divinity  was  conferred  upon  him — 
a  distinguished  honor,  granted  to  only 
three  Americans  besides  himself,  a  recog- 
nition not  only  of  the  rank  he  had  attained 
in  his  own  seminary,  but  of  the  estima- 
tion in  which  he  was  held  abroad  as  a 
profound  theologian.  Yet,  he  was  fallen 
upon  troublous  times.  His  investiture  as 
Professor  of  Biblical  Theology  in  Union 
Theological  Seminary  brought  upon  him 
condemnation  by  the  Presbyterian  Gen- 
eral Assembly.  For  some  time  he  had 
provoked  the  criticism  of  his  fellow-pres- 
byters by  his  utterances  with  reference 
to  the  verbal  inspiration  of  the  Bible. 
Before  the  action  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly there  had  been  indications  of  conflict. 
Dr.  Briggs  was  a  recognized  power,  an 
exponent  of  opinions  widely  held  among 
Presbyterians,  but  also  widely  denounced 
by  others  of  the  same  sect.  Respected  as 
an  original  thinker  and  conscientious  stu- 
dent, some  were  disinclined  to  reject  his 
utterances ;  others  were  more  cautious  in 
their  acceptance  of  his  judgment.  Dr. 
Briggs,  with  a  dignified  self-respect  not 
inconsistent  with  entire  modesty,  in  reply 


75 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


to  strictures  made  upon  him,  by  Dr. 
Shedd,  prior  to  the  meeting  of  the  Pres- 
bytery of  New  York,  before  which  he  had 
been  summoned,  said:  "There  are  two 
things  in  which  I  may  claim  to  be  a  spe- 
cialist ;  one  of  them  is  in  the  theology  of 
the  Old  Testament,  and  the  other,  the 
Westminster  Confession.  I  have  studied 
the  Westminster  documents  repeatedly 
in  all  the  great  libraries  of  Great  Britain. 
I  have  gathered  in  the  library  of  the 
Union  Theological  Seminary,  the  best 
library  of  the  Westminster  divines  out- 
side the  British  Museum.  I  have  studied 
these  divines  with  enthusiastic  devotion 
for  many  years."  On  the  basis  of  such 
preparation  he  asserted  his  right  to  speak 
with  authority,  claiming  that  new  doc- 
trines had  come  into  the  field,  new  ques- 
tions had  arisen,  of  which  the  West- 
minster Confession  could  not  have  had 
knowledge,  and  that  the  thoughts  of  men 
had  widened.  Dr.  Briggs  had  published 
several  works  in  which  he  presented  his 
views  without  hesitation  and  with  intense 
vigor.  His  lectures  before  his  classes 
made  a  profound  impression,  but  for  some 
years  no  vigorous  outspoken  protest  was 
made.  In  January,  1891,  in  an  elaborate 
address  before  the  Union  Theological 
Seminary,  he  declared  that  "there  are  his- 
torically three  great  fountains  of  divine 
authority — the  Bible,  the  church  and  the 
reason."  He  contended  that  "the  major- 
ity of  Christians  from  the  Apostolic  age 
have  found  God  through  the  church."  He 
declared  reason  to  be  "The  Holy  of  Holies 
of  human  nature,"  in  which  "God  pre- 
sents himself  to  those  who  seek  him." 
He  cited  Newman  as  "finding  God  in  the 
church,"  and  Martineau  as  "one  who 
could  not  find  God  in  the  church  or  in  the 
Bible,  but  did  find  him  enthroned  in  his 
own  soul ;"  and  Spurgeon  who  "assails 
the  church  and  reason  in  the  interests  of 
the  authority  of  scripture."  Upon  these 
utterances    were    founded    the    charges 


made  against  him ;  he  was  summoned  be- 
fore the  New  York  Presbytery,  which 
dismissed  the  case;  but  in  the  General 
Assembly  in  May,  1893,  the  decision  of 
the  Presbytery  was  reversed,  and  he  was 
suspended  from  the  ministry,  but  he  con- 
tinued his  labors  at  the  Union  Theolog- 
ical Seminary. 

Among  his  published  works  are :  "Bib- 
lical Study,  its  Methods  and  History" 
(1883) ;  "American  Presbyterianism,  its 
Origin  and  Growth"  (1885)  ;  "Messianic 
Prophecy"  (1886);  "Study  of  Higher 
Criticism  with  special  reference  to  the 
Pentateuch"  (1883) ;  "Hebrew  Poems  of 
the  Creation"  (1884) ;  "Poem  of  the  Fall 
of  Man ;  Series  of  articles  of  Hebrew 
Poetry"  (1886);  "Opening  Address  on 
Biblical  History"  (1889)  ;  "Schaff-Lange 
Commentary  on  Ezra"  (1876)  ;  "Address 
on  Exegetical  Theology"  (1876)  ;  article 
in  Encyclopedia  Brittannica  on  "Presby- 
terianism in  the  United  States ;"  the 
"Right,  Duty  and  Limits  of  Biblical  Criti- 
cism" (1881) ;  "Whither?  A  Theological 
Question  for  the  Times"  (1889)  ;  "How? 
A  Series  of  Essays  on  the  Revision  Ques- 
tion" (1890) ;  "Authority  of  the  Holy 
Scripture"  (1891)  ;  "The  Bible,  the 
Church,  and  the  Reason"  (1892)  ;  "The 
Higher  Criticism  of  the  Hexateuch" 
(1893);  "The  Messiah  of  the  Gospels" 
(1894);  "The  Messiah  of  the  Apostles" 
(1895);  "General  Introduction  to  the 
Study  of  the  Holy  Scripture"  (1899).  He 
died  June  8,  1913. 


DI  CESNOLA,  Emmanuele, 

Distinguished  Archaeologist. 

Emmanuele  Pietro  Paolo  Maria  Luigi 
Palma  Di  Cesnola  was  born  in  Rivarolo, 
near  Turin,  June  29,  1832.  His  family 
originally  came  from  Spain  in  1190,  but 
resided  in  Piedmont  after  1282,  and  as 
early  as  the  fourteenth  century.  The  Pal- 
mas  were  immensely  rich  and  invested 


76 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


with  feudal  power  over  twenty-two  towns 
and  villages  in  Naples,  in  Sicily,  and  in 
the  region  near  Turin. 

Cesnola  received  a  collegiate  educa- 
tion with  a  view  to  his  preparation  for 
the  priesthood,  but  the  war  which  in 
1848  broke  out  between  Austria  and  Sar- 
dinia changed  the  direction  of  his  life. 
Leaving  college  he  volunteered  as  a  pri- 
vate soldier  in  the  Sardinian  army.  In 
February,  1849,  for  military  valor  he  was 
promoted  to  a  lieutenancy  in  the  Ninth 
Regiment  of  the  Queen's  Royal  Brigade, 
on  the  battle-field  at  Novara.  He  was 
then  the  youngest  commissioned  officer  in 
the  Sardinian  regular  army.  After  the 
close  of  the  war  he  was  sent  to  the  Royal 
Military  Academy  at  Cherasco,  from 
which  he  was  graduated  in  1851.  He 
served  in  the  army  several  years,  took 
part  in  the  Crimean  war,  and  at  the  end 
of  i860  came  to  America,  landing  in  New 
York.  On  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War 
in  1861,  he  entered  the  volunteer  service 
as  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Eleventh  New 
York  Cavalry  Regiment.  In  1862  he  was 
commissioned  colonel  of  the  Fourth  New 
York  Cavalry  Regiment;  led  his  brigade, 
attached  to  the  Eleventh  Army  Corps,  for 
several  months,  and  for  his  heroic  con- 
duct on  the  battle-field  in  a  charge  on 
June  17,  1863,  he  was  complimented  by 
General  Kilpatrick,  and  at  the  same  time 
was  presented  with  the  sword  of  that 
officer.  In  leading  the  fifth  charge  on  that 
day  he  was  severely  wounded,  was  made 
prisoner,  and  was  confined  for  over  nine 
months  in  Libby  Prison,  Richmond,  Vir- 
ginia. He  planned  an  escape  of  the  Union 
prisoners  with  the  provision  that  a 
cavalry  force  under  Kilpatrick,  Custer  and 
Dahlgren  should  create  a  diversion  by  a 
swift  movement  about  the  city  of  Rich- 
mond. However,  Secretary  of  War  Stan- 
ton declined  to  give  his  consent,  and  the 
plan  was  not  carried  out.     Cesnola  was 


with  Sheridan  throughout  the  campaign 
in  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  and  when  the 
term  of  service  of  his  regiment  expired 
he  remained  at  the  head  of  Devin's  bri- 
gade, at  the  written  request  of  General 
Wesley  Merritt,  his  division  commander. 
President  Lincoln  in  1865,  in  the  presence 
of  Senator  Ira  Harris  and  the  Hon.  Wil- 
liam H.  Seward,  conferred  upon  him  the 
brevet  rank  of  brigadier-general,  and  ap- 
pointed him  the  American  Consul  at 
Cyprus,  and  he  became  an  American 
citizen.  He  remained  in  Cyprus  until 
1877,  when  the  consulate  was  abolished. 
While  holding  this  office,  he  rendered 
such  inestimable  service  that  it  is  char- 
acterized by  Sir  Henry  Layard  as  "adding 
a  new  chapter  to  the  history  of  art  and 
archaeology,"  by  making  archaeological  ex- 
plorations in  that  island  and  collecting  a 
large  number  of  antiquities,  afterward  dis- 
played in  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of 
Art,  and  which  furnished  the  long  missing 
link  connecting  Egyptian  and  Assyrian 
art  with  that  of  Greece.  Many  literary 
and  scientific  societies  of  Europe  and 
America  conferred  upon  General  Cesnola 
honorary  membership.  King  Victor  Em- 
manuel and  Humbert  of  Italy  bestowed 
upon  him  several  knightly  orders,  as  did 
the  King  of  Bavaria.  In  1882,  King  Humr 
bert  of  Italy  caused  a  large  gold  medal  to 
be  struck  in  his  honor,  and  sent  him  as  a 
New  Year's  gift.  In  1897,  through  the 
Secretary  of  War,  he  received  the  con- 
gressional medal  of  honor  for  which  he 
had  neither  applied  nor  authorized  anyone 
to  do  so  in  his  name,  and  which  was  be- 
stowed upon  him  for  his  brilliant  cavalry 
charges  on  June  17,  1863.  In  1878  he  was 
elected  a  trustee  and  secretary  of  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  and  when 
the  museum  was  transferred  from  Four- 
teenth street  to  Central  Park,  the  trustees 
unanimously  made  him  chief  director, 
Columbia  University  and  Princeton  Col- 


77 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


lege  conferred  upon  him  the  honorary  de- 
gree of  LL.  D.  in  1880.  He  was  the 
author  of  several  works  relating  to  his 
discoveries  in  Cyprus. 

In  June,  1861,  he  was  married  to  Mary 
Isabel,  daughter  of  Captain  Samuel  Ches- 
ter Reid,  of  the  United  States  navy,  the 
heroic  commander  of  the  privateer  "Gen- 
eral Armstrong."  General  Cesnola  died 
November  21,  1904. 


SCHURZ,  General  Carl, 

Soldier,   Statesman,   Litterateur. 

Carl  Schurz  was  born  March  2,  1829, 
near  Liblar,  Prussia,  Germany.  He  re- 
ceived instruction  under  his  father  and 
at  eleven  years  of  age  was  sent  to  the 
Gymnasium  at  Cologne,  where  he  gradu- 
ated in  1847.  He  matriculated  at  Bonn 
University  in  1847;  m  J849  his  connec- 
tion with  the  revolution  caused  him  to 
discontinue  study  there.  While  there  he 
fell  under  the  spell  of  Professor  Johann 
Gottfried  Kinkel,  an  orator,  poet,  and 
idealist.  In  Bremen,  Kinkel  established 
the  "Bonner  Zeitung",  and  Schurz  became 
his  assistant  editor  and  reporter;  for  a 
time  Schurz  edited  the  paper  alone.  Later 
Schurz  went  to  Bavaria,  joined  the  revo- 
lutionary forces,  was  appointed  a  lieuten- 
ant, and  was  made  prisoner,  but  escaped 
to  Switzerland.  Later  he  went  back  to 
Germany  incognito,  and  effected  the  res- 
cue of  Kinkel,  and  they  took  refuge  in 
Paris.  In  1851  Schurz  went  to  London; 
he  there  married  and  came  to  New  York. 
Shortly  afterward,  Schurz  settled  in  Phil- 
adelphia, where  he  studied  English  and 
law.  In  1855  he  traveled  through  several 
western  States,  and  in  1856  returned  to 
Europe  with  his  family.  He  returned  to 
this  country  again  late  that  summer  and 
made  his  residence  at  Watertown,  Wis- 
consin. 

The   newly   formed    Republican   party 


had  nominated  Fremont  for  president, 
and  the  issues  of  anti-slavery  enlisted  the 
sympathies  of  Schurz,  who  made  speeches 
in  his  native  language  to  the  Germans  of 
Wisconsin.  In  1857  he  was  nominated 
over  his  own  protest  for  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor of  Wisconsin,  and  was  defeated ; 
the  other  candidates  on  the  Republican 
ticket  were  elected.  During  that  cam- 
paign, Schurz  spoke  in  the  English  lan- 
guage. In  1858  he  enlisted  in  the  Lincoln- 
Douglas  contest  in  Illinois,  in  which  he 
met  Lincoln.  In  the  Republican  State 
Convention  of  1859,  Schurz  was  again 
nominated  for  Lieutenant-Governor  of 
Wisconsin,  but  declined.  Early  in  1859 
he  was  admitted  to  the  Wisconsin  bar, 
and  settled  to  practice  at  Milwaukee.  As 
a  speaker  he  was  in  constant  demand,  and 
the  law  was  practically  abandoned. 

Schurz  was  a  member  of  the  National 
Republican  Convention  of  i860  at  Chi- 
cago, and  chairman  of  the  Wisconsin 
delegation.  He  secured  the  adoption  of 
a  plank  in  the  national  platform,  which 
declared  against  the  impairment  of  poli- 
tical rights  of  foreign-born  citizens,  and 
pledged  the  party  to  oppose  natavistic 
legislation  then  pending.  The  convention 
nominated  Lincoln  for  President,  and 
Schurz  was  made  the  Wisconsin  repre- 
sentative on  the  committee  to  inform  Lin- 
coln of  his  nomination.  Schurz  made  a 
strenuous  campaign,  and  soon  after  Lin- 
coln was  inaugurated  he  was  made  Min- 
ister to  Spain.  Schurz  presented  his  cre- 
dentials in  Madrid,  July  16.  1861,  but  the 
war  impelled  him  to  return  to  acquaint 
the  President  with  the  situation  abroad ; 
so  he  resigned  as  Minister.  He  was  ap- 
pointed brigadier-general  of  volunteers  by 
President  Lincoln,  and  on  June  10,  1862, 
received  command  of  the  Third  Division 
of  Sigel's  corps  at  Harrisonburg,  Vir- 
ginia. Shortly  afterward  he  participated 
in  the  Second  Battle  of  Bull  Run.  and  was 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


among  the  officers  commended  by  the 
Secretary  of  War.  On  March  14,  1863, 
he  was  made  major-general  of  volunteers. 
Later,  in  the  movements  that  eventuated 
in  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville,  he  com- 
manded a  division,  and  participated  in  the 
battle  of  Gettysburg,  July  1,  2  and  3,  1863, 
where  for  a  time  on  July  1st  he  com- 
manded the  Eleventh  Corps.  With  his 
division  he  was  sent  to  the  relief  of  Chat- 
tanooga, Tennessee,  late  in  1863,  partici- 
pated in  the  movements  in  and  around 
Chattanooga  that  eventuated  in  the  battles 
of  Lookout  Mountain  and  Missionary 
Ridge,  and  also  went  to  the  relief  of 
Knoxville,  in  December,  1863.  In  March, 
1864,  he  commanded  a  recruiting  camp  at 
Edgefield,  Tennessee.  During  the  presi- 
dential campaign  of  1864  he  was  a  speaker 
for  Lincoln.  In  the  winter  and  spring  of 
1864-65  he  served  in  various  military  ca- 
pacities, and  rejoined  General  Sherman 
in  North  Carolina  and  was  present  at  the 
surrender  of  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston, 
April  26,  1865,  whereupon  he  resigned  his 
commission. 

After  the  war,  the  question  arose  as  to 
the  legal  status  of  the  States  that  had 
seceded.  Schurz  contended  that  they 
should  not  be  readmitted  to  full  privileges 
until  guarantees  were  given  of  their  ac- 
ceptance of  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves. 
President  Johnson  commissioned  Schurz 
to  visit  the  Southern  States,  and  report 
to  him  their  physical  condition  and  the 
state  of  sentiment.  His  report,  recom- 
mending a  fuller  investigation  by  Con- 
gress, was  made  the  basis  of  subsequent 
legislation  by  Congress  during  the  "Re- 
construction" period. 

Soon  after,  he  became  Washington  cor- 
respondent of  the  "New  York  Tribune." 
In  May,  1866,  he  became  editor  of  the 
"Detroit  Michigan  Post,"  and  in  1867  he 
became  co-editor  and  joint  owner  of  the 
"Westliche    Post,"    St.    Louis,    Missouri. 


He  visited  Germany  in  1868,  and  was 
granted  an  audience  with  Prince  Bis- 
marck, who  showed  him  special  courtesy. 

Schurz  was  a  member  of  the  Missouri 
delegation  to  the  National  Republican 
Convention  in  1868,  of  which  he  was  tem- 
porary chairman,  and  he  secured  the  adop- 
tion of  a  provision  in  the  platform  recom- 
mending general  amnesty  for  most  of  the 
Confederate  soldiers.  In  1869  the  Legis- 
lature of  Missouri  elected  him  United 
States  Senator,  the  first  German  born 
citizen  to  attain  that  distinction  in  the 
United  States.  His  career  in  the  Senate 
was  noted  for  his  signal  ability  as  a  de- 
bater and  parliamentarian ;  and  clearness 
and  precision  in  argument.  He  opposed 
Grant's  San  Domingo  annexation  policy, 
which  he  virtually  defeated.  He  opposed 
the  "carpet-bag"  rule  of  the  South,  but 
when  the  States  accepted  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  he  was  the  first  to  taken  positive 
measures  to  restore  the  disfranchised  citi- 
zens to  full  citizenship.  To  accomplish 
that  end  he  secured  the  election  of  Ben- 
jamin Gratz  Brown  as  Liberal  Demo- 
cratic Governor.  His  speeches  in  the  Sen- 
ate on  the  currency  question  and  resump- 
tion of  specie  payments  were  models  of 
sound  financial  doctrine.  He  began  the 
agitation  for  tariff  reform,  and  made  the 
first  effort  to  secure  civil  service  reform. 
These  efforts  brought  him  into  conflict 
with  men  then  in  power,  and  in  1872  he 
headed  a  movement  to  force  the  nomina- 
tion of  a  Reform  candidate.  The  conven- 
tion called  by  Schurz  and  held  in  1872, 
at  Cincinnati,  however,  nominated  Gree- 
ley for  President  on  the  Democratic 
ticket,  whom  in  the  end  he  reluctantly 
supported  in  preference  to  Grant,  on  re- 
form issues  alone. 

When  Schurz's  term  in  the  Senate  ex- 
pired, he  was  given  a  complimentary  din- 
ner in  New  York  on  April  27,  1875.  He 
visited   Europe  again  in    1875,   and  was 


79 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


banquetted  in  Berlin  by  admiring  Ameri- 
cans then  abroad,  which  was  attended  by 
many  Germans  of  distinction.  As  soon 
as  he  returned  he  was  appealed  to  by  the 
Ohio  Republicans  to  speak  for  Hayes  and 
sound  money,  and  enlisted  in  the  cam- 
paign, which  resulted  in  the  election  of 
Hayes  as  Governor.  The  following  year 
he  launched  a  movement  to  secure  an  un- 
biased expression  of  non-partisan  senti- 
ment similar  to  that  of  his  campaign  of 
1872,  but  when  Hayes  was  nominated  for 
President  on  the  Republican  ticket,  he 
cast  his  lot  with  the  latter  in  preference 
to  Tilden  on  the  Democratic  ticket.  Hayes 
pledged  himself  to  inaugurate  Civil  Serv- 
ice Reform,  if  elected,  and  Schurz  made  a 
strenuous  campaign  for  him,  who  was 
finally  declared  to  be  elected,  and  Schurz 
was  made  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  He 
organized  a  system  of  promotion  based 
upon  merit,  and  was  the  first  high  official 
of  the  government  to  inaugurate  serious 
reforms  in  the  Civil  Service.  He  also 
gave  personally  the  same  attention  to  his 
official  duties  that  he  was  accustomed  to 
employ  in  his  own  private  business,  re- 
formed abuses,  and  reorganized  the  In- 
terior Department  on  a  more  efficient 
basis. 

In  1881  he  accepted  the  joint  editorship 
of  the  New  York  "Evening  Post",  with 
E.  L.  Godkin,  and  Horace  White ;  how- 
ever, he  withdrew  in  December,  1883, 
with  the  intention  of  taking  up  his  per- 
sonal memoirs  and  other  historical  work. 
He  was  not  pleased  with  the  attitude 
of  the  Garfield-Arthur  administration  on 
civil  service  and  other  reform  movements, 
and  endorsed  Cleveland  for  President, 
who  was  elected.  Meanwhile  he  had  be- 
come a  foremost  character  in  the  Na- 
tional Civil  Service  Reform  Association, 
organized  by  his  friend,  George  William 
Curtis;  and,  after  the  death  of  Curtis, 
Mr.  Schurz  became  president  of  the  As- 


sociation, being  reelected  annually  from 
1892  to  1901.  He  opposed  ihe  "imperial- 
ism" of  the  McKinley  administration, 
after  the  Spanish-American  War  of  1898, 
and  continued  to  advocate  the  principles 
of  democracy  as  he  conceived  them,  until 
his  death.  He  was  a  forceful  orator  and 
an  eloquent  speaker,  with  complete  com- 
mand of  both  the  English  language  and 
his  native  German. 

Carl  Schurz  edited  his  speeches,  pub- 
lished by  J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co.  in  1885. 
He  was  the  author  of  a  "Life  of  Henry 
Clay,"  which  was  published  in  1887,  by 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Company ;  and 
wrote  an  "Essay  on  Abraham  Lincoln" 
published  in  1887.  He  was  contributing 
editor  to  "Harper's  Weekly"  from  1892  to 
1898,  and  prepared  "Carl  Schurz's  Rem- 
iniscences," in  three  volumes,  published 
in  1909  by  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.  "The 
Life  of  Henry  Clay"  has  been  pronounced 
to  be  the  best  history  of  Henry  Clay  and 
his  times  ever  written,  while  "Schurz's 
Reminiscences,"  prepared  during  the  last 
three  years  of  his  lifetime,  sparkle  with  a 
pleasant  wit,  interwoven  with  a  beautiful 
Addisonian  style. 

Death  came  to  Carl  Schurz  on  May  14, 
1906,  in  New  York,  after  a  winter's  so- 
journ in  the  South.  It  cut  short  the  story 
of  his  life  in  those  reminiscences,  and 
with  his  passing  there  appeared  many 
eloquent  tributes  to  his  memory  in  the 
current  literature  of  the  day.  Since  that 
time  a  memorial  fund  was  raised,  which 
was  expended  in  the  erection  of  a  statue 
of  Carl  Schurz  on  Morningside  Heights, 
New  York,  where  it  now  stands  as  a  per- 
petual memorial  of  America's  first  great 
political  reformer. 

Carl  Schurz  married,  July  6,  1852,  in 
London,  England,  Margaretha,  daughter 
of  Heinrich  Christian  and  Agathe  Marga- 
rethe  (Ahlf)  Meyer,  of  Hamburg,  Ger- 
many.    After  Schurz  and  his  wife  estab- 


80 


:/.  Au 


H 


lished  their  home  at  Watertown, 

devoted  herself   t. 
educational  work,  establisi 
•xirten   there 
st  of   its  kin  1 
school  was  foil 
at  Columbia,  0 

,.on,    Massach" 
such  sci 

country 
1876,  in 


SIGEL,  Genera]  Franz. 

Educator,   Soldier,   Journalist- 
General   Fran 
Grand   Duchy  of  Baden,  ("■■ 
vember  24,   1824,  third  child  and 
son  of  Moritz  and  Anna  Marie   Pauline 
(Lichtenauer)  Sigel. 

Young  Sigel  was  a1 
in  the  Military  Acad  .  gradu- 

ated in  1843,  an(l  was 
tenant.    After  a  due! 
his  battalion,  he   resigned   . 
Heidelburg  to  study 
the  proclai 

came  in  February,  1848,  an  i 
gurated  the  revolutionary  movcnie 
swept  over 

Sigel  organized  an  independent  bal 
at  Mannheim.    He  joined  in 
of  1848,  which  proved  a  failure,  and  he 
fled  to  Switzerland.    In  the  spi 
the  revolutionary  movement    brol 

Sigel  returned   to  Carlsruhe  and 

became  Minister  of  War  under  th 

lutionary   government.     On   May  25   he 

n  command  of  the  army  on  the 

and  led  his  troops  in  an  engage- 

Meppenheim.    The  plan  of  cross- 

iiorder  into  Wurtemberg  had  to 

be  abandoned  on  account  of  the  objec- 

"reign  state.     Sigel 

•    his  duties  as  Minister  of  War, 

h  y-voi  in~8  81 


mmand  of  the 

■    ■  3  the  re 

r 

>ki,  the  Polish 

i  Sigel  adju- 

.  ci  took 

and  !  ':ge  in 

'■■  •  nem  spap< 
tnei 

1  by  gendarmes 

de  the 

Carl    Schurz. 

The     t"  were 

unteer? 

to  London,  wl 

playing  the  piano 
.bit   at    the 

a 
n 


1, 

-,• 

- 

. 

■ 

:il    years 

transla- 

te Ger- 

r-in-law. 

the  pupils 

In  the 

;lish   in   a   night 

•  ed   a   German- 

1    at    the   Turn 

teacher  of  fencing,  and  for  a 

ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


time  was  president  of  the  Turn-Verein, 
wrote  for  the  "School  of  the  People," 
wrote  for  the  Turn-Verein  a  manual  of 
gymnastics  and  fencing,  and  translated 
Scott's  tactics  for  the  Turners.  From 
1855-57  he  was  instructor  in  tactics  of 
the  Fifth  New  York  Regiment  of  Militia. 
For  about  a  year  he  edited  and  published 
"The  Review,"  a  military,  technical  and 
literary  monthly  magazine  for  the  militia, 
Turners  and  other  societies.  In  1857  he 
accepted  a  position  as  teacher  in  the  Ger- 
man Institution  of  St.  Louis,  with  a  yearly 
salary  of  $800.  In  April,  i860,  he  received 
his  final  citizenship  papers,  on  the  eve  of 
his  election  as  a  director  of  the  School 
Board  of  St.  Louis. 

At  no  time  did  Sigel  have  any  sympa- 
thy for  the  principle  of  slavery  and  the 
doctrine  of  secession,  and  he  was  an  ardent 
supporter  of  Lincoln.  After  the  secession 
of  South  Carolina  he  engaged  in  organiz- 
ing and  drilling  a  company  to  meet  the 
preparations  made  by  Governor  Jackson, 
of  Missouri,  who  sympathized  with  the 
South.  The  secessionists  established  a 
camp  with  the  intention  of  taking  the 
arsenal  in  St.  Louis,  with  its  military 
stores.  The  United  States  government 
sent  Captain  Nathaniel  Lyon  to  command 
the  Union  troops  at  St.  Louis,  and  when 
Lincoln's  first  call  for  volunteers  came,  it 
found  citizens  in  St.  Louis  prepared. 
Under  the  leadership  of  Lyon,  Blair  and 
Sigel,  Camp  Jackson  was  taken,  and  the 
United  States  Arsenal  saved.  General 
Sigel  organized  the  Third  Missouri  Regi- 
ment, made  up  entirely  of  German-Ameri- 
cans, and  became  its  colonel.  In  com- 
mand of  a  brigade  he  marched  against 
the  secessionists  at  Carthage,  in  South- 
west Missouri,  and  attacked  them  vigor- 
ously with  fifteen  hundred  men,  July  5, 
1861 ;  but  was  obliged  to  fall  back  to 
Deep  River,  where  he  reorganized  his 
force  and  became  attached  to  the  army  of 


General  Nathaniel  Lyon.  In  the  battle  of 
Wilson's  Creek,  where  Lyon  fell,  he  gained 
the  rear  of  the  Confederates,  but  the 
death  of  Lyon  created  confusion,  and 
Sigel  was  overwhelmed  and  obliged  to  re- 
treat. 

Sigel,  promoted  to  brigadier-general, 
was  by  General  Fremont  given  command 
of  a  division,  and  later  of  two  divisions, 
and  ordered  to  join  the  army  of  General 
S.  R.  Curtis,  and  took  part  in  the  battle  of 
Pea  Ridge,  Arkansas.  Soon  after  he  was 
commissioned  major-general,  and  on  June 
1,  1862,  he  was  given  command  of  the 
forces  at  Harper's  Ferry  and  Maryland 
Heights,  and  followed  "Stonewall"  Jack- 
son to  Winchester,  Virginia.  On  June 
25,  1862,  he  was  given  command  of  the 
First  Corps,  Army  of  Virginia,  and  was 
present  at  the  battle  of  Cedar  Mountain. 
He  commanded  the  forces  along  the  Rap- 
pahannock river,  having  in  addition  to 
his  own  corps  a  division  of  General  Banks, 
and  a  division  of  the  Ninth  Corps.  At  the 
Second  Battle  of  Bull  Run  he  opened  the 
battle  by  attacking  "Stonewall''  Jackson, 
near  Groveton.  In  the  beginning  he 
gained  decided  advantage,  and  it  was  his 
corps  that  covered  the  retreat  to  Wash- 
ington, which  ended  the  conflict. 

In  September,  1862,  Sigel  commanded 
the  Eleventh  Corps  and  the  Grand  Re- 
serve Division,  which  was  present  but  did 
not  participate  in  the  battle  of  Fredericks- 
burg. In  the  disputes  resulting  from  the 
Second  Battle  of  Bull  Run,  Sigel  was  in- 
volved, and  personal  relations  became  so 
difficult  that  he  deemed  it  wise  to  resign 
his  command  of  the  Eleventh  Corps,  just 
prior  to  Chancellorsville,  and  he  accepted 
a  command  in  the  Department  of  the  Le- 
high, with  headquarters  at  Reading,  Penn- 
sylvania, and  was  stationed  there  when 
the  battle  of  Gettysburg  was  fought. 
Soon  afterward,  owing  to  illness,  he  was 
obliged  to  accept  a  leave  of  absence. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Returning  to  duty  in  February,  1864, 
he  was  given  command  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  West  Virginia,  and  was  defeated 
by  a  superior  force  under  General  John  C. 
Breckinridge,  near  Newmarket.  In  con- 
sequence, he  was  relieved  and  placed  in 
charge  of  the  division  guarding  Harper's 
Ferry.  In  July,  1864,  he  successfully  de- 
fended Maryland  Heights  against  Gen- 
eral Early,  giving  time  for  the  Sixth  and 
Nineteenth  army  corps  to  reach  the  na- 
tional capital  and  save  it  from  capture. 
The  administration,  however,  had  lost 
confidence  in  Sigel,  and  he  was  relieved 
of  his  command  and  ordered  to  Baltimore, 
and  he  resigned  in  May,  1865. 

While  a  resident  of  Baltimore,  he  edited 
the  "Baltimore  Wecker,"  a  German  news- 
paper. He  took  an  active  part  as  a 
speaker  in  promoting  the  reelection  of 
President  Lincoln.  In  1866  he  removed 
to  New  York  City.  President  Grant  ap- 
pointed him  Collector  of  Internal  Reve- 
nue, and  in  1869  he  was  the  Republican 
candidate  for  Secretary  of  State,  but  the 
Democratic  ticket  was  elected.  President 
Grant  appointed  him  a  special  member  of 
the  commission  which  visited  Santo  Do- 
mingo, and  reported  to  Congress  in  favor 
of  annexation.  The  same  year  he  was 
elected  Register  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
the  Reform  Democratic  party  joining  the 
Republicans  in  giving  him  a  majority  of 
the  votes  cast,  and  he  served  to  January, 
1875.  For  President  in  1880,  General 
Sigel  warmly  supported  Hancock,  and 
thereafter  was  known  as  a  Democrat  up 
to  1896,  when  he  supported  McKinley, 
having  no  sympathy  with  the  monetary 
teachings  advocated  by  Bryan.  He  served 
the  city  of  New  York  as  equity  clerk  in 
the  office  of  the  county  clerk,  and  in  1885 
President  Cleveland  appointed  him  Pen- 
sion Agent  at  New  York,  and  he  filled 
that  office  with  credit,  1885-1888.  After 
his  retirement  he  continued  to  reside  in 


New  York  City,  lecturing  throughout  the 
country  on  military  and  historical  sub- 
jects, in  advertising  business,  and  for 
several  years  published  the  "New  York 
Monthly,"  a  journal  printed  part  in  Ger- 
man and  part  in  English,  devoted  to  the 
interests  of  German-American  citizens. 
By  special  act  of  Congress  he  was  granted 
a  pension  of  $1,200  per  annum. 

He  died  at  his  home  in  New  York  City, 
August  21,  1902.  A  full  length  portrait 
in  oil  of  General  Sigel  occupies  a  place  in 
the  court  house  in  Carthage,  Missouri, 
the  scene  of  one  of  his  early  battles.  An 
equestrian  statue  in  Forest  Park,  St. 
Louis,  was  unveiled  in  1906.  Franz  Sigel 
Park  in  the  Bronx,  New  York  City,  was 
named  for  him.  In  1908  a  statue  was 
placed  on  Riverside  Drive,  New  York 
City,  and  at  the  unveiling  of  the  statue, 
prominent  in  the  marching  procession 
were  noted  Grand  Army  posts,  with 
members  being  German-American  soldiers 
who  had  served  under  General  Sigel  in 
Missouri  and  Arkansas,  and  others  who 
were  in  his  Virginia  campaign. 

General  Franz  Sigel  married,  in  Janu- 
ary, 1854,  Elise  Dulon,  sister  of  Rudolph 
Dulon,  who  was  born  in  the  city  of 
Bremen,  Germany,  and  died  in  New 
York,  December  18,  1905. 


WOODFORD,  Stewart  L., 

Soldier,  Diplomatist. 

General  Stewart  Lyndon  Woodford 
was  born  in  New  York  City,  September 
3,  1835,  son  of  Josiah  Curtis  and  Susan 
(Terry)  Woodford,  and  eighth  in  descent 
from  Thomas  Woodford,  a  native  of  Bos- 
ton, Lincolnshire,  England,  who  settled 
at  Dorchester,  Massachusetts,  in  1635, 
and  became  one  of  the  founders  of  Hart- 
ford, Connecticut.  His  great-grandfather, 
William  Woodford,  of  Farmington,  Con- 
necticut, was  a  soldier  in  the  Revolution, 


83 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


and  his  grandfather,  Chandler  Woodford, 
of  Avon,  was  in  the  War  of  1812.  Through 
his  mother,  General  Woodford  descends 
from  one  of  the  original  settlers  of  South- 
old,  Long  Island. 

Steward  L.  Woodford  was  prepared  for 
college  at  the  Columbia  Grammar  School, 
New  York  City,  and  was  graduated  from 
Columbia  University  in  1854.  He  studied 
law  in  1858,  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and 
became  a  member  of  the  law  firm  of 
Woodford  &  Ritch.  For  more  than  half 
a  century  he  continued  in  active  practice, 
and  among  other  firms  was  a  partner  in 
1870  of  the  firm  of  Arnoux,  Ritch  & 
Woodford,  and  in  1910  became  senior 
member  of  Woodford,  Bovee  &  Butcher. 
Early  in  life  he  began  to  take  an  active 
interest  in  public  affairs.  He  was  a  dele- 
gate to  the  Republican  National  Conven- 
tion of  i860,  which  nominated  Lincoln 
for  the  presidency,  and  was  messenger  of 
the  Electoral  College  of  New  York  to 
Washington,  bearing  the  votes  of  his 
State  for  Lincoln.  Early  in  1861  he  was 
appointed  Assistant  United  States  Dis- 
trict Attorney  for  the  Southern  District 
of  New  York,  and  as  such  had  charge  of 
the  bureau  which  conducted  all  the  block- 
ade cases  and  such  litigation  as  grew  of 
the  war.  He  resigned  in  1862  to  enter 
the  army,  enlisting  in  the  One  Hundred 
and  Twenty-seventh  Regiment  New  York 
Volunteers,  in  which  he  was  made  captain, 
and  later  was  promoted  to  lieutenant- 
colonel.  He  was  judge  advocate-general 
of  the  Department  of  the  South,  provost 
marshal-general  and  later  chief-of-staff  to 
General  Ouincy  A.  Gilmore,  commanding 
that  department.  He  was  the  first  mili- 
tary governor  of  Charleston,  South  Caro- 
lina, after  its  capture  by  the  Federal 
forces,  and  was  then  transferred  to  the 
command  of  Savannah,  having  been  pre- 
viously promoted  to  colonel  and  brevetted 
brigadier-general  for  gallantry  in  action. 


At  the  close  of  the  war  General  Wood- 
ford returned  to  law  practice,  but  was 
again  drawn  into  public  life.  In  1866  he 
was  elected  on  the  Republican  ticket  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of  the  State  of  New 
York.  In  1870  he  was  the  Republican 
candidate  for  Governor,  and  was  defeated 
by  John  T.  Hoffman ;  his  friends  always 
insisted  that  he  been  elected  and  counted 
out,  a  contention  which  was  confirmed  by 
the  ante  mortem  confessions  of  William 
M.  Tweed  and  A.  Oakly  Hall.  In  1872 
he  was  elector-at-large  and  president  of 
the  Electoral  College  of  New  York,  and 
in  the  same  year  was  elected  to  Congress 
from  the  Third  Brooklyn  District.  In 
1877  he  was  appointed  United  States  Dis- 
trict Attorney  for  the  Southern  District 
of  New  York  by  President  Grant,  and 
was  appointed  in  1881  by  President  Gar- 
field, who  also  offered  him  his  choice 
between  three  foreign  missions,  which 
General  Woodford  declined,  preferring  to 
remain  in  the  practice  of  his  profession. 
He  was  delegate  to  the  Republican  Na- 
tional Conventions  of  1872,  1876  and  1880, 
and  was  prominent  in  the  last  two  as  a 
candidate  for  the  vice-presidential  nomi- 
nation, withdrawing  in  1876  in  favor  of 
William  A.  Wheeler,  and  in  1880  himself 
placing  Chester  A.  Arthur  in  nomination. 
In  1875,  although  a  New  Yorker,  he  par- 
ticipated in  the  Ohio  gubernatorial  cam- 
paign, conducting  a  series  of  joint  debates 
with  General  Thomas  Ewing,  the  leader 
of  the  Ohio  Democracy,  on  the  question 
of  the  resumption  of  specie  payment. 
Rutherford  B.  Hayes  was  elected  Gov- 
ernor upon  this  issue,  and  this  decision 
in  favor  of  sound  money  fixed  the  attitude 
of  the  parties  and  restored  the  financial 
credit  of  the  nation.  Meanwhile  General 
Woodford  had  resumed  his  law  practice, 
his  firm  becoming  Arnoux,  Ritch  &Wood- 
ford.  In  1896  he  was  appointed  by  Gov- 
ernor Morton  one  of  the  commissioners 


84 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


to  frame  the  charter  of  the  Greater  New- 
York.  In  1896,  during  the  sound  money 
campaign,  he  again  came  forward  as  an 
ardent  advocate  of  safe  and  honest  cur- 
rency. As  permanent  chairman  of  the 
Republican  State  Convention  at  Saratoga 
he  delivered  the  keynote  speech,  and  later 
took  part  in  the  campaign,  speaking 
throughout  the  country  in  advocacy  of 
sound  money.  In  1897  President  McKin- 
ley  appointed  him  United  States  Minister 
to  Spain,  a  post  which,  owing  to  the  com- 
plications regarding  Cuba,  was  the  most 
responsible  in  the  entire  diplomatic  serv- 
ice. Among  his  earliest  communications 
to  the  Spanish  government  was  one  ten- 
dering the  good  offices  of  the  United 
States  toward  establishing  permanent 
peace  in  Cuba,  an  offer  which  was  not 
accepted.  General  Woodford  distin- 
guished himself  by  the  coolness,  firmness 
and  tact  with  which  he  met  the  delicate 
and  complicated  situation  growing  out  of 
the  unfortunate  letter  of  Senor  Polo  y 
Bernabe,  and  the  closely  following  de- 
struction of  the  battleship  "Maine," 
events  which  greatly  inflamed  public 
opinion  in  America.  General  Woodford's 
policy  of  authorizing  the  Spanish  govern- 
ment to  publish  in  full  all  negotiations 
conducted  by  him,  excited  the  surprise  of 
the  ministers,  and  became  famous  as  the 
"new  American  diplomacy."  He  remained 
in  Madrid  until  April  21,  1898,  when  he 
was  informed  that  diplomatic  relations 
were  severed,  and  received  his  passports 
before  he  had  an  opportunity  to  present 
the  ultimatum  of  the  United  States,  re- 
quiring that  within  forty-eight  hours 
Spain  should  relinquish  all  claims  to 
sovereignty  in  Cuba.  Returning  home, 
he  declined  a  commission  as  major-gen- 
eral tendered  by  President  McKinley,  and 
continued  titular  minister  to  Spain  until 
September,  1898,  when  he  resigned.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  New  York  State  Re- 


publican Convention  of  1898,  which  nomi- 
nated Roosevelt  for  Governor,  and  as 
chairman  of  the  committee  on  resolutions 
reported  the  platform  announcing  the 
position  of  the  party  in  New  York  on  the 
Cuban  question.  He  was  active  in  the 
succeeding  campaign  of  Governor  Hughes, 
whom  he  placed  in  nomination  for  the 
presidency  at  the  Republican  convention 
in  Chicago.  He  was  president  of  the  Hud- 
son-Fulton Commission  in  1909,  and  after 
the  celebration  in  New  York  was  sent  by 
the  government  to  Europe  to  present 
gold  medals  to  the  rulers  whose  countries 
sent  battleships  to  the  celebration.  He 
was  decorated  by  the  German  Emperor 
with  the  Prussian  Order  of  the  Crown  of 
the  first  class,  and  was  granted  audiences 
by  the  Queen  of  Holland,  the  President  of 
France,  the  King  of  Italy,  and  the  King 
of  England.  He  was  also  decorated  with 
the  Order  of  the  Rising  Sun,  second  class, 
by  the  Emperor  of  Japan,  the  highest 
decoration  conferred  upon  foreigners. 

General  Woodford  was  married  in  1857 
to  Julia  E.  Capen,  daughter  of  Henry  T. 
Capen,  of  New  York.  She  died  in  June, 
1899 ;  he  married  (second)  September  26, 
1900,  Isabel,  daughter  of  James  S.  Han- 
son, who  survived  him.  At  the  time  of 
his  decease  he  was  commander-in-chief 
of  the  Military  Order  of  the  Loyal  Legion, 
and  a  member  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic,  the  Sons  of  the  Revolution,  the 
Society  of  Colonial  Wars,  the  New  York 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  the  Pilgrim  So- 
ciety, the  Lawyers'  Club,  the  University 
Club,  the  Century  Club,  the  Lotos  Club, 
and  the  Republican  Club  of  New  York, 
the  Union  League  and  Hamilton  clubs  of 
Brooklyn,  and  the  New  England  Society 
of  both  New  York  and  Brooklyn.  He 
was  for  many  years  a  trustee  of  Cornell 
University:  was  a  director  in  the  City 
Savings  Bank  of  Brooklyn ;  and  general 
counsel  and  director  in  the  Metropolitan 


85 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Life  Insurance  Company.  The  degree  of 
A.  M.  was  conferred  upon  him  by  Colum- 
bia, Trinity  and  Yale  colleges ;  that  of 
LL.  D.  by  Trinity,  Dickinson  and  Mari- 
etta colleges ;  and  that  of  D.  C.  L.  by 
Syracuse  University.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  Delta  Psi  and  D.  K.  E.  fraternities. 
General  Woodford  died  at  his  home  in 
New  York,  February  14,  1913. 


SIBLEY,  Hiram, 

Loader  Among  Men. 

Great  leaders  are  few.  The  mass  of 
men  seem  content  to  remain  in  the  posi- 
tions in  which  they  are  placed  by  birth, 
experience  or  environment.  Laudable  am- 
bition, ready  adaptability  and  a  capacity 
for  hard  work  are  essential  elements  of 
success,  and  in  none  of  these  require- 
ments was  Hiram  Sibley  ever  found  lack- 
ing. It  is  not  a  matter  of  marvel,  there- 
fore, that  he  occupied  a  preeminent  posi- 
tion among  the  builders  of  Rochester  and 
the  promoters  of  progress  and  develop- 
ment in  various  sections  of  the  country. 
In  fact,  his  interests  were  so  wide,  that 
he  was  a  man  not  of  one  locality,  but  of 
the  nation.  The  eminence  to  which  he 
attained  was  due  also  to  the  fact  that  he 
had  the  ability  to  recognize  the  opportune 
moment  and  to  correctly  appraise  the 
value  of  a  situation  and  determine  its  pos- 
sible outcome.  It  was  these  qualities  that 
enabled  him  to  enter  upon  his  first  great 
work  in  amalgamating  and  coordinating 
the  forces  that  led  to  the  establishment 
of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Com- 
pany. The  history  of  the  invention  of  the 
telegraph  is  too  well  known  to  need  re- 
iteration here.  The  great  majority  of  the 
members  of  Congress  and  the  men  promi- 
nent in  the  country  doubted  the  worth  of 
the  ideas  which  found  birth  in  the  fertile 
brain  of  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse.  Not  so 
with  Mr.  Sibley,  and  with  wonderful  pre- 


science he  recognized  what  this  might 
mean  to  the  country  and  his  executive 
ability  was  brought  to  play  in  the  organ- 
ization of  what  is  now  one  of  the  most 
useful  and  powerful  corporations  of  the 
world. 

No  special  advantages  aided  him  at  the 
outset  of  his  career.  On  the  contrary,  he 
was  deprived  of  many  advantages  which 
most  boys  enjoy.  A  native  of  North 
Adams,  Massachusetts,  he  was  born  Feb- 
ruary 6,  1807,  and  was  the  second  son  of 
Benjamin  and  Zilpha  (Davis)  Sibley, 
who  were  representatives  of  old  New 
England  families  that  had  been  founded 
on  American  soil  at  an  early  epoch  in  the 
history  of  our  country.  He  had  com- 
paratively little  hope  of  acquiring  an 
education,  but  nature  endowed  him  with 
a  strong  mind  and  keen  discernment.  He 
possessed,  also,  much  mechanical  genius, 
used  every  chance  which  he  had  for  its 
development,  and  before  he  had  attained 
his  majority  was  master  of  five  trades. 
His  mechanical  knowledge  and  his  skill 
proved  an  important  factor  in  the  sub- 
stantial development  of  Monroe  county. 
Years  later,  in  an  address  made  to  the 
students  of  Sibley  College,  on  a  visit  to 
Ithaca,  he  gave  utterance  to  words  which 
were  typical  of  his  own  life,  saying: 
"There  are  two  most  valuable  posses- 
sions, which  no  search  warrant  can  get 
at,  which  no  execution  can  take  away, 
and  which  no  reverse  of  fortune  can 
destroy;  they  are  what  a  man  puts  into 
his  head — knowledge ;  and  into  his  hands 
—skill." 

Mr.  Sibley  used  every  opportunity  to 
acquire  both,  and  therein  lay  the  founda- 
tion of  his  wonderfully  successful  career. 
At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  became  a  resi- 
dent of  Western  New  York,  locating 
first  in  Livingston  county,  where  for  sev- 
eral years  he  carried  on  business  as  a 
wool  carder,  machinist  and  iron  founder. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


In  1829  he  came  to  Monroe  county  and 
the  following  year  entered  into  partner- 
ship with  D.  A.  Watson,  in  the  building 
and  operation  of  a  saw  mill  and  factory 
for  the  construction  of  wool  carding  ma- 
chines. They  also  began  the  manufacture 
of  agricultural  implements,  having  the 
first  blast  furnace  and  machine  shop  in 
Monroe  county.  Around  the  new  enter- 
prise there  sprang  up  a  flourishing  vil- 
lage which  was  called  Sibleyville.  In 
his  business  Mr.  Sibley  gave  employment 
to  eighty  men,  but  later  he  and  his  part- 
ner were  called  elsewhere  by  more  exten- 
sive business  interests,  and  the  town 
gradually  sank  into  decadence,  so  that 
only  the  mill  and  the  shop  mark  its  site 
at  the  present  time. 

Having  been  elected  sheriff  of  Mon- 
roe county  in  1843,  Mr.  Sibley  removed 
to  Rochester,  where  he  afterward  con- 
tinued to  reside.  Previous  to  this  time 
he  had  become  deeply  interested  in  the 
experiments  of  Professor  S.  F.  B.  Morse 
and  Stephen  Vail  in  telegraphy,  and  in 
1840  had  gone  to  Washington  with  Pro- 
fessor Morse  and  Ezra  Cornell  to  secur 
an  appropriation  of  forty  thousand  dol- 
lars from  Congress  to  build  a  telegraph 
line  from  Washington  to  Baltimore. 
They  were  successful  in  their  mission, 
and  the  success  of  the  line  and  the  sub- 
sequent development  of  telegraphic  com- 
munication is  now  a  matter  of  history. 
Quickly  following  on  the  successful  estab- 
lishment of  this  pioneer  line,  several  tele- 
graph companies  were  organized  but  they 
met  with  financial  disaster.  With  firm 
faith  in  the  invention  and  with  a  keen 
foresight  which  recognized  possibilities 
and  the  influence  it  would  have  on  the 
world's  progress,  Mr.  Sibley  bought  the 
house  patents  and  with  other  Rochester 
capitalists  organized  the  New  York  & 
Mississippi  Valley  Printing  Telegraph 
Company  on  April  1,  1851.  The  first 
hundred  miles  of  the  line  were  finished 


that  year.  Three  years  later  the  company 
leased  the  lines  of  the  Lake  Erie  Tele- 
graph Company.  At  this  time  Ezra  Cor- 
nell was  in  possession  of  valuable  grants 
under  the  Morse  patent  and  controlled 
the  Erie  &  Michigan  Telegraph  Com- 
pany. Mr.  Sibley  then  opened  negoti- 
ations with  Mr.  Cornell,  and  in  1856  the 
companies  controlled  by  them  were 
united  by  acts  of  the  Wisconsin  and  New 
York  legislatures  under  the  name  of  the 
Western  Union  Telegraph  Company. 
For  ten  years  Mr.  Sibley  was  president 
of  the  new  company  and  for  sixteen  years 
a  leading  member  of  its  board  of  directors. 
During  the  first  six  years  of  his  presi- 
dency the  number  of  telegraph  offices 
was  increased  from  one  hundred  ar  ' 
thirty-two  to  four  thousand  and  the  prop- 
erty rose  in  value  from  two  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  to  forty-eight  million 
dollars. 

It  was  Hiram  Sibley  who  projected  the 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  line  to  California,  ar  ' 
it  was  built  under  his  direction  and  con- 
trol. His  associates  of  the  Western 
Union  were  unwilling  to  undertake  the 
enterprise  as  a  company  and  Cyrus  W. 
Field,  Wilson  G.  Hunt,  Peter  Cooper,  and 
others,  engaged  in  large  undertakings  at 
the  time,  whom  he  strove  to  interest  in 
the  matter,  also  deemed  the  project  pre- 
mature. With  a  persistence  and  confi- 
dence in  the  soundness  of  his  judgment 
which  were  characteristics  of  the  man, 
he  then  presented  his  project  to  Congress 
and  was  heartily  supported  by  Howell 
Cobb,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  June 
16,  i860,  an  act  was  passed  encouraging 
the  project  and  granting  an  annual  su1 
sidy  of  forty  thousand  dollars  for  ten 
years,  and  on  September  22,  his  offer  to 
construct  the  lines  was  officially  accepted. 
The  Overland  Telegraph  Company  was 
organized  in  San  Francisco,  and,  the  two 
companies  uniting  their  interests,  the 
Pacific    Telegraph    Company   came    into 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


existence.  Five  months  later  the  line  was 
opened  from  ocean  to  ocean — ten  years 
in  advance  of  the  completion  of  a  trans- 
continental railroad !  A  profitable  invest- 
ment from  the  start,  this  line,  March  17, 
1864,  was  merged  into  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph  system.  Before  the  success  of 
the  Atlantic  cable  was  assured  Mr.  Sibley 
was  interested  in  a  project  to  unite  the 
old  and  the  new  world  electrically  by  way 
of  Behring  Strait.  In  the  furtherance  of 
that  enterprise  he  made  a  visit  to  Russia 
in  1864-65,  and  was  received  most  cor- 
dially by  the  Czar,  who  assigned  to  his 
American  guest  the  second  place  of  honor 
at  state  functions,  the  French  ambassador 
alone  taking  precedence  of  him.  The 
Russian  government  entered  into  hearty 
cooperation  with  the  American  projectors 
for  the  establishment  of  the  line,  which 
would  undoubtedly  have  been  built  had 
not  the  Atlantic  cable  been  put  into  suc- 
cessful operation  about  that  time. 

The  purchase  of  Alaska  by  the  United 
States  government  was  first  suggested 
during  an  interview  Mr.  Sibley  was  hav- 
ing with  regard  to  the  projected  Behring 
Strait  telegraph  line  with  Prime  Minister 
Gortschcoff.  Mr.  Sibley  was  asked  how 
the  American  company  proposed  to  ac- 
quire right-of-way  across  the  territories 
of  British  America  and  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company.  He  replied  that  he  thought 
there  would  be  little  difficulty  in  securing 
a  right-of-way  over  the  territory  referred 
to,  except  in  the  case  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company ;  that  while  in  London  he  had 
submitted  the  matter  to  the  directors  of 
the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  who  did  not 
welcome  the  proposition  with  enthusiasm 
and  as  a  consequence  he  thought  it  might 
be  necessary  to  acquire  a  considerable 
interest  in  the  Hudson  Bay  Company. 

The  minister  asked  him  what  would  be 
the  probable  cost  to  the  American  com- 
pany, to  which  Mr.  Sibley  replied  stating 


a  considerable  sum  which  drew  from  the 
minister  the  remark  that  it  was  not  worth 
any  such  sum ;  that  Russia  would  sell  the 
whole  of  Alaska  for  a  sum  not  much 
bigger.  At  the  end  of  the  interview  Mr. 
Sibley  asked  the  minister  whether  he 
intended  his  remark  in  regard  to  Alaska 
to  be  taken  seriously  and  whether  he 
might  bring  it  to  the  attention  of  the 
United  States  government.  To  which 
the  minister  replied  that  he  was  quite 
serious  and  had  no  objection  to  the  sug- 
gestion being  made  to  the  United  States 
government.  Mr.  Sibley  lost  no  time  in 
communicating  this  suggestion  to  Gen- 
eral Cassius  M.  Clay,  at  that  time  minister 
of  the  United  States  at  the  Court  of 
Russia,  who  in  turn  at  once  communi- 
cated the  information  to  Secretary  Se- 
ward at  Washington.  The  result,  of 
course,  is  known  to  everybody. 

In  addition  to  his  labors  for  the  intro- 
duction of  the  telegraph,  Mr.  Sibley  was 
largely  instrumental  in  promoting  other 
enterprises,  for  with  wonderful  foresight 
he  believed  in  the  rapid  development  of 
the  western  country.  After  the  war, 
prompted  more  by  the  desire  of  restor- 
ing amicable  relations  than  by  the  pros- 
pect of  gain,  he  made  large  and  varied 
investments  in  railroads  in  the  south  and 
did  much  to  promote  renewed  business 
activity.  He  became  extensively  inter- 
ested in  lumber  and  salt  manufacturing 
in  the  west  and  was  the  owner  of  nearly 
three  hundred  and  fifty  farms  in  Ford 
and  Livingston  counties,  Illinois.  At  one 
time  he  possessed  forty-seven  thousand 
acres  in  Ford  county  alone,  and  on  his 
land  he  made  splendid  improvements  of 
a  substantial  and  extensive  character.  He 
also  established  a  large  seed-raising  busi- 
ness in  Rochester,  with  warehouses  in 
this  city  and  Chicago,  and  undertook  to 
supply  seeds  of  his  own  importation  and 
raising  and  others'  growth,  under  a  per- 


ut> 


^-«-»-l 


^M-a-^JL^ 


>F  BIGG' 


softal    knowledge    of   their 

comparative  value.     He  ini  t 

experiments     for    the     improve.: 

plants,  with  referenc 

ing  qualities,  and  built  up 

unique  in  its  character  as  it 

cedented  in  amoun 

of  the   Bank  of  Monroe   an 

with  many  o 

o  the  upbuii;' 

His   d<  ■ 

educati  u 

improvement  of  Am.  i 

ly  manifested   in  ? 

He  endowed  institutions 

the  promotion  of  learning  a 

Hall  for  the  use  of  the  libi 
the  University  of  Rochester,  at  a 
one  hundred  thousand  dolla 
to  it  many  valuable  volume 
for  the  free    use   of  the   libi 
public.     He  was  on< 
incorporate   tl 

i 
chanical  Arts 

thus  set  i 

i  ,advancemci 
which  is  incak 

his  home  life 

a  daughter  ( 
(Knight)  Tin;; 

ticut.    Unto  Mr.  an 
•n  the  following  named  cl 
who  became  ; 
F.  'Atkinson,  and  died  in  li 
of    thii - 

th,    wife   of    Arthur    Smith,    and 
Marie  L.,  who  marru 

d   at  the   age 
years;  Hiram  Watson,  of  Rochester;  and 
Emily,  the  wife    of  James   S.    V 
■   r  husband,  Mrs.  SI' 


th  tl  e  of  Roches- 

■  con- 
•  d   St. 

illage. 

! 

•. 
- 

poor  never 
I 

■ 
the     igl  t] 

i 
■ 

th,  for  what  he  did 
■    ••! --graphic  and  i 
I 

him  a 
- 

enejons 

I 
■ 


M  artin, 

fer,  Humanitarian. 

■ 

twentieth 

;-     I 

lue  of  the 
ster,  New- 
er  that    offers 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


greater  opportunities  for  a  man  of  the 
incisive  type  of  mind  than  the  practice  of 
the  law.  Here  the  man  whose  mental 
gifts  are  of  the  highest  order  finds  scope 
for  their  use  and  opportunity  for  con- 
tinual improvement  in  the  contact  with 
others  that  are  pitted  against  him.  But 
it  was  not  in  his  legal  practice  alone  that 
Mr.  Jones  earned  the  commendation  and 
won  the  admiration  of  all  right  thinking 
men ;  he  was  a  well  known  leader  in  the 
cause  of  temperance,  and  it  is  owing 
largely  to  his  efforts  that  that  cause  has 
made  the  forward  strides  it  has  achieved 
in  recent  years.  As  a  statesman  Mr. 
Jones  also  proved  his  worth,  as  a  perusal 
of  the  following  lines  will  show.  He  was 
a  son  of  Thomas  P.  Jones,  born  in  Builth, 
Wales,  and  Lodoiska  (Butler)  Jones,  wno 
was  born  at  Crown  Point,  New  York, 
and  who  was  related  to  Benjamin  F. 
Butler.  She  was  a  woman  of  brilliant 
mind  and  strong  character,  traits  which 
she  transmitted  in  rich  measure  to  her 
son,  the  subject  of  this  sketch. 

W.  Martin  Jones  was  born  in  Manlius, 
Onondaga  county,  New  York,  July  24, 
1841,  and  died  after  a  year's  illness,  May 
3,  1906.  He  was  a  child  of  tender  years 
when  his  parents  removed  to  Knowles- 
ville,  New  York,  and  there  obtained  his 
elementary  education.  He  prepared  for 
college  at  Albion  Academy,  from  which 
he  was  graduated,  and  was  about  to 
matriculate  at  Yale  College  when  the  out- 
break of  the  Civil  War  caused  him  to 
change  his  plans.  He  had  formed  the 
acquaintance  of  Edwin  D.  Morgan,  the 
War  Governor  of  New  York,  and  when  this 
gentleman  became  a  United  States  Sen- 
ator, Mr.  Jones  was  selected  to  act  as  his 
private  secretary,  an  office  he  filled  two 
years.  He  became  the  private  secretary 
of  Secretary  of  State  William  H.  Seward 
in  1864,  acted  in  the  same  capacity  to  his 
son,  Frederick  W.  Seward,  and  so  capable 


did  he  prove  himself  in  this  responsible 
post,  that  he  was  advanced  to  the  post 
of  chief  clerk  of  the  Consular  Bureau  in 
the  State  Department.  Almost  morbidly 
conscientious  in  looking  after  all  the 
details  of  this  office  personally,  the  close 
application  this  necessitated  frequently 
kept  him  at  work  until  long  after  mid- 
night in  order  to  prepare  the  necessary 
instructions  to  United  States  representa- 
tives in  all  parts  of  the  world,  watching 
Confederate  blockade  runners,  and  guard- 
ing the  interests  of  the  republic  in  foreign 
countries.  During  this  time  he  was  in 
close  touch  with  everything  that  con- 
cerned the  President  and  his  cabinet,  and 
was  frequently  made  aware  of  plots 
against  the  government  or  those  high  in 
office,  and  took  the  necessary  steps  to 
counteract  all  such  plans.  He  was 
present  in  Ford's  Theatre,  not  twenty 
feet  away  from  President  Lincoln  when 
the  latter  was  assassinated.  At  the  close 
of  the  war  Mr.  Jones  was  appointed 
United  States  Consul  at  Clifton,  Canada, 
his  resignation  from  the  Consular  Bureau 
being  very  regretfully  accepted  by  Mr. 
Seward.  He  was  in  Clifton  five  years, 
and  while  giving  faithful  attention  to  the 
discharge  of  his  consular  duties,  utilized 
his  spare  time  in  the  study  of  law,  and 
upon  his  return  to  the  United  States  in 
1871  took  up  his  residence  in  Rochester, 
New  York.  In  due  course  of  time  he 
was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  it  was  not 
long  before  he  had  climbed  the  legal 
ladder,  achieving  a  position  of  such 
prominence  that  some  of  his  cases  are 
quoted  as  authoritative  all  over  the 
country. 

The  cause  of  temperance  engaged  the 
attention  of  Mr.  Jones  at  a  very  early 
age.  He  was  but  ten  years  of  age  when 
he  became  a  Cadet  of  Temperance,  and 
some  years  later  became  a  member  of  the 
order  of  Sons  of  Temperance.     He  affili- 


90 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


ated  with  the  Order  of  Good  Templars 
in  1867,  and  soon  became  a  leading  spirit 
in  that  organization ;  he  was  elected 
Grand  Chief  Templar  of  New  York  State 
in  1879,  was  the  incumbent  of  this  office 
for  four  consecutive  years,  and  served  as 
treasurer  of  the  International  Body  of 
Good  Templars  for  a  period  of  seven 
years.  Politically  a  Republican  for  many 
years,  he  yet  regarded  the  Prohibition 
movement  as  the  most  important  issue 
of  the  time,  and  when  the  Republican 
party  failed  to  redeem  its  temperance 
pledges,  made  at  the  Richfield  Springs 
Convention  of  1882,  he  gave  his  entire 
support  to  the  Prohibition  party,  and  was 
a  pioneer  candidate  on  its  tickets,  at  a 
time  when  he  knew  he  would  only  invite 
ridicule  and  persecution,  but  he  had  the 
courage  of  his  convictions  and  remained 
true  to  his  principles.  He  was  a  candi- 
date for  Attorney-General  in  1885,  and 
for  Governor  in  1888,  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  upon  the  Prohibition  ticket, 
and  in  the  following  campaign  he  received 
the  largest  Prohibition  vote  ever  cast  in 
the  State  of  New  York,  running  ahead  of 
the  National  ticket.  In  the  Free  Silver 
campaign  of  1896,  Mr.  Jones  took  a  posi- 
tion in  favor  of  the  gold  standard,  and 
as  the  Prohibition  party  failed  to  recog- 
nize any  issue  except  the  cause  of  temper- 
ance, and  as  the  Republican  party  ap- 
peared to  recognize  the  merit  of  this 
cause,  Mr.  Jones  again  gave  his  support 
to  the  Republican  party,  and  stumped  the 
State  of  Michigan  against  the  Hon.  John 
P.  St.  John,  who  had  been  the  Prohibition 
candidate  for  President  of  the  United 
States  in  1883,  and  who  was  then  advo- 
cating free  silver. 

Mr.  Jones  entertained  most  decided 
opinions  on  the  question  of  international 
peace  and  was  a  decided  supporter  of 
international  arbitration.  In  1896,  when 
the  Venezuela  boundary  question  was  the 
subject  of  heated  discussion,  Mr.  Jones' 


opinions  were  well  known,  and  at  a  meet- 
ing of  the  New  York  State  Bar  Asso- 
ciation he  was  chosen  as  a  member  of  a 
committee  of  nine,  appointed  for  the 
purpose  of  considering  the  question  of 
arbitration  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States.  Hon.  Chauncey  M.  Depew 
and  Professor  John  Bassett  Moore,  of 
Columbia  University,  were  appointed 
advisory  members  of  this  committee. 
Mr.  Jones  set  forth  his  views  at  the  first 
meeting  of  this  committee,  and  called 
attention  to  the  difficulties  attending 
arbitration  where  only  the  litigants  are 
the  arbiters,  and  forcibly  advocated  the 
establishment  of  a  "permanent  interna- 
tional court  of  arbitration"  composed  of 
representatives  of  several  nations.  At 
this  meeting  he  and  Hon.  Walter  S. 
Logan,  of  New  York,  were  appointed  a 
sub-committee,  and  had  in  charge  the 
duty  of  devising  and  presenting  to  che 
full  committee  a  plan  for  such  a  court ;  the 
duty  of  drafting  the  desired  resolutions 
fell  upon  Mr.  Jones,  and  the  report  which 
he  prepared  was  successively  approved, 
without  alteration  or  amendment,  by  the 
sub-committee,  the  whole  committee  and 
the  Bar  Association  itself,  at  a  special 
meeting  called  to  consider  the  matter, 
and  a  committee  was  then  appointed  to 
present  the  memorial  to  the  President  of 
the  United  States.  Hon.  Edward  G. 
Whitaker,  president  of  the  Bar  Associ- 
ation, Judge  William  D.  Veeder,  chair- 
man of  the  committee,  and  Mr.  Jones 
made  this  presentation,  April  21,  1896, 
and  the  ablest  journals  of  the  day  com- 
mented favorably  on  both  the  memorial 
and  the  report,  and  the  Albany  Law  Jour- 
nal, having  published  both  in  full,  closed 
an  approving  editorial  as  follows :  "We 
believe  the  plan  of  the  Bar  Association 
is  well  devised  and  properly  considered 
and  it  should  be,  if  nothing  more,  at  least 
a  step  toward  some  practical  result."  The 
memorial  is  here  given  in  full : 


9' 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


To  the  President: 

The  Petition  of  the  New  York  State  Bar 
Association  respectfully  shows: 

That  impelled  by  a  sense  of  duty  to  the  State 
and  Nation  and  a  purpose  to  serve  the  cause  of 
humanity  everywhere,  your  Petitioner  at  its 
annual  session  held  in  the  City  of  Albany  on  the 
22nd  day  of  January,  1896,  appointed  a  commit- 
tee to  consider  the  subject  of  International 
Arbitration,  and  to  devise  and  submit  to  it  a  plan 
for  the  organization  of  a  tribunal  to  which  may 
hereafter  be  submitted  controverted  inter- 
national questions  between  the  governments  of 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States. 

That  said  committee  entered  upon  the  per- 
formance of  its  duty  at  once,  and  after  long 
and  careful  deliberation  reached  the  conclusion 
that  it  is  impracticable,  if  not  impossible,  to  form 
a  satisfactory  Anglo-American  Tribunal,  for  the 
adjustment  of  grave  International  controversies, 
that  shall  be  composed  only  of  representatives 
of  the  two  governments  of  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States. 

That  in  order  that  the  subject  might  receive 
more  mature  and  careful  consideration,  the  mat- 
ter was  referred  to  a  sub-committee,  by  whom  an 
extended  report  was  made  to  the  full  committee. 
This  report  was  adopted  as  the  report  of  the 
full  committee,  and  at  a  special  meeting  of  the 
State  Bar  Association  called  to  consider  the 
matter  and  held  at  the  State  Capitol  in  the  City 
of  Albany,  on  the  16th  day  of  April,  1896,  the 
action  of  the  committee  was  affirmed  and  the 
plan  submitted  fully  endorsed.  As  the  report 
referred  to  contains  the  argument  in  brief,  both 
in  support  of  the  contention  that  it  is  imprac- 
ticable to  organize  a  court  composed  only  of 
representatives  of  the  governments  of  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States,  and  in  support 
of  the  plan  outlined  in  it,  a  copy  of  the  report 
is  hereto  appended  and  your  Petitioner  asks  that 
it  be  made  and  considered  a  part  of  this  Peti- 
tion. 

That  your  Petitioner  cordially  endorses  the 
principle  of  arbitration  for  the  settlement  of  all 
controversies  between  civilized  nations  and  it 
believes  that  it  is  quite  within  the  possibility 
of  the  educated  intellects  of  the  leading  Powers 
of  the  world  to  agree  upon  a  plan  for  a  great 
central  World's  Court,  that,  by  the  common 
consent  of  nations,  shall  eventually  have  juris- 
diction of  all  disputes  arising  between  Independ- 
ent Powers  that  cannot  be  adjusted  by  friendly 
diplomatic  negotiations.  Holding  tenaciously  to 
this  opinion,  and  conscious  that  there  must  be  a 
first  step   in   every  good  work,   else  there  will 


never  be  a  second,  your  Petitioner  respectfully 
but  earnestly  urges  your  early  consideration  of 
the  subject  that  ultimately, — at  least  during  the 
early  years  of  the  coming  century — the  honest 
purpose  of  good  men  of  every  nation  may  be 
realized  in  devising  means  for  the  peaceful  solu- 
tion of  menacing  disputes  between  civilized 
nations.  Your  Petitioner  therefore  submits  to 
you  the   following  recommendations: 

First:  The  establishment  of  a  permanent 
International  Tribunal  to  be  known  as  "The 
International  Court  of  Arbitration." 

Second:  Such  court  to  be  composed  of  nine 
members,  one  each  from  nine  independent 
states  or  nations,  such  representative  to  be  a 
member  of  the  Supreme  or  Highest  Court  of 
the  nation  he  shall  represent,  chosen  by  a  major- 
ity vote  of  his  associates,  because  of  his  high 
character  as  a  publicist  and  judge  and  his 
recognized  ability  and  irreproachable  integrity. 
Each  judge  thus  selected  to  hold  office  during 
life,  or  the  will  of  the  Court  selecting  him. 

Third:  The  court  thus  constituted  to  make 
its  own  rules  of  procedure,  to  have  power  to 
fix  its  place  of  sessions  and  to  change  the  same 
from  time  to  time  as  circumstances  and  the 
convenience  of  litigants  may  suggest  and  to 
appoint  such  clerks  and  attendants  as  the  Court 
may  require. 

Fourth:  Controverted  questions  arising  be- 
tween any  two  or  more  Independent  Powers, 
whether  represented  in  said  "International  Court 
of  Arbitration"  or  not,  at  the  option  of  said 
Powers,  to  be  submitted  by  treaty  between  said 
Powers  to  said  Court,  providing  only  that  said 
treaty  shall  contain  a  stipulation  to  the  effect 
that  all  parties  thereto  shall  respect  and  abide 
by  the  rules  and  regulations  of  said  Court  and 
conform  to  whatever  determination  it  shall 
make  of  said  controversy. 

Fifth:  Said  Court  to  be  opened  at  all  times 
for  the  filing  of  cases  and  counter  cases  under 
treaty  stipulations  by  any  nation,  whether  rep- 
resented in  the  Court  or  not,  and  such  orderly 
proceedings  in  the  interim  between  sessions  of 
the  Court  in  preparation  for  argument  and  sub- 
mission of  the  controversy  as  may  seem  neces- 
sary, to  be  taken  as  the  rules  of  the  Court  pro- 
vide for  and  may  be  agreed  upon  between  the 
litigants. 

Sixth:  Independent  Powers  not  represented 
in  said  Court,  but  which  may  have  become 
parties  litigant  in  a  controversy  before  it,  and 
by  treaty  stipulation  have  agreed  to  submit  to 
its  adjudication,  to  comply  with  the  rules  of  the 
Court,  and  to  contribute  such  stipulated  amount 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


to  its  expenses  as  may  be  provided  for  by  its 
rules  or  determined  by  the  Court. 

Your  Petitioner  also  recommends  that  you 
enter  at  once  into  correspondence  and  nego- 
tiation, through  the  proper  diplomatic  channels 
with  representatives  of  the  governments  of 
Great  Britain,  France,  Germany,  Russia,  The 
Netherlands,  Mexico,  Brazil  and  the  Argentine 
Republic  for  a  union  with  the  government  of 
the  United  States  in  the  laudable  undertaking 
of  forming  an  International  Court,  substantially 
on  the  basis  herein  outlined. 

Your  Petitioner  presumes  it  is  unnecessary 
to  enter  into  further  argument  in  support  of  the 
foregoing  propositions  than  is  contained  in  the 
report  of  its  committee,  which  is  appended 
hereto,  and  which  your  Petitioner  has  already 
asked  to  have  considered  a  part  of  this  petition. 
Your  Petitioner  will  be  pardoned,  however,  if 
it  invite  especial  attention  to  that  part  of  the 
report  emphasizing  the  fact  that  the  plan  herein 
outlined  is  intended,  if  adopted,  at  once  to  meet 
the  universal  demand  among  English-speaking 
people  for  a  permanent  tribunal  to  settle  con- 
tested international  questions  that  may  here- 
after arise  between  the  governments  of  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States. 

While  it  is  contended  that  it  is  wholly  im- 
practicable to  form  such  a  tribunal  without  the 
friendly  interposition  of  other  nations  on  the 
joint  invitation  of  the  Powers  who  united  in  its 
organization,  it  is  very  evident  that  a  most 
acceptable  permanent  International  Court  may 
be  speedily  secured  by  the  united  and  harmoni- 
ous action  of  said  Powers  as  already  suggested. 
Should  obstacles  be  interposed  to  the  accept- 
ance by  any  of  the  Powers  named  by  your  Peti- 
tioner, of  the  invitation  to  name  a  representa- 
tive for  such  a  Court,  on  the  plan  herein  gen- 
erally outlined,  some  other  equally  satisfactory 
Power  could  be  solicited  to  unite  in  the  creation 
of  such  a  Court. 

Believing  that  in  the  fulfillment  of  its  destiny 
among  the  civilized  nations  of  the  world, 
it  has  devolved  upon  the  younger  of  the  two 
Anglo-Saxon  Powers,  now  happily  in  the  en- 
joyment of  nothing  but  future  peaceful  pros- 
pects, to  take  the  first  step  looking  to  the 
permanency  of  peace  among  nations,  your  Peti- 
tioner, representing  the  Bar  of  the  Empire 
State,  earnestly  appeals  to  you  as  the  Chief 
Executive  officer  of  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  to  take  such  timely  action  as 
shall  lead  eventually  to  the  organization  of  such 
a  tribunal  as  has  been  outlined  in  the  foregoing 
recommendations.      While    ominous    sounds    of 


martial  preparation  are  in  the  air,  the  ship 
builder's  hammer  is  industriously  welding  the 
bolt,  and  arsenals  are  testing  armor  plates,  your 
Petitioner,  apprehensive  for  the  future,  feels 
that  delays  are  dangerous,  and  it  urgently 
recommends  that  action  be  taken  at  once  by 
you  to  compass  the  realization  of  the  dream  of 
good  men  in  every  period  of  the  world's  history, 
when  nations  shall  learn  war  no  more  and  en- 
lightened reason  shall  fight  the  only  battle 
fought  among  the  children  of  men. 

And   Your   Petitioner   Will   Ever   Pray. 
Attested  in  behalf  of  the  New  York  State  Bar 
Association  at  the  Capitol  in  the  City  of  Albany, 
N.  Y.,  April  16th,  1896. 

Ed.  G.  Whitaker,  President. 

L.  B.  Proctor,  Secretary. 

Copies  of  this  memorial  were  sent  to  a 
number  of  foreign  governments  and  to 
prominent  people  throughout  the  world, 
including  the  Czar  of  Russia.  In  1899, 
when  the  Czar  of  Russia  issued  his  call 
for  a  disarmament  conference,  to  be  held 
at  The  Hague,  the  New  York  State  Bar 
Association  called  another  meeting,  and 
Mr.  Jones,  as  chairman  of  a  special  com- 
mittee, was  appointed  to  draw  up  resolu- 
tions relative  to  the  subjects  to  be  dis- 
cussed by  the  proposed  conference.  The 
fact  was  at  once  recognized  that  dis- 
armament alone  was  an  impracticable 
course,  and  that  the  first  step  toward 
universal  peace  must  be  the  establish- 
ment of  an  international  court  to  which 
all  nations  might  turn.  The  memorial 
which  was  drawn  up  in  pursuance  of  this 
idea  was  substantially  the  same  as  that 
prepared  in  1896,  above  referred  to. 
Copies  of  it  were  sent  by  the  State  De- 
partment of  the  United  States  govern- 
ment to  the  delegates  at  the  first  Hague 
Conference,  where  it  became  known  as 
the  "American  Plan."  The  organization 
of  the  Hague  Court  was  largely  the  result 
of  the  influence  of  this  memorial  upon 
that  conference.  At  first  there  was  much 
opposition  to  any  such  scheme,  particu- 
larly on  the  part  of  Germany,  but  the 
plan  won  and  so  the  first  step  was  taken 


93 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


toward  the  ultimate  goal  of  universal 
peace.  Numerous  nations  have  taken 
their  disputes  to  this  court  for  settlement. 
Mr.  Jones  joined  the  Masonic  order  while 
residing  in  Washington,  was  a  member 
of  Valley  Lodge,  Free  and  Accepted 
Masons,  and  of  Monroe  Commandery, 
Knights  Templar,  of  Rochester ;  the 
American,  New  York  State  and  Roches- 
ter Bar  associations ;  Mohonk  Lake  Peace 
Conference ;  Bibliophile  Society  of  Bos- 
ton;  Society  of  the  Genesee;  American 
Peace  Society,  and  Independent  Order  of 
Good  Templars.  He  was  a  delegate,  in 
1904,  from  the  New  York  State  Bar  Asso- 
ciation to  the  International  Congress  of 
Lawyers  and  Jurists,  at  St.  Louis. 

Mr.  Jones  married,  July  5,  1871,  Ger- 
trude M.  Nicholls,  at  Buffalo,  New  York, 
a  woman  of  fine  mental  caliber,  which 
proved  of  great  worth  to  her  gifted  hus- 
band. One  of  their  children  died  in 
infancy,  the  others  are:  Gertrude  Min- 
nie, W.  Martin,  Jr.,  and  Abram  Nicholls. 
W.  Martin,  Jr.,  born  December  20,  1874, 
attended  School  No.  15,  Professor  Hale's 
preparatory  school,  Mechanics'  Institute 
and  University  of  Rochester,  receiving 
the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  in  1899. 
He  studied  law  with  his  father,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1901.  He  practiced 
law  and  engaged  in  mining  business.  He 
is  a  member  of  Rochester,  New  York 
State,  and  American  Bar  associations ; 
Company  A  (Eighth  Separate  Company), 
Third  Infantry,  National  Guard,  State  of 
New  York  ;  American  Society  for  Judicial 
Settlement  of  International  Disputes. 
Abram  Nicholls,  born  January  II,  1886, 
attended  schools  Nos.  11  and  15,  East 
High,  University  of  Rochester,  receiving 
the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  in  1909. 
He  studied  law  with  his  brother,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  191 1,  and  has  prac- 
ticed ever  since.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
Rochester  Bar  Association,  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  and  Dante  Alighieri. 


HARRIS,  James, 

Representative  Citizen,  Public  Official. 

Honored  and  respected  by  all,  there 
was  no  man  who  occupied  a  more  enviable 
position  in  all  circles  than  the  late  James 
Harris,  of  Fairport,  Monroe  county,  New 
York.  Success  is  determined  by  one's 
ability  to  recognize  opportunity  and  to 
pursue  it  with  a  resolute,  unflagging 
energy.  Success  results  from  continued 
labor,  and  the  man  who  accomplishes  his 
purpose  usually  becomes  an  important 
factor  in  the  business  circles  of  the  com- 
munity with  which  he  is  identified. 
Through  his  energy,  progressiveness  and 
executive  ability,  the  late  James  Harris 
attained  a  leading  place  among  the  repre- 
sentative men  of  his  community  and  his 
well  spent  and  honorable  life  commanded 
the  admiration  of  all  who  knew  him, 
either  personally  or  by  reputation. 

William  Harris,  Sr.,  his  grandfather, 
descended  from  an  honorable  Scotch  an- 
cestry, whose  sterling  characteristics 
have  been  transmitted  to  their  descend- 
ants in  rich  measure,  became  a  leader  in 
public  thought  and  action  in  the  com- 
munity in  which  he  lived.  He  emigrated 
to  America  in  1802,  and  established  his 
first  home  in  Montgomery  county,  in  a 
Scotch  settlement  founded  by  Sir  Wil- 
liam Johnson.  He  married  Mary  Kil- 
patrick,  a  native  of  the  highlands  of  Scot- 
land, whose  ancestry  can  be  traced  to  the 
days  of  Wallace  and  Bruce. 

William  Harris,  Jr.,  eldest  son  of  Wil- 
liam and  Mary  (Kilpatrick)  Harris,  was 
eighteen  years  of  age  when  he  came  to 
this  country  with  his  parents.  A  very 
short  time  after  his  marriage  he  removed 
to  the  Genesee  country,  his  wife's  father 
and  family  coming  with  them.  They 
were  leaders  in  this  community  from  its 
earliest  days.  Mr.  Harris  organized  the 
first  school  in  that  section  and  taught  it 
in  1810,  and  the  early  intellectual  develop- 


94 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


ment  of  the  country  rested  chiefly  on  his 
shoulders.  Later  he  removed  to  a  farm 
in  Penfield,  on  which  he  resided  until  his 
death  in  December,  1842.  He  was  a  Pres- 
byterian in  religious  faith,  a  Whig  in 
political  opinion,  and  was  considered  a 
wise  counselor  by  all  who  knew  him.  A 
contemporary  biographer  has  said  of 
him: 

Endowed  with  the  attributes  of  a  fine  nature 
and  gifted  with  an  unusual  amount  of  intellec- 
tual ability,  he  was  a  man  of  rare  judgment,  of 
deep  penetration  and  of  great  energy. 

Mr.  Harris  married,  in  April,  1806, 
Sallie  Shoecraft,  eldest  daughter  of  John 
Shoecraft,  a  patriot  of  the  Revolutionary 
War,  who  enlisted  from  Ulster  county, 
New  York,  and  served  under  General 
Washington.  At  the  conclusion  of  this 
struggle  he  married,  in  Washington 
county,  New  York,  Betsey  McKee,  of 
Scotch  parentage,  whose  family  had  been 
prominent  in  the  settlement  of  that  part 
of  the  State,  but  who  later  removed  to 
Fulton  county.  When  they  removed 
with  Mr.  Harris,  they  all  settled  at  what 
is  now  Webster,  Monroe  county.  Mr. 
Shoecraft  and  his  two  sons  were  members 
of  the  State  militia  during  the  War  of 
1812.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Harris  had  eleven 
children,  of  whom  the  eldest,  a  son,  died 
in  early  manhood,  and  the  youngest,  a 
daughter,  died  in  infancy.  The  others 
were:  Mary  K.,  married  Abner  O. 
Osborn ;  Betsey  M.,  married  John  M. 
Watson ;  Sallie,  married  Albert  Ray- 
mond ;  William,  a  farmer,  became  the 
owner  of  the  old  homestead,  and  died 
there  in  September,  1886;  Martha,  mar- 
ried Hiram  W.  Allen  ;  George  F. ;  Robert ; 
James,  of  whom  further;  Peter,  also  an 
agriculturist. 

James  Harris,  son  of  William  and  Sallie 
(Shoecraft)  Harris,  was  born  in  Webster, 
New  York,  July  7,  1821,  and  died  at 
Fairport,  New  York,  March  6,  1911,  after 


a  gradual  failing  of  about  a  year.  He 
was  an  apt  pupil  at  the  district  schools 
in  the  vicinity  of  his  home,  and  for  two 
terms  attended  the  sessions  of  a  select 
school  in  the  village  of  Penfield.  Under 
the  able  guidance  of  his  father  his  educa- 
tion was  continued  at  home,  after  leaving 
school,  by  means  of  well  selected  reading 
and  diversified  study.  At  the  age  of 
nineteen  years,  Mr.  Harris  was  well 
fitted  to  enter  upon  the  profession  of 
teaching,  and  during  the  next  seven  years 
he  taught  in  a  district  school  during  the 
winter  months,  his  summers  being  spent 
in  assisting  his  father  in  the  cultivation 
of  the  latter's  farm.  That  he  was  re- 
garded as  a  man  of  understanding  and 
ability  even  in  his  earlier  years  is  evi- 
denced by  the  fact  of  his  being  chosen  i 
fill  the  office  of  justice  of  the  peace  whc 
he  was  but  twenty-one  years  of  age,  and 
was  the  incumbent  of  this  office  four 
years.  The  cause  of  education  had  ever 
appealed  to  him  very  strongly,  and  he 
was  subsequently  chosen  as  town  super- 
intendent of  schools,  and  as  town  clerk. 
He  was  one  of  the  incorporators  of  the 
old  Penfield  Seminary  in  1857,  and  served 
as  one  of  its  trustees  during  the  entire 
period  of  its  existence.  When  this  insti- 
tution had  outlived  its  usefulness,  he  was 
appointed  a  member  of  the  committee  to 
procure  the  passage  of  a  legislative  act 
authorizing  the  sale  of  the  property  to 
the  Penfield  graded  school.  In  1843  Gov- 
ernor William  C.  Bouck  appointed  Mr. 
Harris  as  captain  of  a  uniformed  company 
of  militia,  attached  to  the  Fifty-second 
Regiment,  later  being  advanced  to  the 
rank  of  major.  With  all  the  demands 
which  these  public  offices  made  upon  Mr. 
Harris,  he  yet  found  time,  in  1850,  to 
establish  a  general  mercantile  business, 
which  he  conducted  with  a  large  amount 
of  success  until  1857.  At  not  infrequent 
intervals  he  was  called  upon  to  act  as 
administrator   of   numerous    estates,   and 


95 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


he  was  a  commissioner  in  the  distribu- 
tion of  lands.  As  an  agriculturist  Mr. 
Harris  was  eminently  successful,  and 
was  the  owner  of  valuable  farm  property 
in  various  sections.  He  took  up  his  resi- 
dence on  the  old  homestead  farm,  east 
of  the  village  of  Penfield,  April  I,  1866, 
and  resided  there  until  his  removal  to 
Fairport  in  1904.  Even  after  taking  up 
his  residence  there  he  was  accustomed  to 
superintend  the  management  of  his  farms, 
his  son,  Charles  L.,  having  the  active 
management  of  them. 

In  the  political  life  of  the  town  Mr. 
Harris  was  also  a  prominent  figure. 
Originally  a  Whig,  he  affiliated  with  the 
Republican  party  upon  its  formation,  and 
always  took  a  keen  interest  in  the  public 
affairs  of  the  community.  In  1853  he  was 
elected  supervisor  of  Penfield  by  one  of 
the  largest  majorities  ever  accorded  a 
candidate,  and  was  honored  by  reelection 
to  this  office  fifteen  times  during  the  fol- 
lowing twenty-two  years,  an  enviable 
record.  While  the  office  was  at  no  time 
a  sinecure,  during  the  Civil  War  period  it 
brought  with  it  additional  responsibilities 
for  its  incumbent,  which  were  met  by  Mr. 
Harris  in  a  masterly  manner.  Firm  in  his 
support  of  the  Union,  he  did  all  he  could 
to  promote  its  interests.  Not  long  after 
the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter  a  special  tow 
meeting  was  called  for  the  purpose  of 
adopting  suitable  measures  and  appoint- 
ing a  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  Mr. 
Harris  being  chosen  as  one  of  the  three 
members  of  this  committee.  He  served 
in  this  capacity  until  again  elected  to  the 
office  of  supervisor  in  the  spring  of  1864, 
when  the  business  of  the  committee  was 
entrusted  entirely  to  his  discretion  and 
so  continued  until  the  end  of  the  recon- 
struction period  which  followed  the  close 
of  the  war.  In  the  discharge  of  these 
important  and  arduous  duties  he  mani- 
fested executive  ability  of  a  high  order, 


keen  foresight,  a  thorough  understanding 
of  the  situation,  and  an  intense  loyalty 
to  the  best  interests  of  the  county.  With 
the  cooperation  of  many  of  the  leading 
citizens  of  the  community,  he  filled  the 
town's  quota  without  a  single  inhabitant 
being  drafted,  save  a  few  who  were 
drafted  early  in  the  war  during  the  act 
conferring  option  of  service  or  a  pay- 
ment of  three  hundred  dollars  each.  His 
method  was  a  purely  business  transaction. 
The  call  had  been  for  one-year  men  and 
the  town  offered  a  bounty  of  five  hundred 
dollars  to  each  volunteer.  Realizing  that 
men  could  be  had  for  three  years  without 
increasing  the  bounties  if  the  bonds  were 
converted  into  cash,  he  wisely  discrimi- 
nated in  favor  of  the  longer  term  of  en- 
listment, raised  the  necessary  money  and 
filled  the  quota  with  three-year  men  to 
the  number  of  sixty-three,  and  bonds 
were  issued  to  the  amount  of  thirty-one 
thousand  five  hundred  dollars,  and  when 
the  war  closed  the  State  of  New  York, 
under  the  law  equalizing  bounties,  paid 
back  nearly  two-thirds  of  this  sum,  or 
about  twenty  thousand  dollars  to  the 
town.  As  a  member  of  the  board  and 
chairman  of  its  finance  committee  he  was 
largely  instrumental  in  promoting  the  law 
which  changed  the  system  formerly  pur- 
sued in  the  county  treasurer's  office  to 
its  present  status,  involving  not  only  the 
disposition  of  public  moneys  but  of 
returned  taxes  as  well.  As  he  was  the 
first  treasurer  elected  after  the  passage 
of  this  law,  he  put  it  into  operation  during 
his  three  years'  term,  which  commenced, 
October  1,  1876.  After  the  close  of  this 
term  of  office  he  never  again  consented 
to  hold  public  office,  although  frequently 
solicited  to  do  so.  For  many  years  he 
was  a  member  of  the  Baptist  church,  and 
a  regular  attendant  at  its  services.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  Monroe  County 
Historical  Societv,  and  a  charter  member 


96 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


of  the  Association  of  Supervisors  and  Ex- 
Supervisors  of  Monroe  County,  and  was 
unanimously  elected  as  its  president,  Au- 
gust 7,  1895. 

Mr.  Harris  married  (first)  December 
I,  1847,  Martha  M.  Pope,  who  died  Janu- 
ary 1,  1880,  a  daughter  of  William  Pope, 
of  Penfield.  He  married  (second)  Feb- 
ruary 21,  1883,  Mrs.  Horace  P.  Lewis,  a 
widow,  and  daughter  of  Charles  Lacey, 
formerly  of  Poughkeepsie,  New  York. 
Children  by  first  marriage:  James  Dar- 
win, a  farmer  at  Fairport;  Robert,  born 
in  1856,  died  in  1887;  Mary  K. ;  George 
H.,  junior  member  of  the  law  firm  of 
Werner  &  Harris,  of  Rochester,  and  w 
married  Hattie  Higbie,  of  Penfield,  and 
has  children:  Donald,  Duncan,  and  Adair. 
By  the  second  marriage  there  were  chil- 
dren :  Charles  Lacey,  who  was  gradu- 
ated from  the  University  of  Rochester, 
now  resides  on  home  farm  in  Penfield ; 
Angie  K.,  who  was  graduated  from  the 
Fairport  High  School  in  the  training  class, 
taught  in  the  Honeoye  Falls  schools,  and 
then  in  a  Fairport  school;  became  the 
wife  of  L.  Waynebaumer. 


O'CONNOR,  Joseph, 

Journalist,  Essayist,  Poet. 

American  journalism  has  attained  the 
dignity  of  a  profession,  the  "fourth 
estate,"  recognized,  by  the  talent  and 
consecration  enlisted  in  its  service,  as  on 
a  par  with  the  other  three  known  as  "the 
learned  professions."  It  is  safe  to  say 
that  there  are  scores  of  writers  on  the 
press  to-day  who  in  style  and  substance 
will  not  suffer  by  comparison  with  the  dis- 
tinguished English  essayists  of  the  eight- 
eenth century;  but  their  multiplicity 
diminishes  their  eminence.  The  plain  has 
been  lifted  to  the  peaks;  the  individual  is 
lost  in  the  crowd.  Ego  rex,  dominant  in 
journalism    for   three-quarters   of   a   cen- 

N  Y-Vol  IH-7  97 


tury,  has  abdicated  his  throne,  whether 
for  good  or  for  ill,  it  is  not  presumed  here 
to  determine.  It  is  the  paper  now  that 
speaks,  not  the  man  behind  it.  Freneau, 
Leggett,  Bryant  and  Webb,  Croswell, 
Weed  and  Prentice,  Greeley,  Raymond, 
Dana,  Curtis  and  their  compeers  have  dis- 
appeared and  few  are  they  who  have  suc- 
ceeded to  their  chairs.  These  few,  it 
were,  perhaps,  invidious  to  mention;  but 
in  their  circle  Joseph  O'Connor  unques- 
tionably belongs,  although  the  large  part 
of  his  work  was  done  on  the  provincial, 
rather  than  the  metropolitan  press. 

Joseph  O'Connor,  of  Celtic  lineage,  of 
the  sept  of  the  O'Connors  of  Offaly,  the 
son  of  Joseph  and  Mary  (Finlay)  O'Con- 
nor, was  born  at  Tribes  Hill,  Montgomery 
county,  New  York,  December  17,  1841. 
His  father  was  a  man  of  scholarly  tastes, 
but  endowed  with  only  a  small  portion 
of  worldly  wealth.  He  died  at  West  Ber 
gen  in  1854  from  injuries  received  in 
saving  a  friend  from  being  thrown  before 
a  locomotive  by  a  frightened  horse.  The 
family  then  moved  to  Rochester,  where 
Joseph  entered  school,  and  having  pre- 
pared for  college  and  received  a  scholar- 
ship, studied  at  the  University  of  Roches- 
ter and  was  graduated  in  1863. 

Some  desultory  newspaper  work  was 
followed  by  a  short  term  in  a  stone-yard, 
where  he  learned  his  father's  trade,  stone- 
cutting,  probably  in  uncertainty  as  to  his 
future  course.  It  was  a  mere  episode,  but 
one  to  which  he  afterward  looked  back  as 
a  valuable  experience.  This  was  followed 
by  a  year  or  two  of  service  as  teacher  of 
Latin  in  the  high  school,  during  which 
time  he  studied  law  and  was  admitted  to 
the  bar.  He  had  just  opened  an  office, 
however,  when  to  oblige  a  friend  he  acted 
as  reporter  on  the  Rochester  "Democrat" 
in  his  friend's  absence ;  and  thus  began 
what  proved  to  be  his  life-work.  Shortly 
after  he  was  made  editor-in-chief ;  but  his 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


fundamental  proclivities  were  of  the  Jef- 
fersonian  school,  and  he  was  therefore 
restive  on  the  staff  of  a  Republican  sheet. 
He  remained,  however,  with  the  "Demo- 
crat" until  1873.  In  that  year  he  became 
editor  of  the  Indianapolis  "Sentinel,"  a 
noteworthy  Democratic  journal  of  large 
State  influence,  with  which  he  remained 
until  1875,  when  he  became  associate 
editor  of  the  New  York  "World"  under 
Manton  Marble,  forming  one  of  the  bril- 
liant group  that  made  the  "World" 
famous,  acting,  for  a  time,  as  the 
"World's"  Washington  correspondent. 
In  1879  he  left  the  "World,"  going  as 
associate  editor  to  the  Buffalo  "Courier" 
when  David  Gray,  that  accomplished 
writer,  of  poetic  soul,  was  editor-in-chief. 
Three  years  later,  upon  the  retirement  of 
David  Gray,  he  was  promoted  to  the 
editor's  chair,  resigning  in  1885.  It  is  an 
open  secret  that  his  resignation  was 
induced  by  his  inability  to  approve  the 
administration  or  the  personality  of 
Grover  Cleveland,  his  judgment  of  whom, 
whether  well  or  ill-conceived,  was  an 
honest  one.  In  1886  he  was  called  to  edit 
the  Rochester  "Post-Express,"  then  an 
independent  journal,  and  for  ten  years 
filled  the  position  with  power  and  bril- 
liancy. In  1896  the  paper  was  resolved 
into  a  Republican  organ,  and  Mr.  O'Con- 
nor at  once  severed  his  connection  there- 
with, refusing  as  always  to  become  the 
protagonist  of  any  party,  reserving  his 
privilege  to  write  as  he  believed.  On  his 
retirement  from  this  editorship  it  was 
said  of  him  that  he  had  done  more  than 
any  other  man  to  elevate  the  tone  of 
Rochester  journalism.  That  was  true  ;  he 
was  courteous,  sympathetic,  just,  con- 
scientious, cultured ;  he  uniformly  aimed 
to  do  the  best  for  the  community;  he 
always  sought  to  recommend  to  the  atten- 
tion of  his  readers  whatsoever  made  for 
purity  and  goodness,  and  he  put  into  the 
work  of  the  day  as  much  literary  finish 


and  original  thought  as  great  capacity 
and  great  effort  might  furnish  ;  his  profes- 
sional motives  squared  with  his  upright 
character. 

After  a  year  as  editor  of  the  Buffalo 
"Enquirer,"  Mr.  O'Connor  returned  to 
Rochester  and  in  1898  began  writing  for 
the  "Post-Express"  a  column  under  the 
title  "The  Rochesterian,"  which  he  con- 
tinued until  his  death.  It  was  signed 
with  his  initials,  being  understood,  there- 
fore, as  the  expression  of  his  own  opin- 
ions, for  which  he  alone  was  responsible. 
During  this  time  he  wrote  also  extended 
reviews  of  important  books  for  the  same 
paper  and  for  the  New  York  "Times." 
Two  volumes  of  selections  from  his  news- 
paper work  and  his  other  writings  were 
published  in  191 1  with  the  title  of  "The 
Rochesterian." 

Beside  his  newspaper  work  Mr.  O'Con- 
nor was  an  occasional  contributor  to 
magazines  on  any  subject  that  interested 
him.  He  was  an  undisputed  authority 
on  Civil  War  history  and  contributed  to 
Appleton's  "Encyclopedia  of  Amer- 
ican Biography."  During  the  first  Mc- 
Kinley  administration,  he  was  urged  by 
his  friends  for  the  post  of  minister  to  the 
Netherlands,  but  did  not  press  the  ap- 
pointment. 

As  a  poet,  he  had  an  unusual  gift  of 
sympathetic  expression,  and  at  the  earn- 
est solicitation  of  his  friends  published  a 
volume  of  his  verse.  He  wrote  the  "Ode," 
at  the  celebration  of  New  York  Day  at 
the  World's  Columbian  Exposition,  and 
the  "Commemorative  Ode"  read  on  the 
occasion  of  the  hundredth  anniversary  of 
the  British  evacuation  of  Fort  Niagara, 
this  being  one  of  his  most  charming  com- 
positions. 

He  had  a  genius  for  helpfulness  and  in 
no  way  did  he  express  it  more  than  toward 
the  younger  members  of  his  profession. 
He  was  ever  ready  to  respond  to  a  plea 
for  help,  and  from  the  vast  storehouse 


98 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


of  knowledge  was  ready  and  even  eager 
to  give.  Yet  he  was  so  modest  that  he 
would  again  and  again  excuse  himself 
from  speaking  in  public,  though  all  were 
eager  to  hear  the  man  with  whose  written 
speech  they  were  so  familiar.  He  lived 
most  unostentatiously  and  made  no  effort 
to  impress  the  public  with  his  attain- 
ments, loving  scholarship  for  scholar- 
ship's sake.  His  last  appearance  in  public 
was  at  the  annual  roastfest  of  the  Roches- 
ter Newswriter's  Club  at  which  he  was 
the  guest  of  honor.  His  speech,  the  event 
of  the  evening,  was  one  in  which  he  spoke 
clearly,  forcibly  and  feelingly  of  what  he 
thought  a  newspaper  should  be.  One  of 
his  marked  characteristics  was  a  keen 
sense  of  humor.  He  possessed  an  in- 
exhaustible fund  of  anecdotes  and  was  a 
charming  story  teller.  His  humor  was 
without  sting,  free  from  sarcasm,  but 
sparkling  and  always  spontaneous.  He 
died  suddenly,  as  he  would  have  wished, 
while  sitting  in  his  chair,  at  his  home  in 
Frank  street,  Rochester,  October  9,  1908. 

He  married,  November  26,  1877,  Evan- 
geline, daughter  of  Reuben  and  Almira 
(Alexander)  Johnson,  and  sister  of  Ros- 
siter  Johnson,  the  encyclopedist  and  his 
lifelong  friend.  She  survives  him  with 
one  daughter.  Mrs.  O'Connor  graduated 
at  the  Rochester  Free  Academy,  and  pur- 
sued literary  studies  in  conjunction  with 
her  husband.  She  has  translated  Flamini's 
"History  of  Italian  Literature,"  also  other 
books  from  the  German  and  Italian,  and 
is  the  author  of  "Index  to  Hawthorne's 
Works  (with  sketch  of  his  life)  ;"  "Index 
to  Works  of  Shakespeare,"  "Famous 
Names  in  Fiction,"  and  has  contributed 
largely  to  encyclopedias. 

Mr.  O'Connor  was  a  member  of  the 
Delta  Upsilon,  Greek  letter  fraternity, 
and  one  of  the  original  board  of  trustees 
that  erected  the  chapter  house  in  Strat- 
hallan  Park.  He  was  also  a  member  of 
the  Genesee  Valley  and  Rochester  Whist, 


social  clubs,  and  of  the  Fortnightly,  Pun- 
dit and  Browning,  literary  clubs,  before 
whom  he  read  many  papers.  At  the  risk 
of  something  of  repetition,  the  present 
writer  ventures  to  append  the  personal 
note  that  he  wrote  in  the  "Post-Express" 
at  the  time  of  Mr.  O'Connor's  death : 

In  the  death  of  Joseph  O'Connor,  a  brilliant 
light  in  letters  has  been  extinguished  For 
many  years  it  has  been  radiant  in  verse,  in  scho- 
larship, and  in  journalism.  Many  gifts  were  his. 
He  had  the  soul  of  a  poet,  receptive  of  all  that 
was  best  in  art  and  literature,  expressive  in  his 
fair  and  stately  measures.  His  memory  was 
singularly  acute,  retentive  and  serviceable — a 
mine  of  wealth  from  which  he  freely  drew.  He 
ranged  the  entire  field  of  letters,  familiar  alike 
with  the  masters  of  the  Elizabethan  and  Vic- 
torian ages.  He  knew  the  bye-ways,  as  well  as 
the  broad  ways,  of  English  thought,  and  was 
well  acquainted  with  the  paths  which  the  classic 
and  the  later  European  authors  pursued,  and 
was  an  accomplished  linguist.  His  knowledge 
was  wide,  various  and  precise.  Choosing  jour- 
nalism as  his  profession,  he  dedicated  to  it  exact 
information  of  his  country's  history,  its  states- 
men and  heroes,  a  keen  perception  of  its  political 
and  social  needs,  a  constant  sympathy  with 
purity  and  wisdom  in  the  conduct  of  its  affairs, 
and  a  style  in  writing  remarkable  for  lucidity, 
coherence  and  strength.  He  emphasized  his 
abhorrence  of  all  that  was  mean  and  debasing 
in  words  that  stung  and  slew.  Cleaving  to  all 
that  was  upright  and  true,  his  words  were  brave 
and  inspiring — exalting  journalism.  More  than 
all,  was  his  absolute  fealty  to  his  convictions, 
from  which  neither  flattery  nor  menace  could 
deflect  him  and  which,  more  than  once,  cost 
him  position  and  apparently  preferment  His 
sincerity  was  rock-ribbed  in  his  nature  and 
commanded  a  respect  and  wielded  an  influ- 
ence rarely  accorded  to  one  of  his  calling. 
Thus  equipped  he  became  one  of  the  lead- 
ing journalists  of  the  land,  to  whom  his  asso- 
ciates deferred  and  whom  the  community  ac- 
claimed. His  literary  essays  were  of  the  most 
charming  character.  His  appreciations  and 
criticisms  were  erudite,  searching  and  exhaus- 
tive. In  them  were  gems  that  sparkled  and  an 
exquisite  finish  that  revealed  his  artistic  quality. 
Had  he  confined  himself  to  literature,  it  is  possi- 
ble that  he  might  have  had  larger  repute,  but 
he  could  not  have  had  larger  usefulness.  In 
conversation,  with  his  copious  stores  of  learning, 


99 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


he  was  essentially  fascinating.  Nights  with  him 
were  ambrosial;  I  recall  many  such.  It  is  some- 
times hard  to  reflect  that  a  journalist  writes  as 
in  sand,  and  that  the  advancing  waves  obliterate 
his  tracings,  but  Joseph  O'Connor  did  so  much 
to  enlighten  and  elevate  his  day  that  one  may 
hope  that  much  which  he  said  may  endure,  that 
his  grace  and  skill  and  force  may  still  abide. 
We,  who  knew  him  well,  grieve  that  he  has 
gone,  that  hand-clasp  and  heart-talk  with  him 
have  ceased,  but  we  rejoice  that  he  labored  so 
earnestly  and  achieved  so  greatly,  and  led  us 
along  so  many  ways  that  were  instructful, 
delightful  and  ennobling. 


SHERWOOD,  Hon.  George, 

Clergyman,  Legislator. 

In  the  life  of  the  late  Hon.  George 
Sherwood,  of  Binghamton,  New  York, 
there  were  elements  of  greatness  because 
of  the  use  he  made  of  his  talents  and 
opportunities,  and  because  of  his  fulfill- 
ment of  his  duty  as  a  man  in  relation  to 
his  fellowmen,  and  as  a  citizen  in  relation 
to  his  State  and  country,  and  last,  but  not 
least,  as  a  minister  of  the  Gospel.  Place 
and  preferment  were  never  solicited  by 
him,  and  partisan  connections  were  con- 
sistently avoided,  yet  honors  were  con- 
ferred upon  him  by  his  fellow  citizens 
which  have  eluded  the  covetous  grasp  of 
those  who  have  formed  parties  to  attain 
them.  The  space  he  filled  in  the  com- 
munity in  which  he  lived  was  wide  and 
influential.  His  family  was  an  ancient 
and  honorable  one. 

Thomas  Sherwood,  of  "Sherwood  For- 
est," England,  was  born  in  1586,  and  died 
at  Fairfield,  Fairfield  county,  Connecticut, 
in  October,  1655.  He  came  from  Ipswich, 
England,  in  April,  1634,  in  the  ship 
"Francis,"  with  his  wife,  Alice,  and  four 
children — Ann,  Rose,  Thomas  and  Re- 
becca. He  is  first  heard  of  here  as  a 
resident  of  Massachusetts,  but  he  was  in 
Fairfield  county  as  early  as  1645.  He  is 
mentioned  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Colo- 
nial   Records   as   having:  bought  land   in 


Fairfield  county  in  1653.  By  his  first  wife, 
Alice,  he  had  eight  children,  and  by  his 
second  wife,  Mary  Fitch,  he  had  four, 
the  names  of  all  being  (not  in  order  of 
birth)  :  Jane  Thomasine,  Margaret  Sarah, 
Hannah,  Rose,  Thomas,  Rebecca,  Ste- 
phen, Matthew,  Mary,  Ruth,  Abigail  and 
Isaac. 

Isaac  Sherwood,  son  of  Thomas  and 
Mary  (Fitch)  Sherwood,  was  born  in 
1655,  and  died  in  1739.  He  had  land 
grants  at  Eastchester,  New  York.  In 
1678  he  was  of  Rye,  New  York,  and  in 
1687,  of  Westport,  Connecticut.  He 
married  Elizabeth  Jackson,  and  had  chil- 
dren: Daniel,  Isaac,  John,  David,  Abigail, 
Thomas  and  Elizabeth. 

Thomas  Sherwood,  son  of  Isaac  and 
Elizabeth  (Jackson)  Sherwood,  died  at 
Albany,  New  York,  August  5,  1756,  in 
the  French  and  Indian  War,  in  which  he 
was  captain  of  Whitney's  company.  He 
married  Eleanor  Churchill,  of  Green 
Farms,  Connecticut,  who  died  October  1, 
1754- 

John  Sherwood,  son  of  Thomas  and 
Eleanor  (Churchill)  Sherwood,  married, 
March  24,  1761,  Mary  Gorham.  Chil- 
dren :  Asa,  of  further  mention ;  Levi, 
born  June  17,  1764;  Ellen,  February  23, 
1766;  Abigail,  November  18,  1770;  John, 
September  10,  1773;  Hezekiah,  twin  of 
John  ;  Hannah,  July  28,  1776. 

Asa  Sherwood,  son  of  John  and  Mary 
(Gorham)  Sherwood,  was  born  July  4, 
1762.  He  was  a  soldier  in  the  Revolu- 
tion, enlisting  at  Fairfield,  Connecticut, 
February  1,  1777;  was  also  in  the  Second 
Connecticut  Regiment,  under  Colonel 
Swift,  and  in  the  Fourth  Connecticut, 
under  Colonel  Meigs.  He  married  Molly 
Phillips,  daughter  of  a  New  York  City 
merchant,  who  had  also  a  son  in  the  Con- 
tinental army,  captured  by  the  British 
and  confined  in  one  of  the  prison  ships, 
but  finally  released  through  the  influence 
of  the  father.    Children  :    Isaac,  William, 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Asa,  David,  Gorham,  John,  Sally  and 
Nabby. 

Isaac  Sherwood,  son  of  Asa  and  Molly 
(Phillips)  Sherwood,  was  born  probably 
at  Guilford,  New  York;  married  Amy 
Budlong,  of  Cassville,  New  York.  Chil- 
dren: Johanna,  married  Frank  Ursley, 
and  lived  at  Waverly ;  Ira,  married  Mary 
Wallace,  and  lived  at  Genegantslet,  New 
York;  Asa,  died  young;  Mary,  married 
William  Thomas,  and  lived  at  Pontoosuc, 
Illinois ;  Eliza,  married  David  Leach,  and 
lived  at  Webster,  Illinois ;  Stephen,  mar- 
ried Clara  Babcock,  and  lived  at  Greene ; 
Sarah,  married  Albert  Sprague,  and  lived 
at  Binghamton ;  George,  whose  name 
is  at  the  head  of  this  sketch ;  Amy,  mar- 
ried Myron  Stanton,  and  lived  at  Greene ; 
Lucy,  married  Joseph  Bixby,  and  lived  at 
Waverly;  Sophronia,  married  Thomas 
Cowan,  and  lived  at  Port  Crane ;  Daniel, 
died  in  infancy  ;  Mandana,  married  Edwin 
Adams,  and  lived  at  Binghamton ;  David, 
married  Rosanna  Warner,  and  lived  at 
Greene. 

Hon.  George  Sherwood,  son  of  Isaac 
and  Amy  (Budlong)  Sherwood,  was  born 
in  McDonough,  Chenango  county,  New 
York,  January  18,  1821,  and  died  in  Bing- 
hamton, New  York,  May  24,  1903.  He 
was  the  owner  of  a  quantity  of  land  in 
Binghamton,  where  he  was  a  farmer  and 
prominent  citizen.  Prior  to  the  Civil  War 
he  was  a  sincere  Abolitionist.  He  was 
for  many  years  a  leading  member  and 
local  preacher  of  the  First  Baptist 
Church.  He  was  baptized  by  the  late 
Rev.  R.  A.  Washburn  into  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  Baptist  church,  at  Genegant- 
slet Corners  (now  extinct  or  merged  into 
other  Baptist  churches),  and  later  was  a 
member  of  the  church  at  Upper  Lisle. 
He  removed  to  the  town  of  Windsor, 
Broome  county,  in  1857,  and  was  a 
member  of  the  Baptist  church  in  that 
place.     In  1865  he  came  to  Binghamton 


and  became  a  member  of  the  First  Bap- 
tist Church,  where  he  served  faithfully 
and  was  an  honored  and  valued  member. 
In  1894,  on  the  organization  of  the  Park 
Avenue  Church,  he  became  a  constituent 
member  of  it.  In  all  of  his  church  life, 
of  more  than  three  score  years,  he  was 
an  earnest  and  faithful  laborer  in  the 
Master's  service,  and  was  ever  ready  to 
do  any  work  that  he  could  to  promote  the 
interest  of  the  church  and  to  advance 
the  cause  of  Christ.  To  this  end  he  con- 
tributed liberally  of  his  money,  time  and 
talents,  of  which  he  was  abundantly  re- 
sourceful. In  him  his  pastor  always 
found  a  true,  wise  and  helpful  counselor, 
and  he  was  ever  ready  to  render  all  the 
assistance  that  lay  in  his  power.  He  was 
a  fluent  and  earnest  speaker,  and  very 
often  occupied  the  pulpits  of  the  pastor- 
less  churches  in  a  very  acceptable  man- 
ner. He  was  kind  and  good  to  the  aged 
and  infirm,  and  often  conducted  religious 
services  in  the  homes  of  those  who  were 
unable  to  attend  church.  He  was  a  man 
of  strong  and  deep  convictions,  ever 
battling  for  the  right,  and  yet  he  always 
did  this  in  a  quiet  and  unassuming,  yet 
firm  and  impressive  manner.  His  Chris- 
tian home  life  in  the  family  was  delight- 
ful and  winning,  and  his  children  now 
look  back  upon  it  with  sweet  pleasure 
and  the  kindliest  remembrances. 

In  public  life  he  was  most  highly 
respected  and  admired,  and  his  integrity 
was  never  questioned  in  any  manner,  for 
he  always  lived  above  reproach,  and  was 
as  consistent,  firm  and  true  in  all  his 
public  duties  and  the  matters  entrusted 
to  him  as  he  was  in  his  private  and  church 
life.  He  held  the  office  of  supervisor  of 
his  town  when  the  present  County  Poor 
House  was  erected,  and  was  one  of  the 
committee  in  charge  of  that  work.  He 
represented  his  county  in  the  State  Legis- 
lature for  the  years   1873-74-75.     There 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


was  the  crowning  work  of  his  life,  for 
in  that  body,  through  his  earnest,  heroic 
and  indefatigable  efforts,  he  secured  the 
passage  of  the  bill,  and  the  appropriation 
from  the  State,  that  gave  to  this  section 
of  New  York  State  the  Susquehanna 
Valley  Home,  of  Binghamton,  for  orphan 
and  destitute  children,  one  of  the 
worthiest  institutions  of  its  kind  in  the 
country.  When  others  said  to  him  he 
could  never  succeed  in  accomplishing 
these  measures,  he  only  worked  the 
harder  and  adopted  other  methods,  and 
was  untiring  in  his  efforts  to  carry  out 
his  long  cherished  plans,  and  he  left  no 
stone  unturned,  but  from  the  Governor 
and  the  leading  politicians  of  both  parties, 
down  to  the  individual  members,  he  con- 
tinued his  persistent  and  unceasing 
efforts  until  they  were  crowned  with  ab- 
solute success.  In  this  matter,  as  in  all 
others  in  which  he  was  interested,  he  had 
the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  leaders 
in  the  Legislature.  They  felt  that  he  was 
right,  and  they  admired  his  perseverance, 
his  courtesy,  his  energy  and  his  integrity 
of  character.  He  succeeded  in  his  efforts, 
and  was  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  home 
from  that  time  until  his  death.  He  was  a 
recognized  leader  in  the  temperance 
cause,  and  was  much  sought  for  to  make 
addresses  to  the  public  on  this  subject 
far  and  wide.  He  was  always  very 
earnest,  entertaining  and  interesting  in 
his  addresses,  and  it  was  a  pleasure  to 
listen  to  him. 

Mr.  Sherwood  married,  April  8,  1849, 
Mary  Ann  Jeffords,  born  February  ij, 
1828,  died  November  28,  1906,  a  daughter 
of  Allen  Cleveland  and  Ann  Eliza  (Robin- 
son) Jeffords;  granddaughter  of  Amasa 
Jeffords,  born  at  Woodstock,  Connecti- 
cut, in  1748,  married  (first)  Sally  Cleve- 
land, (second)  Sarah  Clifford ;  and  great- 
granddaughter  of  John  Jeffords,  a  soldier 
at  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  in  1775,  and 
whose  father  was  killed  in  the  French  and 


Indian  War.  Children:  1.  Florence,  who 
married,  June  25,  1874,  Charles  Emery 
Bliss  (see  Bliss  line  forward),  and  has  a 
son,  George  C.  S.,  born  April  18,  1877,  at 
Towanda,  Pennsylvania,  who  is  engaged 
in  the  wholesale  dry  goods  business  at 
Binghamton,  and  married,  June  25,  1902, 
Katherine  Shieder,  and  has  children : 
Emery,  Robert  Leon  and  Barbara  Ruth. 
2.  Viola,  who  was  for  twenty  years  a 
teacher  in  the  grammar  schools  of  Bing- 
hamton, being  at  the  time  of  her  death 
principal  of  the  Main  Street  Grammar 
School.  She  was  an  earnest  worker  in 
the  First  Baptist  Church.  For  years  and 
up  to  the  time  of  her  death  she  taught  one 
of  the  largest  classes  in  the  Sunday  school 
and  exerted  a  marked  influence  on  the 
young  people  with  whom  she  came  in 
contact.  She  died  July  1,  1903.  3.  Judge 
Carl  G.,  a  resident  of  South  Dakota,  where 
he  has  been  prominent  in  political  affairs, 
serving  as  State  Senator  and  member  of 
the  first  constitutional  convention,  and  is 
now  a  judge  of  the  Circuit  Court;  mar- 
ried, February  10,  1885,  Nellie  Fountain, 
and  has  had  children :  George  Fountain, 
Harry  Allen  (deceased),  Mary  Carlton 
and  Dolly  Viola.  4.  William  J.,  married, 
October  31,  1902,  Iona  May  Bills,  and  has 
had:  Nellie,  Mason  William  (deceased), 
and  Harold.  5.  Grace  Eliza,  born  in 
Binghamton,  married  September  1,  1898, 
Charles  F.  Parker,  born  September  11, 
1871,  and  has  children:  Harry  Sherwood 
and  Carl  Sherwood. 


The  Bliss  family  is  believed  to  be  the 
same  as  the  Blois  family  of  Normandy, 
gradually  modified  in  spelling  to  Bloys, 
Blysse,  Blisse,  and  in  America  to  Bliss. 
The  family  has  been  in  England,  how- 
ever, since  the  Norman  Conquest,  but  is 
not  numerous  and  never  has  been.  The 
coat-of-arms  borne  by  the  Bliss  and  Bloys 
families  is  the  same:  Sable,  a  bend  vaire, 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


between  two  fleurs-de-lis  or.  Crest:  A 
hand  holding  a  bundle  of  arrows.  Motto  : 
Semper  sursam.  The  ancient  family 
tradition  represents  the  seat  of  the  Bliss 
family  in  the  south  of  England,  and  be- 
longing to  the  yeomanry,  though  at 
various  times  some  of  the  family  were 
knighted. 

Thomas  Bliss,  progenitor  of  the  Amer- 
ican family,  lived  at  Belstone  Parish, 
Devonshire,  England.  He  is  supposed  to 
have  been  born  about  1555-60,  and  he 
died  about  1636.  Little  is  known  of  him 
except  that  he  was  a  wealthy  landowner, 
and  was  a  Puritan,  perscuted  on  account 
of  his  faith  by  civil  and  religious  author- 
ities, under  the  direction  of  the  infamous 
Archbishop  Laud ;  that  he  was  mal- 
treated, impoverished  and  imprisoned. 
When  the  parliament  of  1628  assembled, 
Puritans,  or  Roundheads,  as  they  were 
called  by  the  Cavaliers,  or  Tories,  accom- 
panied the  members  to  London.  Two  of 
the  sons  of  Thomas  Bliss,  Jonathan  and 
Thomas,  rode  from  Devonshire  on  iron- 
grey  horses,  and  remained  for  some  time 
— long  enough,  anyhow,  for  the  king's 
officers  and  spies  to  mark  them,  and  from 
that  time  they,  with  others  who  had  gone 
on  the  same  errand  to  the  capital,  were 
marked  for  destruction.  The  Bliss 
brothers  were  fined  a  thousand  pounds  for 
their  nonconformity,  and  thrown  into 
prison,  where  they  lay  for  weeks.  Even 
their  venerable  father  was  dragged 
through  the  streets  with  the  greatest  in- 
dignities. On  another  occasion  the  offi- 
cers of  the  high  commission  seized  all 
their  horses  and  all  their  sheep  except  one 
poor  ewe,  that  in  its  fright  ran  into  the 
house  and  took  refuge  under  a  bed.  At 
another  time  the  three  sons  of  Thomas 
Bliss,  with  a  dozen  Puritans,  were  led 
through  the  market  place  in  Okehampton, 
with  ropes  around  their  necks,  and  also 
fined  heavily.  On  another  occasion 
Thomas  was  arrested  and    thrown  into 


prison  with  his  son  Jonathan,  who  even- 
tually died  from  the  hardships  and  abuse 
of  the  churchmen.  At  another  time  the 
king's  officers  seized  the  cattle  of  the 
family  and  most  of  their  household  goods, 
some  of  which  were  highly  valued  for 
their  age  and  beauty,  and  as  heirlooms, 
having  been  for  centuries  in  the  family. 
In  fact,  the  family  being  so  impoverished 
by  constant  persecution,  was  unable  to 
pay  the  fines  and  secure  the  release  of 
both  father  and  son  from  prison,  so  the 
young  man  remained  and  the  father's 
fine  was  paid.  At  Easter  the  young  man 
received  thirty-five  lashes.  After  the 
father  died,  his  widow  lived  with  their 
daughter,  whose  husband.  Sir  John  Cal- 
cliffe,  was  a  communicant  of  the  Church 
of  England,  in  good  standing.  The  rem- 
nant of  the  estate  was  divided  among  the 
three  sons,  who  were  advised  to  go  to 
America  to  escape  further  persecution. 
Thomas  and  George  feared  to  wait  for 
Jonathan,  who  was  ill  in  prison,  and  they 
left  England  in  the  fall  of  1635  with  their 
families.  Thomas,  son  of  Jonathan,  and 
grandson  of  Thomas  Bliss,  remained  in 
England  until  his  father  died,  and  then  he 
also  came  to  America,  settling  near  his 
uncle  of  the  same  name.  At  various  times 
the  sister  of  the  immigrants  sent  to  the 
brothers  boxes  of  shoes,  clothing  and 
articles  that  could  not  be  procured  in  the 
colonies,  and  it  is  through  her  letters,  long 
preserved  in  the  original  but  now  lost, 
that  knowledge  of  the  family  was  handed 
down  from  generation  to  generation. 
Children  of  Thomas  Bliss:  Jonathan, 
died  in  England,  1635-36;  Thomas,  of 
further  mention ;  Elizabeth,  married  Sir 
John  Calcliffe,  of  Belstone ;  George,  born 
1591,  died  August  31,  1687,  settled  in 
Lynn,  Massachusetts,  and  later  at  Sand- 
wich in  that  province,  and  at  Newport, 
Rhode  Island ;  Mary. 

Thomas  Bliss,  son  of  Thomas  Bliss,  the 
immigrant,  was  born  at  Belstone,  Devon- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


shire,  England,  about  1585,  and  died  in 
1639.  He  married  in  England,  about 
1612,  Margaret  Lawrence,  born  about 
1594,  died  August  29,  1684.  After  the 
death  of  her  husband,  she  managed  the 
affairs  of  the  family  with  great  prudence 
and  judgment.  Children:  Ann,  born  in 
England,  married  Robert  Chapman,  of 
Saybrook,  Connecticut;  Mary,  married 
Joseph  Parsons ;  Thomas ;  Nathaniel ; 
Lawrence ;  Samuel,  born  in  1624 ;  Sarah, 
born  in  Boston,  1635 ;  Elizabeth,  born  in 
Boston  in  1637,  married  Myles  Morgan, 
founder  of  Springfield ;  Hannah,  born  at 
Hartford,  1639;  John,  of  further  mention. 

John  Bliss,  son  of  Thomas  and  Mar- 
garet (Lawrence)  Bliss,  was  born  at 
Hartford,  Connecticut,  in  1640,  and  died 
September  10,  1702.  He  removed  to 
Northampton  in  1672,  and  was  there 
through  his  sister's  trial  for  witchcraft. 
He  removed  to  Springfield  in  1685,  and 
soon  afterward  to  Longmeadow,  where 
he  spent  the  remainder  of  his  life.  He 
married,  October  7,  1667,  Patience  Burt, 
born  August  18,  1645,  died  October  25, 
1732,  a  daughter  of  Henry  Burt,  of 
Springfield.  Children:  John,  born  Sep- 
tember 7,  1669;  Nathaniel,  January  26, 
1671  ;  Thomas,  of  further  mention ;  Jo- 
seph, 1676;  Hannah,  November  16,  1678; 
Henry,  August  15,  1681  ;  Ebenezer,  1683. 

Thomas  Bliss,  son  of  John  and  Patience 
(Burt)  Bliss,  was  born  at  Longmeadow, 
October  29,  1673,  died  there,  August  12, 
1758.  He  married,  May  27,  1714,  Mary 
Macranny,  born  November  2,  1690,  died 
March  30,  1761,  daughter  of  William  and 
Margaret  Macranny.  Children,  born  at 
Longmeadow:  Mary,  December  4,  1715  ; 
Thomas,  May  3,  1719;  Henry,  December 
5,  1722;  Henry,  of  further  mention.  The 
first  Henry  died  young. 

Henry  Bliss,  son  of  Thomas  and  Mary 
(Macranny)  Bliss,  was  born  August  21, 
1726,  died  February  7-8,  1761.  He  was  a 
farmer    at    Longmeadow.     He    married 


Ruby  Brewer,  of  Lebanon  (published 
December  22,  1749).  The  widow  and 
children  removed,  in  1765,  to  Lebanon, 
Connecticut,  and  afterward  to  Bernards- 
ton,  Massachusetts.  Children:  Thomas, 
born  December  7,  1750;  Solomon,  No- 
vember 8,  1 751;  Calvin,  of  further  men- 
tion; Henry,  June  7,  1757;  Huldah,  July 

2.  1759- 

Calvin  Bliss,  son  of  Henry  and  Ruby 
(Brewer)  Bliss,  was  born  at  Colerain, 
Massachusetts,  May  14,  1754,  died  in  Oc- 
tober, 1849.  He  was  a  farmer  at  Bernards- 
ton,  and  about  1800  removed  to  Shore- 
ham,  Addison  county,  Vermont.  He  was 
a  soldier  in  the  Revolution  in  Captain 
Ephraim  Chapin's  company,  Colonel  Rug- 
gles  Woodbury's  regiment,  August  17, 
1777,  and  is  said  to  have  held  a  commis- 
sion in  Washington's  army.  He  mar- 
ried, June  26,  1777,  Ruth  Janes,  born 
May  11,  1756-57,  daughter  of  Ebenezer 
and  Sarah  (Field)  Janes,  of  Northfield, 
Vermont.  Children:  Ruby,  born  1778; 
Philomela,  June  11,  1782;  Huldah;  Solo- 
mon, of  further  mention ;  Martha,  Sep- 
tember 15,  1788;  Ruth,  June  10,  1790; 
Mehitable,  May  17,  1792;  Calvin,  May 
14,  1794;  Henry,  March  27,  1796;  Oliver 
Brewster,  July  6,  1799. 

Solomon  Bliss,  son  of  Calvin  and  Ruth 
(Janes)  Bliss,  was  born  April  9,  1786,  and 
died  at  Willet,  New  York,  June  6,  1861. 
He  settled  at  Preston,  Chenango  county, 
New  York.  He  married,  January  1,  1808, 
Anna  Packer,  born  at  Guilford,  Vermont, 
June  30,  1786,  died  at  Henderson,  New 
York,  January  14,  1866.  Children:  Eunice 
P.,  born  July  28,  1809;  Amanda  P.,  July 
5,  1813,  died  young;  Lydia  J.,  January 
11,  1815;  Ruth,  January  11,  1817;  Joshua 
P.,  at  Preston,  April  29,  1818;  Ruth  C, 
July  17,  1820;  Calvin  J.,  of  further  men- 
tion ;  Ira  G.,  July  27,  1824. 

Calvin  J.   Bliss,  son   of  Solomon   and 
Anna  (Packer)  Bliss,  was  born  at  Pres- 
ton, New  York,  May  22,  1822,  and  settled 
104 


>IA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


illet,  Cortla-i,' 
he  married,  September   18,    [85 
A.  Landers,  of  Willet.    Chili 
Emery,  of  further  mention  ;  Cora 
September  9,  1870,  at  Bin 
August  9,  1 87 1. 

Charles  Emery  B 

• 
i 
in  the  pub'-' 
in  the  academ) 

followed  a  few 

-     I 
ness  a 

the  Baptist  churci. 
the  Sunday  school 

U   red,  July  30.   1900. 
ried    Florence,    daughter 
George    Sherwood,   as  pre 
tioned. 


FOWLER,  Albert  Perry, 

Lawyer,   Financier,    C»»*nl   Cit:. 

The    storj 
Albert  Pen 
business   mas 
will  be  told  in 
his  frit 
his  lifetime  his  f 

w  upon  him 
responsibility 
dence,  so  in  death  he 
in  honoring.     The  forty-" 
his  life  were  marked  by  i' 
quality  and  in  measure  such  as  l 
attain  to  in  a  long  lifetime,  and  In- 
to his  long  rest  amid  the  general  grief  of 
men  of  high  and  important  stati' 
mourned   the  death  of  one  upon 
they  leaned,  whose  worth  they  had  appre- 
ciated, and  whom  they  had  come  to  hold 
in  loving  affection.     It  had  been  one  of 
his    strongest    characteristics   that,    con- 
fronted by  necessity  for  action,  he  pur- 
sued the   course  he   decided   upon   with 


every  nerve  and  every  energy  bent  upon 

pletion,  and  when  the  critical  con- 

heaith  was  made  clear  to 

urneyed 

ch   of  new  strength.     But 

:  i/'oving  his  condition  became 

from  Southern 

nient,  and  for  three 
i 
ital,   resisting  defeat    v. 
:  and  bo( 

■ 

nething   hi    hi 
as  wide  and  hi 

m   .    Fov 
d  Jan  :tte      • 
a    re-;i.ie;.> 

■ 

&    Compa 

■ 
"■    v  York  City.  M; 
■ 
i  from  the  < 

ime  took  the  1  nti  ance 
■    >rnell  I 
howeve 
it.    Hi 

ter  ci 

• 

many 
I 

e    was 

Ita  Up- 

litor  of 

allege  paper, 

mellian,"  the 

nior  year  was 

weekly 

graduation,  with  the 


105 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts,  he  entered 
the  law  offices  of  Knapp,  Nottingham  & 
Andrews,  the  members  of  the  firm  being 
Judge  Martin  A.  Knapp,  Edwin  Notting- 
ham, and  Justice  William  S.  Andrews, 
and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1893. 
Soon  afterward  he  became  a  partner  of 
Alfred  W.  Wilkinson,  under  the  name  of 
Wilkinson  &  Fowler,  Mr.  Wilkinson  sub- 
sequently moving  to  New  York  City, 
where  he  is  a  well  known  and  successful 
patent  attorney.  In  1897  Mr.  Fowler 
and  Justice  Leonard  C.  Crouch  formed 
the  firm  of  Fowler  &  Crouch,  Irving  Dil- 
laye  Vann,  son  of  Judge  Irving  G.  Vann, 
being  later  taken  into  the  firm,  which 
became  Fowler,  Crouch  &  Vann.  This 
it  remained  until  Mr.  Crouch  was  elected 
to  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and 
then,  upon  the  admission  of  Mr.  Crouch's 
brother-in-law,  the  firm  title  changed  to 
Fowler,  Vann  &  Paine.  All  through  the 
years  of  his  law  practice,  even  while 
handling  responsibilities  that  had  no  bear- 
ing upon  his  profession,  Mr.  Fowler  was 
everywhere  recognized  as  a  leader  of  the 
Onondaga  county  bar.  He  accepted  and 
faithfully  administered  the  trusteeship  of 
many  large  estates  and  was  also  the  legal 
representative  and  manager  of  the  estates 
of  several  of  the  best  known  men  of  the 
region,  including  the  late  E.  B.  Judson, 
Simon  D.  Paddock,  and  Myron  C.  Mer- 
riman.  George  W.  O'Brien,  president  of 
the  Onondaga  County  Bar  Association, 
wrote  of  Mr.  Fowler's  legal  career: 
"Albert  P.  Fowler  stood  high  in  the  legal 
profession  in  this  city  and  county.  He 
was  greatly  respected,  not  only  among 
the  lawyers  but  in  business  circles.  He 
was  democratic,  maintained  the  highest 
ideals,  and  observed  the  strictest  integ- 
rity. Whatever  his  task,  it  was  performed 
with  enthusiasm  and  with  thoroughness." 
From  the  time  his  associates  first  ob- 
served his  innate  and  unusually  brilliant 


business  ability  his  services  were  in  great 
and  constant  demand.  For  more  than  ten 
years  he  was  a  director  of  the  First  Na- 
tional Bank,  serving  as  vice-president  for 
nearly  five  years,  was  general  counsel  for 
the  bank,  and  one  of  the  most  active  of 
its  officers.  He  was  a  director  of  the 
Onondaga  Pottery  Company,  was  one  of 
the  organizers  and  directors  of  the  Syra- 
cuse Dry  Goods  Company,  which  concern 
succeeded  D.  McCarthy  &  Company,  his 
father's  firm,  was  a  director  of  the  Onon- 
daga Hotel  Corporation,  and  was  identi- 
fied with  the  New  Process  Gear  Company 
and  the  Frazer  &  Jones  Company.  He 
was  an  influential  member  of  the  Syra- 
cuse Chamber  of  Commerce,  and  of  this 
organization  was  a  director,  vice-presi- 
dent, and  chairman  of  the  executive  com- 
mittee. He  brought  to  the  work  of  the 
chamber  a  resistless  enthusiasm  and  a 
sturdy  pride  in  the  commercial  standing 
of  his  city,  and  his  wise  discretion  and 
sound  business  judgment  were  of  great 
value  in  shaping  the  policy  of  the  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce.  In  an  outline  of  Mr. 
Fowler's  notable  business  accomplish- 
ments there  must  be  mentioned  his  re- 
ceivership of  the  American  Exchange  Na- 
tional Bank,  the  liquidation  of  whose 
affairs  was  a  complicated  and  lengthy 
matter,  entailing  protracted  litigation. 

Mr.  Fowler's  support  and  generous  aid 
were  always  at  the  disposal  of  those  of 
the  city's  institutions  whose  aims  were 
high  and  whose  existence  brought  credit 
to  the  city.  He  led  in  the  fund  raising 
campaign  for  the  Hospital  of  the  Good 
Shepherd,  was  a  loyal  friend  to  the  Syra- 
cuse Free  Dispensary,  and  urged  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Central  Hospital  Coun- 
cil until  that  projected  body  became  a  re- 
ality. He  was  also  conspicuously  en- 
gaged in  the  work  of  the  Associated  Char- 
ities during  its  period  of  reorganization  a 
few  years  before  his  death.     Of  his  life 


A*&& 


**7 


;a  of  biography 


and  his  services  to  his  cir. 
Petit,  treasurer  of  the  Onoiv 
Savings  Bank,  wrote: 

lb 
useful,   if  not   the   most   useiui 
cuse    during    the    past    i 
Onondaga   Hotel  to  hit 

Commeri  i 

■ 
to   help   in   an\ 
could  keep  in  thi 
limelight 

cuse  do  not  gen< 
I   i 

reproach.     His  friendship  was  son 
proud  of,  because  it  was  not  ligl    I3    g 
will  be  sincerely  mourned. 

Another  of  his  works  whose  ii 
was  felt  beyond  the  confines  of  h 
was  performed  as  a  i 
of  managers  of  the 
lum  for  Feebl 
ark,  to  which 
Governor  Charles  E 
agemeni 
brought  the 
odor,  and  Mr. 
cordance  with  the  p 
a  man  of  strong  pun 
able  motives  be  placed  in  a  posi 
power  to  act  in  the  reclai 
asylum.    To  this  end  he  lal 
accustomed  fidelity  and  zeal,  and  when 
cful  influences  had  been  removed 
and  their  effects  remedied,  he  resigned  his 
trust. 

In  the  social  life  of  Syracuse  he  and 

uly  held  prominent  position,  their 

home  on  Oak  street  being  always  open  in 

the  entertainment  of  their  many  friends. 

He  was  an  interesting  and  brilliant  con- 

naljst,  a  man  of  wide  information. 

broad   interests,  and  liberal  views.     He 

harter  member  and  one  of  the  first 


directors  of  thi 

cuse,   also  b>_'  the    University 

1.1-of-door    life 
for  him,  and 
©rtunity  offei  fed  this 

folding    me;  several 

and    count:  .rely   is 

of  whom,  in 
iships,   naught    but 
when    he    has    lei 
tt    just   such   was 
Th<   pers  >nal  tribut 
hen,  president  of  I 
■poration,  is  hert 
is   voicing   the    - 
many  friends: 

ith  of  Mr.  Fowler  is  a  distinct, 
the  city  of  Syracuse.    His  remarkably 
ent,  his  genius  for  close  research, 
ability  as  an  organizer,  his  indefatigable 
were  cheerfully  and  unreserved 
t 
tnd  has  been  strivia 
..  II  be  missed  by  the  Chamber  of 
mr   charitable 
hospitals,   only   those  who  are 

management   of   these    various 
can   know.     The   I 
n  !  '...■  ml 

i  n  parable.     "He  « 

ce  Dil- 

LUgl 

ren:    Catherine,  Al- 

• 


'     -  -fred, 

ractarer,  Han  sf  Affair*. 

ivi  -  -  ■ 

•;derful 

official 

of  Park 

lim  well 

hip  an  honor: 

■ed  Wright  the 
ly  of  Rochester 
!oss.    His  heart 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


early  enlisted  itself  in  the  park  project,  because 
he  saw  that  it  would  add  to  the  sum  of  human 
happiness,  and  where  his  heart  went  his  judg- 
ment, energy  and  generosity  followed  in  unre- 
served consecration.  Decidedly  a  first  citizen, 
his  presence,  counsel  and  labors  were  by  us  in 
constant  and  appreciative  demand;  to  be  de- 
prived of  them  therefore  is  a  loss  most  regret- 
table. 

Furthermore,  we  cannot  withhold  our  willing 
tribute  to  his  personality,  so  peculiar,  so  persua- 
sive, so  admirable,  so  generous,  and  so  alto- 
gether irreproachable,  a  personality  it  is  seldom 
one's  good  fortune  to  discover.  Affable,  ap- 
proachable, sensible,  he  won  universal  respect 
and  confidence.  He  abounded  in  works  of  un- 
heralded benevolence;  his  sympathies  were 
always  alive  and  ready  for  exercise  under  the 
sanction  of  a  wise,  business-like  judgment. 

In  the  commercial  world,  which  for  him  was 
continental  in  extent,  his  name  and  character 
were  standards  of  excellence  and  probity. 

(Signed)        George  W.  Elliott, 
Richard  Curran, 
William  C.  Berry. 

To  receive  such  a  tribute  from  contem- 
poraries is  honorable,  to  merit  it,  glorious. 
When  life's  activities  redound  only  to  the 
benefit  of  the  doer,  little  praise  is  due,  but 
when  good  results  to  a  community,  as  did 
from  Alfred  Wright's  life,  all  honor  is 
willingly,  abundantly  and  justly  offered. 
Pure  and  sweet  as  the  perfumes  that  bore 
his  name  was  his  life,  and  while  his  fame 
was  world-wide  as  a  manufacturer  there 
was  never  a  time  when  the  stress  of  busi- 
ness life  caused  him  to  forget  his  duties 
as  citizen  or  the  obligations  which  he 
owed  to  his  fellow-men,  and  few  of  his 
contemporaries  were  identified  with  so 
many  enterprises  of  a  public  and  charit- 
able nature. 

Alfred  Wright  was  born  at  Avon,  Liv- 
ingston county,  New  York,  November  6, 
1830,  died  in  Rochester,  New  York,  Janu- 
ary 18,  1891.  He  was  educated  in  public 
schools  and  at  Genesee  Wesleyan  Semi- 
nary, Lima,  New  York,  locating  in  Roch- 
ester at  the  age  of  twenty  years,  continu- 
ing his  residence  there  until  his  death, 


forty-one  years  later.  He  was  connected 
with  the  hardware  business  until  1866, 
then  entered  the  path  of  business  en- 
deavor that  led  to  fame  and  fortune.  His 
business  ventures  began  in  a  small  way, 
but  his  disposition  to  do  things  well  led 
him  to  delve  deep  into  the  study  of  so 
fascinating  a  branch  of  manufacture  as 
the  distilling  and  fabrication  of  perfumes, 
with  the  result  that  Alfred  Wright's  per- 
fumery won  popular  approval.  When  in- 
creased demand  set  in  he  enlarged  his 
quarters,  and  after  becoming  firmly  estab- 
lished as  one  of  the  leading  manufacturers 
in  this  country  erected  a  factory  on  West 
and  Willowbank  avenues,  the  most  mod- 
ern and  complete  plant  of  its  kind  in  the 
whole  world.  From  city  and  state  he 
passed  to  national  fame,  and  from  na- 
tional to  international  renown  as  a  manu- 
facturer of  perfumery.  It  is  an  attempt 
to  "paint  the  lily"  to  speak  of  the  world- 
wide fame  of  Alfred  Wright's  perfumes 
or  to  speak  of  the  great  volume  of  busi- 
ness he  transacted.  That  is  common  his- 
tory, but  the  personality  and  character  of 
the  man  who  won  so  prominent  a  position 
in  the  commercial  world  is  of  deepest  in- 
terest. His  capacity  for  work  was  enor- 
mous and  in  addition  to  his  large  private 
concerns  he  was  a  trustee  of  the  Me- 
chanics' Savings  Bank,  a  director  of  the 
Commercial  Bank,  a  trustee  of  the  Roch- 
ester Electric  Light  Company,  and  as  a 
member  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce 
aided  in  promoting  the  business  interests 
of  Rochester. 

He  was  a  Republican  in  politics,  as  an 
advisor  sought  after  by  the  local  leaders 
of  the  party,  and  had  he  so  desired  could 
have  secured  for  himself  almost  any  office 
within  the  gift  of  the  people,  but  while 
ever  inspired  by  a  sincere  desire  to  be  of 
service  to  his  fellow-men,  he  steadfastly 
refused  all  offers  of  political  preferment. 
The  office  that  he  did  accept  was  that  of 
Park  Commissioner,  for  there  he  saw  that 
108 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


he  could  be  of  real  and  definite  service. 
He  also  served  for  eight  years  as  chair- 
man of  the  Republican  Business  Men's 
Committee  and  rendered  hearty  service 
in  behalf  of  the  candidates  of  his  party. 
How  well  he  performed  his  duties  as 
Park  Commissioner  the  tribute  from  his 
fellow  members  of  the  board  tells.  He 
served  as  trustee  of  the  City  Hospital, 
trustee  of  Wesleyan  Seminary  at  Lima, 
vice-president  of  the  Humane  Society, 
president  of  the  board  of  trustees  of  the 
Brick  Church  (Presbyterian),  and  held 
fraternal  relations  with  the  Masonic  order. 
Time  and  energy  consuming  were  these 
varied  activities,  but  they  show  Mr. 
Wright's  public  spirit,  his  devotion  to 
philanthropy,  and  his  large-hearted  in- 
terest in  all  that  concerned  the  welfare  of 
his  fellow-men.  His  benevolences  were 
many,  but  he  gave  very  quietly  and  with- 
out ostentation,  his  right  hand  never 
knowing  the  doings  of  his  left.  Warm  of 
impulse  and  sympathetic,  he  loved  his 
fellow-men  ;  approachable  and  companion- 
able, he  gave  as  freely  to  the  social  side 
of  life  as  he  could,  numbering  his  friends 
among  the  leading  men  of  the  city.  His 
life  was  a  blessing  to  the  public,  his  mem- 
ory is  revered,  and  to  those  of  his  immedi- 
ate family  he  left  a  name  unspotted  and 
irreproachable,  in  honor  enduring. 

Mr.  Wright  married  (first)  Maria 
Gould,  who  died  about  1869.  He  married 
(second)  Mary  J.  Hunter,  who  died  in 
1877.  He  married  (third)  Mary  D.  But- 
terfield,  who  survives  him.  Child  of  first 
wife:  Alfred.  Children  of  second  wife: 
John  S.,  Marian  H.,  Margaret  J.,  wife  of 
Roland  C.  Dryer. 


ADAMS,  Mvron, 

Civil  War  Veteran,   Clergyman. 

The  life  of  Myron  Adams,  "sweet,  pure 
and  noble,"  left  its  impress  indelibly  not 
only  on  the  lives  of  those  with  whom  he 


came  in  contact  but  upon  the  trend  of 
modern  thought.  Many  through  his 
efforts  have  been  brought  into  a  clearer 
understanding  not  of  creed,  of  dogma,  of 
superstition  or  religion,  but  of  Christi- 
anity. Gifted  with  wonderful  mental 
power,  he  was  a  close  follower  of  Him 
who  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto  but 
to  minister.  For  almost  twenty  years  he 
occupied  the  pulpit  of  the  Plymouth 
Church  in  Rochester.  Although  his  life 
span  covered  little  more  than  a  half  cen- 
tury he  lived  to  see  the  teachings  which 
in  his  early  ministry  awakened  strong 
opposition,  in  his  later  life  endorsed  by 
many  who  had  formerly  opposed  him.  He 
took  no  pride  in  this  aside  from  the  fact 
the  world  was  drawing  nearer  to  the  truth 
and  was  accepting  the  spiritual  revelations 
of  the  gospel  without  attempting  to  estab- 
lish the  historicity  or  to  accept  with  cre- 
dence the  traditional  or  the  figurative. 

Myron  Adams,  the  youngest  son  of  My- 
ron and  Sarah  (Taylor)  Adams,  was  born 
at  East  Bloomfield,  New  York,  March  12, 
1841.  Following  the  completion  of  a  pre- 
paratory course  in  Waterloo  Academy  he 
matriculated  in  Hamilton  College  as  a 
member  of  the  class  of  1863.  Less  than 
two  years  after  the  beginning  of  the  war 
he  put  aside  his  text-books  to  espouse  the 
Union  cause,  enlisting  with  many  other 
students  of  Hamilton  in  1862  as  a  member 
of  the  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-sixth 
New  York  Infantry,  which  was  immedi- 
ately ordered  to  the  front.  Sometime  later 
he  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  lieuten- 
ant in  the  signal  corps  of  the  regular  army 
and  served  upon  the  staff  of  General  Can- 
by  at  New  Orleans.  In  1864  he  joined 
Farragut  and  was  at  the  famous  battle  of 
Mobile  Bay,  acting  as  signal  officer  on 
board  the  "Lackawanna."  In  May,  1865, 
he  was  the  bearer  of  dispatches  to  the 
war  department,  conveying  the  news  of 
the  surrender  of  the  last  Confederate 
troops  east  of  the  Mississippi  river.     He 


109 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


was  offered  the  rank  of  major  but  refused 
it.  Mere  "honors"  had  no  attraction  for 
him.  He  believed  in  the  worth  of  the 
man  and  public  recognition,  as  such,  pos- 
sessed no  value  for  him. 

After  his  death  he  was  honored  by  his 
old  army  comrades  and  the  following  was 
published  at  that  time : 

A  new  Grand  Army  post  is  to  be  instituted  in 
this  city  to-morrow  evening,  to  be  called  the 
"Myron  Adams  Mounted  Post,  No.  640."  It  is 
doubtless  known  to  all  our  readers  that  all 
Grand  Army  posts  are  named  after  dead  com- 
rades. No  living  soldier  is  thus  honored.  It  is 
especially  appropriate  that  now  the  name  should 
be  chosen  of  that  dear  citizen  of  Rochester 
whom  we  freshly  mourn,  whose  young  life  was 
consecrated  to  his  country,  and  whose  whole 
career  was  dedicated  to  the  truth,  as  it  was 
given  him  to  see  the  truth.  The  new  post 
honors  itself  in  honoring  the  name  of  one  so 
noble,  so  lovely,  and  of  such  crystalline  purity 
of  soul  as  was  Myron  Adams. 

When  the  war  was  over  Mr.  Adams 
became  a  student  in  the  theological  semi- 
nary at  Auburn,  New  York,  and  while 
there  formed  the  acquaintance  of  Hester 
R.,  the  daughter  of  Professor  S.  M.  Hop- 
kins, whom  he  married.  One  son  was 
born  of  this  marriage,  Samuel  Hopkins 
Adams,  who  is  now  well-known  as  a 
writer  and  journalist.  Myron  Adams  en- 
tered upon  his  pastoral  work  at  the  Union 
Springs  (New  York)  Presbyterian  Church 
in  1868,  and  a  year  later  accepted  a  call 
to  the  Dunkirk  Presbyterian  Church, 
where  he  remained  until  he  became  pas- 
tor of  the  Plymouth  Congregational 
Church  of  Rochester  in  1876.  He  con- 
tinued to  fill  this  pulpit  throughout  his 
remaining  days  and  became  a  forceful 
factor  in  the  life  of  the  city,  albeit  one  of 
the  most  modest,  unassuming  and  retiring 
of  men.  His  influence,  however,  will  re- 
main as  a  moving  force  *n  the  lives  of 
men  long  after  the  great  builders  of  com- 
mercial   and    industrial    enterprises,    the 


promoters  of  great  schemes  of  trade  and 
profit  will  have  been  forgotten. 

Mr.  Adams  was  what  the  world  has 
been  pleased  to  term  an  independent 
thinker.  When  his  judgment,  resulting 
from  close  and  earnest  study,  found  fal- 
lacy in  any  teaching  or  doctrine,  he  re- 
nounced it  and  in  unmistakable  terms. 
When  he  came  to  accept  the  verity  of  any 
vital  idea  he  proclaimed  it.  From  the  be- 
ginning of  his  pastorate  he  attracted  at- 
tention and  from  the  first  displayed  what 
the  conservative  term  eccentricities  of 
theological  opinion.  In  the  Presbyterian 
church  of  Dunkirk  he  was  observed  as  an 
independent  and  vigorous  thinker,  always 
rewarding  the  attention  of  his  hearers  by 
his  forceful,  original  way  of  putting 
things.  From  the  beginning  of  his  min- 
istry he  was  a  student,  a  searcher  for 
truth  ;  and  when  his  investigation  brought 
to  him  some  doubts  concerning  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Presbytery  he  continued  his 
studies  and  though  it  brought  down  upon 
him  the  criticism  of  brethren  whom  he 
dearly  loved  in  the  Presbyterian  church, 
he  fearlessly  proclaimed  his  views.  He 
was  steadily  growing  into  a  dislike  of 
ecclesiasticism  and  rigid  orthodoxy.  He 
felt  more  and  more  hampered  as  a  Pres- 
byterian and  it  was  with  a  feeling  of  relief 
that  he  received  and  accepted  the  call 
from  the  Plymouth  Congregational  Church 
of  Rochester. 

Here  Mr.  Adams  entered  upon  work  in 
a  congregation  of  intelligent  and  cultured 
men  and  women  who  were  in  hearty  sym- 
pathy with  him  in  his  positive  rejection 
of  certain  orthodox  dogmas.  He  came  to 
reject  utterly  the  dogma  of  everlasting 
punishment.  In  explanation  of  this  he 
remarked  that  his  experience  on  the  field 
of  battle  and  amid  the  carnage  of  the 
great  fight  of  Mobile  Bay,  when  scores  of 
men  fighting  bravely  for  their  country 
were  swept  out  of  life  in  an  instant,  made 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


the  thought  that  any  such  men  were  only 
plunged  into  "fiercer  flames  below"  im- 
possible to  him.  Nor  did  he  believe  in 
plenary  inspiration.  Upon  these  charges 
he  was  called  before  the  Ontario  Associ- 
ation in  the  closing  months  of  the  year 
1880.  Upon  their  charge  he  stood  self- 
confessed.  He  freely  acknowledged  that 
he  did  not  know  the  answer  to  some  ques- 
tions but  he  did  believe  firmly  and  fully  in 
the  infinite  love  and  goodness  of  God. 

After  this  action  of  the  church  Mr. 
Adams  went  on  to  develop  more  fully  the 
theological  ideas  which  he  already  held  in 
the  germ.  He  believed  in  evolution,  not 
of  the  materialistic  but  of  the  theistic 
kind,  that  the  world  from  the  beginning 
has  been  going  through  a  process  of  de- 
velopment that  is  bringing  it  nearer  to 
truth  and  to  the  conception  of  the  pur- 
poses of  Christianity.  Throughout  his 
ministry  his  preachings  set  forth  the 
truths  of  the  universal  Fatherhood  of  God 
and  the  duty  of  man  in  his  relations  to 
his  fellowmen. 

Mr.  Adams  was  not  gifted  with  that  ex- 
ecutive force  and  power  of  coordination 
which  results  in  the  upbuilding  of  a  large 
church.  He  was  not  even  an  eloquent 
pulpit  orator,  yet  he  spoke  vigorously, 
earnestly  and  decisively  upon  those  sub- 
jects which  seemed  to  him  of  vital  in- 
terest to  mankind.  He  never  sought  to 
upbuild  his  church  by  any  attempt  to  make 
himself  popular  with  his  parishioners. 
On  the  contrary  he  was  rather  reserved, 
desiring  that  those  who  attended  his  serv- 
ices should  come  to  hear  the  great  truths 
which  he  uttered  rather  than  because  of 
any  interest  in  him.  His  sermons  were 
robust  in  thought  and  in  expression  rather 
unconventional,  yet  admirable  for  their 
originality  and  vigor. 

"He  was  an  advanced  thinker,"  said  one 
who  knew  him  intimately,  "along  ethical 
and  sociological  lines,  who  in  his  absolute 


sincerity  and  freedom  from  prejudice  in 
search  for  the  truth  was  almost  without 
a  peer.  His  opinions  were  formed  not 
according  to  rule  laid  down  by  theologi- 
cal seminaries  or  by  any  other  influence 
but  by  the  conclusions  which  he  had 
reached  himself  after  a  careful  and  accu- 
rate survey  of  the  grounds  of  belief.  He 
had  an  eminently  logical,  trained  mind, 
which  looked  thoroughly  into  all  sides  of 
a  question  and  then  went  straight  to  the 
root  of  the  matter,  and  in  forming  his 
opinions  no  fear  of  consequences  deterred 
him  in  the  least."  He  had  an  extreme 
dislike  of  cant  and  religious  affectation  of 
all  kinds.  Simplicity  pervaded  his  whole 
life.  He  never  attached  to  his  name  the 
letters  indicating  the  Doctor  of  Divinity 
degree  which  was  conferred  upon  him  by 
a  collegiate  institution,  nor  did  he  wish 
others  to  use  it. 

At  his  death  Dr.  Landsberg  said:  "In 
nature's  realm  he  received  a  training 
which  neither  academy  nor  college  can 
supply,  which  develops  the  intuition  of 
the  prophet  and  the  poet,  which  expands 
the  imagination  and  which  made  his  ser- 
mons and  even  his  ordinary  conversation 
so  rich  in  striking  illustrations  that  none 
ever  became  tired  of  listening  to  him  and 
none  ever  could  listen  without  receiving 
fresh  knowledge  and  noble  impulses  for 
purity  and  goodness."  Mr.  Adams  had  a 
most  hearty  love  of  nature.  He  rejoiced 
in  the  beauties  of  sky,  of  plain,  of  wood- 
land, of  river  and  of  lake,  and  his  summer 
vacations  at  Quisisana  on  the  banks  of 
Owasco  lake  were  periods  of  rare  happi- 
ness to  him.  He  rejoiced  in  butterflies 
and  beetles,  in  the  tiny  manifestations  of 
life  as  well  as  in  the  great  beauties  of 
nature,  and  found  much  pleasure  in  micro- 
scopic investigation,  possessing  for  some 
years  a  fine  instrument  which  he  after- 
ward presented  to  Hamilton  College.  He 
was  an  active  member  of  the  Rochester 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Academy  of  Science  and  for  several  years 
its  president.  He  believed  in  utilizing  all 
of  his  individual  forces,  his  physical  as 
well  as  his  mental  powers,  and  in  him  the 
"dignity  of  labor"  found  expression.  He 
obtained  genuine  delight  from  the  use  of 
tools  and  constructive  work  of  that  nature 
and  could  build  a  house  or  boat,  as  well 
as  give  scientific  classification  to  insect 
life.  His  reading  and  investigation  covered 
the  widest  possible  range.  He  spoke  be- 
fore the  Fortnightly  Club,  of  which  he 
was  a  member  from  its  organization  in 
1882,  upon  the  most  varied  subjects,  in- 
cluding "Schopenhauer;"  "Henry  W. 
Grady's  Side  of  the  Southern  Question ;" 
"Coleridge  and  Inspiration  ;"  "Milton  and 
Vondel;"  "Hymenopterous  and  Human 
Society,  or  Bees,  Ants  and  Humans,  So- 
cially Considered;"  "The  Persecutions  of 
the  Quakers;"  "Theorists;"  "Biography, 
Socrates,  and  Others."  His  opinions  were 
given  to  the  world  through  two  published 
volumes  —  "Continuous  Creation"  and 
"Creation  of  the  Bible,"  and  the  title  of 
the  former  perhaps  is  the  best  exponent 
of  his  own  belief. 

In  manner  Myron  Adams  was  one  of 
the  most  gentle  and  most  kindly  of  men. 
In  everything  he  was  singularly  unselfish 
and  no  one  ever  applied  to  him  in  vain  for 
aid.  All  who  came  in  contact  with  him 
had  the  greatest  admiration  and  respect 
for  his  wonderful  intellectual  attainments 
and  at  the  same  time  were  deeply  im- 
pressed by  the  kindly,  loving  nature 
which  he  showed  to  every  one.  While 
passing  far  beyond  the  many  in  mental 
realms,  he  retained  the  spirit  of  the  light- 
hearted  boy.  Always  with  ready  answer 
and  often  with  quick  wit,  his  replies  were 
nevertheless  kindly  and  considerate  and 
even  when  he  felt  called  upon  to  condemn 
a  course  of  action  or  of  thought  he  mani- 
fested the  utmost  spirit  of  charity  and  of 
love  for  those  whom  he  thus  opposed. 


One  of  the  Rochester  papers  at  the  time 
of  his  death  said  editorially:  "It  is  not  a 
conventionalism  to  say  that  the  death  of 
Myron  Adams  is  a  severe  loss  to  this 
community;  it  is  the  exact  and  feeling 
expression  that  will  come  to  the  lips  of 
every  person  that  knew  him.  The  extinc- 
tion of  a  life  that  has  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century  been  making  for  liberality  of 
thought  and  righteousness  in  conduct 
leaves  a  void  that  can  never  be  filled  in 
the  same  way.  There  remains  only  the 
sweet  remembrance  of  its  presence  and 
the  strong  impulse  to  high  thinking  and 
doing  that  it  always  exerted.  But  this 
is  a  most  precious  heritage — one  that  will 
be  deeply  and  reverently  cherished." 
There  was  such  a  unanimity  of  opinion 
concerning  the  superior  mentality,  the 
integrity  of  purpose  and  the  high  ideals 
exemplified  in  Mr.  Adams'  life  that  per- 
haps this  review  cannot  better  be  closed 
than  by  quoting  from  two  other  editorial 
writers  in  the  Rochester  press.  One  of 
them  said: 

Myron  Adams'  life  was  singularly  true  to  the 
noblest  ideals.  As  scholar,  soldier,  minister  of 
the  gospel,  he  delved  and  struck  and  taught  for 
the  uplifting  of  men.  He  was  a  soldier  of  con- 
science who  left  the  halls  of  learning  at  Hamil- 
ton College  to  fight  for  an  idea.  He  was  among 
many  who  left  that  institution  with  the  inspira- 
tion of  liberty  and  the  faith  of  true  Americans 
in  the  ideas  of  the  fathers,  who  broke  away  from 
all  trammels  and  put  trust  in  the  masses  of  men. 
Myron  Adams  was  honest  and  just  with  himself 
as  with  every  man.  He  claimed  for  himself 
what  he  granted  to  everyone,  the  right  to  think, 
to  examine  in  the  light  of  reason,  experience 
and  research.  Early  attracted  to  the  observation 
of  natural  phenomena  Mr.  Adams  had  seen 
what  he  considered  a  better  interpretation  of  the 
ways  and  purposes  of  the  all-wise  Creator  than 
could  be  gleaned  from  ancient  men  who  attrib- 
uted to  Him  human  passions  and  revenge.  It 
was  in  his  trust  in  the  great  verities  of  human 
life  and  of  nature  that  he  found  strength  and 
surpassing  peace. 
12 


J  p-WL^7^_ 


:ncycij 


Follpwing  are  excerpts  from  the 
of  another  writer: 

upting  to  give 

is  .the  most  <: 
we  have  know.- 

at  thing?,  i 

■ 

fertility 

■ 

the  meadow.    You  felt 

il   and  recognized   his   p 
mate  human  facts,  not  f  I 

j>  it,  he  was  a  tj 

the  glory,  he  b 

the  great  Civil  war  had  touched  its  soldiers. 


ATKINSON,  Hobart  Ford, 

Financier  and  Philanthropist. 

blessed  than  tl 

son  is  rarely     hi 

of  the  most  lovable  i  I 

was  qu: 

distress  and  his 

lieve.    The  si'. 

him  and  his  hand  was  warmly  extended 

in  heartfelt  congratulation. 

mt    he   practiced   much   an 

loved  him  for  his  goodness,  his  sunn 

position,  and  his  keen   sense  of  humor. 

qualities  that  age  but   intensified 

nearly  three-quarters  of  a  century  he  had 
tanking 

interests,  and  wherever    men  value    in- 
justice,  honorable   purpose   and 
:here  his  memory  shines  brightly 
orgotten.      He   was 
rvative    banker   but    one    whose 


jets.     Lofty  was 

world,  charm- 

and  blaiheles 

ble  his  work 

philanthropy. 

;mes  of 

'-ed  his 

I  am 
all  trusted,  al 
I    ,-    n 
bankers,  he  won  thi 

he  used  wisel;     « 

■  .■■J    Atkinson 

r     Frame  house  on 
street,  just 

esidei     >  in 
native  city,  August  ] 
tl 

Elizabi 

-.        in 
ter  then  posses 
a  course  of  Englis 

■ 

i 

i  mei 

.iimer- 

Clark, 

L  making  ability 

■mptness,    his 

by  his  willtng- 

him.    He 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


was  rapidly  promoted  and  when  Mr.  Hub- 
bell  resigned  his  position  as  teller,  young 
Mr.  Atkinson  was  appointed  his  suc- 
cessor. He  rilled  that  post  so  capably 
that  in  course  of  time  he  became  cashier. 
He  occupied  the  cashier's  desk  until  the 
bank  passed  out  of  existence,  repaying  all 
stockholders  in  full. 

In  1875  when  the  new  Commercial 
Bank  was  organized  and  quartered  on  the 
site  of  the  old  bank,  Mr.  Atkinson  was 
elected  its  first  president.  He  had  then 
acquired  honorable  standing  in  Roches- 
ter's financial  world  and  later  was  elected 
vice-president  of  the  Bank  of  Monroe.  He 
continued  executive  head  of  the  Commer- 
cial Bank  until  1891,  then  resigned  to  de- 
vote his  entire  time  to  the  management 
of  the  Bank  of  Monroe  of  which  he  was 
vice-president.  On  November  9,  1900,  the 
Bank  of  Monroe  merged  with  the  Alli- 
ance Bank,  Mr.  Atkinson  being  chosen 
president  of  the  amalgamated  institution, 
a  position  he  held  with  honor,  ability,  and 
success  until  his  death.  In  March,  1871, 
he  had  been  chosen  a  trustee  of  the  Roch- 
ester Savings  Bank,  the  oldest  institution 
of  its  kind  in  the  city,  and  upon  the  death 
of  James  Brackett  in  1904,  he  was  elected 
to  succeed  him  as  president,  a  position 
which  he  also  held  the  remainder  of  his 
life. 

As  president  of  these  two  strong  influ- 
ential banks  Mr.  Atkinson  wielded  un- 
usual power,  but  this  power  he  used 
wisely  and  under  his  able  guidance  they 
increased  in  strength  and  usefulness.  He 
was  the  last  of  a  group  of  Rochester's  dis- 
tinguished men  whose  names  are  closely 
interwoven  with  the  story  of  the  city's 
development  and  from  his  entrance  into 
official  banking  circles  he  was  associated 
with  all  that  was  best  in  business  and 
social  life.  Of  all  that  galaxy  of  stars 
that  illumined  Rochester's  business  firma- 
ment, no  name  shines  more  brightly  than 


that  of  Hobart  F.  Atkinson,  he  whose 
long  life  of  eighty-three  years  was  an 
example  the  younger  generation  may 
safely  emulate. 

Nothing  that  tended  toward  progress, 
or  the  betterment  of  a  city's  life,  morally 
or  materially,  but  had  his  support.  He 
was  senior  warden  of  St.  Andrew's  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Church ;  for  fifteen  years 
was  president  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
Home;  was  a  governor  of  the  Rochester 
Homeopathic  Hospital ;  was  the  first 
president  of  the  Genesee  Valley  Club.  In 
church  and  philanthropic  movements  he 
was  ever  active,  influential  and  helpful, 
yet  so  modest  withal  that  few  realized 
the  far-reaching  effects  of  his  institutional 
labors  or  the  scope  of  his  private  benefac- 
tions. He  met  all  issues  as  presented, 
calmly  and  fairly,  shirked  no  responsi- 
bility, evaded  no  duty,  and  as  he  lived,  so 
he  died,  unafraid. 


ELSNER,  Henry  L.,  M.  D.,  LL.  D., 
Eminent  Physician. 

A  graduate  and  post-graduate  of  the 
colleges  and  universities  of  two  conti- 
nents, a  practicing  physician  of  Syracuse, 
New  York,  for  thirty-six  years,  a  member 
of  the  faculty  of  the  College  of  Medicine, 
Syracuse  University,  as  Professor  of 
Medicine,  for  thirty-four  years,  an  author 
of  standard  medical  works  widely  known, 
an  ex-president  of  the  Medical  Society  of 
the  State  of  New  York,  and  for  many 
years  one  of  the  foremost  consulting 
physicians  of  the  State,  the  late  Dr.  Eis- 
ner was  classed  among  the  great  physi- 
cians of  his  day.  He  came  rightly  by  his 
love  for  the  medical  profession,  his  father, 
Dr.  Leopold  Eisner,  having  been  an  emi- 
nent physician  of  Syracuse,  and  to  his  son 
transmitted  traits  upon  which  foundation 
he  built  a  most  successful  professional 
edifice. 


114 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Dr.  Henry  Leopold  Eisner  was  born  in 
Syracuse,  New  York,  August  15,  1857, 
son  of  Dr.  Leopold  and  Hanschen  Eisner. 
After  acquiring  a  classical  education  he 
entered  the  College  of  Physicians  and 
Surgeons  in  New  York  City,  whence  he 
was  graduated  M.  D.,  class  of  1877.  He 
spent  a  year  in  post-graduate  study  in 
Vienna,  and  in  1879  began  general  prac- 
tice in  Syracuse.  In  1881  he  became  a 
member  of  the  faculty  of  the  College  of 
Medicine,  Syracuse  University,  and  con- 
tinously,  up  to  the  time  of  his  decease, 
filled  a  chair  in  that  institution,  at  the 
same  time  meeting  the  demands  of  his 
own  private  practice,  which  was  an  ex- 
tensive one.  As  the  years  brought  him 
experience,  and  deep  study  great  learning, 
he  was  frequently  called  in  consultation 
and  his  name  as  a  consultant  was  known 
for  beyond  local  limits.  In  addition  to  his 
duties  as  professor  of  medicine  in  the  Col- 
lege of  Medicine,  he  was  physician  to  St. 
Joseph's  Hospital  and  president  of  the 
staff,  consulting  physician  to  the  Syra- 
cuse Hospital  for  Women  and  Children, 
and  held  a  similar  relation  to  the  Hospital 
of  the  Good  Shepherd,  all  this  being  in 
addition  to  his  duties  as  private  prac- 
titioner and  consulting  physician.  Dur- 
ing the  years  of  his  professional  life  he 
made  many  trips  abroad,  spending  con- 
siderable time  in  hospitals  and  clinics  in 
European  cities.  Dr.  Eisner  contributed 
largely  to  the  literature  of  his  profession 
and  was  one  of  the  best  known  medical 
writers.  His  contributions  to  medical 
journals  were  extensive,  while  before 
local,  state  and  national  medical  societies 
he  read  many  carefully  prepared  papers. 
He  was  the  author  of  a  work  on  the 
"Prognosis  of  Disease,"  upon  which  he 
spent  considerable  time,  including  eight 
months'  of  European  research.  This  work, 
published  early  in  1916,  was  the  first  work 
devoted  exclusively  to  the  science  of  fore- 
telling the  course  and  event  of  disease. 


Dr.  Eisner  was  a  member  of  the  New 
York  State  Medical  Society,  Onondaga 
County  Medical  Society,  Central  New 
York  Medical  Association,  Syracuse 
Academy  of  Medicine,  New  York  Acade- 
my of  Medicine,  American  Climatological 
Association,  Nu  Sigma  Nu,  and  Alpha 
Omega  Alpha.  Syracuse  University  hon- 
ored him  with  the  degree  of  LL.  D.,  on 
June  9,  1915,  Dr.  Eisner  being  the  second 
member  of  the  faculty  to  receive  this 
tribute,  Dr.  Henry  Didama,  dean  of  the 
college  for  many  years,  being  the  first. 
Dr.  Eisner  was  unanimously  recom- 
mended by  the  faculty  of  the  College  of 
Liberal  Arts,  was  confirmed  without  dis- 
sent by  the  University  Senate,  and  elected 
unanimously  by  the  trustees  of  the  uni- 
versity, Chancellor  Day  paying  a  high 
tribute  to  Dr.  Eisner  as  a  consultant 
member  of  the  college  faculty  and  friend 
of  the  university.  Dr.  Eisner  was  of  the 
Jewish  faith,  and  politically  a  Republican. 

Dr.  Eisner  married,  January  5,  1881, 
Pauline  Rosenberg,  born  in  Rochester, 
New  York,  January  8,  1859,  daughter  of 
David  and  Amalie  Rosenberg.  She  was 
educated  in  the  schools  of  her  native  city, 
and  after  her  marriage  resided  in  Syra- 
cuse, their  home  being  known  as  one  of 
the  most  hospitable  in  the  city.  Mrs.  Eis- 
ner was  in  the  deepest  sympathy  with  her 
husband's  work  and  allowed  nothing  to 
stand  in  the  way  of  its  fullest  develop- 
ment. Those  who  knew  her  well  called 
her  an  ideal  physician's  wife  in  that  she 
was  always  ready  to  subordinate  social 
engagements  or  anything  else  to  her  hus- 
band's comfort  and  convenience.  To  the 
young  students  and  physicians  who  as- 
sisted Dr.  Eisner  in  his  work  she  was  a 
true  and  kindly  friend  and  they  were 
welcome  and  familiar  guests  at  her  table, 
and  it  was  due  to  her  thoughtfulness  that 
many  of  them  were  enabled  at  different 
times  to  come  into  personal  contact  with 
some  of  the  greatest  men  in  their  profes- 


RAPHY 


DUNN,  Col.  George  W., 

Civil  War  Veteran,  Mm'  uf  Affairs. 

The  characters  and  deeda   . 
should  be  sacredly  preserve' 
the  happiness  and  satisfac'i, 
a  record  will  give  to 
related  to  them,  and  I  ■ 
also  for  the  good  example  v 
of  such  men  turnisi 
land,  thus  fur'. 
terests  of  our  count- 
that  of  the  late  Coltv 
of  Binghamto 
ficial    influence    in    | 
business  affairs,  and  as  a  sol 
be    overestimated, 
through  these  channels  on  al 
the  community.    In  political 
came  noted  for  his  aptitu'J 
with    details,   and   for   hi;.-         u 
keen    perception    and    judgment, 
business  man  h 
sighted.     As 
spired  those  in 
same   heroism    that        in 
breast.    He  in 
from  honored  ancesl 
limits  of  this  articli 
into  detail,  it 
account  of  the  01  ... 

This  ancient  patron 
be  derived  from  the  Gaelic 
a  heap,  hill,  mount;   and  by 
fortress,   castle,   tower. 
would  be  from  the  Saxon  "dui 
ing  brown,  swarthy.    The  former 
tion  is  favored  by  the  coat -.  f-arna 
illustrious  family  of  Dunne  have   ■ 
heraldic    blazon:    Azure,   an    ea: 
played,  or.     Crest:    In  front  of 


land  there  are  man}  | 

. 
army  and  n 
Americans  an 

n 
Supreme   O 

writer, 

deputy  in   168 
Dunn,  born  in  I 
to  Pennsylvania  in   r 
Revolution,  and  foun 
1  county;  he  ! 
■ 
in   New   England  by    I 
eighteenth  century,  . 
nine  Dunns  are  foun 
setts  Revolutionary   !' 
the  family  settled  in 
date,  the  fath 
John  Dunn,  having  b< 

while  his  mother,  Isabella 
•vended  from  the  N 

. 
town    of     Chenango, 

street. 

■ 
the  vill 
with    his    ea 


bush,  a  lizard  passant,  or.     ftlotl 
lech   abu    (The   summit    forever 
name    was    anciently    written 
whence    come    the    forms    Doyne.    Dun, 
Dunn  and  Dunne.     In  England 

1 

hanna    Seminary, 
course 
about   < 
tion  for 

• 

len  the  out- 

ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


break  of  the  Civil  War  prevented  his  en- 
tering upon  it  at  that  time.  Patriotic  and 
enthusiastic  to  a  degree,  he  enlisted  in 
May,  1861,  in  Company  C,  Twenty- 
seventh  Regiment  New  York  Volunteer 
Infantry,  and  was  later  appointed  ser- 
geant. He  was  taken  a  prisoner  at  the 
First  Battle  of  Bull  Run,  and  was  held 
at  Richmond,  New  Orleans  and  Salis- 
bury until  June  1,  1862,  when  he  was 
paroled.  He  returned  to  the  Union  lines 
and  was  subsequently  exchanged.  His 
health  had  become  seriously  affected  dur- 
ing his  detention  in  the  ill-ventilated 
prisons  of  the  South,  yet  he  at  once  again 
volunteered  his  services  in  the  army. 
During  the  summer  of  1862  the  One 
Hundred  and  Ninth  Regiment  of  Infantry 
was  raised  in  Broome,  Tioga  and  Tomp- 
kins counties,  Broome  county  furnishing 
the  largest  number  of  men.  Colonel  Dunn 
recruited  Company  D  for  this  command 
and  was  elected  its  captain,  his  commis- 
sion dating  from  October  10th,  although 
the  regiment  was  mustered  into  service 
August  27th.  The  arduous  service  of  the 
One  Hundred  and  Ninth  Regiment  com- 
menced in  May,  1864,  in  the  Campaign  of 
the  Wilderness,  and  was  continued  almost 
without  even  temporary  relief  until  the 
final  surrender  in  1865.  At  Spottsylvania 
Captain  Dunn  was  wounded,  although 
not  seriously.  July  14th  he  was  promoted 
major,  and  after  the  terrible  mine  explo- 
sion at  Petersburg,  Virginia,  July  30th, 
Colonel  Catlin  having  lost  a  leg  and  Major 
Stillson  also  having  been  wounded,  the 
command  of  the  regiment  devolved  upon 
Major  Dunn.  For  meritorious  service  as 
line  and  field  officer  Major  Dunn  was  sub- 
sequently advanced  to  the  rank  of  colonel, 
by  which  title  he  has  ever  since  been 
known.  May  8,  1865,  in  accordance  with 
general  orders  authorizing  the  retirement 
of  officers  who  had  served  continuously 
for  three  years  he  was  honorably  dis- 
charged from  service. 


After  his  return  from  the  war  Colonel 
Dunn  engaged  in  business  in  Elmira,  New 
York,  but  he  remained  there  but  one  year. 
He  then  joined  a  mining  expedition  to 
Honduras,  Central  America,  but  the  ill 
effects  of  the  tropical  climate  necessitated 
his  return  north  in  the  fall  of  1866.  In 
1868  he  was  appointed  superintendent  of 
Public  Documents  published  by  Congress 
at  Washington,  and  retained  this  position 
until  he  was  elected  sheriff  of  Broome 
county,  New  York,  in  the  fall  of  1875. 
At  the  expiration  of  his  term  of  office  as 
sheriff  he  became  prominently  identified 
with  the  consolidation  of  "The  Bing- 
hamton  Republican"  and  "Binghamton 
Times,"  the  two  leading  daily  papers  of 
the  city,  and  upon  the  organization  of  the 
publishing  company  thus  effected,  was 
chosen  treasurer  and  business  manager  of 
the  corporation.  He  remained  the  efficient 
incumbent  of  this  office  until  his  appoint- 
ment as  postmaster,  December  20,  1881, 
in  which  office  he  served  until  1886.  Dur- 
ing his  term  of  office  he  introduced  many 
time  saving  innovations,  and  the  free  de- 
livery system  was  established  in  the  city 
under  his  supervision.  After  his  retire- 
ment from  this  office  he  engaged  in  the 
real  estate  business  in  partnership  with 
Peter  K.  Burhans,  and  at  the  same  time 
became  interested  in  several  manufactur- 
ing enterprises,  thus  becoming  a  promi- 
nent factor  in  the  industrial  history  of 
Binghamton  and  remaining  so  for  many 
years.  He  served  as  president  of  the 
Binghamton  General  Electric  Company; 
vice-president  of  the  Bundy  Manufactur- 
ing Company;  director  of  the  Susque- 
hanna Valley  Bank ;  trustee  of  the  Che- 
nango Valley  Savings  Bank;  director  and 
vice-president  of  the  Strong  State  Bank ; 
director  of  the  Binghamton,  Leicester- 
shire &  Union  Railroad  Company,  and  of 
the  Binghamton  Wagon  Company;  was 
at  one  time  manager  of  the  Equitable  Ac- 
cident Association ;  president  of  the  Board 


iS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


of  Trustees  of  the  now  well-known  Bing- 
hamton  State  Hospital  and  member  of  the 
City  Excise  and  Police  Commission.  On 
March  13,  1889,  he  was  reappointed  post- 
master, and  served  until  November  6, 
1893;  he  was  clerk  of  the  Assembly  in 
1894;  and,  February  16,  1897,  was  ap- 
pointed by  Governor  Black  to  the  office  of 
state  railroad  commissioner,  a  position 
he  filled  until  1906.  Always  a  loyal  Re- 
publican, his  time  was  unstintedly  de- 
voted to  the  promotion  of  the  party  wel- 
fare, and  the  honors  he  received  from  the 
city,  county  and  state  appointing  powers, 
were  but  the  well  deserved  reward  for 
services  and  fealty.  For  many  years  he 
was  annually  chosen  as  a  delegate  to  the 
Republican  State  conventions,  also  served 
as  a  member  of  the  State  committee,  and 
was  county  committeeman-at-large.  He 
was  active  in  the  interests  of  the  Bing- 
hamton  Club,  of  which  he  was  a  member 
many  years,  as  he  was  also  of  Watrous 
Post,  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic. 

Colonel  Dunn  married,  November  15, 
1870,  Sarah  M.  Thomas,  who  survived 
him  five  weeks.  She  died  January  5,  1915. 
Their  daughter,  Mrs.  Horace  Wardner 
Eggleston,  and  a  grandson,  George  Dunn 
Eggleston,  survive  him.  We  cannot 
better  testify  to  the  high  esteem  in  which 
Colonel  Dunn  was  universally  held,  than 
by  quoting  from  an  editorial  which  ap- 
peared in  the  "Binghamton  Republican 
Herald"  at  the  time  of  his  death,  and  from 
the  expressions  of  regret,  so  deeply  and 
sincerely  voiced  by  men  of  eminence  in 
the  community.  From  the  paper  we  quote 
as  follows: 

A  very  gentle  and  a  very  brave  spirit  passed 
from  this  world  when  Colonel  George  W.  Dunn 
answered  the  Great  Roll  Call. — A  complete  biog- 
raphy of  Colonel  Dunn  would  be  like  a  history 
of  Binghamton  in  all  its  phases  since  Mr.  Dunn 
came  to  the  years  of  manhood.  He  touched  life 
here  at  so  many  points,  was  so  active  and  help- 
ful, that  the  force  of  his  energy  and  wisdom  was 


felt  everywhere.  No  worthy  cause  was  neg- 
lected by  him,  whether  it  was  of  great  or  small 
import.  His  time,  his  money,  his  advice,  his 
sympathy,  were  at  the  service  of  the  community. 
— Of  Colonel  Dunn's  long  and  impressive  career 
in  politics  the  public  knows  much,  for  his  years 
of  political  power  were  passed  under  the  white 
glare  of  publicity,  a  glare  that  showed  nothing 
to  his  discredit  Of  his  secret  deeds  of  good- 
ness the  public  as  a  whole,  knows  little,  but 
those  he  helped  do  know  much  of  them  and  his 
passing  will  bring  with  it  to  hundreds  the  feel- 
ing that  their  warm-hearted  friend  is  gone, 
never  again  to  hold  out  to  them  the  eager  hand 
of  assistance.  To  his  office  and  to  his  home 
came  many  with  appeals  for  assistance.  They 
were  never  denied. — The  martial  deeds  of  Colo- 
nel Dunn  are  written  large  in  the  history  of  the 
Nation  he  risked  so  much,  in  company  with  his 
devoted  comrades,  to  serve. — Yet  when  he  re- 
turned to  civic  life  he  would  seldom  discuss  his 
experiences  in  the  Great  Conflict.  But  recently 
one  of  his  comrades  was  telling  of  that  terrible 
time,  during  the  Battle  of  the  Wilderness,  when 
the  fighting  109th  Infantry  was  kept  for  hours 
under  a  terrific  rebel  fire,  waiting  for  the  time 
for  it  to  go  into  action.  Company  D,  said  Colo- 
nel Dunn's  comrade,  was  before  the  salient  of 
the  rebel  position  on  that  part  of  the  field.  The 
minie  balls  came  crooning  over  the  field,  the 
shells  were  bursting  all  along  our  line,  but  we 
could  not  stir.  The  regiment  was  crouched 
down,  as  ordered,  waiting  for  the  word  to 
charge,  but  Colonel  Dunn  walked  along  back 
of  our  company,  speaking  words  of  encourage- 
ment and  resolution.  We  begged  him  to  cease 
exposing  himself,  but  he  refused.  His  example 
had  a  powerful  effect  upon  the  morals  of  the 
whole  regiment.  To  a  newspaper  friend  who 
tried  to  get  Colonel  Dunn  to  discuss  this  inci- 
dent the  Colonel  said:  Oh,  I  was  not  as  brave  as 
the  rest.  I  didn't  take  any  more  chances  than 
Winfield  Stone,  who  was  as  tall  crouching  down 
as  the  most  of  us  were  standing  up.  The  men 
crouching  down  were  worse  off  than  I  was,  be- 
cause I  could  relieve  my  nerves  by  walking 
about,  but  they  had  to  be  still  and  take  their 
punishment.  Let's  talk  about  the  weather.  The 
bond  of  friendship  thus  formed  was  strong  dur- 
ing the  following  years.  The  boys  of  the  old 
regiment  looked  upon  Colonel  Dunn  as  their 
true  friend  and  leader  and  he  kept  in  close  touch 
with  them  to  the  last.  In  good  times  and  in  bad, 
he  was  their  adviser  and  helper,  when  any  of 
them  needed  it.  He  visited  the  sick,  closed  the 
eyes  of  the  dying,  aided  the  widows  and  orphans, 

19 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


made  long  journeys  over  the  bleak  hills  in  winter 
to  lonely  farm  houses  for  their  sakes,  and  was 
present  with  his  boys  whenever  his  presence 
would  cheer  and  bring  joy  to  them  and  theirs. — 
As  a  political  leader  Colonel  Dunn's  power  was 
great.  He  was  the  personal  friend  of  Grant, 
Piatt,  Depew,  Roosevelt,  McKinley,  Hanna,  Can- 
non, and  other  leading  Republicans. — Colonel 
Dunn  was  always  eager  to  help  promote  the  suc- 
cess of  religious  and  educational  efforts.  All 
movements  for  better  public  service  had  his  ap- 
proval.— Not  to  see  Colonel  Dunn's  familiar 
figure  on  the  streets,  nor  to  hear  his  cheery 
words  of  advice,  not  to  have  him  as  a  wise  coun- 
sellor in  affairs  in  general,  will  be  a  great  loss  to 
the  people  of  this  community.  Yet  with  this  sense 
of  loss  will  go  the  feeling  that  his  long  and  useful 
life  has  left  behind  it  influences  for  good  that  will 
have  their  weight  through  the  coming  years. 
Death  has  taken  him  in  a  physical  sense,  but  can- 
not rob  his  friends  and  co-workers  of  the  mem- 
ories of  his  manliness,  wisdom  and  tenderness  of 
heart. 

Supreme  Court  Justice  George  F.  Lyon 

said: 

Colonel  Dunn  was  a  courageous  soldier,  modest 
and  unassuming,  a  most  entertaining  companion, 
a  man  of  more  than  ordinary  foresight  and  ability, 
sympathetic,  tender-hearted,  kind  to  the  poor;  a 
generous  giver  in  an  unpretentious  way  from 
whom  no  applicant  wearing  a  Grand  Army  button 
ever  went  away  empty-handed;  a  most  loving 
and  devoted  husband  and  father,  a  good  neighbor, 
a  man  who  did  not  desert  his  friends  when  a 
wave  of  unpopularity  swept  over  them.  The  recol- 
lections accompanying  intimate  acquaintance  with 
such  a  man  are  to  be  highly  treasured. 

George  B.  Curtiss  said: 

The  Colonel  was  a  very  modest  man,  one  who 
never  boasted  of  his  achievements,  in  fact  he  was 
one  of  the  bravest  soldiers  and  best  citizens  of 
this  country  during  the  Civil  War  period.  He 
was  one  of  the  best  known  and  most  popular  men 
of  the  state.  He  was  recognized  as  a  man  whose 
opinion  could  always  be  relied  upon.  Whatever 
position  he  took  on  any  question,  he  was  known 
to  be  honest  and  sincere.  He  was  conspicuous 
among  prominent  men  of  the  State  for  his  loyalty 
to  his  country,  to  his  party  and  to  his  friends.  A 
man  of  great  natural  abilities,  of  good  judgment, 
possessed  of  courage  and  stamina,  of  extraordi- 


nary ability  to  do  what  he  believed  in  and  stood 
for.  He  was  a  very  rare  man,  and  possessd  of  un- 
usual and  extraordinary  qualities  and  attained  his 
position  through  real  work  and  genuine  qualities. 


TEXTOR,  Reynolds, 

Representative  Citizen. 

Into  what  Zangwill  fitly  named  the 
"melting  pot"  of  New  York  flows  in  a 
constant  stream  of  increasing  volume  the 
material  from  which  America  builds  her 
highest  type  of  naturalized  citizenship. 
It  is  of  course  conceded  that  in  the  influx 
one  finds  the  very  dregs  of  humanity,  but 
in  so  small  a  quantity  as  to  be  almost 
negligible.  The  immigrant  to  America 
is  the  man  who  has  felt  within  him  the 
stirrings  of  an  ambition  impossible  of 
realization  in  his  native  land,  and  under 
the  conditions  in  which  he  lives  and 
works.  He  is  the  dissatisfied  man,  who 
chafes  against  the  bonds  of  caste,  which 
though  they  may  not  be  aggressively 
proclaimed,  are  nevertheless  too  rigid  to 
be  broken  by  his  mediocre  ability.  He  is 
the  thinker,  the  earnest  worker,  the  man 
with  visions  and  the  desire  and  ability,  if 
he  is  given  a  chance,  to  fulfill  them. 
America  offers  him  the  consummation 
of  all  that  he  desires — and  not  only  that — 
offers  to  teach  him  the  means  to  secure 
it.  Appreciating  these  gifts  only  as  one 
does  who  has  never  had  them,  he  utilizes 
them  to  the  full  extent  of  their  value. 
And  he  offers  in  return  a  gratitude  almost 
unintelligible  to  the  native  American,  and 
an  eagerness  to  uphold  the  traditions  and 
customs  of  his  adopted  land,  to  become 
identified  and  to  further  the  best  for 
which  is  stands.  It  is  of  such  material, 
the  best  from  all  the  nations  of  the  globe, 
that  America  is  constructing  the  future 
of  its  greatness.  The  lives  of  these  men 
of  foreign  birth  who  become  our  citizens 
are  lives  that  count.  They  are  men  that 
achieve  things,  and  the  life  so  meagerly 


7^y^) 


XCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


sketched  here  is  an  example  of  the  work 
and  accomplishment  of  the  average  Ger- 
man-American. ' 
Reynolds  TextOr  v 

upright  middl 
in  the  excelled 
town,    under    the    Sj 
which    Germ;. 

When  he  reachei 
tor  cam 
|   . 
entered  the  U] 
as  a.n  apprei;    i 
the  course  of  his  tv.  i 
nection  with  the  business  to  the 
ship    of  an    upholstery    si 
avenue  in  New  York  City.     He  ... 

e  in  1867  and  entered  the 
ment   of   the    Equitable    1 

.  with  which  concern 

gradually  increasing  import 
time  of  his  deal 

some  years  a  gener:. 

I 
Rudolph  and  I 
Textor,  who  is  1 

f 
Seventeenth  stn 

.he  only  child,  Textor, 

Theodore  and  Cathe-. '  They 

have  one  child,   Marjorie 
children  of  Mr.  Tex  rriage 

Sirs.  Lillian  Smith,  de< 
Hull,  wife  of  Dr.    Hull,   of  New 
rid  Edwin  A.  Textor,  who 
married  Bertha  Bose 

Arthur  R.  Textor. 
Textor  was   deeply   interested   tu 


•lumber 
of  the  Liederkranz  CI  I  y,  being 

one  of  that  famous  0  charter 

members  and  trustee! 

ir  reaching  work      Me  was 
■ 

character  of 
than  tha  n'd 

in  the  ■■ .  '•'<.>  them  all  the 

'    ding,   no 

- 

of  his  ■ 


call    for 

bout  the 

himself 

.0  fulfill 

! 

tified  with 

.  uf  his  n 

■ 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


brought  results.  He  was  trusted  by  the 
highest  in  authority,  and  never  in  any 
manner  betrayed  the  confidence  reposed 
in  him.  He  was  energetic  and  efficient 
to  the  end,  and  continued  about  his  duties 
despite  the  inroads  of  a  fatal  disease,  until 
exhausted  nature  could  no  longer  fulfil 
its  functions,  and  then  laid  down  his 
responsibilities  and  met  his  end  with  the 
fortitude  and  high  courage  which  had 
characterized  his  entire  career. 

Major  Hetherton  was  born  December 
25,  1843,  in  New  York  City,  the  son  of 
Irish  parents,  who  met  and  were  married 
in  New  York  City,  where  all  their  chil- 
dren were  born.  At  the  outbreak  of  the 
Civil  War,  soon  after  the  completion  of 
his  seventeenth  year,  he  enlisted  as  a 
drummer  in  the  Second  Regiment  of  the 
United  States  Artillery.  Subsequently 
he  became  principal  musician  in  the 
Second  Regiment,  United  States  Volun- 
teers, and  was  discharged  on  March  4, 
1866.  When  only  twelve  years  of  age 
he  enlisted  as  a  musician  in  the  regular 
army,  and  received  instruction  on  the 
fife  and  drum  on  Governor's  Island,  in 
New  York  Harbor.  He  ran  away  from 
home  to  enlist,  was  enrolled  October  1, 
1856,  and  discharged  September  30,  1861, 
at  Fort  Pickens,  Florida.  He  reenlisted 
May  21,  1862,  at  Fort  Independence,  in 
Boston  Harbor,  and  soon  after  received 
order  to  report  for  duty  to  General 
Daniel  Ullman  at  No.  200  Broadway, 
New  York  City.  After  April  6,  1863,  he 
joined  the  Eleventh  United  States  Infan- 
try. His  term  expired  in  March,  1865, 
but  he  continued  in  the  service  until  the 
following  year,  as  above  noted.  He 
served  under  Generals  Arnold  and  Mc- 
Clellan.  and  was  in  the  Nineteenth 
Army  Corps.  During  the  last  ten  years 
of  his  life  he  resided  in  the  Flatbush  sec- 
tion of  Brooklyn,  was  a  member  of  St. 
Rose  de  Lima  Church  of  Parkville,  and 


was  a  member  of  the  Holy  Name  Society, 
auxiliary  of  that  body.  His  remains  were 
laid  to  rest  in  Mount  Olivet  Cemetery. 
In  politics  Major  Hetherton  was  an  Inde- 
pendent. He  was  long  in  the  public 
service  as  mayor's  messenger,  beginning 
with  Mayor  Abram  S.  Hewitt  and  con- 
tinuing under  all  his  successors  to  the 
present  time,  a  period  of  twenty-seven 
years.  He  thus  became  acquainted  with 
many  of  New  York's  most  famous  men, 
and  was  a  carrier  of  numerous  important 
messages  to  men  in  high  official  life.  At 
the  time  of  his  death  he  was  commander 
of  Phil  Kearny  Post,  No.  8,  Grand  Army 
of  the  Republic,  and  at  many  times  rep- 
resented this  post  in  grand  encampments. 
In  the  early  days  of  the  Fifth  Avenue 
Stage  line  he  was  its  first  starter.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  Grand  Army  Mem- 
orial Committee  and  the  Nineteenth 
Army  Corps  Veteran  Association.  Major 
Hetherton  was  a  man  of  excellent  qual- 
ities, of  sound  judgment,  warm  sym- 
pathies and  generous  heart,  and  was  high- 
ly esteemed  wherever  known.  He  was 
very  faithful  to  every  duty  which  de- 
volved upon  him,  and  will  long  be 
mourned  by  all  who  knew  him. 

He  was  married  on  Thanksgiving  Day, 
1875,  to  Sarah  A.  Burnop,  daughter  of 
Philip  and  Margaret  Burnop,  natives  of 
England.  Major  and  Mrs.  Hetherton 
were  the  parents  of  eight  children,  of 
whom  four  are  now  living:  Ella;  Joseph 
Burnop,  married  Susan  Dolan,  and  has 
children :  Mary,  Margaret,  Virginia  and 
Edward  ;  William  Howard ;  Edna,  wife  of 
George  Kimpel,  one  son,  George  Edward 
Kimpel. 


GARDNER,  John  H., 

Medical  Investigator. 

Among  the  many  distinguished  families 
of  Albany,  eminent  in  various  fields  of 
life,  perhaps  none  have  contributed  more 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


to  the  advancement  and  general  enlight- 
enment of  the  community  than  the  old 
Gardner  family  of  this  place,  which  has 
boasted  among  its  members  several  who 
have  been  men  of  science,  and  broad  in 
their  views  and  sympathies. 

One  of  the  best  known  scions  of  this 
family  was  the  late  Mr.  John  H.  Gardner 
who,  though  by  the  accident  of  birth  was 
a  native  of  New  York  City,  made  Albany 
in  his  after  life  the  scene  of  his  worldly 
activities  and  the  beneficiary  of  his  dis- 
tinguished attributes.  Mr.  Gardner  was 
born  at  the  old  Bowery  Hotel  in  New 
York,  on  October  24,  1840,  this  hotel 
being  famous  for  its  ownership  by  John 
Jacob  Astor,  and  for  many  years  one  of 
the  best  known  landmarks  of  the  great 
metropolis. 

Mr.  Gardner's  father,  John  H.  Gardner, 
was  a  very  noted  man  in  his  time,  promi- 
nent along  many  lines,  but  identified  more 
especially  with  the  "Scientific  American," 
of  which  he  was  editor  for  many  years. 
His  son  inherited  the  scientific  bent  of 
mind  which  distinguished  the  older  man 
par  excellence,  and  himself  in  later  days 
contributed  abundantly  to  the  world's 
storehouse  of  knowledge.  After  he  had 
acquired  the  rudiments  of  his  education, 
Mr.  Gardner,  then  a  resident  of  Brooklyn, 
attended  the  Brooklyn  Polytechnic  Insti- 
tute ;  he  was  also  a  pupil  for  some  time 
of  a  private  academy  at  White  Plains, 
New  York.  He  was  quite  young  at  the 
outbreak  of  the  war  between  the  States, 
but  hastened  to  join  the  colors,  and 
enlisted  in  the  service  of  the  Union  as  a 
regimental  commissary,  of  the  Third  New 
York  Cavalry.  He  served  his  country 
loyally  and  well,  and  became  a  commis- 
sioned officer ;  in  later  years,  after  the 
close  of  the  long  and  bloody  hostilities 
that  devastated  the  country,  he  was  a 
member  of  the  Military  Order  of  the 
Loyal  Legion. 


Mr.  Gardner  devoted  many  years  of  his 
life  to  travel,  going  abroad  several  times 
and  making  extensive  tours  of  the  Con- 
tinent. He  made  a  trip  around  the 
world  in  company  with  the  late  Thomas 
Dickson,  president  of  the  Delaware  & 
Hudson  Canal  Company.  But  his  most 
important  expedition  to  foreign  lands  was 
for  the  purpose  of  making  a  scientific 
investigation  of  the  properties  of  sulphur 
water  for  medicinal  purposes.  Prior  to 
this  time  he  had  established,  in  connec- 
tion with  his  father  and  brothers,  all 
interested  as  he  was  in  science  and  the 
properties  of  matter,  a  hotel  at  Sharon 
Springs  where  he  had  opportunity  to 
pursue  his  investigations  in  regard  to 
mineral  waters.  Here  he  passed  the 
greater  part  of  the  time  in  which  he  was 
not  occupied  in  travel,  engaged  in  scien- 
tific pursuits  and  experimenting  in  mineral 
waters.  This  hotel,  founded  in  1861,  was 
conducted  continuously  at  Sharon  Springs 
for  many  years,  and  proved  of  almost 
unlimited  benefit  to  all  those  who  flocked 
to  the  place  on  account  of  the  healing 
qualities  of  the  water  thereabouts.  Mr. 
Gardner  himself  was  its  manager,  and 
devoted  himself  to  its  upkeep  with  all  the 
enthusiasm  which  marked  his  character ; 
remaining  there  all  of  the  time  in  which 
he  was  not  engaged  in  foreign  travel. 

On  November  25,  1873,  Mr.  Gardner 
was  married  to  Susan  E.  McClure,  a 
daughter  of  Archibald  McClure,  whose 
parents  came  to  this  country  from  Scot- 
land and  settled  in  New  Scotland,  Albany 
county,  New  York,  where  he  was  born, 
founding  the  family  of  that  name,  some 
of  whose  members  have  since  become 
famous  in  the  history  of  the  country.  Mr. 
McClure  was  a  pioneer  drug  man  in 
Albany,  settling  there  when  the  city  was 
considerably  less  populated  than  it  is  at 
the  present  time.  Mrs.  Gardner's  mother 
was  Susan  Tracy  (Rice)  Gardner,  daugh- 


123 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


ter  of  Colonel  Rice,  who  distinguished 
himself  in  the  War  of  1812.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Gardner  were  the  parents  of  two 
children,  Susan  and  Julia  Jacques.  The 
last  named  daughter  is  the  wife  of  Her- 
bert T.  Whitlock,  mineralogist  for  the 
State  of  New  York. 

Mr.  Gardner  died  December  16,  1891,  at 
the  age  of  fifty-one  years,  and  was  buried 
in  the  Rural  Cemetery  at  Albany.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  Union  League  Club 
of  New  York  City  for  more  than  twenty 
years,  and  had  an  extensive  acquaintance 
in  that  city  as  well  as  throughout  the 
entire  country  and  in  foreign  lands.  The 
development  and  advancement  of  this 
part  of  the  State  owed  much  to  his  energy 
and  enlightened  perceptions,  and  to  the 
scientific  mentality  of  a  man  who 
delighted  in  research  and  the  knowledge 
of  nature.  He  made  many  and  important 
discoveries  along  the  lines  in  which  he 
was  most  interested,  of  which  those  who 
have  come  after  him  have  enjoyed  the 
benefit. 


BROWN,  Alexander  John, 

Representative  Citizen. 

In  sporting  circles  in  Brooklyn  for  the 
past  three  decades  or  so  there  has  appear- 
ed no  name  that  will  be  longer  remem- 
bered than  that  of  Alexander  John  Brown 
whose  death  at  his  home  at  No.  356  St. 
Mark's  avenue,  on  October  3,  1915, 
removed  from  the  community  one  of  its 
most  picturesque  figures  and  a  citizen  of 
public  spirit  and  energy. 

Born  in  Brooklyn,  December  II,  1855, 
Mr.  Brown  was  a  lifelong  resident  of  that 
city  and  had  become  most  closely  iden- 
tified with  its  life.  He  was  educated  in 
the  parochial  school  in  connection  with 
St.  Joseph's  Catholic  Church,  and  at  an 
early  age  began  to  take  a  very  practical 
interest  in  politics.  He  was  a  strong 
supporter  of  the  principles  and  policies 


of  the  Democratic  party,  allied  himself 
actively  with  the  local  organization  there- 
of, and  soon  became  an  important  factor 
in  the  situation  in  that  part  of  the  city. 
In  time  he  grew  to  be  the  leader  in  his 
ward,  and  for  many  years  played  a  promi- 
nent part  in  Democratic  campaigns  in 
Brooklyn.  But  it  was  in  connection  with 
the  sporting  activities  of  the  community 
that  he  was  most  active  and  best  known, 
both  as  a  promoter  and  an  active  par- 
ticipant in  athletic  games,  especially  base- 
ball. As  a  young  man  he  joined  the 
famous  old  Fulton  Market  Baseball  Nine 
and  made  a  reputation  in  the  national 
game  that  extended  far  beyond  the  limits 
of  his  home  city.  Both  at  this  time  and 
later  he  received  many  offers  from  the 
managers  of  professional  teams  to  join 
their  ranks  but,  although  some  of  these 
were  tempting  enough,  he  refused  to 
abandon  his  amateur  status  which  he 
valued  highly.  A  little  later  he  became  a 
member  of  the  equally  celebrated  Reso- 
lutes,  one  of  the  best  teams  in  the  Brook- 
lyn Amateur  League,  and  there  continued 
the  splendid  game  which  had  brought 
him  into  prominence.  In  the  year  1892 
he  became  associated  with  Tom  O'Rourke 
and  with  him  took  up  the  management 
of  the  Coney  Island  Athletic  Club,  an 
enterprise  that  was  highly  successful  and 
under  the  auspices  of  which  a  number  of 
the  greatest  ring  encounters  of  the  time 
were  held.  Among  these  should  be  men- 
tioned the  much-talked-of,  long-heralded 
Jeffries-Sharkey  fight  and  others  of  equal 
celebrity.  Mr.  Brown  took  an  active  per- 
sonal part  in  the  arrangement  of  these 
bouts  and  himself  acted  as  referee  in 
many  minor  battles.  Mr.  Brown  was  a 
man  of  strong  religious  beliefs  and  was 
all  his  life  associated  with  the  church,  in 
the  parochial  school  of  which  he  studied 
as  a  boy,  St.  Joseph's,  and  was  a  liberal 
supporter  of  the  work  of  the  parish. 
24 


CCC-t^c^t^t^/ 


On  January  22,  1904,  Ml 

in  marriage  with  Mai 

martin,  a  native  of  Brooklyn 

Thomas  and   Marg;; 

Gilmartin,  who  came  from 

• 
born,    one   of  whom. 
daughter,   Flo 

■ 
Mark's  avenue. 
Mr.  Brown': 

•  irts   was   rema  kabl 
dimmish,  as  i 
departure  of  youth. 
few  years  of  his  death  he  wa 
every  afternoon  taking  part  in  th 
held    in    the 
ct   Park,  an  occupati     1 
he  never  tired.    He 
as  a  pitcher  and  his 
-,  prizes  and 
this  partial! 

a  kind  that  led  hin 
than  into  ver; 
lie  was  devol  ■ 
and  sought  his 

- 
other   men, 
■ 
e.    None  of  the  • 

htm  failed  to 
him  and  his  name  will  live 
ories  of  more  than  it  is  the  I 
•tge  man  to  do. 


IIS,  William  Augustus, 
Public  Official. 

of    the     representat; 

scenes  in  which  he  had  Iohl 
picuous  figure  when  the  lat< 


Sammi 

'tor  of 
the  celel 

h   credit 

■ 
d    his    education   ami    ,  as 

Tons  these  yea 

rin«d.  but  th 

part'  in   life 

le   still   a  yot 

I    citizens.     As  ] 

ock  Farm  he  exhibited  rare 
irative  abilities  and  held 
ig  and  influe 

residence  in  th 

shdence   felt    in    his 

tire  attention. 

:l    1907 

I 

made  n 

sterling 


[25 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


The  personality  of  Mr.  Sammis  was 
extremely  attractive  and  we  can  hardly 
be  accused  of  exaggeration  in  saying  that 
every  man,  woman  and  child  in  White 
Plains  was  his  friend.  He  was  affection- 
ately addressed  as  "Uncle  Billy,"  and  so 
universal  was  the  use  of  the  title  that  few 
knew  him  by  any  other  name.  He  was  a 
very  familiar  figure  upon  the  streets  of 
White  Plains,  driving  into  town  every 
day  for  the  purchase  of  supplies  and 
always  sure  of  meeting  hosts  of  friends. 
His  discernment  was  of  the  kind  which 
sees  the  best  in  every  one  and  the  kindli- 
ness of  his  nature  led  him  to  speak  well 
of  all.  How  greatly  he  is  missed  none 
but  those  who  knew  and  loved  him  could 
tell.  His  face,  so  expressive  of  the  char- 
acter and  disposition  which  endeared 
him  to  all  who  were  ever  brought  into 
contact  with  him,  is  vividly  present  in 
their  remembrance. 

Mr.  Sammis  married  Elizabeth  W. 
Wilkins,  daughter  of  the  well  known 
proprietor  of  the  Wilkins  Stage  Coach 
Line  in  New  York  City  which  had  its 
starting-point  near  the  site  of  the  present 
Park  Avenue  Hotel.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sam- 
mis were  the  parents  of  four  daughters : 
Emma,  now  the  wife  of  John  L.  Coles,  of 
Mamaroneck;  Jessie,  now  the  wife  of 
William  S.  Verplanck,  of  White  Plains; 
Annie,  now  the  wife  of  Marvin  N.  Horl- 
vin,  of  Mamaroneck  avenue;  and  Mary, 
who  resides  with  her  widowed  mother. 
Of  what  Mr.  Sammis  was  in  his  family 
circle  it  is  impossible  for  a  stranger  to 
speak.  Only  those  near  and  dear  to  him 
could  do  justice  to  his  qualities  in  the 
relations  of  husband  and  father. 

On  July  14.  1912,  his  town  and  county 
were  rendered  poorer  by  the  death  of  this 
estimable  man  and  model  citizen.  Dur- 
ing the  thirty-seven  years  of  his  residence 
in  White  Plains,  William  A.  Sammis  pre- 
sented in  the  blameless  conduct  and  even 


tenor  of  his  daily  life  an  example  of  public 
and  private  virtue,  of  the  essential  qual- 
ities which  go  to  build  up  a  prosperous 
community,  to  maintain  high  ideals,  to 
strengthen  popular  faith  in  them  and  to 
aid  in  their  realization.  To  many  the 
personal  loss  was  irreparable,  as  may  be 
imagined  even  from  our  imperfect  effort 
to  delineate  those  features  of  his  char- 
acter which  made  him  so  profoundly 
respected  and  sincerely  loved.  It  is  but 
a  few  years  since  the  bodily  presence  of 
this  good  man  and  useful  citizen  was 
withdrawn  from,  our  sight,  but  his  work 
lives  after  him  and  he  has  left  a  record 
which  is  an  encouragement  and  an  inspi- 
ration not  only  to  his  contemporaries  but 
also  to  those  who  shall  come  after  him. 


COSGRIFF,  Andrew, 

Civil  War  Veteran,  Mining  Expert. 

No  man  can  be  called  truly  successful 
whose  success  is  not  the  result  of  his  own 
efforts.  Regardless  of  what  advantages 
in  the  way  of  education,  inborn  talent  or 
genius,  or  pecuniary  resources  may  or 
may  not  have  been  laid  open  to  him,  what 
a  man  has  made  of  himself,  per  se,  is  in 
the  world's  reckoning  of  his  status,  his 
success  or  failure.  Therein  is  manifested 
the  spirit  of  independence  upon  which  our 
nation  is  founded,  for  which  our  fathers 
fought,  and  counting  it  dearer  than  life, 
went  to  their  deaths  to  preserve  unto  us, 
a  spirit  fostered  and  developed  in  no  other 
way  than  in  actual  struggle  with  life. 
Not  the  man  who  has  fallen  heir  to  an 
established  fortune,  but  the  man  whose 
only  fortune  has  been  his  God-given 
strength  and  brain,  whose  only  tools  his 
indomitable  courage  and  indefatigable 
perseverance,  is  the  ultimate  success. 
Success  and  self  go  hand-in-hand,  and 
from  this  fact  has  logically  been  evolved 
the   colloquial   "Americanism,"   of  which 


[2<> 


dub 

■ 
i 

■ 

■   three  gar!.- 
tain  Cosgriff  h 

I    3    I 
.       I       I 

- 

xy  sense  of  th<  '-made 

nd  a  man  whi 

■ 
tou 

I  an  orphan, 
k 

age  with   his 
Benjamin   O. 

. 

i 
lg  the  public 
ate  teaching 
family  physician,  ha 
Later  he  had  charge 
Judge  Chamberlain''    | 
Cosgriff  later 

of   practical 

i 
i-ned   to   the 
his  trade  with  the 
.     for    twelve    years 


■ 


127 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


rule,  and  finding  a  life  of  leisure  unsuited 
to  his  tastes  and  inclinations,  he  again 
decided  to  engage  in  some  pursuit,  and 
accordingly  entered  into  partnership  with 
Messrs.  Conklin  and  Foss,  in  the  Rock- 
land Lake  Trap  Rock  Company,  which 
was  conducting  an  extensive  and  profit- 
able business  at  that  time.  Four  years 
later  this  partnership  was  dissolved  and 
the  Cosgriff  Trap  Rock  Company,  of 
which  Captain  Cosgriff  was  vice-presi- 
dent and  general  manager,  was  formed. 
After  the  death  of  Messrs.  Hedges  and 
Smith  this  was  sold  to  the  Clinton  Point 
Stone  Company  in  order  to  close  up  the 
estate  of  the  aforenamed  men.  In  1894 
Captain  Cosgriff,  in  conjunction  with 
General  I.  M.  Hedges,  became  an  owner 
of  the  Haverstraw  Electric  Light,  Heat  & 
Power  Company,  which  was  sold  to  the 
Rockland  Light  &  Power  Company,  the 
former  named  having  been  the  president 
and  the  later  named  the  secretary  and 
treasurer.  This  company  conducted  a  suc- 
cessful business  and  gave  employment  to 
a  large  number  of  employees,  thus  being 
an  important  and  potential  factor  in  the 
development  and  upbuilding  of  the  com- 
munity. 

Captain  Cosgriff,  although  upholding 
all  the  responsibilities  which  fall  upon 
the  shoulders  of  an  important  member  of 
any  community,  kept  entirely  out  of 
politics  during  his  life,  although  during 
his  residence  in  Tilly  Foster,  incident  to 
his  management  of  the  mine,  he  served  in 
the  capacity  of  postmaster,  discharging 
his  duties  in  an  efficient  and  capable  man- 
ner. During  his  extensive  travels  in  early 
life  he  met  men  of  all  classes  in  life,  and 
through  democratic  contact  with  them  he 
became  thoroughly  versed  in  the  ways 
and  means  of  men  and  things,  was  a  close 
student  of  human  nature,  and  a  man  of 
broad  and  fair  views,  was  an  interesting 
companion    and    excellent    conversation- 


alist. He  was  a  man  of  public  spirit  and 
enterprise,  active  in  promoting  the  wel- 
fare of  his  community  and  in  bettering 
the  conditions  of  those  in  his  employ,  and 
thus  ranked  among  the  representative 
men  of  Haverstraw,  men  whom  it  is  an 
honor  and  delight  to  record. 

On  August  22,  1858,  Captain  Cosgriff 
married  Jane  Lewis,  daughter  of  Abram 
and  Catherine  Morris,  and  widow  of 
Henry  Lewis.  Her  parents  were  resi- 
dents of  Hudson,  Columbia  county,  New 
York.  She  was  born  May  4,  1824,  died 
January  24,  1902.  The  Morris  coat-of- 
arms  is  as  follows :  Gules,  a  lion  rampant 
or,  charged  on  the  breast  with  a  plate. 
Crest :  A  demi  lion  rampant  or,  holding 
between  the  paws  a  plate.  Captain  and 
Mrs.  Cosgriff  were  the  parents  of  two 
daughters:  1.  Annie  C,  married  John  M. 
Sloane,  deceased,  and  they  had  three 
daughters:  Sarah  H.,  died  April  22, 
1914;  Margaret  M.,  and  Esther  M.  2. 
Lucy  J.  Both  daughters  reside  at  the 
family  home  on  Hudson  avenue,  Haver- 
straw. 


BUNNY,  John, 

Inimitable  Actor. 

It  is  the  fashion  among  the  "intellec- 
tuals" of  to-day  to  belittle  the  value  of 
laughter.  They  can  tolerate  and  even 
indulge  in  the  grim  smile  that  answers  a 
certain  vein  of  grim  humor,  almost  as 
acid  as  grief  itself,  but  with  the  side- 
shaking,  ear-splitting,  soul-clearing  roars 
of  the  mob  they  have  little  sympathy  and 
turn  for  relief  from  such  sounds  to  their 
depressing  Ibsens  and  Maeterlinks,  in  the 
strange  belief  that  to  be  pessimistic  is  to 
be  wise,  that  despair  is  the  final  phil- 
osophy. The  instinct  of  the  man  in  the 
street  is  much  surer.  Were  he  asked  if 
he  approved  of  laughter  he  might  be  at  a 
loss  for  an   answer,  but  he   pays  it  the 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


far  greater  compliment  than  approval,  by 
seeking  it  at  all  costs  and  wherever  it  is 
to  be  found.  And  surely  there  is  as  much 
that  is  good  and  even  sacred  in  laughter 
as  in  tears.  It  is  more  nearly  related  to 
the  object  of  all  existence,  if  it  be 
admitted  that  happiness  is  that  object,  as 
it  certainly  must  be.  Carlyle  did  indeed 
inquire  by  what  act  of  parliament  was  it 
decreed  that  we  should  be  happy  and 
adjured  to  seek  blessedness  instead,  but 
truly  in  the  best  sense  of  the  terms  they 
are  one  and  the  same  thing  for  it  may 
very  cogently  be  urged  that  as  it  must 
be  that  to  be  blessed  is  to  be  happy,  so 
also  to  be  happy  is  to  be  blessed.  And 
if  this  be  so  it  is  not  less  undeniable  that 
one  of  the  large  factors  of  happiness  is 
wholesome  mirth  and  laughter.  And 
now  if  it  be  asked  where  such  wholesome 
mirth  and  laughter  is  to  be  found,  it  may 
be  replied  without  hesitation  in  the  farces 
and  the  horse-play  of  the  people.  As 
Chesterton  remarks  the  tragedies  of  the 
people  "are  of  broken  hearts,  their 
comedies  of  broken  heads."  The  man 
who  supplies  food  for  this  healthy  human 
craving  for  fun  is  a  true  benefactor  and 
deserves  to  the  full  the  popular  honor 
that  is  showered  upon  him.  Turn  not 
up  your  noses,  O  you  supercilious  artists 
and  critics,  if  he  wins  his  applause  be- 
cause he  is  clumsy  and  always  hits  the 
wrong  man  or  makes  love  to  the  wrong 
woman,  or  never  ascends  a  stairs  with- 
out falling  down  again;  of  such  stuff  is 
our  best  laughter  made,  such  are  the 
jests  of  Rabelais,  the  antics  of  Falstaff, 
while  the  great  comedy  of  Cervantes  is 
but  a  sort  of  sublimated  music  hall  farce 
with  Don  Quixote  as  the  countryman  in 
town  and  the  windmill  a  gigantic  police- 
man. Of  such  also  was  the  fun  of  John 
Bunny,  whose  death  on  March  26,  1915, 
at  his  Brooklyn  home  removed  from  our 
midst  one  of  the  most  deservedly  popular 

NY-VolIII-S  129 


of  all  those  who  have  made  the  moving 
picture  the  medium  of  success. 

John  Bunny  was  of  English  ancestry 
on  his  father's  side  and  of  Irish  on  his 
mother's,  but  was  himself  born  on  the 
Island  of  Manhattan,  September  21,  1863. 
He  was  the  first  of  nine  generations  who 
did  not  follow  the  sea  and  the  second  in 
that  same  period  that  was  not  a  member 
of  the  English  navy.  The  Bunnys  came 
from  the  famous  English  coast  town  of 
Penzance  and  his  mother,  who  was  a  Miss 
Eleanor  O'Sullivan,  from  County  Clare, 
Ireland,  where  her  family  was  prominent 
and  highly  respected.  After  the  usual 
schooling  obtained  by  the  New  York  boy, 
Mr.  Bunny  followed  in  the  steps  of  the 
millions  and  secured  the  position  of  clerk 
in  a  store  in  the  city.  It  does  not  appear, 
however,  that  he  was  particularly  suc- 
cessful in  this  part  of  his  career  and  he 
used  to  tell  a  most  amusing  story  at  his 
own  expense  concerning  it.  According 
to  him  he  approached  his  employer  after 
a  few  months'  work  and  tactfully  sug- 
gested that  an  increase  of  salary  would 
be  appropriate  to  be  met  by  that  awful 
personage  with  the  remark  that  he  had 
been  on  the  point  of  discharging  the 
young  man  as  worthless.  He  went  on  to 
say  that  as  far  as  he  could  see,  his  clerk 
was  able  to  do  but  two  things  well,  i.  e., 
to  make  faces  and  talk  loud,  and  he  sug- 
gested that  he  try  the  stage.  Whether  or 
not  the  suggestion  was  meant  in  earnest, 
it  was  taken  so  and  the  long  career  as  an 
actor  was  commenced.  At  first  it  was  a 
part  in  a  cheap  "minstrel  show,"  which 
proved  to  be  an  excellent  training  for  him, 
especially  his  last  work,  with  its  oppor- 
tunity for  pantomimic  action  and  facial 
expression.  Several  such  engagements 
followed  one  another  until  in  1883  he  was 
given  a  part  in  a  play  with  the  happy  title 
of  "The  Stranglers  of  Paris."  The  play 
had  a  short  run  at  the  Park  Theatre,  but 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


it  gave  Mr.  Bunny  an  opportunity  to 
show  his  talent  and  gained  him  an  en- 
trance into  the  realm  of  legitimate  drama. 
From  that  time  onward,  for  nearly  thirty 
years,  Mr.  Bunny  acted  almost  uninter- 
ruptedly and  has  taken  minor  parts  in  the 
companies  of  such  world  famous  men  as 
Edwin  Booth  and  Lawrence  Barrett.  It 
was  in  such  an  atmosphere  that  his  ideals 
were  developed  and  his  abilities  trained  in 
such  parts  as  Shakespeare's  clowns,  for 
his  gifts  from  the  first  were  markedly  of 
the  comic  order.  As  Touchstone,  for  in- 
stance, he  distinguished  himself  highly, 
and  it  became  easy  for  him  to  secure  en- 
gagements with  the  best  companies.  He 
was  given  parts  by  Henry  W.  Savage, 
William  A.  Brady,  Charles  and  Daniel 
Frohman  and  many  others,  and  supported 
at  various  times  Miss  Maude  Adams, 
Miss  Annie  Russell  and  others  of  the 
great  popular  favorites.  But  while  he 
did  well  his  great  success  did  not  come  to 
him  except  with  the  entrance  of  a  new 
form  of  acting  and  a  new  stage,  a  stage 
that  has  already  wrought  profound 
changes  in  the  whole  theatrical  world. 
This  was  the  moving  picture  which  has 
grown  to  such  amazing  proportions  with- 
in little  more  than  five  years.  At  the 
time  of  its  appearance  the  moving  picture 
was  regarded  with  some  contempt  by  the 
average  actor,  and  they  were  few  indeed 
who  entered  it  as  a  profession  that  were 
not  driven  there  by  necessity.  It  was  not 
so  with  Mr.  Bunny,  who  from  the  first 
perceived  the  great  possibilities  in  the 
thing,  not  merely  from  the  commercial 
standpoint,  but  as  a  vehicle  of  wholesome 
amusement  and  instruction  to  great 
masses  of  people  who  could  not  other- 
wise come  within  the  healthful  influence 
of  the  theatre.  So  it  was  that  he  did  not 
scorn  a  half-casual  proposal  made  to  him 
at  that  time  that  he  should  become  a 
"film  artist."     On  the  contrary  so  strong 


was  his  belief  in  the  new  form  that  he  did 
what  was  considered  a  most  foolish  thing 
by  the  majority  of  his  professional  friends 
by  declining  an  excellent  engagement  on 
the  regular  stage  and  accepting  what 
seemed  far  less  desirable  in  moving  pic- 
tures. He  never  had  any  reason  to  regret 
his  decision,  particularly  from  a  business 
point  of  view,  for  he  rapidly  emerged  into 
great  prominence  and  ultimately  became 
the  most  popular  actor  in  that  form  of 
amusement.  The  accounts  of  the  fabu- 
lous sums  earned  by  him  are  probably 
exaggerations,  but  there  is  no  doubt 
whatever  that  the  Vitagraph  Company, 
for  whose  productions  he  acted  consid- 
ered him  as  one  of  their  most  drawing 
artists  and  it  is  well  known  that  the  con- 
cern does  not  stint  its  outlay  in  securing 
what  it  requires.  And  truly  it  could  afford 
to  be  liberal  in  this  case  for  Mr.  Bunny's 
popularity  was  simply  phenomenal.  With 
the  last  few  years  moving  picture  houses 
have  sprung  up  all  over  the  civilized 
world  and  have  even  penetrated  the  un- 
civilized, and  wherever  the  films  have 
gone  there  also  has  gone  John  Bunny. 
His  face  is  doubtless  one  of  the  best 
known  to  the  world  to-day  and  would 
doubtless  be  recognized  over  a  larger  area 
and  in  more  diverse  scenes  than  most  of 
the  crowned  heads  or  the  great  statesmen 
of  the  times.  His  death  was  finally 
brought  about  by  overwork  at  the  head  of 
his  own  company,  which  was  supporting 
him  in  a  play  known  as  John  Bunny  in 
Funnyland. 

Mr.  Bunny  was  married,  January  23, 
1890,  to  Clara  Scallan,  of  New  York,  a 
daughter  of  William  and  Annie  (Merry) 
Scallan,  of  New  York,  both  of  whom  were 
on  the  stage.  Mrs.  Bunny  herself  became 
an  actress  at  an  early  age  and  it  was 
through  her  work  that  she  met  Mr.  Bunny. 
To  them  two  children  were  born,  George 
Henry  and  John,  now  (1916)  aged  twen- 


130 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


ty-three   and   twenty-one   years,   respec- 
tively. 

The  personal  character  of  John  Bunny 
was  a  very  marked  one  ;  like  almost  all  of 
the  men  whose  function  is  to  make  us 
laugh  he  had  a  deeply  serious  side  to  his 
nature  which,  however,  never  eclipsed  the 
kindliness  and  good  cheer  that  seemed  to 
radiate  from  him.  It  did  strongly  influ- 
ence his  purposes  and  ambitions,  how- 
ever, which  were  of  a  high  type  and  very 
serious  matters  to  himself.  His  ideal  of 
his  profession  and  function  was  extremely 
high  and  he  had  already  accomplished  and 
anticipated  taking  part  in  other  work 
which  should  prove  of  eminent  value  to 
thousands  of  people.  One  of  the  things 
he  enjoyed  most  was  taking  the  part  of 
the  immortal  Pickwick,  the  scenes  for  the 
picture  being  made  upon  the  very  roads 
used  by  Dickens  as  the  background  of  his 
great  work,  and  he  had  an  even  more  am- 
bitious project  in  view,  involving  a  jour- 
ney to  Spain  and  much  elaborate  prepara- 
tion for  a  setting  of  Don  Quixote,  and 
other  of  the  great  Spanish  romances  and 
plays.  The  feeling  wellnigh  of  idolatry 
with  which  he  was  regarded  by  the  masses 
of  people  never  altered  these  ambitions  in 
the  smallest,  nor  did  it  change  the  essen- 
tial democracy  of  his  nature,  which  led 
him  to  treat  all  whom  he  came  in  contact 
with  as  his  friends  and  brothers.  Emi- 
nently characteristic  of  the  sane  and 
pleasant  view  which  he  took  of  the  world 
and  life  was  his  disposal  of  the  wealth 
that  came  to  him.  He  left,  it  is  said, 
practically  nothing  at  his  death,  but  every 
week  of  his  life  he  shared  equally  his  sal- 
ary with  his  wife,  thus  providing  for  her 
most  amply  now  that  his  great  earning 
power  has  ceased  entirely.  He  was  the 
kindliest  of  men  and  devoted  to  his  fam- 
ily, fulfilling  all  the  relations  of  private 
life  with  the  same  consistency  that  he  did 
the  more  conspicuous  tasks  of  his  public 
career. 


SLOAN,  Samuel, 

Prominent  Business  Man. 

The  late  Samuel  Sloan,  of  Rochester, 
New  York,  was  one  of  those  men  whose 
lives  and  characters  form,  the  underlying 
structure  upon  which  are  built  the  hopes 
of  American  institutions.  The  careers  of 
such  men  as  he  show  the  possibilities 
open  in  a  commonwealth  like  New  York 
to  those  who  possess  good  business  abil- 
ities, and  the  high  integrity  that  informs 
alike  the  good  citizen  and  the  good  busi- 
ness man.  His  ambition  along  the  worth- 
iest lines,  his  perseverance,  his  steadfast- 
ness of  purpose  and  tireless  industry,  all 
furnish  lessons  to  the  young  business  man 
of  coming  generations,  and  the  well 
earned  success  and  esteem  he  gained 
j'rove  the  inevitable  result  of  the  practice 
of  these  virtues.  His  whole  life  was  de- 
i  oted  to  the  highest  and  best,  and  all  his 
endeavors  were  for  the  furtherance  of 
those  noble  ideals  he  made  the  rule  of  his 
daily  life.  The  success  he  won  as  a  busi- 
ness man  never  elated  him  unduly,  nor 
caused  him  to  vary  from  the  modest  sim- 
plicity of  his  manner.  His  was  a  nature 
of  singular  sweetness,  openness  and  sin- 
cerity, and  he  probably  never  had  an 
enemy.  Any  estimate  of  his  character, 
however,  would  be  unjust  did  it  not  point 
to  the  natural  ability  and  keen  mental 
gifts  which  he  improved  by  daily  and 
hourly  use.  He  succeeded  better  than  the 
average  business  man  because  he  had  a 
wider  intellectual  equipment  than  the 
ordinary  shrewd  business  man.  He  had  a 
profound  knowledge  of  human  nature,  his 
judgment  was  sound  and  unerring,  his 
personality  strong  and  dominating,  and 
his  power  over  other  men  was  not  the 
result  of  aggressiveness,  but  of  the  mo- 
mentum of  character. 

Samuel  Sloan,  son  of  Timothy  Sloan, 
was  born  near  Belfast,  Ireland,  in  1828, 
and  died  in  Rochester,  New  York,  Sep- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


tember  i,  1903.     He  was  educated  in  his 
native  country,  and  he  soon  realized  the 
fact  that  the  New  World  offered  better 
opportunities  for  advancement  to  a  young 
man  of  energy  and  ambition,  and,  imbued 
with   this   idea,   he   came   to   the   United 
States  in  1848.    Upon  his  arrival  here  he 
at  once  set  about  securing  a  suitable  posi- 
tion, and  this  he  found  in  the  first  whole- 
sale dry  goods  house  on  Broadway,  New 
York  City.     This  house  was  largely  en- 
gaged  in   the   Australian   shipping  busi- 
ness, and  as  it  became  necessary  to  send 
a  representative  of  the  business  to  Mel- 
bourne, Australia,  in  1854,  Mr.  Sloan  was 
selected  for  this  responsible  post,  and  rep- 
resented the  interests  of  the  firm  in  Aus- 
tralia until  i860,  when  he  returned  to  this 
country.    Shortly  after  his  return,  he  took 
up  his  residence  in  Rochester,  New  York, 
where  he  became  associated  in  a  business 
partnership  with  R.  E.  Sherlock,  in  the 
conduct  of  a  steam  and  gas  fitting  busi- 
ness, the  firm   name  being  Sherlock   & 
Sloan.    This  association  was  a  mutually 
profitable    one,    the    business    expanding 
from  time  to  time,  until  it  was  broken  by 
the    death    of    Mr.    Sherlock,   when    Mr. 
Sloan  became  the  sole  proprietor.    Gradu- 
ally the   sale  of  plumbers',   steamfitters' 
and  engineers'  supplies  had  been  added, 
until  the  business  had  grown  to  one  of 
much  importance,  and  the  annual  sales 
were  correspondingly  large.  In  the  mean- 
time Mr.  Sloan  had  become  more  or  less 
closely  identified  with  a  number  of  other 
business  interests  of  varied  character  and 
scope.    In  financial  circles  he  was  a  factor 
to  be  reckoned  with,  and  was  president  of 
the  Mechanics'  Savings  Bank,  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  board  of  directors  of  the  Gene- 
see Valley  Trust  Company.    The  private 
life  of  Mr.  Sloan  was  as  useful  and  ex- 
emplary as  his  public  career.  In  the  cause 
of  religion  he  was  an  active  worker,  and 
served  as  elder  of  the  Central   Presby- 


terian Church  for  more  than  thirty  years, 
while  his  material  support  of  this  institu- 
tion was  a  most  generous  one.  His  dona- 
tions to  charitable  purposes  were  also 
large,  and  he  was  a  member  of  the  board 
of  directors  of  the  Rochester  City  Hos- 
pital, and  one  of  the  original  trustees  of 
the  Reynolds  Library.  His  personal  in- 
terest in  both  of  these  institutions  never 
abated,  and  he  furthered  their  advance- 
ment and  growth  to  the  best  of  his  ability. 
Mr.  Sloan  married  (first)  in  1865,  Mary 
Eveline  Vosburgh,  who  died  in  1882;  he 
married  (second)  1885,  Mrs.  Hanna  (Cur- 
tis) Jones,  who  died  in  1897.  By  his  first 
marriage  he  had  one  son,  William  Eyres  . 
Sloan,  who  is  now  at  the  head  of  the  large 
establishment  founded  by  his  father.  It 
may  truly  be  said  of  Samuel  Sloan  that 
earnestness  and  thoroughness  were  the 
keynotes  of  his  character.  The  serious 
spirit  which  marked  the  commencement 
of  his  business  career  remained  with  him 
throughout  his  life.  He  could  not  do  any- 
thing without  putting  his  entire  mind  and 
heart  into  the  undertaking,  and  under 
those  conditions,  it  was  but  natural  that 
success  should  attend  his  efforts. 


LATUS,  George, 

Business  Man. 

The  due  reward  of  merit,  it  is  often 
claimed,  is  generally  withheld  until  death 
has  rendered  its  payment  vain  and  a  tardy 
honor  paid  to  the  memory  of  him  whose 
right  was  recognition  in  his  lifetime  is  all 
that  can  be  done  to  make  amends  for  past 
neglect.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  this 
is  less  the  case  in  communities  where 
truly  democratic  institutions  prevail,  such 
as  the  United  States,  than  of  other  parts 
of  the  world,  since  the  peoples  of  these 
communities  are  ever  on  the  outlook  for 
ability  and  talent  which  are  recognized  as 
the  most  valuable  of  marketable  commodi- 


132 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


ties.  It  was  surely  not  true  in  the  case  of 
George  Latus,  whose  name  heads  this 
brief  article  and  whose  death  on  April  17, 
1915,  was  a  loss  to  the  whole  community, 
for  from  his  youth  onward  his  business 
capacity  met  with  the  recognition  it  de- 
served, and  he  forged  for  himself  a  promi- 
nent place  in  the  business  world  and 
a  position  of  regard  in  the  hearts  of  his 
fellow  citizens.  New  York  City  was  the 
scene  of  his  life-long  activities  and  his 
home  until  within  a  few  years  of  his 
death,  when  he  removed  to  Mount  Ver- 
non, without,  however,  giving  up  the  busi- 
ness connections  in  the  city. 

George  Latus  was  born  November  6, 
1852,  in  that  part  of  New  York  City  that, 
perhaps,  more  than  any  other,  retains  its 
old-time  atmosphere,  Greenwich  Village, 
as  it  is  still  known.  Here  he  passed  many 
years  of  his  life  and  here  it  was  that  he 
engaged  in  business.  After  completing 
his  education,  which  he  did  at  the  local 
public  schools,  Mr.  Latus  entered  the 
butcher's  business,  establishing  himself  at 
No.  124  Greenwich  avenue,  where  the 
enterprise  prospered  from  the  outset.  The 
success  that  he  met  with  was  fully  de- 
served for  he  brought  to  his  work  the  ut- 
most devotion  and  the  soundest  of  busi- 
ness principles  were  observed  by  him  in 
all  his  dealings.  It  was  in  the  year  1880, 
when  Mr.  Latus  was  twenty-eight  years 
of  age,  that  he  founded  the  butcher  busi- 
ness, and  during  the  thirty-five  years  in 
which  he  continued  it  there  was  a  steady 
increase  of  trade  until  it  was  one  of  the 
largest  houses  of  the  kind  in  that  neigh- 
borhood. In  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  re- 
moved to  Mount  Vernon  in  1909,  he  con- 
tinued to  actively  manage  its  affairs  until 
his  death. 

On  December  21,  1872,  Mr.  Latus  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Caroline  Bender, 
of  New  York  City,  a  daughter  of  Theo- 
bold   and   Caroline    (Brown)    Bender,   of 


that  place.  To  them  were  born  two  chil- 
dren, Caroline,  now  Mrs.  F.  A.  M.  Bryant, 
of  Mount  Vernon,  and  Julia,  now  Mrs.  A. 
Q.  Elgar,  of  Wakefield.  Mr.  Latus  is  sur- 
vived by  his  wife  and  two  daughters,  the 
former  at  the  present  time  making  her 
home  at  No.  118  South  Eighth  avenue, 
Mount  Vernon. 


KIPP,  George  Washington, 

Representative  Citizen. 

In  the  death  of  George  W.  Kipp  the 
city  of  Ossining  lost  one  of  its  most 
prominent,  influential  and  useful  citizens. 
He  was  a  man  of  the  highest  integrity,  of 
warm  heart  and  generous  impulses,  de- 
voted, next  to  his  home  and  family,  to  the 
promotion  of  the  public  welfare  and  the 
improvement  of  the  condition  of  man- 
kind. Mr.  Kipp  was  descended  from  a 
very  early  American  family,  which  was  a 
very  ancient  one  in  Holland.  The  name 
is  of  Dutch  origin  and  has  been  promi- 
nently identified  with  New  York  from  a 
very  early  period  continuing  down  to  the 
present  day.  There  is  some  dispute  of 
authorities  as  to  the  parentage  of  the  im- 
migrant ancestor,  who  was  probably  de- 
scended from  Rulof  Kype,  of  Holland. 
The  name  was  sometimes  written  Kype 
after  its  arrival  here. 

Henry  Hendricksen  Kip  came  before 
1643  to  New  Amsterdam  with  his  wife 
(probably  Tryntje  Droogh)  and  five  chil- 
dren. That  he  was  a  man  of  consequence 
is  shown  by  the  fact  that  his  arms  were 
painted  on  one  of  the  stained  windows  in 
the  first  Dutch  church  of  New  York.  He 
was  a  tailor  by  occupation  and  is  some- 
times called  Henry  Snyder  Kip.  He  re- 
ceived a  patent,  April  28,  1643,  °f  a  'ot 
east  of  the  fort  on  the  present  Bridge 
street  near  Whitehall,  where  he  built 
house  and  shop.  Being  incensed  by 
the  cruelty  of  Director-General  Kieft,  by 


^33 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


whose  order  more  than  one  hundred  In- 
dians, men,  women  and  children,  were 
brutally  massacred,  he  boldly  opposed  the 
director-general  and  refused  to  join  in  any 
recognition  of  him.  The  latter  was  very 
shortly  recalled  and  immediately  there- 
after Kip  became  a  leading  man  in  the 
community.  He  was  appointed  a  member 
of  Governor  Stuyvesant's  council,  Sep- 
tember 25,  1647,  and  again  in  1649-50.  He 
was  appointed  schepen,  or  magistrate, 
February  2,  1656,  and  admitted  to  all  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  a  burgher,  April 
11,  1657.  He  subscribed  to  the  oath  of 
allegiance  to  the  British  government  in 
October,  1664,  and  was  assessed  with 
others  in  the  following  year  to  pay  for  the 
maintenance  of  soldiers  in  the  garrison. 
Both  he  and  his  wife  were  members  of 
the  Dutch  church.  He  died  at  Kippen- 
burg,  the  date  being  unrecorded  and  the 
location  being  unknown.  Jacob  Kipp, 
second  son  of  Henry  H.  Kip,  was  born 
May  16,  1631,  in  Amsterdam,  Holland, 
and  died  about  1690,  in  New  York.  In 
1647,  when  sixteen  years  old,  he  was  a 
clerk  in  the  provincial  secretary's  office  at 
New  Amsterdam,  and  in  December,  1649, 
was  acting  clerk  in  Director  Stuyvesant's 
council.  He  was  appointed,  January  27, 
1653,  the  first  secretary  of  the  court  of 
burgomasters  and  schepens.  He  resigned 
this  office,  June  12,  1657,  and  engaged  in 
brewing  and  also  conducted  a  store.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  board  of  schepens  in 
1659,  ! 662-63-65-75,  and  was  president  of 
the  board  in  1674.  Among  others  he  peti- 
tioned for  the  establishment  of  a  village 
in  the  Wallabout  district,  across  the  East 
river,  where  he  had  lands,  but  probably 
never  lived  there.  He,  or  his  father,  se- 
cured a  patent  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
acres  on  the  East  river  at  what  is  still 
known  as  Kipp's  Bay,  and  built  a  house 
there  in  1655.  This  was  rebuilt  in  1696 
and  was  occupied  a  short  time  during  the 


Revolution  as  a  headquarters  by  General 
Washington.  It  stood  on  East  Thirty- 
fifth  street  and  remained  until  1851,  when 
it  was  torn  down.  His  city  home  was  on 
what  is  now  Exchange  place  in  1657,  and 
he  owned  several  houses  on  lots  in  that 
vicinity,  his  residence  being  in  1665  on 
Broad  street  near  Exchange  place  and 
probably  continued  there  until  1674.  In 
1686  his  residence  was  described  as  "be- 
yond the  fresh  water,"  probably  meaning 
the  farm  homestead  above  described.  He 
married,  March  8,  1654,  Maria,  daughter 
of  Dr.  Johannes  and  Rachel  (Monjour) 
de  la  Montagne,  born  January  26,  1637,  at 
sea  off  Madeira,  while  the  parents  were 
en  route  for  America.  She  was  living  in 
1701.  Dr.  de  la  Montagne  was  born  in 
1592,  a  Huguenot  of  great  learning,  and 
served  in  the  governor's  council  and  as 
vice-director  at  Fort  Orange  (Albany). 
Johannes  Kipp,  eldest  child  of  Jacob  and 
Maria  (de  la  Montagne)  Kipp,  was  bap- 
tized February  21,  1655,  in  New  York, 
and  was  a  brewer  in  that  town,  where  he 
died  in  1704.  He  married,  September  4, 
1681,  Catharine,  daughter  of  Dr.  Hans 
and  Sara  (Roelofs)  Kierstede.  Benjamin 
Kipp,  youngest  child  of  Johannes  and 
Catharine  (Kierstede)  Kipp,  was  born  in 
1703,  and  settled  in  Westchester  county, 
New  York,  where  he  purchased  a  farm  of 
four  hundred  acres,  and  died  May  24, 
1782.  He  served  as  justice  of  the  peace 
under  the  Colonial  government.  He  mar- 
ried Dorothy  Davenport,  who  died  Sep- 
tember 3,  1807.  Abraham  Kipp,  third  son 
of  Benjamin  and  Dorothy  (Davenport) 
Kipp,  was  born  March  23,  1743,  in  New 
York  City,  and  married  Phebe,  daugh- 
ter of  Samuel  Haight.  Samuel  Kipp,  only 
son  of  Abraham  and  Phebe  (Haight) 
Kipp,  married  Elizabeth  Cypher,  and  they 
were  the  parents  of  Abram  Kipp,  born  in 
September,  1798,  in  New  York,  died  at 
Sing  Sing,  April  30,  1887.    He  was  a  use- 

34 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


ful  citizen,  engaged  in  business  in  Ossin- 
ing,  then  called  Sing  Sing,  where  he  was 
a  furniture  dealer  and  undertaker.  He 
married,  April  10,  1822,  Sarah  Smith,  born 
October  11,  1804,  died  July  7,  1890,  daugh- 
ter of  Caleb  Smith,  born  1753,  and  his 
wife,  Elizabeth  (Sherwood)  Smith,  born 
January  6,  1762,  died  January  27,  1848. 
Their  children  were:  Samuel  C,  Leonard 
R.,  Elizabeth  A.,  Benjamin  Franklin, 
Abraham,  George  Washington  and  Mary 
Elizabeth. 

George  Washington  Kipp  was  born  De- 
cember 16,  1842,  at  Sing  Sing,  and  grew 
up  in  his  native  place,  enjoying  the  ex- 
cellent educational  advantages  afforded 
by  the  grammar  school  of  that  village. 
He  was  an  independent  and  industrious 
youth,  and  determined  some  time  before 
attaining  his  majority  to  engage  in  a  busi- 
ness career.  At  the  age  of  eighteen  years 
he  entered  the  wholesale  dry  goods  house 
of  Haviland,  Lindsay  &  Company  of  New 
York  City.  Here  his  keen  business  sense 
and  devotion  to  the  interest  of  his  em- 
ployers gained  him  rapid  promotion,  and 
he  became  one  of  the  most  useful  em- 
ployes of  the  establishment.  His  leisure 
time  was  not  spent  in  dissipation,  but  he 
endeavored  to  improve  his  knowledge  by 
study  and  cared  for  his  earnings  in  a 
shrewd  and  proper  way,  so  that  he  was 
soon  enabled  to  engage  in  business  on  his 
own  account.  At  the  age  of  twenty-eight 
years  he  became  a  partner  with  his  father 
in  the  furniture  and  undertaking  business 
at  Sing  Sing,  under  the  title  of  Abram  Kipp 
&  Son.  At  this  time  the  father  was  more 
than  seventy  years  of  age,  and  he  very 
gladly  relinquished  the  responsibilities 
and  principal  labors  of  the  business  to  his 
son  and  partner,  and  in  course  of  time  a 
nephew,  S.  C.  Kipp,  Jr.,  became  a  partner 
in  the  business,  which  was  conducted 
under  the  name  of  G.  W.  &  S.  C.  Kipp,  Jr. 
The   continued  success  of  the  business, 


which  was  long  ago  founded  at  Ossining, 
was  largely  due  to  the  business  ability, 
high  character  and  popularity  of  George 
W.  Kipp,  who  had  multitudes  of  friends 
among  the  people  of  Ossining  and  vicin- 
ity. In  the  early  days  of  the  business  the 
facilities  and  methods  now  in  vogue  did 
not  prevail,  but  Mr.  Kipp  was  always 
alert  for  opportunities  to  improve  his 
business,  and  every  improvement  was 
adopted  by  him  among  the  first.  He  was 
gifted  with  a  high  order  of  intelligence, 
and  his  kind  and  affable  manner,  his  sin- 
cere sympathy  with  the  unfortunate  and 
bereaved,  and  his  prompt  and  careful  at- 
tention to  every  detail  gained  him  great 
popularity,  and  he  continued  to  prosper 
until  his  death,  which  occurred  January 
10,  1908. 

Mr.  Kipp  was  ever  anxious  to  aid  in 
the  development  and  progress  of  the  com- 
munity and  in  promoting  not  only  its 
business  interests  but  its  moral  and  social 
betterment  and  the  general  welfare  of 
humanity.  For  three  years  he  served  as 
a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees  of  the 
village,  and  gave  to  the  public  business 
the  same  careful  attention  and  honest 
effort  which  characterized  the  conduct  of 
his  private  affairs.  He  was  interested  in 
the  Ossining  National  Bank,  of  which  he 
was  for  some  time  vice-president,  and 
was  a  member  of  the  Point  Sennasqua 
Rod  and  Reel  Club  of  Ossining.  With 
his  family  he  was  affiliated  with  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  Ossining, 
and  was  ever  a  promoter  and  supporter  of 
all  efforts  of  this  body  toward  the  emanci- 
pation of  humanity  from  sorrow  and  deg- 
radation. His  influence  lent  a  mighty 
power  to  the  work  of  the  church,  and  his 
departure  to  a  better  home  on  high  was 
very  widely  and  sincerely  mourned.  In 
him  the  youth  about  him  found  a  most 
worthy  example  for  emulation,  and  his 
noble  life  and  worthy  efforts  contributed 


r35 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


to  the  advancement  and  moral  progress 
of  many  who  knew  him. 

He  was  married,  October  8,  1873,  in 
Sing  Sing,  to  Alice  Sophia  Hapgood, 
daughter  of  Thomas  Emerson  and  Nancy 
Sophia  (Brigham.)  Hapgood,  of  that  city, 
descendants  of  an  old  New  England  fam- 
ily and  among  the  most  useful  and  ex- 
emplary citizens  of  Ossining.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Kipp  were  the  parents  of  a  son  and 
daughter:  Howard  Hapgood,  born  Feb- 
ruary 16,  1877;  and  Dorothy  Grace,  born 
June  19, 1892.  Together  with  their  mother, 
they  cherish  in  loving  remembrance  the 
virtues  and  many  admirable  qualities  of  a 
most  devoted  husband  and  kind  father. 

SCULLY,  Michael  Patrick, 

A  Leader  Among  Men. 

Yonkers,  like  most  American  cities,  is 
rich  in  self-made  men,  many  of  them  of 
foreign  birth,  but  good,  loyal  citizens, 
nevertheless.  Among  these  must  be  num- 
bered the  late  Michael  Patrick  Scully, 
proprietor  of  a  popular  cafe  and  the  pos- 
sessor of  much  political  influence.  Mr. 
Scully's  career,  brief  though  it  was,  was 
exceptionally  notable  and  gave  much 
promise  for  the  future. 

Michael  Patrick  Scully  was  born  in  Ire- 
land, that  land  of  beauty,  wit  and  valor, 
which  has  given  to  the  United  States 
some  of  her  most  useful  and  influential 
citizens.  It  was  in  the  country  of  his 
birth  that  Michael  Patrick  Scully  received 
his  education,  and  at  the  age  of  sixteen, 
filled  with  the  bright  anticipations  of  ad- 
venturous youth,  he  crossed  the  sea  in 
quest  of  fame  and  fortune.  To  his  adopted 
country  the  young  man  brought  some- 
thing more  than  ambition,  being  endowed 
with  the  sense  and  industry  necessary  for 
the  attainments  of  his  ends.  His  first  em- 
ployment in  Yonkers  was  that  of  a  driver, 
and  from  this  humble  beginning  he  ad- 


vanced steadily  step  by  step,  alert  to  seize 
opportunity  and  ready  to  turn  it  to  the 
best  account.  His  means  accumulated, 
his  reputation  for  ability  and  honesty  in- 
creased with  them  and  a  bright  future 
opened  before  him.  In  the  course  of  time 
he  became  the  proprietor  of  a  well  known 
and  very  successful  cafe. 

This  progressive  and  open-minded 
young  Irishman,  while  always  remaining 
a  true  son  of  his  native  land,  identified 
himself,  from  the  day  when  he  set  foot 
on  American  soil,  with  the  life  of  his 
adopted  country.  In  politics,  from  the 
outset,  he  took  the  keenest  interest,  and 
in  order  that  he  might  take  part  in  them 
early  proceeded  to  be  naturalized.  In 
1904  he  had  the  gratification  of  becoming 
legally  an  American  citizen  and  thence- 
forth to  the  close  of  his  life  was  actively 
associated  with  the  work  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party.  Fitted  by  nature  for  leader- 
ship, it  was  not  long  ere  he  came  into  his 
own.  Followers  flocked  around  him,  at- 
tracted by  his  enthusiastic  fidelity  to  what 
he  believed  to  be  the  right  cause,  and  at 
the  time  of  his  death  he  had  been  for  five 
years  the  Democratic  leader  of  his  ward. 
With  all  his  devotion  to  politics  Mr. 
Scully  was  no  office-seeker.  Strongly 
urged  to  become  a  candidate  for  alder- 
man he  steadily  refused.  Place  and  pref- 
erment had  no  attractions  for  him.  Legi- 
timate power,  domination  for  worthy 
ends,  influence  over  the  minds  and  thus 
over  the  actions  of  men  he  dearly  loved 
and  his  fellow-citizens  were  not  slow  in 
according  it  to  him.  For  a  number  of 
years  there  was  no  more  popular  man  in 
Yonkers  than  Michael  Patrick  Scully. 

Emphatically  was  he  a  man  of  large 
heart,  of  warm  and  generous  feelings. 
Never  could  he  resist  an  appeal  from  the 
unhappy  and  to  a  story  of  "hard  luck"  none 
ever  knew  him  to  turn  a  deaf  ear.  His 
cheery  countenance,  his  hearty  greeting, 


136 


PHY 


ice  in  welconn 

i 

ic  church. 

ig  personality 

■ 

- 

i 

. 

hat  a  promisii 

andprematu: 
idded  to  a  r.  '—the 

are.    The  euli  ael  Pat- 

illy  is  written 
t.:nds. 


WILLS.  Charles  John, 

Representation  Citiaea. 

■  nui 
and  there  is  no  line  of  acti . 

i 

But  though 

- 
e 

- 

will  be  coura^ 

cong,  one  land  ma; 
•  other  religi< 

lie  whole  gas 

i«d   demand 

the  grasp  of  practical  affairs,  the 

aterial  relati; 


■ 
i 


», 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


moved  one  of  the  most  capable  and  suc- 
cessful of  the  city's  hotel  men  and  a  citi- 
zen of  broad  public  spirit. 

Born  March  28,  1869,  in  Frankfort-on- 
the  Main,  Germany,  Mr.  Wills  passed 
four  years  of  his  life  there,  coming  to  this 
country  in  1873  and  going  to  the  West, 
where  he  remained  for  a  number  of  years. 
He  made  his  home  in  Minneapolis, 
Minnesota,  and  it  was  there  that  he 
made  his  entrance  into  the  business  of 
hotel  management,  in  which  he  was  so 
successful.  This  entrance  was  a  humble 
one  and  consisted  of  a  position  on  the 
staff  of  the  West  Hotel  in  Minneapolis. 
His  talent  for  business  affairs,  his  clever- 
ness in  grasping  detail  and  his  industry 
in  his  work  quickly  drew  upon  him,  the 
favorable  regard  of  his  employers,  and 
he  was  advanced  rapidly  to  more  respon- 
sible positions.  It  was  to  some  extent 
due  to  this  early  training,  which  made  it 
necessary  for  Mr.  Wills  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  every  detail  of  the  business, 
that  he  later  was  so  capable  in  the  posi- 
tions that  he  held,  when  the  management 
of  some  of  the  greatest  hostelries  in  the 
country  devolved  in  a  large  degree  upon 
his  shoulders.  The  knowledge  that  comes 
from  personal,  first-hand  experience  is  the 
most  sure,  and  it  was  this  that  Mr.  Wills 
possessed.  The  skill  and  capacity  dis- 
played by  Mr.  Wills  in  managing  the 
West  Hotel  were  not  to  remain  hidden, 
and  his  reputation  as  a  practical  man 
spread  beyond  the  borders  of  the  western 
city,  beyond  those  of  the  State  and 
reached  as  far  as  the  great  eastern  metrop- 
olis, New  York.  Consequently,  it  was 
not  long  after  the  opening  of  the  Holland 
House  in  that  city  that  Mr.  Wills  was 
called  thither  to  take  the  post  of  assistant 
manager,  in  which  capacity  he  was  a  most 
able  lieutenant  of  the  proprietor,  Gustav 
Baumann.  He  remained  with  this  famous 
old  hotel  for  thirteen  years  as  assistant 


manager  and  the  last  two  years  as  man- 
ager. At  the  time  of  the  organization  of 
the  company  which  projected  the  great 
Biltmore  Hotel  in  New  York  City,  Mr. 
Wills  became  identified  with  these  inter- 
ests and  did  considerable  work  in  their 
cause  in  California  for  one  year  before 
the  actual  opening  of  the  hotel  in  this  city. 
The  latter  event  took  place  on  December 
31,  1913,  and  Mr.  Wills  was  appointed 
manager  thereof  with  the  management  of 
the  office  force.  A  few  years  preceding 
his  installation  in  his  important  post  Mr. 
Wills  had  suffered  from  a  severe  attack  of 
typhoid  fever  and  never  recovered  his 
health  entirely,  this  probably  being  due 
to  the  fact  that  he  resumed  hard  work  be- 
fore entirely  regaining  his  strength.  A 
serious  affection  of  the  throat  glands  fol- 
lowed, involving  dangerous  operations, 
and  although  he  afterwards  did  a  great 
deal  of  hard  work  he  never  experienced 
the  same  robust  health  that  he  had  known 
prior  to  his  illness.  He  was  not  destined 
to  enjoy  the  prerogatives  or  labor  at  the 
tasks  of  his  new  office  for  long,  and  it  was 
but  a  few  brief  weeks  after  the  hotel's 
opening  that  he  was  obliged  to  take  a  rest 
on  account  of  his  health.  He  was  never 
to  return.  For  a  time  he  travelled  in 
Georgia,  seeking  to  regain  his  strength, 
and  a  short  time  before  his  death  returned 
to  his  home  in  New  York.  Mr.  Wills  was 
prominent  in  social  circles  in  New  York. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  Minnesota  Soci- 
ety which  is  formed  entirely  of  men  in  the 
city  who  have  come  from  the  State  of 
Minnesota,  and  he  belonged  to  the  Bay 
Head  Yacht  Club.  He  had  a  strong  taste 
for  outdoor  sports  and  pastimes  in  gen- 
eral. He  attended  the  All  Angels  Epis- 
copal Church. 

On  October  17,  1892,  Mr.  Wills  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Helen  Cynthia 
Emory,  a  daughter  of  William  H.  and 
Ada  (Herring)  Emory.     Mr.  Emory  was 


138 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


a  native  of  Maryland  and  his  wife  of 
Gouverneur,  St.  Lawrence  county,  New 
York,  while  Mrs.  Wills  was  born  in  Una- 
dilla,  Otsego  county,  New  York.  To  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Wills  was  born  one  child,  a 
daughter,  Helen  Gertrude.  Mrs.  Wills 
survives  her  husband  and  at  present 
makes  her  home  at  No.  321  West  Ninety- 
fourth  street,  New  York  City. 

There  is  always  an  element  of  the  tragic 
in  the  visit  of  death  when  it  occurs  in 
youth  or  in  the  prime  of  life,  and  this  is 
but  rendered  the  more  acute  when  the  life 
that  is  thus  untimely  brought  to  an  end  is 
one  in  which  noteworthy  achievement 
seems  to  give  promise  of  an  even  more 
brilliant  future.  This  was  certainly  the 
case  in  the  career  of  Mr.  Wills,  whose 
powers  and  faculties  were  at  their  prime 
when  his  days  were  thus  abbreviated. 
This  sketch  cannot  be  more  fittingly 
closed  than  by  a  quotation  from  a  memo- 
rial written  of  him  at  the  time  of  his 
death  by  a  warm  personal  friend  who  had 
known  him  ever  since  his  coming  to 
America  in  his  youth.  This  tribute  ap- 
peared in  the  "National  Hotel  Reporter" 
and  read  in  part  as  follows: 

There  was  in  the  case  of  the  late  Charles  J. 
Wills  that  which  proves  the  inscrutability  of  the 
ways  of  Providence.  Having  worked  his  way  up 
by  sheer  force  of  personal  determination,  com- 
pelling respect  for  his  strict  probity  and  unfail- 
ing dependability,  he  had  attained  to  large  meas- 
ured facility  in  his  chosen  pursuit  and  was  in  line 
for  advancement  to  one  of  the  most  responsible 
positions  of  practical  hotel  keeping.  Then,  right 
in  the  prime  of  vigorous  manhood,  he  was 
stricken  by  the  hand  of  disease  and,  notwith- 
standing he  made  a  long  and  heroic  fight  against 
its  encroachments,  was  at  last  compelled  to  yield 
and  to  graduate  into  an  untried  field. 

Here  follows  a  brief  summary  of  the 
events  in  Mr.  Wills'  life  after  which  the 
article  goes  on  to  say : 

Perfect  in  physical  makeup,  with  no  lack  of  in- 
tellectual  endowment,   Mr.   Wills   schooled   and 


disciplined  his  native  faculties,  expending  them 
with  energetic  loyalty  to  the  interests  of  his  em- 
ployer. More  than  a  half  decade  ago  Mr.  Willis 
underwent  a  siege  of  typhoid  fever.  It  is  prob- 
able that  his  devotion  to  duty  and  his  o'er  ween- 
ing desire  for  accomplishment  tended  to  his  ulti- 
mate undoing.  Against  the  cautioning  of  those 
having  his  best  interests  at  heart,  Wills  resumed 
his  work-a-day  harness  ere  he  was  in  full  pos- 
session of  normal  strength.  Poor  Wills  never 
fully  regained  his  strength,  and  although  he  sub- 
sequently accomplished  an  enormous  amount  of 
work,  very  difficult  and  trying  at  times,  it  is 
evident  that  he  kept  going,  much  of  the  time,  on 
sheer  force  of  will.  But  his  work  here  is  done; 
his  terrestrial  course  is  completed.  He  leaves 
an  unblemished  record,  and  those  called  most 
keenly  to  mourn  his  early  taking  off  possess  the 
consoling  memories  of  an  affectionate  husband 
and  a  kind  and  considerate  father.  Hoteldom 
has  suffered  the  loss  of  an  energetic  and  re- 
sourceful factor  of  a  class  of  which  there  are 
none  too  many. 


STANBROUGH,  Lyman  Truman, 
Lawyer,  Public-spirited  Citizen. 

Although  a  graduate  in  law  and  duly 
admitted  to  the  bar  it  was  not  as  a  lawyer 
that  Lyman  T.  Stanbrough  was  known 
and  respected,  but  as  a  capable,  upright 
business  man  who  honorably  conducted 
his  own  private  business  and  faithfully 
administered  many  important  trusts  com- 
mitted to  him.  He  was  a  man  of  genial, 
generous  nature,  very  companionable  and 
neighborly,  a  fine  type  of  the  American 
citizen  and  business  man,  whom  all  de- 
light to  honor.  From  earliest  infancy 
until  death  he  was  a  resident  of  Owego 
and  from  the  termination  of  his  college 
years  in  1888  had  been  actively  engaged 
in  business  in  Owego,  a  village  for  which 
he  felt  all  the  affection  of  a  "native  son". 
He  took  an  active  interest  in  all  that 
tended  to  advance  and  elevate  the  com- 
munity and  whether  in  business,  church, 
civic  improvement  or  fraternity  bore  a 
full  part.  Public  spirited  and  charitable, 
he  gave  largely  of  his  means  but  ever 


139 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


refused  all  offers  of  political  preferment, 
believing  he  could  best  serve  as  a  private 
citizen ;  and  in  the  language  of  his  breth- 
ren of  the  Tioga  county  bar,  in  resolu- 
tions of  respect,  "The  community  has  lost 
one  of  its  foremost,  strongest,  most  gener- 
ous and  progressive  citizens,  whose  judg- 
ment and  advice  in  matters  of  public  in- 
terest and  public  improvement,  were  uni- 
versally sought  and  appreciated,  and 
whose  assistance  was  freely  given." 

Lyman  Truman  Stanbrough  was  born 
in  Newburgh,  New  York,  January  n, 
1864,  died  in  Owego,  Tioga  county,  New 
York,  early  Sunday  morning,  October  19, 
1913,  at  his  residence  on  Front  street.  He 
was  the  eldest  son  of  John  Blake  Stan- 
brough, Doctor  of  Dental  Surgery,  and 
business  man  of  Newburgh  and  Owego, 
and  his  wife,  Adeline  Truman.  At  the 
time  of  his  birth  his  father  was  practicing 
dentistry  in  Newburgh,  but  the  following 
May  located  in  Owego  where  he  ended 
his  days,  proprietor  of  a  prosperous  hard- 
ware and  plumbing  business.  Dr.  Stan- 
brough died  January  20,  1908;  his  wife, 
Adeline  (Truman)  Stanbrough,  is  now  a 
resident  of  Owego. 

Lyman  Truman  Stanbrough  began  his 
education  in  Owego  Free  Academy  and 
after  graduation  from  that  institution 
passed  to  Cornell  University.  Deciding 
upon  the  profession  of  law,  he  studied 
under  Charles  A.  Clark,  and  H.  Austin 
Clark,  of  the  Tioga  County  bar,  and  with 
McFarland,  Boardman  &  Piatt,  of  the 
New  York  City  bar,  being  admitted  to 
practice  in  1887.  He  then  took  a  course 
at  Columbia  Law  School,  receiving  his 
degree  of  LL.  B.  class  of  "88".  During 
his  student  years  he  received  appointment 
to  a  cadetship  in  the  United  States  Mili- 
tary Academy  at  West  Point,  but  resigned 
the  honor  before  matriculation. 

Although  learned  in  the  law  and  duly 
qualified  Mr.  Stanbrough  never  practiced 


actively,  but  as  counsel  and  executor  of 
large  estates,  his  legal  learning  was  of 
the  greatest  value  to  him  and  the  interests 
he  represented.  After  his  father's  death 
he  conducted  the  hardware  and  plumbing 
business  for  the  benefit  of  the  J.  B.  Stan- 
brough estate,  during  the  course  of  his 
career  settled  several  large  estates,  was 
executor  and  trustee  of  the  Lyman  Tru- 
man (his  maternal  grandfather)  estate, 
until  his  death,  and  completed  his  legal 
life  work  in  effecting  the  reorganization 
of  the  Champion  Wagon  Company,  In- 
corporated, of  which  he  was  vice-presi- 
dent. His  broad  knowledge  of  the  law, 
his  high  sense  of  honor,  and  his  strict 
integrity,  would  have  placed  him  in  the 
front  rank  at  the  bar,  had  he  used  his 
talents  and  gifts  in  general  practice,  but 
even  in  his  limited  professional  associa- 
tion with  his  brethren  of  the  bar  they 
learned  fully  to  appreciate  him  most 
highly. 

Public  spirited  and  generous  he  gave 
freely  to  church,  charity  and  village.  One 
of  his  gifts  made  in  conjunction  with  his 
aunt,  Mrs.  Emily  Gere,  was  the  complete 
outfitting  of  Defiance  Hook  and  Ladder 
Company,  with  new  uniforms.  He  was  a 
vestryman  of  St.  Paul's  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church,  an  office  to  which  he  was 
elected  to  succeed  his  honored  father.  He 
consented  to  serve  the  village  as  super- 
visor from  1896  to  1900  and  in  the  man- 
agement of  public  affairs  as  well  as  in  his 
private  business  he  demonstrated  his  busi- 
ness ability  and  efficiency. 

He  entered  into  close  relations  with  his 
townsmen  in  the  various  fraternal  orders 
and  other  organizations,  belonging  to 
Ahwaga  Lodge,  No.  587,  Free  and  Ac- 
cepted Masons ;  Jerusalem  Chapter,  No. 
47,  Royal  Arch  Masons ;  Sa-sa-na  Loft 
Tribe,  Imperial  Order  of  Red  Men ;  De- 
fiance Hook  and  Ladder  Company,  of  the 
Owego  Fire  Department ;  and  was  at  one 


Athletic,  his  . 
■ 
He  had  been  foi 
board  of  direct 

i 

to  with  respec 

• 
rendering  him 

fe  leader.     He  i 

.-y,    remembei 

riend,  the  public  spirited 
the  loving  son   h  father. 

Mr.  Stanbrough  married,  Jai^ 

ine  Barton,  daughter 

ary   (Watson)    Barton,  whi 
vives  him  with  one  daughter,  Margaret. 


GATES,  John  Warae, 

Mnnof  actor  er,  Man  of  A  Si 

With  the  per;. 
dustries  expande 
and  fame  of  John  W   ' 
bly  associated.     He 
the  time;   he 
■ 

■ 
But  his  Americanism,  his  - 
:ity,    his    gril 
rom  a  family 
For  nine  generations   in   Am< 
amily  persevt 
Stephen    Gates,    wi, 

I  )iligent"  and 

',   could    tra<- 

lerations   to 

sturdy  squire  of  Highea.-: 

knight 


1    of   sul 
hampion 

■ 


■ 


[638,    to 
n  in  Tur- 

■ 

each  gei 

the  ed?  ion.     As  wild 

:  enetrated  to 
quered.  g  Gates  fair: 

ut   and    from 
■  ego  county,  New 

- 

■•     ■  ■ 
rent  West  7 

beset  a  farmer  in  a  new  rtg 
family  of  American 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Warne,  the  descendant  of  Thomas  Warne 
who,  arriving  in  America  in  1682,  was  one 
of  the  twenty-four  proprietors  of  the 
Eastern  Division  of  New  Jersey.  Thomas 
Warne,  the  New  Jersey  proprietor,  though 
coming  from  Dublin,  could  count  among 
his  ancestors  many  noblemen  and  others 
that  performed  important  service  for  Eng- 
land in  the  battle  of  Agincourt  and  else- 
where, inasmuch  as  the  written  genealogy 
of  the  Warnes  begins  with  a  bold-hearted 
hero  who  was  made  sheriff  of  Shropshire 
in   1066. 

Mary  Warne,  who  had  a  twin  sister 
named  Susan,  was  born  in  Warren  county, 
New  Jersey,  on  March  22,  1826.  Through 
life  she  was  distinguished  for  piety,  kind- 
ness, and  good  deeds.  Particularly,  with 
the  utmost  truth,  it  could  be  said  of  her 
that  she  was  all  that  a  wife  and  mother 
should  be.  Members  of  the  Gates  family 
were  bound  together  by  ties  of  unusual 
affection.  The  wife  of  Ansel  Avery  Gates 
was  best  known  as  the  mother  of  John 
W.  Gates.  The  magnificent  hospital  at 
Port  Arthur,  Texas,  which  he  richly  en- 
dowed is  her  enduring  memorial. 

Ansel  Avery  Gates  had  four  sons;  the 
eldest,  George  W.,  was  a  volunteer  in  the 
Union  army  during  the  Civil  War  and 
gave  his  life  for  his  country  before  he 
attained  the  age  of  twenty ;  the  next  two, 
Gilford  and  Gilbert  W.,  were  twins.  Gil- 
ford died  in  infancy ;  Gilbert  W.,  at  the 
age  of  nineteen,  met  a  more  tragic  fate. 
Adventurous,  self-reliant,  keen  to  do  busi- 
ness, Gilbert  W.  Gates  had  gone  to  Kan- 
sas. Returning,  he  had  for  a  traveling 
companion  an  older  man  named  Alex- 
ander Jester.  To  secure  the  team,  wagon, 
goods  and  what  money  the  young  man 
had,  Jester  murdered  Gates.  Caught,  tried, 
convicted  and  sentenced  to  be  hung,  Jes- 
ter managed  to  escape  from  the  prison  in 
Missouri  where  he  was  confined.  For 
more  than  thirty  years  he  remained  at 


liberty.  Eventually  he  was  met  by  his 
sister  who  recognized  him,  denounced 
him  as  a  murderer  and  caused  his  arrest. 
Retried  for  the  murder  of  Gilbert  W. 
Gates,  he  again  escaped  punishment;  this 
time  because  Jester  was  eighty-one  years 
old,  the  jury  allowed  him  the  benefit  of  a 
possible  doubt  as  to  his  identity. 

Youngest  of  the  sons  of  Ansel  Avery 
Gates,  John  W.,  was  destined  to  be  the 
most  important,  best  known  member  of 
the  Gates  family.  At  Turner  Junction, 
where  his  boyhood  days  were  passed  and 
where  he  went  to  the  public  school,  he 
first  attracted  attention  as  a  diligent 
youth ;  at  the  Naperville  Academy  he 
made  excellent  progress  in  his  studies, 
and  always  he  was  commended  as  a  duti- 
ful son.  Even  at  the  age  when  most  boys 
are  described  as  thoughtless,  he  was  busi- 
ness-like, purposeful.  He  arrived  at  ma- 
turity early.  Before  he  was  nineteen,  he 
not  only  had  engaged  in  business  for  him- 
self, but  also  he  had  courted  and  married 
Dellora  Roxana,  daughter  of  Edward  and 
Martha  E.  Baker.  In  the  selection  of  a 
life  partner  he  was  wise  and  fortunate. 
He  realized  it.  In  choosing  associates, 
not  many  have  been  more  discerning  than 
John  W.  Gates.  Nor  did  he  ever  forget 
to  make  adequate  return  for  assistance 
rendered  at  any  time  during  his  eventful 
career. 

Gifted  with  ability  to  see  ahead,  willing 
to  take  risks  because  he  trusted  his  own 
judgment,  a  worker,  a  strategist,  a  finan- 
cier, John  W.  Gates  outclimbed  others  to 
the  heights  of  success,  chiefly  because  he 
had  the  larger  vision  and  the  greater  cour- 
age. He  showed  how  competent  he  could 
be,  while  he  was  yet  a  boy.  Money, 
earned  by  performing  laborious  tasks  on 
neighboring  farms,  enabled  him  to  buy  a 
half  interest  in  a  threshing  outfit.  Suc- 
cessful in  his  first  investment,  he  quickly 
availed  himself  of  the  next  opportunity. 


[42 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


At  the  age  of  eighteen,  he  sold  his  interest 
in  the  threshing  machine  and  bought  a 
small  hardware  business  at  Turner  Junc- 
tion. The  shrewd  young  store-keeper, 
brought  in  contact  with  barbed  wire,  at 
once  saw  possibilities  that  others  then 
failed  to  see.  Acquaintance  with  Isaac  L. 
Ellwood,  who,  with  Joseph  F.  Glidden, 
had  just  begun  to  manufacture  barbed 
wire  presented  a  chance  that  John  W. 
Gates  eagerly  grasped.  Realizing  almost 
before  anyone  else  did  how  useful  barbed 
wire  fencing  would  be  to  the  cattlemen  of 
the  West  and  Southwest,  he  traveled 
through  the  country  introducing  and  sell- 
ing the  new  fence  material. 

Success,  such  as  he  achieved  as  a  sales- 
man would  have  satisfied  most  men.  But 
he  wasn't  content  to  be  a  salesman, 
merely.  The  manufacturing  end  of  the 
barbed  wire  business  now  appealed  to 
him.  He  commenced  to  make  barbed 
wire  in  St.  Louis  and  made  good  from  the 
very  outset.  He  progressed  so  prosper- 
ously that,  in  a  short  time,  a  consolidation 
was  effected  with  Clifford  &  Edenborn 
and  the  big  plant  resulting  was  known  as 
the  St.  Louis  Wire  Mill.  One  big  factory, 
however  busy,  failed  to  keep  him  oc- 
cupied. He  bought  and  built  more  wire 
mills.  These  properties  and  their  acces- 
sories were  comprised  in  the  Consolidated 
Steel  &  Wire  Company.  Previously  re- 
stricted to  the  manufacture  of  barbed 
wire  he  enlarged  his  enterprises  and  in- 
cluded in  the  industries  he  and  his  associ- 
ates controlled  all  kinds  of  wire  and  wire 
products.  The  merger  of  these  great  in- 
terests became  the  American  Steel  and 
Wire  Company.  Mr.  Gates  was  chairman 
of  the  executive  committee  of  the  Ameri- 
can Steel  &  Wire  Company.  When  the 
company  that  controlled  the  bulk  of 
American  wire  production  was  acquired 
by  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation,  Mr. 
Gates  exchanged  many  of  his  steel  secur- 
ities for  cash  and  employed  his  money 


elsewhere.  As  a  special  partner  in  his 
son's  banking  and  commission  house 
(Harris,  Gates  &  Company,  1902-04,  and 
Charles  G.  Gates  &  Company,  1904-07, 
called  the  "House  of  Twelve  Partners") 
he  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  power- 
ful men  who  contended  for  the  mastery  of 
the  stock  market.  Those  that  heretofore 
had  been  supreme,  couldn't  intimidate 
him.  He  fought  financial  battles  success- 
fully with  the  best  of  them.  His  ability 
as  a  speculator  and  his  command  of  mil- 
lions prevented  him  from  ever  being  over- 
come. One  exploit  of  his  that  Wall  street 
never  will  forget,  was  the  coup  by  which 
he  obtained  control  of  the  Louisville  & 
Nashville  Railroad  in  1902.  Yet  withal 
his  great  achievements  were  constructive 
rather  than  speculative.  He  was  the 
prime  mover  in  the  organization  of  the 
United  States  Realty  and  Improvement 
Company.  The  assistance  of  Mr.  Gates 
made  possible  the  construction  of  the 
Plaza  Hotel  and  the  great  Hippodrome, 
New  York's  most  capacious  and  spectacu- 
lar playhouse.  He  organized  the  Texas 
Company  and  created  in  the  petroleum 
districts  of  the  Southwest  a  competing 
company  able  to  withstand  Standard  Oil. 
Interested  in  the  Kansas  City  Southern 
Railroad,  he  studied  the  development  of 
Southeastern  Texas.  He  was  instrumen- 
tal in  having  Port  Arthur  made  a  port  of 
entry.  His  representations,  despite  the 
fiercest  opposition,  brought  about  the  im- 
provement of  the  harbor  and  other  water- 
ways adjacent  to  Port  Arthur.  He  rein- 
vested millions  in  the  Tennessee  Coal 
Iron  and  Railroad  Company  and  in  the 
Republic  Iron  &  Steel  Company,  two  con- 
cerns that  were  strong  competitors  of  the 
Steel  Trust.  He  sold  his  holdings  in 
Tennessee  Coal  &  Iron  when  that  big 
company  was  purchased  by  the  United 
States  Steel  Corporation.  His  interest  in 
Republic  Iron  &  Steel  he  held  firmly  until 
his  death.  Stricken  with  a  complication 
43 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


of  ailments,  in  Paris,  where  he  had  gone 
for  his  annual  vacation,  Mr.  Gates  died  on 
August  9,  191 1. 

Judged  according  to  his  achievements 
and  character,  John  W.  Gates  was  one  of 
the  great  men  produced  in  an  epoch  of 
millionairs.  Few  of  his  contemporaries 
had  his  breadth  of  view.  Independent, 
strong,  quick  to  act,  audacious,  tenacious, 
generous,  he  never  feared  to  meet  a 
mighty  opponent  nor  sought  to  crush  the 
weak.  When  he  first  became  prosperous, 
his  first  thought  was  to  make  suitable 
provision  for  the  comfort  of  his  parents. 
At  St.  Charles,  Illinois,  he  erected  for 
them  a  beautiful  home,  supplied  with 
every  luxury  they  might  desire. 

His  affection  for  his  brother,  Gilbert 
W.,  caused  him  to  have  the  search  for 
Alexander  Jester  persistently  continued 
for  over  thirty  years.  For  his  only  son, 
Charles  Gilbert,  he  entertained  great 
hopes  and  some  of  his  hardest  financial 
battles  were  fought  to  ensure  the  young 
man's  prestige.  His  virtues  were  of  a 
rugged  order,  his  charities,  large,  numer- 
ous and  unadvertised.  Of  his  many  benefi- 
cences, only  two  were  accorded  publicity 
with  the  consent  of  Mr.  Gates.  They 
were  the  Port  Arthur  College  and  the 
Mary  Gates  Hospital  founded  in  memory 
of  his  mother.  Politically,  Mr.  Gates 
was  always  affiliated  with  the  Republi- 
can party;  his  church  connections  were 
Methodist;  the  clubs  to  which  he  be- 
longed were:  Lawyer's  Club,  Railroad 
Club  of  New  York,  Auto  Club  of  America, 
Chicago  Athletic  Association,  Whitehall 
Club,  Whist  Club,  Tolleston  Club  of  Chi- 
cago, The  Chicago  Club,  Manhattan  Club, 
New  York  Club,  Boston  Club  of  New 
Orleans,  Atlantic  Yacht  Club,  Country 
Club  of  Westchester  County,  Columbia 
Yacht  Club,  Calumet  Club,  Chicago, 
Coney  Island  Jockey  Club,  Brooklyn 
Jockey  Club. 


NEARING,  Lucius  Alexander, 

Eminent  Dentist. 

Although  a  man  nearing  life's  prime 
when  he  located  in  Syracuse,  Dr.  Nearing 
practiced  his  profession  in  that  city  for 
nearly  half  a  century  of  his  eighty-five 
years.  He  came  of  a  long  lived  race,  his 
father  living  to  be  eighty-four,  his  brother 
and  sisters  also  living  to  advanced  ages. 
His  early  life  was  spent  on  the  home  farm 
at  Pompey  Hill,  but  he  found  he  pos- 
sessed a  natural  aptitude  for  working 
with  tools  and  abandoned  the  farm  for  a 
trade,  then  from  a  trade  advanced  to  a 
profession.  His  magnificent  constitution 
and  invariable  good  health  which  carried 
him  far  into  the  ranks  of  octegenarians 
he  attributed  to  the  years  spent  in  out-of- 
door  work  on  the  farm,  and  in  the  build- 
ing operations  with  which  he  was  con- 
nected. He  was  deeply  interested  in  the 
welfare  of  his  adopted  city,  ranked  high 
in  his  profession,  was  honorable  and  loyal 
in  his  citizenship  and  was  held  in  high 
esteem  in  his  community.  The  Nearings 
came  to  Onondaga  county,  New  York, 
from  Connecticut,  Dr.  Nearing's  father 
coming  in  1800,  and  locating  with  his 
brother  on  a  two  hundred  acre  tract  at 
Pompey  Hill,  which  they  personally 
cleared  of  timber  and  brought  under  cul- 
tivation. 

Lucius  Alexander  Nearing  was  born  at 
Pompey,  Onondaga  county,  New  York, 
December  10,  1824,  died  in  Syracuse,  New 
York,  April  6,  1910.  He  attended  the 
public  schools  in  winter  months,  but  from 
an  early  age  worked  as  his  father's  farm 
assistant  until  attaining  his  majority.  He 
was  a  natural  mechanic  and  fond  of  work- 
ing with  most  any  kind  of  tools.  As  soon 
as  he  was  legally  free  from  parental  re- 
straint he  abandoned  farm  work  and 
learned  the  carpenter's  trade  with  a 
Pompey  builder.     He  worked  for  several 


0 


VU^^JLm^AI^J^ 


years  at  this  trade  during  the  summer 
months^  becoming  a  skilled  workman  and 
eventually  a  contractor  and  builder.  Dur- 
ing   the    winter    months,    when 
building  opera 

la 
Mr.   Morley,    th 
cabinet  maker 

rial 

He  did  not  lo 
in  Rochester 
better  qualified 

mined  to  become  a  dentist.     He 
with  Dr.  A.  J.  Morgan,  of  Roches; 
after  attaining  a  sui! 

returned  to  Pompt 
practicing  den.. 

He  continued  in  Pompey  until  1863 
he  decided  his  skill  and  knowledge: 
be  employed  to  better  advantag 
:ace.    He  selected  Syracus 
n,  rented  and  fitted  up  oft;.., 
"'egan  practice.     He  won 
favor  and  for  forty-seven  years  c 
ously  practice- 
He   enjoyed  perfect 
possession  of 

istered  to  the  needs  of  his  cli 
his  last  illness,  three  week 

Tror  several   years  his  so 
ing,  had  be? 
ivith  him  in  practice.     Hi^ 
in   the   dental    profession 
tistry  was  hardly  regard 
ion,  the  medk 
ng  and  little  otl 
npted  outside  of  the  great 
ing's  natura'  h  tools 

im  easily  masl 
nts  and  as  the  demand  for  better 
ork  spread,  the  mechanical  part 
ofession  was  quickly  acquired, 
with  the  years,  kept  pace  with 
K  Y-Vol  in — 10  14 


- 

He  mo 
bor,  and  ' 

in   polio 

Dr.  Nearin;., 

ward  Nearing,  D.  D 

her  in  practia 

and  a  daughter,  Mrs 

me,  her  death  .    . 
[,  aged  eight. 


[,  Frankliri, 

J^uxTm:.»i  and   ■.-■■.     •■  -  -      - 

m any  years  a 

- 
!   fame,  the  i. 

.  conception  oi 

an  evo:i 

elemen 

1 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


view  of  "First  Principles."  some  two 
years  prior  to  his  death,  Mr.  Smith  gave 
a  popular  exposition  of  what  evolution 
really  is.  In  an  autograph  letter  to  him, 
the  aged  and  distinguished  philosopher 
pronounced  it  the  best  popular  exposition 
of  the  principles  of  evolution  that  had 
appeared  in  the  press  of  England  or 
America  since  the  first  publication  of  his 
works,  half  a  century  ago. 

The  most  striking  thing  about  Mr. 
Smith  was  the  intensity  of  his  individual- 
ity. He  was  an  advocate  of  "individual- 
ism in  philosophy"  and  his  overmastering 
impulse  was  loyalty  to  his  mission  as  a 
man.  He  felt  that  he  was  put  on  earth 
to  think  out  great  problems  conscienti- 
ously, make  his  thought  known,  act  on 
it,  and  abide  by  what  he  conceived  to  be 
the  truth,  no  matter  how  the  current  of 
popular  opinion  ran.  He  believed  his 
personality  to  be  in  the  nature  of  a  divine 
trust,  not  to  be  betrayed  by  surrender  to 
mere  conventionalities,  but  to  be  asserted 
as  an  influence  in  the  life  about  him.  No 
man  took  more  to  heart  any  tendency  in 
society  or  the  nation  toward  what  he  be- 
lieved folly  or  wrong.  Public  evil  touched 
him  as  it  touches  few  men.  As  a  jour- 
nalist his  inclination  was  toward  that 
school  that  sets  opinions  above  news  and 
that  considers  it  the  mission  of  the  news- 
paper to  instruct  rather  than  to  amuse. 
He  studied  a  great  theme  carefully  and  he 
sought  to  lead  rather  than  to  follow  the 
impulses  of  a  community.  He  was  a  man 
of  high  ideals,  and  of  a  serious  cast  of 
mind,  although  there  were  many  flashes 
of  humor  in  his  conversation.  He  re- 
spected the  opinions  of  others  and  in  his 
discussions  sought  truth  not  controversy. 
The  welfare  of  his  fellow-men  was  ever 
nearest  his  heart,  and  through  education 
and  moral  training  he  ceaselessly  strove 
for  the  uplift  of  humanity. 

He  believed  in  the  practical  application 
of    the    Golden    Rule.      Strict   integrity, 


146 


absolute  fairness  and  unselfishness  were 
to  him  simple  and  common-place  rules  of 
conduct,  whether  of  the  individual  or  the 
nation.  His  political  system  had  for  its 
basis  the  maxim  that  the  least  possible 
government  is  the  best  possible  govern- 
ment ;  he  believed  that  the  more  the  fol- 
lowers of  industrial  pursuits  were  left  to 
themselves  the  more  they  contributed  to 
the  welfare  of  their  fellows.  The  chief, 
if  not  the  only  functions  of  government, 
were  the  preservation  of  order  and  en- 
forcement of  justice.  He  believed  that 
benefit  to  the  individual  should  be  in  pro- 
portion to  individual  merit.  He  insisted, 
therefore,  that  every  man  should  have  a 
free  field  for  his  activities,  and  that  the 
government  should  not  interfere  with  this 
principle  by  conferring  special  favors 
upon  anyone.  It  pained  him  to  see  the 
strong  and  powerful  commit  aggressions 
upon  the  weak  and  helpless.  Against 
such  aggressions  he  waged  a  relentless 
war  during  his  entire  life.  His  supreme 
faith  in  humanity  led  him  to  appeal  to 
the  better  natures  of  his  readers  and 
hearers,  and  he  hopefully  looked  forward 
to  the  time  when  war  should  be  no  more 
and  mankind  should  dwell  together  in 
peace,  all  energies  being  devoted,  not  to 
the  destruction  but  to  the  upbuilding  of 
the  entire  race.  His  cheerful  confidence 
in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  all  that  was 
good  was  a  constant  inspiration.  In  his 
private  life  he  was  kind,  loyal,  lovable, 
tender-hearted,  and  honest-minded,  a 
sincere  friend  of  humanity,  a  real  lover 
and  benefactor  of  the  race,  and  modestly, 
devotedly,  conscientiously,  he  spent  his 
entire  life  usefully  in  behalf  of  his  fellow- 
men. 

Franklin  Smith  was  born  in  South 
Granville,  Washington  county,  New  York, 
October  3,  1853,  the  son  of  Pascal  C.  and 
Ann  P.  Smith,  and  was  a  grandson  of  Dr. 
Horace  Smith,  who  practiced  medicine 
during  the  middle  of  the  last  century  for 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


nearly  fifty  years  in  South  Granville  and 
the  neighboring  country.  Franklin  Smith 
obtained  his  early  education  in  the  dis- 
trict school  of  South  Granville,  the  Union 
school  in  West  Pawlet  and  the  academy 
at  Poultney,  Vermont.  Before  he  was 
ten  years  of  age  he  discovered  in  his 
grandfather's  library  an  edition  of  Rol- 
lin's  "History  of  Greece"  that  he  devoured 
with  avidity.  From  that  time  he  became 
an  indefatigable  reader  and  student  of 
history,  political  economy,  sociology  and 
philosophy.  Until  the  age  of  sixteen  years 
he  worked  upon  a  farm  in  the  summer 
and  attended  school  in  the  winter.  In  the 
summer  of  1871,  while  at  work  in  South 
Granville,  he  conceived  the  idea  of  attend- 
ing Cornell  University  at  Ithaca,  New 
York,  and  through  the  assistance  of 
friends,  Mr.  Ezra  Bullock  and  Mr.  John 
Baker,  he  went  to  Ithaca  in  September  of 
that  year,  and  entered  the  university  in 
the  class  of  1875.  ^n  order  to  obtain  the 
money  for  his  college  course,  he  worked 
upon  the  university  farm  the  first  year, 
and  the  two  succeeding  years  he  worked 
in  the  university  printing  office,  having 
previously  learned  the  art  of  setting  type 
in  Granville.  While  at  college  he  devoted 
as  many  hours  as  possible  aside  from  his 
regular  studies  and  work  to  reading  in 
the  university  library.  During  his  senior 
year  he  became  the  secretary  of  President 
White,  a  position  he  occupied  until  he 
graduated,  and  during  that  time  he  de- 
veloped a  taste  for  literary  work,  in  which 
in  later  years  he  so  distinguished  himself. 
Also  during  his  senior  year  he  did  a  large 
amount  of  special  work,  and  was  awarded 
a  prize  for  an  essay  that  he  prepared  on 
"The  Vernacular  Literature  of  the  Middle 
Ages  in  its  Relation  to  Romanism."  Al- 
though poorly  prepared  when  he  entered 
the  university,  handicapped  by  the  lack  of 
funds,  and  compelled  as  he  was  to  main- 
tain himself  by  his  own  exertions,  he  was 
graduated  with    high    honors.     He  was 


chosen  as  one  of  the  commencement  ora- 
tors, the  subject  of  his  oration  being 
"Rousseau  as  a  Philosopher  of  the  French 
Revolution."  He  had  the  novel  distinc- 
tion of  having  expended  the  least  amount 
for  his  college  course  of  any  member  of 
his  class.  He  then  threw  himself  into 
literary  work  with  all  the  energy  and 
perseverance  he  possessed,  and  to  his 
wonderful  energy  and  indomitable  per- 
severance was  due  his  rapid  and  perma- 
nent advancement  in  the  field  of  journal- 
ism. The  helpful  mind  of  President  White 
stimulated  his  researches  and  in  the 
latter's  private  library  many  were  the 
hours  of  delightful  reading  and  conversa- 
tion by  master  and  pupil.  The  friendship 
thus  founded  ever  endured. 

After  his  graduation  from  Cornell,  Mr. 
Smith  went  to  Rochester,  New  York,  and 
became  a  reporter  on  the  "Democrat  and 
Chronicle,"  and  shortly  afterward  was 
promoted  to  the  position  of  night  editor 
and  then  associate  editor.  For  ten  years 
he  remained  with  that  paper,  writing 
editorials  that  challenged  the  attention 
not  only  of  the  Rochester  community 
but  also  of  the  press  throughout  the 
country,  much  of  his  work  being  attrib- 
uted to  the  editor-in-chief  of  that  paper. 
In  1886  he  became  the  first  editor-in-chief 
of  the  "Cosmopolitan  Magazine,"  and  re- 
mained with  it  until  the  change  in  owner- 
ship two  years  later.  He  then  became 
one  of  the  editorial  writers  on  the  New 
York  "Evening  Post,"  and  remained 
there  several  years,  and  in  1892  returned 
to  Rochester  to  accept  the  managing 
editorship  of  the  "Union  and  Advertiser." 
He  remained  in  that  city  from  that  time 
until  his  death,  being  connected  as  editor 
with  the  Rochester  "Herald"  and  "Post- 
Express."  As  a  writer,  he  may  have  had 
many  equals,  but  he  surely  had  few 
superiors.  His  sentences  were  never  in- 
volved ;  they  were  short,  crisp  and  in- 
cisive. The  editorials  that  he  prepared 
47 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


from  day  to  day  were  well  considered, 
and  were  written  with  the  utmost  care 
and  precision.  During  this  period  he 
wrote  a  vast  amount  touching  upon  cur- 
rent events,  and  upon  political,  financial, 
economic  and  sociological  questions.  For 
a  number  of  years  prior  to  his  death  he 
wrote  for  a  number  of  monthly  maga- 
zines, and  among  his  essays,  many  of 
which  were  published  in  the  "Popular 
Science  Monthly,"  are  the  following:  "A 
Fiction  of  Political  Metaphysics;"  "An 
Object  Lesson  in  Social  Reform;"  "The 
Despotism  of  Democracy;"  "The  Real 
Problems  of  Democracy;"  "Signs  of  De- 
cadence in  the  United  States ;"  "An  Apos- 
tate Democracy;"  "A  State  Official  on 
Excessive  Taxation ;"  "Reversions  in 
Modern  Industrial  Life;"  "Politics  as  a 
Form  of  Civil  War;"  and  "Peace  as  a 
Factor  in  Social  and  Political  Reform." 
These  essays  are  models  of  a  clear,  accur- 
ate, and  vigorous  literary  style.  He  was 
himself  his  most  severe  critic,  and  his 
published  articles,  therefore,  did  not 
reach  the  press  until  they  had  undergone, 
at  his  hands,  a  most  painstaking  revision. 
Mr.  Smith  intended  to  publish  his  essays 
in  book  form,  but  the  work  was  inter- 
rupted by  his  untimely  death.  Singular 
as  it  may  seem  Mr.  Smith  developed  no 
marked  taste  or  aptitude  for  literary 
work  until  his  senior  year  in  college.  His 
early  ambition  was  to  study  medicine. 
His  grandfather  and  an  uncle  on  his 
father's  side  had  been  physicians,  and  it 
seemed  to  him  that  by  heredity  and 
natural  tastes,  he  was  adapted  to  per- 
petuate that  profession  in  his  family. 
But  circumstances  prevented  the  realiza- 
tion of  this  ambition. 

Mr.  Smith  possessed  a  striking  and 
attractive  personality.  He  impressed  one 
as  a  profound  student  and  scholar.  His 
presence  commanded  attention  in  any 
assemblage  of  men,  and  he  made  friends 
wherever   he   went,   who   became    firmly 


attached  to  him  by  reason  of  his  strong 
personality,  and  his  kind,  generous  and 
sympathetic  disposition.  He  was  a 
most  entertaining  conversationalist,  pos- 
sessing a  vast  fund  of  information  that 
he  had  acquired  in  his  newspaper  work 
and  by  constant  and  careful  reading  and 
investigation.  But  what  was  of  more 
importance,  he  had  thoroughly  digested 
all  the  information  that  he  had  thus 
acquired.  He  was  slow  in  reaching  con- 
clusions, and  reached  them  only  after 
thorough  investigation  and  profound 
thought;  he  was  at  all  times  prepared  to 
defend  the  opinions  that  he  had  thus 
formed  against  the  attacks  of  anyone. 
Nevertheless,  he  had  great  respect  for  the 
opinions  of  others,  but  he  insisted  that 
those  opinions  should  be  based  upon 
something  that  appealed  to  reason. 

Mr.  Smith  married,  in  1884,  Emma  E. 
Home,  of  Rochester,  a  woman  of  marked 
ability,  who  survives  him.  Mr.  Smith 
died  at  his  home  in  Rochester,  Novem- 
ber 5,  1903.  His  work  was  well  done 
and  unselfish.  His  reputation  was  un- 
tarnished. He  died  highly  respected  and 
esteemed  by  all  who  knew  him,  and  his 
friends  missed  his  personality  and  his 
master  mind.  The  community  in  which 
he  lived  and  made  his  influence  for  good 
felt  sustained  an  irreparable  loss.  What 
better  tribute  can  a  man  have,  and  what 
better  record  can  he  leave  behind? 


PARKER,  Charles  Edward,  LL.  D., 

Lawyer.  Eminent  Jurist. 

There  are  but  few  members  of  the 
present  New  York  bar  who  practiced  be- 
fore Judge  John  Mason  Parker  and  but 
few  who  have  not  practiced  before  his 
son,  Judge  Charles  Edward  Parker. 
There  were  many  points  of  similarity  in 
the  careers  of  these  two  illustrious  sons  of 
the  Empire  State.  Both  achieved  great 
fame  as  able  jurists;  both  were  justices 


148 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  New 
York;  both  had  long  experiences  as  trial 
and  law  judges ;  both  had  fine  legal  minds 
stored  with  a  wealth  of  legal  knowledge 
and  both  were  devoted  to  the  scrupulous 
discharge  of  their  exalted  duties.  The 
elder  Parker  sat  on  the  bench  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  for  a  period  of  sixteen  years, 
six  of  which  he  was  a  justice  of  the  gen- 
eral term  of  the  Supreme  Court,  a  position 
practically  identified  with  that  held  by  his 
son,  except  that  the  latter  had  been  the 
presiding  judge  of  the  Appellate  Court. 

Judge  John  Mason  Parker  died  in  1873, 
aged  sixty-eight  years,  being  a  justice  of 
the  general  term  at  the  time  of  his  death. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  Chemung  county 
bar  for  several  years,  and  from  1858  until 
1859  represented  his  district  in  Congress. 
In  the  fall  of  1859  he  was  elected  a  justice 
of  the  Supreme  Court  and  after  several 
years  on  the  circuit  was  designated  by 
Governor  Hoffman  a  justice  of  the  gen- 
eral term.  He  served  for  six  years  on  the 
appeal  bench,  until  his  death. 

Charles  Edward  Parker,  the  son,  for 
nearly  a  score  of  years  was  a  justice  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York  and  for 
more  than  half  of  that  time  the  presiding 
justice  of  the  Appellate  division,  third 
department.  He  reached  the  constitu- 
tional age  limit  of  seventy  years,  and  in 
1906  retired,  leaving  the  bench  with  a 
record  as  a  jurist  unsurpassed  for  judg- 
ment, fairness  and  legal  learning.  He 
retired  to  his  beautiful  home  in  Owego 
enjoying  the  confidence  and  respect  of 
his  associates  on  the  bench,  his  brethren 
of  the  bar,  and  of  litigants  whose  cases 
he  heard.  The  farewell  proceedings  at 
Albany  exemplified  the  affection  and 
honor  in  which  he  was  held  by  his  breth- 
ren of  the  bench.  At  that  time  the 
judges  of  the  Appellate  division  paid  him 
affectionate  and  well  deserved  tribute  and 
all  hearts  were  touched  at  the  official 
parting.    A  former  member  of  the  court, 


Justice  D.  Cady  Herrick,  acted  as  spokes- 
man for  the  judiciary,  and  David  Bennett 
Hill,  ex-governor,  ex-United  States  Sen- 
ator and  sage,  expressed  to  the  retiring 
judge  his  high  estimate  of  his  eminence 
at  the  bar  and  on  the  bench.  Governor 
Hill's  speech  was  a  gracious  and  graceful 
tribute  from  one  of  the  State's  greatest 
men  to  a  wise  and  upright  judge,  before 
whom  he  had  practiced  as  a  lawyer. 
Three  years  after  his  retirement,  Judge 
Parker  closed  his  earthly  career  full  of 
years  and  honor. 

Charles  Edward  Parker  was  born  in 
Owego,  New  York,  August  25,  1836,  and 
after  a  long  and  eminent  service  as  lawyer 
and  jurist  died  in  the  city  of  his  birth, 
March  2,  1909.  He  was  the  son  of  John 
Mason  Parker,  congressman  and  jurist. 
He  prepared  at  Owego  Academy,  then 
entered  Hobart  College,  whence  he  was 
graduated,  Bachelor  of  Arts,  class  of 
1857.  At  Hobart  he  affiliated  with  Alpha 
Delta  Phi  and  throughout  his  long  life 
cherished  a  high  regard  for  that  frater- 
nity. It  was  also  Hobart,  his  well-beloved 
alma  mater,  that,  forty-three  years  later, 
in  1900,  conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Laws. 

After  graduation  he  began  the  study  of 
law  under  the  direction  of  his  honored 
father,  then  a  member  of  Congress,  but 
a  practitioner  at  the  Tioga  county  bar, 
later  a  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States.  In  1858  he  was  admit- 
ted to  the  Tioga  county  bar  and  quickly 
forged  to  the  front  as  an  able  lawyer  and 
advocate.  He  gained  the  confidence  of 
the  public  as  well  and  in  1867  was  chosen 
a  member  of  the  New  York  Constitu- 
tional Convention  and  with  one  exception 
was  the  youngest  member  of  that  body. 
He  continued  in  successful  practice  until 
1883,  then  forever  retired  from  the  ranks 
of  practicing  lawyers  to  don  judicial 
ermine.  He  was  elected  judge  of  Tioga 
county  in  1883,  but  was  not  allowed  to 


149 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


serve  out  his  term  as  on  November  8, 
1887,  he  was  chosen  by  the  voters  of  his 
State  to  the  high  office  of  Supreme  Court 
Judge.  His  first  years  on  the  Supreme 
Bench  were  devoted  to  circuit  work,  but 
on  the  creation  of  the  Appellate  division 
of  the  Supreme  Court  under  the  consti- 
tution of  1895,  he  became  a  member  of 
that  body,  Third  Judicial  Department, 
and  its  presiding  justice.  The  Appellate 
Court  consists  of  five  members  of  the 
Supreme  Court  and  in  dignity  and  im- 
portance ranks  next  to  the  State  Court  of 
Appeals.  He  continued  on  the  Supreme 
Bench  until  December,  1906,  then,  in  the 
fullness  of  his  intellectual  power,  but 
physically  on  the  wane,  retired  having 
reached  the  constitutional  limit  of  age. 
The  remaining  three  years  were  spent  at 
Owego,  amid  the  scenes  of  his  youth  and 
earlier  legal  triumphs,  well  preserved  in 
all  but  power  of  walking.  He  was  held 
in  high  esteem  by  his  townsmen  as  friend 
and  neighbor,  while  his  death  was  mourn- 
ed by  an  entire  State.  Letters  of  con- 
dolence came  from  men  of  eminence  from 
all  parts  of  the  State,  the  press  without 
an  exception  vieing  in  their  expressions 
of  respect  for  the  dead  jurist.  His  funeral 
was  attended  by  men  of  high  official  and 
professional  positions  and  by  a  large  con- 
course of  citizens. 

Judge  Parker  married,  in  1865,  Mary, 
daughter  of  Judge  Thomas  Farrington, 
of  Owego. 


RUSSELL,  Archimedes, 

Expert  Architect. 

Archimedes  Russell,  architect,  late  of 
Syracuse,  New  York,  was  not  a  man  who 
led  an  exalted  or  pretentious  life,  but  one 
which  was  true  to  itself  and  its  pos- 
sibilities, and  one  to  which  the  biographer 
may  revert  with  respect  and  satisfaction. 
He  was  a  man  of  strong  intellectual  force 
and  mature  judgment,  of  absolute  integ- 


rity and  high  motives,  and  was  strong  in 
his  support  of  the  ethics  of  his  profession. 
Secure  in  his  own  ability,  he  was  inclined 
to  assist  rather  than  to  retard  the  prog- 
ress of  his  competitors.  Kind  of  heart 
and  of  a  cheerful  disposition,  he  was  also 
firm  and  fearless  in  his  defence  of  the 
right  at  all  times,  and  would  never  lend 
himself  to  anything  that  in  his  opinion 
would  not  bear  the  light,  dealing  fairly 
with  both  clients  and  contractors.  These 
noble  qualities  he  inherited  from  an  hon- 
ored ancestry. 

The  name  of  Russell  is  compounded 
of  two  Norman  and  French  words — Roz, 
meaning  castle,  and  El,  a  synonym  for 
Eau,  meaning  water.  The  name  was  first 
given  to  a  castle  in  Lower  Normandy  in 
1045,  ar,d  implied  a  tower  or  castle  by 
the  water.  Hugh,  son  of  William  Bert- 
rand,  was  invested  with  this  stronghold 
and  took  its  name,  calling  himself  Hugh 
Rozel,  from  which  came  Rosel,  Rousel, 
and  the  present  orthography.  The  Bert- 
rand  ancestry  is  traceable  as  far  back  as 
the  seventh  century,  to  the  Norwegian 
Zarls,  to  Rerick,  the  first  King  of  Nor- 
mandy, down  through  King  Harold,  who 
reigned  there  in  885.  William  Bertrand 
and  his  sons — Roger,  Hugh,  Theobold 
and  Richard — accompanied  William  on 
his  first  expedition  to  England,  and  re- 
ceived large  grants  of  the  public  domain 
confiscated  from  the  subjugated  Saxons. 
They  were  the  founders  of  the  English 
Russells.  John  Russel,  who  lived  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  was  of  this  descent,  a 
son  of  James,  in  the  west  of  England. 
He  rose  in  favor  with  Henry  VIII.,  held 
many  offices,  and  was  one  of  Henry's 
executors.  Upon  the  accession  of  Ed- 
ward VI.  he  continued  near  to  the  throne, 
and  distinguished  himself  at  St.  Mary's 
Cyst,  and  was  created  Earl  of  Bedford. 
The  fourth  Earl  of  Bedford  was  a 
Georgian  statesman,  and  Lord  John  Rus- 
sell was  Premier  of  England  in  1846  and 


150 


C-iv  c.  U- 1*^14,1 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


again  in  1865.  William  H.  Russell,  the 
famed  war  correspondent,  known  as 
"Bull  Run"  Russell,  is  another  of  the 
name  and  lineage.  In  this  country  we 
have  had  the  Hon.  John  E.  Russell  and 
William  A.  Russell,  Massachusetts  con- 
gressmen, and  Governor  William  E.  Rus- 
sell. The  armorial  bearings  of  the  Rus- 
sells  was :  Crest :  A  demi  lion,  rampant, 
collared  sable,  studded  or,  holding  a  cross 
of  the  shield. 

Moody  Russell,  father  of  Archimedes 
Russell,  was  born  in  Alfred,  Maine,  Sep- 
tember 1,  1808,  and  died  in  Andover,  Mas- 
sachusetts, in  1904.  His  ancestors  were 
members  of  the  Plymouth  Colony,  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  the  greater  part  of  his 
life  was  spent  in  Andover,  where  he  was 
a  noted  contractor  and  builder.  He  mar- 
ried Fannie  Wardwell,  also  a  descendant 
of  members  of  the  Plymouth  Colony,  who 
was  born  in  Andover,  Massachusetts,  No- 
vember 5,  1802,  and  died  October  22, 1892. 

Archimedes  Russell  was  born  in  An- 
dover, Massachusetts,  June  13,  1840,  and 
died  in  his  beautiful  home,  No.  617  Gene- 
see street,  Syracuse,  New  York,  Aprii  3, 
1915.  He  acquired  his  education  in  the 
public  schools  of  his  native  town,  and  at 
the  early  age  of  thirteen  years  was  ap- 
prenticed to  Charles  S.  Parker,  a  carriage 
and  sign  painter,  and  was  thus  occupied 
for  a  period  of  two  years,  after  which  he 
again  attended  the  schools  of  his  native 
town,  and  also  assisted  his  father  in  the 
extensive  building  and  contracting  busi- 
ness he  controlled.  He  had  almost  attain- 
ed his  majority  when  he  entered  the  office 
of  John  Stevens,  a  well  known  architect 
of  Boston,  and  remained  with  him  two 
years.  December  4,  1862,  he  came  to 
Syracuse,  and  from  that  time  until  his 
death  he  was  identified  with  the  interests 
of  that  city.  He  became  associated  with 
Horatio  N.  White,  an  architect,  in  whose 
employ  he  remained  until  he  established 
himself  in  the  practice  of  his  profession 


independently,  January  1,  1868,  and  prac- 
ticed it  alone  until  January  1,  1906,  when 
he  formed  a  partnership  with  Melvin  L. 
King  which  continued  until  his  death. 
His  talent  as  an  able  and  gifted  architect, 
of  rarely  original  ideas  was  undisputed, 
and  earned  much  commendation  far  and 
wide.  Among  the  numerous  buildings  he 
designed  some  of  the  most  notable  are 
as  follows:  Onondaga  County  Clerk's, 
Onondaga  County  Court  House,  and 
Snow  and  Greyhound  buildings ;  Con- 
gress Hall ;  Church  of  Assumption  School 
House,  of  Providence ;  Crouse  Memorial 
College ;  Third  National  Bank ;  Crouse 
Stable ;  dwellings  for  Jacob  Amos,  H.  S. 
White,  Dr.  G.  D.  Whedon,  J.  S.  Crouse, 
L.  D.  Denison,  and  many  others  in  Syra- 
cuse;  the  Sibley  and  McGraw  buildings 
of  Cornell  University ;  Presbyterian 
church  and  D.  H.  Burrell  residence,  at 
Little  Falls ;  Warren  Miller  mansion  and 
Herkimer  Second  National  Bank,  at 
Oswego ;  Otsego  County  Court  House ; 
Cortland  House,  at  Cortland;  and  others 
innumerable.  From  1881  to  1885  he 
served  as  a  fire  commissioner,  and  was 
president  of  the  Board  of  Fire  Commis- 
sioners, 1884-85.  He  served  as  supervisor 
from  the  Seventh  Ward  in  1884,  1886-87, 
always  giving  his  political  support  to  the 
Republican  party.  He  was  chairman  of 
a  commission  composed  of  the  late  Stan- 
ford White  and  others  to  investigate  the 
Assembly  Ceiling  scandal,  when  Dennis 
McCarthy  was  senator.  When  ex-Vice- 
President  Levi  P.  Morton  was  Governor 
of  the  State  of  New  York,  he  appointed 
Mr.  Russell  as  a  member  of  a  commission 
to  complete  the  State  Capitol.  The  indi- 
vidual members  of  this  commission 
were:  Lieutenant-Governor  Saxon,  Su- 
perintendent of  Public  Works  ;  State  En- 
gineer, Ira  N.  Hedges, s  civilian ;  Archi- 
medes Russell,  architect.  About  three 
years  after  the  appointment  of  this  com- 
mission the  capitol  was  completed. 


J  5i 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Mr.  Russell  married,  June  30,  1864,  in 
Boston,  Massachusetts,  Susan  M.  Bart- 
lett,  of  that  city.  She  survives  her  hus- 
band, and  still  lives  in  Syracuse.  Mr. 
Russell  was  always  ready  with  a  friendly 
greeting,  a  cheery  smile,  or  a  word  of 
encouragement,  and  these  qualities  en- 
deared him  to  those  with  whom  he  was 
associated,  while  the  strength  of  his  char- 
acter, his  laudable  ambition,  and  his 
earnest  purpose  gained  him  a  place  of 
prominence  among  the  leading  business 
men  of  the  city. 


FOWLER,  Thomas  Powell, 

Lawyer.  Railroad  Official. 

A  lawyer  by  profession  but  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  1888-1912,  president 
of  the  New  York,  Ontario  &  Western 
railroad,  Mr.  Fowler  was  better  known 
to  the  business  than  the  professional 
world,  in  fact  he  was  one  of  the  most 
widely  known  railroad  executives  in  the 
United  States.  To  a  great  executive 
ability,  fully  demonstrated  in  many  fields, 
he  added  a  wisdom  in  the  management  of 
men  that  was  most  remarkable.  He  drew 
men  to  him  by  his  pleasing  personality, 
and  held  them  by  fair  treatment  and  a 
consideration  for  their  welfare  that  made 
every  employee  a  friend.  When  in  1912 
he  retired  from  active  management  of  the 
New  York,  Ontario  &  Western  he  carried 
with  him  the  esteem  of  all  his  subordi- 
nates, who  as  a  testimonial  of  this  esteem 
presented  him  with  a  handsome  loving 
cup. 

Mr.  Fowler  was  a  descendant  of  Revo- 
lutionary and  Colonial  ancestors,  son  of 
Isaac  Sebring  and  Mary  (Ludlow)  Fow- 
ler, who  at  the  time  of  his  birth  were 
residing  in  Newburgh,  New  York. 

Thomas  Powell  Fowler  was  born  Oc- 
tober 26,  1851,  died  at  his  summer  home 
"Belair,"  Warwick,  New  York,  October 
11,    1915.     After  completing   courses   at 


College  Hill,  Poughkeepsie,  he  studied  in 
Germany  and  then  entered  Columbia  Law 
School  whence  he  was  graduated  Bach- 
elor of  Law,  class  of  "74."  After  gradu- 
ation he  was  admitted  to  practice  at  the 
New  York  bar,  practiced  actively  in  New 
York  City  for  several  years,  but  gradually 
became  absorbed  in  railroad  management 
that  took  him  from  the  professional  field, 
although  he  always  retained  his  connec- 
tion with  the  New  York  bar. 

In  1879  he  became  a  director  of  the 
Shenango  &  Allegheny  railroad,  and 
from  that  time  forward  his  services  were 
in  demand,  his  trained  legal  mind  and 
keen  business  ability  rendering  him  a 
valuable  addition  to  the  directorates  of 
many  transportation  companies.  In  1881 
he  was  elected  a  director  of  the  Lehigh  & 
Hudson  River  railroad;  of  the  Western 
Pennsylvania  &  Shenango  Connecting 
railroad  in  1883 ;  the  New  York,  Ontario 
&  Western  railroad  in  1884;  appointed 
receiver  of  the  Shenango  &  Allegheny 
railroad,  March  31,  1884;  and  in  succes- 
sion became  associated  with  the  director- 
ates of  the  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe 
railway ;  Gulf,  Colorado  &  Santa  Fe  rail- 
way ;  Lehigh  &  Hudson  river  railroad ; 
Santa  Fe,  Prescott  &  Phoenix  railway; 
California  Eastern  railroad;  Randsburg 
Railway  Company ;  Santa  Fe  Pacific  rail- 
road; Southern  California  Railway  Com- 
pany; English  Association  of  American 
Bond  &  Share  Holders,  Limited. 

His  connection  with  the  New  York, 
Ontario  &  Western  railroad  began  in 
1884  as  a  director.  Four  years  later  he 
was  elected  president,  a  position  he  filled 
with  highest  honor  and  efficiency  until 
1912  when  he  retired  leaving  the  system 
in  greatly  improved  physical  and  financial 
condition,  with  a  loyal  working  force 
thoroughly  organized  and  capable.  To 
follow  Mr.  Fowler's  career  through  its 
many  avenues  of  activity  would  be  to 
write  a  history  of  many  of  the  great 
52 


J£rtirrirlj  pfrwritig* 


OF  BIOGR.'- 


.«sof  the  United  States  for 
-.  but  gave  himself 
rvedly  to  the   ; 
'ted  during  h 

■ 
ve  managerm-; 

I 
While   emphatica! 

• 
obligation?   as 

bly  and  in  ail  thi 
nil  stature  of  Amer 
He   was    senior    warden   of 
Protestant    Episcopal    Chur 
rset  and    Madison 
nd  met  his  fellown    , 
!ntercourse  in 
I  -own   Town    and 
patriotic  ancestry  opened  wide  th< 
of   the   order- 
ancestry,  ana   I 
tl 
Mr.  Fowler 
the    Brick     Pr< 
avenue  and   Thii 

Isabelle,    dai  g 
Franklin    and    Ruth 
Children:     Ro 
Isabel  Wilson 
Sebring,  Eler:. 
ning,   Thomas   Pov.. 
n  g  Fowler. 


LEVERICH,  William, 

Clergyman. 
The    crest   of   the 

is   thus   described:    Arge 
1  between  thr 
A  leopard's  fa< 
•  et  opera. 
"The  learned  and  Rev.  William   Lev- 
'  an  whom  h.  ts  need 

wish  no  better  ancei'  on  the 

of  Colonial  history  as  a    man  of 


singular  piety  and  lea 
in  the  Christ: 
Like  the  g: 
of  many  jour  . 
churche 

• 

■ 

- 

The 

in  Eng 

Sabille  Lever:.' 

■ 
with  a    I 

family   is   in: 
Book.    John  Sabille  I 
ed   by   Queen    I 
name   has   beei 

;?h,  or  Lever O 

The 

s  were 
-om   of 

•    intendent.  In 
"James"  with 


fS3 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


others,  "and  among  them,"  says  the 
record  of  Winthrop  "was  the  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Leverich,  a  godly  minister."  They 
landed  at  Salem,  and  reached  Dover  on 
the  last  Sunday  of  October  and  the  tree 
was  still  standing  a  few  years  ago  under 
which  the  Rev.  William  Leverich  de- 
livered the  first  sermon  ever  preached  by 
an  ordained  minister  in  the  State  of  New 
Hampshire.  The  Church  of  Dover  cele- 
brated in  October,  1883,  t^e  two  hundred 
and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  its  existence, 
and  on  that  occasion  many  paid  their 
graceful  tribute  to  the  memory  of  the 
saintly  scholar  and  apostle,  William 
Leverich,  the  first  pastor  of  the  church  at 
Dover. 

In  1635  he  moved  southward  to  Boston, 
forming  the  friendship  of  the  two  most 
noted  divines  of  the  day,  viz,  the  Rev. 
John  Cotton  and  Rev.  John  Eliot.  It  was 
the  latter  who  first  suggested  to  him  the 
study  of  the  Indian  tongue  for  which  he 
afterwards  became  so  noted,  and  of  whose 
labors  Palfrey,  Hubbard,  Marten  and 
others  bare  record.  He  was  also  placed  by 
Dr.  Cotton  Mather  in  his  classis  "among 
the  first  great  men."  After  a  short  asso- 
ciation with  the  Rev.  Ralph  Partridge  at 
Duxbury,  Massachusetts,  in  1637,  Mr. 
Leverich,  with  ten  others,  came  to  Sand- 
wich, Cape  Cod.  They  were  soon  joined 
by  fifty  more  from  Duxbury  and 
Plymouth,  and  a  church  was  formed  with 
William  Leverich  as  pastor.  By  the 
theoretic  principles  of  Puritanism,  no  one 
was  allowed  to  sell  lands  without  the 
consent  of  the  minister,  so  here  at  Sand- 
wich a  church  was  built  by  this  influence 
whose  power  was  felt  throughout  the 
colony.  The  Indians  were  numerous 
about  Cape  Cod,  and  William  Leverich 
accordingly  acquired  their  language,  and 
they  were  ever  his  devoted  followers, 
while  their  orderly  and  peaceful  lives 
throughout  his  pastorate  attested  to  his 
faithfulness    among    them.       The    early 


years  of  his  pastorate  at  Cape  Cod  were 
peacefully  passed,  but  as  the  town  grew 
refractory  spirits  found  entrance,  "in- 
veighing against  the  minister  and  magis- 
trates to  the  dishonor  of  God."  Captain 
Miles  Standish  and  Thomas  Prince  tried 
to  throw  oil  on  the  troubled  waters.  To 
prevent  the  entrance  of  those  whose  fit- 
ness was  questioned,  the  law  more 
emphatically  enforced  that  none  be  ad- 
mitted to  town  rights  without  the  consent 
of  Mr.  Leverich,  and  the  town  authorities. 
This  offended  many,  and  they  turned 
their  animosity  toward  the  minister, 
accusing  him  of  novelties  in  religion,  of 
using  the  services  of  the  English  Church 
in  Holy  Communion  and  baptism,  which 
was  often  practiced  during  the  first  years 
of  the  church  in  Salem. 

In  1647  we  nnd  William  Leverich  em- 
ployed by  the  Society  for  the  Propagation 
of  the  Gospel  in  New  England  for  work 
among  the  Indians,  extending  his  labors 
to  the  Plymouth  Colony,  and  be  it  said 
to  the  eternal  honor  of  John  Eliot,  Wil- 
liam Leverich  and  many  others,  that  dur- 
ing their  ministries  never  was  peace 
broken  by  the  horrors  of  Indian  warfare. 

In  view  of  Mr.  Leverich's  success 
among  the  natives,  the  society  approved 
and  directed  that  he  should  turn  his  atten- 
tion to  the  Indians  of  Long  Island.  So  in 
1652,  with  a  dozen  or  more  of  his  parish- 
ioners, he  explored  the  country  about 
Oyster  Bay,  Long  Island,  and  in  1653 
with  these  friends  of  Sandwich,  he  left 
Cape  Cod  for  the  shores  of  Long  Island, 
"The  Isle  of  Shells."  Mr.  Leverich  de- 
sired to  form  a  colony  on  Long  Island,  so 
with  Peter  Wright  and  Samuel  Mayo, 
they  purchased  a  tract  of  land  of  the 
Indians  at  Oyster  Bay  and  Huntington. 
It  is  curious  to  see  the  consideration 
given  for  these  lands,  viz.  Indian  coats, 
kettles,  hatchets,  awlblades,  shovels,  and 
as  much  wampum  as  would  make  four 
pounds  sterling.    This  was  signed  by  the 


•54 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


mark  of  Assiapum,  the  sachem,  and  a 
paper  was  given  to  the  rest  of  the  com- 
pany admitting  them  to  equal  rights,  and 
in  ten  years  there  were  fifty  landholders. 

During  five  years  Mr.  Leverich  labored 
at  Oyster  Bay  among  the  Indians,  but 
with  never  a  conspiracy  among  them. 
But  we  could  have  seen  him  teaching  in 
the  Indian  wigwams  amid  the  terrors 
of  pestilence,  giving  them  bread,  or  even 
a  cup  of  cold  water  in  the  name  of  the 
Master.  "The  salaries,"  says  Mr.  Wood, 
"of  these  first  ministers  were  raised  as 
other  taxes,  and  the  amount  fixed  in 
money  was  really  paid  in  produce  or 
cattle." 

Mr.  Leverich  built  the  first  grist  mill 
at  Huntington,  and  the  writer  has  a  re- 
ceipt of  forty  pounds  for  it  from  one 
Henry  Whitney. 

On  the  records  at  Albany  in  1660,  Gov- 
ernor Stuyvesant  writing  to  the  directors 
of  the  West  India  Company  at  Amster- 
dam, Holland,  says :  That  the  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Leverich  was  to  sail  on  the  first  out- 
going vessel  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining 
medicines  for  the  colonies.  It  was  the 
following  year  before  he  sailed,  and  in 
1663  the  medicines  were  sent  to  "the  Eng- 
lish clergyman  versed  in  the  art  of 
physic,"  for  it  was  a  common  thing 
among  the  university  educated  theo- 
logues  to  attend  the  lectures  of  the 
medical  professors. 

On  Mr.  Leverich's  return  to  Hunting- 
ton in  1662,  from  Holland,  his  congrega- 
tion gave  him  a  quantity  of  land,  and 
also  built  a  parsonage  for  him.  The  first 
church  was  erected  in  1665,  the  congre- 
gation prior  to  that  worshipping  in  the 
Town  Hall.  In  1662  William  Leverich 
went  to  Newtown,  Long  Island,  to  pur- 
chase lands  for  his  sons,  Caleb  and 
Eleazar,  and  as  Newtown  at  that  time 
was  destitute  of  spiritual  guidance  he 
remained  and  ministered  to  them  for  a 
while,  but  still  keeping  oversight  of  the 


church  at  Huntington.  In  1665  he  re- 
turned to  the  last  place,  and  we  find  the 
name  of  William  Leverich  on  the  Nicoll 
patent,  both  at  Newtown  and  Hunting- 
ton. 

In  1669  the  people  of  Newtown  having 
been  for  nearly  ten  years  without  any 
minister,  except  for  Mr.  Leverich's  so- 
journ among  them,  now  turned  their 
attention  to  him,  and  with  the  leading 
citizens,  constables  and  overseers  pre- 
sented their  proposals,  but  he  did  not 
leave  the  pastorate  of  Huntington  until 
1670.  Says  Mr.  Davenport,  "Some  have 
wondered  why  he  left  a  place  so  endeared 
to  him,  by  the  ties  of  friends  and  fortune, 
but  he  was  getting  in  the  decline  of  life, 
and  it  was  no  doubt  the  desire  to  pass  the 
evening  of  it  in  the  bosom  of  his  family 
that  decided  the  change."  There  was 
perfect  harmony  on  either  side,  and  re- 
gret at  his  loss  for  Huntington. 

The  first  church  edifice  at  Newtown 
(that  is  the  Puritan  Church)  was  erected 
in  1671.  In  1675  the  Indian  wars  in  New 
England  caused  great  apprehension  of  an 
outbreak  on  Long  Island,  and  Newtown 
was  placed  in  a  state  of  siege.  But  not 
so  had  the  red  man  learned  of  William 
Leverich  and  others,  and  the  fearful  tide 
of  savage  warfare  never  passed  over  its 
peaceful  towns. 

The  closing  years  of  the  Rev.  William 
Leverich's  life  were  rest  and  peace — until 
early  in  1677  he  fell  asleep,  "he  was  not 
for  God  took  him." 

The  Rev.  William  Leverich  left  two 
sons,  Caleb  and  Eleazar,  the  former  tak- 
ing out  letters  of  administration  on  his 
father's  estate,  June,  1777,  bearing  the 
signature  of  Governor  Andros.  Caleb 
was  born  during  his  father's  settlement 
at  Cape  Cod.  and  he  married  Martha, 
widow  of  Francis  Swain.  His  name 
appears  among  the  freeholders  of  New- 
town, December  4,  1666,  and  he  enjoyed 
the  esteem  of  his  townsmen,  and  was  one 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


of  the  original  members  of  the  Presby- 
terian church.  His  children  were  John, 
Mary  and  Eleanor.  Eleazar  died  child- 
less. 

John  Leverich,  St.,  and  grandson  of 
Rev.  William  Leverich,  left  a  widow 
Hannah,  and  four  children:  John,  Wil- 
liam, Elnathan  and  Samuel.  John,  Jr., 
died  before  his  father. 

Prior  to  the  Revolution,  by  the  Eng- 
lish law,  the  eldest  son  was  the  heir.  But 
John  Leverich,  Sr.,  divided  his  estate 
equally  among  his  four  sons:  John,  Jr., 
William,  Samuel  and  Elnathan. 

In  1781,  by  an  indenture  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  writer,  Sacket  Leverich, 
son  of  John,  Jr.,  deceased,  for  the 
sum  of  twelve  hundred  pounds,  lawful 
money  of  the  colony,  receives  three- 
fourths  of  his  three  uncles  undivided 
estate.  John  Leverich,  Jr.,  was  born  in 
1696,  and  married  (first)  Amy  Moore, 
(second)  Susannah,  widow  of  John 
Sacket,  and    (third)    Sarah,  daughter  of 

Silas  .     He  died  in   1780,  leaving 

four  children.  His  eldest  son,  John,  mar- 
ried his  stepsister,  Elizabeth  Sacket,  and 
left  three  children:  Sacket,  Amy  and 
Richard.  In  their  day  commenced  the 
stormy  times  of  the  Revolution.  The  old 
farm,  bought  by  Caleb  Leverich  for  his 
sons,  was  during  the  bitter  strife  for  in- 
dependence, truly  the  scene  of  great 
activity.  For  some  part  of  the  time  there 
was  stationed  on  it  1168  men,  viz.  "The 
Royal  Highland  Forty-second  Regi- 
ment," the  celebrated  Black  Watch, 
Thomas  Sterling,  commandant.  Many 
were  the  stories  told  about  his  honorable 
■treatment  of  all,  forbidding  his  soldiers 
to  commit  any  depredation,  and  several 
times  when  they  transgressed  his  rules 
they  received  no  sympathy  if  met  with 
disaster.  Cholera  carried  away  quite  a 
number,  they  were  buried  in  a  corner  of 
the  farm,  and  the  burial  place  was  marked 
by  a  pile  of  stones  called  a  cairn,  every 


soldier  passing  was  required  to  -hrow  a 
stone  upon  it.  Some  years  ago  the  spot 
was  excavated  for  a  railway  and  human 
remains  were  found,  great  wonder  was 
caused  as  to  whom  they  belonged  to, 
until  the  family  was  consulted  and  the 
secret  explained.  One  workm-m  received 
twenty-five  dollars  for  a  skull  with  every 
tooth  perfect  in  it.  Colonel  Sterling, 
Lady  Sterling,  and  two  of  the  officers  of 
the  Royal  Highland  Forty-second  oc- 
cupied a  portion  of  the  house. 

On  the  occasion  of  his  leaving,  the 
inhabitants  of  Newtown  drew  up  an 
address  to  Colonel  Sterling,  and  his 
officers,  thanking  them  "for  their  very 
equitable  polite,  and  friendly  conduct  dur- 
ing their  winter's  stay  "at  the  Leverich 
home.  It  was  returned  by  Colonel  Ster- 
ling in  the  same  spirit  and  courtesy. 

John  Leverich,  son  of  John  Leverich, 
Jr.,  as  aforesaid,  left  three  children: 
Sacket,  Amy  and  Richard,  of  whom  the 
first  two  died  single.  Amy  was  be- 
trothed to  a  British  officer,  but  he  died  in 
England  whither  he  had  gone  to  settle 
his  affairs.  John  Leverich  died  at  New- 
town, September  18,  1780.  Richard,  his 
son,  "best  known  as  Deacon  Leverich 
was  highly  esteemed  in  his  time."  He 
was  a  great  reader,  theologian,  mathe- 
matician, and  deacon  of  the  Presbyterian 
church  at  Newtown  for  nearly  fifty  years. 
In  his  lifetime  the  Colonial  customs  were 
still  retained.  The  crops  were  planted, 
and  harvested  by  his  staff  of  blacks,  who 
were  in  return  schooled  and  treated  al- 
most as  one  of  the  family ;  the  girls  were 
also  sent  to  school,  taught  needlework, 
sewing,  etc.  Deacon  Leverich  was  a 
strict  Calvinist  like  his  Puritan  ancestor, 
and  would  quote  for  his  youthful  blacks 
the  couplet: 

You  must  not  work,  you  must  not  play 
Upon  God's  Holy  Sabbath  Day. 


•fir  ^Hhtvryvdbt 


Deacon     Richard     Lev:. 

Amy  Titus,  with  whom  '■ 
nearly  fifty  years.    Al 
ried  Nancy  Lane,  !■;■■ 
daughters,  Am; 
M.  Leverich.     I 
in     1836,    at 
Meadow, 
widow  di 

Amy  E.    i  • 
Cannon,  of   N< 
born  two  daughter- 
Elizabeth    Leverich 
September  27,  1911. 

Ada  Cannon  man 
of  Bridgeport,  Connecticut.     The 
one    daughter,  Ada 
married   Harold   C.   Rood. 
Connecticut.    They  also  h; 
ter,  Henrietta  Lyon 
ber  6,  1913. 


BARNETT,  Georg 

Strong  aud  tftefnl  Character. 

It  sometimes  haj 
ness  lies  full; 
sturdy 

duties,  and  lending 
fellow  traveler  on  th 

deeds  of  valor.     Tl 
can  live  through  more  tha:. 
three  score  years  and 
tear  of  everyday  life,  and   .-. 
summons  comes  car.  g 
with  a  clear  con 
to  receive  his  rewar. 
cherished  and  beloved  for  all  thai 
make  life  worth  livin 
ruly  great  man 
George  F.  Barnett.    • 
port,  at  the  age  of  ni 
spent  nearly  all  of  his  lorn. 
that  pli 

He  was  called  "one  of  the 
most     useful     characters 


.it  time    U!:" 

- 

1    ■ 
! 
.  uding,  and  tl 
aid  of  him : 

l 
ling  elai 

guished 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


try  during  a  most  eventful  period  Mr.  Barnett, 
while  of  a  genial,  kindly  disposition,  was  level- 
headed, true  and  sturdy,  and  had  the  happy  fac- 
ulty of  getting  on  the  right  side  of  questions  and 
issues  that  demanded  his  decision  and  quietly  but 
firmly  maintaining  the  ground  he  had  taken.  He 
was  a  man  who  trained  his  children  to  love  and 
honor  the  principles  he  maintained  and  exempli- 
fied. He  had  a  sympathetic  eye  for  struggling 
integrity  and  merit,  and  there  are  many  hearts 
that  have  warmed  with  gratitude  at  the  remem- 
brance of  his  helping  hand. 

Another  has  said  of  him : 

No  man  had  wielded  a  more  powerful  influence 
for  good  in  this  whole  region  than  he.  Simple 
honesty,  unvarying  gentleness,  combined  with  ex- 
ecutive ability  of  a  high  order,  were  especially 
prominent  traits  in  his  character  and  gave  him 
such  a  standing  among  business  men  of  Western 
New  York  that  his  advice  was  constantly  sought 
by  them.  It  was  in  his  home,  however,  that  the 
brightness  and  cheerfulness  of  his  disposition  par- 
ticularly shone. 

Mr.  Barnett  was  married  in  1828  to 
Catherine  Lyell  Thorpe,  of  Montgomery 
county,  New  York.  Mr.  Barnett  pur- 
chased land  on  which  he  built  the  house 
which  was  their  pleasant  abode  for  so 
many  years,  Mrs.  Barnett  proving  a  true 
helpmate  to  her  husband  and  a  faithful 
and  loving  mother  to  her  children,  of 
whom  there  were  five,  two  surviving: 
Mary  H.  and  Frances  C,  who  made  their 
home  with  their  father  through  his  de- 
clining years.  James  M.  Barnett,  one 
of  their  children,  now  deceased,  was  a 
resident  of  Grand  Rapids,  Michigan, 
president  of  the  Old  National  Bank.  Mrs. 
Barnett  passed  away  in  1883,  beloved  and 
mourned  by  all  who  had  ever  had  the 
privilege  of  her  acquaintance. 

Mr.  Barnett  was  one  who  participated 
in  life  with  a  sincere  enjoyment,  and  had 
a  peculiarly  reciprocative  nature,  appre- 
ciating to  the  fullest  extent  a  favor  shown 
him.  As  the  evening  of  his  days  gradu- 
ally closed  around  him  his  mind  became 
more  firmly  fixed  on  spiritual  things  and 


he  experienced  a  great  spirit  of  thankful- 
ness to  his  Maker  for  the  many  hours  of 
happiness  and  the  blessings  bestowed 
upon  him,  evidencing  it  by  a  fondness  for 
the  comforting,  old-fashioned  hymns  of 
his  earlier  days,  which  he  was  often 
heard  softly  singing  to  himself  in  the 
twilight.  His  was  never  a  solemn 
religion,  for  he  shed  around  him  the  sun- 
shine of  a  hopeful  spirit,  a  kindly  con- 
sideration, and  the  desire  that  everyone 
should  have  the  most  advancement  pos- 
sible for  them  to  attain.  Well  may  his 
friends  sum  up  his  eulogy  in  these  few 
words— "He  was  one  of  nature's  noble- 


JONES,  Frank  Adelbert, 

Prominent  Physician. 

In  presenting  to  the  public  sketches  of 
the  lives  of  our  prominent  citizens,  we 
have  endeavored  to  choose  those  men 
who,  by  their  superior  attainments  in 
some  particular  walk  of  life,  have  risen 
to  prominence  among  their  fellows,  and 
whose  characteristics  and  individuality 
have  raised  them  above  the  ordinary  run 
of  mortals.  In  every  profession  and  in 
every  line  of  business  it  is  the  few  and 
not  the  many  who  rise  to  eminence,  and 
it  is  these  few  who  give  tone  and  char- 
acter to  our  society,  and  shape  the  destiny 
of  the  communities  in  which  they  reside. 
The  late  Dr.  Frank  Adelbert  Jones,  of 
Rochester,  New  York,  was  a  representa- 
tive of  a  family  distinguished  both  in 
public  service  and  in  the  learned  profes- 
sions. A  close  student  of  his  profession, 
thoroughness  was,  perhaps,  his  most  dis- 
tinguishing characteristic,  and  while  he 
was  ever  on  the  alert  for  any  improve- 
ment of  a  scientific  nature  that  would 
advance  the  cause  of  medicine  or  surgery, 
before  adopting  it  he  made  himself  master 
of  every  detail  connected  with  the  subject, 
and  his  comments  and  conclusions  were 


[58 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


in  consequence  interesting  and  illumina- 
tive. Dignified  in  appearance,  and  at  the 
same  time  intensely  active,  quick  and 
sure  in  movement,  his  face  and  mam: 
while  giving  assurance  of  strong  will  and 
inflexible  purpose,  indicated  also  that 
sincere  geniality  which  never  failed  to 
inspire  cheerfulness  and  courage.  Above 
all,  he  may  truly  be  said  to  have  radiated 
optimism,  a  quality  indispensable  to  the 
successful  physician.  His  father,  Dr. 
Ambrose  Jones,  was  a  physician  in  Char- 
lotte, New  York,  as  was  also  a  brother, 
who  is  now  deceased. 

Dr.  Frank  Adelbert  Jones  was  born  in 
Charlotte,  New  York,  October  23,  1849, 
and  died  at  his  home,  No.  309  Lake  ave- 
nue, Rochester,  New  York,  March  9,  1913, 
after  an  illness  of  one  week's  duration. 
His  elementary  education  was  acquired 
in  the  public  schools  in  the  vicinity  of  his 
home,  after  which  he  attended  the  local 
academies,  from  which  he  was  graduated, 
and  then  matriculated  at  the  Buffalo 
Medical  College,  from  which  he  was 
graduated  in  the  class  of  1869,  the  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Medicine  being  conferred 
upon  him.  He  at  once  established  him- 
self in  the  practice  of  his  profession,  his 
first  location  being  on  Buffalo  street,  now 
Main  street  west,  Rochester;  he  next 
went  to  Charlotte,  New  York,  where  he 
was  associated  in  practice  with  his  father 
for  a  time,  leaving  there  to  go  to  Grand 
Rapids.  Michigan,  which  town  had  just 
had  a  "boom,"  and  remained  there  for  a 
period  of  three  years.  In  1874  he  re- 
turned to  Charlotte,  New  York,  where 
he  practiced  until  1893,  when  he  returned 
to  Rochester,  which  was  the  scene  of  his 
medical  practice  until  he  passed  away. 
So  conscientious  was  Dr.  Jones  in  the 
discharge  of  the  duties  connected  with 
his  professional  work,  that  it  may  in  truth 
be  said  that  it  brought  about  his  death, 
for  the  attending  physicians  were  all 
agreed  that  he  might  readily  have  thrown 


off  the  attack  of  pneumonia  to  which  he 
succumbed  had  not  his  vitality  been 
sapped  by  overwork  and  overstudy.  Al- 
though naturally  of  a  fine  constitution,  he 
made  greater  demands  upon  it  than 
nature  would  permit.  He  excelled  in 
surgical  work,  although  the  larger  part 
of  his  practice  was  a  general  one. 
Throughout  his  career  he  followed  the 
rule  of  paying  as  great  and  undivided 
attention  to  the  calls  of  the  poor  as  he 
did  to  those  of  his  wealthy  class  of 
patients,  and  in  attending  the  former 
class,  it  was  frequently  done  without  a 
fee  being  demanded  or  accepted.  None 
but  those  who  now  feel  the  loss  of  his 
charitable  ministrations  are  aware  of  the 
extent  of  his  benevolence,  for  he  was  un- 
ostentatious in  the  extreme.  He  was 
president  of  the  Monroe  County  Medical 
Society;  a  member  of  the  Rochester 
Academy  of  Medicine;  New  York  State 
Medical  Society;  American  Medical  As- 
sociation; Rochester  Pathological  Soci- 
ety and  Central  New  York  Medical  As- 
sociation, and  of  the  Masonic  fraternity. 
His  religious  affiliation  was  with  the 
Central  Presbyterian  Church  of  Roches- 
ter, of  which  he  was  a  member.  He  was 
a  charter  member  of  the  One  Dozen  and 
One  Club,  an  organization  composed  of 
physicians  and  their  wives,  and  formed  in 
defiance  of  the  old  superstition  ascribing 
ill  luck  to  the  number  thirteen.  Dr. 
Jones  was  the  first  member  of  this  asso- 
ciation to  be  called  to  the  hereafter,  after 
meeting  for  twenty-six  years.  His  per- 
sonal appearance  was  far  more  youthful 
than  the  number  of  his  years  would  war- 
rant, but  this  was  probably  the  result  of 
his  optimistic  disposition,  and  of  his  fond- 
ness for  the  society  of  the  young,  with  all 
of  whom,  big  and  small,  he  was  a  favorite. 
"A  man  of  deeds  and  not  of  words"  was 
one  of  the  comments  made  concerning 
him  by  Dr.  Albertson,  pastor  of  the 
Central  Presbyterian  Church. 
59 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Dr.  Jones  married,  November  25,  1869, 
Elizabeth  R.  Welles,  daughter  of  Ran- 
dolph and  Mary  E.  (Vandemark)  Welles, 
of  Seneca  county,  New  York,  formerly  of 
Connecticut.  Mrs.  Jones  survives  him 
with  their  only  daughter,  Grace  L.  There 
was  a  son,  Welles,  born  in  1875,  who  died 
in  1876. 


BROWNING,  John  Hull, 

Financier,  Manufacturer. 

John  Hull  Browning  was  descended 
from  Anglo-Saxon  ancestors  through  a 
long  line,  resident  in  New  England,  and 
typified  those  qualities  of  industrious 
application,  sound  judgment  and  energy 
which  conquered  a  wilderness  upon  our 
New  England  coast,  at  the  same  time 
conquering  savage  foes,  and  established 
firmly  a  modern  civilization.  The  oldest 
form  of  the  name  bears  the  German  spell- 
ing Bruning,  and  it  later  came  to  be 
rendered  in  various  ways.  According  to 
the  poet,  Robert  Browning,  the  earliest 
form  of  the  name  was  de  Bruni,  which 
was  the  Norman-French  name  of  one  of 
the  ancient  German  tribes  which  in- 
habited the  shores  of  the  Baltic  Sea,  in 
Northern  Germany.  In  high  German  the 
form  of  the  name  is  Brauning.  The 
Brunings  are  supposed  to  have  migrated 
from  Germany  to  England,  where  the 
Anglo-Saxons  changed  the  spelling  to 
Browning,  to  suit  their  own  tongue.  The 
termination  "ing"  in  the  German  lan- 
guage means  a  meadow  or  low  pasture- 
land,  and  hence  the  origin  of  the  name  as 
applied  to  inhabitants  of  the  low 
•meadows. 

Nathaniel  Browning,  son  of  Mrs.  Eliza- 
beth Browning,  was  born  in  London 
about  1618,  and  died  at  Portsmouth, 
Rhode  Island,  when  about  fifty-two  years 
old.  Mrs.  Browning  and  her  husband 
appear  to  have  been  non-Conformists, 
and  the  persecution  that  followed  them 


was  probably  the  cause  which  led  Na- 
thaniel Browning  to  embark  for  America 
soon  after  he  came  of  age,  in  the  year 
1640.  Landing  at  Boston  he  proceeded 
to  Portsmouth,  where  he  was  made  a 
freeman  in  1654.  This  means  that  he  was 
of  good  standing  in  the  church,  and  that 
he  was  eligible  to  participate  in  the 
councils  and  government  of  the  colony. 
He  married,  about  1650,  Sarah,  second 
daughter  of  William  and  Mary  Freeborn, 
who  sailed  from  Ipswich,  England,  in 
1634. 

Their  son,  William  Browning,  born 
about  1651,  at  Portsmouth,  lived  to  be 
nearly  eighty  years  of  age,  a  farmer  at 
North  Kingstown,  Rhode  Island.  He 
was  made  freeman  in  1684,  and  was  twice 
married,  (first)  in  1687  to  Rebecca, 
daughter  of  Samuel  and  Hannah  (Porter) 
Wilbur,  granddaughter  of  Samuel  Wilbur 
and  John  Porter,  both  of  whom  were 
original  settlers  at  Portsmouth.  His 
second  wife's  name  was  Sarah. 

John  Browning,  youngest  son  of  Wil- 
liam and  Rebecca  (Wilbur)  Browning, 
was  born  March  4,  1696,  at  South  Kings- 
town, Rhode  Island,  and  died  in  1777,  at 
Exeter,  same  state,  in  his  eighty-first  year. 
He  was  made  a  freeman  in  1744,  and  was 
a  farmer,  residing  near  the  coast  in  South 
Kingstown,  where  he  had  large  landed 
possessions.  He  married,  April  21,  1721, 
Ann,  daughter  of  Jeremiah  and  Sarah 
(Smith)  Hazard,  granddaughter  of  Thom- 
as Hazard,  the  immigrant  progenitor  of  a 
notable  American  family. 

Thomas  Browning,  the  eldest  son  of 
this  marriage,  born  in  1722,  in  Kings- 
town, died  there  in  1770.  During  his  ac- 
tive life  he  was  a  farmer  in  Hopkinton, 
Rhode  Island,  and  was  made  a  freeman 
in  1742.  Like  his  parents,  he  was  a 
Quaker,  served  as  justice  of  the  peace  at 
Little  Compton,  and  was  captain  of  the 
local  militia  company.  His  first  wife, 
Mary,  was  a  daughter  of  William  and 


160 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Mary  (Wilkinson)  Browning,  and  they 
were  the  parents  of  William  Thomas. 

William  Thomas  Browning,  born  May 
ii,  1765,  in  South  Kingstown,  was  a 
farmer  in  Preston,  Connecticut,  where  he 
built  a  farm  house,  standing  half  in  Pres- 
ton and  half  in  North  Stonington,  which 
is  still  standing  in  good  preservation.  He 
married  Catherine,  daughter  of  Robert  and 
Catherine  (Guinedeau)  Morey,  of  New- 
port, Rhode  Island. 

Their  fifth  son,  John  Hazard  Browning, 
was  born  July  28,  1801,  at  the  Browning 
homestead  in  Preston,  where  he  was 
reared.  He  became  a  merchant  in  Mill- 
town,  Connecticut,  and  later  in  New  Lon- 
don. In  1833  he  moved  to  New  York 
City,  and  engaged  in  the  dry  goods  busi- 
ness, at  the  corner  of  Fulton  and  Water 
streets,  as  senior  member  of  the  firm  of 
Browning  &  Hull.  This  business  was 
greatly  extended,  and  in  1849  was  closed 
out,  and  in  association  with  two  others, 
Mr.  Browning  engaged  in  the  general 
merchandise  trade  in  California,  his  part- 
ners removing  thither.  Mr.  Browning  re- 
mained in  New  York,  where  he  manu- 
factured and  purchased  goods  which  were 
shipped  to  California  for  sale.  Three 
times  the  store  was  burned,  without  in- 
surance, resulting  in  a  total  loss.  In 
1857  Mr.  Browning  withdrew  from  all 
activity,  except  as  a  special  partner 
with  his  son,  who  conducted  a  clothing 
store  under  the  firm  name  of  Hanford  & 
Browning.  This  subsequently  became 
Browning,  King  &  Company,  which  now 
has  stores  in  the  principal  cities  of 
the  United  States.  Mr.  Browning  mar- 
ried, September  21,  1829,  Eliza  Smith 
Hull,  of  Stonington,  daughter  of  Colo- 
nel John  W.  and  Elizabeth  (Smith) 
Hull,  and  they  were  the  parents  of  four 
sons  and  a  daughter.  The  Hull  family  is 
also  of  ancient  origin,  and  springs  from 
Rev.  Joseph  Hull,  who  was  born  in  Somer- 
setshire, England,  about  1594,  and  was 
N  Y-Vol  iii-n  161 


rector  of  Northleigh,  Devonshire,  Eng- 
land, about  fourteen  years.  With  his  wife, 
Agnes,  he  embarked  for  America  in  1635, 
and  shortly  afterward  became  pastor  of 
the  church  at  Weymouth,  Masachusetts. 
He  was  prominent  in  local  affairs,  and 
presided  over  several  churches  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and  subsequently,  for  nine  years, 
at  York,  Maine.  After  ten  years  in  Europe 
he  became  pastor  at  Dover,  New  Hamp- 
shire, where  he  died.  He  was  the  father 
of  Captain  Tristram  Hull,  born  in  Eng- 
land, in  1626,  who  joined  the  Society  of 
Friends,  and  resided  at  Yarmouth  and 
Barnstable,  Massachusetts.  His  son, 
Joseph  Hull,  born  at  Barnstable,  1652, 
was  governor's  assistant  in  Rhode  Island 
four  years,  and  suffered  much  persecution 
because  of  his  affiliation  with  the  Friends, 
in  which  society  he  became  a  minister. 
His  son,  Tristram  Hull,  lived  in  Westerly, 
Rhode  Island,  and  was  the  father  of  Ste- 
phen Hull,  whose  son,  Latham  Hull,  died 
in  North  Stonington,  Connecticut.  His 
son,  John  W.  Hull,  resided  in  that  town, 
and  was  a  colonel  of  the  local  militia.  He 
married  Elizabeth  Smith,  of  Waterford, 
Connecticut,  and  they  were  the  parents  of 
Eliza  Smith  Hull,  born  May  26,  1812,  died 
April  21,  1875.  She  was  married,  Septem- 
ber 21,  1829,  to  John  Hazard  Browning, 
and  became  the  mother  of  John  Hull 
Browning,  of  further  mention. 

John  Hull  Browning,  youngest  child  of 
John  Hazard  and  Eliza  Smith  (Hull) 
Browning,  was  born  December  25,  1842, 
in  Orange,  New  Jersey,  where  the  family 
has  been  for  some  time  established.  After 
pursuing  a  course  in  the  New  York 
Academy,  he  embarked  upon  a  business 
career  in  his  twentieth  year,  entering  the 
wholesale  clothing  firm  of  William  C. 
Browning  &  Company,  which  business 
was  very  successful,  and  John  H.  Brown- 
ing ultimately  became  interested  in  vari- 
ous financial  and  business  enterprises. 
Soon  after    1883   he   succeeded   the   late 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Charles  G.  Sisson  as  president  of  the 
Northern  Railroad  of  New  Jersey,  which 
position  he  occupied  twenty-two  years. 
He  was  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the 
East  &  West  Railroad  of  Alabama,  and 
for  twenty  years  was  president  of  the 
Richmond  County  Gas  Company,  in  what 
is  now  Greater  New  York.  For  some  time 
he  was  treasurer  of  the  Cherokee  Iron 
Company  of  Cedartown,  Georgia,  and  he 
was  a  director  in  the  Citizens'  National 
Bank  of  Englewood,  New  Jersey.  Mr. 
Browning  made  his  home  in  New  York 
City,  but  maintained  an  attractive  sum- 
mer home  at  Tenafly,  New  Jersey.  He 
was  deeply  interested  in  organized  char- 
itable work,  both  in  New  York  and  New 
Jersey,  and  in  association  with  his  wife 
erected  a  fresh  air  children's  home  at 
Tenafly.  While  he  was  essentially  a  busi- 
ness man,  a  director  in  many  profitable 
enterprises,  Mr.  Browning  always  had 
time  for  a  reasonable  amount  of  recrea- 
tion, and  devoted  much  thought  and  care 
to  benevolent  work  in  the  interest  of  man- 
kind in  general.  He  died  suddenly  in  the 
Erie  ferry-house  at  the  foot  of  Chambers 
street,  New  York,  October  26,  1914.  He 
married,  October  19,  1871,  Eva  B.  Sisson, 
daughter  of  Charles  Grandison  and  Mary 
Elizabeth  (Garrabrant)  Sisson.  Mr.  Sis- 
son was  a  projector,  contractor  and  rail- 
road president,  one  of  the  most  useful 
citizens  of  New  Jersey  during  more  than 
a  quarter  of  a  century's  residence  in  that 
State.  He  was  a  grandson  of  William 
Sisson,  one  of  five  brothers,  from  Sois- 
sons,  in  Normandy,  France,  all  of  whom 
settled  in  Rhode  Island,  a  majority  of 
them  participating  in  the  American  Revo- 
lution. One,  Nathan  Sisson,  endured 
terrible  hardships  on  board  British  prison 
ships  in  New  York  Harbor.  Major  Gilbert 
Sisson,  son  of  William  Sisson,  was  a 
native  of  North  Stonington,  Connecticut, 
where  he  was  a  merchant,  and  married 
Desire  Maine,  a  woman  of  unusual  talent, 


the  seventh  daughter  of  a  large  family,  of 
French  descent.  They  were  the  parents 
of  Charles  G.  Sisson.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John 
Hull  Browning  were  the  parents  of  a  son, 
John  Hull  Browning,  born  October  6, 
1874. 


SEYMOUR,  William  H., 

Manufacturer,   Inventor. 

The  town  of  Brockport,  Monroe  county, 
New  York,  is  justly  noted  for  its  manu- 
facturing interests,  and  not  the  least  noted 
of  these  is  the  one  with  which  the  late 
William  H.  Seymour  was  connected  for 
so  many  years,  greatly  to  the  advance- 
ment and  development  of  the  interests  of 
the  town.  It  is  not  often  given  to  man  to 
attain  the  age  of  more  than  a  century,  and 
to  have  had  during  the  greater  portion  of 
his  life  an  important  place  in  the  business 
life  of  the  community,  yet  this  was  the 
case  with  Mr.  Seymour,  whose  mental- 
ity was  apparently  unaffected  and  un- 
weakened  almost  to  the  last.  The  history 
of  business  in  the  United  States  is  full  of 
instances  of  men  who,  by  dint  of  their 
peculiarly  constructive  ability  as  born 
leaders  of  men,  have  out  of  modest  begin- 
nings built  up  colossal  fortunes,  and  have 
put  into  operation  enterprises  that  have 
furnished  work  to  many  others.  These 
are  generally  men  whose  native  resource- 
fulness and  indomitable  energy  would  in 
any  circumstances  inevitably  have  brought 
them  into  the  leadership  of  civic  growth 
and  development.  An  invaluable  example 
of  a  man  of  this  type  was  the  late  Mr. 
Seymour.  The  admirable  traits  possessed 
by  him  were  inherited  from  a  long  line  of 
distinguished  ancestry,  the  family  being 
one  of  great  antiquity  in  England,  and 
among  the  earliest  settlers  in  New  Eng- 
land. 

Richard  Seymour,  the  American  pro- 
genitor of  the  family,  was  one  of  the  early 
settlers  of  Hartford,  Connecticut.     The 


162 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


seal  on  the  will  of  Thomas  Seymour, 
eldest  son  of  Richard  Seymour,  bears  the 
impress  of  two  wings  conjoined  in  lure, 
the  device  of  the  English  Seymours  from 
the  time  of  William  de  St.  Maur  of  Pen- 
how.  A  "Bishop's  Bible,"  printed  in  1584, 
in  the  possession  of  Hon.  Morris  Wood- 
ruff Seymour,  has  on  one  of  the  fly-leaves 
a  drawing  of  the  arms  of  the  Seymours  of 
Berry  Pomeroy,  viz. :  Two  wings  con- 
joined in  lure,  quartered  with  the  Royal 
Arms  as  granted  by  Henry  VIII.  to  Edward 
Seymour,  Duke  of  Somerset,  and  the  leg- 
end: "Richard  Seymour,  of  Berry  Pom- 
ery,  heytor  hund.  in  ye  Com.  Devon,  his 
Booke,  Hartford,  in  ye  Collony  of  Con- 
necticut in  Newe  England,  Annoque 
Domini  1640."  Among  the  many  distin- 
guished descendants  of  Richard  Seymour 
may  be  mentioned:  Major  Moses  Sey- 
mour, of  Litchfield,  a  Revolutionary 
officer  of  distinction,  and  Sheriff  Ozias 
Seymour,  his  son ;  the  Hon.  Thomas 
Seymour,  first  mayor  of  Hartford;  Cap- 
tain Thomas  Youngs  Seymour,  a  gallant 
soldier  of  the  Revolutionary  War;  Gen- 
eral Truman  Seymour,  who  served  with 
distinction  in  the  Mexican  War  ("Hero 
of  Chapultepec")  ;  Thomas  H.  Seymour, 
grandson  of  Mayor  Seymour,  was  United 
States  minister  to  Russia,  and  governor 
of  Connecticut ;  Judge  Origen  Storrs 
Seymour,  of  Litchfield,  chief  justice  of 
Connecticut,  son  of  Sheriff  Ozias  Sey- 
mour; Hon.  Edward  W.,  Hon.  Morris 
W.  and  Rev.  Dr.  Storrs  O.  Seymour,  sons 
of  Chief  Justice  Seymour;  Hon.  Henry 
Seymour,  of  Pompey,  New  York,  one  of 
the  commissioners  who  built  the  first 
Erie  Canal ;  his  son,  Governor  Horatio 
Seymour,  of  New  York,  and  his  sisters: 
Julia  Chenevard  Seymour,  who  married 
Roscoe  Conkling,  and  Helen  Clarissa 
Seymour,  who  married  Ledyard  Link- 
laen ;  Major-General  Truman  Seymour, 
United  States  army;  Hon.  Horatio  Sey- 
mour, for  many  years  United  States  sen- 


ator from  Vermont,  and  a  great  friend  of 
Daniel  Webster,  who  considered  him  the 
best  lawyer  in  New  England  in  his  day; 
Rt.  Rev.  George  Franklin  Seymour,  late 
Protestant  Episcopal  Bishop  of  Spring- 
field, Illinois;  and  the  late  Professor 
Thomas  Day  Seymour,  of  Yale.  William 
H.  Seymour's  ancestors  on  both  sides  of 
the  family  have  been  noted  for  their  lon- 
gevity for  some  generations.  Major 
Moses  Seymour,  uncle  of  Mr.  Seymour, 
was  honored  for  gallant  service  in  the 
War  of  the  Revolution. 

John  Seymour,  born  about  1640,  son  of 
Richard  Seymour,  the  immigrant,  married 
Mary,  daughter  of  John  and  Margaret 
(Smith)  Watson,  and  their  eldest  child 
was  John  Seymour,  born  June  12,  1666,  in 
Norwalk.  He  was  a  distinguished  man, 
member  of  the  General  Assembly,  and 
held  various  town  offices.  He  married, 
December  19,  1693,  Elizabeth,  daughter 
of  Lieutenant  Robert  and  Susanna  (Treat) 
Webster,  the  latter  a  daughter  of  Hon. 
Richard  Treat,  of  Wethersfield.  Robert 
Webster  was  a  son  of  Governor  John 
Webster,  of  Connecticut.  The  seventh 
son  of  John  (2)  and  Elizabeth  (Webster) 
Seymour,  was  Moses  Seymour,  born  Feb- 
ruary 17,  171 1,  in  Hartford,  where  he 
passed  his  life,  and  died  September  24, 
1795.  He  married  Rachel  Goodwin,  bap- 
tized January  22,  1716,  in  Hartford,  died 
July  23,  1763,  daughter  of  Nathaniel  and 
Sarah  (Coles)  Goodwin,  great-grand- 
daughter of  Ozias  Goodwin,  ancestor  of 
the  large  family  of  that  name.  Ozias 
Goodwin  was  born  in  1596,  in  Essex 
county,  England,  and  married  there  Mary, 
daughter  of  Robert  Woodward,  of  Brain- 
tree,  Essex.  Ozias  Goodwin's  house,  in 
February,  1640,  was  on  the  highway  lead- 
ing from  Seth  Grant's  to  Centinal  Hill, 
on  what  is  now  Trumbull  street,  near 
Church  street,  Hartford.  Later  he  re- 
moved to  the  lot  on  the  highway  from  the 
mill  to  the  old  ox  pasture.    He  was  one  of 


163 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


the  company  that  signed  an  agreement,  in 
1659,  to  remove  to  Hadley,  Massachu- 
setts, but  did  not  go.  He  died  in  the 
spring  of  1683.  His  second  son,  Nathaniel 
Goodwin,  born  about  1637,  was  admitted 
freeman  in  1662,  and  was  one  of  the 
townsmen  of  Hartford  in  1682.  He  mar- 
ried (first)  Sarah  Coles,  of  Hatfield,  Mas- 
sachusetts, formerly  of  Farmington,  Con- 
necticut. Their  eldest  child  was  Na- 
thaniel Goodwin,  born  July,  1665,  ensign 
of  the  North  Company,  of  Hartford, 
weaver  by  occupation,  died  March  12, 
1746.  He  married  (second)  September 
14,  1699,  Sarah,  daughter  of  John  Easton, 
born  November  15,  1675,  died  January  2, 
1740.  One  of  their  fourteen  children  was 
Rachel  Goodwin,  wife  of  Moses  Seymour. 
She  was  the  mother  of  Major  Moses  and 
Captain  Samuel  Seymour,  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War. 

Captain  Samuel  Seymour,  son  of  Moses 
and  Rachel  (Goodwin)  Seymour,  was 
born  January  21,  1754,  in  Hartford,  and 
died  November  14,  1837,  at  Lichfield,  Con- 
necticut. After  the  Revolution  he  settled 
at  Litchfield,  where  he  was  associated 
with  his  brother,  Major  Moses  Seymour, 
in  the  manufacture  of  hats.  He  married, 
in  Litchfield,  June  20,  1788,  Rebecca 
Osborn,  born  October  11,  1763,  died  July 
17,  1843,  daughter  of  John  and  Lois 
(Peck)  Osborn.  They  had  children:  Har- 
riet, born  March  24,  1789;  James,  April 
20,  1791;  Charles,  March  13,  1793;  a  son, 
born  March  13,  died  September  30,  1794, 
unnamed  ;  Clarissa,  January  23,  1800 ;  and 
William  H.,  mentioned  below. 

William  H.  Seymour  was  born  in  Litch- 
field, Connecticut,  July  15,  1802,  and  died 
at  Brockport,  New  York,  October  6,  1903, 
having  lived  for  almost  one  hundred  and 
one  and  a  quarter  years.  Until  the  age  of 
sixteen  years  he  lived  in  his  native  town, 
and  there  acquired  his  education,  and  the 
commencement  of  his  business  training. 
He    then    went     to    Clarkson,    Genesee 


county,  New  York,  to  become  a  clerk  in 
the  store  which  had  been  established  there 
by  his  brother,  James.  The  business  was 
removed  to  Brockport,  in  1823,  and  after 
James  Seymour,  who  was  the  first  sheriff 
of  Monroe  county,  had  removed  to  Roch- 
ester, William  H.  Seymour  remained  as 
proprietor  of  the  store  at  Brockport,  a 
general  mercantile  establishment,  and  to 
it  added  the  purchase  and  shipment  of 
grain.  During  the  administration  of 
President  Jackson,  the  post  office  was 
located  in  his  store  and  he  had  charge  of 
it.  The  manifold  duties  of  these  combined 
enterprises  requiring  expert  assistance, 
Mr.  Seymour  had  at  various  times  as 
partners,  Joseph  Ganson  and  then  Hol- 
lister  Lathrop.  D.  S.  Morgan  was  ad- 
mited  to  partnership  prior  to  1844,  and 
about  one  year  after  the  association  with 
Mr.  Morgan  was  formed,  these  two 
gentlemen  and  Thomas  Roby,  a  brother- 
in-law  of  Mr.  Seymour,  established  a 
foundry  for  the  manufacture  of  stoves 
and  other  castings.  This  was  the  nucleus 
of  a  business  which  later  achieved  inter- 
national reputation.  In  1847,  while  still 
a  member  of  the  firm,  Mr.  Roby  died,  and 
the  business  was  then  carried  on  by  Mr. 
Seymour  and  Mr.  Morgan.  Since  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  reap- 
ing machines  had  been  manufactured  in 
a  desultory  fashion,  but  there  had  been  no 
regular  production  of  this  intensely  useful 
and  practical  machine  until  1846,  when 
the  first  one  hundred  machines  of  this 
kind  were  constructed  by  Seymour,  Mor- 
gan &  Company  for  Cyrus  H.  McCor- 
mick.  Shortly  before  this  time  Mr.  Sey- 
mour had  been  told  that  when  Mr.  Mc- 
Cormick  was  in  Washington  getting  a 
patent  on  the  seat  on  his  machines,  he 
was  informed  by  D.  Burroughs  that  his 
brother-in-law,  Mr.  Backus,  of  Backus, 
Fitch  &  Company,  of  Brockport,  would 
most  likely  manufacture  his  reaper  for 
him.  In  the  preceding  fall,  he  also 
64 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


learned  Mr.  McCormick  had  brought  his      be  necessary  in  the  manufacture  of  self- 


reaper  to  Backus,  Fitch  &  Company  and 
had  it  tried  in  cutting  wheat.  It  had  no 
seat  for  the  raker,  who  walked  behind 
and  raked  off  the  sheaf.  In  the  succeed- 
ing winter  Mr.  McCormick  brought  his 
patterns  for  castings  to  Backus,  Fitch  & 
Company,  but  as  they  could  only  make 
a  small  number  he  called  on  Seymour, 
Morgan  &  Company,  then  engaged  in  the 
manufacture  of  stoves,  and  they  agreed 
to  make  for  the  harvest  of  1846  one  hun- 
dred of  these  reapers,  which  had  a  seat 
for  the  raker.  Mr.  Jenner  made  the 
patterns  for  the  castings,  Mr.  McCormick 
directing  in  the  construction  of  his  first 
machine,  as  he  brought  no  machine  to 
the  firm  to  serve  as  a  pattern.  During 
the  next  year  they  made  two  hundred 
reapers  for  Mr.  McCormick,  but  feeling 
that  they  could  not  agree  to  pay  his 
patent  fee  of  thirty  dollars  on  each  ma- 
chine, they  subsequently  began  the  manu- 
facture of  a  reaper  brought  out  by  George 
F.  Barnett,  which  they  believed  did  not 
infringe  on  Mr.  Cormick's  patent.  They 
built  three  hundred  that  year  and  were 
sued  by  Mr.  McCormick,  so  they  aban- 
doned that  invention  and  commenced  the 
manufacture  of  reapers  after  plans  per- 
fected by  Mr.  Seymour,  the  new  machine 
being  know  as  The  New  Yorker.  Mr. 
Seymour  obtained  a  patent  on  this  and 
had  manufactured  five  hundred  of  them 
when  he  was  restrained  by  an  injunction 
granted  to  Mr.  McCormick  by  Judge 
Nelson,  of  the  United  States  Court,  Mr. 
McCormick  contesting  the  right  of  any 
other  manufacturer  to  place  reapers  upon 
the  market.  However,  it  is  an  indisputa- 
ble fact  that  the  firm  of  Seymour,  Morgan 
&  Company  was  the  first  to  manufacture 
reapers  reguarly  in  this  country.  In  Feb- 
ruary, 1857,  Mr.  Seymour  disposed  of  his 
interests  in  his  patents  on  his  reaper,  yet 
reserved  his  rights  as  far  as  they  might 


raking  reapers,  to  D.  S.  Morgan  for  his 
interest  in  a  farm  in  Hamlin.  Until  1875 
he  remained  at  the  head  of  the  iron 
foundry  enterprise,  then  withdrew  and 
devoted  his  time  and  attention  to  the 
manufacture  and  sale  of  lumber,  in  asso- 
ciation with  his  son  Henry  W.,  until  1882, 
when  he  withdrew  from  all  active  share 
in  business  enterprises. 

From  that  time  he  lived  retired  at 
Brockport,  the  only  interruptions  being 
occasional  journeys  with  one  or  the  other 
of  his  children.  In  1883,  accompanied  by 
his  children,  he  traveled  for  a  period  of 
five  months,  the  countries  visited  being 
Great  Britain,  Germany,  Italy  and  France. 
In  1888  he  paid  another  visit  to  England, 
this  time  in  the  company  of  a  daughter 
and  son-in-law.  In  1893  ne  spent  a  con- 
siderable time  at  the  World's  Exposition 
at  Chicago,  but  after  1895  he  preferred 
the  quiet  and  rest  of  his  own  home,  and 
no  longer  took  any  trips  of  note.  In 
recognition  of  the  importance  of  his  work 
in  establishing  one  of  the  great  industries 
of  this  country,  the  National  Association 
of  Agricultural  Implement  and  Vehicle 
Manufacturers  elected  him  as  an  honorary 
member  of  their  organization  in  1900. 
Upon  the  occasion  of  the  one  hundredth 
anniversary  of  his  birth  the  whole  town 
of  Brockport  made  holiday.  The  church 
bells  pealed  a  greeting  in  strokes  of  ten 
from  each  tower  thus  numbering  the  hun- 
dred years ;  the  flag  was  raised  on  the 
town  hall  in  his  honor,  and  neighbors  and 
friends  decorated  their  homes  in  honor  of 
the  event ;  friends  came  from  far  and  near 
to  offer  their  heartfelt  congratulations, 
and  a  delegation  was  sent  from  his  native 
town,  Litchfield,  which  he  had  been  in  the 
habit  of  visiting  from  time  to  time.  A 
century  plant  was  one  of  the  choice  and 
appropriate  gifts  among  the  many  which 
were  tendered,  and  a  centerpiece  for  the 


165 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


table  was  composed  of  one  hundred  Sweet 
Williams,  bordered  with  Rosemary  "for 
remembrance."  At  the  reception  held  in 
the  afternoon  all  classes  and  all  ages  were 
represented,  for  during  his  long  and  use- 
ful life  he  had  ever  had  a  warm  heart  for 
the  poor,  the  infirm  and  for  children,  and 
all  were  accounted  his  friends.  One  of 
his  old  workmen  said  on  that  occasion: 
"I  worked  for  you  steady,  Sir,  for  forty 
years,  and  I  always  got  my  pay;"  while 
a  friend  and  neighbor  said:  "In  all  the 
years  Mr.  Seymour  has  lived  here  no  one 
ever  could  say  a  word  against  him.  His 
name  stood  for  absolute  integrity."  A 
remarkable  feature  was  the  trustworthi- 
ness of  the  memory  of  Mr.  Seymour.  Al- 
though he  was  but  ten  years  of  age  at 
the  time  of  the  outbreak  of  the  War  of 
1812,  he  remembered  incidents  and  scenes 
of  that  time  vividly,  and  his  powers  of 
description  made  his  reminiscences  very 
entertaining.  For  many  years  he  had 
spent  considerable  time  in  reading,  and 
his  apt  and  correct  quotations  aroused 
the  comments  of  all  who  heard  him. 
Billiards  and  whist  were  also  favorite 
forms  of  entertainment  with  Mr.  Sey- 
mour. 

Mr.  Seymour  married,  April  16,  1833, 
Narcissa  Pixley,  of  Columbia  county, 
New  York,  and  of  their  five  children,  the 
following  named  attained  maturity:  Hon. 
Henry  W.,  who  died  in  Washington,  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  leaving  a  widow  and 
one  daughter,  Helen ;  Helen,  who  mar- 
ried W.  B.  Sylvester;  James  H.,  unmar- 
ried, whose  home  is  at  Sault  de  Sainte 
Marie,  Michigan.  Mr.  Seymour  kept  fully 
abreast  of  the  times  and  in  touch  with 
the  best  thoughts  of  the  day,  down  to  his 
latest  years.  To  whatever  he  undertook 
he  gave  his  whole  attention,  and  he  was 
a  loyal  friend  and  a  genial,  kindly  gentle- 


JUDSON,  Edward  B.,  Hon., 

Authority  on  Banking  Matters. 

To  acquire  distinction  or  great  pros- 
perity in  the  business  pursuits  which  give 
to  the  country  its  financial  strength  and 
credit  requires  ability  of  the  highest  order. 
This  fact  is  apparent  to  all  who  tread  the 
busy  thoroughfares  of  the  business  world. 
Ordinarily  merit  may  attain  a  respectable 
position  and  enjoy  a  moderate  compe- 
tence, but  to  rise  to  one  of  the  first  places 
of  monetary  credit  and  power  can  only  be 
the  fortune  of  a  rarely  gifted  personage. 
Eminent  business  talent  is  a  combination 
of  high  mental  and  moral  attributes.  It  is 
not  simple  energy  and  industry;  there 
must  be  sound  judgment,  breadth  of  ca- 
pacity, rapidity  of  thought,  justice  and 
firmness,  the  foresight  to  perceive  the 
course  of  the  drifting  tides  of  business 
and  the  will  and  ability  to  control  them, 
and,  withal,  a  collection  of  minor  but  im- 
portant qualities  to  regulate  the  details  of 
the  pursuits  which  engage  attention.  The 
subject  of  this  memoir,  the  Hon.  Edward 
B.  Judson,  late  of  Syracuse,  affords  an 
exemplificaton  of  this  talent  and  in  the 
theater  of  his  operations  he  achieved  a 
reputation  which  placed  him  among  the 
first  of  the  distinguished  business  men  of 
New  York  State. 

Hon.  Edward  B.  Judson,  of  Connecticut 
parentage  and  old  New  England  ancestry, 
was  born  in  Coxsackie,  New  York,  Janu- 
ary 11,  1813,  and  died  at  his  home  in  Syra- 
cuse, New  York,  January  15,  1902.  He 
had  celebrated  his  eighty-ninth  birthday 
the  Saturday  prior  to  his  death,  and  the 
day  before  his  death  was  at  his  desk  in 
the  bank,  which  he  had  served  so  faith- 
fully as  its  president  for  almost  thirty- 
nine  years.  His  education  was  an  excel- 
lent one,  both  in  his  refined  home  and  in 
the  schools  which  he  attended,  and  he  be- 
came well  equipped  for  the  active  busi- 


[66 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


ness  of  life.  His  first  position  in  business 
life  was  as  a  clerk  in  the  banking  house 
of  his  uncle,  Ralph  Barker,  in  Coxsackie, 
and  there  he  gained  the  valuable  experi- 
ence which  so  well  fitted  him  to  cope  with 
the  responsibilities  of  his  later  life.  About 
the  year  1835  he  decided  to  establish  him- 
self in  business  independently,  and  ac- 
cordingly associated  himself  with  his 
brother,  W.  A.  Judson,  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  lumber  at  Constantia,  Oswego 
county,  New  York ;  later  they  conducted 
a  lumber  commission  business  in  Albany, 
New  York,  for  a  period  of  twenty  years. 
This  one  interest  was  not,  however,  suf- 
ficient for  the  energy  and  ambition  of  Mr. 
Judson,  so  that  he  also  engaged  in  the 
manufacture  of  iron  at  Constantia,  and 
while  he  was  a  resident  of  that  town,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-six  years,  represented 
his  district  in  the  General  Assembly  dur- 
ing the  sessions  of  1839-41,  the  commu- 
nity having  honored  him  with  election  to 
this  office,  and  during  his  incumbency  of 
it  he  served  as  chairman  of  the  committee 
on  cities  and  villages  and  the  State  Luna- 
tic Asylum. 

In  1849  Mr.  Judson  took  up  his  resi- 
dence in  the  city  of  Syracuse,  and  from 
that  time  until  his  death  that  city  felt  the 
beneficial  influence  of  his  varied  activities. 
He  had  been  living  in  it  but  a  year 
when  he  became  one  of  the  organizers 
and  the  first  vice-president  of  the  Mer- 
chants' Bank,  and  was  ever  afterward  an 
authority  in  banking  matters.  When  the 
Salt  Spring  Bank  was  organized  in  1852, 
Mr.  Judson  was  elected  a  member  of  its 
first  board  of  directors,  was  the  first 
cashier  of  the  institution,  and  was  actively 
identified  with  its  control  until  1857.  In 
that  year  he  resigned  from  these  respon- 
sibilities in  order  to  lend  his  assistance  to 
the  organization  of  the  Lake  Ontario 
Bank  of  Oswego,  of  which  he  became 
cashier  and  chief  executive  officer.  This 
institution  was  remarkable  for  the  char- 


acter and  high  position  of  its  stockholders, 
among  whom  were:  John  A.  Stevens, 
president;  C.  H.  Russell,  vice-president; 
Henry  F.  Vail,  cashier  of  the  Bank  of 
Commerce,  New  York  City;  Erastus 
Corning  and  H.  H.  Martin,  president  and 
cashier  of  the  Albany  City  Bank;  Rufus 
H.  King  and  J.  H.  Van  Antwerp,  presi- 
dent and  cashier  of  the  State  Bank  of 
Albany;  J.  B.  Plumb,  president  of  the 
Bank  of  Interior,  Albany;  Hamilton 
White,  Horace  White,  John  D.  Norton 
and  Thomas  B.  Fitch,  presidents  respec- 
tively of  the  Onondaga  County  Bank, 
the  Bank  of  Syracuse,  the  Merchants' 
Bank  and  the  Mechanics'  Bank,  all  of 
Syracuse ;  G.  B.  Rich,  president  of  the 
Bank  of  Attica,  Buffalo;  Luther  Wright, 
president  of  Luther  Wright's  Bank, 
Oswego;  and  Thurlow  Weed,  John 
L.  Schoolcraft,  David  Hamilton,  John 
Knower,  Frederick  T.  Carrington,  George 
Geddes  and  William  A.  Judson. 

In  1863,  during  the  troublous  times  of 
the  Civil  War,  Mr.  Judson  was  called  to 
Washington  by  the  Hon.  Salmon  P. 
Chase,  then  secretary  of  the  treasury, 
who  sought  his  counsel  as  to  what  might 
be  best  accomplished  in  making  necessary 
changes  and  regulations  in  the  banking 
laws  of  the  country.  When  Mr.  Judson 
returned  to  Syracuse,  at  the  request  of 
Mr.  Chase,  he  organized  the  First  Na- 
tional Bank  of  Syracuse,  which  is  re- 
corded as  No.  6  in  the  archives  at  Wash- 
ington. So  safe  and  conservative  was  the 
policy  on  which  this  institution  was  or- 
ganized that  it  remained  firm  and  stead- 
fast during  financial  panics  which  innu- 
merable other  banks  were  unable  to  with- 
stand. Mr.  Judson  was  chosen  chairman 
of  the  executive  committee  of  the  Na- 
tional Banking  Association  in  1864,  and 
was  the  incumbent  of  this  office  eleven 
consecutive  years ;  he  was  one  of  the  first 
two  vice-presidents  of  the  Trust  and  De- 
posit Company  of  Onondaga,  a  corpora- 


167 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


tion  founded  in  1869.  He  was  one  of  the 
organizers  of  the  Metropolitan  Trust 
Company  of  New  York  City,  and  became 
a  member  of  its  first  board  of  trustees. 
He  was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the 
American  Express  Company,  and  was  a 
member  of  its  board  of  directors  and  of 
its  finance  committee  until  his  son,  Ed- 
ward B.  Judson,  Jr.,  took  his  place  about 
the  year  1890.  He  was  actively  connected 
with  a  number  of  other  business  enter- 
prises of  equal  importance,  one  of  which 
was  the  Syracuse  Glass  Company,  of 
which  he  was  president  for  a  time,  and 
with  which  he  was  connected  for  a  period 
of  eighteen  years.  Another  field  of  his 
activity  was  in  railroad  matters.  He  was 
one  of  the  incorporators  in  1870,  and  be- 
came the  first  treasurer  of  the  Syracuse 
Northern  Railroad  Company;  for  some 
years  was  a  member  of  the  board  of  di- 
rectors of  the  Syracuse  &  Oswego  Rail- 
road Company,  and  for  a  time  was  a 
member  of  the  directorates  of  the  New 
York  Central  Railroad  Company  and  the 
Bank  of  Syracuse.  He  assisted  in  the 
organization  of  the  Salt  Springs  Solar 
Coarse  Salt  Company,  and  was  one  of  its 
directors  from  that  time  until  his  death. 
He  gave  his  consistent  and  unvarying 
support  to  the  Republican  party,  but  was 
never  desirous,  after  coming  to  Syracuse, 
of  holding  public  office;  the  only  excep- 
tion he  made  to  this  rule  was  in  1868, 
when  he  allowed  his  name  to  be  used  as 
a  nominee  for  the  office  of  presidential 
elector.  Charitable  and  philanthropic  to 
a  degree,  Mr.  Judson  was  identified  with 
every  project  in  the  city  which  had  for  its 
object  the  assistance  of  those  less  fortu- 
nately circumstanced.  He  was  a  trustee 
of  the  Old  Ladies'  Home,  and  treasurer 
of  St.  Joseph's  Hospital.  His  religious 
affiliation  was  with  the  May  Memorial 
Church,  in  which  he  served  as  president 
of  the  board  of  trustees.  As  a  trustee 
and  vice-president  of  Wells  College,  at 


Aurora,  New  York,  he  greatly  furthered 
the  interests  of  that  institution,  and  he 
held  official  position  in  a  number  of  other 
organizations. 

Mr.  Judson  married,  October  15,  1846, 
Sarah  Williams,  a  daughter  of  Codding- 
ton  B.  Williams,  of  Syracuse.  They  had 
only  one  child  who  lived  beyond  infancy, 
Edward  B.,  of  whom  further. 

Edward  B.  Judson,  Jr.,  was  born  in 
Syracuse,  New  York,  December  21,  1854, 
died  in  that  city,  January  16,  1910,  from 
an  attack  of  pneumonia  after  an  illness 
of  but  two  days.  As  a  youth  he  attended 
the  school  conducted  by  Dr.  Isaac  Bridg- 
man,  in  Syracuse,  and  after  being  gradu- 
ated from  this  institution  of  learning,  en- 
tered the  employ  of  the  Syracuse  Glass 
Company,  of  which  his  father  was  presi- 
dent. Three  years  later  he  became  the 
senior  partner  in  the  firm  of  Judson  & 
Ryder,  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of 
matches,  in  West  Water  street.  When 
they  sold  this  concern  to  the  Diamond 
Match  Company  Mr.  Judson  became  asso- 
ciated with  his  father  in  the  Salt  Springs 
Solar  Coarse  Salt  Company,  and  also  de- 
voted a  portion  of  his  time  and  attention 
to  the  building  of  the  Grape  Street  Car 
Line,  which  was  being  constructed  by  the 
Seventh  and  Eleventh  Ward  Railroad 
Company.  Mr.  Judson  was  elected  a 
member  of  the  board  of  directors  of  the 
First  National  Bank  in  1881,  and  upon 
the  retirement  of  Mr.  John  Crouse  in 
1888,  was  elected  to  the  vice-presidency, 
and  thereafter  devoted  the  greater  part  of 
his  time  to  the  interests  of  the  bank,  and 
upon  the  death  of  his  father  in  1902,  he 
succeeded  to  the  presidency  of  this  insti- 
tution. He  was  also  from  1890  to  the 
time  of  his  death  a  member  of  the  board 
of  directors  of  the  American  Express 
Company  and  of  the  Metropolitan  Trust 
Company  of  New  York.  In  addition  to 
this  position  he  was,  at  the  time  of  his 
sudden  death,  president  of  the  Onondaga 


n,S 


ARTHUR  JENKINS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Pottery  Company  and  the  Salt 

Solar   Coarse   Salt   Company,   an 

president  of  Pass  ... 

the  twenty-nine  years  tha 

was   id 

Bank   of   Syr- 

widely  i 

banker,  a  business  ma 

tegrity,  good  judgm 

spirit,  and,  like  his  fal 

he  was  modest  in  hi 

riet.  daughter  of  Rev 
D.  D.,  and  Sai 
were   the  parents   o 
Judson,  who  marrie: 
James  Douglas  Morgan,  M. 
treal.  Canada. 


JENKINS,  Arthur, 

Prominent  in  Journalistic  Work. 

Not  too  often  can  be  repeated  the  life 
history  of  one  who  Is 

useful  a  life  a''  xh  dis- 

fenkins, 

Syracusi 

His  chai 

of  purpi 

ing  was  hard  or  in 

ciplined 

point  fn  ife  presented  il 

and  guarded  by  the  i  le  prin- 

ciples of  in  teg  :  leand 

unostentatious  in  his  self-i 
tolerant  individuality,  sucl 
not  prove  other  than  a  for 
whatever  relation  of  life  he  mi^1 
His  character  was  I 


been 


tive  expression  of  a  strong  natu 
'igth  was  as  his  number  i 
The  record  of  his  life  finds  . 

compilation  it  is.  necessary 


- 
■ 

ur  Jen- 


i 

ige  of  foi 


il 

- 

I 

of  commission  men' 
■ 

■ 
g  before  he  b<  came 

: 

■ 

i    ■ 


fore  he 


•  he  had 

s  to  be- 

■ong  be- 

lent  in  the  corn- 


Daily 
spleted 


160 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


gained  an  insight  into  the  details  con- 
nected with  newspaper  work.  For  several 
years  Mr.  Jenkins  then  worked  as  a  jour- 
neyman printer,  but  as  he  was  very  desir- 
ous of  seeing  something  of  the  world,  he 
followed  his  chosen  vocation  in  various 
places,  and  in  the  course  of  following  this 
mode  of  life  was  employed  at  Chicago, 
Illinois ;  Madison,  Wisconsin ;  and  work- 
ed his  way  through  Illinois  and  the  Ohio 
Valley  to  Pittsburgh,  and  the  oil  regions, 
finally  locating  in  Syracuse,  New  York, 
early  in  the  year  1871.  Although  so 
young,  he  had  so  well  utilized  his  time 
that  the  desire  for  change  and  novelty 
had  worn  off,  and  he  felt  ready  to  make  a 
permanent  home  for  himself.  This  he 
proceeded  to  do  in  Syracuse,  where  he 
was  engaged  for  some  years  in  journal- 
istic work,  notably  with  the  editorial  end 
and  also  with  the  managerial  department 
of  a  newspaper,  and  having  made  many 
friends,  felt  emboldened  to  establish  him- 
self independently  in  the  newspaper  world. 
January  15,  1877,  saw  the  practical  com- 
mencement of  this  plan,  in  the  first  issue 
of  "The  Evening  Herald,"  which,  as  Mr. 
Jenkins  was  destitute  of  capital,  but  de- 
termined in  purpose,  he  borrowed  on 
mortgage  and  the  newspaper  was  begun 
with  the  sum  of  two  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  dollars.  So  successful  was  the  begin- 
ning of  this  enterprise  that  in  June  of 
the  following  year  Mr.  Jenkins  organized 
the  Herald  Company,  of  which  he  became 
the  president  and  general  manager.  Bold 
though  this  step  appeared  to  be,  proofs 
were  soon  forthcoming  that  it  had  not 
been  a  rash  one,  for  the  sound  business 
judgment  and  strong  executive  ability  of 
Mr.  Jenkins  overcame  all  difficulties  and 
placed  the  enterprise  on  a  firm  basis  from 
the  start.  The  course  of  "The  Evening 
Herald"  has  been  a  steadily  upward  one, 
and  it  is  the  leading  daily  newspaper  of 
Syracuse  and  Central  New  York  and  is  an 


invaluable  power  in  molding  the  public 
opinion  of  Middle  New  York.  So  popular 
did  it  become  that  in  May,  1880,  a  Sun- 
day edition  of  the  paper  was  commenced, 
which  has  met  with  as  continuous  a 
support  as  that  accorded  to  the  evening 
edition. 

Endowed  with  foresight  of  a  remark- 
ably high  order,  Mr.  Jenkins  was  one  of 
the  first  to  recognize  the  benefits  to  be 
achieved  by  newspaper  publishers  from 
cooperative  action.  Consulting  with 
others  in  the  same  line  of  endeavor,  Mr. 
Jenkins  was  one  of  the  charter  members 
of  the  National  Associated  Press,  organ- 
ized in  1878,  and  was  chosen  as  a  member 
of  the  board  of  directors.  Continuing  his 
activities  in  the  same  direction,  he  be- 
came one  of  the  chief  organizers  of  The 
United  Press,  was  a  member  of  its  board 
of  directors,  and  served  as  its  business 
manager  during  a  part  of  the  year  1882. 
He  was  also  the  chief  organizer  of  the 
present  Associated  Press,  as  he  was  the 
one  to  suggest  the  idea  of  its  formation. 

The  entire  career  of  Mr.  Jenkins  was 
one  to  excite  the  admiration  and  commen- 
dation of  those  familiar  with  his  history, 
for  by  a  straightforward  and  commend- 
able course  he  had  made  his  way  from  a 
somewhat  humble  environment  to  an  ex- 
alted position  in  the  business  world,  win- 
ning the  hearty  admiration  of  the  people 
of  his  adopted  city  and  earning  a  reputa- 
tion as  an  enterprising,  progressive  man 
of  affairs  and  a  broad-minded,  charitable 
and  upright  citizen,  which  the  public  was 
not  slow  to  recognize  and  appreciate.  He 
was  one  of  those  solid  men  of  brain  and 
substance  so  essential  to  the  material 
growth  and  prosperity  of  a  community, 
and  one  whose  influence  was  willingly 
extended  in  behalf  of  every  deserving  en- 
terprise that  had  for  its  object  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  best  interests  of  the 
community. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


ELY,  Samuel  Mills, 

Highly  Useful  Citizen. 

Although  he  was  of  Connecticut  birth, 
the  long  and  useful  life  of  Samuel  Mills 
Ely  from  its  fifteenth  year  was  spent  in 
Binghamton,  New  York,  where  he  built 
up  one  of  the  important  wholesale  houses 
of  the  city  and  won  enviable  reputation 
as  a  man  of  the  highest  standing  and 
righteous  life.  To  those  of  his  day  and 
generation,  his  memory  is  fresh  and  fra- 
grant, to  those  who  follow  him  his  life 
is  an  example  worthy  of  emulation.  His 
life  was  an  open  book  to  be  read  by  all 
men,  modesty  and  simplicity  marking  its 
daily  course.  His  thoughtfulness,  be- 
nevolence and  generosity  were  ever  dis- 
played in  his  intercourse  with  his  fellow- 
men.  In  the  church  he  was  a  ceaseless 
worker  and  his  interest  continued  until 
his  last  hours.  He  gave  wisely,  his  giving 
covering  a  wide  field.  He  was  a  success- 
ful business  man,  citizen,  and  a  loyal 
friend.  He  did  not  use  tobacco  in  any 
form,  believing  it  injurious  to  health  and 
a  habit  to  be  avoided ;  therefore  he  barred 
it  from  his  store,  although  he  was  a 
wholesale  grocer,  and  tobacco  was  a  large 
item  in  such  a  business. 

Samuel  Mills  Ely  was  born  in  Chester, 
Connecticut,  at  the  Ely  homestead,  Octo- 
ber 24,  1837,  son  of  Richard  and  Mary 
Caroline  (Buck)  Ely,  who  were  married 
in  Rome,  New  York,  September  12,  1829. 
His  sister,  Mary  C.  Ely,  now  resides  in  the 
Ely  homestead  at  Chester,  Connecticut. 
Their  father,  Richard  Ely,  was  born  in 
Essex,  Connecticut,  August  6,  1798,  fol- 
lowed the  occupation  of  farming,  and  held 
various  town  offices.  His  wife  was  born 
May  5,  1799.  The  forebears  of  the  Ely 
family  were  from  England  and  were  early 
settlers  of  Lyme,  Connecticut,  and  the 
history  of  the  family  is  one  of  honor  and 
usefulness. 

Samuel     Mills    Ely    attended    private 


schools  in  Chester  and  later  a  grammar 
school  at  Deep  River,  Connecticut.  His 
entire  business  life  was  spent  in  Bing- 
hamton, New  York,  where  he  began  his 
active  career  in  the  employ  of  his  uncle, 
Hon.  Charles  McKinney.  In  1865  he 
formed  a  partnership  with  S.  &  E.  P.  Mc- 
Kinney in  the  grocery  business  in  Bing- 
hamton. In  1873  he  withdrew  and  estab- 
lished the  wholesale  grocery  and  import- 
ing house  of  S.  Mills  Ely  &  Company,  of 
which  he  was  president  at  the  time  of  his 
death.  In  1876  he  formed  a  partnership 
with  E.  F.  Leighton  that  continued  un- 
broken for  thirty-two  years,  terminating 
on  Mr.  Leighton's  death  in  1908.  Their 
business  was  very  prosperous  and  was 
conducted  according  to  the  highest  stand- 
ards of  fair  dealing.  Mr.  Ely  organized 
with  Roswell  J.  Bump  and  Mr.  Leighton, 
the  Binghamton  Chair  Company,  one  of 
Binghamton's  most  successful  manufac- 
turing corporations.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Bingham- 
ton, of  Binghamton  Club,  and  of  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Bingham- 
ton, in  which  he  was  an  office  holder  for 
many  years,  up  to  the  time  of  his  death, 
which  occurred  in  Binghamton,  May  5, 
1909.  Over  half  a  century  had  been  spent 
in  good  works  and  in  all  that  time  there 
were  few  movements  tending  to  the  ex- 
pansion or  moral  unlift  of  his  adopted  city 
that  he  did  not  heartily  lead  in  and  sup- 
port. Consistent  in  all  things,  his  home 
life,  his  business  affairs  and  his  church 
life  were  ordered  along  the  same  lines  of 
uprightness,  he  never  sanctioned  or  en- 
gaged in  any  business  deal  not  in  accord- 
ance with  his  religious  convictions.  No 
greater  work  in  the  name  of  charity  was 
ever  carried  on  by  a  private  individual  in 
Binghamton.  If  he  had  a  greater  interest 
in  one  form  of  benevolence  over  another, 
it  was  in  the  Fresh  Air  Movement  and  the 
Humane  Society,  but  the  Presbyterian 
church  and  the  Young  Men's  Christian 


171 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Association  also  found  in  him  a  friend 
that  never  failed.  He  gave  a  library- 
building  to  Chester,  Connecticut,  in  mem- 
ory of  his  father  and  mother.  His  sum- 
mer home  on  Mt.  Prospect,  Binghamton, 
he  gave  to  the  city  for  a  public  park  prior 
to  his  death,  which  beautiful  park  bears 
his  name,  and  although  he  did  not  live  to 
see  the  realization  of  his  dream  for  a  com- 
plete park  system,  his  generosity  and 
public  spirit  will  inspire  those  who  follow 
him. 

Mr.  Ely  married  at  Binghamton,  New 
York,  October  10,  1867,  Mary  Hart  Haw- 
ley,  of  Binghamton,  daughter  of  Elias 
and  Adaline  Hawley.  They  had  one  son 
and  one  daughter:  Richard  Hawley  Ely, 
born  July  29,  1868,  died  October  8,  1869. 
Clara  May  Ely,  born  December  19,  1876, 
lives  in  Binghamton,  and  was  one  of  the 
executors  of  Mr.  Ely's  estate,  with  Mr. 
John  R.  Clements,  general  manager  of  S. 
Mills  Ely  Company. 

In  his  last  will  and  testament,  one  of 
the  most  public-spirited  documents  and 
one  of  the  finest  examples  of  practical  be- 
nevolence ever  probated  in  the  county,  Mr. 
Ely  remembered  nearly  every  public  char- 
ity in  his  city  and  left  to  the  First  Presby- 
terian Church  trust  funds  for  carrying  on 
two  benevolent  enterprises,  the  care  for 
the  poor  of  Binghamton  and  home  mis- 
sionary work  among  the  foreign-born  ele- 
ment of  the  city.  The  following  other 
institutions,  remembered  generously  in 
his  will,  indicate  the  wide  extent  of  his 
interest :  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation, Young  Women's  Christian  As- 
sociation, Susquehanna  Valley  Home, 
Binghamton  City  Hospital,  Broome 
County  Humane  Society,  Home  for  Aged 
Women,  all  of  Binghamton  ;  Robert  Hun- 
gerford  Institute  of  Eatonville,  Flordia ; 
Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions, 
Presbyterian  Board  of  Home  Missions, 
Auburn  Theological  Seminary.  Not  the 
least  praiseworthy  feature  of  Mr.  Ely's 


will  was  the  generosity  with  which  he 
remembered  his  employees.  His  recom- 
mendation that  they  take  the  value  of 
their  bequests  in  stock  of  the  business  he 
developed  from  a  small  beginning  into  a 
strong  enterprise  was  another  thought 
for  the  future  that  deserves  recognition. 
To  weld  his  employees  thus  into  one  com- 
mercial whole  demonstrates  his  practical 
wisdom.  When,  at  the  age  of  seventy- 
two  years  he  died,  he  left  behind  the 
record  of  a  life  unsullied  by  any  unworthy 
deed. 


POTTER,  Alfred  Benedict, 

Public  Benefactor. 

The  record  of  the  life  of  Alfred  Bene- 
dict Potter,  late  of  Fairport,  New  York, 
is  in  the  main  uneventful  as  far  as  stir- 
ring incidents  or  startling  adventures  are 
concerned,  yet  it  was  distinguished  by 
the  most  substantial  qualities  of  char- 
acter. His  life  history  exhibits  a  career 
of  unswerving  integrity,  indefatigable 
private  industry,  and  wholesome  home 
and  social  relations — a  most  commend- 
able career  crowned  with  success.  It  is 
the  record  of  a  well  balanced  mental  and 
moral  makeup,  strongly  marked  by  those 
traits  of  character  which  are  of  special 
value  in  such  a  state  of  society  as  exists 
in  this  country.  A  community  depends 
upon  business  activity.  Its  welfare  is  due 
to  this,  and  its  promoters  of  legitimate 
enterprises  may  well  be  termed  its  bene- 
factors. Such  a  man  was  Alfred  B.  Pot- 
ter. He  belonged  to  a  family  which  is  one 
of  the  most  ancient  and  numerous  in 
America.  No  less  than  eleven  different 
immigrants  of  the  name  came  to  New 
England  during  the  seventeenth  century. 
So  far  as  is  known  none  of  these  immi- 
grants was  related  to  any  other.  The 
family  has  included  many  noted  ecclesi- 
astics and  other  professional  men,  as  well 
as  men  eminent  in  statesmanship  and 
72 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


other  walks  of  life.     The  name  is  sup- 
posed to  be  of  French  origin. 

Alfred  Benedict  Potter,  youngest  son 
of  the  late  Henry  S.  Potter,  of  Pittsford 
and  Rochester,  New  York,  was  born  in 
Pittsford,  February  16,  1833,  and  died  at 
his  home  in  Potter  place,  Fairport,  New 
York,  August  11,  1896.  He  was  still  a 
young  lad  when  his  parents  removed  with 
their  family  to  Rochester,  and  there  he 
lived  until  his  marriage,  when  he  removed 
to  Fairport,  which  remained  his  place  of 
residence  until  his  lamented  death.  A 
memorial  tablet  to  his  memory  has  been 
placed  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church 
and  is  a  fitting  and  appropriate  remem- 
brance of  his  quiet,  noble  life.  Mr.  Pot- 
ter married,  in  1864,  Hulda  A.  Thayer, 
of  Lakeside,  New  York,  a  woman  of  un- 
usual qualities  of  mind  and  heart,  and 
possessed  of  those  graces  which  com- 
mend her  to  the  love  and  kindly  regard 
of  all  who  know  her.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Pot- 
ter had  children:  Mrs.  Alice  Potter 
Howard,  of  Rochester;  Bertha  L. ;  Mrs. 
Frank  D.  Rusling,  of  Indianapolis,  Indi- 
ana; and  Frederick  T.,  of  Fairport.  Mr. 
Potter  was  essentially  a  home  man,  and 
although  very  busy  all  the  time,  he  never 
permitted  other  things  to  detract  his 
attention  from  home,  where  he  found  his 
greatest  enjoyment.  At  the  time  of  his 
death  it  was  repeatedly  said:  "Fairport 
has  lost  a  man  she  could  ill  afford  to 
lose,"  and  among  those  with  whom  he 
had  been  associated  there  came  a  deep 
sense  of  personal  bereavement,  for  he 
was  a  man  who  tied  other  men  to  him  by 
the  strongest  cords  of  respect,  confidence 
and  friendship.  It  was  a  great  privilege 
to  have  enjoyed  his  friendship,  and  even 
his  companionship,  for  he  was  an  inspira- 
tion to  others,  and  his  influence  on  those 
with  whom  he  came  in  contact  was 
always  uplifting.  He  held  to  a  high  stand- 
ard of  business  ethics  and  had  no  use  for 
trickery  or  anything  savoring  of  dishon- 


esty. Painstaking  and  thorough  in  every- 
thing he  did,  he  demanded  of  others  that 
their  work  should  be  well  done,  and  he 
never  deviated  from  this  high  standard 
for  himself  and  others.  This  fundamental 
element  of  his  character  probably  had  as 
much  to  do  with  his  success  as  anything 
else,  for  it  commanded  the  respect  and 
confidence  of  the  business  world.  He  was 
an  active  factor  in  all  church  work,  much 
of  his  time  and  influence  being  used  in 
that  direction.  Personally,  he  was  genial 
and  unassuming,  and  he  enjoyed  a  wide 
circle  of  friends. 


MERRELL,  Gaius  Lewis, 

Manufacturer,  Representative  Citizen. 

To  record  simply  the  happy  fulfillment  of  hon- 
orable ambition,  suggests  more  adequately  than 
anything  else  the  final  estimate  of  Mr.  Merrell's 
character.  His  life  was  guided  by  high  conceptions 
of  personal  honor  and  he  exemplified  through 
many  years  their  actual  realization  both  in  the 
active  world  of  business  and  the  intimate  life  of 
his  home.  His  controlling  motives  were  single 
in  purpose.  Though  his  business  career  began 
modestly  it  rested  from  its  inception  upon  the 
basic  principle  of  fair  dealing,  whether  in  open 
cooperation  or  friendly  competition  with  others. 

Forty  years  of  successful  and  honorable  busi- 
ness bear  their  own  faithful  witness.  To  have 
established  a  reputation  unquestioned  for  honor- 
able dealing  and  financial  trustworthiness  is  to 
accomplish  the  utmost  possible.  This  Mr.  Merrell 
and  his  associates  did.  The  corporation  bearing 
his  name  to-day  is  rated  second  to  none  for  its 
high  reputation.  The  splendid  standing  of  such  a 
corporation  means  ultimately  the  steadfast  honor 
and  moral  probity  of  its  founders. 

Mr.  Merrell  was  a  man  who  wove  the  fabric  of 
his  life  out  of  a  clear  conscience.  He  followed 
patiently  and  undeviatingly  the  clear  path  laid  down 
by  his  ideals  of  honor.  In  his  presence  and  in  his 
practice  right  and  wrong  parted  company.  To 
know  him  intimately  in  his  home  life  was  a  privi- 
lege shared  by  few.  There  his  genuineness  ex- 
pressed itself  most  completely.  He  was  faithful 
and  affectionate  to  the  utmost  to  her  who  shared 
his  life  and  upon  those  who  bear  his  name  he  has 
bestowed  an  inheritance  passing  the  accumulated 
fortune  of  a  successful  business  career. 


173 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


As  a  man  of  quiet  tastes  Mr.  Merrell  sur- 
rounded himself  with  modest  enjoyments.  His 
sympathies  were  broadly  expressed  and  his  gener- 
ous nature  knew  no  bounds.  His  active  interest 
in  large  matters  of  public  welfare  was  no  less 
known  than  his  sustaining  participation  in  all 
humane  and  philanthropic  work.  For  many  years 
he  found  satisfaction  in  the  faith  of  the  Unitarian 
church  and  embodied  in  his  life  the  fundamental 
spirit  of  its  teachings. 

Those  who  admire  simplicity  find  satisfaction  in 
his  character.  Upon  his  city  and  his  business  he 
conferred  distinction;  upon  his  family  and  his 
friends  he  bestowed  the  strength  and  charm  of  a 
well  rounded  life.  Though  passed  away,  he  still 
lives  as  a  potent  influence  for  all  that  is  good  in 
the  memory  and  life  of  his  loved  ones  and  his 
friends.  — Rev.  Albert  Willard  Clark. 

Gaius  Lewis  Merrell  was  born  in 
Greene,  New  York,  May  14,  1843,  died  in 
Syracuse,  New  York,  February  7,  1909. 
He  was  the  son  of  Oliver  Dunbar  Merrell, 
and  a  descendant  of  Nathaniel  Merrell, 
who  came  from  England  in  1634  and  set- 
tled in  Newbury,  Massachusetts. 

When  a  youth  of  sixteen  years  he  came 
to  Syracuse  and  from  the  year  of  his 
coming  (1859)  that  city  was  his  home  and 
the  scene  of  his  activity.  His  first  posi- 
tion was  with  Bowen's  Grocery  and  Can- 
ning Establishment  and  there  he  gained 
an  intimate  knowledge  of  a  business  that 
he  was  destined  to  follow  with  such 
marked  success.  In  1869  he  formed  a 
partnership  with  Oscar  F.  Soule  and 
began  the  manufacture  of  canned  goods 
under  the  firm  name  of  Merrell  &  Soule. 
At  that  time  all  canning  was  done  by 
hand,  a  slow  and  expensive  method  that 
did  not  commend  itself  to  Mr.  Merrell's 
business  ideas.  After  a  great  deal  of 
experiment  he  finally  perfected  the  proc- 
ess of  canning  now  in  use  in  large  plants 
and  is  also  the  inventor  of  many  of  the 
machines  now  used  in  the  canning  of 
vegetables.  The  business  prospered  and 
was  conducted  under  the  original  firm 
name  for  several  years.  After  the  admis- 
sion of  Frank  C.  Soule  this  was  changed 


and  the  partnership  became  the  Merrell- 
Soule  Company.  With  this  change  and 
addition  to  the  managing  heads,  other 
lines  were  added  and  food  products  of 
many  kinds  became  important  lines  in 
the  company's  output.  After  incorpora- 
tion the  large  plant  on  the  salt  reserva- 
tion was  erected  and  with  the  constant 
additions  and  improvements  that  have 
been  made  is  one  of  the  best  equipped 
and  modernly  conducted  plants  in  the 
State. 

Mr.  Merrell  continued  as  executive 
head  of  the  Merrell-Soule  Company  until 
his  death,  guiding  its  affairs  with  wisdom 
and  in  accord  with  his  own  progressive 
ideas.  He  had  few  interests  in  the  busi- 
ness world  outside  his  own  company  but 
aided  in  all  the  movements  tending  to 
promote  the  welfare  of  Syracuse  and  her 
institutions.  He  was  an  active  member 
of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  and  at  one 
time  served  as  its  vice-president.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  Historical  Association 
and  of  the  patriotic  societies  to  which  the 
military  service  and  early  colonial  records 
of  his  ancestors  entitled  him,  membership. 

Mr.  Merrell  married,  January  28,  1874, 
Mary  A.,  daughter  of  Dr.  Stephen  and 
Dolly  Ann  (Smith)  Seward,  who  died 
November  3,  191 1.  The  children  :  Irving 
Seward,  born  October  12,  1875 ;  Lewis 
Charles,  born  October  25,  1877;  Oliver 
Edward,  born  March  12,  1880;  all  resid- 
ing in  Syracuse ;  and  Arthur  Howard, 
born  June  17,  1886,  died  January  21,  1887. 


CLARK,  Bracket!  H., 

Prominent  in  Kodak  Industry. 

History  is  no  longer  a  record  of  wars, 
conquests  and  strife  between  man  and 
man  as  in  former  years,  but  is  the  account 
of  business  and  intellectual  development, 
and  the  real  upbuilders  of  a  community 
are  they  who  found  and  conduct  success- 
ful commercial  and  industrial  interests. 
74 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


In  this  connection  Brackett  H.  Clark  was 
widely  known,  being  one  of  the  directors 
and  secretary  of  the  Eastman  Kodak 
Company  from  its  organization  in  1884 
until  his  death.  He  was  also  financially 
connected  with  the  Clark  Paint  &  Oil 
Company,  but  not  active  in  its  manage- 
ment. 

Mr.  Clark  was  born  in  Salem,  Massa- 
chusetts, January  17,  1821.  His  youth 
was  passed  in  that  locality,  and  for  some 
time  he  resided  in  Virginia  and  in  New 
York  City  prior  to  his  arrival  in  Roches- 
ter in  1857,  and  from  that  time  forward 
he  was  connected  with  the  business  inter- 
ests of  that  city.  In  the  year  of  his  ar- 
rival he  began  operating  a  stave  factory 
at  the  corner  of  the  Erie  canal  and  Lyell 
avenue  and  engaged  in  the  manufacture 
of  staves  until  1884.  The  length  of  his 
continuation  with  this  enterprise  proves 
its  success.  The  business  gradually  de- 
veloped along  healthful  lines  and  he  en- 
joyed a  liberal  patronage.  Each  forward 
step  he  took  in  his  career  brought  him  a 
broader  outlook  and  wider  view,  and  hav- 
ing demonstrated  his  power  and  capacity 
in  the  business  world,  his  cooperation 
was  sought  by  the  Eastman  Kodak  Com- 
pany, which  he  joined  upon  its  organiza- 
tion in  1884,  becoming  a  director  and  sec- 
retary. To  know  the  history  of  Roches- 
ter in  the  last  three  decades  is  to  know  the 
history  of  the  Kodak  Company.  It  has 
become  the  leader  in  this  line  of  business 
in  the  world  and  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant enterprises  of  the  city,  contributing 
not  only  to  individual  success,  but  also 
to  the  growth  and  development  of  Roches- 
ter through  the  employment  which  it  fur- 
nishes to  many  hundred  people.  Mr. 
Clark  brought  to  his  new  work  keen  dis- 
cernment and  native  intellectual  strength, 
and  as  the  years  passed  by  he  aided  in  no 
small  measure  in  the  marvelous  develop- 
ment of  this  enterprise,  which  has  now 
reached  mammoth  proportions. 


Mr.  Clark  was  a  Republican  in  politics. 
He  held  membership  in  Plymouth  Church, 
in  the  work  of  which  he  was  much  inter- 
ested, contributing  generously  to  its  sup- 
port and  doing  all  in  his  power  for  its 
development.  He  served  as  a  trustee  and 
deacon  and  the  value  of  his  labor  in  be- 
half of  the  church  was  widely  recognized 
by  all  who  were  associated  with  him  in 
that  organization.  He  was  benevolent 
and  kindly,  liberal  in  his  views,  and 
possessed  a  charity  that  reached  out 
to  all  humanity.  His  efforts  toward 
advancing  the  interests  of  Rochester  are 
so  widely  recognized  that  they  can  be 
considered  as  being  no  secondary  part  of 
his  career  of  signal  usefulness.  His  death 
occurred  March  22,  1900,  and  thus  passed 
away  one  who  enjoyed  to  the  fullest  ex- 
tent the  confidence  and  respect  of  all 
classes  of  people. 

Mr.  Clark  was  married  to  Lucretia 
Bowker,  of  Salem,  Massachusetts,  a 
daughter  of  Joel  Bowker,  one  of  the  old 
Salem  merchants.  She  died  April  8, 
1912.  Two  sons:  1.  Daniel  R.,  married 
Helen  J.  Ross,  of  Wiscoy,  New  York,  Jan- 
uary 6,  1876;  two  daughters:  Helene 
Rogers  and  Mary  Lucretia.  2.  George  H., 
married  Adele  Hathaway,  of  Rochester, 
December  11,  1900;  three  sons:  Brackett 
H.,  Halford  Rogers,  and  Donald  Richard- 
son. 


TRACY,  Osgood  V., 

Ciril  'War  Veteran,  Man  of  Affairs. 

Not  all  men  order  their  lives  to  their  lik- 
ing; nor  yet  are  all  men  true  to  their 
own  selves  in  living  as  nearly  to  their 
ideals  as  possible,  and  attaining  to  such 
heighths  as  their  opportunities  and  tal- 
ents render  readily  accessible.  The  late 
Colonel  Osgood  V.  Tracy,  of  Syracuse, 
New  York,  did  not  lead  a  pretentious  or 
exalted  life,  but  one  which  was  true  to 
itself  and  its  possibilities,  and  one  to 
75 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


which  the  biographer  may  revert  with 
respect  and  satisfaction.  A  man  of  strong 
intellectual  force  and  mature  judgment, 
his  character  found  its  deeper  values  in 
the  wellsprings  of  absolute  integrity  and 
most  exalted  motives.  The  surname  of 
Tracy  is  a  very  ancient  one.  It  is  taken 
from  the  castle  and  barony  of  Tracie, 
near  Vire  Arrondissement,  of  Caen, 
France.  The  first  of  the  name  of  whom 
there  is  record  is  Turgis  de  Tracie,  who, 
with  William  de  la  Ferte,  was  defeated 
and  driven  out  of  Main  by  the  Count  of 
Anjou,  in  1078,  and  was  in  all  probability 
the  Sire  de  Tracie  mentioned  in  the  battle 
of  Hastings.  The  coat-of-arms  of  the 
family  was  borne  in  the  twelfth  century, 
and  is:  Or,  an  escallop  in  the  chief  dex- 
ter, between  two  bendlets  gules.  Crest: 
On  a  chapeau  gules  turned  up  ermine  en 
escallop  sable,  between  two  wings  ex- 
panded or.  The  parents  of  Colonel  Tracy 
were  James  Grant  and  Sarah  (Osgood) 
Tracy,  the  former  named  died  in  1850, 
and  one  of  his  great-grandfathers,  Joseph 
Vose,  was  a  colonel  in  the  First  Massa- 
chusetts Regiment,  the  greater  part  of  his 
service  being  with  the  Lafayette  Division 
during  the  War  of  the  Revolution. 

Colonel  Osgood  V.  Tracy  was  born  in 
Syracuse,  New  York,  June  25,  1840,  died 
in  Syracuse,  New  York,  January  31,  1909, 
and  interment  was  in  Oakwood  Cemetery. 
He  attended  the  public  and  high  schools 
of  his  native  city,  being  graduated  from 
the  last  named  institution  at  the  age  of 
sixteen  years,  a  member  of  the  first  class 
that  had  been  graduated  from  it.  One 
year  was  spent  in  a  finishing  course  at 
the  Albany  Academy,  and,  thus  well 
equipped,  he  entered  upon  his  business 
career.  He  found  his  first  position  in 
the  general  offices  of  the  Binghamton 
Railroad  Company  of  Syracuse,  resigning 
the  duties  of  this  post  for  a  clerkship  in 
the  coal  offices  of  E.  R.  Holden. 

Intensely  patriotic  by  nature,  Colonel 


Tracy  enlisted,  August  28,  1862,  in  Com- 
pany I,  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-sec- 
ond Regiment,  New  York  Volunteer  In- 
fantry, leaving  Syracuse  with  the  rank 
of  sergeant-major.  His  brave  and  meri- 
torious conduct  soon  earned  him  advance- 
ment, and  he  was  successively  second 
lieutenant,  first  lieutenant,  adjutant  and 
captain.  In  the  Shenandoah  Valley  he 
displayed  exceptional  bravery,  and  for 
this  was  breveted  major  of  the  United 
States  Volunteers ;  for  gallant  service 
during  the  closing  campaign  of  the  war 
and  before  Petersburg,  he  was  breveted 
lieutenant-colonel  of  the  United  States 
Volunteers.  He  was  inspector-general  of 
the  Third  Division,  Sixth  Army  Corps, 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  during  the  last 
year  of  the  war.  At  the  battle  of  the 
Wilderness  he  was  taken  prisoner,  and 
with  General  Shaler  and  many  other  offi- 
cers was  taken  to  Lynchburg,  Virginia. 
While  there  he  met  Colonel  Mortimer  B. 
Birdseye,  of  the  Second  New  York  Cav- 
alry, who  had  arranged  to  escape.  Colonel 
Tracy  joined  him  and  they  walked  from 
Lynchburg  to  Harpers  Ferry,  having 
many  narrow  escapes  from  capture  be- 
fore reaching  the  Union  lines.  He  was 
honorably  discharged  from  the  United 
States  government  in  July,  1865. 

When  the  close  of  the  war  left  Colonel 
Tracy  free  to  pursue  the  more  peaceful 
occupations  of  his  usual  life,  he  accepted 
a  position  with  C.  C.  Loomis  &  Company, 
wholesale  dealers  in  coffees  and  spices, 
and  two  years  later  became  a  member  of 
the  firm,  the  name  under  which  they 
operated  being  changed  to  read :  Ostran- 
der,  Loomis  &  Company.  Colonel  Tracy 
became  the  sole  proprietor  of  this  exten- 
sive business  in  1886,  and  in  1893  admit- 
ted as  partners,  Charles  Sedgwick  Tracy 
and  John  Hurst,  the  firm  operating  under 
the  style  of  O.  V.  Tracy  &  Company. 
The  conduct  of  this  business,  however, 
was  not  sufficient  occupation  for  the 
/6 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


active  mind  of  Colonel  Tracy,  and  he  be- 
came identified  with  a  number  of  other 
enterprises.  When  the  Solvay  Process 
Company  was  organized  in  1884,  Colonel 
Tracy  became  a  member  of  its  board  of 
directors,  and  served  in  this  office  until 
the  time  of  his  death.  He  was  the  first 
secretary  of  this  company,  and  later  be- 
came treasurer  of  the  corporation.  He 
was  a  director  and  secretary  of  the  First 
National  Bank  of  Syracuse,  and  was  for 
a  long  period  of  time  a  member  of  the 
board  of  trustees  of  the  Onondaga  County 
Savings  Bank.  Upon  the  creation  of  the 
Intercepting  Sewer  Commission  by  the 
State  Legislature,  Colonel  Tracy  was  ap- 
pointed as  one  of  the  three  members  by 
Mayor  Alan  C.  Fobes.  He  was  at  once 
chosen  as  chairman,  and  in  this  position 
his  wise  counsel  was  of  inestimable  ad- 
vantage. His  social  affiliation  was  with 
Root  Post,  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic, 
and  the  Military  Order  of  the  Loyal 
Legion  of  the  United  States.  He  was  one 
of  the  original  directors  of  the  Historical 
Society. 

Colonel  Tracy  married,  June  19,  1867, 
Ellen  Sedgwick,  a  daughter  of  Charles  B. 
Sedgwick,  and  they  had  children:  Charles 
Sedgwick,  James  Grant,  Lyndon  San- 
ford  and  Frank  Sedgwick. 

The  men  who  served  by  Colonel  Tracy's 
side  in  the  war  say  that  he  was  a  brave 
soldier  and  was  always  most  considerate 
to  his  men,  whose  esteem  he  held.  His 
associates  in  business  say  that  he  was 
most  thorough  and  untiring  and  pos- 
sessed rare  ability  in  that  line.  He  was 
always  public-spirited,  and  was  ever 
ready  to  aid  in  public  matters. 


TRACY,  William  G., 

Veteran  of  Civil  War,  Lawyer. 
William  G.  Tracy,  brother  of  Colonel 
Osgood  V.  Tracy,  was  born  at  Syracuse, 
New  York,  April  7,  1843.    He  graduated 

N  Y-Vol  HI-12 


from  the  Syracuse  High  School  in  the  fall 
of  1858.  In  the  following  spring  he  en- 
tered the  Bank  of  Salina,  and  was  book- 
keeper of  that  bank  when  the  war  be- 
tween the  North  and  South  broke  out. 
He  was  a  member  of  Butler's  Zouaves 
and  enlisted  in  the  Third  New  York 
Regiment,  where  he  was  made  fourth  cor- 
poral. He  served  in  that  regiment  until 
September,  1861,  when  he  was  promoted 
to  be  a  first  lieutenant  in  the  Twelfth 
New  York  Volunteers.  He  served  as  such 
until  February,  1862,  when  the  regiment 
was  consolidated  with  the  Twelfth  New 
York  Volunteers  from  New  York  City, 
and  he  was  mustered  out  as  a  super- 
numerary officer.  He  then  west  West 
and  enlisted  in  the  Tenth  Indiana  Regi- 
ment. He  served  in  that  regiment  as  a 
private  soldier,  marching  twice  across  the 
states  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  On 
October  1,  1862,  he  received  his  discharge 
to  accept  a  commission  in  a  New  York 
regiment.  He  became  a  second  lieuten- 
ant in  the  One  Hundred  and  Twenty- 
second  New  York;  was  appointed  aide- 
de-camp  on  the  staff  of  Major-General 
Henry  W.  Slocum,  and  served  in  that 
capacity  during  the  remainder  of  the  war. 
He  was  severely  wounded  at  the  battle 
of  Chancellorsville,  May  2,  1863,  his  right 
arm  resected  and  three  and  one-half 
inches  of  bone  removed  therefrom.  He 
returned  to  duty  in  August,  1863,  and 
thereafter  served  on  the  staff  of  Major- 
General  H.  W.  Slocum  in  the  East  and 
the  West  until  the  end  of  the  war.  He 
was  brevetted  major  towards  the  close 
of  the  war,  and  afterwards  given  a  medal 
of  honor  for  gallantry  at  the  battle  of 
Chancellorsville.  At  the  battle  of  Ben- 
tonville,  North  Carolina,  March  19,  1865, 
he  was  slightly  wounded  in  the  right  leg. 
After  the  war  he  entered  a  bank  in 
Syracuse,  and  in  the  spring  of  1866  com- 
menced the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of 
Sedgwick,  Andrews  &  Kennedy.  About 
177 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


a  year  after  his  admission  to  the  bar, 
when  Judge  Andrews  became  a  member 
of  the  Court  of  Appeals,  1875,  he  was 
succeeded  in  that  firm  by  Charles  H. 
Sedgwick  and  Mr.  Tracy.  The  firm  be- 
came Sedgwicks,  Kennedy  &  Tracy,  and 
so  remained  until  1877,  when  the  Sedg- 
wicks having  retired  the  firm  became 
Kennedy  &  Tracy,  and  so  remained  until 
1884,  when  Mr.  Kennedy  was  made  a 
judge  of  the  Supreme  Court.  He  was 
succeeded  by  G.  A.  Forbes  and  Wilbur 
M.  Brown,  the  firm  becoming  Forbes, 
Brown  &  Tracy.  In  the  year  1890  Mr. 
Forbes  was  elected  a  judge  of  the  Su- 
preme Court,  and  Mr.  Brown  retired  from 
the  practice  of  the  law.  The  firm  of 
Tracy,  McLennan  &  Ayling  was  then 
formed,  composed  of  Mr.  Tracy,  Peter  B. 
McLennan  and  Charles  F.  Ayling.  In 
1892  Mr.  McLennan  was  elected  justice 
of  the  Supreme  Court  in  place  of  Judge 
Kennedy,  retired  by  the  age  limit,  who 
resumed  the  practice  of  the  law,  and  the 
firm  of  Kennedy,  Tracy,  Mills  &  Ayling 
was  formed,  composed  of  Judge  Kennedy, 
Mr.  Tracy,  Albert  M.  Mills  and  Mr. 
Ayling.  This  firm  was  succeeded  in  1901 
by  the  present  firm  of  Tracy,  Chapman 
&  Tracy,  composed  of  William  G.  Tracy, 
George  D.  Chapman  and  James  G.  Tracy. 
William  G.  Tracy  is  a  member  of  the 
Military  Order  of  the  Loyal  Legion  of 
the  United  States,  the  Onondaga  Golf 
and  Country  Club,  the  Sedgwick  Farm 
Club  and  Root  Post,  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic. 

He  married,  September  24, 1903,  Marion 
Gill,  daughter  of  Daniel  F.  Gill,  of  Syra- 
cuse ;  no  children. 


KNOWLTON,  Mark  Dean, 

Business  Man  and  Inventor. 

The  late  Mark  Dean  Knowlton,  who 
for  many  years  was  one  of  the  prominent 
and  influential  business  men  of  Roches- 


ter, gaining  not  only  success,  but  also 
an  honored  name  as  the  result  of  the 
straightforward  business  principles  which 
he  ever  followed,  was  a  man  of  marked 
strength  of  character  and  intellectual  abil- 
ity, the  architect  of  his  own  fortune,  a 
man  whose  mind  was  ever  occupied  with 
mighty  projects  for  the  advancement  and 
welfare  of  the  city  of  his  adoption.  He 
was  born  at  Milford,  New  Hampshire, 
October  5,  1840,  son  of  Samuel  Dean  and 
Nancy  J.  (Shattuck)  Knowlton,  the  for- 
mer named  a  shoemaker  and  retail  dealer 
in  shoes. 

Mark  D.  Knowlton  attended  the  com- 
mon schools  of  Milford  and  the  Milford 
Academy,  completing  his  studies  at  the 
age  of  sixteen  years.  He  then  went  to 
Nashua,  New  Hampshire,  and  served  an 
apprenticeship  at  the  trade  of  blacksmith- 
ing  and  carriage  manufacturing,  but  he 
did  not  follow  this  for  any  length  of  time, 
having  an  opportunity  to  purchase  a  paper 
box  manufactory,  which  he  operated  suc- 
cessfully, although  at  the  time  of  pur- 
chase he  was  totally  unacquainted  with 
that  line  of  work,  but  soon  made  himself 
master  of  every  detail  by  persistent  appli- 
cation thereto.  For  a  time  he  was  located 
in  Nashua,  New  Hampshire,  removing 
from  that  city  in  1866  to  Chicago,  Illinois, 
where  he  continued  in  the  paper  box 
manufacturing  business  until  the  great 
Chicago  conflagration,  the  greater  part  of 
his  capital  being  swept  away  by  that 
calamity.  Being  a  man  of  great  strength 
and  force  of  character,  he  overcame  these 
obstacles  which  to  many  others  seemed 
unsurmountable,  and  not  only  retrieved 
his  own  lost  possessions,  but  assisted 
others  in  regaining  a  footing.  He  was 
not  in  such  terrible  straits  as  many  of  his 
friends,  as  his  home  was  not  destroyed, 
this  being  in  South  Evanston,  where,  by 
the  way,  he  held  the  only  public  office 
in  his  career,  that  of  justice  of  the  peace. 
Shortly  afterward  he  located  on  the  west 


178 


[^NOWLTON 


I 
■ 

- 

r's    inter 
ny.     Late- 

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i 


tically  managed 
wlton,  with  her 
e  two  being  the 
of  their  father's 

,  October  5, 1864, 
er  of  Alfred  and 
er,  of  Massachu- 
a  railroad  man. 
1,  above  referred 
es  her  father  in 

well  as  in  the 
es  which  he  dis- 
Hattie  Gertrude, 
•eferred  to,  ob- 
Purdue  Univer- 
;e ;  married  Eliz- 
)la.  The  family 
ral  Presbyterian 
The  mother  and 
5  Granger  place, 

residence.     Mr. 

son,  a  devoted 

ever  mindful  of 
>f  those  near  and 
:h  was  felt  most 
ere  he  spent  the 
tre  time  and  to 
It  was  also  felt 
social  circles. 


Manufacturer. 

established  and 
reductive  indus- 
tinued  an  active 
siness  life  in  the 

native  of  Leroy, 
:quiring  a  good 
in  the  furniture 
■vn  for  a  number 
egan  the  manu- 
ich  were  placed 
the  name  of  the 
les.  His  output 
.1  remedies,  the 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Celery  King  and  Dr.  Otto's  Cough  medi- 
cines, which  were  sold  by  agents  and  ad- 
vertising wagons  all  over  the  country, 
covering  nearly  every  State  in  the  Union, 
with  main  offices  at  No.  187  West  ave- 
nue in  Rochester.  Mr.  Bacon  gave  nine 
years  of  his  life  to  the  conduct  of  this 
business,  which  grew  in  volume  until  it 
had  reached  extensive  and  profitable  pro- 
portions. 

Mr.  Bacon  was  married  to  Amelia  Ech- 
lin,  of  Leroy,  New  York,  who  was  born 
in  Canada,  and  they  became  the  parents 
of  three  sons :  Harold  A.,  Goodell  Weles 
and  Ronald  Henry.  Mr.  Bacon  was  a 
man  of  domestic  tastes,  devoted  to  his 
family,  and  found  his  greatest  pleasure  at 
his  own  fireside.  He  considered  no  per- 
sonal sacrifice  on  his  part  too  great  if  it 
would  promote  the  welfare  and  happiness 
of  his  wife  and  children  and  he  was  a 
man  who  was  well  liked  and  respected  by 
all.  His  widow  has  since  become  Mrs. 
Van  Dusen  and  she  resides  at  No.  4  Alli- 
ance street. 


DAVIDGE,  Sherwood  B., 

Manufacturer,  Financier. 

The  prosperity  of  any  community,  town 
or  city  depends  upon  its  commercial  activ- 
ity, its  industrial  interests  and  its  trade 
relations,  and  therefore  among  the  build- 
ers of  a  town  are  those  who  stand  at  the 
head  of  the  business  enterprises.  Promi- 
nent among  the  leading  business  men  of 
Binghamton,  New  York,  was  the  late 
Sherwood  B.  Davidge,  whose  intense 
activity  and  energy  yet  enabled  him  to 
find  time  for  club  life  and  social  duties. 
He  was  alert  and  enterprising,  possessing 
the  progressive  spirit  of  the  times,  accom- 
plishing in  business  circles  what  he 
undertook,  while  his  geniality  and  defer- 
ence for  the  opinions  of  others  made  his 
circle  of  friends  almost  co-extensive  with 
the  circle  of  his  acquaintances. 


James  Davidge,  his  grandfather,  was 
born  in  Somersetshire,  England,  in  1786, 
and  married  there.  He  came  to  America 
with  his  family  in  1818,  settled  at  Liberty, 
Sullivan  county,  New  York,  and  died 
there  at  an  advanced  age,  being  the  oldest 
resident  of  the  town  at  that  time. 

John  Davidge,  son  of  James  Davidge, 
was  born  in  Somersetshire,  England, 
about  1810,  and  died  at  Newark  Valley, 
Tioga  county,  New  York,  in  1880.  His 
earlier  years  were  spent  at  Liberty,  New 
York,  from  whence  he  removed  to  Lake 
Como,  Wayne  county,  Pennsylvania, 
from  that  town  to  Hancock,  Delaware 
county,  New  York,  and  then  to  Newark 
Valley.  In  the  last  mentioned  place  he 
engaged  in  the  tanning  business  as  a 
member  of  the  firm  of  Allison,  Davidge 
&  Company,  and  Davidge,  Landfield  & 
Company,  and  became  very  prosperous. 
He  married  Eunice  Burr,  who  died  in 
Newark  Valley  in  1898.  Of  this  mar- 
riage there  were  children:  Edson  Greg- 
ory, James,  Sherwood  B.,  whose  name 
heads  this  sketch ;  Harriet  Elizabeth, 
George  Gifford,  Samuel  Philip,  Mary  D., 
John,  and  William  Munson. 

Sherwood  B.  Davidge,  son  of  John  and 
Eunice  (Burr)  Davidge,  was  born  at 
Liberty,  Sullivan  county,  New  York,  Oc- 
tober 17,  1843,  a°d  died  at  his  home,  No. 
31  Front  street,  Binghamton,  New  York, 
December  10,  191 1.  His  death  was  as 
beautiful  and  peaceful  as  his  life  had 
been,  coming  calmly  on  Sunday  morn- 
ing just  as  he  was  preparing  to  go  to 
church.  His  education  was  commenced 
in  his  native  town,  and  continued  and 
completed  in  Poughkeepsie,  New  York. 
Upon  its  completion  he  entered  upon  his 
business  career,  his  first  independent  step 
in  this  direction  being  when  he  engaged 
in  the  mercantile  business  in  Hancock, 
New  York.  In  1866  he  was  admitted  as 
a  partner  of  the  firm  of  Davidge,  Land- 
field  &  Company,  mentiond  above,  and 
80 


paring  to  go  to 

s  cofflW""' 

I  continued  and 

,  few  Yodi 


jtfJz^* 


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Robert 

; 
nton  City  am 


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DAVIS,  Henry  W., 

Financier.  legislator. 

:nembered 

- 

■  cheer, 
I 

I 
owei 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


success,  for  there  are  men  who  have 
attained  greater  power  in  that  line,  nor 
by  the  prosperity  which  he  was  able  to 
surround  himself  with,  to  a  certain  extent, 
for  there  have  been  wealthier  men,  but 
he  possessed  the  lovable  characteristics 
that  are  not  the  accompaniment  of  gold 
always,  and  the  respect  and  esteem  of  his 
neighbors  and  friends  were  his  as  a  man, 
an  individual,  a  personality,  not  as  a 
figurehead  in  the  community,  and  through 
such  qualities  came  his  popularity. 

Henry  W.  Davis  was  born  in  1807,  in 
the  State  of  New  York.  When  he  was 
nine  years  of  age  his  father  removed  with 
his  family  to  Galway,  New  York,  where 
he  remained  until  1827.  In  that  year 
Henry  W.  Davis  made  his  advent  in  Mon- 
roe county,  which  was  still  to  a  consid- 
erable degree  in  the  pioneer  stage.  He 
settled  in  Pittsford,  where  he  found  em- 
ployment with  Henry  S.  Potter,  a  mer- 
chant, as  clerk,  and  remained  at  this  occu- 
pation for  several  years,  which  might  be 
regarded  as  the  beginning  of  his  subse- 
quent successful  career.  He  was  about 
twenty-five  or  thirty  years  of  age  when  he 
became  identified  with  the  old  Rochester 
Bank,  his  first  connection  with  that  insti- 
tution being  as  exchange  cashier  and  for 
a  quarter  of  a  century  he  ably  and  effi- 
ciently filled  that  office  and  occupied  a 
position  of  prominence  in  financial  circles 
in  the  community.  After  retiring  from 
the  active  work  in  the  bank  he  removed 
to  Churchville,  where  he  bought  a  farm 
on  which  he  made  his  home  until  his  de- 
mise, which  occurred  in  1884.  He  re- 
moved to  his  country  home  about  1852 
and  was  ever  afterward  actively  inter- 
ested in  agricultural  matters,  and  ener- 
getic in  his  promotion  of  all  kindred  in- 
terests. His  prudent  and  conservative 
measures  won  him  success  in  business 
affairs  and  he  was  recognized  as  one  of 
the  leading  agriculturalists  of  his  section 
of  the  country. 


Mr.  Davis  was  also  a  man  of  influence 
in  public  life,  doing  his  most  effective 
work  in  the  ranks  of  the  Democratic 
party,  in  which  he  closely  adhered  to  the 
principles  of  the  early  leaders.  He  served 
on  the  Board  of  Supervisors  and  also  rep- 
resented his  district  in  the  General  As- 
sembly, in  both  of  these  bodies  his  work 
was  characterized  by  strictest  fidelity  and 
conscientious  regard  for  what  he  con- 
sidered his  duty.  He  never  considered 
public  office  as  a  means  of  personal 
emolument,  but  rather  as  a  most  sacred 
trust  and  evidence  of  confidence  placed  in 
one  by  his  fellowmen.  a  confidence  that 
should  never  be  abused. 

Henry  W.  Davis  married  Sarah  Louise 
Selkirk,  and  they  became  the  parents  of 
six  children,  who  are  all  deceased. 

Mr.  Davis  died  February  26,  1884,  and 
was  buried  in  the  Churchville  Cemetery. 
Mrs.  Davis  died  December  12,  1907.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Davis  were  both  affiliated  with 
the  First  Presbyterian  Church  and  active 
workers  in  that  organization.  Mr.  Davis 
had  a  personality  that  called  forth  words 
of  praise  and  appreciation  from  his  many 
friends,  for  although  a  man  of  much  deci- 
sion of  character  and  strong  opinions,  un- 
faltering in  his  defense  of  what  he  deemed 
to  be  right,  he  was  just  and  generous  in 
spirit,  and  a  gentleman  in  every  thought 
and  action.  His  residence  of  almost  sixty 
years  in  the  county  was  during  the  time 
of  development,  so  that  in  truth  he  might 
be  called  one  of  the  "Early  Builders,"  and 
among  those  who  built  wisely  and  well 
for  the  succeeding  generations  to  emu- 
late. 

Henry  W.  Davis,  Jr.,  son  of  Henry  W. 
Davis,  Sr.,  was  born  in  Churchville,  New 
York.  During  his  early  life  he  attended 
the  local  schools  and  assisted  with  the 
work  on  his  father's  large  farm.  Later 
he  became  a  breeder  of  fine  cattle,  having 
splendid  herds  of  registered  Galloway 
cattle,   and   after   his    father's    death    he 


182 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


conducted  the  operations  on  the  home- 
stead farm  in  a  successful  manner  up  to 
the  time  of  his  death,  May  5,  1904.  He 
was  a  man  of  character  and  integrity, 
took  an  active  interest  in  community 
affairs,  and  was  honored  and  esteemed  by 
all  with  whom  he  came  in  contact.  He 
was  a  member  of  Churchville  Lodge,  Free 
and  Accepted  Masons,  and  also  held 
membership  in  the  Ancient  Arabic  Order 
Nobles  of  the  Mystic  Shrine,  of  Roches- 
ter. He  married  Emma  Bell  Scott,  of 
Churchville.  Children:  1.  Samuel,  owner 
of  and  interested  in  fine  riding  and  driv- 
ing horses;  married  Edith  Walker,  of 
Virgil,  New  York ;  he  makes  his  home  in 
Churchville,  as  does  also  his  mother.  2. 
Marabelle,  who  became  the  wife  of  Ray- 
mond G.  Carroll ;  they  reside  in  Philadel- 
phia, Pennsylvania,  Mr.  Carroll  being 
connected  with  the  Curtis  Publishing 
Company. 


MANDEVILLE,  Wilber  J., 

Prominent   Seedsman. 

Wilber  J.  Mandeville,  deceased,  was 
born  in  Webster,  Monroe  county,  New 
York,  February  9,  1852,  and  was  a  son 
of  Edward  Mandeville.  He  was  reared 
in  Rochester  and  completed  his  education 
in  De  Graff  Military  School.  Through- 
out his  entire  life  he  was  connected  with 
the  seed  business,  Rochester  largely 
being  a  center  for  that  line  of  commer- 
cial activity  in  the  United  States.  He 
bought  out  the  business  of  John  Board- 
man  in  1875  and  admitted  in  1879  his 
brother-in-law,  Herbert  S.  King,  to  a 
partnership  under  the  firm  style  of  Man- 
deville &  King.  This  relation  was  main- 
tained until  the  death  of  Mr.  King  in  1890, 
when  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Fred 
A.  King  under  the  same  firm  name.  A 
few  months  before  his  death,  in  1902,  the 
business  was  incorporated  under  the 
name  of  the  Mandeville  &  King  Company, 


which  still  continues.  Mr.  Mandeville 
secured  a  very  liberal  patronage  and  pros- 
pered in  his  undertakings,  using  every 
energy  to  enlarge  his  business  and  make 
it  a  prosperous  concern.  He  was  only  a 
child  at  the  time  of  his  father's  death  and 
was  early  thrown  upon  his  own  resources, 
so  that  he  deserved  much  credit  for  what 
he  accomplished. 

In  his  political  views  Mr.  Mandeville 
was  a  Republican,  and  he  belonged  to  St. 
Luke's  Church  at  Rochester,  in  which  he 
served  as  a  vestryman.  His  life  was  in 
many  respects  exemplary  and  he  enjoyed 
in  large  measure  the  confidence  and  esteem 
of  those  with  whom  he  came  in  contact. 
In  his  business  career  he  was  found  thor- 
oughly reliable  and  trustworthy  and  all 
who  knew  him  recognized  in  him  the  in- 
herent force  of  character  and  capability 
which  enabled  him  to  advance  from  a 
humble  financial  position  to  one  of  afflu- 
ence. 

Mr^Mandeyille  married,  June  14,  1876, 
Harriet  King,  a  daughter  of  Jonathan 
King,  who  came  to  Rochester  in  1825 
from  Massachusetts.  Her  mother  was 
Sarah  Sibley  King,  of  Brighton.  Her 
father  settled  on  Sophia  street  in  Roches- 
ter and  cleared  the  land  there,  for  at  that 
time  it  was  swampy.  He  continued  to 
make  his  home  upon  that  place  through- 
out his  remaining  days  and  contributed 
in  large  measure  to  the  substantial  up- 
building of  the  city.  His  daughter,  Mrs. 
Mandeville,  is  the  only  member  of  the 
family  now  living.  By  her  marriage  she 
became  the  mother  of  three  children, 
Edna  King,  Lois  Sibley  and  Arthur  Wil- 
ber. 


COBB,  Amos  Hubbell, 

Pioneer  in  Canning  Industry. 

Typical  of  the  successful  business  man 
and  the  useful  citizen  was  the  late  Amos 
Hubbell   Cobb,  of  Fairport,   New  York, 
83 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


who  was  one  of  the  pioneers  in  the  can- 
ning industry,  which  is  one  of  such  great 
importance  in  the  State  of  New  York. 
He  was  progressive  and  farseeing  in  busi- 
ness and  private  life,  and  could  look  back 
with  pride  and  pleasure  upon  the  work 
which  he  had  accomplished,  and  which 
earned  him  the  commendation  of  all. 

Amos  Hubbell  Cobb,  son  of  Tyler 
Perry  and  Catherine  (Hubbell)  Cobb, 
was  born  in  Greenville,  Greene  county, 
New  York,  September  28,  1840,  and  died 
in  Fairport,  Monroe  county,  New  York, 
August  27,  1891.  Until  the  age  of  ten 
years  he  lived  with  his  parents,  and 
attended  the  district  schools  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  his  home,  then  went  to  Camden, 
Oneida  county,  New  York,  and  there 
made  his  home  with  his  cousin,  Ezra  A. 
Edgett,  later  of  Newark,  Wayne  county, 
New  York,  and  assisted  him  in  planting 
the  first  field  of  sweet  corn  ever  used  for 
canning  in  the  State  of  New  York.  Thus 
was  started  the  canning  industry  in  this 
State,  which  has  grown  to  such  impor- 
tance, and  has  added  so  greatly  to  its 
prosperity.  Mr.  Edgett  subsequently 
founded  the  Wayne  County  Preserving 
Company,  which  is  now  the  oldest  estab- 
lished cannery  in  the  State.  Until  he  had 
attained  young  manhood  Mr.  Cobb  re- 
mained with  his  cousin,  and  during  this 
time  acquired  a  full  and  accurate  knowl- 
edge of  the  canning  industry,  in  all  its 
branches.  He  then  went  to  the  City  of 
New  York,  where  he  was  employed  by 
the  firm  of  Kemp,  Day  &  Company,  and 
formed  a  partnership  with  U.  H.  Dud- 
ley &  Company  in  1863,  both  important 
houses  in  the  canned  foods  business.  In 
1868  he  severed  his  connection  with  these 
firms  and  became  associated  with  the 
paper  commission  business  of  Goodwin, 
Cobb  &  Company,  as  a  member  of  the 
firm.  This  was  an  importing  house,  with 
connecting  offices  in  Liverpool,  England, 
and  was  the  first  firm  to  import  soda  ash 


to  this  country  by  steamer.  Mr.  Cobb 
removed  to  Fairport  in  1881,  having  pur- 
chased of  Ezra  A.  Edgett  the  canning  fac- 
tory which  the  latter  had  estabished 
there  in  1873,  as  a  branch  of  the  Wayne 
County  Preserving  Company,  of  Newark, 
New  York.  Mr.  Cobb  was  at  the  head  of 
this  industry  for  a  period  of  ten  years, 
during  which  he  managed  it  with  skill 
and  ability,  and  earned  the  respect  and 
commendation  of  his  fellow  citizens.  It 
was  known  as  the  Cobb  Preserving  Com- 
pany, was  incorporated,  and  is  now  con- 
ducted along  the  lines  inaugurated  by 
Mr.  Cobb  by  his  widow  and  two  sons, 
with  the  following  official  board :  Mrs. 
Cobb,  president;  Amos  H.  Cobb,  of 
Rochester,  vice-president;  and  Clarence 
S.  Cobb,  of  Fairport,  secretary  and  treas- 
urer. 

Mr.  Cobb  married,  in  1864,  Angie  M. 
Hodgeman,  who  is  still  a  resident  of 
Fairport.  In  addition  to  the  sons  men- 
tioned above,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cobb  were 
blessed  with  a  daughter :  Angie,  who  mar- 
ried Stanley  Shepard,  of  Rochester ; 
Frederick  D.  H.  Cobb,  of  Rochester,  who 
died  February  11,  1914,  formerly  secre- 
tary of  the  Cobb  Preserving  Company; 
and  George  Watson  Cobb,  of  Montclair, 
New  Jersey,  vice-president  and  general 
manager  of  the  Sanitary  Can  Company, 
also  assistant  general  manager  of  sales 
American  Can  Company. 


TRUESDALE,  George, 

Attorney  and  Public   Official. 

Rich  indeed  is  the  man  who  at  the  end 
of  a  life  of  eighty-two  years  can  leave 
behind  him  so  wonderful  a  record  as  to 
call  forth  from  friends  and  men  with 
whom  he  had  often  been  in  legal  combat 
such  an  expression  as  contained  in  the 
following  resolutions  adopted  by  the 
Monroe  County  Bar  Association  in  honor 
of  their  dead  comrade. 


184 


\ 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Ripe  in  years  and  rich  in  experience,  George 
Truesdale,  for  more  than  fifty  years  a  familiar 
figure  among  us,  has  passed  on  to  the  great 
beyond.  As  we  pay  our  affectionate  tribute  to 
his  memory,  we  need  not,  as  we  often  must,  pause 
to  wonder  at  Providence's  mysterious  ways,  for 
he  was  well  past  the  goal  of  four-score  years; 
and  those  who  knew  him  best  can  in  their  mind's 
eye  see  him,  as  he  passed  out  of  this  life,  do  so 
with  a  cheery  wave  of  the  hand,  simply  because 
his  work  was  done.  In  his  career  at  the  bar, 
covering  the  unusual  span  of  fifty-eight  years,  he 
not  only  won  for  himself  an  enviable  record  for 
industry,  ability  and  integrity,  but  performed 
some  very  distinguished  services.  In  his  conduct 
of  the  famous  Standard  Oil  conspiracy  cases, 
tried  at  Buffalo  while  he  was  in  the  prime  of  his 
strength,  he  greatly  enhanced  his  reputation  and 
few  lawyers  have  received  such  a  tribute  to  their 
ability  and  learning  as  is  found  in  the  reports  of 
these  cases  with  regard  to  Mr.  Truesdale.  Kind, 
genial  and  honorable,  full  of  sunshine  and  good 
humor,  no  one  ever  came  from  his  presence  with- 
out having  felt  the  radiance  of  these  splendid 
qualities,  and  by  them  he  endeared  himself  to  all 
who  knew  him  in  an  unusual  degree.  Complete 
as  his  life  was,  he  will  be  greatly  missed  by  his 
brethren  of  the  profession. 

George  Truesdale  was  of  the  third 
generation  of  his  family  in  the  United 
States,  his  grandfather  coming  from 
Ireland  with  his  son  Samuel  and  settling 
in  Monroe  county,  New  York,  about  1822, 
the  Erie  Canal  then  being  in  course  of 
construction.  Samuel  Truesdale,  born  in 
Ireland,  was  a  young  boy  when  his 
parents  came  to  Monroe  county,  and 
there  lived  the  long  years  of  his  after 
life.  He  became  one  of  the  substantial 
farmers  of  the  town  of  Greece  and  took 
an  active  part  in  public  affairs,  serving 
his  community  as  assessor  and  commis- 
sioner of  highways.  He  married  Charity 
Cummings,  born  in  Pennsylvania,  who 
bore  him  seven  sons  and  two  daughters. 
Samuel  Truesdale  died  in  1886,  his  wife 
in  1884. 

George  Truesdale  was  born  at  the  home 
farm  in  the  town  of  Greece,  Monroe 
county,  New  York,  November  19,   1833, 


died  at  his  home,  No.  135  Fulton  avenue, 
Rochester,  New  York,  May  14,  1916.  He 
spent  his  early  life  on  the  farm  and  in  the 
intervals  of  school  life  aided  in  its  culti- 
vation. He  attended  the  Podunk  district 
school  and  after  exhausting  its  advan- 
tages continued  his  education  at  Geneseo 
Academy  and  Benedict's  Academy,  there 
completing  his  preparation  for  college. 
He  then  entered  the  classical  department 
of  the  University  of  Rochester,  whence 
he  was  graduated  class  of  1857.  He 
chose  the  profession  of  law  and  after 
adequate  study  passed  the  required  ex- 
amination and  in  1858  was  admitted  to 
practice  at  the  Monroe  county  bar.  For 
fifty-eight  years  from  his  admission  Mr. 
Truesdale  continued  in  active  practice 
only  surrendering  to  the  grim  enemy. 
But  whether  in  youthful  manhood,  vigor- 
ous middle  age,  or  in  the  "sere  and  yellow 
leaf,"  he  was  devoted  to  his  clients'  inter- 
ests, transacted  a  large  general  practice, 
presented  his  carefully  prepared  cases 
with  force  and  vigor,  with  close  reasoning 
and  logical  deduction  which  won  and 
retained  for  him  position  among  the 
ablest  members  of  the  Rochester  bar. 
His  clients  were  among  the  prominent 
men  of  his  city  and  he  was  connected 
with  many  of  the  important  cases  tried 
in  the  Monroe  county  courts,  as  well  as 
being  called  as  counsel  outside  his  own 
bar.  In  1861  he  was  elected  justice  of  the 
peace,  at  that  time  there  being  but  two 
or  three  men  in  the  entire  city  holding 
that  office.  He  acted  as  justice  for  three 
years,  then  resigned  and  formed  a  part- 
nership with  Frederick  DeLano,  the  law 
firm  of  DeLano  &  Truesdale  continuing 
in  successful  practice  for  several  years. 
Mr.  Truesdale,  after  serving  a  term  as 
State  Commissioner  of  the  United  States 
Deposit  Fund,  was  elected  police  justice 
of  Rochester,  holding  that  office  four 
years,  1877-81.     Later  he  formed  a  part- 


185 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


nership  with  his  son,  Stephen  C.  Trues- 
dale,  and  as  G.  &  S.  C.  Truesdale  they 
were  associated  in  practice  with  offices  at 
No.  448  Powers  Building  until  death  re- 
moved the  senior  partner. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Monroe 
County  Bar  Association  for  over  half  a 
century,  and  was  a  member  of  lodge, 
chapter  and  commandery  of  the  Masonic 
order,  the  Independent  Order  of  Odd 
Fellows  and  the  Improved  Order  of  Red 
Men.  He  was  president  of  the  board  of 
trustees  of  the  North  Presbyterian 
Church,  his  associates  of  the  board  serv- 
ing as  pall  bearers  at  his  funeral.  He  is 
buried  in  Mt.  Hope  Cemetery. 

Mr.  Truesdale  married  (first)  in  1861, 
Sarah  Cole,  of  Greece,  New  York,  who 
died  in  1889.  He  married  (second)  in 
1899,  Mary  A.  Todd,  who  survives  him. 
By  his  first  marriage  Mr.  Truesdale  had 
two  sons  and  four  daughters:  1.  Stephen 
C,  born  May  3,  1862,  admitted  to  the  bar 
in  1887,  practiced  with  his  father  until 
his  death,  and  is  now  his  successor  in  the 
business  of  G.  &  S.  C.  Truesdale;  he  is 
attorney  for  and  actively  interested  in  the 
Profit  Loan  Association ;  is  a  well  known 
clubman ;  member  of  the  Masonic  order, 
and  interested  in  the  sports  of  the  out-of- 
doors;  he  married,  in  December,  1887, 
Agnes  B.  Huther,  of  Rochester.  2. 
Samuel  M.,  a  machinist.  3.  Fannie  G., 
married  Warren  B.  Huther,  and  has  a 
son,  George  T.  Huther.  4.  Jessie  A., 
residing  in  Rochester.  5.  Mary  F.,  mar- 
ried Sidney  R.  Clark,  of  New  York  City, 
and  has  a  son  Truesdale.  6.  Alice  C,  died 
in  infancy. 


NORTON,  A.  Tiffany, 

Journalist. 

From  youth  "Colonel"  Norton,  as  he 
was  universally  known,  was  identified 
with    newspaper   work     as    his    father's 


assistant,  as  reporter,  correspondent, 
editor  and  publisher  of  his  own  journal 
for  twenty  years,  and  from  1894  until  his 
death  as  court  reporter,  assistant  tele- 
graph editor,  assistant  editor  and  editor 
of  the  "Democrat  and  Chronicle,"  Roches- 
ter, New  York.  He  was  one  of  the  best 
known  newspaper  men  of  Western  New 
York  and  was  also  author  of  historical 
works  of  value.  His  "History  of  Living- 
ston County"  is  a  most  valuable  work 
and  his  history  of  "General  Sullivan's 
Campaign  in  Western  New  York"  is  a 
most  intersting  presentation  of  that  won- 
derful campaign  recognized  as  accurate 
in  all  its  detail.  He  wrote  all  his  articles 
with  the  greatest  care  and  pains  and  was 
a  most  zealous,  industrious  worker  for  his 
employer's  interest.  While  he  ever  made 
the  paper's  interest  paramount,  he  was 
loyal  to  the  reporters  under  his  control 
and  held  the  unvarying  friendship  and 
respect  of  the  entire  staff.  Many  men 
won  their  reportorial  reputation  under 
Colonel  Norton  and  to  them  his  passing 
was  a  matter  of  genuine  personal  regret. 
They  admired  his  upright,  manly  char- 
acter, appreciated  his  editorial  ability  and 
knew  that  fair  treatment  would  always 
be  accorded  them.  Years  have  passed 
since  he  laid  down  his  pen,  but  his  name 
is  interwoven  with  many  of  the  best 
traditions  of  the  "Democrat  and  Chron- 
icle," and  his  memory  is  yet  lovingly 
cherished  by  those  who  were  privileged 
to  work  under  the  unassuming  man 
whom  they  called  "Chief." 

A.  Tiffany  Norton  was  born  at  Mount 
Morris,  Livingston  county,  New  York, 
September  5,  1844,  died  at  his  home  No. 
74  Manhattan  street,  Rochester,  New 
York,  October  11,  1901.  Not  long  after 
his  birth  his  parents  moved  to  Geneseo, 
New  York,  where  his  father,  James  T. 
Norton,  a  pioneer  newspaper  publisher  of 
Livingston  county,   founded  and    edited 


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ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


William,  the  eldest  son,  inherited  the 
homestead  farm  originally  containing 
eight  hundred  acres ;  James  Robson,  the 
second  son,  owned  three  hundred  and 
•fifty  acres  in  lot  nineteen  ;  while  John,  the 
third  son,  owned  two  hundred  and 
seventy  acres  in  lot  twenty-seven.  John 
Robson  married  Isabella  Telfer,  and  had 
seven  children :  James  A.,  the  dead 
jurist  whom  a  State  mourns;  Jane  I.; 
Anne;  Mary,  deceased;  Nellie,  deceased; 
Phoebe  I.  and  Frances ;  four  of  the  sisters 
with  their  honored  brother  constituted 
the  home  group  at  "Spring  Farm"  until 
the  circle  was  broken  by  death. 

James  A.  Robson  was  born  in  Gorham, 
Ontario  county,  New  York,  January  I, 
185 1,  died  at  his  home,  "Spring  Farm," 
Stanley,  New  York,  near  Canandaigua, 
February  1,  1916,  son  of  John  and  Isabella 
(Telfer)  Robson.  Until  he  was  fourteen 
years  of  age  he  attended  the  district 
public  school ;  then  for  a  year  was  a 
student  at  Haveling  High  School,  Bath, 
New  York.  After  another  year  as 
student  at  Canandaigua  Academy,  he 
entered  Yale  University,  whence  he  was 
graduated  Bachelor  of  Arts,  class  of  1873. 
Choosing  the  law  as  his  profession  he 
entered  Columbia  Law  School,  New 
York  City,  there  continuing  a  student 
until  1876,  when  he  was  awarded  his 
diploma  and  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Laws. 
After  graduation  he  located  in  Canan- 
daigua, was  admitted  to  the  Ontario 
county  bar  and  began  practice.  From 
1876  until  1903  he  continued  in  practice 
there,  absolutely  devoted  to  his  work, 
winning  the  highest  respect  of  his 
brethren  and  conducting  an  extensive 
practice  in  all  State  and  Federal  courts 
of  the  district.  On  October  19,  1903,  he 
was  appointed  a  justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  State  of  New  York  to  suc- 
ceed William  H.  Adams,  deceased.  In 
November,  1904,  he  was  elected  for  a  full 


term  of  fourteen  years.  On  January  8, 
1907,  he  was  appointed  associate  justice 
of  the  fourth  department  of  the  Appellate 
Division  which  meets  at  Rochester,  and 
in  January,  1912,  was  redesignated  for 
the  same  position.  He  was  a  Republican 
in  politics,  and  a  bachelor. 

Numerous  were  the  expressions  of 
regret  and  sorrow  which  followed  the  an- 
nouncement of  the  eminent  jurist's  death. 

Justice  Arthur  E.  Sutherland  said: 
"The  death  of  Justice  Robson  is  a  great 
loss  to  the  State  and  a  deep  bereavement 
to  a  host  of  friends.  He  had  a  thoroughly 
trained  and  legal  mind  and  the  judicial 
temperament  and  was  absolutely  devoted 
to  his  work.  His  brethren  of  the  bench 
and  bar  were  greatly  attached  to  him. 
He  was  a  gentleman  in  the  truest  sense 
of  the  word,  and  we  share  a  common 
sorrow  in  his  passing  from  among  us." 

Justice  Nathaniel  Foote  who  sat  with 
Justice  Robson  on  the  Appellate  Bench 
was  so  overcome  by  the  news  of  the  death 
of  his  associate  with  whom  his  relations 
were  most  intimate  that  he  could  hardly 
express  himself.  "Justice  Robson  was  a 
tower  of  strength  in  the  courts  of  the 
State"  he  said.  "His  death  is  a  personal 
loss  to  all  who  knew  him.  His  was  a 
great  mind.  His  sympathies  were  broad 
and  his  personal  charm  endeared  him  to 
all  his  friends  and  associates." 

Philetus  Chamberlain,  speaking  from  a 
long  acquaintanceship  with  Justice  Rob- 
son said:  "His  was  one  of  the  grandest 
characters  I  have  ever  had  the  privilege 
of  knowing.  He  had  one  of  the  best  legal 
minds  and  he  was  the  strongest  man  in 
equity  cases  who  has  ever  sat  on  the 
bench  of  this  district." 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Rochester  Bar  As- 
sociation high  tribute  was  paid  Judge 
Robson,  and  a  memorial  adopted.  Judge 
Stephens,  county  judge,  after  sketching 
the  life  of  the  dead  jurist,  said :    "He  had 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


the  ideal  qualities  of  the  judge.  Perhaps 
the  most  notable  of  these  was  the  atmos- 
phere of  dignified  serenity  and  calm 
strength  which  ever  pervaded  his  mind; 
a  mind  active  and  resolute,  yet  detached 
from  the  worries  and  strain  of  every  day 
work,  which  so  often  overcome  weaker 
men.  Master  of  keen  analytic  powers, 
he  paid  a  courteous  defence  to  all  opin- 
ions honestly  held.  Absorbed  in  the 
human  aspects  of  every  litigated  dispute, 
he  yet  did  not  allow  any  theory  of  social 
justice  to  form  or  modify  his  judicial 
opinion  on  the  law  as  it  was.  Preposses- 
sions and  prejudices  were  ruthlessly  cast 
aside.  From  such  equipment  could  pro- 
ceed only  sound,  impartial,  reasoned 
judgments.  These  great  qualities  gave 
to  his  commonwealth  a  judge  who 
achieved  justice  in  accordance  with  the 
forms  of  law.  An  enduring  monument  to 
his  splendid  judicial  career  is  found  in 
his  opinions  published  in  the  reports.  As 
his  thinking  was  clear,  direct  and  virile, 
so  also  was  the  expression  of  those 
thoughts.  His  opinions  will  live  to  in- 
struct and  inspire  future  generations  of 
lawyers.  We  falter  in  the  expression  of 
our  appreciation  of  him  in  his  personal 
relations  to  those  who  came  within  the 
charmed  circle  of  his  companionship  lest, 
though  we  speak  in  impartial  phrase,  so 
modest  was  he,  we  should  offend  our  sure 
conviction  of  what  he  would  have  us 
do  at  this  hour;  he  would  not  have  us 
praise  nor  tarry  long  where  he  has  fallen, 
but  rather  that  each  in  his  place  should 
go  forward  with  quickened  step  toward 
the  realization  of  better  ideals;  but  yet 
he  would  not  deny  to  us  the  contempla- 
tion of  those  simple  virtues  that  moulded 
a  heroic  personality  in  a  frame  of  heroic 
proportions.  Doing  kindly  things  was 
his  habit ;  he  knew  no  other  way ;  he  was 
charitable  in  his  thought  of  others  and 
reticent  in  blame;  reserved,  well  poised, 


self  controlled,  firm  in  his  friendships, 
unyielding  except  to  the  right,  hating 
nothing  but  hypocrisy,  loving  all  that  is 
true;  he  was  quiet  with  the  quietness  of 
the  strong,  and  gentle  with  the  gentle- 
ness of  the  great.  Conscious  of  our  own 
sense  of  loss  we  remember  in  generous 
sympathy  the  keener  bereavement  of  his 
kindred  whose  comfort  can  be  assured 
in  the  wealth  of  cherished  memories  that 
is  theirs." 


HOYT,  David, 

Prominent  Financier. 

During  the  long  business  life  of  David 
Hoyt  he  developed  a  love  for  the  banking 
business  which  amounted  almost  to  a 
passion  and  he  was  known  throughout 
the  State  as  one  of  the  most  enthusiastic 
members  of  the  State  Savings  Bank  Asso- 
ciation, and  of  the  Savings  Bank  Branch 
of  the  American  Bankers'  Association. 
In  his  own  city  he  had  risen  to  the  front 
rank  among  the  financiers  of  Rochester, 
was  dean  of  the  banking  fraternity,  his 
active  connection  extending  over  a  period 
of  half  a  century.  One  of  the  most  inter- 
esting events  of  the  Rochester  business 
world  in  191 5  was  the  celebration  of  the 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  his  connection  with 
the  Monroe  County  Savings  Bank,  and 
at  the  dinner  given  to  Mr.  Hoyt  a  large 
silver  vase  was  presented  him  on  which 
was  engraved  his  name,  dates  of  service, 
also  the  names  of  the  bank's  trustees  and 
officers. 

His  years,  seventy,  were  spent  in  his 
native  city  and  he  was  a  party  to  the 
wonderful  development  of  Rochester  for 
half  a  century.  When  he  entered  the 
employ  of  the  Monroe  County  Savings 
Bank,  the  deposits  were  $1,523,000.  When 
he  laid  down  the  burden  half  a  century 
later  they  were  $25,000,000.  He  was  one 
of  the  founders  of  the  first  trust  company 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


in  Rochester  in  1868  and  was  equally 
interested  in  church,  political  and  social 
organizations,  manifesting  intense  public 
spirit  and  a  high  order  of  citizenship.  Of 
genial  disposition,  he  had  many  warm 
personal  friends  and  in  the  business  world 
his  name  stood  for  all  that  was  manly, 
upright  and  honorable. 

The  name  Hoyt  under  a  variety  of 
spellings  such  as  Hoit,  Hoyte,  Hoyet, 
Hayte,  Haight  or  Hite,  is  found  in  New 
England  records  at  an  early  date.  The 
American  founder,  Simon  Hoit,  landed  at 
Salem  in  1629,  was  one  of  the  first  settlers 
of  Charlestown  and  later  moved  to  Dor- 
chester, thence  to  Scituate,  Massachu- 
setts. About  1639  he  located  at  Windsor, 
Connecticut,  where  he  was  granted  land 
in  1640.  He  seems  to  have  been  pos- 
sessed of  a  spirit  of  unrest,  for  notwith- 
standing his  already  frequent  changes  of 
residence  he  moved  to  Fairfield,  Connec- 
ticut, and  was  granted  land  there  in  1649, 
later  settling  at  Stamford,  Connecticut, 
where  he  died  according  to  Stamford 
records,  September  1,  1657.  He  had  six 
sons  and  three  daughters  by  his  two 
wives,  they  seemingly  inheriting  their 
father's  restless,  adventurous  spirit,  and 
twenty  years  after  their  father's  death 
there  was  not  a  Hoyt  living  in  any  of  the 
towns  named  except  Stamford.  The 
branch  to  which  David  Hoyt  belongs 
located  in  Danbury,  Connecticut,  and  his 
grandfather  and  his  father  David  Hoyt 
were  both  born  there.  David  Hoyt,  Sr., 
early  in  life  came  to  Rochester  with  his 
father  who  was  one  of  the  pioneer  busi- 
ness men,  successfully  conducting  a 
cooperage  plant.  David  Hoyt  was  promi- 
nently engaged  in  business  as  a  stationer. 
He  married  Mary  M.  Bullen. 

David  Hoyt,  son  of  David  and  Mary  M. 
(Bullen)  Hoyt,  was  born  in  Rochester, 
February  18,  1846,  died  in  his  native  city 
at  his  home,  No.  493  University  avenue, 
February  16,  1916,  lacking  but  two  days 

190 


of  completing  his  seventieth  year.  Al- 
though his  father  was  head  of  a  large  and 
prosperous  stationery  business,  that  line 
of  activity  did  not  appeal  to  the  son,  and 
after  completing  his  public  school  course 
of  study  he  entered  the  employ  of  Ward 
&  Brother,  private  bankers  on  State 
street,  with  whom  he  remained  about  five 
years.  He  was  fifteen  years  of  age  when 
he  first  engaged  with  Ward  &  Brother, 
and  from  that  time  until  his  death,  fifty- 
five  years  later,  he  was  continuously  en- 
gaged in  banking  in  Rochester.  With 
the  exception  of  the  five  years  noted, 
those  years  were  spent  in  the  service  of 
the  Monroe  County  Savings  Bank,  an 
institution  he  helped  to  develop  from  a 
stripling  to  a  giant.  In  1865,  being  then 
twenty  years  of  age,  he  first  entered  the 
employ  of  that  bank,  beginning  as  head 
bookkeeper.  He  continued  in  trusted 
confidential,  clerical  capacity  for  eighteen 
years,  then  became  an  official  of  the  bank 
by  election  in  1883  to  the  office  of  secre- 
tary-treasurer, a  position  of  responsibility 
he  held  for  thirty-two  years.  He  gave  to 
the  Monroe  County  Savings  Bank  all  of 
his  energy  and  business  ability,  confining 
himself  to  that  institution  and  its  inter- 
ests, the  only  exception  being  in  1868 
when  he  aided  in  the  organization  of 
Rochester's  first  trust  company  and  be- 
came a  member  of  its  first  board  of  direc- 
tors. That  institution  was  originally 
called  the  Rochester  Safe  Deposit  Com- 
pany, and  for  twenty  years  occupied 
quarters  in  the  Monroe  County  Savings 
Bank  but  in  1888  changed  its  title  to  the 
Rochester  Trust  &  Safe  Deposit  Com- 
pany, moving  then  to  its  own  building  at 
Main,  West  and  Exchange  streets. 

Mr.  Hoyt's  hobby  or  ruling  passion, 
however,  was  for  savings  banks  and 
everywhere  he  preached  their  value.  He 
was  one  of  the  most  active  members  of 
the  New  York  Savings  Banks  Association, 
and  as  a  member  of  the  executive  council 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


of  the  American  Bankers'  Association, 
was  particularly  devoted  to  the  savings 
banks  branch.  He  was  widely  known 
throughout  the  State  for  his  insistent 
championship  of  the  savings  banks'  prin- 
ciple and  was  an  authority,  frequently 
consulted  on  their  organization  and  man- 
agement. The  years  brought  him  valu- 
able experience,  wisdom  and  ripened 
judgment,  while  the  reputation  he  held 
from  youth  for  uprightness  but  grew  in 
strength,  no  blot  marring  his  record  as  a 
financier. 

A  Democrat  in  politics  and  interested  in 
public  affairs,  National,  State  and  local, 
Mr.  Hoyt  took  no  part  in  party  affairs 
except  in  an  advisory  capacity,  nor  did  he 
ever  accept  public  office.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  Christ  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  from  its  organization  and  for 
many  years  served  as  vestryman.  Social, 
genial  and  public-spirited,  he  entered 
heartily  into  the  social  and  philanthropic 
organizations  of  his  city ;  was  a  governor 
of  the  Homoeopathic  Hospital  and  the 
well-known  clubs,  Rochester,  Genesee 
Valley,  Rochester  Country  and  Roches- 
ter Athletic,  claimed  him  as  an  active  and 
interested  member.  Mr.  Hoyt  continued 
in  good  health  until  a  short  time  previous 
to  his  death,  which  occurred  on  February 
16,  1916. 

Mr.  Hoyt  married,  in  1868,  Elizabeth 
R.,  daughter  of  Martin  B.  and  Susan 
(Watts)  Breck,  her  parents  also  early 
settlers  in  Rochester.  Mrs.  Hoyt  sur- 
vives her  husband  with  two  sons:  Martin 
B.,  member  of  the  firm  of  C.  P.  Ford  & 
Company, shoe  manufacturers,  and  Burr  C. 


KNOX,  Seymour  Horace, 

Representative  Business  Man. 

Seymour  Horace  Knox,  who  was  re- 
garded as  one  of  the  nation's  captains  of 
industry,  and  who  originated  the  Five  and 


Ten  Cent  Store,  died  at  his  home,  No. 
1045  Delaware  avenue,  Buffalo,  New 
York,  May  16,  191 5.  He  was  descended 
from  William  Knox,  who,  according  to 
the  history  of  Blandford,  Massachusetts, 
came  to  that  town  from  Belfast,  Ireland, 
m  I737-  There  was  a  large  settlement  of 
Scotch-Irish  in  this  town.  John  Knox, 
son  of  William  Knox,  was  born  about 
1730,  and  probably  came  with  his  father 
to  Blandford,  where  he  lived,  evidently 
following  farming,  as  did  his  father.  Cap- 
tain James  Knox,  son  of  John  Knox,  was 
born  as  early  as  1750,  and  was  a  private  in 
Captain  John  Ferguson's  company,  Colo- 
nel Timothy  Danielson's  regiment,  from 
Blandford,  from  April  20,  1775,  to  August, 
and  later  in  the  year.  He  was  sergeant 
in  1777,  from  Blandford,  in  Captain  Aaron 
Coe's  company,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Tim- 
othy Robinson's  regiment.  Oliver  and 
John,  sons  of  Adam  Knox,  were  also 
soldiers  from  Blandford.  Afterward, 
James  Knox  was  known  as  captain,  and 
doubtless  held  a  commission  in  the  militia 
as  captain.  In  1790  he  appears  to  be  a 
resident  of  Hillside,  Massachusetts,  ac- 
cording to  the  first  Federal  census,  but 
he  must  have  removed  soon  to  Broome 
county,  New  York,  as  the  history  states 
that  he  came  there  in  1786,  or  a  little  later. 
The  same  authority  states  that  he  was  an 
officer  in  the  Revolution,  and  we  have 
given  his  record  as  sergeant.  He  is  said 
to  have  been  one  of  Washington's  life- 
guards. James  Knox,  son  of  Captain 
James  Knox,  was  born  September  25, 
1788,  and  died  February  10,  1865,  at  Rus- 
sell, New  York,  where  he  followed  farm- 
ing most  of  his  active  life.  He  held  the 
rank  of  captain.  His  son,  James  Horace 
Knox,  was  born  November  21,  1824,  at 
Russell,  New  York,  where  he  died  March 
12,  1894.  He  was  a  farmer  all  his  active 
life,  and  with  his  family  was  a  member  of 
the    Methodist    Episcopal    church.      He 


191 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


married,  February  6,  1855,  Jane  E.  Mc- 
Brier,  born  February  19,  1837,  died  Janu- 
ary 27,  1891,  daughter  of  Henry  McBrier. 

Seymour  Horace  Knox,  son  of  James 
Horace  and  Jane  E.  (McBrier)  Knox,  was 
born  April  n,  1861,  in  the  village  of  Rus- 
sell, St.  Lawrence  county,  New  York.  He 
received  his  early  education  in  the  district 
school.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  taught  a 
country  school,  though  he  himself  never 
attended  a  high  school.  When  seventeen 
years  old  Mr.  Knox  went  to  Hart,  Michi- 
gan, where  he  found  employment  as  a 
clerk.  After  working  there  two  or  three 
years  he  moved  to  Reading,  Pennsylvania, 
in  which  place  the  first  five  and  ten  cent 
store  was  started.  Mr.  Knox's  cousin, 
F.  W.  Woolworth,  went  into  partnership 
with  him.  The  store  was  a  success  from 
the  start,  and  it  was  the  beginning  of  the 
chain  of  more  than  eight  hundred  five  and 
ten  cent  stores,  now  under  the  manage- 
ment of  F.  W.  Woolworth  &  Company, 
of  which  Mr.  Knox  was  vice-president. 
Messrs.  Knox  and  Woolworth  conducted 
the  store  for  a  year,  at  the  end  of  that 
time  selling  it  to  a  local  man.  They  went 
to  Newark,  New  Jersey,  and  opened  an- 
other store  of  the  same  nature.  This  store 
also  was  sold  out,  and  Mr.  Knox  and  his 
cousin  went  to  Erie,  Pennsylvania,  where 
they  continued  in  business  for  several 
years.  The  store  there  was  conducted  by 
Woolworth  &  Knox.  After  buying  out 
his  cousin's  interest  Mr.  Knox  left  the 
place  in  charge  of  a  subordinate  and  came 
to  Buffalo.  At  that  time  he  was  twenty- 
nine  years  of  age,  and  he  opened  his  first 
store  in  this  city  in  the  Old  Palace  Ar- 
cade, in  Lafayette  Square,  in  the  early 
'8o's.  While  he  was  getting  his  business 
under  way  here,  he  met  Grace  Millard,  of 
Detroit,  Michigan,  whom  he  later  mar- 
ried. 

The  Buffalo  store  was  opened  and  Mr. 
Knox  laid  the  foundation  for  the  syndi- 
cate of  five  and  ten  cent  stores  that  were 


to  be  opened  in  different  parts  of  the 
country.  The  S.  H.  Knox  &  Company 
syndicate  was  formed,  and  this  grew  until 
it  had  control  of  about  one  hundred  stores. 
In  1912  there  was  a  merger  of  the  F.  W. 
Woolworth  Company,  S.  H.  Knox  &  Com- 
pany, F.  M.  Kirby  &  Company,  E.  P. 
Charlton  &  Company,  C.  S.  Woolworth 
and  W.  H.  Moore.  The  new  corporation 
was  styled  the  F.  W.  Woolworth  Com- 
pany, was  capitalized  at  $65,000,000,  and 
Mr.  Knox,  in  addition  to  having  a  heavy 
interest,  was  made  vice-president.  He 
continued  in  that  position  until  the  time 
of  his  death.  His  wonderful  genius  for 
organization  contributed  in  no  small 
measure  to  the  success  of  the  great  com- 
bination, which  controlled  about  eight 
hundred  stores.  That  he  and  the  other 
officers  were  wide  awake  to  all  opportun- 
ities is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  in  the 
last  two  years  since  the  time  of  the 
merger  fifty  new  stores  were  opened  in 
England.  These  were  conducted  by  a 
separate  company,  but  were  under  the 
management  of  the  F.  W.  Woolworth 
Company.  Mr.  Knox  also  was  a  member 
of  the  executive  committee  of  this  com- 
pany. 

The  business  activities  of  Mr.  Knox 
were  not,  however,  limited  to  the  five  and 
ten  cent  stores.  For  years  he  had  been 
connected  with  many  of  the  leading  finan- 
cial and  industrial  interests  of  the  city. 
In  1897  Mr.  Knox  first  became  identified 
with  the  Columbia  National  Bank,  which 
then  was  located  at  the  corner  of  Pearl 
and  Church  streets.  He  was  vice-presi- 
dent of  this  bank  until  he  brought  about 
the  merger  of  the  Marine  National  and 
Columbia  National  banks,  the  business 
being  combined  under  the  name  of  the 
Marine  National  Bank.  At  the  time  of 
the  union  he  was  president  of  the  new 
bank,  but  resigned  that  place  and  con- 
tinued as  chairman  of  the  board  of  direc- 
tors.   He  was  active  in  the  formation  of 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


the  Bankers'  Trust  Company,  occupying 
the  office  of  vice-president,  and  he  also 
was  interested  in  the  Central  National 
Bank.  Among  the  large  industries  which 
he  helped  to  manage  as  director  are  the 
following:  Rogers-Brown  Iron  Company, 
Jacob  Dold  Packing  Company,  Missis- 
sippi Central  Railroad,  United  States 
Lumber  Company,  Great  Southern  Lum- 
ber Company,  the  Clawsen  &  Wilson 
Company,  and  the  Henz-Kelley  Company. 

Mr.  Knox  was  a  liberal  patron  of  art 
and  music.  Numerous  valuable  paintings 
were  presented  to  the  Albright  Art  Gal- 
lery by  him,  and  for  a  time  he  was  a 
director  of  the  Philharmonic  Society.  His 
private  collection  of  paintings  in  his  home 
was  one  of  the  finest  in  the  city.  Mr. 
Knox  always  had  a  fondness  for  the  farm, 
and  this  liking  manifested  itself  when  he 
devoted  much  time  to  breeding  horses, 
and  to  the  development  of  what  is  now 
the  Ideal  Stock  Farm  at  East  Aurora. 
On  this  farm  of  about  five  hundred  acres 
Mr.  Knox  built  a  beautiful  house  and 
spent  his  summers  there.  He  had  large 
racing  stables  and  raised  some  fast  horses. 

For  more  than  twenty-five  years  Mr. 
Knox  was  identified  with  almost  every 
interest  which  had  to  do  with  the  develop- 
ment of  Buffalo.  His  sagacity  and  judg- 
ment were  keenly  valued,  and  for  a  long 
time  no  enterprise  of  importance  was 
launched  before  he  was  consulted.  In  all 
his  business  activity  he  always  main- 
tained an  enviable  reputation  for  fairness 
and  integrity.  He  always  remembered 
his  boyhood  days,  and  in  memory  of  them 
several  years  ago  he  endowed  a  school 
building  at  Russell.  He  went  back  and 
laid  the  cornerstone  of  the  building.  Mr. 
Knox  was  a  thirty-second  degree  Mason, 
and  held  membership  in  Hugh  de  Payens 
Commandery,  Knights  Templar;  Ancient 
Landmarks  Lodge,  Free  and  Accepted 
Masons ;  the  Buffalo  Club ;  the  Country 
Club ;  the  Town  and  Country  Club  of 
n  Y— vol  in— 13  193 


Lockport ;  the  Elma  Country  Club,  and 
the  Hardware  Country  Club  of  New  York. 
He  was  an  independent  Democrat,  and  a 
trustee  of  the  Delaware  Avenue  Baptist 
Church,  but  not  a  member. 

Mr.  Knox  married,  June  11,  1890,  Grace, 
daughter  of  Charles  and  Sarah  (Avery) 
Millard,  of  Detroit,  Michigan,  and  had 
children :  Gracis  Millard,  born  March  7, 
1893,  died  July  30,  1895 ;  Dorothy  Vir- 
ginia; Seymour  Horace,  born  September 
1,  1898;  Marjorie. 

In  November,  1915,  Mr.  Knox  went 
South  for  his  health,  but  this  not  proving 
beneficial  he  resorted  to  the  more  bracing 
climate  of  Atlantic  City,  New  Jersey.  He 
did  not  receive  the  benefit  he  expected, 
and  returned  home  on  the  advice  of  his 
physician,  his  condition  at  the  time  of  de- 
parture being  serious.  On  his  return 
home  he  was  able  to  sit  up,  though  only 
members  of  his  family  and  close  friends 
were  permitted  to  converse  with  him.  On 
Saturday  night,  May  15,  1915,  at  9  o'clock, 
Mr.  Knox  lost  consciousness,  and  failed 
gradually  until  the  end  came.  His  body 
was  interred  in  Forest  Lawn  Cemetery. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  Andrew  V.  V.  Raymond, 
pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church, 
and  the  Rev.  Dr.  S.  V.  V.  Holmes,  pastor 
of  the  Westminster  Presbyterian  Church, 
officiated.  Mr.  Knox  was  survived  by  his 
wife,  a  son  and  two  daughters. 


SHUART,  William  Dean, 

Lawyer  and  Jurist. 

By  birth  and  residence  Judge  Shuart 
was  a  lifelong  citizen  of  Monroe  county, 
New  York.  No  man  was  more  widely 
known  and  every  acquaintance  was  a 
friend.  He  was  surrogate  of  Monroe 
county,  1868-84,  ar>d  of  polished  courtesy, 
winsome  manner,  sympathetic,  yet  strong, 
he  so  realized  the  ideal  surrogate  that  his 
administration  of  that  office  became  the 
model  and  the  emulation  of  his  successors. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


As  a  lawyer  he  keenly  appreciated  the  re- 
lation of  trust  which  should  exist  between 
attorney  and  client  and  served  with  an 
eye  single  to  the  rights  and  interests  of 
those  who  were  so  fortunate  as  to  secure 
his  professional  services.  A  faithful  coun- 
sellor, a  loyal  soldier  and  a  just  judge,  he 
filled  every  station  and  discharged  every 
duty,  rounding  out  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury of  usefulness  and  service.  Viewing 
his  character  and  his  life  in  its  complete- 
ness, his  work  in  its  variety,  his  relations 
with  his  fellow-men  in  their  complexity 
the  verdict  "well  done  good  and  faithful 
servant"  must  be  rendered.  The  world 
was  better  for  his  life  and  the  influence 
of  that  life  did  not  end  with  his  death. 

William  Dean  Shuart  was  born  August 
ii,  1827,  at  Mendon,  Monroe  county,  New 
York,  and  he  died  in  Rochester,  April  22, 
1900,  death  coming  very  suddenly  without 
previous  illness.  He  was  educated  at 
Genesee  Wesleyan  Seminary  at  Lima, 
New  York,  an  institution  of  high  merit 
conducted  under  the  auspices  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  church.  He  decided  upon 
the  profession  of  law  and  began  study 
under  the  direction  of  his  uncle,  Denton 
G.  Shuart,  an  eminent  member  of  the 
Monroe  county  bar,  surrogate  of  the 
county,  1852-56.  He  also  studied  under 
the  preceptorship  of  Smith  &  Cornwall, 
lawyers  of  Lyons,  New  York,  and  in  May, 
1850,  was  admitted  to  the  Monroe  county 
bar.  He  at  once  began  practice  in  Roches- 
ter and  in  course  of  time  took  rank  among 
the  foremost  men  of  the  Rochester  bar. 
He  practiced  without  interruption  until 
1862  ;  then  enlisted  in  the  Union  army  and 
until  the  close  of  the  war  in  1865  he 
served  as  paymaster  with  the  rank  of 
major. 

After  the  war  ended  he  returned  to 
Rochester,  resumed  law  practice  until  No- 
vember, 1867,  when  he  was  elected  surro- 
gate of  Monroe  county,  having  previously 
served  a  term  as  city  attorney  of  Roches- 


ter. He  was  twice  reelected  surrogate, 
serving  continuously  in  that  important 
and  responsible  office  for  sixteen  years, 
1S68-84.  His  learning  and  ability  richly 
qualified  him  for  the  office  he  held,  but  it 
was  as  well  his  kindliness  of  heart,  cour- 
teous bearing  and  sympathy  which  im- 
parted to  his  court  that  atmosphere  of 
serenity  so  grateful  to  the  widows  and 
orphans  whose  rights  were  there  pre- 
served and  safeguarded.  He  retired  from 
the  office  with  the  highest  respect  of  the 
attorneys  who  had  appeared  as  counsel 
before  his  court  and  with  the  best  wishes 
of  every  person  whose  interests  had  been 
the  subject  of  that  court's  concern.  He 
was  absolutely  just  and  impartial,  his  sole 
desire  being  to  carry  out  in  a  legal  way 
the  provision  of  all  wills  and  where  the 
law  was  charged  with  the  distribution  to 
see  that  every  form  was  complied  with, 
the  rights  of  minors  and  widows  fully  sus- 
tained, and  no  one  wittingly  wronged. 

On  his  retirement  from  the  surrogate's 
office  Judge  Shuart  formed  a  partnership 
with  William  A.  Sutherland,  and  together 
they  practiced  in  Rochester  until  death 
dissolved  the  connection.  Many  young 
men  studied  under  Judge  Shuart,  among 
them  Arthur  E.  Sutherland,  who  also  be- 
came a  partner,  continuing  until  appointed 
county  judge  in  1896.  As  a  lawyer  Judge 
Shuart  was  learned  and  highly  capable,  a 
safe  counsellor,  a  careful  and  conscien- 
tious adviser.  He  was  honorable  in  the 
extreme  in  all  his  relations  with  his 
clients,  and  in  the  management  of  their 
interests  was  most  scrupulous  and  exact. 
His  private  character  was  without  stain 
or  flaw,  his  entire  life  uplifting  and  en- 
nobling and  an  inspiration  to  his  friends. 
His  domestic  life  was  most  happy  and  in 
his  home  his  many  virtues  shone  the 
brightest.  He  was  one  of  the  manliest  of 
men,  yet  possessed  of  the  courtesy,  gentle- 
ness and  consideration  of  a  woman,  and 
was  the  friend  of  all  who  were  weak  or 


194 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


in  need  of  a  helping  hand.  He  was  espe- 
cially interested  in  young  men  and  con- 
stantly aided  them  to  success. 

He  was  an  honored  member  of  the  Ma- 
sonic order,  belonging  to  Frank  H.  Law- 
rence Lodge,  Free  and  Accepted  Masons ; 
Ionic  Chapter,  Royal  Arch  Masons ;  Cy- 
rene  Commandery,  Knights  Templar,  and 
in  Scottish  Rite  Masonry  held  the  thirty- 
second  degree;  affiliated  with  Rochester 
Consistory.  He  ever  retained  a  lively  in- 
terest in  his  army  comrades  and  until  his 
death  was  a  member  of  George  H.  Thomas 
Post,  No.  4,  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic. 

Judge  Shuart  married,  September  22, 
1852,  Hannah  S.,  daughter  of  Peter  and 
Mary  (Ross)  Shoecroft,  of  New  York. 

Mrs.  Shuart  survives  her  husband,  re- 
siding at  No.  360  East  avenue,  Rochester. 
Two  daughters  were  born  to  Judge  and 
Mrs.  Shuart:  Stella,  who  resides  with 
her  mother,  and  Gertrude,  wife  of  Wil- 
liam N.  Tubbs,  of  Syracuse,  New  York. 

A  striking  evidence  of  the  great  respect 
and  esteem  in  which  Judge  Shuart  was 
held  by  the  Monroe  county  bar  was  seen 
by  the  large  gathering  held  in  the  trial 
term  room  of  the  court  house  on  April  23, 
1900,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  action  on 
his  death.  Justice  John  M.  Davy,  of  the 
Supreme  Court  (now  also  deceased),  was 
chairman  of  the  meeting.  Judge  Davy 
appointed  a  committee  to  prepare  a  suit- 
able memorial,  the  committee  consisting 
of  George  A.  Benton,  W.  F.  Coggswell, 
Charles  A.  Baker,  S.  D.  Bentley,  H.  M. 
Hill  and  C.  M.  Williams.  When  the 
memorial  was  presented  and  adopted 
Judge  Benton  was  appointed  to  present 
it  to  the  appellate  division  and  the  trial 
and  equity  terms  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
and  Judge  Sutherland  was  named  to  pre- 
sent it  to  the  Surrogate  Court.  Addresses 
of  eulogy  were  delivered  by  John  Van 
Vorhis,  George  Raines,  P.  B.  Hatch  and 
O.  H.  Stevens,  after  which  Judge  Davy 
appointed  John  Van  Vorhis,  J.  A.  Adding- 


ton,  P.  B.  Hulett,  F.  B.  Fanner,  Charles 
B.  King,  H.  W.  Morris,  H.  W.  Conklin, 
Nathaniel  Foote  and  Adelbert  Cronise  to 
represent  the  bar  at  the  funeral  of  their 
departed  comrade  and  friend. 


GARDINER,  Richard, 

City  and  County   Official. 

Although  a  comparatively  young  man 
Mr.  Gardiner  had  been  so  very  active  in 
public  life  that  the  achievement  of  seem- 
ingly a  longer  life  was  apparent.  Death 
came  to  him  suddenly  at  the  ball  park 
while  watching  a  game  between  Roches- 
ter and  Newark  teams.  Could  he  have 
ordered  the  manner  of  his  going  out,  one 
cannot  but  believe  he  would  have  so 
ordered  it,  for  he  was  so  active,  so  ener- 
getic and  so  full  of  life,  vigor  and  useful 
planning,  that  a  period  of  helpless  in- 
action would  have  been  a  sore  trial.  He 
was  a  native  son  of  Rochester  and  there 
engaged  in  business,  but  it  was  as  city 
and  county  official  that  he  was  widely  and 
favorably  known. 

Richard  Gardiner  was  born  in  the  ninth 
ward  of  the  city  of  Rochester,  November 
6,  1867,  died  May  10,  1910.  He  was  edu- 
cated in  public  and  parochial  schools,  dis- 
playing even  in  early  life  promise  of 
future  usefulness.  He  conducted  a  cloth- 
ing store  on  State  street  until  shortly  be- 
fore his  death  and  was  successful  as  a 
business  man.  At  the  age  of  twenty-five 
years  he  made  his  entrance  into  public 
official  life,  his  first  office  that  of  school 
commissioner,  to  which  he  was  elected  in 
1892,  serving  from  the  second  ward. 
Later  he  resigned  from  the  board  to 
accept  appointment  as  overseer  of  the 
poor,  an  office  he  held  most  creditably  for 
six  years.  During  his  term  of  office  there 
was  much  distress  in  the  city,  caused 
by  the  panic  of  1893,  and  in  alleviating 
this  distress  Mr.  Gardiner  displayed  his 
promptness  and  ability  to  deal  with  an 


195 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


emergency.  He  established  a  city  stone- 
yard  and  there  gave  employment  to  hun- 
dreds of  men  in  need  of  work.  He  was 
also  instrumental  in  bringing  about  a  re- 
form in  the  manner  of  transporting  the 
injured  to  the  hospitals,  abolishing  the 
system  of  taking  them  in  police  patrol 
wagons  and  establishing  the  present  am- 
bulance system.  When  elected  to  repre- 
sent Rochester  in  the  New  York  House 
of  Assembly  Mr.  Gardiner  proved  a  most 
valuable  member.  He  served  on  impor- 
tant committees  and  was  very  helpful  in 
securing  appropriations  for  much  needed 
improvements.  One  hundred  thousand 
dollars  was  obtained  for  school  purposes, 
a  new  West  avenue  lift  bridge  for  which 
five'  thousand  dollars  was  appropriated 
by  the  Armstrong  bill  and  other  improve- 
ments for  Rochester  were  secured  with 
his  aid.  On  April  8,  1902,  he  was  ap- 
pointed county  purchasing  agent,  the  new 
law  creating  that  office  having  gone  into 
effect  a  few  days  prior  to  his  appointment. 
He  filled  the  office  most  acceptably  until 
the  next  county  election,  then  was  chosen 
by  ballot  to  fill  the  same  office.  He  con- 
tinued in  that  office  until  his  death,  each 
succeeding  reelection  showing  increased 
pluralities.  He  possessed  rare  executive 
ability  and  in  no  office  he  ever  held  was 
he  found  wanting.  Patience,  upright- 
ness, clear,  farsighted  vision  distinguished 
him  and  marked  him  a  superior  man.  His 
associates  of  the  Board  of  Supervisors 
expressed  their  regret  at  his  death  by  offi- 
cial action  and  attended  his  funeral  in  a 
body.  His  fellow  members  of  the  Second 
Ward  Republican  Committee  also  adopted 
resolutions  of  respect.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Rochester  Club,  the  Country 
Club,  the  Rochester  Whist  Club,  Benevo- 
lent and  Protective  Order  of  Elks,  Knights 
of  Columbus  and  Cathedral  Church  (Cath- 
olic). 

Mr.    Gardiner    married    Edith    Scoles, 


daughter  of  John  and  Elizabeth  (Thomas) 
Scoles,  of  Rochester.  Mrs.  Gardiner  sur- 
vives him  with  a  daughter,  Edith  Eliza- 
beth. 


ELWOOD,  Frank  Worcester, 
Lawyer,   Banker. 

Frank  Worcester  Elwood  was  born  in 
Rochester,  New  York,  April  4,  1850,  the 
son  of  Isaac  R.  and  Anna  Elizabeth 
(Gold)  Elwood.  His  father  was  promi- 
nent both  in  business  and  politics,  clerk 
of  the  State  Senate  from  1843  t0  l&47 
inclusive  and  accumulated  a  handsome 
estate. 

Frank  Worcester  Elwood  obtained  his 
preliminary  education  in  the  schools  of 
his  native  city  and  in  1869  he  entered 
Hobart  College,  remaining  there  about  a 
year,  where  he  joined  the  Sigma  Phi  fra- 
ternity to  which  he  was  always  devotedly 
attached,  did  much  to  advance  its  inter- 
ests and  was  greatly  beloved  by  its  mem- 
bership. He  subsequently  matriculated  at 
Harvard  University,  where  his  associa- 
tions were  of  the  most  desirable  and  re- 
fined character,  being  affiliated  with  the 
Hasty  Pudding  Club,  A.  D.  Club,  Delta 
Kappa  Epsilon  (honorary)  "Der  Verein" 
and  the  Glee  Club.  He  was  graduated 
Bachelor  of  Arts  with  the  class  of  1874. 
After  graduation  he  attended  the  Har- 
vard Law  School  until  May  1,  1876,  when 
he  was  obliged  to  intermit  his  studies  be- 
cause of  a  serious  accident.  He  resumed 
them  in  the  fall,  joining  the  second  year 
class  at  the  law  department  of  Columbia 
University,  attaining  his  Bachelor  of  Laws 
degree  in  May,  1877.  He  continued  his 
preparation  for  the  profession  in  the  office 
of  the  Hon.  George  F.  Danforth  in 
Rochester,  and  in  June,  1878,  was  admit- 
ted to  the  bar  of  New  York  State.  The 
care  of  his  estate  and  other  business  mat- 
ters obviated  from  engaging  actively  in 
96 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


the  practice  of  the  law,  and  from  Septem- 
ber, 1881,  until  July,  1883,  he  was  in  part- 
nership with  A.  S.  Hodges,  of  New  York 
City,  in  banking  and  stock  brokerage  in 
Rochester,  under  the  firm  name  of  F.  W. 
Elwood  &  Company,  and  continued  in  the 
same  business  in  partnership  with  T.  L. 
Scovill,  under  the  same  firm  name  for 
about  a  year  and  a  half.  He  was  also  a 
member  of  the  Chicago  Board  of  Trade 
and  of  the  National  Petroleum  and  Min- 
ing Exchange  of  New  York.  He  be- 
stowed much  of  his  time,  energies  and 
loving  thought  to  the  erection  and  super- 
vision of  the  Elwood  Memorial  Building, 
which  stands  at  and  notably  adorns  the 
famous  "Four  Corners,"  a  splendid  speci- 
men of  architecture,  at  once  a  testimony 
to  his  business  sagacity  and  artistic  taste 
and  a  monument  of  his  filial  affection. 

Never  seeking  or  even  desiring  political 
preferment  he  was  ever  ready  to  give  a 
helping  hand  to  all  associations  for  the 
welfare  of  the  community  and  the  promo- 
tion of  good  government.  Thus  he  served 
as  vice-president  of  the  Rochester  His- 
torical Society,  was  a  member  of  the  Sons 
of  the  American  Revolution,  member  of 
the  Board  of  Park  Commissions,  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  the  Municipal 
Reform  League  and  the  Forestry  Asso- 
ciation. He  was  also  president  of  the 
Rochester  Club,  a  member  of  the  Genesee 
Valley  Club  and  of  the  University  Club 
of  New  York  City.  He  was  the  founder 
of  the  Men's  Club  of  St.  Paul's  Church. 
He  attended  French  School,  near  Paris, 
for  two  years,  and  was  a  linquist  of  note, 
a  great  scholar.  Of  fascinating  address 
and  gracious  hospitality  he  was  an  orna- 
ment of  social  and  of  scholarly  inclination 
at  home  and  in  intellectual  circles.  He 
was  an  honorable,  high-minded  gentle- 
man, whose  memory  is  precious  in  many 
hearts. 

He  married,  April  4,  1885,  at  Rochester, 
Frederica     (Pumpelly)     Raymond,    who 


survives  him,  with  a  daughter,  born  Feb- 
ruary 8,  1890.  He  died  June  8,  1899,  at 
his  residence  in  East  avenue,  still  the 
home  of  his  wife  and  daughter.  By  her 
previous  marriage  his  wife  has  a  daugh- 
ter, Victoria  Raymond,  now  Mrs.  Walter 
W.  Powers. 


MAHON,  Patrick, 

Active  Business  Man  and  Churchman. 

Although  hardly  yet  in  the  prime  of  his 
splendid  manhood  at  the  time  of  his 
death,  Mr.  Mahon  had  for  years  been 
prominent  and  probably  accomplished 
more  active  work  in  the  short  time  allot- 
ted him  than  others  in  double  the  years. 
He  was  a  pillar  of  support  not  only  to  his 
own  church,  the  Cathedral  of  Rochester, 
but  to  all  the  other  churches  and  charities 
in  the  city  and  diocese.  No  matter  what 
the  call  or  how  laborious  the  work  per- 
taining to  the  numerous  charities  attached 
to  his  beloved  church,  his  support  was 
never  found  wanting.  As  a  church  man 
he  was  most  devoted,  but  he  was  best 
known  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific 
as  an  Irish  patriot  of  the  noblest  type, 
and  when  the  history  of  Ireland's  struggle 
for  freedom  is  written  his  place  therein 
will  not  be  less  than  the  most  illustrious 
of  his  time.  He  was  a  patriot  in  the 
double  sense  that  while  he  loved  the  land 
of  his  adoption,  he  still  revered  the 
memory  of  the  land  which  gave  him  birth. 

He  was  a  man  of  peculiar  parts,  he  had 
the  courage  of  his  convictions  and  if  he 
considered  any  action  proper  no  amount 
of  labor  and  expense  prevented  him  from 
carrying  it  out.  He  had  a  wonderful 
faculty  for  enlisting  others  in  support  of 
his  plans,  his  magnetism  and  sound  com- 
mon sense  inspiring  all  who  came  within 
the  radius  of  his  influence.  He  was  the 
founder,  father  and  one  of  the  most  active 
members  of  the  Monroe  County  Land 
League,    an   organization    for   which    he 


197 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


labored  unceasingly,  for  on  the  success 
of  the  American  Land  League  he  felt  the 
future  success  of  the  Irish  people  de- 
pended. As  a  business  man  he  was  just, 
honorable  and  correct  in  all  his  dealings 
and  of  such  extraordinary  ability  that  his 
high  qualities  were  universally  recog- 
nized. As  a  citizen  he  was  keenly  sen- 
sible of  his  duty  and  ever  ready  to  assume 
and  perform  any  service  imposed  upon 
him.  He  was  constant  and  true  in  his 
friendships  and  in  his  home  circle  loving, 
kind  and  indulgent. 

Patrick  Mahon,  son  of  John  Mahon, 
was  born  in  County  Cavan,  Ireland,  in 
1S38,  died  in  Rochester,  New  York,  Feb- 
ruary 1,  1881.  He  was  brought  to  the 
United  States  in  1842,  his  parents  locating 
in  Newark,  New  Jersey.  The  lad  was 
educated  in  parochial  schools.  He  began 
business  life  with  a  New  York  City  com- 
mercial house,  but  in  1853,  through  the 
influence  of  Mr.  Fitz  Simmons,  he  came 
to  Rochester  with  that  gentleman  who 
was  then  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Owen 
Gaffney  &  Company,  later  Burke,  Fitz 
Simmons,  Hone  &  Company.  He  began 
as  errand  boy,  soon  was  made  entry  clerk, 
finally  becoming  head  bookkeeper.  He 
was  tried  out  in  many  difficult  positions 
and  so  satisfactorily  did  he  meet  every 
test  of  his  powers  that  in  1866  he  was 
admitted  a  partner.  He  developed  a 
strong  business  ability  and  was  recog- 
nized as  a  man  of  high  principles,  sterling 
worth  and  strict  integrity.  He  continued 
a  partner  in  the  dry  goods  house  of  Burke, 
Fitz  Simmons,  Hone  &  Company  until 
his  death,  winning  the  truest  regard  of 
his  business  associates  and  attaining  en- 
viable prominence  in  the  business  world. 

Great  as  were  the  energies  he  devoted 
to  his  business,  he  had  other  important 
interests.  He  was  a  friend  to  every  good 
work  and  to  the  church  and  her  charities, 
he  gave  not  only  of  his  substance  but  of 
his     business      and     executive      ability. 


Prompt,  fiery,  tireless,  patient,  painstak- 
ing and  indomitable,  he  could  endure  no 
failure.  What  he  undertook  must  suc- 
ceed, and  once  enlisted  in  a  cause,  who- 
ever failed  or  flagged,  he  was  reliable.  He 
was  devoted  to  Ireland,  her  cause  was  his 
cause  and  her  friends  his  friends.  He  was 
a  prominent  member  of  the  Fenian 
Brotherhood  and  was  treasurer  of  the 
fund  that  equipped  the  ship  "Catalpa" 
(of  which  he  was  part  owner)  which 
rescued  from  penal  servitude  in  Australia 
six  members  of  the  brotherhood  who  had 
been  in  the  British  army  and  were  under 
conviction  and  sentence  for  treason.  He 
was  founder  of  the  Monroe  County  Land 
League,  a  member  of  the  Celtic  Club  and 
in  constant  communication  with  friends 
of  Ireland  at  home  and  abroad.  He  was 
a  close  reader  of  the  Irish  press  and  no 
significant  event  or  drift  of  opinion 
escaped  his  quick  intelligence.  Had  he 
devoted  his  talents  and  energies  in  the 
same  degree  to  American  politics,  he 
would  have  gone  high  in  public  life.  He 
was  one  of  the  chief  organizers  of  the 
Catholic  Times  Publishing  Company  in 
Rochester,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death 
was  a  director  and  treasurer  of  that  com- 
pany. In  politics  he  was  a  Republican, 
and  in  religious  faith  a  Roman  Catholic, 
a  devoted  and  prominent  member  of  St. 
Patrick's  Cathedral  for  many  years.  He 
was  also  a  leading  member  of  the  Young 
Men's  Catholic  Association.  He  passed 
from  life  with  mind  unclouded,  fortified 
by  the  strengthening  sacraments  and 
ministrations  of  the  church,  the  tender 
devotion  of  his  wife  and  family,  the 
genuine  respect  of  the  community,  at 
peace  with  God  and  the  world. 

Patrick  Mahon  married  (first)  Mary 
McQuillan,  who  died  in  1864,  leaving  a 
daughter,  Mary  Evelyn.  He  married 
(second)  February  14,  1871,  Kate  C.  Mc- 
Roden,  who  survives  him,  daughter  of 
Michael    McRoden,    who    was    born    in 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Monaghan,  Ireland,  in  1817,  died  in 
Rochester  in  1844;  became  one  of  the  best 
known  clothing  merchants  of  the  city ;  he 
was  a  man  of  high  character,  most  scru- 
pulous in  his  integrity,  greatly  esteemed 
by  all  who  knew  him.  His  wife,  Julia 
McRoden,  died  aged  fifty-six  years,  a 
woman  of  lovely  disposition,  leaving  two 
daughters,  Mrs.  Patrick  Mahon,  and  Mrs. 
James  Mooney,  of  Buffalo.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Mahon  were  the  parents  of  five  children : 
Patrick  Vincent,  Corinne  L.,  Arthur  J., 
Julia  D.  (Mrs.  George  P.  Gilman),  Alex- 
ander. 


CORTHELL,  Elmer  Lawrence,  D.  Sc, 
Civil  Engineer,  Author. 

"Coming  events  cast  their  shadows  be- 
fore." At  the  age  of  twelve  Dr.  Corthell 
was  librarian  at  the  village  library,  and 
at  that  age  had  read  all  of  the  two  hun- 
dred volumes  in  that  library,  a  collection 
ranging  from  "Confessions  of  an  Opium 
Eater"  to  "Dwight's  Theology."  At  six 
teen  the  walls  of  his  bedroom  were  plas- 
tered with  Latin  and  Greek  mottoes,  such 
as  "Improbus  Labor  Omnia  Vincit"  (Per- 
severing Labor  Overcomes  Everything"), 
"Gnothi  Sauton"  ("Know  Thyself"),  who 
later  ranked  as  one  of  the  great  civil  engi- 
neers of  the  world. 

Bibliography  of  his  own  publications 
reads  like  the  catalogue  of  a  library,  and 
at  the  time  of  his  decease,  May  17,  1916, 
he  was  in  the  full  prime  of  his  intellectual 
and  professional  strength.  After  com- 
pleting a  record  of  most  distinguished 
achievement  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Corthell 
as  to  the  value  of  college  training  was 
valuable,  as  valuable  as  his  opinions, 
which  great  corporations,  governments 
and  municipalities  sought  and  paid  liber- 
ally for  when  contemplating  engineering 
projects  of  magnitude.  He  said  in  his 
argument  for  the  affirmative  :  "I  say  here 


advisedly,  and  as  a  result  of  experience, 
that  I  was  enabled  to  attack  and  to  solve 
the  problems  (engineering)  solely  by  this 
discipline  of  a  classical  education  at  Ab- 
ington,  Exeter  and  Brown  University. 
There  is  no  opinion  about  this  matter. 
It  is  a  fact  that  has  appeared  plainly  at 
many  times  of  my  life.  The  education 
outlined  has  enabled  me  to  do  things  that 
I  never  could  have  done  without  it.  It 
has  given  me  power  in  my  professional 
work  during  the  past  forty-seven  years 
(1914) — more  than  that  it  has  carried  me 
far  afield  of  engineering,  and  given  me 
world-wide  interests  along  many  lines  of 
human  activity.  What  I  have  said  about 
the  real  value  of  a  classical  education  in 
my  own  case  I  can  say  from  personal 
knowledge  about  engineers  all  over  the 
world  where  my  business  and  my  inter- 
ests have  taken  me." 

In  view  of  the  strong  position  Dr. 
Corthell  took  in  favor  of  a  classical  edu- 
cation, and  the  importance  he  gave  it  as 
a  vital  force  in  his  own  success,  the  course 
of  preparatory  and  college  study  he  pur- 
sued is  of  deep  interest.  He  was  born 
at  South  Abington  (now  Whitman), 
Massachusetts,  September  30,  1840,  son 
of  James  Lawrence  and  Mary  Ellis  (Gur- 
ney)  Corthell,  of  Scotland,  the  founder  of 
the  family  in  America.  His  ancestor  on 
his  father's  side,  six  generations  ago,  was 
Robert  Corthell.  His  mother's  family 
was  French  and  came  to  England  with 
William  of  Normandy.  The  French  name 
was  Gurne — anglicized  to  Gurney.  John 
Gurney,  the  noted  Quaker,  was  a  member 
of  the  family.  His  father,  a  man  of  little 
school  education,  craved  it  for  his  chil- 
dren, and  at  the  age  of  three  years  sent 
his  son,  Elmer  L.,  to  the  village  school. 
At  twelve  he  was  librarian  of  the  village 
library  and  familiar  with  the  contents  of 
every  book  it  contained.  Rollin's  "An- 
cient    History,"     Grote's     "History     of 


199 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Greece,"  Gibbon's  "Decline  and  Fall  of 
the  Roman  Empire,"  Hume's  "History 
of  England,"  Cooper's  and  Irving's  works, 
were  part  only  of  his  reading  at  that  age, 
and  the  contents  of  those  books  remained 
in  his  memory,  although  read  at  so  early 
an  age.  At  sixteen  he  entered  enthusias- 
tically into  the  study  of  Latin,  Greek  and 
higher  mathematics,  one  of  a  class  of  ten 
boys  and  girls  studying  under  the  village 
school  master,  a  young  man  fresh  from 
Bowdoin  College. 

Early  in  1858  he  was  prepared  for  en- 
trance to  Phillips  Exeter  Academy  as  a 
senior,  but  disappointed  in  not  receiving 
$1,000  for  his  education  promised  by  his 
grandfather,  and  his  father  not  having  the 
means  to  send  him,  he  borrowed  $15.00 
from  him,  for  which  he  gave  his  note,  and 
with  a  small  shoe-mending  kit  of  tools,  a 
little  leather,  and  a  flat  iron,  which  his 
mother  gave  him,  he  entered  Exeter, 
where  the  door  of  his  room  was  adorned 
with  the  announcement,  "boots  and  shoes 
mended"  and  "washing  done  here."  He 
literally  "worked"  his  way  through  the 
first  year,  won  a  scholarship,  and  was 
graduated  with  honors.  In  1859  he  en- 
tered Brown  University,  and  as  at  Exeter 
earned  the  money  to  meet  expenses,  doing 
the  most  menial  work  if  honorable.  He 
also  found  some  private  pupils  to  "tutor," 
yet  stood  second  in  his  class  at  the  close 
of  his  freshman  year.  During  the  ensu- 
ing vacation  he  obtained  through  the 
kindness  of  Professor  Cilley,  of  Exeter, 
the  position  of  "coach"  in  Latin,  Greek 
and  mathematics  to  the  two  sons  of  Gov- 
ernor Anderson,  of  Ohio,  who  had  been 
"conditioned"  at  Harvard,  for  which  serv- 
ice he  received  a  "professional  fee"  of 
eighty  dollars,  a  sum  which  he  testifies 
amounted  to  more,  to  him,  than  later  the 
two  thousand  gold  pesos  did  when  handed 
him  for  one  month's  services  as  consult- 
ing engineer  of  the  Argentine  Republic. 


Before  the  close  of  his  sophomore  year 
he  enlisted  in  May,  1861,  for  "three  years 
or  the  war"  as  a  private  in  Battery  A, 
First  Regiment  Rhode  Island  Light  Ar- 
tillery, was  at  first  battle  of  Rull  Run  and 
saw  four  years  and  two  months  of  active 
service,  principally  with  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  in  Virginia,  and  in  North  Caro- 
lina. He  was  promoted,  corporal,  ser- 
geant, second  lieutenant,  first  lieutenant, 
and  in  the  last  year  of  the  war  in  the 
Shenondoah  valley,  captain  of  Battery  D 
of  his  own  regiment. 

Following  his  return  from  the  army 
was  his  return  to  Brown  University, 
whence  he  was  graduated  as  Bachelor  of 
Arts,  third  in  his  class  of  1867,  and  the 
following  year  won  the  degree  of  Master 
of  Arts.  In  1894  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Science  was  conferred  upon  him  by 
Brown  for  distinguished  engineering  serv- 
ices to  the  country  and  for  his  contribu- 
tions to  engineering  literature.  His  work 
in  the  earlier  years  of  his  course  won  him 
the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  key,  and  his  later 
work  the  Sigma  Xi,  and  in  1894  his  alma 
mater  conferred  the  degree  "Scicntae  Doc- 
toris  pro  Mcritis."  He  applied  himself  so 
closely  to  his  studies  that  before  the  close 
of  his  senior  year  he  was  advised  that  to 
escape  a  permanent  breakdown  he  should 
secure  out-of-doors  occupation.  This  neces- 
sitated a  change  in  his  plans,  but  he  met 
the  situation  squarely,  abandoned  his 
original  intentions,  and  selected  civil  engi- 
neering, a  profession  he  was  prepared  for 
only  as  every  liberally  educated  boy  is 
prepared  for  anything.  Almost  imme- 
diately after  graduation  he  was  called  to 
Hannibal,  Missouri,  as  assistant  on  the 
construction  of  the  railway  line,  now  a 
part  of  the  Missouri,  Kansas  &  Texas 
railway  system.  His  work  demanded  a 
knowledge  of  railway  and  bridge  con- 
struction which  he  did  not  possess,  but  in 
place  of  experience  and  practice  he  had  a 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


fund  of  knowledge  stored  up  and  the  dis- 
cipline from  his  college  study  which  en- 
abled him,  with  a  night's  special  study,  to 
solve  engineering  and  construction  prob- 
lems submitted  to  him  during  the  day. 

Thus  with  but  the  little  time  devoted  to 
special  technical  study  in  the  offices  of 
Cushing  &  DeWitt,  civil  engineers,  Provi- 
dence, Rhode  Island,  he  was  able  to  satis- 
factorily fill  the  position  of  assistant  engi- 
neer. His  equipment  was  largely  the 
regular  college  classical  course.  It  is  on 
this  fact  that  he  based  his  argument  in 
favor  of  a  classical  college  education  no 
matter  what  profession  is  to  be  followed. 
In  less  than  a  year  he  was  made  division 
engineer  of  forty-five  miles  of  the  Hanni- 
bal &  Central  Missouri  lailroad  and  so 
rapid  was  his  rise  that  in  1870  he  was  ap- 
pointed chief  assistant  engineer  on  the 
construction  of  a  bridge  across  the  Mis- 
sissippi river  at  Hannibal. 

During  the  years  1871-1874  he  was  chief 
engineer  of  the  Sny  Island  levee  on  the 
Mississippi  river  in  Illinois,  and  in  1873 
chief  engineer  of  the  Chicago  &  Alton 
railroad  bridge  over  the  Mississippi  at 
Louisiana,  Missouri,  with  a  draw  four 
hundred  and  forty-four  feet  long,  the 
longest  draw  in  the  world  at  that  time. 
He  had  in  the  meantime  attracted  the 
favorable  regard  of  the  great  engineer, 
James  B.  Eads,  and  at  his  request  Mr. 
Corthell,  furnished  a  statement  and  gave 
an  opinion  regarding  the  proposed  jetty 
construction  for  improving  the  South 
Pass  of  the  Mississippi  river.  This  state- 
ment was  used  before  Congress,  and  when 
Mr.  Eads  was  awarded  the  contract  he 
chose  Mr.  Corthell  to  take  charge  of  the 
construction  of  the  now  famous  jetties  at 
the  South  Pass  mouth  of  the  Mississippi. 
He  was  engaged  in  this  work  for  four 
years,  the  results  obtained  in  deepening 
the  pass  amply  justifying  the  confidence 
and  faith  in  the  success  of  the  project  held 


by  both  Mr.  Eads  and  Mr.  Corthell.  These 
jetties  increased  the  depth  on  the  South 
Pass  Bar  from  nine  to  over  thirty  feet, 
and  have  maintained  that  depth  of  chan- 
nel until  the  present  time.  As  a  result  the 
ocean  commerce  of  New  Orleans  has 
vastly  increased,  as  has  the  importance 
of  the  city  as  a  railroad  terminus  in  the 
development  of  the  "Mississippi  Valley 
Route."  One  of  the  interesting  and  valu- 
able books  emanating  from  Mr.  Corthell's 
pen,  "History  of  the  Mississippi  Jetties," 
was  published  in  1880.  But  a  little  over 
a  decade  had  passed  since  with  some  mis- 
givings he  accepted  his  first  engineer's 
position.  His  reputation  had  in  that  time 
become  national  and  he  was  rated  with 
the  brightest  lights  of  his  profession. 

In  the  winter  of  1880  he  went  to  the 
Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  Mexico,  to  make 
surveys  for  the  ship  railway,  associated 
with  Mr.  Eads.  He  made  a  survey  of  the 
mouth  of  the  Coatzacoalcos  river,  on  the 
gulf  of  Mexico,  and  an  examination  of  the 
Pacific  coast  for  a  harbor  for  the  ship 
railway.  In  1881-1884  he  was  chief  engi- 
neer on  the  construction  of  the  New  York, 
West  Shore  &  Buffalo,  and  the  New  York- 
Ontario  &  Western  railways  and  their 
terminal  at  New  York  City,  being  in 
charge  of  the  work  "in  the  field."  He  was 
in  charge  at  the  same  time  as  chief  engi- 
neer of  the  extensive  surveys  on  the 
Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec  for  the  ship  rail- 
way. From  1885  to  1887  he  gave  nearly 
his  entire  attention  to  this  important 
project  and  the  inter-oceanic  question, 
studying  and  writing  upon  its  engineer- 
ing and  commercial  features.  He  ad- 
dressed the  commerce  committee  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  United  States 
Congress,  which  had  before  it  the  bill  to 
charter  the  ship  railway.  He  delivered 
addresses  in  several  cities  of  the  United 
States,  particularly  at  Ann  Arbor,  Michi- 
gan, before'  the  American  Association  for 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


the  Advancement  of  Science ;  the  Lowell 
Institute,  Boston;  the  Academy  of 
Science,  New  York;  the  Franklin  Insti- 
tute, Philadelphia ;  a  Commercial  Con- 
vention at  Pensacola,  Florida ;  at  the  Ex- 
position, New  Orleans;  and  in  the  Acad- 
emy of  Music,  Galveston,  Texas.  Sev- 
eral of  these  addresses  were  printed  and 
widely  distributed.  He  wrote  a  complete 
illustrated  exposition  of  the  subject,  treat- 
ing fully  its  historical,  engineering,  con- 
structive and  commercial  features.  The 
pamphlet,  with  others  written  by  him, 
was  sent  to  every  civilized  country,  and 
did  much  to  enlighten  the  world  upon  the 
method  proposed  and  the  great  value  to 
commerce  of  an  inter-ocean  route. 

In  1887-18S8  he  was  associated  in  an 
engineering  partnership  in  New  York  and 
Chicago  with  George  S.  Morison,  en- 
gaged in  the  design  and  construction  of 
railroads,  bridges,  harbor  works  and  water 
works.  During  this  partnership  there 
were  constructed  :  The  Cairo  bridge  over 
the  Ohio  river  for  the  Illinois  Central 
railroad,  the  longest  steel  bridge  in  the 
world;  Nebraska  City  bridge  over  the 
Missouri  river  for  the  Chicago,  Burling- 
ton &  Quincy  railway;  the  Sioux  City 
bridge  over  the  same  river  for  the  Chi- 
cago &  Northwestern  railway;  two 
bridges  in  Oregon ;  the  railroad  bridge 
over  the  St.  John's  river  at  Jacksonville, 
Florida,  and  several  other  large  bridges 
and  viaducts.  Mr.  Corthell  made  at  that 
time  several  expert  examinations  of  rail- 
road properties  for  bankers  in  London 
and  New  York. 

In  1889-1890  he  was  chief  engineer  of 
the  construction  of  the  St.  Louis  Mer- 
chants' bridge  over  the  Mississippi  river ; 
chief  engineer  of  the  improvements  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Brazos  river,  Texas,  con- 
sisting of  jetties  built  into  the  gulf  of 
Mexico,  increasing  the  depth  of  water 
from  five  feet  to  twenty  feet.     In  1890- 


1893  ne  was  m  charge,  as  consulting  engi- 
neer, of  important  railroad  constructions 
in  Chicago  for  the  Illinois  Central  &  Atch- 
ison, Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  railways,  called 
the  "Independent  Entrance"  of  these 
roads.  This  work  comprised  the  construc- 
tion of  a  six-track  railroad,  where  only 
one  had  existed,  and  a  rearrangement  of 
the  tracks  at  one  of  the  most  complicated 
track  situations  in  the  United  States,  if 
not  in  the  world. 

In  1889  he  made  examinations,  plans 
and  report  on  the  proposed  improvement 
of  the  harbor  of  Tampico,  Mexico,  for  the 
Mexican  Central  railroad,  and  had  charge 
of  the  construction  of  the  jetties  as  chief 
engineer  during  /1890-91-92.  They  in- 
creased the  depth  from  about  eight  feet, 
which  existed  at  the  mouth  of  the  Panuco 
river,  over  a  changeable  and  dangerous 
bar,  to  a  wide  navigable  channel  with  a 
least  depth  of  twenty-eight  feet.  They 
raised  the  port  of  Tampico  from  one  of 
little  importance  to  be  second  entrepot  of 
Mexico,  and  reduced  freight  rates  from 
all  United  States  and  European  ports  to 
the  entire  interior  of  the  Mexican  Repub- 
lic. In  1895  Mr.  Corthell  wrote  a  descrip- 
tive and  illustrated  paper  upon  these 
works  for  the  Institute  of  Civil  Engineers, 
London,  for  which  he  was  awarded  the 
Telford  premium  and  the  Watt  medal.  The 
deep  channel  was  practically  produced  by 
the  works  alone  without  resort  to  dredg- 
ing, except  to  remove  some  hard  material 
which  had  formed  around  a  large  num- 
ber of  wrecks  sunken  into  the  bar.  The 
channel  was  maintained  without  any 
dredging  whatever.  In  1890  Mr.  Corthell 
made  a  thorough  personal  examination 
between  the  Great  Lakes  and  Quebec, 
Canada,  of  the  question  of  an  enlarged 
waterway  between  Chicago,  Duluth  and 
other  ports  of  the  Great  Lakes,  and  the 
Atlantic  seaboard,  and  wrote  a  paper  on 
this  subject  for  the  Canadian  Society  of 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Civil  Engineers,  and  the  Western  Society 
of  Engineers  at  Chicago.  He  was  presi- 
dent and  chief  engineer  of  the  Southern 
Bridge  and  Railway  Company,  incorpor- 
ated in  1889  to  build  a  bridge  over  the 
Mississippi  river  at  New  Orleans,  and 
completed  the  plans  and  specifications  for 
construction. 

In  1891  Mr.  Corthell  visited  Europe 
with  several  important  objects  in  view. 
As  trustee  of  the  University  of  Chicago 
he  examined  six  of  the  leading  universi- 
ties and  technical  schools  of  Europe  to 
obtain  information  for  the  university  in 
carrying  out  its  purpose  of  establishing 
in  connection  with  it  a  great  school  of 
engineering  and  architecture.  As  a  mem- 
ber of  a  committee  of  the  Western  Soci- 
ety of  Engineers,  engaged  in  solving  the 
difficult  railroad  problem  of  Chicago,  he 
examined  in  Europe  thirty-five  railroad 
terminals  and  complicated  situations.  He 
examined  twenty-six  harbors  of  Europe 
to  get  special  information  to  use  in  con- 
nection with  his  work  at  Tampico,  Mex- 
ico, and  elsewhere.  He  examined  nearly 
all  the  subways  of  the  world  from  Buda- 
pest to  Glasgow. 

In  1892,  under  a  contract  with  the  Mex- 
ican government,  he  was  engaged  with 
two  associates  (Messrs.  Stanhope  and 
Hampson)  on  the  completion  of  the  Na- 
tional railroad  of  Tehuantepec,  Mexico, 
which  opens  up  a  new  and  important 
inter-oceanic  route  across  the  Mexican 
Isthmus.  He  had  charge  of  the  surveys, 
plans  and  estimates  for  the  harbors  for 
the  route,  and  made  a  report  upon  them 
to  the  Mexican  government.  He  was 
chairman  of  the  executive  committee  of 
sixteen  engineering  societies,  which  or- 
ganized an  International  Engineering 
Congress,  held  at  Chicago,  at  the  World's 
Exposition  in  1893,  and  was  chairman  of 
the  general  committee  of  the  Congress. 
In   November,    1895,   Mr.   Corthell   deliv- 


ered a  lecture  before  the  National  Geo- 
graphic Society,  at  Washington,  D.  C,  on 
the  Tehuantepec  Inter-oceanic  Route. 
This  lecture  was  considered  by  the  United 
States  Senate  of  sufficient  value  to  the 
general  subject  of  inter-oceanic  transit  to 
authorize  the  printing  of  about  1,850 
copies. 

In  1897  Mr.  Corthell  undertook  an  ex- 
tensive tour  of  Europe  to  examine  a  great 
variety  of  engineering  works — harbors, 
terminals,  railroads,  mountain  railways, 
methods  of  building  and  maintaining  ship 
canals,  methods  of  dredging,  the  protec- 
tion of  sandy  coasts  against  encroach- 
ments of  the  sea,  ship  building,  under- 
ground rapid  transit,  and  particularly  to 
learn  the  present  methods  of  engineering 
education  with  the  view  of  presenting  the 
subject  to  President  Harper  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago.  His  report  on  this 
subject  was  exhaustive,  after  examining 
nearly  all  the  best  schools  of  Great  Britain 
and  Continental  Europe.  This  report  was 
published  by  the  Massachusetts  Institute 
of  Technology. 

Many  of  the  results  of  his  various  ex- 
aminations and  investigations  were  pub- 
lished in  the  Engineering  Magazine  in 
New  York  and  London.  The  most  ex- 
tensive work  done  by  him,  however,  in 
the  two  years'  time  in  Europe  was  upon 
the  subject  of  maritime  commerce,  its 
past,  present  and  future.  In  August, 
1898,  he  presented  the  results  of  his  work 
to  the  American  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Science,  which  held  its  fif- 
tieth anniversary  at  Boston,  Massachu- 
setts. The  object  of  the  paper  was  to 
show  the  development  of  commerce  in  the 
half  century  past  and  probable  develop- 
ment in  the  half  century  to  come. 

In  the  spring  of  1898  the  Secretary  of 
State,  Mr.  Sherman,  commissioned  Mr. 
Corthell  as  delegate  to  the  seventh  Inter- 
national Congress  of  Navigation  held  at 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Brussels  in  July  of  that  year.  He  was 
elected  vice-president  of  the  congress,  and 
placed  upon  the  bureau  of  the  congress 
to  arrange  for  a  permanent  organization 
to  be  adopted  at  its  next  meeting  at  Paris 
in  1900.  He  wrote  a  report  upon  the  Brus- 
sels Congress  of  two  hundred  and  forty- 
five  printed  pages  and  one  hundred  and 
fifteen  illustrations,  which  was  printed  as 
a  United  States  Senate  document  by  the 
suggestion  of  Secretary  John  Hay,  one 
thousand  copies  being  bound  and  distrib- 
uted by  the  State  Department  to  all  parts 
of  the  world. 

Mr.  Corthell,  upon  his  return  to  the 
United  States,  was  engaged  as  expert  on 
several  important  works  in  the  United 
States  and  Mexico.  He  was  for  eleven 
years  engaged  as  engineer  upon  the  pro- 
ject of  the  "Boston  Cape  Cod  and  New 
York  Ship  Canal"  across  the  Isthmus  of 
Cape  Cod  to  shorten  the  distance  between 
points  south  and  points  north  of  the 
peninsula,  around  which  now  pass  annu- 
ally over  28,000,000  tons  of  commerce. 

In  1899  the  Argentine  government  re- 
quested the  United  States  government  to 
recommend  an  engineer  of  large  experi- 
ence upon  river  and  harbor  works  who 
would  undertake  to  act  as  its  consulting 
engineer  for  two  years  upon  the  impor- 
tant problems  connected  with  the  great 
rivers  and  harbors  of  that  country.  Mr. 
Corthell  was  recommended  for  this  posi- 
tion, the  contract  for  which  was  signed 
in  New  York  on  March  23,  1900,  and  on 
the  26th  of  the  same  month  he  left  for 
Buenos  Aires,  where  for  over  two  years 
he  was  engaged  in  solving  problems  for 
commerce,  and  reporting  to  the  minister 
of  public  works.  Thirty-six  different  sub- 
jects were  referred  to  him  for  investiga- 
tion and  report. 

He  presented  to  the  International  Navi- 
gation Congress,  Paris,  1900,  a  paper  on 
"The  Ports  of  the  World,"  in  which  he 


compiled  important  information  relating  to 
one  hundred  and  thirty-one  principal  ports 
and  ship  canals  of  the  world.  The  object 
of  this  paper,  the  tables  of  which  were 
made  up  after  an  extended  correspond- 
ence, was  to  show  the  necessity  of  making 
deep  channels  for  sea-going  vessels  and 
the  paper  was  really  supplementary  to 
that  upon  maritime  commerce  noted 
above,  presented  to  the  American  Asso- 
ciation for  the  Advancement  of  Science  in 
1898. 

In  1902  Mr.  Corthell  was  elected  presi- 
dent of  the  government  board  of  the  port 
of  Rosario,  Argentine.  The  propositions 
and  plans  from  Europe,  presented  to  the 
government,  were  examined  by  the  board 
during  two  months.  It  decided  upon  the 
plans  and  made  its  report  to  the  govern- 
ment. The  works  were  inaugurated  by 
the  president  of  the  Republic  on  October 
26,  1902.  They  cost  $12,000,000  gold.  Mr. 
Corthell  represented  the  Argentine  gov- 
ernment as  a  delegate  to  the  International 
Navigation  Congress  held  at  Dusseldorf 
in  the  summer  of  1902.  He  was  also  ap- 
pointed by  the  United  States  upon  the 
permanent  international  commission  of 
Navigation  Congresses,  which  has  its 
domicile  in  Brussels,  and  which  position 
he  held  up  to  the  time  of  his  death.  He 
was  commissioned  by  the  United  States 
State  Department  delegate  to  the  Inter- 
national Navigation  Congress,  convened 
at  Milan,  Italy,  September  24,  1905,  which 
he  attended  and  where  he  presented  a 
paper  on  the  dimensions  of  vessels  and 
ports  of  the  world,  the  result  of  five  years 
of  investigations  of  two  hundred  and 
twenty  ports  from  Aberdeen  to  Yoko- 
homa.  During  the  winter  of  1902  and  the 
spring  of  1903  Mr.  Corthell  delivered 
thirty-six  lectures  in  thirty  cities  of  the 
United  States  and  Mexico  upon  "Two 
Years  in  Argentine  as  Consulting  Engi- 
neer of  National  Public  Works."     These 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


were  delivered  before  universities,  com- 
mercial bodies,  engineering  societies,  etc., 
at  the  request  of  the  Argentine  govern- 
ment. 

He  was  appointed  in  February,  1904, 
by  Governor  Odell  of  New  York  State 
upon  the  advisory  board  of  consulting 
engineers,  to  build  the  barge  canals  of 
that  State,  to  cost  over  $100,000,000,  from 
which  he  resigned  later  to  give  all  his 
time  to  Brazilian  works.  During  1904-05 
he  was  engaged  in  making  examinations, 
plans  and  estimates  for  extensive  works 
in  Brazil,  at  Para,  in  St.  Catharina,  and 
Rio  Grande  do  Sul,  and  was  engaged  in 
the  construction  of  the  Para  and  Rio 
Grande  works,  consulting  engineer  of  the 
former  and  chief  engineer  of  the  latter. 
He  was  engaged  as  consulting  engineer 
on  commercial  works  in  other  countries, 
and  in  hydraulic  works  of  the  United 
States. 

In  1904  he  presented  a  paper  to  the 
International  Engineering  Congress  held 
at  St.  Louis  on  "Railroad  Terminals,  Re- 
view of  General  Practice."  In  the  same 
year  he  wrote  an  illustrated  article  for  the 
Encyclopedia  Americana  on  "Large  Pas- 
senger Stations  of  the  World."  In  1906 
he  presented  a  paper  to  the  Institution  of 
Civil  Engineers,  London,  on  "Pressures 
on  Deep  Foundations,"  and  to  the  French 
Society  of  Civil  Engineers  on  "Currents 
in  the  Navigable  Waterways  of  the 
World."  All  four  papers  were  the  results 
of  very  extended  investigations  covering 
several  years. 

The  cost  of  the  works  of  which  Mr. 
Corthell  had  responsible  charge  exceeded 
$140,000,000.  In  1912  he  presented  a  re- 
port on  the  required  dimensions  of  mari- 
time canals  to  the  International  Naviga- 
tion Congress  at  Philadelphia.  In  1915 
he  presented  a  paper  on  the  improvement 
of  mouths  of  rivers,  etc.,  to  the  second  Pan 
American  Scientific  Congress,  Washing- 
ton, D.  C. 


After  forty-eight  years  of  exceedingly 
active  and  laborious  work  Mr.  Corthell 
found  his  chief  source  of  satisfaction  in 
the  fact  that  his  works  were  conducive 
to  the  benefit  of  commerce  by  sea,  river, 
canal  and  rail,  and  he  could  point  with 
pride  to  the  results  which,  in  a  measure, 
aided  in  reducing  the  cost  of  transporta- 
tion on  land  and  water,  and  so  have  bene- 
fited mankind. 

Mr.  Corthell  was  a  member  of  the  fol- 
lowing societies:  The  American  Society 
of  Civil  Engineers,  of  which  he  was  presi- 
dent in  1916;  the  Canadian  Society  of 
Civil  Engineers;  the  Institution  of  Civil 
Engineers  of  Great  Britain ;  the  Royal 
Society  of  Arts  of  Great  Britain ;  membre 
d'honneur  of  the  French  Society  of  Civil 
Engineers,  and  corresponding  member 
of  that  society ;  the  Mexican  Association 
of  Civil  Engineers  and  Architects ;  honor- 
ary member  of  the  Geographical  and  Sta: 
tistical  Society  of  Mexico ;  member  of  the 
American  Geographical  Society ;  the  Na- 
tional Geographic  Society,  Washington, 
D.  C. ;  fellow  of  the  Royal  Geographical 
Society,  London ;  the  Boston  Society  of 
Civil  Engineers;  the  Western  Society  of 
Engineers,  Chicago;  fellow  of  the  Amer- 
ican Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science,  vice-president  and  member  of  the 
council ;  second  vice-president  of  the 
American  Society  of  Civil  Engineers,  in 
1888,  first  vice-president  in  1893;  presi- 
dent of  the  Western  Society  of  Engineers 
in  1889;  honorary  member  of  the  Engi- 
neering Society  of  Portugal,  the  Institu- 
tion of  Engineers  of  the  River  Plate,  of 
the  Centro  de  Navigacion  Transatlantica, 
and  Sociedad  Cientifica  of  Argentine,  and 
a  life  member  of  the  Engineers'  Club  of 
Rio  de  Janeiro ;  member  of  the  American 
Railway  Engineering  Association  ;  Amer- 
ican Institute  Consulting  Engineers,  pres- 
ident in  1915,  reelected  in  1916;  Franklin 
Institute  of  Philadelphia  ;  American  High- 
way Association ;  Pan  American  Society 


205 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


of  the  United  States;  a  founder  of  the 
Pan  American  Chamber  of  Commerce ; 
chairman  (1916)  of  Section  D,  American 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science,  and  a  member  of  the  council ; 
Chamber  of  Commerce  United  States  of 
America,  and  member  of  committee  on 
merchant  marine. 

He  was  a  member  of  several  military 
and  patriotic  societies :  Grand  Army  of 
the  Republic;  Military  Order  of  the  Loyal 
Legion  of  the  United  States ;  Sons  of  the 
American  Revolution ;  the  New  England 
Society ;  Society  of  the  Army  of  the  Po- 
tomac, and  of  academical  societies  and 
clubs,  including  the  University  Club  of 
New  York  City,  and  of  honorary  college 
societies — Phi  Beta  Kappa  and  Sigma  Xi. 

Bibliography  of  publications  of  Dr.  E. 
L.  Corthell :  "Leveeing  on  the  Upper  Mis- 
sissippi," 1874  (Civil  Engineers'  Club  of 
the  Northwest).  "Sny  Island  Levee  Com- 
pared with  Levees  on  the  Lower  Missis- 
sippi," Louisiana,  Missouri,  1874.  "Im- 
provement of  the  Mouth  of  the  Missis- 
sippi River,"  New  York  (American  Soci- 
ety of  Civil  Engineers,  Eighth  Annual 
Convention,  1876.  "History  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi Jetties — -The  South  Pass  Jetties," 
1880.  "The  Overflow  of  the  Mississippi 
River,"  presented  to  American  Society  of 
Civil  Engineers,  1882.  "Tehuantepec 
Ship  Railway ;  its  Practicability  and  Com- 
mercial Features,"  from  the  "Mexican 
Financier,"  December,  1884.  "South  Pass 
Jetties  :  Ten  Years'  Practical  Teachings  in 
River  and  Harbor  Hydraulics,"  American 
Society  of  Civil  Engineers'  Transactions, 
vol.  13,  1884.  "Tehuantepec  Railway," 
1885,  reprinted  from  "Journal  of  Franklin 
Institute,"  June,  1885.  "Inter-oceanic  Prob- 
lem and  its  Scientific  Solution,"  (Amer- 
ican Association  for  Advancement  of 
Science),  Ann  Arbor,  1885.  "The  Radi- 
cal Enlargement  of  the  Erie  Canal,"  pre- 
sented to  American  Society  of  Civil  Engi- 


neers, 1885.  "Isthmian  Ship  Railway," 
address  before  New  York  Academy  of 
Science,  December  20,  18S6.  "Statement 
before  Committee  United  States  House 
of  Representatives  on  Commercial  Ad- 
vantages of  Tehuantepec  Ship  Railway," 

1886.  "Atlantic  and  Pacific  Ship  Railway 
across  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec  in 
Mexico,"  considered  commercially,  prac- 
tically and  constructively,  1886.  Exposi- 
tion of  the  Errors  and  Fallacies  of  Rear- 
Admiral  Ammen's  Pamphlet  entitled : 
"The  Certainty  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal 
Contrasted  with  the  Uncertainties  of  the 
Eads  Ship  Railway,"  Washington,  1886. 
"Levees,"  Johnson's  "Universal  Cyclo- 
pedia," vol.  iv.,  1886.  "Ship  Canals," 
Johnson's  "Universal  Cyclopedia,"  vol. 
vii.,  1886.  "Venetian  Ship  Railway,"  read 
June  18,  reprinted  from  Proceedings  of 
Engineers'   Club   of   Philadelphia,   vol.  6, 

1887.  Remarks  at  a  meeting  of  the  West- 
ern Society  of  Engineers,  June  4th,  on  the 
resolution  to  cooperate  in  erecting  a 
monument  to  the  late  James  B.  Eads, 
1S90.  "New  Orleans  Belt  Railway,  Union 
Depot  and  Bridge,"  with  other  papers, 
New  Orleans,  1890.  Articles  in  Johnson's 
"New  Cyclopedia"  on  "Jetties,  Levees, 
Ship  Canals  and  Ship  Railways,"  1890. 
"An  Enlarged  Waterway  between  the 
Great  Lakes  and  the  Atlantic  Seaboard." 
presented  to  the  Canadian  Society  of  Civil 
Engineers,  1891.  "Improvement  of  River 
Mouths,"  presented  to  International  Con- 
gress of  Maritime  Navigation,  Paris, 
1892.  "Tehuantepec  Isthmus  Railway," 
by  Matias  Romero  and  E.  L.  Corthell, 
Washington,  1894.  By  Gustav  W.  Triest, 
"New  Waterway — Rotterdam  to  the  Sea" 
(sixth  International  Inland  Navigation 
Congress,  Hague,  1S94),  a  paper  based  on 
notes  and  observation  by  Mr.  Corthell  and 
revised  by  him,  1894.  "Literary  Product 
of  the  International  Engineering  Con- 
gress of   1893,"  read  June  21,   1895    (re- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


printed  from  Proceedings  of  American 
Society  of  Civil  Engineers,  vol.  21,  1895). 
Lecture  before  the  National  Geographic 
Society,  Washington,  D.  C,  on  the  "Te- 
huantepec  Route,"  1895.  "Growth  of 
Population  of  Great  Cities,"  American 
Association  Advancement  of  Science, 
1895.  Resume  of  correspondence  from 
Engineering  Societies,  relating  to  estab- 
lishing closer  international  relations, 
(American  Society  of  Civil  Engineers, 
Proceedings,  vol.  21,  1895).  "Proposed 
International  Railroad  Bridge  over  the 
Detroit  River,"  1896.  "Civil  Engineer  of 
the  Twentieth  Century,"  reprinted  from 
Society  for  Promotion  of  Engineering 
Education,  1896.  "Some  Notes  Physical 
and  Commercial  upon  the  Delta  of  the 
Mississippi  River,"  read  before  Section 
D,  American  Association  for  Advance- 
ment of  Science,  Buffalo,  August  26,  1896. 
"Tampico  Harbor  Works,"  Mexico-Lon- 
don, 1896,  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers, 
minutes  of  Proceedings,  1896.  Remarks 
before  committee  on  rivers  and  harbors 
United  States  House  of  Representatives, 
upon  closing  Crevasse  of  Pass  a  Loutre, 
Mississippi  River,  1898.  Report  to  Secre- 
tary of  State,  United  States  of  America, 
upon  seventh  International  Congress  of 
Navigation,  Brussels,  1898.  "Maritime 
Commerce,  Past,  Present  and  Future," 
Berne,  1898  (American  Association  for 
Advancement  of  Science),  Boston,  1898. 
International  Congress  of  Navigation 
held  at  Brussels,  July,  1898  (American 
Society  of  Civil  Engineers),  Annual  Con- 
vention, Cape  May,  New  Jersey,  June  27, 
1899.  "The  Approaches  and  Transporta- 
tion Facilities  of  the  Paris  Exposition  of 
1900,"  presented  to  American  Society  of 
Civil  Engineers,  1899.  Articles  in  "Engi- 
neering Magazine"  on  "Rock  Railways," 
1897.  "Protection  of  Sandy  Shores," 
1897.  "Large  Sea-going  Dredgers,"  1898. 
"Ship   Canals,"    1899.     "The   Harbors  of 


the  World."  "Their  Present  and  Re- 
quired Conditions  of  Navigability  and 
Facilities,"  presented  to  International 
Congress  of  Navigation,  Paris,  1900.  Epi- 
tome of  lecture  delivered  in  Buenos  Aires, 
April  22.  "Mexico,  Tableland  to  Gulf, 
Canyons,  Waterfalls,  Railroads,  Panuco 
River,  Harbor  Works,"  1901.  Lecture  on 
"Argentine,  past,  present,  future,"  1903. 
"Report  upon  Engineering  Education," 
reprinted  from  Technology  Quarterly,  vol. 
16,  n.  3,  1903.  "Population  of  Great 
Cities,"  presented  to  American  Associa- 
tion for  the  Advancement  of  Science, 
1903.  "The  Tampico  Harbor  Works, 
Mexico,"  monograph  to  accompany 
models  at  Louisiana  Purchase  Exposi- 
tion, St.  Louis,  1904.  "Railroad  Termi- 
nals," Review  of  General  Practice,  Inter- 
national Engineering  Congress,  1904,  re- 
printed from  Transactions  of  American. 
Society  of  Civil  Engineering,  Vol.  54, 
1905.  Article  in  Encyclopedia  Americana 
on  "Large  Passenger  Stations  of  the 
World,"  1905.  "Rapid  Increase  in  the 
Dimensions  of  Steamers  and  Sailing 
Vessels,"  presented  to  International  Navi- 
gation Congress,  Milan,  1905.  "Allow- 
able Pressures  on  Deep  Foundations," 
presented  to  the  Institution  of  Civil  Engi- 
neers, 1906.  "Conditions  hydrauliques 
des  grandes  voies  navigables  du  globe," 
presented  to  the  Societe  des  Ingenieurs 
Civils,  Paris,  1906.  "Port  of  Para,  Bra- 
zil," presented  to  the  International  Asso- 
ciation of  Navigation  Congresses,  Brus- 
sels, 1907.  "The  Port  of  Para,"  article 
in  "Engineering  Supplement,  London 
Times,"  September  4,  1907.  "Results  of 
Investigations  into  Cost  of  Ports  and  of 
Their  Operation,"  presented  to  Interna- 
tional Association  Navigation  Congresses, 
Brussels,  1907.  "Port  and  Barra  Works 
of  Rio  Grande  do  Sul,  Brazil,"  article 
in  "Engineering  Supplement,  London 
Times,"  July  15,  1908.    "Report  Upon  the 


207 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Second  International  Road  Congress, 
Brussels,"  July  31-August  6,  1910,  "Engi- 
neering News,"  September  1,  1910.  "The 
Wetterhorn  Lift,"  "Engineering  Record," 
1910.  "The  Loetschberg  Tunnel,"  "Engi- 
neering News,"  1910.  "Dimensions  of 
Maritime  Canal  for  International  Navi- 
gation," Congress,  Philadelphia,  1912. 
"Proper  Methods  of  Improving  Mouths 
of  Rivers,"  Second  Pan-American  So- 
ciety Congress,  1915. 

Dr.  Corthell  married  (first)  in  July,  1867, 
Emilie  Theodate  Davis,  who  died  in  1884, 
daughter  of  William  S.  and  Betsey  A. 
(Wood)  Davis,  of  Providence,  Rhode 
Island.  They  were  the  parents  of  a 
daughter,  Alice  E.,  and  a  son,  Howard  L. 
Corthell.  He  married  (second)  April  21, 
1900,  Marie  Kuechler,  of  Bern,  Switzer- 
land. Their  only  child,  a  daughter,  Kath- 
leen Mary,  died  in  1901. 


YATES,  Arthur  Gould, 

Man  of  Affairs. 

One  of  the  most  versatile  business  men 
the  City  of  Rochester,  New  York,  has 
ever  known  was  the  late  Arthur  Gould 
Yates,  who  left  the  impress  of  his  indi- 
viduality so  indelibly  upon  the  develop- 
ment of  the  city  and  upon  the  public  life 
and  thought  of  the  State,  that  a  history  of 
that  section  would  be  incomplete  were  no 
mention  made  of  him.  But  it  was  not  the 
possession  of  excellent  business  qualifica- 
tions alone  that  gained  him  eminence  ;  as 
a  man  and  a  citizen  he  displayed  a  per- 
sonal worth  and  an  excellence  of  char- 
acter that  not  only  commanded  the  re- 
spect of  those  with  whom  he  was  associ- 
ated but  won  him  the  warmest  personal 
admiration  and  the  stanchest  friendships. 
Aside  from  his  business  affairs  he  found 
time  for  the  championship  of  many  pro- 
gressive measures,  recognized  the  oppor- 
tunities for  reform,  advancement  and  im- 
provement, and    labored   effectively   and 


earnestly  for  the  general  good.  With  him 
success  was  reached  through  his  sterling 
qualities  of  mind,  and  a  heart  true  to 
every  manly  principle.  He  never  devi- 
ated from  what  his  judgment  indicated  to 
be  right  and  honorable  between  his  fel- 
low men  and  himself,  never  swerved  from 
the  path  of  duty,  and  his  abilities  were 
such  as  to  gain  him  distinction  in  every 
field  of  labor  to  which  he  directed  his 
energies. 

Dr.  William  Yates,  grandfather  of 
Arthur  Gould  Yates,  was  born  in  Sapper- 
ton,  England,  in  1757,  and  immigrated  to 
Philadelphia  in  1792.  He  was  a  physician 
of  note  in  his  day,  and  was  one  of  the  first 
to  introduce  the  practice  of  vaccination  in 
America.  Later  he  took  up  his  residence 
in  New  York  State,  and  there  married 
Hannah  Palmer,  of  Unadilla,  New  York. 

Arthur  Yates,  eldest  son  of  Dr.  William 
and  Hannah  (Palmer)  Yates,  was  born  in 
Morris,  Otsego  county,  New  York,  Feb- 
ruary 7,  1807.  He  commenced  the  prac- 
tice of  law  in  Tioga  county,  New  York, 
and  while  county  judge  there  married 
Jerusha  Washburn. 

Arthur  Gould  Yates,  son  of  Arthur  and 
Jerusha  (Washburn)  Yates,  was  born  at 
Factoryville,  now  East  Waverly,  New 
York,  December  18,  1843,  and  died  at  the 
Waldorf-Astoria,  New  York,  February  9, 
1909.  He  was  the  recipient  of  a  liberal 
education,  attending  various  academies 
in  the  southern  tier,  and  later  came  to 
Rochester.  Immediately  after  attaining 
his  majority  he  became  associated  with 
the  Anthracite  Coal  Association,  which  is 
no  longer  in  existence,  and  subsequently 
was  engaged  in  this  business  independ- 
ently for  a  number  of  years.  A  man  of 
great  foresight,  Mr.  Yates  early  recog- 
nized the  possibilities  of  Charlotte  and 
entertained  the  idea  of  making  it  one  of 
the  most  important  ports  on  the  Great 
Lakes.  He  constructed  the  first  of  the 
Genesee  docks,  generally  known  as  the 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Yates  Docks,  shortly  after  engaged  in  the 
coal  business,  and  the  advance  he  made  in 
the  anthracite  business  had  never  betore 
been  known  in  that  section.  In  every 
direction  markets  were  developed  and 
vessels  that  were  carriers  of  coal  shipped 
by  Mr.  Yates  were  practically  on  every 
lake.  In  1876  the  coal  firm  of  Bell,  Lewis  & 
Yateswas  organized, and  became  one  of  the 
most  important  coal  firms  in  the  country, 
having  large  docks  at  Charlotte,  Buffalo, 
Cleveland,  Detroit,  Chicago  and  Duluth. 

The  Rochester  and  State  Line  Railroad 
Company  had  been  in  existence  for  sev- 
eral years  with  one  terminal  in  Rochester 
and  the  other  in  Salamanca ;  it  was  not  a 
road  of  great  importance  and  there  were 
but  few  shareholders.  Bell,  Lewis  &  Yates, 
miners  and  shippers  of  large  quantities  of 
bituminous  coal,  saw  the  State  Line  rail- 
road, as  it  was  popularly  termed,  taken 
over  by  men  of  great  wealth  who  made  of 
it  the  Rochester  &  Pittsburgh,  and  later  by 
building  into  Buffalo  the  Buffalo,  Roches- 
ter &  Pittsburgh.  They  had  organized 
a  subsidiary  company,  the  Rochester  & 
Pittsburgh  Coal  &  Iron  Company.  The 
Bell,  Lewis  &  Yates  Coal  Mining  Com- 
pany was  incorporated  as  the  Jefferson  & 
Clearfield  Coal  &  Iron  Company.  Mr. 
Yates  saw  perhaps  more  clearly  than  the 
owners  the  possibilities  in  the  Buffalo, 
Rochester  &  Pittsburgh  Railway,  and  on 
April  11,  1889,  the  company  he  was  in- 
terested in  purchased  a  large  block  of 
the  company's  stock.  The  immediate  re- 
sult was  that,  on  April  24,  1889,  eight  of 
the  directors  of  the  company  retired  and 
seven  others  were  elected.  On  the  same 
day  Arthur  Iselin,  retired  from  the  presi- 
dency of  the  company,  and  was  succeeded 
by  Arthur  Gould  Yates,  who  remained 
the  incumbent  of  this  office  until  his 
death.  Mr.  Yates  was  elected  to  the 
board  of  directors  to  represent  the  firm  of 
Bell,  Lewis  &  Yates,  and  subsequently, 


when  the  other  members  of  the  firm 
wished  to  withdraw  from  the  railroad 
business,  Mr.  Yates  purchased  their  in- 
terest in  the  railway  stock  and  became 
his  own  representative  in  the  board. 

The  Buffalo,  Rochester  &  Pittsburgh 
railway  was  at  first,  and  when  Mr.  Yates 
became  associated  with  it,  a  single  track 
trunk  line  between  Rochester  and  Punx- 
sutawney  with  a  branch  from  Ashford  to 
Buffalo.  During  Mr.  Yates'  occupation 
of  the  presidency  the  road  was  extended 
to  Pittsburgh  and  the  Clearfield  branch 
was  built.  Foreseeing  the  demand  for 
bituminous  coal  that  would  come  with 
the  twentieth  century,  Mr.  Yates,  as  soon 
as  he  became  president  of  the  company, 
planned  to  enable  his  road  to  care  for  its 
share  of  the  increased  business  which 
would  surely  come.  He  secured  new  coal 
land  and  mines  were  opened  by  the  two 
mining  companies  controlled  by  the  rail- 
way company,  and  where  there  had 
hitherto  been  a  wilderness,  long  trains  of 
coal  laden  cars  commenced  to  appear. 
Iron  properties  were  developed  in  the 
same  manner,  and  the  guiding  and  pro- 
gressive spirit  of  Mr.  Yates  was  felt 
everywhere. 

The  possibilities  of  Canada  now  began 
to  play  a  part  in  the  calculations  of  Mr. 
Yates,  and  he  considered  the  best  means 
of  supplying  the  growing  cities,  towns 
and  villages  of  that  country  at  the  least 
expense.  Transportation  by  water  ap- 
peared to  be  the  best  and  cheapest 
method,  and  he  at  once  considered  the 
advisability  of  constructing  a  ferry  boat, 
running  between  Charlotte  and  some 
suitable  point  in  Canada,  and  capable  of 
carrying  a  train  of  cars  loaded  with  coal. 
When  he  advocated  the  building  and 
operation  of  such  a  boat  his  project  was 
laughed  at  and  derided,  but  nothing 
daunted  he  persisted  and  the  result  was 
the  Ontario  Car  Ferry  Company,  Limited, 


NY-VolIII-14 


20<) 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


composed  of  officials  from  the  Buffalo, 
Rochester  &  Pittsburgh  and  the  Grand 
Trunk  railways.  The  success  of  the  ven- 
ture more  than  realized  the  predictions  of 
Mr.  Yates. 

Mr.  Yates  was  identified  with  many 
lines  of  business,  a  director  in  many  com- 
panies, and  interested  in  many  others  in 
which  his  name  appeared  only  as  a  stock- 
holder. He  was  a  director  in  the  Buffalo, 
Rochester  &  Pittsburgh  Railway  Com- 
pany, the  Reynoldsville  &  Falls  Creek 
Railroad  Company,  the  Silver  Lake  Rail- 
way Company,  the  American  Fruit  Pro- 
duct Company,  the  Duffy-Mclnnerney 
Company,  the  Pittsburgh  Gas  Coal  Com- 
pany, the  General  Railway  Signal  Com- 
pany, the  Ontario  Car  Ferry  Company, 
Limited ;  the  Rochester  &  Pittsburgh 
Coal  &  Iron  Company ;  the  Mahoning  In- 
vestment Company ;  the  Columbia  Trust 
Company  of  New  York ;  the  Cowanshan- 
nock  Coal  &  Coke  Company.  He  was  a 
large  stockholder  in  the  National  Bank  of 
Rochester,  the  New  York  &  Kentucky 
Company,  and  the  National  Hotel  Com- 
pany. 

Mr.  Yates  was  an  ardent  supporter  of 
the  Wilgus  plan  to  have  a  Rochester  sta- 
tion adopted  by  the  New  York  Central. 
He  became  a  leader  of  the  supporters  of 
these  plans  when  they  were  proposed, 
and  practically  his  final  act  as  a  citizen 
of  Rochester  was  to  go  as  chairman  of  a 
sub-committee  from  the  Chamber  of 
Commerce  to  New  York  to  confer  with 
President  W.  C.  Brown,  of  the  New  York 
Central,  and  President  Horace  E.  An- 
drews, of  the  Rochester  Railway  Com- 
pany, relative  to  the  adoption  of  those 
plans.  Those  who  were  present  at  this 
conference  say  that  Mr.  Yates  talked  with 
greater  enthusiasm  and  pleaded  with 
more  earnestness  than  he  had  probably 
done  at  any  time  in  his  life.  This  con- 
ference took  place  on  the  Saturday  pre- 
ceding the  death  of  Mr.  Yates,  and  im- 


mediately after  it,  and  several  times  in 
the  course  of  the  day,  he  was  heard  to 
remark  that  his  trip  had  been  an  emi- 
nently successful  one,  that  it  was  the 
greatest  day  of  his  life,  and  that  he  was 
as  happy  as  a  boy.  During  the  afternoon 
he  took  a  short  nap,  then  attended  the 
dinner  of  the  Society  of  the  Genesee  in 
the  evening.  At  its  conclusion  he  was 
chatting  with  some  friends  when  he  com- 
plained of  feeling  ill  and  at  once  went  to 
his  apartments  in  the  Waldorf-Astoria, 
which  he  considered  his  New  York  home. 
Unconsciousness  ensued  almost  immedi- 
ately, and  he  never  regained  conscious- 
ness. While  his  recovery  was  not  ex- 
pected at  any  time,  he  lingered  until  the 
following  Tuesday  afternoon.  With  him 
at  the  last  were  his  wife,  his  eldest  son, 
his  daughter,  Mrs.  Ward,  Miss  Daintry 
Yates,  of  New  York,  a  cousin,  and  Dr. 
Carlton  Yates,  another  cousin.  The  re- 
mains of  Mr.  Yates  were  taken  to  Roches- 
ter in  his  private  car,  the  "Virginia,"  and 
were  immediately  removed  to  the  Yates 
home  at  No.  130  South  Fitzhugh  street. 
The  "Virginia"  was  attached  to  the  Fast 
Mail  on  the  New  York  Central.  In  the 
car  Mr.  Yates  had  made  many  trips, 
usually  accompanied  by  Mrs.  Yates,  who 
was  Miss  Virginia  L.  Holden,  for  whom 
his  car  was  named.  When  traveling  Mr. 
Yates  most  enjoyed  sitting  in  the  obser- 
vation end  of  the  car,  looking  at  the  coun- 
try and  conversing  with  his  guests.  Here, 
where  he  had  passed  many  happy  hours, 
the  casket  was  placed  for  the  journey  to 
Rochester.  Mr.  Yates  had  been  a  com- 
municant of  St.  Paul's  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church,  and  a  warden  in  it  for  more 
than  thirty  years,  and  it  was  there  that 
the  funeral  services,  attended  by  innumer- 
able men  eminent  in  every  walk  of  life, 
were  held;  the  interment,  in  the  family 
lot  in  Mount  Hope  Cemetery,  was  pri- 
vate. 

Mr.  Yates  married,  December  25,  1866, 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Virginia  L.  Holden,  a  daughter  of  Ros- 
well  Holden,  of  Watkins.  Of  the  six 
children  of  this  union  there  are  now  liv- 
ing: Mrs.  Levi  S.  Ward,  Frederick  W., 
Harry  and  Russell  P.  Mr.  Yates  had  been 
a  trustee  of  the  University  of  Rochester 
for  some  years ;  and  was  a  member  of  the 
Genesee  Valley  Club  of  Rochester,  the 
Ellicott  Club  of  Buffalo,  the  Duquesne 
Club  of  Pittsburgh,  and  the  Transporta- 
tion and  Midday  clubs  of  New  York. 

All  the  newspapers  along  the  line  of  the 
Buffalo,  Rochester  &  Pittsburgh  Railroad 
contained  long  sketches  of  the  career  of 
Mr.  Yates.  The  "DuBois  Daily  Express" 
said  in  part: 

The  name  of  Arthur  G.  Yates  is  inseparably 
connected  with  the  development  of  the  coal 
business  in  Central  Pennsylvania,  and  he  was 
one  of  the  first  alert  minds  to  grasp  the  possi- 
bilities of  the  region.  He  was  the  last  of  the 
trio  of  capitalists  who  opened  the  Rochester 
mine  in  Du  Bois  in  1875,  and  launched  the  first 
gigantic  coal  operations  in  this  region.  In  1890 
the  firm  of  Bell,  Lewis  &  Yates  bought  out  all 
of  the  smaller  mines  in  the  vicinity  of  Reynolds- 
ville,  together  with  considerable  adjoining  ter- 
ritory. They  also  secured  other  workings  at 
*Du  Bois  and  Falls  Creek.  In  all  these  trans- 
actions Mr.  Yates  was  the  pusher  and  planner. 
He  was  also  the  selling  agent  and  sometimes 
came  home  from  his  trips  with  contracts  for  half 
a  million  tons  of  coal. 

Among  the  many  resolutions  by  vari- 
ous social,  religious  and  commercial 
bodies  are  the  following:  The  special 
Committee  of  Fifteen  of  the  Chamber  of 
Commerce  which  had  the  work  of  push- 
ing the  plans  for  the  new  Central  Station, 
met  February  nth,  and  took  action  on 
the  death  of  President  Arthur  G.  Yates, 
who  was  a  member.  The  following 
minutes  were  adopted : 

The  members  of  the  Committee  of  Fifteen 
recognize  in  the  death  of  their  friend  and  asso- 
ciate, Arthur  Gould  Yates,  an  irreparable  loss  to 
the  City  of  Rochester,  of  which  he  was  so  loyal 
and  valuable  a  citizen.  From  the  organization 
of  the  Committee  up  to  the  time  of  his  demise, 


he  rendered  conspicuous  service  to  promote  the 
movement  for  which  the  Committee  was  formed. 
Possessed  of  a  truly  patriotic  and  public  spirit, 
he  gave  freely  of  his  time,  experience  and  counsel 
for  the  public  good,  and  his  remarkable  executive 
ability  in  the  organization  and  management  of 
affairs  rendered  his  cooperation  of  the  greatest 
value  in  any  position  to  which  he  was  called. 

Generous,  charitable,  sympathetic,  he  was  in 
both  private  and  public  life  a  man  who  endeared 
himself  to  his  associates,  winning  their  affection, 
commanding  their  loyal  support  in  every  under- 
taking in  which  they  were  engaged.  He  possessed 
to  a  remarkable  degree  the  qualities  of  courage, 
foresight,  energy  and  enthusiasm,  which  won  for 
him  a  commanding  position  among  his  fellow 
men. 

We  regard  his  death  not  only  a  public,  but  a 
personal  loss.  We  extend  to  his  bereaved  family 
our  sincere  sympathy  in  their  great  sorrow,  and 
we  desire  that  this  brief  minute  in  affectionate 
expression  of  his  worth  be  transmitted  to  them 
by  the  secretary  of  the  Committee. 

The  vestrymen  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  of 
which  Arthur  G.  Yates  was  senior  warden 
for  many  years,  have  adopted  a  memorial 
in  which  a  tribute  is  paid  to  Mr.  Yates, 
and  his  long  service  in  the  church  organi- 
zation is  recounted.  It  is  set  forth  that  in 
his  death  the  church  has  suffered  a  great 
loss  and  each  member  of  the  vestry  a  per- 
sonal bereavement.  The  memorial  was 
spread  upon  the  minutes  and  a  copy  was 
sent  to  Mrs.  Yates. 


WHITBECK,  John  Fonda  Ward, 

Physician   and   Surgeon. 

Dean  of  the  medical  fraternity  of 
Rochester  and  one  of  the  leading  sur- 
geons of  the  State  of  New  York,  Dr. 
Whitbeck,  whose  passing  came  to  his 
city  as  a  public  calamity,  was  one  of  the 
most  modest  of  professional  men,  and 
while  secure  in  the  knowledge  of  his  own 
great  skill,  was  slow  to  recommend  a  sur- 
gical operation,  saying:  "All  operations 
are  dangerous." 

For   many   years   his   name   stood   for 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


leadership  of  the  best  type  in  the  medical 
profession,  and  his  reputation  as  a  sur- 
geon was  wide.  Following  in  the  foot- 
steps of  his  father,  he  began  the  study  of 
medicine  and  surgery  because  he  loved 
them  and  felt  the  call  of  his  ability  in 
their  direction.  He  became  a  most  diligent 
student,  showing  a  fine  aptitude  for  his 
chosen  work,  and  after  receiving  his  de- 
grees he  rose  rapidly  as  a  thorough  and 
skillful  practitioner.  In  a  little  time  his 
reputation  had  extended  until  his  advice 
and  counsel,  as  well  as  his  surgical  skill, 
were  sought  from  many  sections  of  the 
State.  In  the  city  he  had  a  clientele 
which  constantly  grew  and  which  re- 
ceived his  ministrations  with  confidence 
and  gratitude.  He  belonged  to  the  old 
school  of  practitioners  which  held  rigidly 
to  the  ethics  of  the  profession,  and  he 
would  not  tolerate  sham  of  any  kind. 

As  a  citizen  he  was  deeply  interested  in 
the  intellectual  and  cultural  development 
of  Rochester,  having  a  fine  appreciation 
of  good  literature  as  well  as  a  keen  in- 
terest in  art.  He  was  also  interested  in 
public  improvements,  especially  those 
that  were  in  any  way  related  to  his  pro- 
fessional work.  At  the  time  of  his  death 
he  was  president  of  the  staff  of  the  Gen- 
eral Hospital  and  president  of  the  board 
of  directors  of  Iola,  having  given  gener- 
ously of  his  time  and  ability  to  the  work 
of  these  institutions,  and  having  labored 
diligently  to  make  their  influence  felt  for 
good  among  all  classes  of  people.  And  it 
has  been  largely  owing  to  his  inspiration 
and  untiring  labors  that  they  have  grown 
and  flourished. 

Dr.  Whitbeck  carried  into  his  practice 
the  fine  instincts  of  a  gentleman  and  a 
conscientious  regard  for  his  responsibility 
to  those  under  his  care.  In  his  home,  and 
within  the  circle  of  a  large  number  of  per- 
sonal friends,  his  relationships  were  ideal. 
His  life  has  been  one  of  immense  useful- 
ness, and  in  all  his  endeavors  he  bore  the 


stamp  of  sincerity  and  truth.  He  served 
his  day  and  generation  nobly  and  well. 

If  the  years  spent  in  preparatory  study 
at  home  and  abroad  be  counted,  Dr. 
Whitbeck  had  been  connected  with  the 
medical  profession  for  a  half  a  century, 
his  years  of  actual  practice  in  the  city  of 
Rochester,  New  York,  numbering  forty- 
three,  1873-1916.  He  was  a  graduate  of 
the  old  Rochester  High  School,  class  of 
1863,  and  of  the  University  of  Rochester, 
class  of  "67."  For  over  thirty  years  his 
father,  Dr.  John  F.  Whitbeck,  practiced 
in  Rochester,  father  and  son  being  con- 
temporaries from  1873  until  tne  death  of 
the  senior  doctor  in  December,  1880,  at 
the  age  of  sixty-eight  years.  Both  were 
graduates  of  the  medical  department  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Philadel- 
phia, and  it  was  from  the  noble  life  and 
example  of  his  honored  father  that  Dr. 
John  F.  W.  Whitbeck  gained  the  inspira- 
tion which  culminated  in  his  own  en- 
trance to  the  oldest  of  all  professions. 

During  the  forty-three  years  Dr.  Whit- 
beck had  been  engaged  in  practice  he 
gave  special  attention  to  surgery  and 
gynecology,  although  he  did  not  confine 
himself  strictly  to  those  branches  until 
several  years  had  been  passed  in  general 
practice.  For  twelve  years,  1892-1904,  he 
conducted  a  private  hospital  on  Park  ave- 
nue, and  under  Governor  Flower's  admin- 
istration was  a  member  of  the  State 
Board  of  Health.  The  literature  of  his 
profession  is  enriched  by  many  contribu- 
tions from  his  able  pen.  He  was  an 
honored  member  of  many  professional  so- 
cieties, and  fairly  won  State  reputation  as 
a  highly  successful  surgeon  and  gyne- 
cologist. Even  when  past  the  meridian 
and  in  the  full  evening  of  life  he  gave 
little  evidence  of  the  years  he  carried  save 
in  the  depth  of  his  wisdom  and  his  cool, 
calm,  deliberate  manner  and  the  sound- 
ness of  his  judgment.  His  practice  was 
always  large,  and  his  friends  were  legion. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Dr.  John  F.  Whitbeck,  the  elder,  was 
born  in  Herkimer  county,  New  York,  but 
after  graduation  from  Fairfield  Medical 
School  and  the  medical  department  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  located 
at  Lima,  Livingston  county,  New  York, 
where  his  son,  John  F.  W.  Whitbeck,  was 
born.  He  only  practiced  at  Lima  a  few 
years,  then  located  in  Rochester,  New 
York,  where  he  conducted  a  successful 
practice  until  his  death  in  1880,  full  of 
years  and  honors.  His  wife,  Elizabeth 
(Ward)  Whitbeck,  was  also  born  in  New 
York  State,  and  was  the  mother  of  five 
children. 

Dr.  John  F.  W.  Whitbeck,  son  of  Dr. 
John  F.  and  Elizabeth  (Ward)  Whit- 
beck, was  born  at  Lima,  New  York,  No- 
vember, 1844,  his  parents  soon  afterward 
moving  to  Rochester.  He  died  at  his 
home,  No.  800  East  avenue,  July  3,  1916. 
He  was  educated  in  the  public  schools, 
the  University  of  Rochester  and  the  L'ni- 
versity  of  Pennsylvania,  gaining  his  A.  B. 
from  the  University  of  Rochester,  class  of 
1867,  his  M.  D.  from  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  class  of  1870.  He  then 
spent  three  years  abroad,  studying  in  the 
hospitals  and  universities  of  Berlin,  Vien- 
na, Breslau,  Heidelberg  and  London,  pur- 
suing special  courses  in  surgery  and 
gynecology,  his  instructors  being  men 
highly  renowned  in  those  special  branches 
of  the  profession. 

In  1873  Dr.  Whitbeck  returned  to 
Rochester  and  began  the  practice  of  his 
profession.  Father  and  son  were  closely 
associated  for  the  following  seven  years, 
then  the  elder  Doctor  Whitbeck  jour- 
neyed to  that  land  "from  which  no 
traveler  ever  returns,"  leaving  his  son  the 
inspiration  of  his  valuable  life,  the  benefit 
of  his  example  and  the  legacy  of  an 
honored  name.  The  "good  doctor"  stead- 
fastly followed  his  professional  career  in 
the  years  which  followed  and  turned  not 
aside  to  engage  in  other  pursuits,  nor  was 


he  lured  by  the  enticements  of  political 
life.  He  pursued  his  healing  art  to  the 
great  benefit  of  a  large  clientele,  and  most 
honorably  bore  the  name  transmitted  to 
him  through  several  generations  of  Amer- 
can  ancestors,  paternal  and  maternal.  He 
served  for  many  years  and  was  president 
of  the  surgical  staff  of  Rochester  City 
Hospital ;  in  1893  was  appointed  a  mem- 
ber of  the  State  Board  of  Health  by  Gov- 
ernor Roswell  P.  Flower  ;  established  and 
conducted  a  private  hospital,  1892-1904, 
freely  gave  to  the  service  of  the  poor, 
without  the  hope  of  fee  or  reward.  His 
life  was  one  of  usefulness  and  blessing, 
his  labor  severe,  but  his  reward  abundant 
in  the  consciousness  of  duty  well  per- 
formed. 

Dr.  Whitbeck  was  a  member  of  the 
American  Association,  New  York  State 
Medical  Society,  an  ex-president  of  the 
American  Association  of  Obstetricians 
and  Gynecologists,  Monroe  County  Medi- 
cal Society,  Rochester  Academy  of  Medi- 
cine, ex-president  and  honorary  member 
of  the  Rochester  Pathological  Society,  and 
a  fellow  of  the  American  College  of  Sur- 
geons. He  contributed  many  papers  to 
the  proceedings  of  these  societies  and 
had  for  many  years  been  a  frequent  and 
valued  writer  on  his  specialties  for  the 
medical  journals.  At  the  time  of  his 
death  he  was  president  of  the  board  of 
managers  of  Iola  Sanatorium,  an  institu- 
tion which  lay  very  near  his  heart.  Said 
Dr.  Montgomery  E.  Leary,  superintend- 
ent of  the  sanatorium,  "Whatever  was 
done  at  Iola  was  not  the  spirit  of  the 
Sanatorium,  but  the  spirit  of  Dr.  Whit- 
beck. I  know  of  no  one  who  can  fill  his 
place."  Socially  inclined  but  so  devoted 
to  his  profession  as  to  preclude  his  taking 
more  than  passing  interest,  he  was  a 
member  of  the  Genesee  Valley  and 
Rochester  Country  clubs,  and  of  Delta 
Kappa  Epsilon. 

Dr.  Whitbeck  married  Fannie  A.  Van 


213 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Husan,  of  Detroit,  Michigan,  and  had  two 
sons:  Dr.  Brainerd  H.,  a  graduate  of  Har- 
vard College,  and  of  the  College  of  Physi- 
cians and  Surgeons,  Columbia  University, 
New  York  City,  now  practicing  his  profes- 
sion in  that  city;  Caleb  Van  Husan,  a 
graduate  of  Harvard,  a  newspaper  editor 
and  publisher,  died  March  2,  1914.  Dr. 
Whitbeck  erected  a  beautiful  house  on  East 
avenue,  Rochester,  and  there  a  charming 
hospitality  had  ever  been  dispensed  by  a 
most  gracious  host  and  hostess,  the  latter 
surviving  her  honored  husband. 

Dr.  Whitbeck  sleeps  in  Mount  Hope 
Cemetery  near  his  eminent  father  and 
other  members  of  his  family.  At  the 
final  services  there  were  representatives 
present  from  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, the  city  government,  the  medical 
societies,  the  various  institutions  he 
served  and  from  the  social  organizations 
to  which  he  had  belonged.  The  pall 
bearers,  active  and  honorary,  were  the 
leading  physicians  of  the  city,  the  active 
bearers  professional  brethren  who  had 
long  known,  loved  and  honored  him. 


JENNINGS,  George  E., 

Banker. 

At  the  age  of  nineteen  years,  Mr. 
Jennings  in  1853  entered  the  employ  of 
the  old  Union  Bank  of  Rochester  and 
from  that  year  until  his  death  in  1884 
was  closely  associated  with  banking  in 
Rochester,  his  native  city.  His  irre- 
proachable character  and  Christian  graces 
secured  for  him  the  confidence  of  the 
public,  and  in  all  he  was  a  plain  dependa- 
ble man  with  that  indefatigable  personal 
magnetism  which  drew  men  to  him.  His 
high  personal  qualities  which  gained  him 
public  confidence,  the  esteem  and  warm 
affection  of  a  host  of  friends  were  com- 
bined with  a  business  ability  and  sagacity 
of  a  high  order.  Kind-hearted  to  a  fault, 
he  yet  demanded  the  strictest  attention 


to  duty  from  his  subordinates,  who  were 
devoted  to  him,  in  fact  one  of  the  ele- 
ments of  his  success  was  his  ability  to 
surround  himself  with  assistants  and  as- 
sociates who  were  able,  loyal  and  de- 
voted. As  a  business  man  he  was  one  of 
the  foremost  of  his  time,  cautious,  con- 
servative and  careful,  yet  possessing  a 
will  to  decide  and  the  courage  to  venture 
when  opportunity  led  the  way.  Until  the 
time  of  his  death  he  was  actively  engaged 
in  private  banking  and  was  a  factor  in 
the  successful  management  of  other  en- 
terprises. His  reputation  for  integrity 
and  fair  mindedness  was  of  the  highest 
and  he  left  a  record  without  a  stain. 

George  E.  Jennings  was  born  in  Roches- 
ter, New  York,  February  19,  1834,  son  of 
Peter  W.  Jennings,  a  leather  merchant, 
member  of  the  firm  of  Jennings  &  Keeler, 
of  Rochester.  George  E.  Jennings  passed 
his  entire  life  in  his  native  city  and  his 
death  occurred  on  April  8,  1884.  He  was 
educated  in  the  public  schools  of  Roches- 
ter and  Genesee  Wesleyan  Seminary, 
Lima,  New  York.  He  began  business  life 
at  the  age  of  nineteen  as  clerk  in  the  old 
Union  Bank.  He  displayed  great  apti- 
tude for  banking  and  at  the  time  the 
Union  Bank  passed  out  of  existence  was 
its  cashier,  having  been  successively 
bookkeeper,  teller,  assistant  cashier  and 
cashier.  In  1867  the  Union  Bank  went 
out  of  business,  the  charter  and  such 
assets  as  it  possessed  being  purchased  by 
Aaron  Erickson  and  George  E.  Jennings 
and  they  conducted  the  private  banking 
house  of  Erickson  &  Jennings.  For  a 
time  George  E.  Mumford  was  admitted 
as  a  partner  and  the  firm  was  then  known 
as  Erickson,  Jennings  &  Mumford.  Mr. 
Mumford  retired  in  1879.  Then  the  house 
continued  as  Erickson  &  Jennings  until 
the  death  of  the  senior  partner  when  Gil- 
man  H.  Perkins  was  admitted  to  the  busi- 
ness and  it  was  continued  under  the  name 
and  title  of  Erickson,  Jennings  &  Com- 


^ 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF   BIOG 


pany.  Mr.  Jennings  continued 
ness  for  many  years,  was  a  di 
Rochester  Savings  Bank,  \. 
in  other  corporations  of  tht  i 
uniformly  successful  in  all 
ings.  He  was  a  Republican 
member 

Chester  Club,  twice  serving 

married.  October 
Nancy 

offices    in    th(  of    Commerce 

Building,  Rochester,  and  Emmet  H.  Jen- 
nings, of  Avon,  New  York. 


REAM,  Norman  Bruce, 

Man  of  Affairs. 

The  preparation  o! 
of  men  whose  career- 
usefulness  and  horu 
and  especially  to  cer 
be  incomplete  if  mi, 

of  the  late  Norman  one  of 

Amen,  a  uianciers,    and    his 

connec  nrreat  Empi* 

Mr.    Ream  the    men    who 

essentially  be  e  class, 

wherever  his  lit  have  been 

located,  and  few  r  results 

or  enjoyed  a  higl  is  was  a- 

ality  that  lives  mory  of 

ends  as  that  of  the  highest  type  oi 
loyal    citizen    and    progressive    business 
man.     From  the  humble  beginniri 
farmer    boy,     progressing    through    the 
grades  of  country  school  te 
higher   fields   of   endeavor,  becom 
nally  one  of  the  country's  recogr.i; 
thorities  on  all  matters  financial 
sheer  force  of  intellect  and  innat 
nes  ability,  combined  with  unusual  pluck 


and    perseverance,    withe 
greatest   of   talent    might   remain    unde- 
veloped, he  attained  promifl 
consequent  affluence. 

Norman  Bruce  Ream  was  I 
erset  county.  : 

- 

nial  epoch,  in 

our  country's  •  .cestors  played 
an  important  p  business  and 
civic  affairs.  ;  great-grand- 
father, John  P  '  ua  private  in 
I 

.-■ 

identi!"    .  I  iing  and    de- 

velopment of  the  country  in  the  si 
ing  years.  The  earliest  emigrants  of  the 
name  were  of  German  extraction,  arriv- 
ing in  this  country  at  an  early  day,  and. 
were  here  engaged  in  agricultural  pur- 
suits. Mr.  Ream  himself  was  brought  up 
on  a  farm,  where  he  acquired  the  very 

abits  of  industry  and  t! 
discipline  and  environment  bring  a  valu- 
one,  no 
matter  ition  in 

life,  for  the  formative  period  of  one's  ex- 
istence, opportunities  in  the 
educational  line  were  those  of  the  com- 
>Uowed  by  a  course 
■te.    But  a  scholar, 
as  a  ]i"                       rn  and  not  mad 
naturaii- 

and  so  well  that  at  tl 
years  we  find  him  set 
of  teacher,  a  true  f    i 
succeeded  so  fa 
particu: 
busine: 

means  for  his  i  nal  Insti- 

tute at  Somcr  the  effort 

it  had  c<  love  of 


215 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRArHY 


study,  his  sense  of  patriotism  was 
stronger,  and  like  the  true  American  that 
he  was  he  put  aside  his  text  books,  after 
a  brief  attendance  at  the  school,  and  on 
September  i,  1861,  he  enlisted  in  answer 
to  the  call  of  President  Lincoln  for  troops 
to  suppress  the  Rebellion,  and  as  his  an- 
cestor had  fought  in  the  cause  of  Free- 
dom, he  also  added  his  quota  of  patriot- 
ism to  make  that  Freedom  universal 
throughout  this  land.  He  assisted  in  or- 
ganizing, and  became  a  member  of  Com- 
pany H,  Eighty-fifth  Pennsylvania  Volun- 
teers, as  private,  although  tendered  a  com- 
mission. It  seems  that  no  matter  what  was 
his  endeavor  the  same  spirit  of  thorough- 
ness was  exhibited  in  all  his  enterprises, 
and  in  military  affairs  it  was  recognized  by 
promotion  to  first  lieutenant  for  gallantry 
on  the  battlefield  He  was  wounded  at 
Whitmarsh  Island,  Georgia,  February  24, 
1864,  and  again  at  Wearbottom  Church, 
Virginia,  on  June  17,  following,  this  time 
so  badly  that  he  was  incapacitated  for 
further  military  duty  and  resigned  in  Au- 
gust, 1864. 

Desiring  to  make  his  business  education 
more  complete,  on  his  return  from  the 
war,  Mr.  Ream  attended  a  commercial 
college  at  Pittsburgh,  and  followed  this 
with  a  position  of  clerk  in  Harnedsville, 
where  he  remained  until  September,  1866. 
Like  so  many  others  he  became  ambitious 
to  try  his  fortune  in  the  West,  and  found 
his  next  employment  at  Princeton,  Illi- 
nois, where  he  secured  a  position  as  clerk 
in  the  general  store  of  C.  A.  Stoner.  His 
first  independent  business  venture  was 
when,  early  in  1867,  C.  H.  Mosshart  and 
he  purchased  Mr.  Stoner's  interests  and 
continued  to  run  the  store  under  the  firm 
name  of  Ream  &  Mosshart  until  Novem- 
ber of  that  year  when  the  concern  was 
annihilated  by  fire,  along  with  thirty-five 
of  Princeton's  business  houses.  His  next 
move  was  considerably  farther  into  the 
West,  for  in  1868  he  removed  to  Osceola, 


Iowa,  and  engaged  in  the  grain,  live  stock 
and  farm  implement  business,  which  also 
suffered  disaster  through  the  failure  of 
crops.  Mr.  Ream,  having  given  credit  to 
the  farmers,  and  being  unable  to  realize 
on  his  assets,  was  forced  out  of  business 
in  1870.  Notwithstanding  these  reverses 
there  was  never  at  any  moment  a  shadow 
of  doubt  cast  on  his  integrity  or  honesty, 
and  this  fact  at  this  critical  period  of  his 
career  was  of  inestimable  value.  In  1871 
he  went  to  Chicago  and  formed  a  partner- 
ship with  Mr.  Coffman,  under  the  firm 
name  of  Coffman  &  Ream,  and  carried  on 
a  live  stock  commission  business.  Hav- 
ing an  extensive  acquaintance  with  stock- 
raisers,  he  succeeded  in  having  their  con- 
signments made  to  him  and  it  was  not 
long  before  he  had  regained  his  former 
position,  and  to  his  great  honor  be  it  re- 
corded that  he  applied  the  first  money 
earned  toward  settling  the  indebtedness 
of  $15,000  caused  by  his  failure  This  he 
continued  to  do  until  he  had  paid  the  en- 
tire principal  and  interest,  the  latter  at 
the  unusually  generous  rate  of  ten  per 
cent. 

From  the  beginning  of  his  Chicago  en- 
terprise Mr.  Ream  was  singularly  fortu- 
nate, or  rather  should  we  say — his  honesty 
and  ability  met  with  a  deserved  reward, 
and  he  laid  the  foundation  of  his  later 
and  more  complete  success.  In  1875  he 
retired  from  active  participation  with  the 
firm  of  Coffman  &  Ream,  but  continued  a 
connection  with  the  company  until  1878. 
He  became  a  member  of  the  Board  of 
Trade  in  1875,  entering  with  George  C. 
Ball  &  Company,  of  which  his  name  was 
the  "Company."  In  1877  he  withdrew 
from  that  firm  also,  and  carried  on  an  in- 
dependent commission  business  under  the 
style  of  N.  B.  Ream  &  Company.  In  1880 
R.  W.  Clark  purchased  an  interest  in  his 
business,  but  the  firm  name  remained  un- 
changed until  1884,  when  Mr.  Ream  with- 
drew   from   active   business    connections. 


216 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


The  firm  then  became  R.  W.  Clark  & 
Company,  with  Mr.  Ream  as  special  part- 
ner, and  he  was  likewise  connected  with 
the  commission  house  of  H.  H.  Carr  & 
Company.  Upon  becoming  a  member  of 
the  Board  of  Trade,  Mr.  Ream's  very  first 
venture  was  crowned  with  success,  and 
marked  him  as  a  man  of  keen  perception 
and  excellent  judgment.  He  conducted 
some  of  the  largest  operations  on  the 
board,  and  so  successful  was  his  career 
that  he  was  numbered  among  the  most 
extensive  operators,  and  ranked  finan- 
cially among  the  millionaires  He  served 
as  vice-president  of  the  Call-Board,  but 
his  numerous  business  interests  pre- 
vented him  from  accepting  other  posi- 
tions of  a  like  nature.  In  1883  he  assisted 
in  the  reorganization  of  the  Western  Fire 
Insurance  Company  of  Chicago,  of  which 
he  was  vice-president  until  he  disposed  of 
his  interests.  In  1888  Mr.  Ream  retired 
from  the  board  and  invested  his  means  in 
various  enterprises,  the  management  of 
which  engrossed  his  attention  thereafter. 
As  organizer,  stockholder  and  director  he 
was  connected  with  numerous  enterprises 
which  have  been  great  factors  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  business  of  the  country. 
Later  Mr.  Ream  became  a  resident  of 
the  City  of  New  York  and  from  that  time 
until  his  death  he  was  identified  to  a 
greater  or  lesser  degree  in  various  enter- 
prises connected  with  the  Metropolis,  in 
all  of  them  proving  his  worth  and  desira- 
bility as  a  citizen.  He  was  the  owner  of 
considerable  real  estate,  which  he  im- 
proved and  developed,  a  proceeding 
which  is  not  one  of  personal  aggrandize- 
ment alone  but  adds  materially  to  muni- 
cipal advancement  as  well.  He  was  not 
a  speculator,  but  his  work  was  rather  that 
of  a  constructor  and  creator,  and  one  of 
vast  industrial  force,  an  operation  that 
proves  of  great  benefit  to  all  classes  of  a 
community    He  was  one  of  the  most  un- 


assuming of  men  but  withal  of  mighty 
force  in  the  realm  of  industry,  a  veritable 
commander-in-chief.  In  this  brief  review 
it  would  be  impossible  to  do  justice  to  his 
many  and  varied  accomplishments  in  the 
financial  and  industrial  realm,  for  his  ca- 
reer touched  the  immense  field  of  the  busi- 
ness world  at  so  many  points  that  a  re- 
cital would  be  wearying,  but  he  touched 
nothing  in  any  line  of  endeavor  that  was 
not  the  better  for  his  having  been  con- 
nected with  it,  and  his  special  field  of 
effort  was  one  of  magnitude  and  impor- 
tance. 

Mr.  Ream  married,  at  Madison,  New 
York,  February  17,  1876,  Caroline  T.  Put- 
nam, a  woman  of  charming  personality 
and  many  fine  traits  of  character,  greatly 
beloved  by  all  with  whom  she  was  ever 
thrown  in  contact.  She  was  a  daughter 
of  the  late  Dr.  John  Putnam,  of  Madison, 
New  York,  and  a  descendant  of  Henry 
Putnam,  a  near  relative  of  General  Put- 
nam, of  Revolutionary  War  fame.  Mr 
and  Mrs.  Ream  were  the  parents  of  nine 
children,  six  of  whom  are  living:  Marion 
B.,  wife  of  Redmond  D.  Stephens,  of 
Chicago ;  Frances  M.,  wife  of  John  L. 
Kemmerer,  of  Short  Hills,  New  Jersey; 
Norman  P.  and  Robert  C,  of  New  York; 
Edward  K.,  of  Johnstown,  Pennsylvania, 
and  Louis  M.,  of  Worcester,  Massachu- 
setts. 

Mr.  Ream  Was  prominent  in  social 
circles  in  New  York,  as  he  had  been  in 
Chicago.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Chica- 
go, Chicago  Athletic  and  Commercial 
clubs,  and  in  their  day  of  the  Calumet 
and  Washington  Park  clubs.  In  New 
York  he  belonged  to  the  Metropolitan 
and  Union  clubs.  He  was  also  affiliated 
with  the  time  honored  Masonic  frater- 
nity, was  a  Knight  Templar,  an  Odd 
Fellow,  and  a  member  of  the  Stock  Ex- 
change in  both  cities.  Before  he  took  up 
his  residence  in  New  York  he   was   the 


217 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


advisor  and  associate  of  many  of  the  emi- 
nent figures  in  the  financial  world  of  the 
middle  west,  and  here  in  the  Metropolis 
he  was  on  still  greater  and  closer  terms  of 
intimacy  with  the  mighty  factors  in  the 
realm  of  finance  in  that  for  fifteen  years 
he  was  a  close  and  personal  friend  of  J. 
Pierpont  Morgan,  as  well  as  James  J.  Hill 
and  Elbert  H.  Gary.  His  death  came  as 
a  loss  to  countless  numbers  of  friends  and 
acquaintances,  and  brought  a  sense  of 
desolation  not  alone  to  the  immediate 
family,  to  whom  the  loss  was  of  course 
heaviest,  but  caused  a  profound  feeling 
of  sorrow  to  many  the  world  over,  re- 
moving as  it  did  one  of  America's  most 
brilliant  financiers,  and  a  highly  respected 
citizen,  one  who  was  beloved  as  well  as 
admired  for  his  eminent  qualities. 

Mr.  Ream  had  a  summer  home  at 
Thompson,  Connecticut,  but  maintained 
an  office  in  New  York,  and  made  this 
city  his  winter  residence,  although  he  had 
varied  interests  outside  the  municipality. 
In  business  life,  to  sum  up  the  many  ex- 
cellent qualities  he  possessed  would  be 
well  nigh  impossible,  but  suffice  it  to  say 
he  was  alert,  reliable  and  sagacious,  as 
well  as  successful;  as  a  citizen  he  was 
honorable,  prompt  and  true  to  every  en- 
gagement, while  in  private  life  he  was 
genial,  wholesouled,  and  a  delightful 
host,  and,  needless  to  say,  a  welcome 
guest.  In  fact  under  all  circumstances 
he  measured  up  to  the  highest  standards 
of  manhood,  a  well  rounded  character, 
and  a  useful  and  valuable  factor  in  the 
world's  work  for  advancement  and  prog- 
ress. He  died  in  February,  1915,  peace- 
fully and  honorably,  and  more,  generously 
had  he  met  and  discharged  all  life's 
duties,  and  honored  and  beloved  he  passed 
away,  sincerely  mourned,  but  leaving  a 
memory  that  will  long  be  cherished  for 
the  good  he  had  done  as  well  as  the  great 
deeds  he  accomplished. 


PHELPS,  George  Roswell, 

Agriculturist. 

Energy,  self-confidence  and  a  strict  ad- 
herence to  the  moral  law  and  those  prin- 
ciples of  human  conduct  that  play  so  vital 
a  part  in  the  moulding  of  society,  were 
the  traits  which  lay  at  the  base  of  the 
character  of  George  Roswell  Phelps,  late 
of  Gloversville,  New  York,  acting  as  the 
mainspring  of  his  life,  shaping  and  guid- 
ing its  whole  development.  His  business 
success,  as  must  all  true  success,  de- 
pended first  upon  his  highly  moral  char- 
acter and  then  upon  the  special  knowl- 
edge of  his  subject,  a  later  and  acquired 
power.  In  all  that  he  did  for  himself  Mr. 
Phelps  kept  the  interests  of  those  about 
him  ever  in  sight  and  made  no  step,  how- 
ever conducive  to  his  own  advantage  it 
might  seem,  if  in  his  candid  judgment  it 
appeared  inimical  to  theirs.  It  was  in 
line  with  this — it  should  not  be  called 
policy,  for  it  was  too  spontaneous  for  that 
— but  in  line  with  this  instinct  that  all 
his  relations  with  his  fellows  were  carried 
out.  He  would  not  allow,  for  instance, 
his  extremely  exacting  occupation  to  in- 
terfere with  what  he  considered  to  be 
due  his  family  any  more  than  he  erred 
in  the  opposite  direction  and  allowed 
domestic  ties  to  interfere  with  the  dis- 
charge of  his  obligations  to  the  outside 
world.  Indeed,  the  only  person  whose 
inclinations  and  comfort  he  consistently 
sacrificed  to  the  rest  of  the  world  was 
himself,  for  he  rose  early  and  retired  late 
to  fulfill  his  engagements  with  others  and 
minister  to  their  wants.  His  death  at  his 
home  in  Gloversville,  May  19,  1903,  was 
a  loss  to  the  entire  community.  George 
Roswell  Phelps  was  typical  of  that  fine 
class  of  rural  manhood  which  is  char- 
acteristic of  New  York  State  and  upon 
which,  as  upon  a  sure  foundation,  its 
wealth  and  prosperity  rests.     It  was  for 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


him  and  such  as  he  to  illustrate  so  clearly 
that  all  might  discern  that  agriculture  is 
not  an  occupation  to  be  relegated  to  men 
without  a  due  share  of  ambition  and  en- 
terprise, or  even  those  who  are  content 
to  remain  without  pecuniary  reward,  but 
that  rather  is  it  full  of  manifold  un- 
suspected opportunities  for  any  bright 
young  man  who,  with  a  strong  love  of 
nature,  withdraws  from  the  more  com- 
plex urban  life  and  gives  up  his  time  and 
attention  to  this,  the  primitive,  basic  in- 
dustry. For  this  life,  indeed,  certain  posi- 
tive virtues  are  necessary  in  order  that 
success  shall  crown  effort  and  these  Mr. 
Phelps  possessed  in  large  measure.  But 
to  such  as  do  possess  them  nature  will 
make  a  bounteous  return,  even  as  it  did 
in  his  case.  It  is  to  the  presence  of  such 
men,  progressive,  wide  awake  and  full  of 
enterprise,  that  communities  owe  their 
prosperity. 

Mr.  Phelps  was  born  in  Johnstown, 
Fulton  county,  New  York,  June  2,  1830, 
a  son  of  Chester  and  Sally  A.  (Powell) 
Phelps,  old  and  highly  honored  residents 
of  that  region.  The  Phelps  family  had 
lived  for  many  years  in  Fulton  county, 
the  first  of  the  name  to  appear  there  be- 
ing Oliver  Phelps,  the  grandfather  of 
George  Roswell  Phelps,  who  came  to 
New  York  State  from  Hartford  county, 
Connecticut,  where  he  was  born  some- 
time after  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  settled  first  in  Montgomery 
county  and  later  in  Fulton,  in  both  of 
which  he  continued  to  follow  the  occupa- 
tion of  farming  to  which  he  had  been  bred 
and  trained  The  original  Phelps  farm 
became  later  the  town  site  of  the  prosper- 
ous community  of  Johnstown.  Chester 
Phelps,  son  of  Oliver  and  Abigail 
(Brown)  Phelps,  and  father  of  George 
Roswell  Phelps,  was  born  June  15,  1792, 
and  died  March  13,  1870.  To  him  de- 
scended the  farm  his  father  had  pur- 
chased   and    which    was    at    that    time 


rapidly  increasing  in  value  as  the  commu- 
nity was  developing  and  it  was  found  to 
be  the  most  available  location  for  the  town. 
He  became  a  man  of  considerable  sub- 
stance and  added  largely  to  his  property, 
buying  a  number  of  farms  adjacent  or  in 
the  near  neighborhood  of  his  original 
possession  and  carrying  on  farming  opera- 
tions on  a  very  extensive  scale  Besides 
the  general  farming,  he  also  devoted 
special  attention  to  fruit  raising  and  dairy 
farming  and  was  successful  in  all  of  these 
branches,  being  known  as  one  of  the 
largest  agriculturists  in  the  region.  As 
Johnstown  continued  to  grow  much  of 
the  original  property  was  disposed  of, 
but,  nevertheless,  a  considerable  portion 
of  town  property  remained  in  the  hands 
of  the  Phelps  family,  Phelps  street  being 
at  one  time  owned  and  occupied  by  thir- 
teen families  of  the  name.  Chester  Phelps 
was  married  to  Sally  A.  Powell,  born 
March  4,  1796,  in  Johnstown,  and  died 
September  11,  1857.  To  them  were  born 
nine  children  as  follows:  Charles  A., born 
August  22,  1817,  died  September  28,  1847  ; 
Gilbert,  born  February  9,  1819,  died  No- 
vember 16,  1900,  married  Anna  C.  Van 
Nostrand,  of  Johnstown,  who  bore  him 
one  daughter,  Margaret ;  Lucius  A.,  born 
March  20,  1821,  died  February  16,  1837; 
Eliza  Ann,  born  February  24,  1823,  died 
October  12,  1908,  married  Hart  A.  Mas- 
sey,  of  Kingston,  Ontario,  to  whom  she 
bore  six  children :  Charles,  George,  Ches- 
ter, Lillian,  Walter  Hart  and  Fred  Vic- 
tor; Sylvia  Adelia,  born  February  24, 
1825,  died  November  3,  1901,  married 
Horace  W.  Porter,  of  Johnstown,  and 
they  had  one  child,  Mervin  A. ;  William 
Henry,  born  October  8,  1827,  died  Janu- 
ary 24,  1899,  married  Louisa  Deming,  of 
Perth,  New  York,  by  whom  he  had  four 
children :  Charles  Edwin,  Clara,  Albert 
and  Nettie ;  George  Roswell,  of  whom 
further;  Chester  Powell,  born  December 
16,  1832,  married  Alice  Brown,  of  Johns- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


town,  by  whom  he  had  two  children: 
David  and  Arthur;  Sarah  Jane,  born 
July  6,  1835,  died  April  29,  1890,  married 
Lehman  Edwards,  of  Johnstown,  and 
they  had  no  children. 

The  early  life  of  George  Roswell  Phelps 
was  passed  in  the  old  Phelps  homestead 
where  he  was  born,  in  his  native  town  of 
Johnstown.  He  received  his  education  in 
the  public  schools  there,  and  was  brought 
up  in  the  occupation  so  long  followed  by 
his  father  until  he  became  an  expert 
farmer.  He  succeeded  his  father  in  the 
ownership  of  the  old  place  and  in  its 
operation,  which  he  conducted  with  great 
success  for  the  remainder  of  his  life.  In 
the  year  1899  he  purchased  a  residence 
in  the  city  of  Gloversville,  and  there  made 
his  permanent  home,  travelling  back  and 
forth  each  day  between  his  dwelling  and 
his  farm.  Mr.  Phelps  was  particularly 
interested  in  the  question  of  fruit  culture 
and  made  a  specialty  in  that  line  on  his 
farm,  which  he  rapidly  converted  into  one 
of  the  show  places  of  the  district.  Small 
fruits  and  berries  were  the  chief  product 
and  these  he  raised  in  very  large  quanti- 
ties. He  was  wholly  devoted  to  his  work 
and  the  greatest  success  crowned  his 
efforts,  and  he  was  regarded  as  an  au- 
thority on  agricultural  matters  through- 
out the  neighborhood. 

Besides  his  very  successful  farming, 
Mr.  Phelps  had  large  business  interests 
in  Gloversville  and  here  as  elsewhere  his 
affairs  prospered.  He  was  always  strong- 
ly interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  com- 
munity and  gave  a  great  deal  of  his  time 
and  energies  to  that  cause.  His  political 
affiliations  were  with  the  Prohibition 
party,  and  this  cause  was  one  of  those 
which  made  the  deepest  appeal  to  him.  He 
was  very  outspoken  in  the  matter  and  did 
much  to  advance  the  interests  of  the 
party  in  the  city.  He  was  a  life-long 
Methodist  and  for  many  years  a  member 
of   the   church    of   that   denomination    at 


Gloversville,  holding  the  office  of  steward 
for  a  considerable  period.  Mrs.  Phelps  is 
a  member  of  the  same  church  and  has 
been  connected  for  many  years  with  the 
Sabbath  school  work  as  well  as  many 
other  departments  of  the  church  activity, 
being  a  Sunday  school  teacher  for  forty- 
rive  years. 

Mr.  Phelps  was  married  on  March  17, 
1858,  to  Josephine  Matilda  Whitney, 
born  April  18,  1838,  a  daughter  of  Asa 
Hervey  and  Almira  Matilda  (Wait) 
Whitney.  To  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Phelps  were 
born  six  children,  whose  births  occurred 
in  Johnstown,  as  follows  :  1.  Inez  Marian, 
born  July  15,  1859,  died  June  10,  1887.  2. 
William  Edwin,  born  November  12,  i860; 
married  (first)  December  27,  1882,  Emily 
Ann  Banks,  by  whom  he  had  two  chil- 
dren, Jessie  Marian  and  Harry  Chester; 
married  (second)  April  6,  1898,  Jane 
Munns,  by  whom  he  had  one  child,  Ray- 
mond Chester.  3.  Warren  Whitney, 
born  August  23,  1863 ;  married,  August 
30,  1884,  Abbie  Lansing,  by  whom  he  had 
one  child,  Florence  Catherine.  4.  Emma 
Belle,  born  December  28,  1865 ;  married, 
February  15,  1884,  Elmer  J.  Staley,  by 
whom  she  has  had  one  child,  Harold 
Phelps.  5.  Lillian  Almira,  born  January 
11,  1870;  married,  April  7,  1899,  John  M. 
Smith.  6.  Alma  Leona,  born  October  26, 
1877;  married,  September,  1910,  Clifton 
Elliot  Sanborn,  and  they  have  one  son, 
Clifton  Elliot. 


POTTS,  George  Cumming, 

Man  of  Affairs. 

The  prominence  men  bearing  the  name 
Potts  have  attained  in  the  business  world 
is  not  confined  to  one,  two  or  three  gen- 
erations, but  from  the  coming  of  David 
Potts  from  Wales  the  name  has  been  one 
of  the  most  familiar  ones  in  Pennsylvania 
coal  and  iron  annals.  There  it  is  forever 
preserved    in    the    nomenclature    of    the 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


towns  of  the  anthracite  region,  Pottstown 
and  Pottsville  ranking  high  in  commercial 
importance.  While  this  branch  of  the 
family  has  attained  high  rank  in  New 
York  City  and  State,  both  George  dim- 
ming Potts  and  his  father,  George  Alex- 
ander Henry  Potts,  were  born  in  New 
Jersey,  as  were  all  preceding  generations. 

The  family  name  was  Pott  in  ancient 
times;  in  1278  it  appears  among  parlia- 
mentary writ:  "Robertus  atte  Potte,  of 
county  Surrey,"  as  serving  in  military 
duty.  At  that  period  it  was  not  infre- 
quently written  Potte.  Regarding  the 
arms  of  the  Potts  family,  the  earliest  rec- 
ord in  the  Herald's  College  of  Arms 
granted  to  one  of  the  name  bears  date 
1583;  given  to  John  Potts,  an  eminent 
barrister  of  Lincoln's  Inn.  It  is  de- 
scribed: Azure,  two  bars  or,  over  all  a 
band  of  the  second,  that  is,  on  a  shield  of 
blue  are  two  bands  of  gold,  making  in  all 
five  horizontal  bands  of  equal  width,  with 
the  blue  showing  at  top  and  bottom,  and 
from  upper  left  to  lower  right  a  band  of 
same  width  of  gold.  Crest :  On  a  mount 
vert,  an  ounce  sejant  ppr.  collared  and 
chained. 

(I)  The  line  of  descent  of  the  Potts 
family  here  to  be  set  forth  was  instituted 
by  David  Potts,  who  was  born  about  1670, 
in  Montgomeryshire,  Wales.  He  was  a 
Friend,  and  settled  in  Bristol  township, 
Philadelphia  county,  Pennsylvania,  where 
he  died  in  1730.  It  is  thought  he  came 
when  a  youth,  the  first  notice  of  his  resi- 
dence in  America  being  7  mo.  24,  1692, 
when  signing  as  a  bondsman  for  Eliza- 
beth Bennett,  as  executor  of  Edmund,  her 
late  husband,  and  his  signature  may  be 
seen  on  file  in  the  register's  office  in  Phil- 
adelphia, Pennsylvania.  As  a  Friend  he 
first  belonged  to  the  Philadelphia  Monthly 
Meeting.  He  purchased  in  1695  a  tract 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  land  in 
Bristol    township,    Philadelphia    county, 


Pennsylvania,  near  Germantown ;  subse- 
quently selling  fifty  acres,  settling  on  the 
balance,  and  there  resided  the  remainder 
of  his  life.  The  deed  for  this  first  pur- 
chase in  the  Potts  family  reads  as  follows  : 
"The  Commiss'rs  by  Patent  dated  26th  9 
mo.,  1685,  Granted  500  acres  to  Rob't 
Longshore,  Purchaser  in  Bristol  Town- 
ship, in  the  County  of  Philad'a,  joyning 
in  Germantown,  Irenia  Land,  and  Will'm 
Wilkins,  of  which  deed  dated  1st  4  mo., 
1686,  he  sold  to  Samuel  Bennett  200  acres, 
who  by  Deed  dated  2.  4.  1695,  sold  150 
thereof  to  David  Potts,  who  sold  to  Wm. 
Harman  50  acres  now  in  Possession  of 
Peter  Clever."  And  further:  "The  said 
David  Potts  requests  a  Warr't  of  Resur- 
vey  on  the  said  150  acres  according  to  the 
True  bounds  of  the  Tract  and  to  Cutt  off 
50  a's  to  said  Harman  or  Clever.  Ordered 
that  a  Warr't  be  accordingly  granted  for 
the  said  50  acres  to  be  cutt  off  as  by 
agreement  made  between  them  and  a  Pat- 
ent on  the  Return  if  required,  they  paying 
the  Overplus,  if  any."  In  1716  he  had  a 
grant  of  one  hundred  acres  of  land  in  the 
Manor  of  Springfield,  for  which  he  was  to 
pay  £80.  When  the  Friends  established 
a  Meeting  in  Germantown,  he  was  trans- 
ferred to  it,  and  under  date  of  October  11, 
171 1,  he  bought  land  there,  the  sellers 
being  trustees  of  the  Germantown  Meet- 
ing there,  and  he  was  entrusted  with  im- 
portant matters  relating  thereto.  He  was 
a  man  of  good  standing  in  the  community 
where  he  resided  for  so  long  a  time,  and 
represented  Philadelphia  county  in  the 
Provincial  Assembly  for  1728-29-30.  His 
death  occurred  November  16,  1730.  He 
made  his  will,  November  13,  1730,  which 
was  probated  November  26,  1730,  and  is 
on  file  in  the  register's  office  at  Philadel- 
phia, in  Will  Book  E,  page  142.  In  it  he 
wrote :  "I  Give  &  Bequeath  to  my  son, 
John,  the  sum  of  Twenty  Shillings  money 
af'd  he  having  likewise  received  his  por- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


tion  in  my  life  time  w'ch  s'd  money  is  to 
be  paid  to  him  in  two  years  after  my  De- 
cease." 

David  Potts  married  Alice  Croasdale, 
who  was  born  8  mo.  3,  1673,  and  whose 
parents  came  as  passengers  with  William 
Penn  in  the  ship  "Welcome,"  Robert 
Greenway,  master,  in  1682.  Although  the 
records  of  the  Meeting  are  far  from  per- 
fect, many  matters  relating  to  this  couple 
are  ascertainable.  She  was  the  youngest 
daughter  of  Thomas  and  Agnes  (Hathern- 
waite)  Croasdale.  They  declared  their  in- 
tention of  marriage  with  each  other  be- 
fore the  Philadelphia  Monthly  Meeting, 
10  mo.  29,  1693  (December,  1693) ;  passed 
the  Meeting  the  second  time  on  11  mo. 
26,  1693-94  (January,  1694),  and  were 
granted  a  certificate  to  marry  under  the 
care  of  Middletown  Monthly  Meeting  in 
Bucks  county.  The  following  is  a  copy 
of  the  entry  in  the  minutes  of  the  latter 
Meeting:  "David  Potts  and  Alice  Croas- 
^dale  have  requested  to  solemnize  their 
marriage  within  this  Meeting,  because  her 
relations  mostly  dwell  here,  and  they  be- 
longing to  Philadelphia  have  brought  a 
Certificate  from  that  Monthly  Meeting 
that  testifies  they  have  proceeded  there 
orderly,  and  nothing  is  found  against 
them,  and  also  requested  that  they  may 
accomplish  their  marriage  here,  which 
they  have  granted  them ;  so  this  Meeting 
is  satisfied  and  grants  their  requests."  A 
subsequent  record  shows  that  they  were 
married  in  an  orderly  manner  on  1  mo.  22, 
1693.  This  date,  according  to  the  modern 
system  of  reckoning,  would  correspond  to 
March  22,  1694.  The  following  is  a  copy 
of  the  marriage  certificate  as  it  is  recorded 
by  the  Monthly  Meeting:  "Whereas, 
David  Potts  and  Alice  Croasdale,  both  of 
Philadelphia,  in  the  Province  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, having  declared  their  intentions  of 
taking  each  other  in  marriage,  before  sev- 
eral public  meetings  of  the  People  of  God 


called  Quakers,  in  Philadelphia,  in  the 
Province  of  Pennsylvania  aforesaid,  in 
America,  according  to  the  good  order  used 
amongst  them,  whose  proceedings  there- 
in, after  deliberate  consideration  thereof, 
were  approved  by  the  said  meetings  ;  they 
appearing  clear  of  all  others." 

(II)  John  Potts,  son  of  David  and  Alice 
(Croasdale)  Potts,  was  born  8  mo.  8,  1696, 
and  died  in  September,  1766.  He  learned 
the  trade  of  a  millwright.  When  grown 
up  he  settled  in  Upper  Dublin  township, 
later  on  included  within  the  limits  of 
Montgomery  county,  where  he  purchased 
a  tract  of  land  from  Isaac  and  John 
Phipps,  about  1748,  the  deed  for  which  is 
recorded  in  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania, 
showing  title  back  to  the  original  grant 
by  William  Penn,  in  1681  ;  still  owned 
(1900)  by  his  descendants.  It  is  located 
about  two  miles  east  of  Fort  Washington 
village.  His  will,  made  September  28, 
1766,  in  many  respects  is  quaint  and  reads 
in  part  as  follows : 

Be  it  remembered  that  I,  John  Potts  of  the 
Township  of  Upper  Dublin,  in  the  County  of 
Philad'a  and  province  of  Pensilvania,  Mill 
Wright,  being  now  far  advanced  in  Years,  but 
yet  of  Sound  and  Disposing  Mind  and  Memory, 
for  which  mercy  and  favour  May  I  ever  prais 
the  great  author  of  my  being,  and  at  times  feel- 
ing the  Simtoms  of  Mortality  through  the 
Decay  of  nature,  but  relying  on  the  merits  of 
my  Redeemer,  hope  for  a  happy  change  from 
this  life  to  that  which  is  to  come  of  Eternal 
Peace,  and  rest  in  Daily  Expectation  of  such 
a  Change.  And  in  as  much  as  God  in  his 
Mercy  has  blessed  me  with  some  worldly  estate, 
do  think  Proper  to  make  this  my  last  will  and 
testament  in  the  manner  following,  that  is  to 
say,  first  of  all  I  will  that  all  my  Just  Debts 
and  funeral  Expenses  be  well  and  truly  paid 
and   Discharged. 

Item,  I  will  Devise  and  Bequeath  unto  my 
Dear  and  Loving  wife  Elizabeth  all  my  Real 
and  Personal  Estate  whatsoever  during  her 
natural  life,  giving  her  full  Privilege  to  will  or 
dispose  of  as  much  household  goods  as  she  shall 
see  proper  in  her  life  time  to  either  her  Chil- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


dren  or  grand  Children  and  after  her  decease. 
I  will  devise  and  Bequeath  unto  my  son  John 
the  Plantation  &  Tract  of  land  I  now  live  on 
containing  one  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  land, 
be  it  more  or  less  with  all  the  Buildings  and 
appurtenances  thereon  or  any  wise  thereunto 
belonging  unto  him  his  heirs  and  Assigns  for- 
ever and  the  remainder  of  my  Personal  estate 
except  what  is  hereafter  Excepted  he  paying 
the  several  legacies  hereafter  mentioned  that 
is  to  say, — I  will  and  Bequeath  unto  my  son 
Thomas  my  Chamber  Clock  and  fifty  Pound 
Lawful  money  of  Pensilvania  to  be  delivered 
and  paid  unto  him  by  my  Executors  hereafter 
named  within  one  year  after  my  wife's  Decease. 

John  Potts  married,  in  July,  1726,  Eliza- 
beth McVaugh  (or  McVeagh),  daughter 
of  Edmond  and  Alice  (Dickinson)  Mc- 
Veagh. She  was  born  in  1699  and  died 
1  mo.  5,  1791. 

(Ill)  Thomas  Potts,  son  of  John  and 
Elizabeth  (McVeagh)  Potts,  was  born  in 
1729,  died  July  29,  1776.  He  was  a  mill- 
wright, and  resided  in  Moreland  township 
for  some  time.  Walter  Moore  and  his 
wife,  Sarah,  on  June  22,  1753,  conveyed  to 
him,  as  millwright  of  the  Manor  of  More- 
land,  one-half  of  a  certain  corn  mill  and 
two  parcels  of  land  there.  Later  on  he 
removed  to  Sussex  county,  New  Jersey, 
settling  in  Chelsea  Forge,  where  he  pos- 
sessed much  property,  became  high  sheriff 
of  Sussex  county  in  1772,  and  a  member 
of  Provincial  Assembly  in  1775  and  1776. 
Thomas  Potts  was  a  member  of  the  Con- 
tinental Congress  which  convened  in  Phil- 
adelphia in  1776;  he  was  in  all  respects  a 
patriot,  but  being  a  member  of  the  Society 
of  Friends  he  refused  to  sign  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  not  wishing  to  co- 
operate in  an  act  that  meant  war  and 
bloodshed  for  the  colonies.  Thomas  Potts 
married,  January  16,  1753,  Elizabeth  Lu- 
kens,  daughter  of  William  and  Elizabeth 
(Tyson)  Lukens,  who,  when  a  widow, 
married  Dr.  John  Rockhill,  a  widower 
(born  March  22,  1726,  died  April  7,  1798), 


whose    descendants    (by   their   previous 
marriages)  intermarried. 

The  Lukens  family  was  one  of  the  most 
notable  of  the  early  Pennsylvania  fam- 
ilies, and  was  of  Holland  descent.  Joseph 
and  John  Lukens  were  brothers-in-law 
of  Thomas  Potts.  The  first  mentioned 
was  a  lifelong  resident  of  the  Lukens 
estate,  at  Sandy  Run,  a  man  of  wealth, 
held  in  high  esteem  for  many  good 
qualities.  The  latter  was  appointed  to 
the  responsible  position  of  surveyor-gen- 
eral of  Pennsylvania,  under  the  king. 
Upon  the  agitation  of  the  momentous 
question  which  prepared  the  way  for 
American  independence,  he  espoused  the 
cause  of  the  patriots  and  so  closely  was 
he  identified  with  the  leaders  in  the  Revo- 
lutionary movement  that  it  was  in  one  of 
the  apartments  of  his  residence,  in  Phila- 
delphia, that  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence was  drawn  up  by  Thomas  Jefferson. 
His  granddaughter,  the  celebrated  beauty, 
Sally  McKean,  became  the  wife  of  the  ^ 
Marquis  D'Yrugo,  the  first  minister  from 
Spain  to  the  United  States  under  the  con- 
stitution. Elizabeth,  the  eldest  child  of 
Thomas  and  Elizabeth  (Lukens)  Potts, 
married  Robert  Barnhill,  and  among  their 
children  was  a  daughter  Margaret,  who 
married  Cornelius  V.  S.  Roosevelt,  and 
had  a  son  Theodore  Roosevelt,  who  was 
the  father  of  Theodore  Roosevelt,  former 
President  of  the  United  States. 

(IV)  Hugh  Henry  Potts,  son  of  Thomas 
and  Elizabeth  (Lukens)  Potts,  was  born 
in  1773,  and  died  in  1842.  One  gains  an 
excellent  idea  regarding  him  from  a  de- 
scription in  a  letter  written  to  Thomas 
Maxwell  Potts,  the  skilled  and  intelligent 
genealogist  of  the  Potts  family,  by  the 
late  William  John  Potts.  It  reads:  "This 
summer  I  have  renewed  my  acquaintance 
with  Mr.  George  H.  Potts,  of  the  City  of 
New  York.  He  is,  as  you  are  aware,  first 
cousin  to  my  father,  and  is  now  seventy- 


223 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


four  years  old, —  a  tall,  distinguished  and 
elegant  looking  man  of  at  least  six  feet 
high,  not  inclined  to  stoutness,  which 
characterizes  two  of  his  sons.  Among 
Mr.  George  H.  Potts'  traditions  of  his 
father,  uncles  and  grandfather,  were  sev- 
eral which  are  confirmed  in  part  by  my 
aunt,  (Hannah)  Elizabeth  Potts  and  my 
uncle,  Charles  Clay  Potts,  both  aged 
above  seventy  years.  Hugh  Potts,  as  he 
was  commonly  called,  though  his  full 
name  was  Alexander  Hugh,  father  of  the 
said  George,  and  brother  to  my  grand- 
father, was  a  remarkably  handsome  man. 
One  of  the  Robesons  who  had  known  him 
in  his  youth,  possibly  an  old  sweetheart 
of  his,  said  he  was  the  handsomest  man 
she  ever  knew.  The  said  Mary  Robeson 
died  in  Philadelphia,  aged  about  seventy 
years,  ten  or  more  years  ago.  Hugh  Potts 
was  six  feet  one  inch  high ;  weighed  220 
pounds,  and  was  a  most  powerful  man. 
On  one  occasion  he  lifted  with  one  hand 
fourteen  56-pound  weights  to  above  the 
knee.  He  held  on  his  outstretched  hand 
one  Ramsay,  sheriff  of  Hunterdon  coun- 
ty, in  a  standing  position,  he  being 
steadied  by  a  man  on  each  side ;  took  him 
entirely  across  the  room.  He  also  car- 
ried said  Ramsay,  standing  on  his  (Mr. 
Potts')  knee,  the  back  part  of  it  turned 
up,  across  the  room.  Mrs.  Rockhill,  sis- 
ter of  Hugh  Potts,  was  also  of  large 
frame.  She  was  six  feet  in  height. 
Thomas  Potts,  high  sheriff  of  Sussex 
county,  New  Jersey,  father  of  Hugh  Potts, 
on  one  occasion  had  to  arrest  Edward 
Marshall,  the  hero  of  the  famous  Indian 
walk,  who  lived  on  an  island  in  the  Dela- 
ware, out  of  his  jurisdiction,  and  was  be- 
side no  mean  adversary.  My  great-grand- 
father, Thomas  Potts,  a  large  and  power- 
ful man,  took  a  boat  and  crossing  over  to 
the  island  where  Marshall  lived,  bound 
him  hand  and  foot,  and  when  he  landed 
his  prisoner  on  the  Jersey  shore,  served 
his  warrant  on  him." 


Hugh  Henry  Potts  married  Elizabeth 
Hughes,  about  the  year  1800,  at  Carlisle, 
Pennsylvania.  She  was  the  daughter  of 
Captain  John  Hughes,  a  distinguished 
officer  of  the  Revolution,  who  enlisted  as 
a  sergeant  in  the  Sixth  Pennsylvania  Bat- 
talion, January  29,  1776,  and  served  in 
various  capacities  to  the  close  of  the  war. 
His  position  of  brigade  quartermaster 
during  the  years  1778  and  1779  brought 
him  in  close  personal  companionship  with 
General  George  Washington.  Hugh 
Henry  Potts  also  inclined  to  a  military 
career  and  near  the  close  of  the  War  of 
1812  was  appointed  to  a  captaincy  in  the 
United  States  army. 

(V )  George  Alexander  Henry  Potts,  son 
of  Hugh  Henry  and  Elizabeth  (Hughes) 
Potts,  was  born  September  22,  181 1,  died 
in  New  York  City,  on  April  28,  1888.  He 
was  born  on  his  father's  estate  on  the 
Delaware  river  in  Bucks  county,  Penn- 
sylvania. Bereft  of  his  mother  by  death 
in  1813,  he  found  a  home  in  Pittstown, 
Hunterdon  county,  New  Jersey,  in  the 
family  of  his  father's  sister,  Mrs.  Judge 
Rockhill.  In  1829  he  removed  to  Potts- 
ville,  Pennsylvania,  and  at  once  engaged 
in  mining  operations,  and  from  1834  to 
1845  was  tne  most  extensive  individual 
coal  operator  in  the  region.  He  erected 
the  first  engine  for  mining  coal  below  the 
water  level  ever  set  up  in  Pennsylvania; 
he  also  built  the  first  boat  which  was  em- 
ployed to  convey  coal  from  the  Schuylkill 
region  direct  to  New  York  City.  In  1853 
George  A.  H.  Potts  removed  to  New  York 
City  and  became  the  head  of  the  New 
York  branch  of  the  wholesale  coal  and 
iron  firm  of  Lewis  Audenried  &  Com- 
pany. On  the  death  of  Mr.  Audenried  in 
1874  this  firm,  was  dissolved,  Mr.  Potts 
retiring,  and  the  business  has  since  been 
continued  by  his  sons,  Frederic  A.  Potts 
and  William  Rockhill  Potts,  and  still  later 
by  his  grandson,  Frederic  A.  Potts. 
George  A.  H.  Potts  was  one  of  the  origi- 
224 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


nal  incorporators  of  the  National  Park 
Bank,  and  its  president  from  September, 
1879,  to  the  time  of  his  death  in  1888.  In 
person  he  was  above  the  medium  height 
and  of  striking  personal  appearance. 

On  September  19,  1832,  he  married 
(first)  Emily  Dilworth  Cumming,  at 
Pottsville,  Pennsylvania.  She  was  the 
daughter  of  George  M.  Cumming,  who 
was  born  March  15,  1813,  and  died  in 
1857.  On  July  2,  1863,  he  married  (sec- 
ond) Helen  Blendina  Hard.  She  was 
born  at  Albion,  New  York,  October  17, 
1837,  and  was  the  daughter  of  Judge 
Gideon  Hard.  George  A.  H.  Potts  re- 
sided on  Madison  avenue,  New  York  City, 
and  had  a  summer  home  and  farm  at  Som- 
erville,  New  Jersey. 

(VI)  George  Cumming  Potts,  eldest 
son  of  George  Alexander  Henry  and 
Emily  Dilworth  (Cumming)  Potts,  was 
born  at  Pottsville,  Pennsylvania,  August 
3,  1834,  died  at  his  home  in  Culver  Road, 
Rochester,  New  York,  Sunday,  May  7, 
1916.  George  C.  Potts,  after  obtaining  a 
good  education,  was  taught  the  detail  of 
coal  production  and  mine  operation  at  his 
father's  mines,  was  engaged  in  coal  min- 
ing at  Locustdale,  Schuylkill  county, 
Pennsylvania,  operating  the  Potts  Col- 
liery, in  1852,  but  later  withdrew  to  be- 
come a  member  of  the  stock  brokerage 
firm,  R.  Ellis  &  Company,  of  Philadel- 
phia. He  spent  many  years  in  business 
prior  to  becoming  general  northern  coal 
salesagent  for  the  Philadelphia  &  Read- 
ing Coal  and  Iron  Company,  his  territory 
Northern  New  York  and  Canada.  In 
1893  he  moved  to  Rochester  as  represent- 
ative of  that  company  and  until  1912  was 
engaged  in  the  duties  pertaining  to  the  re- 
sponsible position  he  held.  In  1912  he 
retired,  the  best  known  coal  and  iron 
agent  in  the  northern  tier  of  States.  He 
was  a  man  of  strong  mind  and  body,  had 
been  connected  with  coal  business  almost 

NY-VolIII-15  225 


from  boyhood  and  inherited  a  capacity  for 
business  operation  from  his  distinguished 
father,  who  had  also  guided  his  first  ven- 
tures. His  acquaintance  was  widely  scat- 
tered and  he  was  a  well  known  figure  on 
the  Philadelphia  and  New  York  Ex- 
changes, he  being  a  member  of  both.  He 
was  bold  in  his  operations,  yet  always 
kept  within  the  bounds  of  his  judgment 
and  accurate  knowledge.  He  was  rated  a 
wise  and  honorable  man  of  business,  one 
whose  word  it  was  always  safe  to  rely 
upon. 

Mr.  Potts  was  a  Democrat  in  politics, 
but  took  little  active  part  in  public  affairs. 
In  Rochester  he  was  a  member  of  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  the  Genesee  Val- 
ley, the  Rochester  and  the  Rochester 
Whist  clubs.  His  Philadelphia  club  was 
the  Philadelphia,  his  New  York  City  club, 
the  Union.  Before  locating  in  Rochester, 
he  had  been  an  active  member  of  the 
Lighthouse  Club  of  Currituck,  North  Car- 
olina. He  was  ever  fond  of  sport,  and 
particularly  partial  to  horses  and  hunting, 
taking  active  part  in  such  out-of-doors 
recreation  even  after  the  years  warned 
him  to  desist.  He  was  in  his  eighty-sec- 
ond year  when  he  died  and  until  within 
six  months  of  his  last  illness  could  have 
been  considered  a  man  hale  and  hearty. 

Mr.  Potts  married  (first)  in  1852,  Mary 
Dallas,  daughter  of  Judge  Dallas,  who 
died  the  same  year.  He  married  (sec- 
ond) December  4,  1863,  Mary  Laurette 
Eustis,  born  at  Milton,  Massachusetts, 
January  14,  1845,  died  at  Pottsville,  Penn- 
sylvania, November  4,  1868,  daughter  of 
Alexander  Brook  and  Aurore  (Grelaud) 
Eustis.  He  married  (third)  Nancy 
(Wheaton)  Phillips,  who  survives  him. 
She  is  a  daughter  of  David  R.  and  Mary 
(Galusha)  Wheaton,  of  Western  New 
York,  the  former  named  born  1817,  a  pio- 
neer in  that  section  of  the  State,  and  the 
latter  named  in  Exeter,  Otsego  county, 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


New  York,  1830.  Children  all  born  to  Mr. 
Potts  and  his  second  wife,  Mary  Laurette 
(Eustis)  Potts:  Maude  Eustis,  married  at 
Bellefonte,  Pennsylvania,  April  8,  1890, 
Augustus  C.  Paine,  Jr.,  and  resides  in 
New  York  City;  George  Eustis,  born 
April  15,  1866,  married  at  Marquette, 
Michigan,  September  14,  1898,  Sarah 
White  Call,  and  resides  at  Short  Hills, 
New  Jersey ;  Hugh  Eustis,  born  October 
14,  1867,  married  Grace  Paine,  and  re- 
sides in  Willsborough,  New  York ;  Lau- 
rette Eustis,  born  at  Pottsville,  Pennsyl- 
vania, October  12,  1868,  married  at  Ger- 
mantown,  Pennsylvania,  January  24,  1905, 
L.  Frederick  Pease,  and  resides  in  New 
York  City. 


WARD,  Henry  Augustus, 

Scientist,  Traveler,  Explorer. 

There  have  been  great  scientists,  great 
travelers,  and  great  explorers,  each  a  spe- 
cialist, but  rare  indeed  is  it  to  find  such  a 
character  as  Professor  Ward,  scientist, 
traveler  and  explorer,  yet  in  no  sense  a 
specialist.  His  quest  was  for  all  that  was 
wonderful  in  natural  science  ;  his  field,  the 
world.  With  all  his  attainments  he  was 
a  man  of  singular  modesty  and  simplicity 
of  character,  yet  in  every  seat  of  scientific 
learning  in  his  own  and  other  lands  his 
name  is  honored  and  will  live  when  the 
names  of  more  self  assertive  scientists 
shall  have  long  been  forgotten.  The  great 
Museum  of  Natural  Science  in  Sibley 
Hall,  University  of  Rochester,  a  priceless 
heritage,  perhaps  best  represents  his  high- 
est work,  while  Ward's  Natural  Science 
Establishment,  which  he  founded  in 
Rochester,  is  still  the  Mecca  of  scientists 
in  search  of  rare  and  valuable  specimens 
illustrating  the  various  branches  of  nat- 
ural science.  His  collection  of  meteorites, 
known  as  the  Ward-Coonley  Collection, 
is  now  a  part  of  the  Field  Museum  of 


Chicago,  and  is  the  largest  private  collec- 
tion in  the  world.  To  it  he  devoted  about 
nine  years  of  his  life.  Professor  Ward 
often  said,  "This  collection  will  be  my 
monument."  One  of  his  recent  trips  was 
to  Teheran,  Persia,  to  secure  a  piece  of 
the  Veramin  meteorite  owned  by  the  Shah 
and  jealously  guarded  in  his  palace.  He 
was  successful  and  a  specimen  is  on  ex- 
hibition with  the  collection  in  New  York. 

Professor  L.  P.  Gratacap,  of  the  Amer- 
ican Museum  of  Natural  History,  in  his 
article  in  the  "Popular  Science  Monthly" 
entitled  "The  Largest  American  Collec- 
tion of  Meteorites,"  says :  "No  one  in  the 
United  States  has  exhibited  greater  perse- 
verance or  more  boundless,  almost  reck- 
less, enthusiasm  in  the  work  of  collecting 
meteorites  than  Professor  Henry  A. 
Ward.  His  audacity  and  zeal  have  gone 
hand  in  hand  with  a  very  keen  scientific 
sense  of  the  meaning  of  meteorites  and 
an  admirable  acquaintance  with  the  litera- 
ture and  the  results  that  have  developed 
in  their  study.  He  has  himself  been  an 
explorer  in  this  field  and  it  would  be  safe 
to  predict  that  he  would  to-day  be  the 
first  arrival  at  the  scene  should  a  meteorite 
fall."  Professor  Carl  Klein,  State  Coun- 
selor and  Director  of  the  Royal  Mineral 
Collection  at  Berlin,  referred  to  the  Ward- 
Coonley  Collection  as  "one  of  the  finest 
and  richest  meteorite  collections  in  the 
entire  world." 

As  a  traveler  in  search  of  the  rare  and 
wonderful  in  nature  he  established  a  rec- 
ord unsurpassed,  carrying  the  name  and 
fame  of  Rochester  literally  into  the  far 
corners  of  the  earth.  He  was  known  to 
all  of  the  older  scientists  of  the  world,  and 
for  many  years  the  highways  of  the  earth 
converged  at  Rochester.  He  made  at 
least  thirty-five  trips  to  Europe,  circum- 
navigated the  globe,  and  visited  every 
continent  and  almost  every  country  the 
sun  shines  upon,  as  well  as  all  the  impor- 


226 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


tant  islands  of  all  the  seas.  He  spoke 
many  languages  a  famous  Frenchman 
saying,  "He  is  an  American  who  speaks 
French  like  a  Parisian."  His  command  of 
German  was  equally  good,  and  he  spoke 
Spanish  fluently. 

This  knowledge  of  the  languages  of  the 
world  was  not  obtained  through  a  desire 
for  linguistic  attainment  but  through 
necessity,  for  he  literally  ransacked  the 
earth  in  his  quest  for  specimens  and  often 
he  was  the  only  member  of  his  party  who 
could  converse  with  the  natives.  He  knew 
South  America  as  well  as  he  did  the  high- 
ways of  his  native  city.  His  first  collect- 
ing tour  was  made  in  1854,  prior  to  receiv- 
ing his  degree  from  Harvard  University, 
and  was  made  at  the  expense  of  the  elder 
General  Wadsworth,  of  New  York,  who 
sent  him  to  Europe  as  tutor  to  his  son, 
Charles  Wadsworth,  now  deceased.  The 
young  men  traveled  all  over  Continental 
Europe,  then  crossed  to  Egypt,  visited 
Alexandria  and  Cairo  and  ascended  the 
Nile  to  the  second  cataract,  a  notable 
journey  in  those  days.  While  this  jour- 
ney was  undertaken  solely  for  the  benefit 
to  be  gained  through  foreign  travel  it  was 
at  this  time  that  Professor  Ward  col- 
lected his  first  specimens.  It  was  also  at 
General  Wadsworth's  expense  that  the 
"Wadsworth  Collection"  of  rocks,  min- 
erals and  fossils,  donated  by  General 
Wadsworth  to  the  Buffalo  Natural  His- 
tory Society  and  yet  on  exhibition,  was 
made  by  Professor  Ward  when  a  young 
man. 

His  next  journey  of  note  was  made 
while  he  was  still  a  student  at  the  School 
of  Mines  in  Paris,  France.  This  journey 
carried  him  to  Joppa,  Jerusalem,  the  Dead 
Sea,  and  other  points  of  scientific  interest 
in  Palestine,  Arabia,  Nubia,  and  Egypt; 
up  the  Nile  to  the  fifth  cataract;  across 
the  desert  to  Abyssinia,  Somaliland,  Zan- 
zibar,     Mozambique,      Portugese      East 


Africa,  Zululand,  Natal,  Cape  Colony; 
then  one  thousand  miles  northeasterly 
from  Cape  Town  through  the  interior  to 
Griqualand,  visiting  the  diamond  fields; 
thence  again  to  Cape  Town.  He  next  pro- 
ceeded up  the  West  Coast  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Niger,  where  he  left  the  ship  and 
ascended  the  river  four  hundred  miles, 
that  being  the  record  trip  into  the  interior 
of  Africa  for  an  American.  On  his  return 
to  the  coast  he  continued  his  northward 
journey,  visiting  Liberia,  Sierra  Leone, 
Senegambia,  Senegal,  and  Morocco,  re- 
turning to  Marseilles,  the  point  also  of 
his  departure.  It  was  on  this  journey 
that  he  visited  the  island  of  Fernando 
Po,  in  the  Bight  of  Biafra,  off  the  Came- 
roons,  West  Africa,  where  he  was 
stricken  with  yellow  fever  and  narrowly 
escaped  death.  Professor  Ward's  travels 
in  South  America  were  very  extensive, 
for  he  visited  every  country  at  least  once, 
and  was  familiar  with  trails  leading  over 
the  Andes.  His  last  trip  there  was  made 
at  the  age  of  sixty-nine  years  and  was 
completed  the  year  of  his  death,  1906. 
He  crossed  the  continent  several  times 
from  Valparaiso  to  Buenos  Ayres,  ex- 
plored the  Magdalena  river  for  hundreds 
of  miles  from  its  mouth,  and  traveled  for 
days  over  tortuous,  dangerous  mountain 
trails  to  Santa  Rosa  and  Bogota.  On  his 
last  trip,  in  order  to  reach  home,  he 
crossed  the  Atlantic  from  Rio  de  Janeiro 
to  Senegal,  Africa,  thence  to  Lisbon  and 
Bordeaux,  there  intending  to  meet  Judge 
Albion  W.  Tourgee,  who  had  been  a 
student  at  the  University  of  Rochester 
while  Professor  Ward  was  a  member  of 
the  faculty  and  who  was  then  United 
States  Consul  at  Bordeaux.  The  morn- 
ing after  his  arrival  he  called  at  the  con- 
sulate and  was  informed  that  Judge 
Tourgee  had  died  during  the  previous 
night. 

Professor  Ward  visited  Australia  sev- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


eral  times,  living  in  gold  camps  and 
camping  on  the  border  of  the  great 
interior  desert.  His  last  trip  there  was 
at  the  request  of  the  younger  Professor 
Agassiz,  of  Harvard  University,  to  obtain 
a  collection  of  Australian  corals,  the  jour- 
ney resulting  in  his  securing  the  largest 
and  finest  collection  of  corals  character- 
istic of  a  given  locality,  ever  made.  The 
ship  chartered  for  the  expedition  made 
the  passage  inside  the  Great  Barrier  Reef 
that  skirts  Australia  on  the  east  from 
Torres  Strait  almost  to  Brisbane. 

In  North  America  he  had  visited  every 
State  and  territory  within  the  borders  of 
the  United  States  except  Alaska,  had 
crossed  British  America  from  the  Pacific 
to  Newfoundland,  and  had  traveled 
thousands  of  miles  in  Mexico  and  Central 
American  States.  While  traveling  in 
Colombia,  South  America,  in  1905,  he 
was  captured  by  the  insurgent  General 
Uribe,  but  was  held  prisoner  only  a  short 
time. 

In  1871  he  was  appointed  by  President 
Grant  as  naturalist  to  accompany  the 
expedition  he  was  sending  to  Santo  Do- 
mingo, the  purchase  of  that  island  of  the 
West  Indies  being  then  contemplated  and 
further  information  regarding  its  re- 
sources being  desired.  Professor  Ward's 
duties  were  especially  of  a  geological  and 
zoological  nature.  The  vessel  carrying 
the  expedition  was  wrecked,  but  all  lives 
were  saved  and  no  material  injury  was 
sustained  to  thwart  their  mission. 

A  summary  of  the  countries  he  ex- 
plored and  searched  shows  the  earth 
circumnavigated  and  every  country  in 
Europe  and  every  large  city  visited.  In 
Asia,  all  countries  of  the  Indian  and 
Pacific  littorals,  as  well  as  the  large 
islands  of  those  oceans,  including  Java, 
Borneo,  New  Zealand,  Tasmania,  New 
Guinea,  New  Caledonia,  Hawaii,  and 
Japan ;  Africa,  coastal  and  interior ;  South, 


Central,  and  North  America;  all  laid 
under  contribution,  for  these  journeys 
were  not  for  pleasure  but  to  secure  speci- 
mens for  Ward's  Natural  Science  Estab- 
lishment in  Rochester,  to  be  distributed 
among  museums,  college  collections,  and 
private  collectors.  The  last  eight  or  nine 
years  of  his  life  were  spent  in  search  for 
meteorites,  but  prior  to  that  all  specimens 
of  value  to  natural  history  students  were 
collected.  Professor  Ward  was  not  a 
voluminous  writer  and  it  was  almost  im- 
possible to  prevail  upon  him  to  face  an 
audience.  He  did,  however,  publish 
"Notice  of  the  Megatherium  Auveri"  and 
"Descriptions  of  the  Most  Celebrated 
Fossils  in  the  Royal  Museums  of  Eu- 
rope," and  had  in  preparation  at  the  time 
of  his  death  a  great  work  on  meteorites, 
upon  which  he  had  worked  with  his  secre- 
tary at  his  summer  home  at  Wyoming, 
New  York,  for  about  three  years.  In  his 
last  years  he  consented  to  deliver  lectures, 
very  few  in  number,  before  the  Rochester 
Academy  of  Science  and  the  Buffalo  So- 
ciety of  Natural  History.  Although 
Ward's  Natural  Science  Establishment  is 
a  commercial  enterprise,  its  business  is 
carried  on  through  an  extensive  corps  of 
assistants  at  home  and  personally  trained 
collectors  whom  he  sent  to  all  points  of 
the  world  for  materials  for  "Ward's 
Cabinets."  Professor  Ward,  the  founder, 
during  the  years  of  his  management 
subordinated  the  commercial  to  the 
scientific.  Hence,  while  the  institution 
is  in  no  sense  a  school,  many  men  whose 
names  are  high  upon  the  scientific  roll  of 
fame  received  their  early  practical  train- 
ing under  him.  Among  those  going  out 
from  under  his  instruction  the  more 
notable  are :  G.  K.  Gilbert,  of  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey;  Edwin  E. 
Howell,  the  most  skilled  maker  of  relief 
maps  in  the  world,  who  came  to  Roches- 
ter an  untaught  country  boy ;  Dr.  Wil- 


228 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


liam  T.  Hornaday,  director  of  the  Bronx 
Park  Zoological  Garden,  one  of  the  larg- 
est in  the  world ;  Curator  Frank  C.  Baker, 
of  Chicago,  a  leading  natural  scientist; 
Charles  A.  Townsend,  of  the  United 
States  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  the 
most  successful  collector  of  deep  sea 
specimens  known ;  A.  B.  Baker,  assistant 
superintendent  but  practical  head  of  the 
Natural  Zoological  Garden  at  Washing- 
ton ;  Frederick  A.  Lucas,  curator-in-chief 
of  the  museum  of  Brooklyn  Institute  of 
Arts  and  Sciences;  George  Turner,  a 
native  of  Rochester,  now  chief  taxider- 
mist of  the  United  States  Natural 
Museum,  Washington;  Walter  C.  Bar- 
rows, professor  of  zoology  in  Michigan 
Agricultural  College;  Rufus  H.  Pettit, 
professor  of  entomology  in  the  same  insti- 
tution ;  and  Carl  Akley,  chief  taxidermist 
of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural 
Science,  New  York  City. 

The  tribute  Dr.  Hornaday  lays  at  the 
feet  of  his  master  and  friend  expresses 
the  feelings  of  all.  Dr.  Hornaday  came 
to  Rochester  in  1873  from  an  Iowa  agri- 
cultural college.  He  did  such  excellent 
work  that  in  1874  he  was  sent  to  Florida 
in  the  interests  of  the  establishment  and 
was  so  successful  that  in  1876  he  was  sent 
by  Professor  Ward  around  the  world  on 
a  collecting  tour,  a  journey  described  in 
"Two  Years  in  the  Jungle"  by  Dr.  Horn- 
aday (New  York,  1885).  The  esteem  in 
which  he  held  Professor  Ward  he  thus 
expressed :  "In  my  estimation  he  has 
done  more  towards  the  creation  and  ex- 
pansion of  the  scientific  museums  of  the 
world  than  any  other  twenty  men  I  could 
name.  The  value  of  his  work  as  a  scien- 
tific educator  can  never  be  estimated  in 
dollars  and  cents.  He  deliberately  chose 
as  his  sphere  of  usefulness  the  gathering 
and  distribution  of  specimens  and  collec- 
tions for  the  promotion  of  scientific  study. 
The  work  of  his  life  has  been  to  place  in 


the  hands  of  scientific  students  and  inves- 
tigators the  objects  they  could  not  obtain 
for  themselves." 

In  his  philanthropy  Professor  Ward 
was  particularly  generous  to  institutions 
and  collectors  of  small  means,  frequently 
adding  to  their  orders  useful  specimens 
without  charge,  reducing  his  profit  to 
nothing  and  in  some  cases  not  receiving 
enough  even  to  cover  the  original  cost. 
Many  young  men  of  this  country  and 
some  in  Europe  owe  their  education  and 
opportunities  to  him,  nor  was  it  neces- 
sary that  they  should  be  scientific 
students,  as  he  was  equally  ready  to  help 
any  ambitious  young  man  to  a  business 
education.  Money  meant  nothing  to  him ; 
his  work  was  everything.  The  zoological, 
geological,  and  mineralogical  collection 
installed  by  him  in  the  Lewis  Brooks 
Museum  of  Natural  Science  at  the 
University  of  Virginia  in  Richmond  at  a 
cost  to  Mr.  Brooks  of  eighty-eight  thou- 
sand dollars  netted  Professor  Ward  a 
profit  of  but  one  hundred  dollars,  and  this 
did  not  pay  for  the  time  he  spent  in  plac- 
ing the  collection  in  position  in  the 
museum. 

Professor  Ward  met  death  by  accident 
in  Buffalo,  after  escaping  the  perils  of 
explorer  and  traveler  in  wild  and  un- 
frequented regions  during  the  greater 
part  of  a  life  of  seventy  years.  He  him- 
self planned  and  placed  his  tomb  in 
Mount  Hope  Cemetery,  Rochester, 
several  years  prior  to  his  death.  It  is  an 
immense  boulder  of  crystalline  quartz 
with  jasper  inclusion  brought  from  the 
north  shore  of  Lake  Superior,  the  only 
region  in  the  entire  world  known  to 
produce  such  a  rock.  A  niche  in  the 
center  contains  the  urn  that  holds  his 
ashes. 

Henry  Augustus  Ward  was  born  in 
Rochester,  March  9,  1834,  died  in  Buffalo, 
July  4,  1906,  son  of  Henry  M.  and  Eliza 


229 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


(Chapin)  Ward.  He  attended  Rochester 
schools  for  a  time,  but  in  early  life  spent 
several  years  on  a  farm  in  Wyoming 
county.  He  then  became  a  student  at 
Temple  Hall  Academy,  Geneseo,  New 
York,  Marshal  Oyama,  the  famous 
Japanese  warrior,  being  a  classmate.  He 
next  entered  Williams  College,  where  for 
about  a  year  Charles  E.  Fitch,  of  Roches- 
ter, was  a  classmate.  It  was  while  a 
student  at  Williams  that  he  walked 
twenty-eight  miles  to  hear  Professor 
Agassiz's  lecture  and  was  then  introduced 
to  him.  This  resulted  in  the  abandon- 
ment of  his  college  course  and  his  going 
to  Cambridge  as  Professor  Agassiz's 
assistant.  After  a  number  of  years  of  this 
congenial  work  which  resulted  in  his 
lifelong  friendship  with  his  great  master, 
he  went  on  the  tour  with  General  Wads- 
worth.  This  was  followed  by  five  years 
at  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  the  Sorbonne, 
and  the  School  of  Mines,  shorter  courses 
following  at  Munich  in  Bavaria,  and 
Freiburg  in  Saxony.  He  then  threw  his 
books  aside  and  made  the  African  jour- 
ney previously  described.  During  his 
travels  he  studied  the  zoological  and  geo- 
logical features  of  the  country  through 
which  he  passed,  while  at  the  same  time 
he  made  a  vast  collection  of  minerals, 
geological  specimens  and  fossils.  During 
his  student  life  in  Paris  he  supported  him- 
self by  the  collection  of  fossils  and  other 
geological  specimens  found  in  Paris, 
which  he  either  sold  in  London  or  ex- 
changed for  scientific  material  that  he 
could  convert  into  cash.  The  result  of 
his  African  journey,  that  valuable  col- 
lection now  owned  by  the  University  of 
Rochester,  was  made  with  the  assistance 
of  his  uncle,  Levi  Ward.  This  collection 
of  mineral  rocks  and  fossils  was  shipped 
to  the  United  States  and  on  its  arrival 
he  exhibited  it  in  Washington  Hall,  at  the 
corner  of  what  is  now  West  Main  and 


Washington  streets.  The  collection  at- 
tracted widespread  attention,  being  the 
largest  and  most  complete  of  its  kind  ever 
made.  It  was  the  center  of  so  much 
interest  that  it  was  purchased  by  popular 
subscription  for  the  University  of 
Rochester,  where,  greatly  enlarged,  it 
occupies  an  important  place  in  Sibley 
Hall.  Shortly  after  his  return  from 
Paris  he  was  elected  professor  of  natural 
science,  filling  that  chair  for  five  years, 
i860  to  1865. 

His  knowledge  of  minerals,  his  experi- 
ence abroad,  and  the  dearth  of  mining 
engineers  brought  Professor  Ward  flat- 
tering proposals  from  several  mining 
companies.  He  accepted  one  of  these, 
from  the  Midas  Gold  Mining  Company, 
of  Midasburg,  Montana,  that  company 
being  largely  owned  by  Rochester  capital- 
ists. In  1865  he  severed  his  connection 
with  the  university  and  became  super- 
intendent of  the  Midas  Company.  He 
procured  for  his  mine  the  first  stamp  mill 
used  in  treating  free  milling  gold  ore 
ever  used  in  the  Rocky  Mountains.  This 
mill,  which  crushed  the  ore  to  a  fineness 
allowing  the  greatest  economy  in  hauling 
from  the  mine,  was  brought  from  Sacra- 
mento, California,  over  the  mountains  to 
Midasburg,  through  a  hostile  wilderness, 
ten  months  being  consumed  in  the  jour- 
ney. From  Midasburg  Professor  Ward 
went  to  Southern  California  as  superin- 
tendent of  a  gold  mine  owned  largely  by 
his  friend,  Cyrus  McCormick,  inventor  of 
the  reaping  machine.  After  a  year  there 
the  call  of  science  won  him  and  he  re- 
turned to  Rochester  to  complete  the  col- 
lection made  by  himself  and  owned  by 
the  University  of  Rochester.  The  serious 
gaps  in  that  collection,  especially  in  the 
fossil  department,  were  comparatively 
easy  to  fill,  there  being  excellent  examples 
of  the  large  extinct  animals  to  be  found 
in  the  museums  of  Europe.    To  fill  these 


230 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


gaps  required  the  making  of  accurate 
moulds  to  the  number  of  several  thousand 
and  to  that  work  he  addressed  himself. 
When  the  moulds  were  ready  to  be 
shipped  to  Rochester  three  frame  build- 
ings were  erected  on  the  campus  to  re- 
ceive them  and  there  the  casts  now  to  be 
seen  in  the  museum  halls  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Rochester  and  many  other  similar 
institutions  were  made,  the  work  attract- 
ing the  attention  of  colleges  and  univer- 
sities all  over  the  United  States,  many 
requests  for  duplicates  being  received. 
This  was  the  inaugural  work  of  "Ward's 
Natural  Science  Establishment,"  that  is 
one  of  Rochester's  notable  enterprises, 
with  a  member  of  the  Ward  family  still 
its  executive  head.  The  establishment 
grew  with  the  years  until  every  branch 
of  natural  science  is  represented.  In  its 
early  years  Professor  Ward  was  its 
directing  head  and  until  his  death  was  a 
large  stockholder  though  not  actively 
identified  with  its  management.  He  ran- 
sacked the  earth  for  specimens,  as  told 
heretofore,  his  natural  history  work  under 
the  elder  Agassiz,  his  geological  work 
under  D'Aubigny  and  De  Beaumont,  his 
private  explorations  and  travels,  all  qual- 
ifying him  for  leadership  in  such  an 
enterprise.  His  interest  in  meteorites 
developed  during  the  last  decade  of  his 
life  and  he  became  as  famous  in  that 
field  as  in  others  longer  cultivated.  His 
business  in  Buffalo  on  the  day  of  his 
death  was  partly  to  talk  over  with  his 
friend,  Dr.  Roswell  Park,  an  expedition 
which  he  proposed  to  lead  into  Africa, 
although  then  in  his  seventy-second  year 
and  not  then  three  months  returned  from 
a  South  American  expedition. 

Professor  Ward's  remarkable  restor- 
ations or  facsimiles  range  in  size  from  a 
shell  to  an  ichthyosaurus  and  a  mastodon, 
and  are  remarkable  in  the  minuteness  and 
exactness  of  their  detail.    He  formed  and 


installed  museums  costing  many  thou- 
sands of  dollars  each  for  Allegheny  Col- 
lege, Cornell,  Syracuse,  Vanderbilt,  Yale 
and  other  universities,  in  all  over  one 
hundred  institutions  throughout  the 
United  States. 

Professor  Ward's  scholarly  degrees 
earned  through  work  in  the  class  room 
were  those  of  Bachelor  of  Arts,  Williams 
College,  i860,  and  Master  of  Arts,  Univer- 
sity of  Rochester,  1862.  The  University 
of  Rochester  conferred  on  him  the  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Laws  in  1896,  and  Doctor  of 
Science,  Albertus  Magnus,  in  1902,  and 
he  was  a  fellow  of  the  American  Asso- 
ciation for  the  Advancement  of  Science 
and  of  the  American  Society  of  Natural- 
ists. 

He  married  (first)  in  i860,  Phoebe  A. 
Howell,  of  York,  New  York,  whom  he 
met  while  both  were  students  at  Geneseo. 
Alice,  their  daughter,  died  in  1901 ; 
Charles  H.,  the  eldest  son,  lives  in 
Rochester;  while  Henry  L.,  is  director 
of  the  Milwaukee  Public  Museum.  Both 
sons  received  their  business  and  technical 
training  in  Ward's  Natural  Science  Estab- 
lishment. On  March  18,  1897,  Professor 
Ward  married  (second)  Mrs.  Lydia 
Avery  Coonley,  of  Chicago,  where  they 
afterwards  resided  in  winter,  making 
their  summer  home  at  Wyoming,  New 
York.  It  was  on  his  way  to  this  country 
home,  associated  with  his  boyhood  as  well 
as  with  his  later  years,  that  on  July  4, 
1906,  Professor  Ward  fell  a  victim  to  the 
reckless  driving  of  an  automobile. 


DRAPER,  Andrew  S., 

Lawyer.   Educator,   Administrator. 

Dr.  Andrew  Sloan  Draper  was  not  a 
genius,  nor  did  he  possess  great  original- 
ity, but  he  was  an  administrator  of  re- 
markable ability.  In  that  respect  he  has 
not  been  equalled  by  anyone  in  this  coun- 


■231 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


try  who  has  had  to  do  with  public  educa- 
tion. His  mind  was  always  open  to  sug- 
gestions from  any  source,  and  he  was  at 
all  times  ready  to  act  upon  such  sugges- 
tions as  to  him  seemed  worthy  and  likely 
to  succeed.  He  had  none  of  that  pride  of 
opinion  that  is  the  weakness  of  small 
minds.  When  he  decided  that  a  thing 
should  be  done,  the  matter  was  perma- 
nently settled  in  his  mind,  and  rebuff  and 
temporary  failure  did  not  dishearten  him. 
He  had  the  ability  to  bide  his  time  and 
seize  the  favorable  moment  for  action 
when  it  arose. 

His  career  shows  clearly  that  men  suc- 
ceed or  fail  in  life  not  primarily  because 
of  the  opportunities  that  they  may  have 
had,  but  because  of  what  they  are.  Dr. 
Draper  was  not  what  is  generally  con- 
sidered an  educated  man;  at  least  his 
schooling  was  somewhat  meager.  Al- 
though he  was  the  successful  president  of 
a  great  university,  he  was  not  a  college 
graduate,  nor  had  he  ever  attended  any 
college,  if  his  course  at  the  Albany  Law 
School  be  excepted.  Why  then  should 
he  achieve  the  great  success  that  he  did? 
How  did  he  fit  himself  for  his  work?  He 
knew  men.  He  was  a  masterful  man.  He 
saw  clearly  and  clung  to  his  purposes 
persistently.  He  prepared  himself  care- 
fully for  every  event  that  he  thought  was 
likely  to  arise.  He  had  not  that  fear  of 
failure  that  so  often  prevents  action. 
Added  to  these  characteristics  was  what 
after  all  is  a  good  training  for  life.  He 
was  born  in  the  country.  When  a  mere 
boy  he  began  to  be  self-supporting. 

Andrew  Sloan  Draper  was  the  son  of  a 
farmer,  Sylvester  Bigelow  Draper,  and  of 
Jane  Sloan  Draper,  was  born  at  West- 
ford,  Otsego  county,  New  York,  on  June 
21,  1848,  and  died  at  his  home  in  Albany, 
April  27,  1913.  He  came  from  good  stock. 
On  his  father's  side  he  was  descended  in 
a   direct   line   from   James   Draper,   "The 


Puritan,"  who  settled  at  Roxbury,  Massa- 
chusetts, in  1646.  Through  his  paternal 
great-grandmother  he  was  descended 
Degory  Priest,  one  of  the  "Mayflower" 
Pilgrims.  His  mother  was  Scotch-Irish. 
Two  of  his  great-grandfathers  were  offi- 
cers in  the  early  French  wars ;  one  of 
them  was  killed  in  King  Philip's  War. 
Two  of  his  ancestors  were  soldiers  in  the 
Revolution. 

His  first  occupation  was  that  of  a  news- 
boy at  Albany,  New  York,  for  which  he 
received  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  a 
week.  His  experience  in  teaching  was 
meager.  He  began  teaching  in  a  private 
school  in  his  native  county  at  the  age  of 
eighteen,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty  was 
principal  of  a  small  village  school  in  the 
county  of  Otsego.  For  three  or  four 
years  he  taught  in  the  Albany  Academy 
and  other  institutions.  He  attended  the 
Albany  public  schools,  and  graduated 
from  the  Albany  Academy  in  1866,  and 
from  the  Albany  Law  School  in  1871.  He 
became  a  member  of  the  law  firm  of 
Draper  &  Chester  in  1871.  He  married 
Abbie  Louise  Bryan,  of  New  Britain, 
Connecticut,  May  8,  1872.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  Albany  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, 1879-81  and  1890-92,  and  was  a 
member  of  the  Legislature  in  1881.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees  of 
the  State  Normal  College,  and  was  made 
Judge  of  the  United  States  Court  of  Ala- 
bama Claims. 

Dr.  Draper  was  a  strong  temperance 
man,  and  was  at  one  time  grand  worthy 
chief  templar  of  the  Independent  Order 
of  Good  Templars  of  the  State  of  New 
York.  He  was  frequently  heard  on  the 
temperance  question  from  the  same  plat- 
form as  Horace  Greeley,  Neal  Dow  and 
John  B.  Gough.  He  was  for  years  an 
active  politician,  and  came  to  see  a  side 
of  human  nature  that  is  not  usually  well 
known  to  those  who  are  not  in  politics. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


He  was  for  several  years  the  head  of  the 
Republican  organization  in  Albany.  One 
might  say  that  this  was  no  preparation 
for  educational  work,  yet  with  him  it 
proved  to  be  the  best  possible  prepara- 
tion— it  made  him  the  master  of  men ;  it 
trained  him  to  understand  the  public;  it 
led  him  to  appreciate  the  value  of  organi- 
zation, without  which  no  great  work  can 
be  successfully  carried  on.  Because  of 
this  training  he  became  an  untiring 
worker,  and  quick  to  see  danger  signals 
and  to  prepare  to  meet  opposition. 

Dr.  Draper  was  elected  State  Superin- 
tendent of  Schools  in  1886,  serving  until 
1892,  his  choice  being  almost  universally 
opposed  by  school  men  on  the  ground 
that  he  was  a  politician.  He  was,  and  he 
remained  one  until  the  day  of  his  death, 
but  partisan  politics  never  entered  into 
the  great  department  over  which  he  pre- 
sided. After  two  terms  of  service  as 
State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion he  was  succeeded  by  a  Democrat, 
but  he  had  cast  his  lot  permanently  with 
educational  workers.  He  was  then  elected 
superintendent  of  schools  at  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  which  office  he  held  from  1892  to 
1894.  In  the  latter  year  he  was  chosen 
president  of  the  University  of  Illinois.  In 
both  of  these  positions  he  made  an  envia- 
ble record.  In  1898  he  was  elected  first 
superintendent  of  schools  in  Greater  New 
York,  but  declined.  When  the  unifica- 
tion of  the  school  systems  of  New  York 
took  place  he  was  called  back  to  his 
native  State  to  administer  educational 
affairs,  and  spent  the  remainder  of  his 
life  at  this  work.  He  was  elected  by  the 
Legislature  in  1904,  and  in  1910  was  re- 
elected for  life  by  the  Board  of  Regents. 
While  engaged  in  educational  work  Dr. 
Draper  spoke  on  many  educational  prob- 
lems and  in  many  States,  and  he  wrote 
largely  and  effectively.  Beyond  question 
he  was  the  ablest  educational  adminis- 
trator of  his  time,  and  probablv  the  ablest 


our  country  has  produced.  He  held  many 
official  educational  offices.  He  was  presi- 
dent of  the  superintendents'  section  of  the 
National  Educational  Association  from 
1889  to  1891,  and  presided  at  these  meet- 
ings with  rare  skill  and  efficiency.  He 
was  president  of  the  North  Central  Asso- 
ciation of  Colleges  and  Secondary  Schools 
in  1903-04.  In  1898  he  was  made  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Board  of  United  States  Indian 
Commissioners,  and  was  chairman  at  the 
time  of  his  death.  Dr.  Draper  loved  his 
State  intensely,  as  he  loved  his  country, 
and  he  had  the  greatest  faith  in  the  char- 
acter and  the  endurance  of  both.  He  was 
an  optimist,  and  had  small  patience  with 
a  man  who  was  disposed  to  look  upon  the 
dark  side  of  things.  He  was  interested  in 
history,  and  was  a  member  and  a  trustee 
of  the  New  York  State  Historical  Asso- 
ciation, and  read  several  papers  at  its 
meetings.  He  was  also  a  member  of  the 
State  Historical  societies  of  Illinois  and 
of  Wisconsin,  as  well  as  of  the  Chicago 
Historical  Society.  He  loved,  respected 
and  honored  his  State,  and  felt  it  was 
without  an  equal  among  the  Common- 
wealths of  our  Union.  In  the  course  of  a 
controversy  with  Mr.  Martin,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, in  regard  to  the  matter  of  pri- 
macy in  educational  work,  he  made  use  of 
this  expression:  "New  York  made  his- 
tory, but  Massachusetts  wrote  it." 

It  is  a  matter  of  interest  to  know  that 
the  magnificent  educational  building 
stands  on  the  same  site  as  that  occupied 
by  the  humble  boyhood  home  of  Dr. 
Draper. 

Dr.  Draper  was  a  speaker  with  no  spe- 
cial graces,  yet  one  who  held  and  influ- 
enced his  audiences  because  of  his  hon- 
esty, his  earnestness,  and  his  clearness  of 
thought  and  expression.  His  educational 
work  may  be  summarized  as  follows :  He 
removed  the  public  schools  of  the  State 
from  the  influence  of  partisan  politics.  He 
provided  uniform  examinations  for  teach- 


233 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


ers'  licenses.  He  secured  the  recognition 
of  the  fact  that  the  schools  were  State  and 
not  local  institutions.  He  secured  the 
enactment  of  laws  designed  to  insure  the 
appointment  of  efficient  supervising  offi- 
cers for  rural  schools.  He  secured  the 
passage  of  a  law  providing  for  three  thou- 
sand State  scholarships  in  the  approved 
colleges  of  the  State.  It  was  chiefly 
through  his  influence  and  efforts  that  the 
Educational  Department  is  housed  in  the 
finest  building  in  the  world  devoted  to 
that  purpose.  He  received  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Laws  from  Colgate  (1889),  Co- 
lumbia (1903),  and  the  University  of  Illi- 
nois (1905).  He  received  an  award  at  the 
Paris  Exposition  (1900)  for  a  monograph 
on  the  "Organization  and  Administration 
of  the  American  School  System,"  and  a 
gold  medal  and  one  of  two  grand  prizes 
given  at  the  St.  Louis  Exposition  (1904) 
for  collaborating  two  or  more  exhibits  and 
for  unusual  services  in  educational  ad- 
ministration. 

The  life  of  Dr.  Draper  should  be  an  in- 
spiration to  all  boys  and  young  men  who 
have  ideals  and  ambitions.  He  was  a 
poor  boy.  He  had  no  special  educational 
opportunities.  He  had  good  native  abil- 
ity, but  was  in  no  sense  a  genius.  He 
made  his  way  through  persistent  hard 
work.  He  earned  his  success.  He  was 
not  vacillating.  He  stood  for  the  right  as 
he  saw  it,  let  the  result  be  what  it  might. 
He  detested  dishonest,  mean,  cowardly 
men,  and  men  who  were  always  yielding 
to  difficulties.  On  one  occasion  when 
talking  to  a  school  official  who  was  mak- 
ing excuses  for  not  doing  his  duty  he 
said :  "I  have  no  faith  in  a  man  who  is 
always  seeing  a  lion  in  the  way.  I  pin 
my  faith  to  the  man  who,  when  he  meets 
an  obstacle  will  find  a  way  over  it,  around 
it,  through  it  or  under  it."  This  was  Dr. 
Draper's  own  spirit,  the  spirit  that  con- 
tributed so  largely  to  his  success. 


The  magnificent  educational  building  at 
Albany  will  be  a  lasting  monument  to  Dr. 
Draper.  The  State  scholarships  that  he 
was  successful  in  securing  will  for  all 
time  secure  to  thousands  of  boys  and 
girls  a  college  education,  and  many  of 
these  could  never  have  hoped  for  a  lib- 
eral education  but  for  these  scholarships. 
Not  only  will  thousands  secure  these 
scholarships,  but  many  more  thousands 
will  accomplish  much  more  in  life  than 
they  otherwise  would  have  done,  because 
of  these  scholarships.  They  will  cause  a 
general  uplift  in  the  educational  work  of 
the  State.  In  this  act  alone  Dr.  Draper 
has  rendered  the  State  he  loved  so  dearly 
an  invaluable  service. 

Sherman  Williams. 


CULVER,  Oliver, 

Pioneer  of  Brighton. 

Coming  from  the  town  of  Orwell,  Ver- 
mont, a  section  rich  in  historical  associa- 
tions, Oliver  Culver  made  local  history  in 
the  town  of  Brighton,  now  a  part  of  the 
city  of  Rochester.  John  Lusk,  the  pio- 
neer settler,  came  to  Brighton  first  in  1787 
and  then  returned  to  his  Massachusetts 
home,  carrying  wonderful  stories  of  the 
resources  of  the  Genesee  valley.  Through 
his  influence  and  the  favorable  reports  he 
took  back  to  New  England,  several  fam- 
ilies followed  his  example  when  he  re 
turned  and  became  a  permanent  settlei 
in  Brighton,  among  them  Oliver  Culver, 
who  came  in  1791. 

He  at  once  secured  land  and  began 
clearing  a  farm,  he  and  Solomon  Hatch 
having  a  saw  mill  running  on  Allyn's 
creek  as  early  as  1806.  His  farm  was 
just  east  of  Brighton  village,  and  when 
in  1810  the  population  of  the  afterward 
created  town  of  Brighton  had  reached 
two  thousand  eight  hundred,  he,  in  ad- 
dition to  his  farm  and  saw  mill,  engaged 


234 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


in  business  with  Judge  Tryon  and  trans- 
ported many  boatloads  of  goods  to  the 
infant  settlements  in  the  then  "Far  West." 
He  operated  perhaps  the  first  distillery  in 
the  town,  having  one  located  near  his 
tavern  west  of  Brighton  village,  and  one 
north  of  his  residence. 

When  the  Erie  canal  was  completed 
through  the  eastern  part  of  the  county  in 
1822,  Oliver  Culver  built  and  put  in  the 
canal  at  Brighton  the  first  packet  boat  of 
that  region,  and  the  fourth  to  operate  on 
the  canal  anywhere.  When  the  old  town- 
ship of  Smallwood  was  divided  on  March 
25,  1814,  and  its  territory  organized  into 
two  distinct  towns,  Brighton  and  Pitts- 
ford,  he  was  elected  at  the  first  town 
meeting  held  in  Brighton  in  1814,  the  first 
supervisor  of  the  new  town,  serving  two 
years.  He  was  again  elected  in  1838,  serv- 
ing three  years,  and  again  elected  in  1844. 
He  continued  his  boat  building  for  sev- 
eral years,  with  two  others  being  the 
leaders  in  that  industry,  and  during  their 
earlier  years  (1812-1815)  the  little  settle- 
ment was  a  busy  locality,  much  lake  navi- 
gation having  its  beginning  there. 

Oliver  Culver  was  well  born,  and  was 
one  of  the  important  men  of  the  new  set- 
tlement. He  was  a  son  of  William  Cul- 
ver, who  was  a  soldier  of  the  Revolution, 
and  was  a  brother  of  John  Culver,  whom 
he  persuaded  to  come  to  Monroe  county 
and  purchase  a  tract  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  acres,  now  included  within  the  cor- 
porate limits  of  Rochester,  between  Good- 
man and  Barrington  streets  on  East  ave- 
nue. John  Culver  made  a  horseback  jour- 
ney to  see  his  purchase  in  1810,  but  soon 
returned  to  Vermont.  In  1812  he  again 
came  to  Rochester  and  permanently 
located  on  his  farm. 


McQUAID,  Bernard  J., 

Prelate,  Educator,  Philanthropist. 

To  have  achieved  fame  in  one  direction 
is  conceded  to  be  an  enviable  condition  by 


the  majority  of  human  beings,  but  in  the 
late  Rt.  Rev.  Bernard  J.  McQuaid,  first 
bishop  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Diocese  of 
Rochester,  New  York,  we  had  a  man  who 
attained  eminence  as  minister,  educator 
and  philanthropist.  In  every  one  of  these 
fields  he  was  undoubtedly  successful,  and 
in  every  instance  he  labored  for  the  best 
interests  of  humanity,  with  never  a 
thought  of  self-aggrandizement.  His 
courage  and  fearlessness,  his  personal 
self-sacrifice,  his  executive  ability  and 
foresight,  are  well-nigh  unparalleled.  It 
is  difficult  to  estimate  the  value  of  such 
services  as  Bishop  McQuaid  rendered  the 
cause  of  religion  and  humanity.  It  is  not 
alone  by  what  he  did  that  results  must  be 
measured,  but  by  the  influence  his  ad- 
mirable life  has  had  upon  others.  Many 
of  the  younger  clergy  who  were  his  asso- 
ciates sought  his  counsel,  which  never 
failed  them,  and  his  sympathetic  and 
fatherly  advice  helped  to  spread  the  noble 
doctrine  which  his  entire  life  exemplified. 
Tender  and  loving,  his  heart  was  filled 
with  good  will  toward  all  humanity. 

Bishop  Bernard  John  McQuaid  was 
born  in  New  York  City,  December  15,  1823, 
and  died  at  the  Episcopal  residence  on 
Frank  street,  Rochester,  New  York,  Janu- 
ary 18,  1909.  His  last  illness  had  been  of 
a  number  of  weeks'  duration,  and  yet  the 
announcement  of  his  death  was  an  un- 
expected shock  to  the  thousands  of  peo- 
ple who  had  learned  to  love  and  appre- 
ciate him,  and  who  had  hoped  against 
hope  for  his  recovery.  The  early  years 
of  his  life  were  spent  in  New  Jersey,  and 
it  was  at  the  home  of  his  father  that  the 
Catholics  of  that  State  held  their  first  re- 
ligious service.  At  the  age  of  fourteen 
years  he  was  sent  to  Canada,  and  for 
some  years  was  a  student  in  a  classical 
school  at  Chambly.  Upon  his  return  to 
New  York  he  commenced  the  study  of 
theology  at  St.  John's  College,  Fordham, 
from    which    he    was   graduated    in    due 


235 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


course  of  time.  He  was  ordained  to  the 
priesthood  in  the  old  Mott  Street  Cathe- 
dral, New  York  City,  January  16,  1848. 
He  was  at  once  assigned  to  the  Parish  of 
Madison,  New  Jersey,  which  covered 
many  square  miles,  some  of  them  closely 
settled.  Energetic  and  conscientious,  he 
made  a  point  of  visiting  personally  every 
family  in  his  parish,  and  as  many  of  these 
journeys  were  made  on  foot  and  the  dis- 
tances great,  he  was  obliged  to  stay  at 
the  houses  of  his  parishioners  overnight, 
and  thus  gained  an  insight  into  the  family 
life  of  those  under  his  charge  which  he 
could  have  obtained  in  no  other  manner. 
It  was  through  his  efforts  that  the  Roman 
Catholic  churches  at  Morristown,  Mend- 
ham  and  Springfield,  New  Jersey,  now 
among  the  most  prosperous  in  the  State, 
were  organized.  The  results  he  achieved 
were  of  so  satisfactory  a  nature  that,  when 
the  Diocese  of  Newark  was  created  and 
James  Roosevelt  Bayley,  D.  D.,  was  made 
Roman  Catholic  bishop  of  New  Jersey, 
young  Father  McQuaid  was  called  to  the 
rectorship  of  the  cathedral,  before  six 
years  had  expired  after  his  ordination.  The 
energy  of  the  man,  his  interest  and  abil- 
ity, and  his  faith  in  education,  are  clearly 
shown  by  what  he  accomplished  while 
attached  to  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral,  New- 
ark. He  planned,  and  saw  that  his  plans 
were  properly  carried  out,  a  college  for 
young  men,  a  college  for  young  women,  a 
society  for  young  men  and  an  Order  of 
Sisters.  These  are  respectively:  Seton 
Hall  College,  St.  Elizabeth's  College,  the 
Young  Men's  Catholic  Association  of 
Newark  and  the  Order  of  Sisters  of  St. 
Joseph.  In  1866  Father  McQuaid  was 
made  vicar-general  of  the  Newark  cathe- 
dral and  performed  the  duties  of  this  office 
in  addition  to  those  of  president  of  and 
professor  in  Seton   Hall   College. 

When  the   creation  of  the   Diocese  of 
Rochester    was    announced    Father    Mc- 


Quaid was  nominated  the  first  bishop, 
and  was  consecrated  to  the  episcopate  in 
St.  Patrick's  Cathedral,  New  York  City, 
July  12,  1868,  by  Archbishop  McCloskey, 
later  the  first  American  cardinal,  assisted 
by  Bishop  Bayley,  of  Newark.  He  found 
the  parochial  schools  and  orphanages  of 
his  diocese  in  a  very  unsatisfactory  state 
and  at  once  sent  for  some  of  the  sisters  of 
the  Order  of  St.  Joseph,  the  educational 
order  which  he  had  established.  It  was 
his  aim  to  have  a  parochial  school  in 
every  parish,  and  he  accomplished  this. 
Feeling  the  need  for  still  better  equip- 
ment for  the  teachers,  he  founded  the 
Nazareth  Normal  School,  which  holds  a 
charter  given  by  the  University  of  the 
State  of  New  York.  He  delivered  many 
lectures  at  this  institution  on  the  question 
of  the  education  of  the  masses  from  the 
Roman  Catholic  point  of  view,  these  arti- 
cles being  later  collected  and  published 
in  a  volume  entitled  "Christian  Free 
Schools."  The  importance  of  this  work 
was  recognized  throughout  church.  In 
the  letter  of  Pope  Pius  X.  to  Bishop  Mc- 
Quaid, dated  June  25,  1908,  the  Holy 
Father  said:  "We  know  that  while  you 
diligently  discharge  the  duties  of  a  good 
pastor,  you  have  always  given  special 
care  to  the  education  of  the  young  and 
especially  those  intended  for  the  priest- 
hood. And  this,  assuredly,  is  a  thing  so 
great  that  there  is  nothing  of  more  im- 
portance to  the  State."  Bishop  McQuaid 
desired  to  have  about  him  a  considerable 
number  of  priests  who  were  natives  of  his 
diocese,  men  who  had  been  trained  in 
accordance  with  his  own  ideas  of  the 
priesthood,  because  he  believed  that  hav- 
ing breathed  from  their  birth  the  atmos- 
phere in  which  they  were  working  for  the 
glory  of  God,  they  would  be  able  to 
accomplish  results  impossible  to  priests 
reared  in  other  environments.  To  this 
end,     in     September,     1870,     within     the 


236 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


shadow  of  the  cathedral,  St.  Andrew's 
Preparatory  Seminary  was  opened.  Bishop 
McQuaid's  educational  ambitions  culmi- 
nated in  the  founding  of  St.  Bernard's 
Seminary  in  Rochester.  This  project  had 
been  on  his  mind  when  he  first  entered 
upon  diocesan  work.  He  commenced  to 
husband  his  resources  as  early  as  1875, 
and  was  so  well  prepared  when  he 
broached  this  project  to  the  priests  of  the 
diocese  that  their  enthusiastic  support 
was  at  once  secured.  He  personally 
superintended  the  construction  of  this  in- 
stitution from  the  laying  of  the  corner- 
stone in  March,  1891,  to  the  dedication  of 
the  new  Hall  of  Theology  in  August, 
1908.  It  is  a  fitting  monument  to  his 
memory. 

The  circle  of  personal  friends  and  ap- 
preciative and  admiring  acquaintances  of 
Bishop  McQuaid  was  an  exceptionally 
wide  one.  He  was  somewhat  retiring  in 
his  disposition,  but  his  uniformly  agree- 
able manner,  his  keen  appreciation  of 
character  and  motive,  his  abiding  and  in- 
tense interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  people 
of  the  city  in  which  he  was  prominent  for 
so  many  years,  endeared  him  to  tens  of 
thousands  of  his  fellow  citizens.  Strict  in 
his  ecclesiasticism,  he  was  yet  charitable 
regarding  the  views  of  others,  and  his 
circle  of  friends  and  acquaintances  was 
not  bound  by  lines  of  creed,  party  or  sta- 
tion in  life.  He  was  one  of  the  few  promi- 
nent men  of  whom  it  could  be  said  that 
his  acquaintances  were  invariably  his 
friends.  His  charity,  while  not  obtrusive, 
was  broad  and  far-reaching,  and  it  took 
the  form  of  mentally  and  morally  uplift- 
ing its  objects,  while  not  neglecting  their 
immediate  physical  necessities.  Whoever 
experienced  the  pleasure  of  meeting 
Bishop  McQuaid  at  his  home  will  never 
forget  his  unvarying  courtesy.  He  was 
ever  ready  with  useful  advice,  and  guests 
never  departed  from  his  presence  without 


the  sense  of  having  come  within  a  strong, 
uplifting  influence.  It  is  not  alone  as  a 
distinguished  prelate,  a  faithful  pastor 
and  a  broad-minded  citizen,  that  Bishop 
McQuaid  will  long  be  remembered,  for 
not  only  throughout  the  city,  but  in  the 
remotest  corner  of  the  Diocese  of  Roches- 
ter, his  memory  will  be  cherished  as  that 
of  a  personal  friend. 

The  last  public  occasion  on  which 
Bishop  McQuaid  was  present  was  at  the 
dedication  of  the  Hall  of  Theology  of  St. 
Bernard's  Seminary.  His  physical  condi- 
tion would  not  permit  participation  in  the 
exercises  until  the  close  of  the  banquet, 
when  he  was  brought  into  the  banquet 
hall  in  a  wheeled  chair.  On  behalf  of  the 
priests  of  the  diocese,  Bishop  Hickey  pre- 
sented a  check  to  be  used  in  founding  a 
professorship  at  St.  Bernard's.  As  Bishop 
McQuaid  rose  to  respond,  his  voice  failed 
for  a  moment,  but  he  soon  regained  his 
self-possession,  spoke  for  about  fifteen 
minutes,  and  then  suddenly  collapsed  and 
fell  back  in  his  chair  unconscious.  So 
critical  was  his  condition  that  it  was  not 
until  the  late  fall  that  it  was  possible  to 
remove  him  to  his  home  on  Frank  street, 
the  Episcopal  residence.  He  never  re- 
covered from  this  illness.  The  funeral  of 
Bishop  McQuaid  attracted  the  largest 
crowd  that  had  ever  assembled  in  the  city 
on  such  an  occasion.  The  people  com- 
menced to  gather  early  in  the  morning  at 
the  doors  of  the  cathedral,  although  the 
services  did  not  take  place  until  ten 
o'clock.  Archbishop  Farley,  of  New 
York,  celebrated  the  mass  and  chanted 
the  prayers  for  the  dead,  assisted  by 
Father  McQuaid,  of  Philadelphia,  a  cousin 
of  Bishop  McQuaid,  and  Rev.  M.J.  Nolan, 
of  St.  Bernard's  Seminary.  The  funeral 
sermon  was  preached  by  Rev.  Phillips  B. 
McDevitt,  superintendent  of  the  parochial 
schools  of  the  Archdiocese  of  Philadel- 
phia. 


237 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Bishop  McQuaid's  work  in  Rochester 
covered  a  period  of  more  than  forty  years, 
and  during  those  years  he  was  identified 
with  all  of  the  great  civic  movements 
which  have  made  for  the  betterment  of 
the  city.  At  an  early  date  he  became,  in 
association  with  the  late  Dr.  E.  M.  Moore, 
an  advocate  of  a  great  park  system  for 
Rochester.  At  the  time  of  his  death  he 
was  an  active  member  of  the  park  board, 
with  which  he  had  been  connected  sev- 
eral years.  In  many  other  vital  civic  mat- 
ters Bishop  McQuaid's  influence  was  con- 
stantly, although  unostentatiously,  ex- 
erted for  the  benefit  of  the  people  among 
whom  he  lived  and  labored  for  the  greater 
part  of  a  half  century. 

A  special  meeting  of  the  park  board 
was  held  for  the  purpose  of  acting  on  the 
death  of  Bishop  McQuaid,  who  had  been 
a  member  of  the  board  twenty-one  years. 
It  was  decided  that  the  board  attend  the 
funeral  in  a  body,  and  that  it  also  visit  the 
cathedral  in  a  body  while  the  remains 
were  lying  there  in  state.  A  tribute  was 
paid  to  the  memory  of  the  bishop  and  the 
following  resolutions  adopted : 

Resolved,  That  in  the  death  of  Right  Rev- 
erend Bernard  J.  McQuaid,  D.  D.,  Bishop  of 
Rochester,  the  Board  of  Park  Commissioners 
has  lost  a  member  who,  from  the  date  of  his 
appointment  by  Act  of  Legislature,  in  1888,  has 
steadily  shown  an  active  interest  in  the  creation, 
maintenance  and  development  of  our  Park  Sys- 
tem. 

From  the  first  he  favored  the  purchase  of  all 
the  lands  that  were  acquired  for  park  purposes, 
and  boldly  stood  for  what  he  deemed  the  best 
interests  of  the  city  when  any  citizens  were 
greatly  opposed  to  the  creation  of  public  parks. 
Without  his  powerful  influence  for  the  park 
project,  the  City  of  Rochester  to-day  might  be 
without  its  great  Park  System.  During  all  the 
twenty-one  years  that  he  held  the  office  of  park 
commissioner,  he  was  a  constant  attendant  at 
the  meetings  of  the  Board  and  took  a  strong 
interest  in  the  consideration  of  all  its  policies. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  estimate  the  immense 
value  of  the  Bishop's  services  rendered  in  the 


interest  of  our  system  of  parks.  We  are  sure 
that  his  rare  business  ability  and  the  great 
respect  and  admiration  in  which  he  was  held, 
added  greatly  to  the  dignity  and  efficiency  of 
the  Park  Commission. 

Resolved,  That  a  page  of  our  records  be  set 
apart  on  which  shall  be  recorded  the  above 
expressed  sentiments,  and  that  a  copy  of  the 
same  be  sent  to  the  Episcopal  residence. 


SCRANTOM,  Hamlet, 

First  Permanent  Settler  of  Rochester. 

In  the  days  when  Rochester  existed 
only  in  the  optimistic  mind  of  Colonel 
Nathaniel  Rochester,  Hamlet  Scrantom, 
who  had  come  from  Durham,  Connecti- 
cut, and  settled  at  Geneseo,  and  seemed  a 
desirable  citizen,  was  persuaded  by  Henry 
Skinner,  also  of  Geneseo,  to  settle  on  the 
lot  Mr.  Skinner  had  purchased  from  Colo- 
nel Rochester.  That  lot,  now  the  site  of 
the  Powers  Block,  the  third  lot  sold  by 
Colonel  Rochester,  to  whom  the  title 
finally  passed  November  20,  181 1,  was 
sold  to  Mr.  Skinner  for  two  hundred  dol- 
lars— a  much  higher  price  than  the  first 
two  lots  brought.  This  was  due  to  the 
fact  that  it  was  on  the  "new  State  road," 
and  on  the  corner  of  Buffalo  street — as 
that  part  of  the  new  road  was  called — 
(now  Main  street)  and  Carroll  (now  State 
street).  In  order  to  induce  Mr.  Scrantom 
to  come  to  Rochester,  Mr.  Skinner  offered 
to  build  him  a  house,  an  offer  which  was 
accepted.  The  house,  more  properly  a 
log  cabin,  was  well  built  and  roofed  with 
slabs  from  the  Enos  Stone  saw  mill  on 
the  east  side  of  the  river,  and  was  suffi- 
ciently large  to  accommodate  the  Scran- 
tom family.  The  building  was  com- 
pleted in  May,  1812,  and  was  at  once 
occupied  by  its  intended  tenants,  Hamlet 
Scrantom  thus  becoming  the  first  perma- 
nent settler  and  the  house  the  first  erected 
in  Rochester,  that  name  having  been  de- 
cided upon  by  the  proprietors. 

Hamlet   Scrantom  had  a  large  family. 


238 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


One  of  the  sons  of  this  first  family,  Ed- 
win Scrantom,  a  prolific  writer  for  the 
press  in  adult  life,  preserved  through  his 
writings  much  of  the  history  of  those 
early  times.  Another  son,  Hamlet  D. 
Scrantom,  was  mayor  of  Rochester  in 
i860.  Another  member  of  the  family, 
who  came  in  1812,  became  a  prominent 
miller,  and  was  the  father  of  I.  Gridley 
Scrantom,  of  Rochester,  vice-president  of 
the  Hayden  Company.  Many  of  the  name 
still  reside  in  the  city,  to  which  came  in 
its  earliest  days  their  honored  grandsire 
and  great-grandsire,  Hamlet  Scrantom, 
the  first  permanent  settler  of  the  city. 


PECK,  Everard, 

Representative  Citizen. 

Everard  Peck  was  born  at  Berlin,  Con- 
necticut, November  6,  1791,  and  died  at 
Rochester,  New  York,  February  9,  1854. 
Having  gone  to  Hartford,  Connecticut,  at 
the  age  of  seventeen,  he  learned  there  the 
book  binder's  trade,  and,  having  com- 
pleted his  apprenticeship,  went  from 
there  to  Albany,  New  York,  where  he 
plied  his  vocation  for  a  few  years.  Not 
succeeding  as  well  as  he  had  hoped,  he 
came  to  Rochester  in  1816,  bringing  with 
him  the  implements  of  his  calling  and  a 
small  stock  of  books.  Many  of  the  in- 
cidents of  his  life  are  given  in  the  follow- 
ing extract  from  an  article  in  one  of  the 
daily  papers  at  the  time  of  his  death : 

Seeing,  through  the  discomforts  and  rudeness 
of  the  settlement,  indications  which  promised  a 
prosperous  future,  he  set  up  the  double  business 
of  book  selling  and  book  binding.  Being  pros- 
perous in  business  he  enlarged  his  facilities  by 
opening  a  printing  office  and  commencing,  in 
1S18,  the  publication  of  the  "Rochester  Tele- 
graph," a  weekly  journal.  He  afterward  erected 
a  paper  mill,  which  he  operated  with  great  suc- 
cess until  it  was  burned.  Mr.  Peck  left  the  book 
business  in  1831.  After  three  or  four  years,  in 
which  he  was  out  of  health — so  that,  for  recov- 
ery, he  was  obliged  to  spend  one  or  two  win- 
ters  in   Florida   and   Cuba — he   engaged   in   the 


banking  business  and  was  connected  successively 
with  the  Bank  of  Orleans,  the  Rochester  City 
Bank  and  the  Commercial  Bank  of  Rochester, 
being  the  vice-president  of  the  last  named  insti- 
tution at  the  time  of  his  death.  Immediately  on 
taking  up  his  residence  here  Mr.  Peck  gave  his 
warm  support  to  the  infant  charitable  and  reli- 
gious enterprises  of  the  place,  and  from  that 
time  to  this  has  been  the  devoted  friend  of  all 
such  institutions.  To  public  office  he  did  not 
aspire,  but  labors  for  the  poor,  the  suffering  and 
the  orphan  he  never  shunned.  The  successful 
establishment  of  the  University  of  Rochester 
was  in  a  large  measure  owing  to  his  exertions 
in  its  behalf.  The  friends  of  the  institution 
accorded  to  him  merited  praise,  and  they  will 
ever  respect  his  memory.  Up  to  the  time  of 
his  death  he  was  a  member  of  its  board  of  trus- 
tees. He  was  one  of  the  zealous  promoters  and 
founders  of  the  Rochester  Orphan  Asylum.  Our 
citizens  have  been  accustomed  to  rely  upon  his 
judgment  in  all  matters  of  moment  pertaining 
to  the  common  weal,  and  he  always  exhibited  a 
sagacity  and  solicitude  for  the  welfare  of  the 
people  which  entitled  him  to  the  public  confi- 
dence. 

He  was  thrice  married — in  1820,  to  Chloe  Por- 
ter, who  died  in  1830;  in  1836,  to  Martha  Farley, 
who  died  in  1851;  in  1852,  to  Mrs.  Alice  Bacon 
Walker,  who  survives  him.* 

For  more  than  two  years  past  Mr.  Peck  has 
been  suffering  from  a  pulmonary  complaint,  and 
he  spent  the  winter  of  1852-53  in  the  Bermudas, 
but  without  obtaining  relief  from  the  disease. 
He  has,  since  his  return,  been  secluded  in  the 
sick  room,  gradually  declining  until  he  expired, 
surrounded  by  his  wife  and  all  his  surviving 
children. 

It  may  be  not  inappropriate  to  give  as 
a  reminiscence  the  following  extract  from 
an  article  in  the  "Albany  Evening  Jour- 
nal" of  February  21,  1854,  by  the  pen  of 
Thurlow  Weed,  then  at  the  head  of  that 
paper,  in  which,  after  copying  a  long 
biographical  sketch  of  Mr.  Peck  from  the 
columns  of  the  "New  Haven  Daily  Pal- 
ladium" of  a  few  days  before,  Mr.  Weed 
remarks: 

This  deserved  tribute  to  the  memory  of  "a 
just  man   made   perfect"   comes   from   one   who 

•Mrs.  Alice  B.  Peck  died  December  2,  1881. 
knew    the    deceased    well.     The    editor    of    the 
"Palladium"  grew  up  under  Mr.   Peck's  teach- 


239 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


ings  and  was  long  a  member  of  his  household, 
a  household  whose  memory  is  hallowed  in  many 
grateful  hearts.  In  another  paragraph  the  edi- 
tor of  the  "Palladium"  alludes  to  our  own  rela- 
tions to  Mr.  Peck,  but  in  a  spirit  of  kindness 
which  excludes  all  but  the  following  from  these 
columns: 

Mr.  Weed,  of  the  "Albany  Evening  Journal," 
began  his  career  in  the  "Rochester  Telegraph" 
office.  He  was  a  young  man  wholly  without 
means  when  he  applied  for  employment.  We 
remember  Mr.  Weed's  application  as  though  it 
were  but  yesterday.  Mr.  Peck  at  first  declined 
his  offer,  but  there  was  something  in  Mr. 
Weed's  manner  that  touched  a  sympathetic 
chord  in  Mr.  Peck's  bosom  and  he  called  him 
back  and  gave  him  the  post  of  assistant  editor, 
where  he  soon  made  the  "Telegraph"  one  of 
the  most  popular  journals  in  western  New 
York. 

The  heart  upon  which  the  memory  of  its  early 
benefactor  is  engraven  will  glow  with  gratitude 
until  its  pulsations  cease.  We  were,  indeed, 
wholly  without  means  and  with  a  young  family 
dependent  upon  our  labor,  when,  thirty-two 
years  ago  we  applied  to  Everard  Peck  for 
employment.  He  did  not  really  want  a  journey- 
man, but  his  kindly  nature  prompted  him  to  an 
effort  in  our  behalf.  It  was  agreed  that  in  addi- 
tion to  the  ordinary  labor  as  a  journeyman  in 
the  office  we  should  assist  Mr.  Peck,  who  had 
the  charge  of  his  book  store  and  paper  mill,  in 
editing  the  "Telegraph."  But  our  friend  did  not 
content  himself  with  giving  employment.  We 
enjoyed,  with  our  family,  the  hospitality  of  his 
mansion  until  a  humble  tenement  (tenements 
were  scarce  in  Rochester  in  those  days)  could  be 
rented.  The  compensation  agreed  upon  was 
four  hundred  dollars  per  annum.  That  year 
glided  pleasantly  and  peacefully  away,  teaching 
lessons  to  which  memory  recurs  with  pleasure 
and  in  forming  ties  that  have  linked  us  in  after 
life  to  dear  and  cherished  friends.  At  the  close 
of  the  year  Mr.  Peck  added  one  hundred  dol- 
lars to  our  salary,  with  expressions  of  confi- 
dence and  regard  which  enhanced  the  value  of 
his  gratuity.  And  ever  after,  through  whatever 
of  vicissitudes  and  change  we  have  passed,  that 
good  man's  counsels  and  friendship  have  helped 
to  smooth  and  cheer  our  pathway. 


PECK,  William  Farley, 

Lawyer,  Journalist. 

With  a  virile  intellect  that  made  him  a 
power  in  the  community,  and  with  a 
gentleness  of  spirit  that  made  him  appre- 


ciate the  tiniest  beauty  in  this  wonderful 
world,  the  late  William  Farley  Peck,  of 
Rochester,  New  York,  was  a  man,  who, 
once  known,  could  never  be  forgotten. 
Of  Revolutionary  descent  on  his  father's 
side,  and  of  Pilgrim  ancestry  on  his 
mother's,  he  was  reared  amid  the  refining 
influences  of  a  home  of  Christian  culture, 
where  were  nurtured  all  those  tendencies 
that  later  became  strongly  developed 
traits  of  manly  character.  He  left  the 
impress  of  his  splendid  nature  upon  all 
with  whom  he  came  in  contact,  and  his 
influence  was  a  vital  force. 

William  Farley  Peck,  son  of  Everard 
and  Martha  (Farley)  Peck,  was  born  at 
Rochester,  New  York,  February  4,  1840, 
and  died  December  6,  1908.  His  educa- 
tional training  was  commenced  in  private 
schools  of  his  native  city,  was  continued 
at  a  boarding  school  in  Connecticut, 
where  he  was  prepared  for  entrance  to 
college.  He  matriculated  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Rochester  in  1857,  but  at  the  end 
of  one  year  was  transferred  to  Williams 
College,  from  which  he  was  graduated  in 
the  class  of  1861  with  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Arts.  He  commenced  read- 
ing law  in  the  office  of  Danforth  &  Terry, 
of  Rochester,  remained  with  this  firm 
one  year,  then  became  a  student  in  the 
State  Law  School,  in  Albany,  and  was 
graduated  in  1863  with  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Laws.  Not  long  afterward 
he  was  admitted  to  practice  at  the  bar  of 
Monroe  county,  New  York.  The  legal 
profession  did  not,  however,  appeal  to 
him  very  strongly,  and  he  accordingly 
devoted  his  time  and  attention  to  the  field 
of  literature  for  which  he  had  shown 
marked  ability  for  many  years.  Journal- 
istic work  was  the  particular  field  to 
which  he  devoted  himself,  and  for  some 
time  he  was  connected  with  "The  Ex- 
press," now  "The  Post  Express,"  and  in 
1867  became  the  city  editor  of  "The 
Democrat."     He  then  became  associated 


240 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


with  "The  Chronicle,"  remaining  tele- 
graph editor  of  this  journal  during  its 
entire  existence — from  November,  1868, 
to  December,  1870.  It  then  became 
merged  into  what  was  published  as  "The 
Democrat  and  Chronicle,"  and  Mr.  Peck's 
connection  with  this  publication  was 
severed.  As  editor  of  "The  Sunday  Trib- 
une," a  post  upon  which  he  soon  entered, 
he  maintained  the  popularity  of  that 
paper,  of  which  he  was  a  part  proprietor 
for  a  portion  of  the  time  he  was  con- 
nected with  it,  until  his  retirement  from 
direct  journalistic  work  more  than  thirty 
years  ago.  At  this  time  he  engaged  in 
writing  of  a  desultory  character — club 
papers,  articles  for  the  magazines,  and 
more  particularly  for  encyclopaedias  and 
biographical  dictionaries,  and  prepared 
a  number  of  works  concerning  local  his- 
tory. The  best  known  of  these  are  as 
follows :  "Semi-Centennial  History  of 
Rochester,"  1884;  "Landmarks  of  Mon- 
roe County,"  1895 ;  "A  History  of  the 
Police  Department  of  Rochester,"  1903; 
and  "History  of  Rochester  and  Monroe 
County,"  1907.  For  a  period  of  thirty- 
five  years  Mr.  Peck  was  a  consistent 
member  and  liberal  supporter  of  the  Uni- 
tarian church,  and  his  connection  with 
other  institutions  and  organizations  of  a 
varied  character  is  as  follows :  The  Fort- 
nightly, a  literary  club  of  which  he  was 
one  of  the  organizers ;  board  of  directors 
of  the  Rochester  Athenaeum  and  Me- 
chanics Institute,  of  which  he  was  the 
corresponding  secretary  from  the  time  of 
its  inception ;  board  of  managers  of  the 
Rochester  Historical  Society,  of  which  he 
had  always  been  the  recording  secretary ; 
board  of  trustees  of  the  Reynolds  Library, 
of  which  he  was  the  secretary ;  Society 
for  the  Organization  of  Charity,  of  which 
he  was  one  of  the  vice-presidents ;  Gene- 
see Valley  Club,  of  which  he  was  a  char- 
ter   member:     Rochester    Whist    Club; 


Genesee  Whist  Club ;  Society  of  May- 
flower Descendants  in  the  State  of  New 
York;  Society  of  the  Genesee,  in  New 
York  City;  and  corresponding  member 
of  the  New  York  Genealogical  and  Bio- 
graphical Society.  Mr.  Peck  was  sur- 
vived by  his  brother,  Edward  W.  Peck, 
of  No.  121  Troup  street,  and  by  three 
nieces :  Mrs.  Gurney  T.  Curtis,  Mrs.  Ed- 
ward Harris,  Jr.,  and  Edith  W.  Peck. 
Expressions  of  sincere  sorrow  at  the 
death  of  Mr.  Peck  were  numerous,  and 
varied  in  form  and  character,  but  the 
limits  of  this  space  will  only  permit  the 
reproduction  of  one  of  them.  This  is  as 
follows : 

At  a  special  meeting  of  the  board  of  directors 
of  the  Mechanics  Institute,  Monday  afternoon, 
the  following  resolutions  were  adopted : 

The  death  of  William  Farley  Peck  removes 
from  our  Board  one  who  has  been  with  us  from 
the  organization  of  our  Institute,  and  as  cor- 
responding secretary  for  the  entire  period  of 
our  existence,  and  as  a  trustee  for  the  same 
period,  he  has  cheerfully  given  us  his  best 
thought  and  constant  effort,  and  we  have  had 
no  more  devoted  friend.  He  was  especially 
gifted  in  writing,  and  his  thoughts,  always 
lucidly  expressed,  in  pure  and  correct  English, 
in  all  his  communications  to,  and  for,  our  Board, 
were  a  source  of  keen  pleasure  and  great  con- 
stant value  to  us.  The  uncomplaining  bravery 
with  which  he  bore  his  misfortune,  and  the  wealth 
of  information,  especially  in  regard  to  literature, 
which  he  possessed,  his  great  knowledge  of  local 
history  and  his  intelligent  observation  of  current 
events,  made  him  a  most  delightful  companion, 
and  endeared  him  to  all  who  knew  and  came  in 
contact  with  him.  His  published  works  are  well 
known  and  have  given  him  an  excellent  reputa- 
tion as  an  intelligent  and  truthful  historian.  We 
shall  miss  his  thoughtful  counsel  and  his  genial 
personality,  and  we  feel  deeply  grateful  for  the 
life  which  has  been  passed  with,  and  among,  us, 
and  for  the  intelligent  work  which  has  been  so 
freely  and  generously  given  to  the  upbuilding  of 
the  Mechanics  Institute,  in  token  of  which  we 
direct  that  this  minute  be  inscribed  on  our  rec- 
ords, and  a  copy  sent  to  his  family  and  the  daily 
press.  The  Directors  of  the  Mechanics  Insti- 
tute will  attend  the  funeral  in  a  body. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


RICKETTS,  Jonathan, 

Manufacturer,  Railroad  and  Bank  Director. 

Leaving  his  home  in  Yeovil,  Somerset- 
shire, England,  in  the  same  year  as  that  in 
which  Victoria  the  Good  ascended  to  the 
English  throne — in  1837 — Jonathan  Rick- 
etts  sailed  for  the  United  States,  landed  at 
New  York,  and  immediately  proceeded  to 
Aurora,  Erie  county,  New  York,  where 
for  a  year  he  obtained  employment.  In 
1838  he  removed  to  Rochester,  New  York, 
and  a  year  later  settled  permanently  in 
Johnstown,  Fulton  county,  New  York. 
In  the  community  and  business  life  of 
Johnstown,  for  a  period  extending  over 
sixty  years,  Jonathan  Ricketts  became 
well  known  and  highly  regarded. 

The  name  Ricketts  is  one  frequently 
encountered  in  England,  and  many  of 
that  patronymic  have  held  high  office  in 
British  national  affairs,  but  records  are 
not  available  by  which  the  connection  of 
the  Jonathan  Ricketts  branch  with  the 
main  family  can  be  established.  Amer- 
ican records  trace  no  farther  back  than 
to  Thomas  Ricketts,  father  of  Jonathan 
Ricketts,  who  was  of  the  ancient  town  of 
Yeovil,  Somersetshire,  England,  where  he 
reared  his  family  of  seven  children : 
George,  Jonathan,  David,  Edmund,  Har- 
riet, Eliza  and  Amelia. 

Jonathan  Ricketts,  second  child  of 
Thomas  and  Melinda  Ricketts,  was  born 
at  Yeovil,  Somersetshire,  England,  Feb- 
ruary 11,  1819.  That  Jonathan  Ricketts 
had  within  him  that  quality  of  courageous 
enterprise  and  dogged  perseverence  by 
which  America  has  forged  for  herself  so 
securely  and  rapidly  a  leading  place 
among  the  nations  of  the  world  is  evident 
in  the  bare  record  of  his  early  years  and 
his  ultimate  success.  He  was  only 
eighteen  years  of  age  when  he  left  a  com- 
fortable, even  if  humble,  home  and  ven- 
tured   alone    into   what,    to    him,    was    a 


strange  country.  He  landed  in  New  York 
poor  in  all  save  courage  and  a  determina- 
tion to  win  a  place  for  himself  in  the  new 
world.  When  he  arrived  at  Johnstown, 
he  was  still  in  his  minority.  Two  years 
he  passed  in  the  glove  factories  of  Johns- 
town and  then,  although  only  twenty- 
two  years  of  age,  he  ventured  with  con- 
fidence into  the  independent  manufacture 
of  gloves  at  Johnstown,  under  the  firm 
name  of  Jonathan  Ricketts,  and  quickly 
established  his  right  to  a  place  among  the 
nation's  manufacturers.  He  was  a  re- 
sponsible manufacturer  at  a  time  of  life 
when  most  young  men  are  more  con- 
cerned in  pursuits  of  folly  rather  than  in 
serious  business.  Jonathan  Ricketts  was 
a  man  of  sound  judgment  and  logical  rea- 
soning; consequently  he  built  steadily 
and  firmly,  rather  than  rapidly  and  pre- 
cariously ;  and  from  his  first  entrance  into 
independent  business  never  received  a 
serious  check,  the  volume  of  business 
steadily  increasing  year  by  year.  His  fac- 
tory continued  in  successful  operation  for 
fifty  years,  until  1889,  when  he  was  per- 
suaded to  retire.  During  that  period  he, 
in  addition  to  the  accumulation  of  more 
than  a  sufficiency  of  monetary  wealth, 
gathered  a  wealth  of  respect  among  those 
with  whom  he  had  associated.  His  initia- 
tive and  adaptability  produced  many 
changes  of  importance  in  the  glove-mak- 
ing industry.  It  is  claimed  that  he  was 
the  first  manufacturer  in  the  county — 
which  at  that  time  was  an  important 
glove-making  centre — to  dress  sheep  skins 
within  the  county,  and  employ  them  in 
the  manufacture  of  gloves.  Hitherto, 
manufacturers  had  been  dependent  for 
their  supply  upon  foreign  tanners,  who 
controlled  the  market,  and  the  initiative 
of  Jonathan  Ricketts  in  this  respect  re- 
sulted in  a  considerable  advantage  to  him- 
self, and  to  those  of  the  home  manufac- 
turers who  later  emulated  him. 


242 


JOIlCllll 


In  the  cours 

than    Rickett- 
into  the 'affair- 
came  a  factor 
town. 
Johnsi- 

i 
became  a  die 
the  conti 

tors  of 
His  stan 
as  a  mar. 

that  he  was  eh 

■ 

sought  office. 

which   might   draw   him    awaj 

business  duties,  but 

church  he  wa 

time  and 

church 

the  St.  J  ■ 
support 
tian  churi  .. 
tempore: 

array- 
ing elem 
standing  in  ;■ 
the  more  nv  i 
that  it  was  absolutely  a)!  earned 

torn  of  the  ladder. 

He  married,  November    : 
daughter  of  James  am 

md  granddaug 

dren  were:   i.  Mary  Eliz: 


. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


mayor  of  the  city.  He  was  inaugurated 
June  10.  1834,  but  did  hold  the  office  for 
the  full  term  of  a  year  and  a  half  which 
had  been  made  a  provision  of  the  charter 
in  order  that  the  executive  and  the  com- 
mon council  should  not  enter  upon  office 
at  the  same  time.  During  the  first  year 
there  had  been  differences  of  opinion  be- 
tween Mayor  Child  and  the  council  on 
the  subject  of  licenses,  the  mayor  being  a 
consistent  temperance  man,  but  he  had 
waived  his  objections  and  allowed  the 
council  to  grant  licenses  to  which  he  was 
opposed. 

In  June,  1835,  a  new  council  was  elected 
and  it  soon  became  evident  that  even 
greater  laxity  was  to  prevail  in  the  issu- 
ing of  licenses.  Mayor  Child  quickly  de- 
cided upon  his  course  of  action.  In  a 
message  to  the  council,  after  reciting  the 
fact  that  the  new  board  had  issued  numer- 
ous licenses,  he  concluded  by  saying:  "It 
becomes  incumbent  on  me  in  my  official 
character  to  sanction  and  sign  these 
papers.  Under  these  circumstances  it 
seems  to  me  equally  the  claim  of  moral 
duty  and  self-respect,  of  a  consistent  re- 
gard for  my  former  associates,  of  just 
deference  to  the  present  board  and  of  sub- 
mission to  the  supposed  will  of  the  peo- 
ple, that  I  should  no  longer  retain  the  re- 
sponsible situation  with  which  I  have 
been  honored.  I  therefore  now  most  re- 
spectfully resign  into  your  hands  the 
office  of  mayor  of  Rochester."  His  resig- 
nation was  accepted  and  General  Jacob 
Gould,  who  was  elected  to  succeed  him, 
proved  more  complaisant.  In  this  inci- 
dent the  nature  of  the  man  shines  forth. 
He  would  not  surrender  principle  for  per- 
sonal gain ;  and  throughout  a  long  life  he 
never  deviated  from  a  strict  observance 
of  that  rule  of  conduct. 

Mayor  Jonathan  Child  was  one  of  the 
strong  business  men  of  his  day,  the  asso- 
ciate of  Judges  Samuel   Lee   Selden  and 


Roger  Lee  Selden,  and  at  the  time  Pro- 
fessor Morse  was  beseeching  capital  to  in- 
vest in  his  telegraphic  invention  he  joined 
with  the  Seldens  and  a  few  others  in 
organizing  a  company  to  construct  a  tele- 
graph line  forty  miles  in  length  between 
Harrisburg  and  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania. 
This  company,  formed  in  1845,  to  whose 
capital  stock  he  subscribed,  the  Atlantic, 
Lake  &  Mississippi  Valley  Telegraph 
Company,  was  the  forerunner  of  the 
Western  Union  Telegraph  Company,  and 
with  the  Seldens  he  could  claim  to  have 
been  among  the  pioneers  of  telegraphy  in 
the  world.  Mr.  Child  was  also  among 
the  pioneers  in  the  application  of  steam 
as  a  motive  power,  a  system  first  em- 
ployed in  this  country  by  the  Baltimore  & 
Ohio  railroad  early  in  1831.  Its  applica- 
tion to  any  road  running  out  of  Roches- 
ter was  in  April  4,  1837,  when  a  mixed 
train  of  freight  and  passenger  cars,  in 
charge  of  L.  B.  Van  Dyke  as  conductor, 
was  run  out  on  the  Tonawanda  railroad. 
This  road  was  chartered  in  1832  for 
fifty  years,  with  a  capital  of  $500,000, 
with  Daniel  Evans  as  the  first  president 
and  Jonathan  Child  as  the  first  vice-presi- 
dent. He  was  interested  in  other  early 
railroad  enterprises,  his  sound  judgment 
and  upright  character  being  sought  for 
in  that  day  of  new  enterprises. 

He  was  equally  interested  in  educa- 
tional matters,  and  when  in  1835  the 
Rochester  Female  Academy  on  South 
Fitzhugh  street  was  organized,  he  sub- 
scribed liberally  to  the  stock  and  was  a 
member  of  its  first  board  of  trustees. 
Jonathan  Child  is  one  of  the  men  to  whom 
Rochester  is  indebted  for  her  present 
proud  commercial  position,  and  the  world 
owes  him  the  debt  it  owes  to  all  men  of 
public  spirit  who  risked  their  fortunes  in 
the  establishment  of  those  then  unknown 
and  untried  innovations — the  telegraph 
and  the  railroad. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


HOOKER,  Charles  M., 

Prominent  Horticulturist  and  Nurseryman. 

In  1820  Horace  Hooker,  father  of 
Charles  M.  Hooker,  the  well  known  nurs- 
eryman, came  to  Rochester,  New  York, 
from  Windsor,  Connecticut.  He  settled 
first  on  St.  Paul  street  and  there  engaged 
in  the  nursery  business,  which  was  re- 
moved to  Brighton  in  1856.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son,  Charles  M.  Hooker, 
who  in  turn  admitted  his  sons  in  the  man- 
agement of  the  Rochester  Fruit  Farm  and 
Nurseries.  Three  generations  of  the  fam- 
ily have  successfully  conducted  the  nurs- 
ery business  in  Brighton,  the  present 
farm  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  acres  on 
Clover  street,  Brighton,  having  been  pur- 
chased by  Charles  M.  Hooker  in  1877 
from  his  former  partners.  For  over  fifty 
years  Charles  M.  Hooker  was  a  member 
of  the  Western  New  York  Horticultural 
Society,  and  represented  the  society  in 
national  convention,  being  instrumental 
in  securing  State  legislation  which  has 
been  efficacious  in  many  ways,  especially 
in  fighting  insect  life  which  preys  upon 
the  business  of  the  farmer,  nurseryman, 
fruit  grower  and  florist.  He  was  one  of 
the  oldest  of  Rochester's  nurserymen, 
having  been  in  business  since  1853,  when 
he  reached  the  age  of  twenty-one  years. 

Mr.  Hooker  was  a  descendant  of  Rev. 
Thomas  Hooker,  whose  colony  founded 
the  city  of  Hartford,  Connecticut,  and 
whose  statue  adorns  the  State  capitol  in 
that  city.  The  first  of  the  family  in  his 
direct  line  to  come  to  Western  New  York 
was  his  father,  Horace  Hooker,  in  1820. 
He  came  by  stage  and  team  from  Wind- 
sor, Connecticut,  and  on  his  arrival  in 
Rochester  found  little  to  indicate  the  pros- 
perous city  which  was  to  arise  on  the  site. 
But  he  was  gifted  with  prophetic  vision, 
for  he  believed  in  the  future  of  the  town 
and  invested  largely  in  lands  on  St.  Paul 
street  and  in  the  Carthage   district  just 


north  of  the  city.  He  engaged  in  milling  at 
Rochester  and  Ogdensburg,  also  owned 
storehouses  at  the  head  of  Genesee  river 
navigation,  and  for  a  number  of  years  all 
the  goods  exported  to  Canada  passed 
through  his  warehouses.  He  was  senior 
partner  of  the  firm  of  Hooker,  Farley  & 
Company  until  1861,  then  retired  with  his 
son,  Horace  B.  Hooker,  and  later  resumed 
the  nursery  business  in  the  town  of  Chili, 
Monroe  county.  He  died  at  the  home  of 
his  son,  Henry  E.  Hooker,  on  East  ave- 
nue, Rochester,  November  3,  1865.  He 
married  Helen,  daughter  of  Erastus  Wol- 
cott,  of  Windsor,  Connecticut,  of  the  dis- 
tinguished Connecticut  family  which 
numbered  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  among  its  members.  Hor- 
ace and  Helen  (Wolcott)  Hooker  were 
the  parents  of  eight  children  :  Henry  E. ; 
Julia  Wolcott,  wife  of  Josiah  W.  Bissell ; 
James  Wolcott ;  Fannie ;  Horace  B. ; 
Charles  M.,  of  further  mention;  and  two 
who  died  in  infancy. 

Charles  M.  Hooker  was  born  at  the 
family  home  on  St.  Paul  street,  Roches- 
ter, New  York,  November  9,  1832,  and 
spent  his  life  in  the  city  of  his  birth, 
Brighton  now  being  a  part  of  the  city. 
He  was  educated  in  the  public  schools, 
finishing  at  high  school.  He  early  began 
the  business  which  he  never  abandoned 
until  his  death,  working  first  for  the  firm 
of  Bissell  &  Hooker  on  East  avenue,  later 
known  as  Bissell,  Hooker  &  Sloan.  In 
1853  he  became  a  partner  of  the  firm  of 
Hooker,  Farley  &  Company,  then  on 
North  St.  Paul  street,  his  father  then  being 
senior  member  of  the  firm,  and  his  broth- 
ers, Horace  B.,  now  deceased,  and  Henry 
E.,  also  partners.  In  1856  the  firm  pur- 
chased the  Roswell  Hart  farm  on  Clover 
street,  Brighton,  and  removed  the  busi- 
ness there.  In  1861  Horace  and  Horace 
B.  Hooker  retired,  the  firm  continuing 
under  the  old  name  for  a  time,  but  in  1867 


245 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


became  H.  E.  Hooker  &  Brother,  H.  E. 
Hooker  purchasing  the  interest  of  Joseph 
Farley.  In  1887  Charles  M.  Hooker  re- 
tired from  the  firm  of  H.  E.  Hooker  & 
Brother  and  purchased  the  property  on 
Clover  street,  Brighton,  continuing  the 
nursery  and  fruit  growing  business  under 
the  name  of  C.  M.  Hooker  &  Sons.  Fruit 
growing  is  an  important  part  of  the  busi- 
ness of  the  Rochester  Fruit  Farm  and 
Nurseries,  the  nursery  stock  handled 
being  partly  grown  on  the  farm  and 
partly  grown  for  the  farm  under  rigid 
contract.  A  retail  department  of  large 
proportions  is  also  conducted  at  No.  57 
Trust  Building,  Rochester,  under  the 
firm  name  Hooker  Brothers  (Horace, 
Charles  G.  and  Lewis).  While  the  father 
had  surrendered  the  heavier  burdens  to 
his  sons  his  was  a  potent  voice,  and  he 
was  in  the  management  of  the  business 
until  his  death. 

A  long  time  member  of  the  Western 
New  York  Horticultural  Society,  he  was 
an  efficient  representative  of  the  nursery 
and  horticultural  interests  in  securing  the 
passage  of  laws  which  were  to  their  great 
benefit.  He  was  a  delegate  from  the  Hor- 
ticultural Society  at  the  convention  in 
Washington,  D.  C,  called  to  formulate 
plans  for  combating  the  destructive  San 
Jose  scale  and  other  destructive  pests 
which  afflict  the  growers  of  nursery  stock, 
fruit  growers  and  horticulturists.  He 
labored  diligently  and  effectively  for  the 
passage  of  the  present  New  York  State 
laws  concerning  San  Jose  scale  and  other 
insect  enemies.  He  was  also  an  honored 
member  of  the  New  York  State  Fruit 
Growers  Association  and  of  the  Eastern 
Nurserymen's  Association.  In  politics  he 
was  a  Republican,  but  never  sought  pub- 
lic office,  his  business  being  his  chief  in- 
terest and  ambition.  An  octogenarian  at 
the  time  of  his  death,  he  reviewed  a  well 
spent,    exceedingly    useful    life,    and    his 


heart  was  gladdened  by  three  sons  to 
carry  forward  the  work  under  the  name 
their  father  had  transmitted  to  them  with- 
out blemish,  as  he  had  received  it  from  his 
honored  father. 

Mr.  Hooker  married,  November  13, 
1861,  in  Penfield,  New  York,  Kate,  daugh- 
ter of  Daniel  E.  Lewis,  an  early  settler  of 
Penfield,  from  Lynn,  Massachusetts.  She 
died  July  16,  1907.  She  was  connected 
with  the  Penfields  after  whom,  the  town 
is  named,  and  was  a  descendant  of  Gen- 
eral Henry  Fellows,  an  officer  of  the  Rev- 
olution, serving  on  General  Washington's 
staff.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hooker  were  the 
parents  of  Horace,  Charles  G.  and  Lewis 
Hooker,  of  C.  M.  Hooker  &  Sons,  and 
Hooker  Brothers ;  and  of  daughters, 
Mary,  Kate  and  Edith.  For  over  fifty 
years  the  farm  on  Clover  street  has  been 
the  family  home,  and  there  is  no  better 
known  locality  to  fruit  growers,  horticul- 
turists and  nurserymen  than  the  Roches- 
ter Fruit  Farm  and  Nurseries.  Charles 
M.  Hooker  died  August  18,  1913. 


GATES,  Charles  Gilbert, 

Financier,    Promoter. 

Charles  Gilbert  Gates,  son  of  John 
Warne  and  Dellora  R.  (Baker)  Gates, 
was  born  at  Turner  Junction,  now  known 
as  West  Chicago,  Illinois,  on  May  21, 
1876.  His  early  education  was  received 
at  Smith  Academy,  St.  Louis,  and  later 
he  attended  Harvard  School,  Chicago,  and 
Lake  Forest  College.  At  the  age  of 
seventeen  he  entered  the  employ  of  the 
Consolidated  Steel  &  Wire  Company.  In 
1897  he  became  a  partner  in  the  firm  of 
Baldwin,  Gurney  &  Company,  stock  com- 
mission brokers  of  Chicago,  and  in  1902 
formed  with  John  F.  Harris  the  broker- 
age firm  of  Harris,  Gates  &  Company 
with  headquarters  in  New  York  and 
branch     offices    in     the     principal    cities 


246 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


throughout  the  country.  This  firm,  was 
dissolved  in  1904  to  be  reorganized  as 
Charles  G.  Gates  &  Company,  which  con- 
tinued until  1907.  In  these  five  years  the 
Gates  house  was  one  of  the  most  active 
factors  in  the  security  and  commodity 
markets  and  it  has  been  estimated  that 
during  this  period  ten  per  cent,  of  the 
business  of  the  New  York  Stock  Ex- 
change originated  with  this  organization. 
Charles  G.  Gates  was  usually  intrusted 
with  the  details  of  his  father's  activities 
and  developed  able  methods  of  stock  ex- 
change operation  that  can  be  fully  appre- 
ciated only  by  those  who  were  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  Gates  house.  In 
June,  1907,  the  brokerage  business  was 
dissolved  and  Mr.  Gates  gave  his  atten- 
tion to  industrial  affairs.  Mr.  Gates  was 
actively  interested  in  the  various  enter- 
prises with  which  his  father  was  con- 
nected and  took  part  in  many  new  busi- 
ness ventures  in  Southeast  Texas,  includ- 
ing the  development  of  the  city  of  Port 
Arthur,  all  of  which  proved  to  be  of  last- 
ing benefit  to  that  section  of  the  country. 
As  the  son  of  a  world  famous  financier, 
associated  with  immense  possessions,  ac- 
customed from  youth  to  transactions  of 
tremendous  magnitude.  Mr.  Gates  fol- 
lowed in  his  father's  footsteps,  developing 
forcefulness.  ability,  shrewdness  and 
allied  qualities.  His  ability  was  akin  to 
that  of  his  father,  but  fairly  he  won  suc- 
cess in  a  great  measure  through  his  own 
efforts.  Between  father  and  son  there 
was  unusual  sympathy ;  they  were  com- 
rades and  partners  as  well.  Among  his 
business  associates  he  was  known  for  his 
remarkably  retentive  memory  and  rapid- 
ity of  action,  both  mental  and  physical. 
The  president  of  one  of  the  largest  rail- 
roads in  the  country  said  in  reply  to  a 
statement  that  Mr.  Gates  had  a  quick  and 
brilliant  mind:  "I  should  say  it  was;  as 
quick   as  a   chain   of  lightning."     In   his 


office  Mr.  Gates  was  known  as  an  inde- 
fatigable worker.  When  his  business 
affairs  did  not  require  his  presence,  he 
travelled  extensively  and  was  a  great 
lover  of  all  outdoor  sports,  his  favorite 
diversion  being  big  game  hunting. 

He  was  generous  and  kind  and  took  his 
greatest  pleasure  in  helping  those  in  need. 
His  numerous  kindly  deeds  will  cause  him 
to  be  most  gratefully  remembered  by 
many.  One  of  his  characteristics  that  will 
ever  be  remembered  by  his  associates  was 
a  peculiar  high  order  of  honesty.  Both  in 
his  business  and  in  the  daily  happenings 
of  a  busy  and  active  career  he  was  dis- 
tinctly frank  and  outspoken.  He  abhorred 
all  manner  of  sham,  pretense  and  hypoc- 
racy  and  governed  his  actions  accord- 
ingly. 

Charles  G.  Gates  was  twice  married. 
His  first  wife  was  Mary  W.  Edgar,  of  St. 
Louis,  Missouri,  whom  he  married  in  1898. 
In  191 1  he  married  Florence  Hopwood, 
of  Minneapolis,  Minnesota.  His  untimely 
death  occurred  at  Cody,  Wyoming,  on 
October  28,  1913,  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
seven  years,  from  a  stroke  of  apoplexy 
while  on  his  return  from  a  hunting  expe- 
dition in  the  Thoroughfare  mountains, 
near  Yellowstone  National  Park. 

Mr.  Gates  had  been  a  member  of  the 
principal  exchanges  throughout  the  coun- 
try, including  the  New  York  Stock  Ex- 
change, the  New  York  Cotton  Exchange 
and  the  Chicago  Board  of  Trade.  At  the 
time  of  his  death  Mr.  Gates  was  president 
and  director  of  Moose  Mountain,  Limited, 
and  of  the  Port  Arthur  Rice  Milling  Com- 
pany ;  he  was  a  director  and  member  of 
the  executive  committee  of  The  Texas 
Company  and  United  States  Realty  and 
Improvement  Company ;  he  was  a  direc- 
tor in  the  Plaza  Operating  Company ;  the 
First  National  Bank  of  Port  Arthur, 
Texas ;  Home  Trust  Company  of  Port 
Arthur,  Texas ;  Port  Arthur  Realtv  Com.- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


pany ;  Heisig  &  Norvell,  Incorporated ; 
Griffing  Brothers  Company;  and  East 
Texas  Electric  Company.  Among  the 
clubs  of  which  he  was  a  member  were 
the  New  York  Athletic  Club,  Automobile 
Club  of  America,  Atlantic  Yacht  Club, 
Westchester  Country  Club,  Columbia 
Yacht  Club,  Chicago  Athletic  Club  and 
the  Calumet  Club  of  Chicago. 


HOTCHKISS,  Hiram  Gilbert, 

Merchant,  Manufacturer, 

In  1839,  Mr.  Hotchkiss  manufactured  a 
quantity  of  pure  oil  of  peppermint  at 
Phelps,  Ontario  county,  New  York,  which 
he  shipped  to  the  New  York  City  dealers 
in  essential  oils.  They  had  no  use  for  the 
pure  oil,  the  adulterated  oil  having  pos- 
session of  the  market.  Mr.  Hotchkiss 
then  sent  the  entire  shipment  to  London, 
England,  and  Rotterdam,  Holland,  these 
markets  quickly  absorbing  it  and  de- 
manding more.  That  was  in  1839  and 
the  beginning  of  the  large  business 
built  up  by  Hiram  G.  Hotchkiss,  which 
made  the  name  of  "Hotchkiss"  a  standard 
of  purity  wherever  essential  oils  were 
used.  For  many  years  he  supplied  the 
markets,  domestic  and  foreign,  with  pure 
peppermint  and  other  oils,  the  business 
he  founded  still  being  conducted  by  his 
sons,  Calvin  and  Hiram,  who  are  the  con- 
trolling mediums  in  ruling  the  pure  es- 
sential oil  market  so  far  as  their  particu- 
lar lines  of  manufacture  extend.  World's 
exposition  committees  have  placed  the 
seal  of  approval  upon  "Hotchkiss"  oils, 
and  in  those  held  in  England,  German)-, 
America,  France  and  Austria,  since  1851, 
they  were  awarded  first  prize  medals.  On 
his  way  to  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1878, 
Mr.  Hotchkiss  stopped  in  London,  and 
while  there  received  the  congratulations 
of  prominent  London  wholesale  dealers  on 
the  excellence  of  his  oils.   Each  case  of  oil 


he  packed  contained  a  pamphlet  reciting 
the  story  of  the  honors  awarded  the 
"Hotchkiss"  brand  of  oils,  and  before  he 
died  he  had  the  pleasure  of  knowing  that 
his  own  country  recognized  his  merit  and 
that  of  his  oils  by  an  award  of  the  highest 
merit  at  the  Columbian  Exposition  held  in 
Chicago  in  1893.  During  his  trips  abroad, 
especially  to  Germany,  he  became  con- 
vinced of  the  importance  of  transplanting 
the  sugar  beet  to  the  United  States  and 
made  strong  efforts  to  do  so,  but  neither 
the  farmers  nor  the  refiners  were  ready 
for  it  then,  and  the  honor  of  introducing 
that  important  industry  to  the  farmers  of 
the  United  States  goes  largely  to  another. 

Mr.  Hotchkiss  was  of  English  ancestry, 
his  father,  Ephilet  Hotchkiss,  moving  to 
Phelps,  Ontario  county,  New  York,  in 
181 1.  He  was  a  pioneer  merchant,  built 
up  a  large  business,  which  at  his  death 
in  1828  was  continued  by  his  sons.  His 
store  was  largely  patronized  by  the 
Oneida  and  Mohawk  Indians  with  whom 
he  had  many  personal  fights  at  the 
Oneida  Castle  store,  but  they  were  his 
friends  generally  and  he  was  a  very  suc- 
cessful Indian  trader.  He  married  Chloe 
Gilbert  who  bore  him  several  children  in- 
cluding two  sons,  Lliram  G.  and  Leman 
B. 

Hiram  Gilbert  Hotchkiss  was  born  at 
Oneida  Castle,  Oneida  county,  New  York, 
June  19,  1810,  died  at  Lyons,  New  York, 
October  27,  1897.  His  parents  moved  to 
Phelps,  Ontario  county,  in  181 1,  and  in 
his  father's  store  there  he  obtained  his 
business  training  as  well  as  some  public 
school  education  in  a  log  schoolhouse, 
but  it  was  sufficient  for  a  foundation  and 
as  the  years  progressed  he  read  and 
studied,  becoming  a  well  informed  man. 
His  father  was  also  a  partner  with  James 
F.  Bartle,  Morton  &  Company,  who  were 
pioneer  merchants  of  the  town  of  Arca- 
dia, and  the  village  of  Newark.    The  sons 


248 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


of  Ephilet  Hotchkiss  also  working  in  that 
store.  His  father  died  when  Hiram  G. 
Hotchkiss  was  eighteen  years  of  age,  and 
he,  with  his  brother,  Leman  B.,  con- 
tinued the  general  store  at  Phelps  until 
1837  when  he  engaged  heavily  in  milling 
operations,  shipping  his  flour  to  New 
York  City.  In  1839  he  took  advantage 
of  the  not  large  quantity  of  peppermint 
grown  in  the  neighborhood  of  Phelps,  ex- 
tracted the  oil,  and  shipped  to  New  York 
City  dealers  with  the  result  previously 
outlined.  The  success  of  the  oil  in  the 
foreign  market  encouraged  him  to  con- 
tinue and  he  ran  his  small  plant  at  times 
until  1843,  finding  a  ready  market  abroad. 
In  1843,  finding  the  lowlands  around 
Lyons,  Wayne  county,  admirably  adapted 
to  the  culture  of  the  peppermint  plant, 
he  purchased  a  large  tract  there  and  be- 
gan cultivating  it  on  a  large  scale.  In 
1844  he  moved  his  extracting  plant  to 
Lyons  and  gradually  built  up  a  large  ex- 
port business,  the  domestic  market  re- 
sponding later  after  the  name  "Hotch- 
kiss" became  the  last  word  in  the  perfec- 
tion of  manufacture  of  essential  oils,  and 
a  household  word  with  the  consumers.  He 
prospered  abundantly  and  at  the  time  of 
his  death  he  was  a  large  owner  of  farm 
lands  and  village  real  estate. 

Mr.  Hotchkiss  took  little  part  in  poli- 
tics and  although  his  sympathies  and 
vote  were  usually  Democratic,  he  was  a 
warm  personal  friend  of  the  eminent  Re- 
publican statesman,  William  H.  Seward. 
He  belonged  to  no  fraternity,  club  or  so- 
ciety, but  was  the  soul  of  hospitality, 
delighting  in  filling  his  home  with  guests, 
and  made  it  the  social  center  of  Lyons. 
His  home  was  a  mansion  in  the  village, 
containing  twenty-seven  rooms,  and  he 
was  never  happier  than  when  it  was 
taxed  to  its  fullest  capacity.  In  religious 
belief  he  was  an  Episcopalian,  very  help- 
ful and  generous  to  the  church  and  to  all 
good  causes.     He  made  trips  abroad  in 


the  interest  of  his  business  and  was  well 
informed  on  all  matters  of  national  and 
international  importance.  He  made  many 
friends  at  home  and  abroad  and  was  par- 
ticuarly  proud  that  he  had  won  so  high 
a  reputation  as  a  manufacturer  of  oil  free 
from  even  a  suspicion  of  adulteration. 

Mr.  Hotchkiss  married,  January  3, 
1833,  at  Lyons,  New  York,  Mary,  daugh- 
ter of  Dr.  Robert  and  Polly  (Jones)  Ash- 
ley, her  father  being  one  of  the  first  physi- 
cians to  settle  in  Lyons.  Mrs.  Hotchkiss 
died  leaving  the  following  children  :  Ellen, 
married  Colonel  A.  D.  Adams ;  Mary, 
married  Thomas  F.  Attix;  Emma,  mar- 
ried the  Rev.  Charles  H.  Piatt,  of  New 
York  City ;  Lesette,  married  Henry  Par- 
shall,  of  Lyons ;  Anne,  married  Charles 
K.  Dickinson,  of  Detroit;  Leman,  now 
deceased ;  Adrianna,  married  the  Rev. 
W.  H.  Williams,  of  Lyons ;  Calvin  and 
Hiram  Gilbert,  their  father's  successors ; 
Alice,  married  William  G.  David. 


BUCKNER,  Franklin  Fernando,  D.  D., 

Well  Known  Divine. 

An  exceptionally  eloquent  preacher,  a 
devoted  pastor,  and  an  exemplary  citizen. 
Rev.  Franklin  F.  Buckner  for  the  last 
four  years  of  his  life  pastor  of  the  Uni- 
versalist  Church  of  Newark,  New  York, 
exerted  a  strong  influence  upon  that  com- 
munity. He  fought  vigorously  the  forces 
of  evil,  and  although  he  made  many  ene- 
mies among  them  no  man  in  the  village 
exerted  a  more  powerful  influence  for 
good.  His  idea  of  religion  extended  far 
beyond  his  parish  into  the  community-at- 
large,  and  wherever  he  found  a  man  or  a 
woman  or  a  condition  needing  an  uplift, 
and  he  was  able  to  help,  he  was  always 
ready,  eager,  strong  and  confident.  He 
was  not  only  a  theological  student 
and  a  preacher,  but  a  great  lover  of  liter- 
ature, and  was  familiar  with  every  vol- 
ume  in  his  library,  one  of  the  finest  in 


249 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


the  county.  He  took  a  deep  interest  in 
national  politics  and  was  well  informed 
on  all  great  public  questions.  He  was  in- 
terested in  community  work,  in  the 
charges  he  filled,  and  at  Bristol,  Middle- 
port  and  Newark,  New  York,  instituted 
community  lecture  courses,  also  at  Bris- 
tol organizing  a  free  library.  He  wrote 
of  himself  not  long  before  his  death :  "On 
August  3,  191 3,  I  completed  twenty-five 
years  of  unbroken  ministry,  during  which 
period  only  three  Sundays  have  been  lost 
by  any  manner  of  illness.  To-day  I  en- 
joy as  good  health  and  soundness  of  body 
as  at  any  time  previous  to  date.  I  have 
lived  quietly,  studiously,  industriously, 
effectively,  without  creating  any  pro- 
found impression  or  gaining  much  fame 
beyond  the  respect  and  good  will  of  my 
fellows.  Late  in  1908  I  published  a  vol- 
ume of  poems  entitled  'A  Wreath  of 
Song,'  which  has  been  so  well  spoken  of 
as  to  lead  me  to  hope  for  other  adven- 
tures in  a  literary  way."  These  words 
bespeak  the  modesty  of  the  man,  and 
give  little  idea  of  the  influence  he  exerted 
for  good.  At  the  time  of  his  death  he  had 
another  book  of  poems  almost  ready  for 
publication.  He  was  a  son  of  Josiah  and 
Lorana  (Henry)  Buckner,  his  father  a 
farmer. 

Franklin  Fernando  Buckner  was  born 
on  a  farm  two  miles  northeast  of  Mason, 
Illinois,  May  20,  1866,  died  at  his  home  in 
Newark,  New  York,  August  4,  1916,  after 
an  illness  of  but  two  weeks.  He  attended 
the  district  public  school,  one-half  mile 
away,  until  he  was  thirteen  years  of  age, 
his  parents  then  moving  from  the  farm 
upon  which  he  was  born  to  Effingham, 
Illinois,  where  he  attended  school  for  the 
three  following  years.  In  1884  he  taught 
a  brief  term  of  school  in  Moccasin  town- 
ship, and  in  September,  1886,  he  entered 
the  Lombard  Divinity  School  of  Gales- 
burg,  Illinois.  He  completed  his  studies 
at  that  institution  in  June,  1889.  became 


a  minister  of  the  Universalist  church,  and 
began  his  ministry  at  Le  Roy,  Ohio.  In 
connection  with  his  pastorate  of  that 
church  he  served  one  year  at  Huntington 
and  one  year  at  Attica,  Ohio.  He  was 
ordained  in  the  Le  Roy  church,  January 
25,  1890,  and  a  little  more  than  a  year 
later  was  married  in  the  same  church. 
In  March,  1893,  he  moved  from  the 
church  at  Le  Roy  to  the  pastorate  of  the 
church  at  Urbana,  Illinois,  and  in  March, 
1895,  to  Macomb,  Illinois,  serving  the 
church  at  Urbana  until  April,  1899.  From 
April  to  July,  1899,  he  supplied  the  pulpit 
of  Bradley  Memorial  Church  at  Peoria, 
Illinois,  and  in  August,  1899,  was  settled 
over  the  church  at  Bristol,  New  York, 
serving  that  congregation  until  Septem- 
ber, 1903.  The  next  seven  years  he  was 
pastor  of  the  church  at  Middleport,  New 
York,  also  preaching  at  Ridgway  Sunday 
afternoons  during  three  years  of  that 
period.  He  left  Middleport  in  Septem- 
ber, 1910,  was  in  Medina,  New  York, 
until  March,  1912,  then  became  pastor  of 
the  church  at  Newark,  so  continuing  until 
his  death. 

He  married  in  Le  Roy,  Ohio,  May  14. 
1891,  Lillian  May,  daughter  of  Erastus 
and  Eliza  Simmons,  of  Le  Roy.  They 
were  the  parents  of  four  children  :  Marian 
Lorana,  married  Dr.  James  Sanford,  of 
Newark,  New  York,  and  has  two  daugh- 
ters, Anne  Elizabeth,  born  August  9. 
1913,  and  Damaris  Buckner.  born  Febru- 
ary 27.  1916;  Orella  Simmons,  a  gradu- 
ate of  the  University  of  Illinois,  class  of 
iqi6;  Dorothea  Aurora,  a  graduate  of 
Newark  High  School;  and  Henry  Ed- 
ward, educated  in  the  same  school. 


NORTON,  Luther  M., 

Lawyer  and  Jurist. 

Although  a  native  son  of  Livingston 
county,  New  York,  Judge  Norton's  entire 
professional   life   was    passed    in    Wayne 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


county,  where  he  was  held  in  the  highest 
esteem  by  his  brethren  of  the  county  bar, 
and  by  the  public-at-large.  He  was  a 
lawyer  of  ability,  and  his  service  as  coun- 
ty judge  demonstrated  that  he  possessed 
the  high  qualities  of  the  jurist.  He  was 
of  calm,  unruffled  demeanor,  fair  and  im- 
partial in  his  decisions,  serving  only  the 
cause  of  justice  as  revealed  by  the  evi- 
dence presented  to  him.  He  was  learned 
in  the  law,  but  did  not  rely  upon  his  own 
construction  of  its  technicalities,  never 
deciding  an  intricate  point  without  close 
study  of  previous  published  decisions  and 
all  law  bearing  upon  the  controverted 
point.  From  1855  until  his  death  he  was 
a  member  of  the  Wayne  county  bar,  and 
a  resident  of  Newark. 

Luther  M.  Norton  was  born  at  Grove- 
land,  Livingston  county,  New  York,  Feb- 
ruary 26,  1832,  died  at  his  home  in  New- 
ark, Wayne  county,  New  York,  October 
25,  1908.  He  obtained  his  education  in 
the  public  schools  and  Genesee-Wyoming 
Seminary  at  Alexander,  New  York,  and 
after  graduation  began  teaching,  a  pro- 
fession which  he  sucessfully  followed  for 
eight  years.  During  those  years  he 
studied  law  and  was  a  regularly  regis- 
tered student  in  a  Mount  Morris  law 
office.  In  December,  1855,  he  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar,  and  the  same  year 
moved  to  Newark,  New  York,  there 
spending  his  entire  after  life.  For  one 
vear  he  was  a  partner  with  Judge  George 
H.  Middleton,  and  rapidly  rose  in  public 
favor  as  a  general  practitioner.  He  was 
a  Republican  in  politics,  and  took  an  ac- 
tive interest  in  public  affairs,  gaining  a 
county-wide  acquaintance  and  winning  a 
host  of  friends.  He  was  made  a  justice 
of  sessions,  and  in  November,  1869,  was 
elected  county  judge,  serving  one  term 
of  five  years,  the  office  of  surrogate  at 
that  time  being  coupled  with  that  of 
county  judge  in  Wayne  county.  In  No- 
vember, 1891,  he  was  again  elected  coun- 


ty judge,  the  term  having  been  extended 
to  six  years. 

As  a  lawyer  Judge  Norton  practiced  in 
all  State  and  Federal  courts  of  his  dis- 
trict, and  ever  conducted  a  large  practice. 
He  was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the 
Wayne  County  Bar  Association,  Novem- 
ber 10,  1890,  and  a  member  of  its  first 
executive  committee.  He  was  a  power- 
ful advocate  for  the  cause  he  espoused, 
strong  in  his  presentation,  submitted  the 
clearest  and  most  logical  briefs,  and  was 
an  orator  of  eloquence  and  force.  Few 
of  his  decisions  as  judge  but  which  stood 
the  test  if  appealed  to  a  higher  court,  and 
none  ever  questioned  the  purity  of  his 
motives  nor  the  fairness  of  his  decisions. 
He  was  a  life-long  member  of  the  Baptist 
church,  interested  in  all  good  works,  his 
private  character  beyond  reproach,  his 
public  spirit  ever  displayed  in  all  that 
tended  to  elevate  the  moral  tone  or  im- 
prove the  temporal  condition  of  his  village. 

Judge  Norton  married,  in  1853,  Sarah 
M.  Stilson,  of  Mt.  Morris,  Livingston 
county,  New  York,  daughter  of  Edwin 
and  Hulda  (Lake)  Stilson.  Judge  and 
Mrs.  Norton  were  the  parents  of  two 
daughters  and  a  son :  Flora  A.,  now  Mrs. 
F.  E.  Brown,  of  Newark.  New  York; 
Grace  I.,  a  graduate  of  Elmira  Female 
College,  a  teacher;  Willis  I.,  married 
Maud  Hicks,  of  Phelps,  New  York. 


WINSPEAR,  Charles  W., 
Public   Official. 

The  life  history  of  Charles  W.  Win- 
spear,  for  seventeen  years  superintendent 
of  the  New  York  State  Custodial  Asylum 
at  Newark,  is  the  record  of  a  self-made 
man  who  by  ability  and  exertion  made 
his  way  upward  and  succeeded  in  his  ca- 
reer by  reason  of  individual  merit,  guided 
by  sound  judgment  and  common  sense. 
He  came  to  Newark  in  1893  when  he  was 
appointed  to  the  responsible  position  of 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


superintendent  of  the  New  York  State 
Custodial  Asylum.  The  institution  re- 
ceived for  seventeen  years  the  benefit  of 
his  magnificent  intellect,  unerring  judg- 
ment and  his  unwavering  fidelity.  It  be- 
came the  leading  State  institution  of  its 
kind  with  the  lowest  per  capita  cost  and 
the  highest  record  for  efficiency  of  man- 
agement. Its  plans  of  development  under 
which  it  has  made  its  great  growth  was 
to  a  large  extent  the  product  of  his  mas- 
ter mind.  Its  successful  private  water 
works  system  was  exclusively  an  achieve- 
ment of  his  and  accomplished  against 
many  difficulties,  and  the  plans  of  its 
buildings  and  its  general  improvements 
were  developed  under  his  direction. 

Leaving  the  institution,  which  he  had 
served  so  faithfully,  Mr.  Winspear  se- 
lected a  site  of  land  of  several  acres  in 
extent  on  West  Maple  avenue  in  Newark 
and  developed  its  natural  resources  by 
hemming  in  Military  Brook  between  high 
banks  and  making  a  beautiful  spring 
water  lake,  on  the  banks  of  which  he 
built  his  pleasant  home,  where  he  passed 
in  merited  enjoyment  the  recent  years  of 
his  life,  surrounded  by  his  family  and  en- 
joying the  comforts  of  a  delightful  domes- 
tic life.  He  was  a  man  of  unusual  poise 
and  dignity  and  approached  every  sub- 
ject with  calmness  and  impartiality.  He 
was  gracious  and  courtly  in  manner,  con- 
siderate of  others,  particularly  those  of 
his  own  household,  respected  and  hon- 
ored by  all  who  knew  him. 

Charles  W.  Winspear  was  born  at  El- 
ma,  Erie  county,  New  York,  July  6,  1854, 
died  at  his  beautiful  home  in  Newark, 
New  York,  August  8,  1916,  son  of  Wil- 
liam and  Hannah  (Richardson)  Win- 
spear, his  father  born  in  England,  a 
lawyer  by  profession  and  a  farmer. 
Charles  W.  Winspear  spent  his  early  life 
on  the  farm,  attended  the  public  schools 
of  the  district  and  remained  his  father's 
assistant   until   the   age   of   twenty-three 


years.  On  January  1,  1877,  he  was  ap- 
pointed clerk  in  the  Erie  County  Alms- 
house and  Insane  Asylum,  serving  in  that 
position  one  year.  He  then  was  pro- 
moted to  the  position  of  deputy  keeper, 
a  post  he  faithfully  filled  for  sixteen 
years.  During  the  last  ten  years  of  his 
term  he  also  served  as  special  agent  of 
the  State  board  of  charities  in  the  city  of 
Buffalo,  and  became  well  skilled  and  pro- 
ficient in  the  line  he  had  chosen  as  his 
life  work. 

During  his  long  term  he  had  become 
well  known  for  his  interest  in  this  phase 
of  State  philanthropy  and  a  vacancy  oc- 
curring, he  was  appointed  on  July  1,  1893, 
superintendent  of  the  New  York  State 
Custodial  Asylum  at  Newark,  an  institu- 
tion devoted  to  the  care  of  feeble  minded 
women.  This  choice  of  a  superintendent 
by  the  board  of  trustees  was  a  most 
fortunate  one  for  the  institution  and  for 
seventeen  years  he  devoted  himself  ex- 
clusively to  the  care  of  those  unfortunate 
wards  of  the  State  committed  to  his  wise 
government.  He  resigned  his  position  as 
superintendent  October  1,   1909. 

Mr.  Winspear  was  a  most  capable  busi- 
ness man,  an  interesting  worker,  apply- 
ing himself  to  every  task  with  concentra- 
tion, energy  and  force.  After  resigning 
his  position,  he  spent  much  time  in 
Buffalo,  where  he  was  a  partner  in  the 
real  estate  firm  of  Winspear  &  Northrup. 
there  conducting  a  large  and  successful 
business,  two  streets  in  Buffalo  being  de- 
veloped entirely  through  the  efforts  of 
the  firm.  He  also  manifested  his  public 
spirited  interest  in  Newark,  his  adopted 
home,  investing  his  resources  in  various 
village  enterprises,  was  a  director  and 
vice-president  of  the  First  National  Bank, 
president  of  the  board  of  trade  and  an 
active  working  member  of  that  organiza- 
tion. 

He  was  fond  of  sports  of  the  out-of- 
doors,  a  member  of  the  Audubon  Shoot- 


252 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


ing  Club  of  Buffalo,  and  an  ardent  fisher- 
man. The  artificial  pond  on  his  estate 
stocked  with  game  fish  was  to  him  a 
source  of  much  pleasure  and  not  infre- 
quently he  devoted  an  hour  to  luring  a 
trout  to  his  fly  and  hook.  He  was  very 
successful  in  his  business  enterprises  and 
was  frequently  sought  in  counsel  in 
matters  important  to  the  village.  He  was 
a  Democrat  in  politics,  a  member  of 
Washington  Lodge,  No.  240,  Free  and 
Accepted  Masons,  of  Buffalo,  later  be- 
coming a  member  of  the  Newark  lodge, 
also  belonging  to  the  Acacia  Club  of  that 
city.  In  religious  faith  he  was  a  Presby- 
terian, serving  as  trustee  and  elder  for 
many  years. 

Mr.  Winspear  married,  in  Buffalo,  New 
York,  June  18,  1893,  Gertrude  E.,  daugh- 
ter of  George  F.  and  Harriet  Winspear, 
of  Lancaster,  Erie  county,  New  York. 
Mrs.  Winspear  survives  her  husband 
with  three  children:  Alta  Grace,  born 
September  28,  1897;  Ethel  G.,  June  14, 
1899;    Harriet,  September  18,  1906. 

Judge  McLouth,  of  Palmyra,  writes 
the  following  appreciation  of  the  char- 
acter and  achievements  of  Charles  W. 
Winspear: 

Much  has  been  said,  and  properly  so,  of  Mr. 
Winspear,  yet  as  much  left  unsaid.  When  at  the 
instance  of  the  Managers  of  the  State  Custodial 
Asylum  for  Feeble-minded  Women  he  came  to 
Newark  he  resigned  the  position  he  had  long 
and  under  different  political  administrations  held, 
of  Deputy  Superintendent  of  the  Poor  of  Erie 
county,  which  was  one  of  great  responsibility. 
To  some  extent  it  had  fitted  him  for  the  new 
duties  he  was  to  undertake,  yet  there  was  largely 
more.  He  had  as  an  officer  of  the  State  a  more 
difficult  position,  which  involved  the  care  and 
management  of  larger  property  as  well  as  many 
persons,  and  either  case  was  not  more  varied 
than  the  other.  His  work  was  as  largely  humane 
as  it  was  constructive,  and  it  required  that  he 
should  constantly  look  ahead.  He  saw  largely 
increasing  needs  of  a  growing  population.  Per- 
haps his  value  to  the  State  and  its  defective 
wards  was  nowhere  more  largely  manifest.     No 


need  was  more  so  than  the  procuring  of  an 
ample  supply  of  pure  water.  There  were  some 
difficulties  in  obtaining  sufficient  from  the  vil- 
lage water  works,  as  then  existing,  both  as  to 
quantity  and  quality,  and  the  State  was  not 
swift  to  respond  to  demands  made  upon  it. 
After  much  deliberation  Mr.  Winspear  believed 
that  in  the  springs  near  Marbletown  the  suffi- 
cient supply  might  be  found,  and  that  gravity 
would  bring  it  to  the  doors.  With  untiring 
energy,  but  no  noise,  he  secured  the  options  of 
the  springs  and  rights  of  way,  and  then  sub- 
mitted to  the  Managers  his  project.  He  had  not 
much  support.  The  conservatism  of  the  board 
thought  it  visionary,  or,  if  not,  hardly  practical. 
But  they  had  learned  to  defer  so  largely  to  his 
judgment  that  they  and  the  State  acquiesced. 
It  was  a  great  and  permanent  success.  It  led  to 
another  as  important — the  removal  of  the  power 
house  from  the  center  of  the  group  of  buildings 
to  the  foot  and  rear  of  the  hill — and  so  the 
danger  of  fire  was  almost  totally  minimized. 
The  water  was  and  has  been  all  of  the  time 
abundant  and  satisfactory,  insomuch  that  when 
the  village  supply  threatened  deficiency  its  auxil- 
iary was  obtained  from  the  hill  with  less  fric- 
tion and  more  composure  than  its  supply  to  the 
hill  had  formerly  been  furnished. 

A  little  later  Mr.  Winspear  proposed  to  place 
on  the  extreme  elevation  of  the  hill  a  storage 
tank  of  suitable  dimensions  and  store  there  a 
supply  of  water  for  emergency.  That  was  not 
much  believed  in,  but  it  was  allowed,  and  he 
succeeded  beyond  expectations.  The  question  of 
proper  sewage  disposition  was  always  largely 
considered  by  him,  and  he  was  as  successful  as 
was  possible,  until  the  present  combination  was 
worked  out,  and  in  large  degree  he  was  respon- 
sible for  that. 

The  largest  achievement  of  Mr.  Winspear,  and 
by  far  the  most  valuable,  was  found  in  the  car- 
rying out  of  the  purposes  of  the  Institution. 
Mental  deficiencies  were  and  are  largely  misun- 
derstood. Susceptible  improvements  are  much 
underrated.  And  to  this  his  thought  never 
ceased  to  be  directed,  with  the  result  that,  with 
time,  patience,  thoughtfulness  and  such  changes 
as  from  time  to  time  became  apparent,  very 
marked  improvement  in  reading,  writing,  figures, 
music,  dancing,  dress  and  general  appearance 
appeared,  so  that  he  made  his  Institution  known 
in  this  and  all  countries  where  similar  efforts 
have  been  directed. 

The  location  and  construction  of  buildings; 
the  supply  to  each  of  proper  heat,  water  and 
light;   the  classification  of  inmates;  the  refusal 


253 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


to  build  and  the  depopulation  of  floors  above  the 
second;  the  embellishment  of  grounds;  the  suc- 
cess of  greenhouses;  the  building  oi  roads;  the 
systematizing  of  the  office  and  help;  and  the 
organization  of  the  entire  administrative  work 
and  force,  was  the  marvel  of  the  man.  He  was 
of  infinite  detail  and  larger  patience,  and,  with 
the  latter,  he  bore  the  platitudes  of  success  as 
calmly  as  he  did  undeserved,  malicious,  wicked 
and  absolutely  groundless  assaults.  The  latter 
is  not  an  unusual  accompaniment  of  success. 


WILSON,  Jacob, 

Journalist  and  Litterateur. 

From  January,  1869,  until  1906,  Mr. 
Wilson  was  proprietor,  editor  and  pub- 
lisher of  the  'Newark  Courier,"  one  of 
the  most  popular  country  weeklies  in 
New  York,  bringing  to  his  work  the  cul- 
ture of  college,  foreign  travel  and  long 
experience  as  an  educator.  The  "Couri- 
er," established  in  1838  as  the  '"Wayne 
Standard,"  an  organ  of  the  old  Whig 
party,  had  a  varied  and  checkered  ex- 
istence under  different  names  and  pub- 
lishers until  its  purchase  by  Mr.  Wilson, 
who  a  little  later  changed  its  politics  to 
Democratic,  and  being  constantly  on  the 
alert  for  improvements  and  being  himself 
an  accomplished  writer,  he  gave  the 
paper  an  interest  it  had  never  possesed. 
His  work  in  journalism  was  such  as  to 
class  him  with  the  great  county  editors 
of  the  State  and  brought  him  prominently 
into  the  public  eye.  He  was  unfortu- 
nately located  politically,  as  his  congres- 
sional district,  composed  of  Wayne,  Ca- 
yuga and  Seneca  counties,  was  normally 
from  6,000  to  7,000  Republican.  He. 
however,  made  the  attempt  in  1874  and 
although  pitted  against  the  popular  Gen- 
eral MacDougall  as  his  opponent  and 
confronted  with  the  huge  majority  which 
the  district  usually  gave,  he  came  within 
a  few  hundred  votes  of  an  election  to 
Congress,  although  he  gave  little  atten- 
tion to  the  campaign  waged  in  his  favor. 
Aside  from  his  journalism  he  was  a  well 


known  litterateur,  the  author  of  educa- 
tional works  and  books  of  general  thought 
in  which  he  discussed  religious  and  eco- 
nomic questions,  works  commended  by 
the  leading  men  of  the  country  and  en- 
titling him  to  high  rank  and  literary  fame. 
Jacob  Wilson,  or  as  he  wrote  his  name, 
J.  Wilson,  was  born  in  St.  Johnsville, 
Montgomery  county,  New  York,  May  12. 
1831,  died  in  Newark,  New  York,  March 
16,  1914.  At  the  age  of  twenty  years  he 
was  graduated  from  Union  College,  now 
University,  read  law  and  in  1852,  as  soon 
as  legally  eligible,  was  admitted  to  the 
bar.  He  practiced  but  little,  however, 
but  turned  to  teaching  as  a  profession 
and  for  nearly  twenty  years  was  an  edu- 
cator, attaining  high  rank  as  principal  of 
some  of  the  best  academies  in  the  State. 
When  the  Civil  War  broke  out  he  warm- 
ly espoused  the  Union  cause,  gave  up  his 
profession,  recruited  a  company  of  one 
hundred  and  seven  men  at  his  own  expense 
and  served  as  their  captain  during  part 
of  1861  and  1862.  He  continued  in  edu- 
cational work  of  a  high  class  until  Janu- 
ary, 1872.  then  purchased  the  "Newark 
Courier"  and  devoted  himself  to  journal- 
ism and  literature  until  his  death.  He 
was  a  pronounced  Democrat,  and  on  Oc- 
tober 23.  1874,  received  the  unanimous 
nomination  of  the  Democratic  conven- 
tion for  Congress  from  the  Twenty-Sixth 
Congressional  District.  The  district  was 
hopelessly  Republican  and  he  took  little 
personal  part  in  the  campaign,  but  so 
great  was  his  popularity  and  so  favor- 
ably had  he  made  the  "Courier"  known 
throughout  the  district  that  he  narrowly 
escaped  election.  In  1880  he  was  on  the 
New  York  Democratic  electoral  ticket, 
but  he  was  not  an  aspirant  for  political 
honors  at  any  time,  much  preferring  the 
independent  position  he  held  as  editor  of 
a  prosperous  newspaper.  In  1868  and 
again  in  1888  he  toured  Europe,  and  later 
made  two  other  trips,  his  cultured  mind 


254 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


reveling  in  the  artistic  beauties  and  won- 
ders of  the  Old  World. 

Mr.  Wilson  began  his  literary  work 
while  engaged  as  an  educator  and  in  1858 
published  "Errors  of  Grammar,-'  fol- 
lowed in  1864  by  "Phrases,"  "A  Treatise 
on  the  History  and  Structure  of  the  Dif- 
ferent Languages  of  the  World."  In 
1870  his  "Practical  Grammar  of  the  Eng- 
lish Language"  appeared,  and  in  1874 
"The  Bible  as  Seen  by  the  Light  of  the 
Nineteenth  Century"  was  published,  a 
work  which  created  intense  interest  and 
much  discussion.  "Practical  Life  and 
Study  of  Man"  was  published  in  1882, 
"Radical  Wrongs"  in  1892.  These  works 
won  him  literary  fame  and  brought  him 
into  personal  contact  with  the  best  men 
of  the  literary  world.  They  showed  the 
depth  of  his  research  and  the  strength  of 
his  intellectual  power,  those  relating  to 
educational  work  having  become  stand- 
ard. He  was  the  most  scholarly  writer 
Newark  ever  had.  His  skill  lay  in  his 
clear  thinking  and  writing,  his  work  at- 
tracting the  attention  of  men  of  letters  in 
Germany,  where  he  was  perhaps  as  well 
known  as  in  his  own  country.  He  was 
not  a  popular  writer ;  he  was  a  philoso- 
pher and  his  name  will  go  down  in  honor. 


AVERILL,  Edward  Samuel, 

Journalist. 

At  the  time  of  his  death  in  1910  Mr. 
Averill  was  the  oldest  newspaper  man  in 
New  York  State  in  point  of  years  of  serv- 
ice, his  connection  with  Wayne  county 
journalism  having  begun  in  August,  1856, 
with  the  purchase  of  the  "Palmyra  Amer- 
ican" which  he  restored  to  its  former 
name  the  "Palmyra  Courier.''  From  that 
year  until  his  death,  fifty-four  years  later, 
he  continued  in  the  editorial  manage- 
ment of  the  "Courier."  making  it  one 
of  the  largest  and  ablest  journals  in 
Western  New  York.    The  "Courier"  was 


founded  in  1838  by  Frederick  Morley, 
who  continued  its  publication  until  1852 
when  it  passed  to  the  ownership  of  J.  C. 
Benedict,  and  in  January,  1853,  to  B.  C. 
Beebe,  who  renamed  it  the  "Palmyra 
Democrat."  and  a  little  later  the  "Pal- 
myra American."  In  August,  1856.  Mr. 
Averill  purchased  the  paper,  renamed  it 
the  "Palmyra  Courier,"  and  dedicated  it 
to  the  newly  formed  Republican  party, 
a  party  whose  faithful  and  valuable  ally 
it  has  been  until  the  present  date,  now- 
being  owned  and  edited  by  Ralph  E.  and 
Harry  L.  Averill.  sons  of  Edward  S. 
Averill. 

The  history  of  the  "Courier,"  under  the 
Averill  management,  was  one  of  progress 
in  every  department.  When  the  senior 
Averill  obtained  control  local  happenings 
received  but  scant  attention  in  the  press 
of  the  county,  a  condition  he  at  once  set 
out  to  correct,  enlarging  the  paper  to 
make  room  for  a  department  of  local 
news.  The  innovation  was  greatly  ap- 
preciated and  was  rewarded  by  a  greatly 
enlarged  subscription  list  which  encour- 
aged the  editor  to  again  enlarge.  In 
April,  1857.  the  "Courier"  appeared  in  an 
entire  new  dress  and  greatly  improved. 
In  1S58  it  was  again  enlarged  and  again 
in  1865.  The  paper  became  a  tower  of 
strength  to  the  Republican  party  in 
Western  New  York,  and  became  a  source 
of  honor  and  profit  to  the  man  who,  in 
his  youth,  devoted  himself  and  his  paper 
to  the  support  of  a  then  young  and  un- 
tried party.  As  the  years  progressed  the 
"Courier"  kept  pace  with  the  march  of 
progress  in  printing  and  publishing  and 
retained  its  place  as  a  power  in  the  party. 
Himself  a  man  of  clean  mind  and  soul  he 
kept  the  "Courier"  equally  clean  and  its 
columns  free  from  a  suspicion  of  sub- 
servience to  evil  influences.  He  was  de- 
voted to  his  paper,  cared  little  for  money 
making,  but  was  ambitious  that  it  should 
be    a   welcome   and    esteemed    visitor   to 


255 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


every  home.  All  who  knew  him  held  him 
in  the  highest  esteem  and  although  he 
lived  for  over  half  a  century  in  the  fierce 
light  of  publicity  no  taint  of  dishonor 
ever  attached  itself  to  his  name.  He  was 
an  able  editorial  writer  and  made  that 
page  of  the  "Courier"  one  from  which 
the  State  press  often  quoted.  He  hon- 
ored the  profession  he  embraced  and  the 
present  policy  of  the  paper  under  the  sons 
he  trained  in  journalism  is  as  he  would 
have  had  it. 

Edward  Samuel  Averill,  son  of  Erastus 
and  Hannah  Averill,  was  born  in  Albany, 
New  York,  in  1835,  died  in  Palmyra, 
Wayne  county.  New  York,  September  5, 
1910.  He  was  educated  in  the  public 
schools  of  Medina,  New  York,  learned 
the  printer's  trade  in  Medina  when  very 
>  oung  and  for  a  time  was  connected  with 
"'The  Spirit  of  the  Times,"  a  paper  pub- 
lished in  Batavia,  New  York.  Prior  to 
reaching  his  twentieth  year  he  had  been 
editorially  connected  with  that  paper  and 
with  Albany  and  Geneva  papers.  He 
located  in  Palmyra  in  1855  as  editor  of 
the  "Palmyra  Democrat  and  American." 
On  coming  of  legal  age  in  1856  he  pur- 
chased the  paper  from  B.  C.  Beebe,  re- 
named it  the  "Palmyra  Courier"  and 
henceforth  was  its  owner,  publisher  and 
presiding  genius. 

The  "Courier"  represented  the  personal 
politics  of  its  editor  and  was  always  a 
reflection  of  his  own  opinions,  and  al- 
though always  a  stalwart  follower  of 
party  doctrines  was  never  a  subservient 
organ.  His  fidelity  was  rewarded  not 
only  in  public  confidence,  but  in  substan- 
tial recognition  so  far  as  he  would  allow. 
From  1863  until  1868  he  was  the  collector 
of  canal  tolls  at  Palmyra,  and  in  1871 
and  1872  he  was  postmaster  of  the  vil- 
lage. He  was  a  warm  friend  of  public 
education,  and  for  several  years  was  an 
efficient  member  of  the  Palmyra  Board  of 
Education.     In   1868  he  was  chosen  cor- 


responding secretary  of  the  Palmyra 
Union  Agricultural  Society,  an  office  he 
held  for  thirty  years.  He  was  very  liberal 
and  broad  minded  in  his  religious  views 
and  while  not  a  regular  attendant  him- 
self his  family  were  Episcopalians. 

Mr.  Averill  married,  in  1859,  at  Geneva, 
New  York,  Mary,  daughter  of  Maurice 
and  Mary  (Mason)  Caulkins.  They  were 
the  parents  of  three  sons  and  a  daughter: 
Ralph  E.,  who  succeeded  his  father  as 
editor  and  publisher  of  the  "Courier"  in 
association  with  his  brother  Harry  L. ; 
Annie,  residing  in  Palmyra ;  Robert,  an 
attorney  of  Rochester,  New  York;  Harry 
L.,  associated  with  his  brother  Ralph  E. 
as  joint  editors  and  publishers  of  the 
"Courier." 


ROCHESTER,  John  Henry, 

Financier,  Man  of  Affairs. 

The  mention  of  the  name  of  John  Henry 
Rochester  recalls  the  presence  of  a  man 
who  is  not  remembered  solely  for  his 
great  business  ability,  public  service  and 
consistent  enterprise,  but  of  one  who  also 
lives  in  the  hearts  of  his  many  sincere 
friends  as  a  genial,  warm-hearted,  social 
and  hospitable  man,  gracious  as  a  host, 
charming  as  a  guest,  who  esteemed  the 
companionship  and  regard  of  friends  more 
highly  than  business  success.  Courte- 
ous and  courtly,  a  Chesterfield  in  deport- 
ment, he  was  of  the  old  school,  never  for- 
getful of  even  the  smallest  detail  that 
marks  the  true  gentleman.  Seventy-four 
years  marked  his  span  of  life  and  from  the 
age  of  eighteen  he  was  continually  en- 
gaged in  the  banking  business,  being  at 
the  time  of  his  death  the  oldest  banker  in 
active  service  in  the  city  of  Rochester. 
He  was  the  organizer  of  the  Mechanics' 
Savings  Bank  and  for  nearly  thirty  years 
its  secretary  and  treasurer.  His  sympa- 
thetic heart  responded  freely  to  the  call 
of  charity  and  philanthropy.     His  public 


256 


''•** 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


official  service  was  mainly  as  park  com- 
missioner, his  membership  of  the  board 
extending  over  a  period  of  many  years, 
terminating  only  with  his  death.  He  was 
keenly  alive  to  his  responsibilities  as  a 
citizen,  had  well  defined  political  convic- 
tions ;  was  an  earnest  Republican,  with  a 
deep  interest  in  public  affairs,  manly  inde- 
pendence, abhorrent  of  all  political  abuses, 
but  never  seeking  nor  accepting  political 
office.  He  traveled  extensively  at  home 
and  abroad,  was  extremely  well  read,  with 
refined  taste  in  literature  and  was  a  well 
known  patron  of  the  fine  arts.  His  social 
nature  and  love  of  the  companionship  of 
friends  led  him  into  clubs,  societies  and 
fraternities,  in  fact  he  was  interested  in 
all  that  affected  the  civic,  business,  social 
or  religious  life  of  his  city.  All  of  his 
mature  life  he  was  a  devoted  churchman 
and  when  death  erased  his  name  from 
the  roll  of  St.  Luke's  parish,  was  its  oldest 
communicant  in  point  of  years  of  mem- 
bership. In  his  long-time  home,  his 
widow,  with  whom  he  spent  nearly  half  a 
century  of  wedded  bliss,  survives  him 
aged  eighty-two  years,  charming  in  her 
personality,  mentally  keen  and  bright  as 
of  yore,  a  true  type  of  the  Southern  gen- 
tlewoman, remarkable  in  the  victory  she 
has  won  over  her  weight  of  years. 

The  lineage  of  the  Rochester  family  is 
traced  to  the  year  1582,  and  to  the  County 
of  Essex,  England.  The  American  an- 
cestor, Nicholas  Rochester,  came  in  1689, 
settling  in  Westmoreland  county,  Vir- 
ginia, on  an  estate  in  Cople  parish,  upon 
which  his  grandson,  Nathaniel  Rochester, 
founder  of  the  city  of  Rochester,  was  born 
February  21,  1752.  With  Nathaniel 
Rochester,  whose  life  story  is  also  told  in 
this  work,  the  family  residence  in  Roches- 
ter, first  called  Fallstown,  began. 

Thomas  Hart  Rochester,  son  of  Colonel 
Nathaniel  Rochester,  settled  in  Western 
New  York  with  his  father  and  with  his 
N  Y-3-17  257 


brother-in-law,  William  Montgomery, 
built  the  "Old  Red  Mill"  at  the  Middle 
Falls.  In  1834  he  superintended  the  con- 
struction of  the  Tonowanda  Railroad ; 
was  the  first  cashier  of  the  Commercial 
Bank  and  president  of  the  Rochester  City 
Bank;  was  a  member  of  the  board  of 
trustees  of  the  Rochester  Orphan  Asylum 
in  1838;  was  mayor  of  Rochester  in  1839; 
was  a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees  of 
Rochester  City  Hospital  in  1847  and  was 
one  of  the  most  highly  esteemed  men  of 
his  day.  He  married  Elizabeth  Cuming, 
daughter  of  a  one-time  governor  of  one  of 
the  English  West  Indies.  She  bore  him 
children,  all  of  whom  have  now  passed 
away:  Thomas  Fortescue,  M.  D. ;  Na- 
thaniel, died  in  California  while  in  quest 
of  gold  in  1849;  John  Henry;  Caroline 
Louise,  who  never  married  ;  Montgomery  ; 
Phoebe  Elizabeth,  who  died  in  1859. 

John  Henry  Rochester,  third  son  of 
Thomas  Hart  and  Elizabeth  (Cuming) 
Rochester,  was  born  in  Rochester,  April 
20,  1828,  died  in  his  native  city  after  an 
illness  of  two  years,  October  23,  1902. 
He  was  educated  in  the  select  schools  of 
Rochester,  and  at  the  age  of  eighteen  en- 
tered the  banking  business,  a  line  of  ac- 
tivity with  which  he  was  connected  for 
fifty-six  years.  His  first  position  was  as 
clerk  in  the  Rochester  City  Bank,  of 
which  his  honored  father  was  president, 
there  obtaining  an  intimate  knowledge  of 
banking  methods  and  of  the  laws  gov- 
erning finance.  In  1849  ne  caught  the 
"gold  fever"  and  with  his  brother  Na- 
thaniel joined  a  party  bound  for  Califor- 
nia, Nathaniel  being  one  of  the  party  who 
never  returned,  dying  in  California  the 
same  year.  After  returning  from  his  gold 
quest  John  H.  Rochester  formed  a  part- 
nership with  his  brother  Montgomery 
and  established  the  private  banking 
house  of  J.  H.  Rochester  &  Brother. 
After  several  years  as  a  private  banker 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


he  retired  from  association  with  his 
brother  to  become  cashier  of  the  Flower 
City  Bank,  a  position  he  held  for  three 
years.  During  the  years  1852  to  1855 
Mr.  Rochester  was  a  resident  of  Vicks- 
burg,  Mississippi,  and  during  that  period 
occurred  his  marriage. 

He  organized  the  Mechanics'  Savings 
Bank,  a  successful  financial  institution  of 
which  he  was  secretary  and  treasurer  for 
nearly  thirty  years.  His  fifty-six  years 
as  a  banker  brought  him  rich  experience, 
rare  wisdom  and  ripened  judgment,  his 
rank  as  a  financier  being  with  the  ablest. 
His  business  capacity  was  of  the  highest 
order  and  in  his  display  of  public  spirit 
and  enterprise  his  was  an  example  worthy 
of  emulation.  He  held  his  honor  and 
promise  sacred  and  was  most  punctilious 
in  his  observance  of  the  strictest  code 
governing  business  men.  His  friends 
were  "legion,"  attracted  not  more  by  the 
sterling  business  qualities  of  the  banker 
than  by  the  winning  personality  of  the 
man.  Courtesy  and  consideration  marked 
his  daily  intercourse  with  the  world  and 
there  was  neither  blot  nor  stain  upon  his 
business  or  private  character. 

Mr.  Rochester  was  one  of  the  first 
members  appointed  on  the  city  board  of 
park  commissioners  and  for  many  years 
he  so  served,  leaving  a  record  of  efficiency 
and  faithfulness  unsurpassed.  He  was 
vice-president  of  the  board  at  the  time 
of  his  death  in  1902  and  during  his  whole 
term  of  membership  rarely  missed  a 
board  meeting.  For  twenty-seven  years 
he  served  St.  Luke's  parish  as  treasurer 
of  the  church  and  of  the  Church  Home ; 
was  treasurer  of  the  Red  Cross  Society 
and  of  the  Yellow  Fever  Fund ;  organized 
the  local  chapter,  Sons  of  the  American 
Revolution,  and  was  its  president ;  was 
president  of  the  Rochester  Historical  So- 
ciety for  two  years ;  was  prominent  in 
the  commemoration  of  the  semi-centen- 
nial of  the  city's  birth ;  was  charter  mem- 


ber of  Rochester  Lodge,  No.  660,  Free 
and  Accepted  Masons,  and  for  many  years 
its  treasurer;  belonged  for  many  years 
to  the  Genesee  Valley  Club,  the  Roches- 
ter Club,  the  Rochester  Whist  Club,  and 
in  all  these  organizations  was  prominent 
in  their  activities.  So  a  long  and  useful 
life  was  passed  and  the  flowers  that 
bloom  at  his  grave  are  not  more  fragrant 
than  his  memory. 

In  1853,  Mr.  Rochester  married  Eliza- 
beth L.,  daughter  of  Dr.  George  Moore, 
of  Vicksburg,  Mississippi,  a  lady  of  rare 
charm  and  gentleness,  who  survives  him. 
Two  sons  were  born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
John  H.  Rochester:  Dr.  Thomas  Moore 
Rochester,  born  November  12,  1854,  died 
leaving  five  children — Haydon,  Thomas 
A.,  John  C,  Edward  F.  and  Katherine ; 
Paul  Affordby  Rochester,  born  August 
21,  1857,  now  general  traffic  manager  of 
the  Catskill  Evening  Lines,  with  offices 
in  New  York  City. 


VAN  CAMP,  William, 

Journalist. 

In  September,  1841,  the  name  Van 
Camp  became  associated  with  journalism 
in  Wayne  county,  New  York,  William 
Van  Camp  then  becoming  owner  of  the 
paper  established  in  May,  1822,  by  Hiram 
T.  Day,  under  the  name  of  "The  Lyons 
Advertiser."  The  paper  had  passed 
through  various  experiences  during  those 
first  nineteen  years,  had  many  owners 
and  policies,  but  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Van 
Camp's  purchase  was  a  six  column  paper 
known  as  "The  Western  Argus."  One 
year  sufficed  the  new  owner,  and  in  1842 
he  transferred  it  to  Charles  Poucher.  who 
sold  it  in  1849  to  S.  W.  Russell,  he  chang- 
ing the  name  to  the  "Lyons  Gazette." 
In  1852  William  Van  Camp  again  entered 
the  journalistic  field,  purchased  the  paper 
he  had  sold  in  1842  and  from  that  date 
Van  Camp  has  been  a  name  honored  in 


258 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Western  New  York  journalism.  The 
paper  was  run  as  the  "Lyons  Gazette" 
until  June,  1856,  when  Mr.  Van  Camp 
purchased  from  Pomeroy  Tucker,  of 
Palmyra,  a  new  printing  establishment 
from  which  had  been  issued  five  numbers 
of  "The  Wayne  Democratic  Press."  He 
brought  the  paper  to  Lyons,  consolidated 
it  with  the  'Gazette,"  but  retained  the 
name  of  the  new  purchase  "The  Wayne 
Democratic  Press."  With  the  consolida- 
tion an  era  of  prosperity  began  which 
has  never  been  checked  and  the  "Press" 
has  long  been  recognized  as  a  leading 
organ  of  the  Democracy  of  Western  New 
York.  Until  1884  the  veteran  journalist 
dictated  the  policy  of  the  paper,  and  his 
able  pen  furnished  the  editorial  page  with 
many  articles,  inspiring,  logical  and  con- 
vincing. Then  when  that  hand  was  for- 
ever motionless  and  the  active  brain  for- 
ever at  rest,  the  capable  sons  whom  he 
had  trained,  William  and  Harry  T.  Van 
Camp,  conducted  the  "Press"  from  1884 
to  1890,  then  William  Van  Camp  became 
sole  owner  and  until  his  death,  Novem- 
ber 24,  191 1,  continued  the  "Press,"  add- 
ing to  its  physical  equipment  all  modern 
improvements  possible  in  a  country  print- 
ing office,  building  up  a  large  circulation 
yearly  and  extending  its  influence.  With 
William  (2)  Van  Camp's  death  the  owner- 
ship again  reverted  to  Harry  T.  Van 
Camp,  the  present  editor  and  publisher. 
Thus  for  seventy-five  years,  minus  the 
ten  years  the  senior  Van  Camp  was  out 
of  the  publishing  business,  Van  Camps 
have  been  potent  in  Wayne  county  jour- 
nalism, and  for  sixty  years  their  paper 
"The  Wayne  Democratic  Press"  has  been 
a  leader  of  Democratic  thought  in  West- 
ern New  York.  But  is  it  not  as  party 
agents  alone  that  William  Van  Camp, 
senior  and  junior,  shine  in  journalism, 
they  persistently  worked  for  a  greater 
Lyons  and  a  greater  Wayne  county,  and 
through     the    columns    of    the    "Press" 


rendered  yeoman  service  in  many  move- 
ments, moral  and  temporal,  furthering 
that  end.  The  paper  has  grown  as  Wayne 
county  has  grown  and  no  single  influence 
has  been  more  strenuously  exerted  for 
the  benefit  of  Wayne  county  as  a  whole 
than  that  of  the  "Press." 

The  members  of  the  Van  Camp  family 
in  this  branch  date  in  America  from  1750. 
William  Van  Camp  was  born  in  Madison 
county,  New  York,  in  1820,  but  in  early 
life  went  with  his  parents,  William  and 
Sarah  Van  Camp,  to  Seneca  county,  New 
York,  where  his  father  operated  a  farm. 
The  family  were  of  Dutch  ancestry,  and 
in  religious  faith  members  of  the  Society 
of  Friends,  William  Van  Camp  being 
reared  in  the  austere  tenets  of  that  sect. 
He  obtained  a  good  English  education, 
and  early  in  life  learned  the  printer's 
trade  in  Palmyra,  Wayne  county,  New 
York.  While  working  at  the  printing 
trade  he  also  acted  as  clerk  in  his  em- 
ployer's book  store,  his  evenings  being 
devoted  to  that  work.  He  became  an  ex- 
pert compositor,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
one  years  had  sufficient  means  and  con- 
fidence in  himself  to  purchase  the  "West- 
ern Argus,"  which  must  have  proved  a 
disappointing  venture  for  he  sold  it  a 
year  later.  He  continued  working  at  his 
trade  during  the  next  ten  years,  and  in 
1852  again  became  a  newspaper  owner 
by  purchasing  his  old  paper,  but  enlarged 
and  known  as  the  "Lyons  Gazette."  He 
continued  owner,  editor  and  publisher 
of  the  consolidated  papers  as  previously 
told  until  his  death  thirty-two  years  later 
in  Michigan,  March  24,  1884,  and  left  to 
his  sons  that  valuable  newspaper  prop- 
erty "The  Wayne  Democratic  Press"  of 
which  his  son  William  (2)  was  editor 
and  publisher  from  1890  to  191 1,  being 
succeeded  by  Harry  T.  Van  Camp.  The 
"Press"  was  not  made  a  Democratic 
paper  through  any  idea  of  expediency  or 
gain,  but  reflected  the  personal  politics 


259 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


of  its  owner  and  publisher  who  was  stal- 
wart in  his  Democracy.  During  the  try- 
ing period  of  the  Civil  War  the  "Press" 
was  the  only  Democratic  newspaper  in 
Wayne  county,  but  Mr.  Van  Camp  re- 
mained steadfast  and  made  the  county 
recognize  the  fact  that  in  spite  of  his 
quiet  retiring  nature  he  had  the  courage 
of  his  convictions.  All  men  respected 
him  and  when  the  rancor  and  hate  en- 
gendered by  war  had  died  away  in  men's 
hearts  the  most  cordial  relations  were 
established  between  those  whose  political 
views  so  widely  diverged.  His  courage 
was  admirably  blended  with  tact  and 
there  never  was  a  time  his  influence  was 
not  felt  in  county  affairs,  and  he  was  held 
in  high  esteem.  He  was  devoted  to  his 
paper,  and  had  few  outside  interests  or 
affiliations,  his  home  circle  drawing  him 
in  hours  off  duty. 

He  was  an  early  member  of  Humanity 
Lodge,  No.  406,  Free  and  Accepted  Ma- 
sons, was  a  supporter  of  the  Episcopal 
church,  but  broad  minded  and  liberal  in 
his  religious  views.  He  was  a  useful 
man  to  his  community  and  was  ever  to 
be  depended  on  to  further  all  good  causes 
and  to  give  personal  service.  Long  years 
have  elapsed  since  he  retired  from  earthly 
scenes,  but  his  influence  lives  and  the 
"Press"  now  edited  by  his  son  is  but  the 
"Press"  founded  by  the  father,  enlarged, 
improved  and  adapted  to  modern  con- 
ditions. 

Mr.  Van  Camp  married,  in  Lyons,  New 
York,  in  1854,  Mary  Wood  Terry,  daugh- 
ter of  Captain  Horace  G.  and  Emily 
Terry,  of  Sodus  Bay,  New  York,  her 
father  a  captain  of  lake  vessels.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Van  Camp  had  three  children : 
William,,  born  September  18,  1856,  died 
November  24,  191 1,  a  journalist  and  long 
time  editor  of  "The  Wayne  Democratic 
Press,"  succeeding  his  father;  Harry  T., 
born  December  20,  1859,  journalist,  now 
editor  of  the  paper  with  which  the  family 


has  so  long  been  identified ;  Mary  W., 
born  August  3,  1862,  married,  in  1889, 
Edson  W.  Hamm,  an  eminent  lawyer  of 
Lyons. 


VEEDER,  Major  Albert,  M.  D., 
Scientist,    Physician. 

The  leading  scientist  of  Wayne  county, 
New  York,  and  an  eminent  physician,  Dr. 
Veeder  lived  a  busy  life,  one  not  devoted 
to  worldly  gain  but  rather  to  the  better- 
ment of  humanity,  a  life  void  of  reproach, 
a  life  filled  with  good  work.  His  con- 
tributions to  medical  science  were  many 
and  valuable,  but  his  activities  were  not 
confined  alone  to  medical  research  but 
along  other  branches  of  science  in  which  he 
became  equally  proficient  and  his  ability 
duly  recognized.  In  the  branches  of  sci- 
ence to  which  he  devoted  himself,  he 
stood  as  one  of  the  leaders  and  by  some 
of  his  co-workers  his  opinions  were  fre- 
quently sought.  His  life  was  not  the 
result  of  fortunate  circumstances  but  was 
rather  due  to  the  intrinsic  merit  of  the 
man  himself.  He  chose  deliberately  to 
make  the  most  of  his  gifts  and  he  spared 
no  effort  by  which  these  gifts  could  be 
developed  to  the  highest  point  of  ef- 
ficiency. He  was  apparently  unambitious 
for  earthly  honors  but  was  content  with 
the  consciousness  of  work  well  done,  for 
which  he  merits  the  respect  and  love  of 
his  co-laborers  and  fellow  workmen. 

Dr.  Veeder  was  a  descendant  of  Simon 
Volkertse  Veeder,  born  in  1624,  who  is 
first  mentioned  in  1644,  belonging  to  the 
ship  "Prince  Maurice"  plying  between 
Holland  and  New  Amsterdam,  New 
York.  In  1652  he  bought  land  in  New 
Amsterdam,  selling  it  in  1654  for  thirty 
beaver  skins ;  moved  to  Beverwych  (Al- 
bany) ;  and  in  1662  located  at  Schenec- 
tady, New  York,  where  he  owned  lands. 
His  son,  Gerrit  Veeder,  owned  the  land 
about  "Veeder's  Mills,"  and  had  a  lease 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


from  the  church  granting  him  the  mill 
privileges  and  water  power  in  1718. 
From  Gerrit  Veeder  sprang  Dr.  Major 
Albert  Veeder,  his  branch  of  the  family 
settling  in  Ohio.  Dr.  Veeder  was  a  son 
of  Captain  Gerrit  W.  and  Martha  Anna 
(Williams)  Veeder,  his  father  master  of 
deep  sea  and  lake  vessels ;  his  mother  of 
English  descent. 

Major  Albert  Veeder  was  born  in  Ashta- 
bula, Ohio,  November  2,  1848,  died  at  his 
home  at  Lyons,  New  York,  November 
16,  191 5.  His  boyhood  days  were  spent 
in  Ashtabula,  his  education  beginning  in 
the  public  school.  In  early  life  he  re- 
turned to  the  home  of  his  ancestors, 
Schenectady,  New  York,  there  entered 
Union  College,  whence  he  was  graduated 
A.  B.,  class  of  1870,  A.  M.,  1871,  having 
prepared  for  the  collegiate  course  in  the 
preparatory  department  of  the  same  col- 
lege, finishing  that  course  in  1866.  From 
1871  he  was  for  several  years  principal 
of  Ives's  Seminary,  at  Antwerp,  New 
York;  then  during  the  years  of  1878-79 
was  a  student  at  Leipzig  University,  Ger- 
many. In  1879  he  returned  to  the  United 
States,  began  the  study  of  medicine  and 
in  1883  was  graduated  M.  D.  from  Buffalo 
Medical  College,  Buffalo,  New  York.  In 
1883  he  located  in  Lyons,  New  York,  and 
there  continued  in  active  practice  until 
his  death,  thirty-two  years  later. 

Dr.  Veeder  became  a  member  of  the 
Wayne  County  Medical  Society,  July  10, 
1883,  and  until  his  death  was  an  active 
member  and  frequent  contributor  of  valu- 
able papers.  He  was  president  of  the 
society  from  July  14,  1903,  until  Decem- 
ber 10,  1913;  was  its  treasurer  and  from 
the  latter  date  until  his  death  both  secre- 
tary and  treasurer.  In  the  agreeable  con- 
troversy between  the  American  Medical 
Association  and  the  New  York  State 
Medical  Society,  which  resulted  in  the 
formation  of  the  New  York  State  Medical 
Association,   and   which   controversy   af- 


fected the  Wayne  County  Medical  So- 
ciety, he  took  no  part,  but  the  final  result 
of  that  controversy  was  in  accordance 
with  his  view  and  sympathy.  The  con- 
troversy he  ignored,  but  the  pursuit  of 
medical  knowledge  he  continued  regard- 
less of  schism. 

The  records  show  that  he  contributed 
a  most  valuable  paper,  probably  his  first 
written  paper  to  the  society,  October 
14,  1884,  entitled  "Practical  Points  as  to 
Prophylaxis,"  contributed  at  a  time  when 
the  "drug  cure"  of  disease  was  promi- 
nent and  prophylaxis  largely  in  the  fu- 
ture, the  morning  light  of  which  was 
just  beginning  to  appear.  This  paper 
was  prophetic  of  what  he  should  and  did 
accomplish  in  after  years  and  for  which 
he  became  well  known  both  at  home  and 
abroad. 

Dr.  Veeder  began  and  continued  his 
investigations  as  must  be  done  in  all  re- 
search work  along  true  scientific  lines, 
not  in  establishing  a  pre-conclusion  and 
the  distorting  and  omitting  of  data  that 
such  a  pre-conclusion  might  be  proven, 
but  rather  collecting,  arranging  and  clas- 
sifying data  and  from  such  classification 
arriving  at  a  conclusion,  be  that  conclu- 
sion what  it  may.  For  his  conclusions  he 
stood  steadfast,  without  regarding  the 
opinions  of  others,  opinions  expressed 
without  proof,  but  he  was  ever  ready  to 
present  to  others  his  evidence  on  which 
his  conclusions  were  based,  presenting 
such  evidence  in  the  spirit  of  fairness  and 
in  their  defense,  though  steadfast,  he  was 
a  non-combatant ;  he  waited  for  time  to 
adjust  differences  and  nowhere  was  this 
spirit  more  manifest  than  in  his  home 
town. 

Of  Dr.  Veeder's  contributions  to  medi- 
cal literature,  which  are  numerous,  it  is 
only  possible  at  this  time  to  mention  a 
few  of  the  more  prominent  and  advanced 
ones  which  have  been  published,  viz: 
"Chorea  ;"  "Drinking  Water  and  its  Puri- 


261 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


fication ;'"  'Atmospheric  Changes  Rela- 
tive to  the  Diseases  of  Central  New 
York;"  "Practical  Use  of  the  Micro- 
scope;" "Questions  in  Regard  to  the 
Diphtheria  Bacillus;"  "Diphtheria,  its 
Disinfection  Within  and  Without  the 
Body;"  "Roentgen  Radiations;"  "Flies 
as  Spreaders  of  Sickness  in  Camps ;" 
"The  Relative  Importance  of  Flies  and 
Water  Supply  in  Spreading  Disease;" 
"The  Spread  of  Typhoid  and  Dysenteric 
Diseases  by  Flies."  Paper  entitled  "Flies 
as  Spreaders  of  Sickness  in  Camps"  is 
the  first  article  ever  published  showing 
or  demonstrating  clearly  the  agency  of 
flies  in  the  spread  of  disease.  This  paper 
was  published  in  the  "Medical  Record" 
in  1898,  and  in  it  he  stated  his  belief  that 
flies  were  carriers  of  typhoid  germs. 
Other  papers  relative  to  public  health 
should  be  mentioned,  viz:  "Public  Water 
Supply  for  Small  Towns,"  "Typhoid 
Fever  from  Sources  Other  than  Water 
Supply,"  "The  Human  Being  as  a  Ty- 
phoid Carrier,"  "Why  the  Open  Air 
Treatment  of  Consumption  Succeeds," 
"Garbage  Reduction  by  Steam,"  "Dan- 
gers of  Hypnotism,"  "Faculties  of  the 
Mind  Not  Understood  and  Not  Used, 
with  Special  Reference  to  the  Curability 
of  Epilepsy,"  "Defective  Development 
and  Disease,  with  Special  Reference  to 
the  Curability  of  Consumption  and  Can- 
cer." 

These  are  not  all  of  Dr.  Veeder's  con- 
tributions to  medical  science  but  enough 
has  been  cited  to  demonstrate  the  trend 
of  his  thoughts  and  the  depth  of  his  re- 
search. In  other  branches  of  science  he 
also  delved  deep  and  among  his  pub- 
lished papers  may  well  be  named,  viz: 
"Ice  Jams  and  What  They  Accomplished." 
"Geology  of  the  Erie  Canal,"  "Geology 
of  Wayne  County,"  "Magne-Crystallic 
Action  and  the  Aurora,"  "Solar  Electro- 
Magnetic  Induction,"  "Solar  Electrical 
Energy  Not  Transmitted  by  Radiation," 


"The  Relation  Between  Solar  and  Ter- 
restrial Phenomena,"  "Forces  Concerned 
in  the  Development  of  Storms,"  "Thun- 
der Storms,"  "Why  Barns  are  More  De- 
stroyed by  Lightning  than  Houses,"  "The 
Zodiacal  Light,"  etc.  He  also  worked 
in  connection  with  Peary,  the  Arctic  ex- 
plorer, in  regard  to  the  meteorological 
phenomenon  known  as  the  "Aurora  Bore- 
alis." 

Dr.  Veeder  acted  as  health  officer  for 
Lyons,  New  York,  for  over  a  quarter  of 
a  century,  during  which  term  of  service 
some  intricate  problems  relative  to  sani- 
tation were  solved.  His  services  along 
this  line  were  valuable  to  the  health  serv- 
ice of  the  State  and  as  such  were  duly 
recognized.  He  held  membership  in  sev- 
eral distinguished  organizations  and  in 
their  transactions  he  assumed  an  active 
part.  He  became  a  fellow  of  the  Ameri- 
can Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science  ;  member  of  the  American  Public 
Health  Association ;  American  Micro- 
scopical Society,  of  which  organization  he 
was  at  one  time  vice-president ;  London 
Society  of  Arts ;  International  Conference 
of  Charities  and  Corrections ;  New  York 
State  Medical  Society ;  Rochester  Acade- 
my of  Science,  and  other  organizations 
of  note.  He  was  a  Democrat  in  politics, 
and  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal church.  He  belonged  in  addition  to 
his  professional  and  scientific  societies  to 
the  Wayne  County  Grange,  Patrons  of 
Husbandry,  and  to  the  Holland  Society 
of  New  York. 

Dr.  Veeder  married,  in  Schenectady, 
New  York,  in  1871,  Mary  Eleanor,  daugh- 
ter of  Peleg  and  Eleanor  Wood.  They 
were  the  parents  of  four  children:  1. 
Sarah  Eleanor,  born  June  10,  1872;  a 
graduate  of  Syracuse  University.  1896, 
in  painting  course;  twice  studied  art  in 
Paris;  taught  in  the  Frances  Shimer 
School  for  Girls;  was  in  charge  of  the 
art   department    of    the    Ohio   Wesleyan 


262 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


University,  and  is  now  teacher  of  draw- 
ing in  the  Lyons  High  School.  2.  Martha 
Anna,  born  September  22,  1873 ;  graduate 
of  Cornell  University,  1895  >  taught  at 
Huguenot  College,  South  Africa,  for  five 
years,  now  an  instructor  in  the  Western 
College  for  Women,  Oxford,  Ohio.  3. 
Albert  Foster,  born  January  28,  1875 ; 
Ph.  G.,  Columbia;  Rochester  State  Hos- 
pital. 4.  Willard  Hall,  born  February  17, 
1879;  graduated  M.  D.  from  Buffalo 
University,  class  of  1903 ;  now  senior 
assistant  physician  at  the  Rochester  State 
Hospital. 


KEENER,  Stephen  Nicholas, 

Architect,  Builder. 

A  native  son  of  New  York,  Mr.  Keener 
did  a  great  deal  toward  the  architectural 
adornment  of  his  State,  and  all  over 
Western  New  York  stand  buildings 
planned  and  in  many  cases  erected  by 
him,  for  to  his  profession  of  architect  he 
added  contracting  and  building.  Al- 
though a  man  of  seventy-four,  he  con- 
tinued active  until  the  last,  death  coming 
to  him  suddenly  through  the  medium  of 
an  apoplectic  stroke.  He  was  a  son  of 
John  Keener,  born  in  Germany,  a  wheel- 
wright, who  located  at  Lowville,  New 
York. 

Stephen  N.  Keener  was  born  in  Low- 
ville, Lewis  county,  New  York,  January 
31,  1841,  died  at  his  home  in  Newark, 
Wayne  county,  New  York,  December  23, 
1915.  He  was  educated  in  the  public 
schools,  and  before  he  had  attained  his 
twenty-first  year  had  served  an  appren- 
ticeship at  the  trade  of  carpenter,  and 
was  an  expert  workman.  He  came  of 
age  in  January,  1862,  and  the  following 
June  settled  in  Newark,  that  village  ever 
afterward  being  his  home.  On  July  25. 
1862,  he  enlisted  in  Company  A,  One 
Hundred    and    Sixtieth    Regiment,    New 


York  Volunteer  Infantry,  served  until 
the  close  of  the  war,  and  received  an  hon- 
orable discharge.  He  saw  hard  service, 
but  escaped  wounds,  although  he  was 
captured  and  served  a  term  of  confine- 
ment in  Southern  prisons. 

After  the  war  Mr.  Keener  returned  to 
Newark,  and  resumed  business,  becom- 
ing the  leading  architect  of  his  section  of 
the  State,  and  conducting  a  large  per- 
sonal contracting  and  building  business, 
as  well  as  superintending  the  construc- 
tion of  many  buildings  for  which  he  had 
furnished  plans  and  specifications.  He 
continued  active  in  business  until  his 
death,  being  well  known  in  Western  New 
York  as  a  reliable  builder  and  skilled 
architect.  He  was  for  over  a  quarter  of 
a  century  a  trustee  of  the  Cemetery  Asso- 
ciation, and  served  the  village  as  trustee 
for  two  terms,  as  president  of  the  village 
one  term  and  as  a  member  of  the  school 
board  for  many.  He  was  an  official  mem- 
ber of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  of 
Newark  for  more  than  twenty-five  years. 
He  was  a  prominent  Grand  Army  man 
and  served  on  the  staff  of  the  State  com- 
mander and  as  chaplain  of  Vosburg  Post, 
of  Newark.  He  was  highly  regarded  in 
his  community  and  was  deserving  of  the 
universal  esteem  in  which  he  was  held. 
He  was  a  man  of  quiet  domestic  tastes, 
devoted  to  his  home,  not  seeking  public 
office,  but  when  called  upon  faithfully 
performing  every  duty  connected  with 
the  offices  he  held. 

Mr.  Keener  married,  in  Lyons,  New 
York,  January  21,  1868,  Catherine  E. 
Espenscheid,  daughter  of  John  Espen- 
scheid,  born  in  Germany,  February  17, 
1813.  He  came  to  the  United  States 
when  a  boy,  located  at  Sodus,  New  York, 
afterward  in  Clyde,  finally  in  Lyons,  New 
York.  He  married  Helen  Derich,  also 
born  in  Germany,  who  bore  him  six  chil- 
dren :  John  M.,  Catherine  E.,  Philip  J., 
■■63 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Mary  E.,  William  H.  and  Helen  E.  John 
Espenscheid  died  October  5,  1888,  sur- 
vived by  his  wife,  who  died  in  1897.  Mrs. 
Keener  died  in  1904.  She  had  no  chil- 
dren. 


RAINES,  George, 

Lawyer,   Legislator. 

For  forty-one  years  George  Raines  was 
a  member  of  the  Monroe  county  bar, 
practicing  in  Rochester.  At  the  age  of 
twenty-four  he  was  elected  district  attor- 
ney for  Monroe  county,  and  in  that  office 
he  made  his  remarkable  personality  felt. 
As  the  years  passed  he  grew  in  strength 
as  a  lawyer,  finally  closing  his  career 
with  a  reputation  second  to  no  criminal 
lawyer  of  the  State  of  New  York.  As 
prosecutor  or  for  defendant  he  appeared 
in  over  forty  murder  trials  in  which  the 
indictment  specified  a  crime  the  punish- 
ment for  which  is  death.  Of  those  he 
prosecuted  none  escaped,  and  of  those  he 
defended  none  suffered  the  extreme  pen- 
alty. The  only  exception  to  the  first 
statement  was  the  case  of  the  three  Sodus 
murderers  who  were  sentenced  to  life 
imprisonment,  the  growing  sentiment 
against  the  infliction  of  the  death  penalty 
alone  saving  them  from  the  electric  chair. 
Besides  a  large  private  practice  Mr. 
Raines  was  deeply  interested  in  public 
affairs,  sat  as  State  Senator,  elected  as  a 
Democrat  in  a  Republican  district,  in  the 
New  York  Legislature  and  was  high  in 
the  councils  of  the  Democratic  party-  As 
an  orator  he  had  few  equals  and  was 
often  chosen  to  deliver  important  ad- 
dresses. He  was  the  orator  of  the  day 
at  the  semi-centennial  celebration  of  the 
city  of  Rochester,  at  the  laying  of  the 
cornerstone  of  the  new  Court  House,  and 
by  joint  resolution  of  the  New  York  Leg- 
islature was  designated  and  invited  to  de- 
liver before  that  body  on  May  23,  1887, 
a  memorial  upon  the  life  and  public  serv- 


ices of  Samuel  J.  Tilden.  That  memorial 
was  delivered  before  an  audience  remark- 
able for  the  many  men  it  contained  who 
were  high  in  public  life.  The  orator  out- 
did himself  and  the  occasion  was  one 
long  to  be  remembered. 

Mr.  Raines  was  of  English  lineage  the 
ancient  family  seat  in  Yorkshire.  The 
homestead,  Ryton  Grange,  entailed  for 
many  generations,  is  held  by  representa- 
tives of  the  family  to-day.  John  Raines, 
grandfather  of  George  Raines,  was  a  ship 
owner,  and  in  1817  gathered  the  remnant 
of  his  fortune  which,  invested  in  the 
shipping  industry,  had  been  sadly  de- 
pleted by  the  Napoleonic  wars  and 
sought  a  new  field  of  investment.  He 
resided  for  a  time  at  Philadelphia,  Penn- 
sylvania, and  about  the  year  1830  moved 
to  a  farm  near  Canandaigua,  New  York, 
his  property  near  that  of  Colonel  Thad- 
deus  Remington  who  settled  there  in 
1798,  coming  from  Vermont.  John 
Raines  had  a  son,  Rev.  John  Raines,  who 
was  a  minister  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal church.  He  married  Mary  Reming- 
ton and  they  were  the  parents  of  George 
Raines,  to  whose  memory  this  tribute  of 
respect  is  dedicated. 

George  Raines  was  born  November  10, 
1846,  at  Pultneyville,  Wayne  county, 
New  York,  died  at  his  residence  on  East 
avenue,  Rochester,  New  York,  Novem- 
ber 2~,  1908.  His  education,  begun  in 
public  schools,  was  continued  in  similar 
schools  wherever  his  father  was  stationed 
under  the  rule  of  the  itinerancy  govern- 
ing the  location  of  ministers  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church.  In  1856- 
1858  he  attended  public  schools  Nos.  14 
and  10  in  Rochester,  and  until  1862  was 
a  student  at  Elmira  Free  Academy.  In 
that  year  he  entered  Genesee  Wesleyan 
Seminary  at  Lima,  New  York,  but  a  few 
weeks  later  his  father  was  again  assigned 
to  a  Rochester  church  the  family  moving 
to  that  city.     There  he  entered  the  Uni- 


264 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


versity  of  Rochester,  won  high  honors, 
taking  the  first  prizes  in  Latin  and  Greek, 
won  the  prize  for  the  senior  essay  and 
also  several  in  oratory,  was  a  graduate  of 
the  class  of  1866,  receiving  the  customary- 
Bachelor's  degree. 

He  at  once  began  the  study  of  law 
under  the  instruction  of  John  and  Quincy 
Van  Voorhis,  and  in  December,  1867,  was 
admitted  to  the  Monroe  county  bar,  hav- 
ing just  passed  his  twenty-first  birthday. 
He  began  his  legal  career  as  clerk  in  the 
law  office  of  H.  C.  Ives,  his  salary  five 
dollars  weekly.  That  arrangement  con- 
tinued for  one  year  when  a  partnership 
was  offered  the  young  man  by  his  em- 
ployer. Ives  &  Raines  practiced  until 
1871,  when  Mr.  Raines  was  elected  dis- 
trict attorney  of  Monroe  county.  In  that 
office  he  demonstrated  his  quality  as  a 
lawyer,  his  courage  and  the  depth  of  his 
devotion  to  his  oath  of  office.  The  Ste- 
phen Coleman  case,  one  of  receiving 
stolen  property,  aroused  a  great  deal  of 
interest  at  the  time.  Coleman  was  strong- 
ly defended  but  Mr.  Raines  secured  his 
conviction.  Then  followed  his  successful 
attack  upon  the  political  ring  dominating 
Rochester,  a  crusade  in  which  he  was 
strongly  supported  by  the  "Democrat  and 
Chronicle,"  J.  A.  Hockstra  then  being  the 
city  editor.  Mr.  Raines  was  successful  in 
breaking  the  power  of  the  "Ring,"  writing 
out  a  resignation  which  the  chief  of  police 
signed.  In  1874  he  was  again  elected 
district  attorney  and  during  that  term 
tried  the  Clark,  Ghaul,  Stellman  and 
Fairbanks  murder  cases,  securing  convic- 
tion in  all.  The  most  famous  of  these 
was  that  of  John  Clark,  the  gun  fighting 
burglar  who  was  defended  by  Howe  & 
Hummel,  the  then  great  law  firm  of  New 
York  City. 

After  the  expiration  of  his  term  Mr. 
Raines  returned  to  private  office  practice 
and  in  his  professional  capacity  was  con- 
nected with  many  famous  criminal  cases. 


These  included  the  Pontius-Hoster  trials 
in  Seneca  county,  the  Boyce-Hamm, 
Heyland  and  Hulsey  murder  cases  in 
Monroe  county  and  the  Williams  murder 
trial  in  Wayne  county.  In  1881  he  be- 
came associated  with  his  three  brothers 
in  practice  under  the  firm  name  of  Raines 
Brothers.  In  1883  he  secured  the  ac- 
quittal of  Higham  in  Watertown,  a  case 
celebrated  in  Northern  New  York  law 
annals.  His  practice  became  very  ex- 
tensive and  at  different  times  he  appeared 
in  most  of  the  celebrated  criminal  cases 
of  his  day  and  section.  He  was  desig- 
nated by  Governor  Flower  to  conduct  the 
trial  of  Bat  Shea  and  John  McGough  for 
murder,  growing  out  of  the  election  riots 
in  Troy,  New  York,  securing  a  convic- 
tion. He  tried  the  George  A.  Smith  and 
Leland  D.  Kent  homicide  cases  and  many 
others. 

His  practice  was  not  confined  to  crimi- 
nal cases,  quite  the  contrary,  he  acted  as 
counsel  for  many  large  corporations  and 
had  a  large  clientele  whose  civil  law  busi- 
ness he  conducted.  He  was  noted  for  his 
wonderful  memory,  the  careful  prepara- 
tion of  his  cases  and  a  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  the  rules  of  evidence.  His  last 
appearance  in  court  was  in  the  George 
Ellwanger  will  case,  which  he  won  for  the 
contestants,  his  fee  being  placed  by  the 
surrogate  at  $25,000.  He  was  a  great 
lawyer  and  was  so  rated  by  his  brethren 
of  the  bench  and  bar.  Court  records  of 
various  counties  testify  to  the  importance 
of  his  clientele  and  to  many  victories  he 
won.  He  reached  the  front  rank  in  his 
profession  and  was  accorded  high  civic 
distinction. 

Mr.  Raines  began  life  a  Republican  and 
as  such  was  first  elected  district  attorney. 
He,  however,  joined  in  the  Liberal  move- 
ment which  culminated  in  the  nomina- 
tion of  Horace  Greeley  for  the  presidency 
and  thereafter  acted  with  the  Democracy, 
his   last   election   as   district   attorney   in 


265 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


1874  being  as  a  Democrat,  in  a  Republi- 
can county.  In  1878  he  was  the  candi- 
date of  the  Democracy  for  State  Senator, 
from  the  district  then  composed  of  Mon- 
roe county  alone.  He  was  elected  and 
served  with  honor,  but  in  1881,  when 
again  a  candidate  at  the  personal  request 
of  Samuel  J.  Tilden,  Orleans  county  hav- 
ing been  added  to  the  district,  he  was  de- 
feated by  a  very  small  plurality.  He  car- 
ried his  home  county  and  ran  far  ahead  of 
his  ticket,  but  Orleans  county  reversed 
Monroe  and  decided  the  contest  in  favor 
of  the  Republican  candidate.  In  1880  he 
was  a  delegate  from  New  York  State  to 
the  Democratic  National  Convention. 
served  in  similar  capacity  in  1888,  and  in 
1904  was  elected  as  delegate-at-large.  He 
presided  as  chairman  of  seven  State 
Democratic  conventions  and  was  an  ac- 
knowledged leader  of  his  party.  Yet  he 
was  not  a  bitter  partisan^  numbered  his 
friends  in  both  parties,  and  all  respected 
him. 

He  was  a  strong  supporter  of  Governor 
Samuel  J.  Tilden,  a  leader  of  the  sup- 
porters of  the  reform  policy  of  Governor 
Robinson,  and  of  Governor  and  President 
Cleveland.  Many  honors  were  conferred 
upon  him  in  connection  with  events  of 
public  importance  and  as  orator  of  the 
occasion  he  was  in  great  demand.  He 
was  a  most  eloquent  speaker  and  could 
sway  a  large  gathering  with  his  impas- 
sioned words,  and  was  a  strong  advocate 
for  any  cause  he  espoused.  He  was  a 
trustee  of  Rochester  State  Hospital  from 
1891  to  1907  and  a  commissioner  of 
Niagara  Falls  State  Reservation  from 
1893  to  I9°7-  He  served  for  seven  years, 
1875-82,  on  the  staff  of  Major-General 
Henry  Brinkner,  New  York  National 
Guard,  as  judge  advocate  with  the  rank 
of  colonel.  He  was  a  member  of  the  vari- 
ous bar  associations,  and  when  the  fact 
of  his  death  became  known,  although 
there  were  no  courts  of  record  in  session. 


a  special  meeting  of  the  Rochester  Bar 
Association  was  called  and  glowing  reso- 
lutions of  respect  and  eulogy  were  passed. 
He  was  a  member  of  St.  Paul's  Episcopal 
Church  and  interested  in  many  charities. 


KENT,  John  H., 

Photographic   Artist. 

Eighty-three  years  was  the  span  of 
John  H.  Kent's  earthly  career  and  few 
men  wrought  more  diligently  or  accom- 
plished more  abundantly  than  he.  He 
was  among  the  first  photographers,  if  not 
the  first,  in  either  Europe  or  America  to 
appreciate  the  artistic  value  of  the  camera 
and  the  first  to  avail  himself  of  its  won- 
derful capacity.  He  was  a  man  of  most 
lovable  character,  his  friends  were  with- 
out number,  and  until  a  few  days  prior  to 
his  death  his  kindly  face  and  erect  form 
were  a  familiar  sight  upon  the  streets  of 
Rochester,  notwithstanding  the  weight 
of  his  years. 

John  H.  Kent  was  born  in  Plattsburg. 
New  York,  March  4,  1827,  son  of  John 
Kent,  a  prominent  citizen  of  that  place. 
He  died  at  his  home  on  South  Washing- 
ton street,  Rochester,  November  25,  1910. 
He  inherited  from  old  New  England  an- 
cestors a  keen  mind  and  intellectual  and 
executive  force.  His  first  known  ances- 
tor in  this  country  in  the  paternal  line 
was  Thomas  Kent,  who  came  from  Eng- 
land, and  received,  in  1643,  from  the  town 
of  Gloucester,  Massachusetts,  a  title  to 
land  which  he  had  early  occupied.  His 
house  and  land  were  in  the  West  Parish 
of  Gloucester,  where  he  died  April  1, 
1658.  His  wife's  name  is  not  recorded, 
but  her  death  is  noted  October  16,  1671. 
Their  second  son  was  Samuel  Kent,  who 
was  in  Brookfield,  Massachusetts,  soon 
after  1667,  but  returned  to  Gloucester, 
where  he  was  made  a  freeman,  May  11, 
1681.  He  married,  January  17,  1654, 
Frances  Woodall,  who  died  August    10, 


■ 


. 


ber  5,  1809.     He  wai    -  , 

;    the    town,    served 
of  safety  during  th< 
town's  first  representative  to  the 
■gislature  in  1778.  and  a  deacon 
ion  for  the  pur- 
i 

I  lember 
nd  a 
,ned  Januar; 
Hay  20,   1747,  in   Suftield,  Hannah 
r,  born  July  11,  1728,  in  thai 

I  rum- 
John    1 

eldest  si 
burg,  N< 
Decern!  ■ 

Plattsburg.     1 
dist  exhorter. 

ad  two 
enjamin   Beach   and   John.     The 
it,  i 

•jilts   of   John 
d    under   c*p. 


rt  Nor- 

exhibit  . 

• cr  and 

internal 
working 

mechanical  maker  of  pictures  bi- 
ter of  the  art  of  pos  jht  and 
shadow.    He  was  recognized  as  the  lead- 
ing  photographic   artist   of  the   country, 
■1   reputation   he   enjoyed   as  long  as  he 

tman   in 
1 
of  the  compa 

■ 
order.     Few  men  v,  1 

Instituti 

■ 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


ostentatiously  that  few  of  the  benefici- 
aries knew  from  whom  their  help  came. 
He  was  an  attendant  of  the  Plymouth 
Congregational  Church  at  the  time  of 
Rev.  Myron  Adam's  pastorate,  and  in  his 
private  life  was  actuated  by  purest  mo- 
tives. 

Mr.  Kent  married,  January  16,  1865, 
Julia  Ainsworth,  of  Canandaigua,  New 
York,  who  died  September  16,  1916.  One 
daughter,  Ada  Howe  Kent,  is  the  sole 
surviving  member  of  the  family.  She  is 
a  notable  artist  in  water  colors,  her  work 
taking  first  rank  in  many  important  ex- 
hibits. She  is  also  very  active  along 
social  and  philanthropic  lines,  being  a 
charter  member  of  the  Century  Club,  one 
of  the  managers  of  the  Industrial  School 
of  Rochester,  and  is  also  a  member  of 
the  board  of  the  Young  Women's  Chris- 
tian Association,  to  which  she  has  given 
the  valuable  property  at  No.  57  South 
Washington  street. 


ERICKSON,  Aaron, 

Man  of  Enterprise. 

All  honor  to  the  builders,  not  necessarily 
those  whose  work  is  the  erection  of  build- 
ings of  brick,  wood  and  stone,  their  work 
is  also  estimable,  but  to  the  great  con- 
structive minds  that  erect  the  extensive 
business  enterprises  of  a  community,  a 
labor  fully  as  arduous,  just  as  enduring 
and  vastly  more  far  reaching  in  its  effect. 
Among  the  names  which  stand  out  with 
prominence  on  the  pages  of  Rochester's 
history  is  that  of  Aaron  Erickson,  who 
contributed  in  so  large  a  degree  to  the 
upbuilding  of  the  city  of  his  adoption. 
He  located  in  Rochester  in  pioneer  times 
and  his  life  record  extends  over  a  period 
of  seventy-four  years — a  long  period  de- 
voted to  successful  accomplishment  and 
fraught  with  good  deeds,  for  which  he  re- 
ceived a  gracious  meed  of  honor  and  re- 
spect. 


Aaron  Erickson  was  born  February  25, 
1806,  in  Freehold,  New  Jersey,  a  place 
made  famous  by  its  proximity  to  the 
historic  battlefield  of  Monmouth.  The 
Erickson  family  was  one  of  the  oldest 
and  most  prominent  in  the  State;  his 
father  served  with  the  American  army 
during  the  war  for  independence,  and 
though  his  birth  occurred  after  that  mo- 
mentous conflict  the  participators  therein 
were  the  early  friends  of  his  youth  and 
must  have  influenced  him  in  some  degree 
by  giving  him  direct  knowledge  of  the 
times  through  eye  witnesses,  more  forci- 
ble than  any  written  page  could  ever  be. 
He  was  the  youngest  of  ten  children  and 
passed  a  comfortable  childhood  and 
youth  in  the  home  of  his  parents.  How- 
ever, when  he  had  reached  the  age  of 
seventeen  years  he  felt  that  to  test  his 
strength  and  develop  whatever  latent 
powers  nature  had  endowed  him  with  it 
would  be  necessary  to  venture  for  him- 
self, and  consequently  the  year  1823  wit- 
nessed him  as  a  resident  of  Rochester, 
at  that  time  a  small  town.  His  first  at- 
tempt at  business  life  was  as  a  worker  at 
the  machinist's  trade  in  the  manufacture 
of  axes  and  similar  commodities,  making 
his  home  with  C.  H.  Bicknell.  From  the 
start  he  evinced  those  basic  qualities  of 
success  and  prosperity,  industry,  close 
application  and  determination,  and  even 
in  this  first  undertaking  he  could  through 
all  his  later  life  point  with  pride  to  his 
accomplishment  of  the  work  attempted, 
among  which  was  the  fact  that  he  made 
with  his  own  hands  the  iron  yoke  from 
which  swung  the  bell  in  the  old  St. 
Luke's  Church. 

A  few  years  after  his  coming  to  Roches- 
ter Mr.  Erickson  deemed  a  change  of 
occupation  to  his  betterment  and  began 
the  manufacture  of  potash  at  Frankfort, 
an  article  then  in  great  demand.  He 
made  a  decided  success  of  this  venture 
and    rapidly    increasing    patronage    soon 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


put  him  in  control  of  what  for  the  time 
must  be  considered  a  very  extensive  busi- 
ness. He  still  felt,  however,  that  there 
were  wider  fields  to  conquer,  with  broad- 
er opportunities  and  greater  scope  for 
his  business  perspicuity  and  industry,  hia 
predominating  qualities.  He  therefore 
became  a  dealer  in  wool  and  morocco  on 
Water  street  in  Rochester,  having  as  a 
partner  in  the  enterprise  Ezra  M.  Par- 
sons. This  business  rapidly  developed 
and  on  a  thoroughly  substantial  basis, 
until  the  firm  became  the  largest  buyers 
of  wool  in  this  section,  warranting,  as 
Mr.  Erickson  wisely  prophesied,  the 
establishment  of  a  branch,  and  in  1850 
he  founded  the  famous  wool  house  of 
Erickson,  Livermore  &  Company,  at  Bos- 
ton, which  soon  became  the  leading  en- 
terprise of  this  character  in  this  country, 
doing  a  mammoth  business. 

Every  step  in  his  career  was  a  forward 
one  and  brought  him  a  wider  outlook, 
and  every  opportunity  was  quickly  taken 
advantage  of,  this  being  one  of  the 
strongest  elements  in  his  business  success. 
Some  three  years  after  embarking  in  the 
wool  business  he  organized  and  opened 
the  Union  Bank,  capitalized  for  five  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars.  He  was  president 
from  the  beginning  and  the  institution 
enjoyed  a  prosperous  existence  under 
that  name  until  the  spring  of  1865,  when 
it  became  the  National  Union  Bank.  A 
year  later,  however,  Mr.  Erickson  pur- 
chased the  bank  and  established  in  its 
stead  a  private  banking  house  under  the 
firm  name  of  Erickson  &  Jennings.  Upon 
the  admission  of  George  E.  Mumford  to 
a  partnership  the  firm  name  became 
Erickson,  Jennings  &  Mumford,  and 
under  this  style  the  business  continued 
for  twelve  years.  Mr.  Mumford  with- 
drew in  May,  1879,  and  was  succeeded  by 
A.  Erickson  Perkins,  a  grandson  of  Mr. 
Erickson.  which  partnership  continued 
until  the  death  of  the  founder  on  January 


27,  1880.  Mr.  Erickson's  strict  integrity, 
business  conservatism  and  excellent  judg- 
ment were  always  so  uniformly  recog- 
nized that  he  enjoyed  public  confidence 
to  an  enviable  degree.  For  many  years 
he  was  a  director  in  the  Park  Bank  of 
New  York  City,  and  was  a  member  of  the 
board  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

Mr.  Erickson  was  married,  in  1827,  to 
Hannah  Bockoven,  of  Lyons,  New  York, 
and  soon  after  erected  a  dwelling  on  Clin- 
ton street,  which  remained  his  home  for 
many  years.  Mr.  Erickson  left  no  son 
to  carry  on  his  work,  his  last  surviving 
son,  Aaron  Erickson,  having  passed  away 
at  Revere,  Massachusetts,  in  August, 
1871.  There  were  eight  children  in  the 
family  but  only  three  daughters  survived 
the  father:  Mrs.  W.  S.  Nichols,  of  Staten 
Island;  Mrs.  Gilman  H.  Perkins,  of 
Rochester;  and  Mrs.  W.  D.  Powell,  of 
New  York.  In  1842  he  built  his  home  on 
East  avenue,  and  during  his  lifetime  saw 
this  thoroughfare  transformed  into  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  in  the  city.  His 
home  was  ever  the  seat  of  a  most  gracious 
hospitality,  and  the  name  of  Erickson 
figured  prominently  in  the  social  circles 
of  Rochester  for  over  half  a  century. 

Mr.  Erickson  had  a  keen  realization  of 
the  obligations  and  responsibilities  of 
wealth,  and  therefore  as  his  success  in- 
creased so  did  his  charities  and  benefac- 
tions expand.  Not  that  he  believed  in 
the  indiscriminate  liberality  which  does 
not  help  but  rather  fosters  vagrancy  and 
idleness,  on  the  contrary  he  made  careful 
distribution  of  his  gifts  and  where  real 
need  was  apparent  the  aid  was  most  spon- 
taneously given,  the  poor  and  unfortu- 
nate being  his  direct  beneficiaries.  A 
man  may  be  admired  but  is  not  loved  for 
his  attainments ;  but  he  is  beloved  for 
the  good  he  does,  and  it  was  the  kindly 
spirit,  the  ready  sympathy  and  extreme 
helpfulness  of  Aaron  Erickson  that  so 
enshrined  him  in  the  hearts  of  his  fellow- 


269 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


men  and  caused  his  memory  to  still  be 
fresh  in  their  hearts  although  a  quarter 
of  a  century  has  come  and  gone  since  he 
was  an  active  factor  in  the  world.  He 
found  especial  pleasure  in  assisting  young 
men  to  make  a  start  in  business  life.  His 
employes  were  well  aware  that  faithful- 
ness and  capability  meant  promotion  as 
opportunity  offered,  and  when  their  busi- 
ness relations  were  severed  he  was  al- 
ways ready  to  speak  a  good  word  of  com- 
mendation and  encouragement  that 
should  speed  them  on  their  way  to  take 
a  forward  step  in  business  life. 

He  was  particularly  friendly  to  charit- 
able organizations,  which  received  his  ac- 
tive assistance.  He  was  president  of  the 
board  of  directors  of  the  City  Hospital 
for  years  and  occupied  that  position  at 
the  time  of  his  demise.  He  not  only  gave 
freely  to  the  different  benevolent  organi- 
zations of  Rochester  but  also  to  many 
other  institutions  situated  elsewhere.  His 
deeds  of  charity,  unknown  save  to  him- 
self and  the  recipient,  were  innumerable. 
Few  other  men  have  found  as  much 
pleasure  in  unostentatious  giving,  and 
in  the  reward  that  comes  solely  from 
helping  a  fellow  traveler  along  the  jour- 
ney of  life. 

He  did  not  neglect  his  duties  of  citizen- 
ship, and  in  return  for  the  protection  of 
government  and  the  mutual  benefit  of 
municipal  interests,  he  gave  cooperation 
of  a  generous  nature  to  all  movements 
and  plans  tending  to  promote  local  ad- 
vancement and  national  progress.  He 
was  never  an  officeseeker  for  the  personal 
emoluments  gained  thereby,  yet  he  filled 
some  local  offices,  as  a  matter  of  princi- 
ple, regarding  it  as  his  duty  towards  his 
fellow  citizens.  He  served  one  term  as 
alderman  from  the  old  Fifth  Ward,  and 
also  represented  the  Seventh  Ward  at 
various  times  as  both  alderman  and  su- 
pervisor. He  was  one  of  the  commission, 
with  the  late  Amon  Bronson,  in  i860,  to 


erect  bridges  at  Clarissa  and  Andrew 
streets  over  the  Genesee  river,  and  these 
municipal  improvements  stand  as  a 
monument  to  the  manner  in  which  the 
work  was  accomplished,  being  an  excel- 
lent example  of  the  thoroughness  in  which 
he  carried  out  the  trusts  imposed  upon 
him.  He  never  relinquished  his  interest 
in  his  home  city  and  in  those  things 
which  are  a  cause  for  civic  virtue  and 
pride.  Though  in  his  later  years  he  lived 
retired  to  a  considerable  extent  from  ac- 
tive participation  in  business,  still  his 
nature  was  such  that  want  of  occupation 
could  have  no  attraction  for  him ;  and 
his  later  years  were  largely  spent  in  the 
development  of  those  strong  intellectual 
tastes  which  were  ever  with  him  a 
marked  characteristic.  In  fact  at  all 
times  during  his  entire  life  he  was  a  stu- 
dent of  the  issues  of  the  day,  the  great 
sociological  problems,  the  governmental 
questions  and  of  the  sciences,  especially 
in  the  adaptation  of  the  latter  to  the  prac- 
tical benefit  of  mankind.  He  was  an 
earnest  student  of  horticulture,  pomology, 
floriculture  and  the  natural  sciences,  and 
took  great  delight  in  the  society  of  men 
of  intellect,  with  whom  he  was  regarded 
as  a  peer  and  often  a  superior.  He  had 
greatly  enriched  his  mind  by  travel  and 
extensive  reading.  In  1869  he  visited 
Palestine  and  ascended  the  Nile.  He  also 
visited  many  other  European  countries 
and  spent  the  last  summer  of  his  life 
abroad.  It  must  be  acceded,  in  an  an- 
alyzation  of  his  character  to  ascertain  the 
motive  springs  of  conduct,  that  in  all 
things  he  accomplished  he  was  prompted 
by  the  true  spirit  of  Christianity.  He 
was  an  Episcopalian  in  his  religious  pref- 
erence, having  first  been  a  member  of  St. 
Paul's  Church  and  when  that  building 
was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1846  he  joined 
St.  Luke's  Church,  with  which  he  was 
identified  to  the  end  of  his  life.  How- 
ever, his  was  not  a  religion  expressed  by 


-  and  creeds.  !• 


PERK:  Hill. 

Business  Man. 

in   a   community   is   no   < 

ho  have 

reason  of  their  per- 

left   the   impress   of 

iess  and 

nee,  and 

who  hr\  •  i  institu 

sphere 

- 
minded,    obligii 

i   pro 


character,  piety  and  .: 

■ 

■ 

memory. 
Gihn  . 
sec.  Livingston  counl 
4,  1827,  and  died  at  hi 
ter,  New  York,  November 
was    but   four    years    of    ag 
mother  died,   and  early  in    1S32   he   was 
sent  to  Bethlehem.  Connecticut,  to  make 
tie  with  his  grandmother.     In  1834 
irried,  and  1 
to  live  with  him.    His  education  had  been 
commenced  in  the  schools  of  Connecti- 
cut,   and    was    continued    in    the 
For  a  period  ol 
lrrom  1837  to  1842  h 
in    the   Temple    Hill    Acarl    - 
at  the  age  of  E< 

jig  school,  how 

county 

■ 

natural 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


energy  and  ambition  of  the  lad  was  ap-      employment  which  would  necessitate  his 


parent  at  the  very  outset  of  his  career. 
When  he  finally  left  school  and  was  able 
to  devote  his  entire  time  to  business 
affairs,  he  did  so  with  the  zeal  which  had 
been  one  of  his  chief  characteristics  al- 
ways. He  lost  no  time  in  looking  about 
for  a  suitable  position,  and  found  one  in 
the  book  store  of  John  Turner,  where  he 
was  employed  six  months  at  a  compensa- 
tion of  twelve  shillings  per  week.  A  few 
weeks  after  entering  upon  the  duties  of 
this  position,  Mr.  Turner  died,  and  al- 
though Oilman  H.  Perkins  was  but  fifteen 
years  of  age  at  this  time  he  showed  such 
marked  executive  ability  that  he  assumed 
the  management  of  the  store  and  was 
given  entire  charge  for  half  a  year.  He 
longed,  however,  for  a  wider  sphere  in 
which  there  would  be  more  opportunity 
for  advancement  than  the  position  in  the 
book  store  offered,  and  he  determined  to 
go  to  Rochester,  where  he  arrived  at  eight 
o'clock  in  the  morning  of  March  19,  1844, 
having  left  Geneseo  as  the  only  passen- 
ger on  a  stage  coach  at  nine  o'clock  the 
previous  evening.  His  worldly  posses- 
sions consisted  of  three  dollars  in  money 
and  two  suits  of  clothes,  and  with  these 
he  felt  amply  provided  to  conquer  the 
world.  Compared  with  present  condi- 
tions, Rochester  was  a  small,  unimportant 
town,  but  Mr.  Perkins,  with  keen  fore- 
sight, recognized  the  possibilities  of  the 
town  and  saw  here  the  opportunities  he 
was  seeking. 

He  looked  about  carefully  for  a  busi- 
ness which-  showed  growing  possibilities, 
and  found  employment  in  the  wholesale 
grocery  house  of  E.  F.  Smith  &  Com- 
pany, where  he  remained  three  years.  He 
had  worked  with  such  unremitting  zeal 
that  the  close  confinement  of  his  indoor 
work  made  serious  inroads  upon  his 
health,  and  he  considered  it  better  to  leave 
the  concern  for  a  time  and  take  up  an 


being  outdoors  at  least  a  part  of  each  day. 
He  found  a  position  of  this  kind  at  the 
"Old  Red  Mill,"  owned  by  Harry  B.  Wil- 
liams, where  the  labor  he  was  called  upon 
to  perform  was  of  a  much  lighter  char- 
acter, a  part  of  his  duties  being  the  driv- 
ing about  the  country  to  purchase  wheat. 
In  the  short  course  of  one  year  his  health 
had  improved  to  such  an  extent  that  he 
resumed  his  employment  with  E.  F.  Smith 
&  Company,  becoming  a  clerk  there,  and 
ascending,  step  by  step,  until  he  became 
a  member  of  the  firm,  January  1,  1852,  his 
business  ability  being  amply  recognized 
and  appreciated  by  the  other  members. 
Later  the  name  of  the  firm  read  Smith  & 
Perkins,  and  still  later  the  firm  was  incor- 
porated, the  style  being  Smith,  Perkins 
&  Company,  and  for  many  years  prior  to 
his  death  Mr.  Perkins  had  been  president 
of  this  corporation.  In  this  office  his  ex- 
ecutive ability  was  felt  in  the  continued 
progress  and  growth  of  the  concern. 
While  progressive  in  his  methods,  and 
ready  to  take  prompt  advantage  of  every 
opportunity  that  presented  itself,  yet  the 
proceedings  of  Mr.  Perkins  was  tempered 
with  a  certain  amount  of  conservatism 
which  always  enabled  him  to  steer  clear 
of  danger.  The  grocery  business,  how- 
ever, was  not  the  only  business  interest 
with  which  Mr.  Perkins  was  prominently 
identified.  He  was  connected  with  many 
leading  enterprises  of  the  city,  a  partial 
list  being  as  follows :  Became  trustee  of 
the  Rochester  Savings  Bank  in  1879.  ar>d 
was  the  incumbent  of  this  office  at  the 
time  of  his  death ;  officer  and  director  of 
the  Rochester  Union  Bank  from  1858.  and 
president  at  the  time  of  his  death  ;  trus- 
tee of  the  Rochester  Trust  and  Safe  De- 
posit Company  from  1888 ;  when  the  Se- 
curity Trust  Company  was  organized  in 
1891,  he  became  one  of  its  trustees ;  was  a 
director  of  the  Genesee  Valley  Railroad 


272 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Company,  and  of  the  Rochester  Gas  and 
Electric  Company. 

Mr.  Perkins  married,  July  17,  1856, 
Caroline  Erickson,  a  daughter  of  Aaron 
Erickson.  Four  sons  and  four  daughters 
blessed  this  union,  of  whom  there  are 
now  living:  Erickson,  Gilman  N.;  Caro- 
lyn, who  married  Thornton  Jeffress ; 
Berenice,  who  married  H.  V.  W.  Wickes  ; 
and  Gertrude,  who  married  John  Craig 
•  Powers. 

During  the  first  seven  or  eight  years  of 
the  residence  of  Mr.  Perkins  in  Rochester, 
he  attended  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church  and  was  a  member  of  the  choir 
during  a  part  of  this  time.  He  then,  in 
1852,  in  association  with  John  Roches- 
ter, William  Pitkin,  Edward  Smith  and 
Frederick  Whittlesey,  took  one  of  the  old 
box  pews  at  one  end  of  the  choir  of  St. 
Luke's,  and  retained  this  seat  until  his 
marriage.  He  served  as  vestryman  of  St. 
Luke's  from  1858  to  1869,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  1864-65  ;  in  1869  he  was  chosen 
a  warden  of  the  church,  and  held  this 
office  until  his  death ;  was  trustee  of  the 
Episcopate  Fund  of  the  Diocese  of  West- 
ern New  York  from  1870;  a  member  of 
the  standing  committee ;  and  manager  of 
the  Church  Home  from  1869.  Charitable 
and  benevolent  work,  whether  connected 
directly  with  the  church  or  not,  was  ever 
sure  of  his  hearty  and  active  support.  He 
served  as  a  member  of  the  board  of  trus- 
tees, and  was  at  one  time  president,  of 
the  State  Industrial  School ;  was  a  trustee 
of  the  Rochester  City  Hospital ;  treasurer 
of  the  Deaf  Mute  Institution  from  the 
time  of  its  organization ;  and  a  trustee  of 
the  Reynolds  Library.  He  was  a  leading 
spirit  in  furthering  the  interests  of  a  num- 
ber of  projects  for  the  public  welfare ; 
was  a  member  of  the  Hemlock  Water 
Works  Commission,  which  furnished  the 
city  with  its  first  pure  water  supply ;  and 
in  1892  was  chosen  a  presidential  elector 


on  the  Republican  ticket.  His  social 
membership  was  with  the  Genesee  Val- 
ley Club,  of  which  he  was  one  of  the 
founders  and  at  one  time  its  president. 


ROCHESTER,  Colonel  Montgomery, 
Man  of  Affairs,  Veteran  of  Civil  War. 

The  late  Colonel  Montgomery  Roches- 
ter, distinguished  member  of  the  famous 
Rochester  family  which  settled  and  gave 
its  name  to  the  city  now  known  as 
Rochester,  New  York,  was  a  lineal  de- 
scendant in  the  sixth  generation  of  Nich- 
olas Rochester,  the  first  of  the  name  in 
America  up  to  the  year  1689.  The  fam- 
ily, an  old  and  honorable  one  in  Eng- 
land, had  its  principal  seat  in  the  county 
of  Essex,  was  of  the  gentry  class  and 
entitled  by  royal  patent  to  bear  arms. 
It  is  proved  by  the  Herald's  Visitations  of 
1558,  that  the  family  was  in  Essex  at  that 
time,  when  the  coat-of-arms  was  con- 
firmed and  allowed  to  the  family.  The 
arms  are :  Or,  a  fesse  between  three  cres- 
cents sable. 

(I)  Nicholas  Rochester,  progenitor  of 
the  family  in  America,  was  born  in  Kent 
county,  England,  about  1640,  and  was 
married  there,  previous  to  his  emigration 
to  America.  He  left  England  and  came 
to  the  colony  of  Virginia  in  1689.  On  De- 
cember 26,  of  the  same  year  he  purchased 
one  hundred  acres  of  land  (which  shows 
him  to  have  been  a  man  of  at  least  mod- 
erate means)  in  Westmoreland  county, 
from  John  Jenkins,  planter,  who  by  pat- 
ent from  Governor  Richard  Bennett,  had 
obtained  one  thousand  acres  of  land  "in 
consideration  of  importing  twenty  per- 
sons into  the  Colony."  Little  more  is 
known  of  Nicholas  Rochester  than  that 
the  following  order  concerning  him,,  made 
on  May  25,  1719,  by  the  county  court  of 
Westmoreland,  then  in  session :  "Nich- 
olas Rochester,  an  ancient  person  is  upon 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


his  mocon  acquitt  from  future  payment 
of  liens  in  this  county."  Nicholas  Roches- 
ter died  soon  after  this  date. 

(II)  William  Rochester,  son  of  the  pro- 
genitor, Nicholas  Rochester,  was  born  in 
England,  and  came  to  America  with  his 
father  in  1689,  settling  in  Westmoreland 
county,  where  he  grew  to  manhood  on 
the  plantation  which  his  father  purchased 
from  John  Jenkins.  Upon  reaching  his 
majority  he  purchased  the  lands  adjoin- 
ing those  of  his  father.  On  these  lands 
he  built  a  homestead  which  is  one  of  the 
oldest  in  the  country,  stands  in  good  con- 
dition, and  bears  in  the  chimney  corner 
the  legend,  "W.  R.  1746,"  cut  in  a  broad 
brick  near  the  coping  stone.  This  planta- 
tion, comprising  four  hundred  acres,  was 
located  partly  in  Richmond  and  partly  in 
Westmoreland  county.  William  Roches- 
ter married  Frances,  widow  of  William 
McKinney.  He  died  between  the  23rd 
and  30th  of  October,  1750.  His  children 
were  :    John,  mentioned  below  ;   William. 

(III)  John  Rochester,  son  of  William 
and  Frances  (McKinney)  Rochester,  was 
born  about  1708,  and  died  in  November, 
1754.  He  married  Hester  or  Esther 
Thrift,  daughter  of  William  Thrift,  of 
Richmond  county,  Virginia.  After  his 
death,  she  married  Thomas  Critcher,  and 
with  her  entire  family  moved  about  1763 
to  Granville  county.  North  Carolina.  The 
children  of  John  and  Hester  (Thrift) 
Rochester  were:  William,  John,  Ann, 
Phillis,  Nathaniel,  mentioned  below ; 
Esther. 

(IV)  Nathaniel  Rochester,  son  of  John 
and  Hester  (Thrift)  Rochester,  was  born 
in  Cople  parish,  Westmoreland  county, 
Virginia,  February  21,  1752,  on  the  place 
which  came  into  the  possession  of  the 
Rochester  family  in  1689.  He  was  taken 
by  his  stepfather  to  Granville  county, 
North  Carolina,  where  he  became  a  prom- 
inent merchant  and  public  man,  serving 


in  high  political  and  official  positions  and 
taking  a  leading  part  in  public  affairs. 
During  the  Revolutionary  War  he  served 
in  the  American  army  with  the  rank  of 
major,  lieutenant-colonel  and  deputy  com- 
missioner general  of  military  stores.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  first  provincial  con- 
vention, and  a  member  of  the  State  Legis- 
lature. In  1783,  in  association  with  Colo- 
nel Thomas  Hart,  father-in-law  of  Henry 
Clay,  he  began  the  manufacture  of  flour, 
rope  and  nails.  In  180S  he  was  the  first 
president  of  the  Hagerstown  Bank,  and 
successfully  filled  the  offices  of  member 
of  the  Assembly,  postmaster,  judge  of  the 
county  court  and  presidential  elector.  In 
1800  he  first  visited  the  "Genesee  Coun- 
try," where  he  had  previously  purchased 
six  hundred  and  forty  acres  of  land,  and 
the  same  year  made  large  purchases  of 
land  in  Livingston  county,  New  York, 
near  Dansville.  In  1802,  with  Colonel 
Fitz-Hugh  and  Major  Carroll,  he  pur- 
chased the  "one  hundred  or  Allen  Mill 
Tract"  on  what  is  now  the  city  of  Roches- 
ter, then  called  Fallstown.  In  May,  1S10, 
having  closed  up  his  business  in  Mary- 
land, he  became  a  resident  of  Western 
New  York,  settling  at  Dansville,  where 
he  remained  five  years,  during  which  time 
he  erected  a  large  paper  mill,  and  made 
many  improvements.  In  1815,  having 
disposed  of  his  interests  in  Dansville,  he 
removed  to  a  large  and  well-improved 
farm  in  Bloomfield,  Ontario  county,  New 
York.  After  staying  there  for  three  years, 
during  which  time  he  constantly  visited 
the  Falls  of  the  Genesee  and  his  property 
there,  laying  it  out  in  lots,  in  April,  1818, 
he  took  up  his  residence  there,  the  town 
in  the  interim  having  been  named  after 
him,  Rochester.  In  1816  he  was  presi- 
dential elector.  He  was  the  first  clerk  of 
the  county  of  Monroe,  and  its  first  repre- 
sentative in  the  State  Legislature  in  1821- 
22.     In  1824  he  was  one  of  the  organizers 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


of  the  Bank  of  Rochester,  and  was  unani- 
mously chosen  its  first  president,  a  posi- 
tion which  he  soon  resigned  on  account  of 
impaired  health  and  the  infirmities  of  age. 
He  was  a  lifelong  member  of  the  Protes- 
tant Episcopal  church,  and  one  of  the 
founders  of  St.  Luke's  Church  of  Roches- 
ter. He  died  May  17,  1831,  the  first  citi- 
zen of  the  town  of  Rochester,  a  man  gen- 
erally beloved  and  revered  for  the  integ- 
rity of  his  principles  and  the  magnetism 
of  his  personality.  Nathaniel  Rochester 
married  Sophia  Beatty,  great-grand- 
daughter of  John  Beatty,  immigrant  an- 
cestor of  the  Beatty  family  in  America. 
She  was  the  daughter  of  William  and 
Dorotha  (Grosh)  Beatty.  Colonel  Na- 
thaniel Rochester  and  his  wife  Sophia 
(Beatty)  Rochester  were  the  parents  of 
twelve  children. 

(V)  Thomas  Hart  Rochester,  son  of 
Colonel  Nathaniel  and  Sophia  (Beatty) 
Rochester,  was  born  September  23,  1797, 
in  Hagerstown,  Maryland.  He  came 
North  with  his  father  and  settled  in 
Rochester.  He  married  Phoebe  Elizabeth 
Cuming,  September  26,  1822.  Among 
their  children  were  the  late  Colonel  Mont- 
gomery Rochester,  mentioned  below  ;  Dr. 
Thomas  Fortescue  Rochester,  at  the  time 
of  his  decease  the  most  prominent  physi- 
cian and  surgeon  of  Buffalo,  New  York, 
and  the  greatest  medical  authority  in 
Western  New  York;  Nathaniel,  died  in 
California  in  1849;  Jonn  Henry;  Caroline 
Louise ;  Phoebe  Elizabeth,  who  died  in 
1859. 

(VI)  Colonel  Montgomery  Rochester, 
son  of  Thomas  Hart  and  Phoebe  Eliza- 
beth (Cuming)  Rochester,  was  born  in 
the  family  homestead  in  Rochester,  New 
York,  August  24,  1832.  He  received  his 
education  in  the  public  schools  of  Roches- 
ter, and  was  engaged  in  business  in  that 
city  at  the  time  of  the  outbreak  of  the 
Civil   War.      He   served   throughout   the 


entire  war,  bringing  honor  and  distinction 
on  himself  for  bravery  and  daring  in  the 
service.  He  held  the  rank  of  colonel 
under  General  Sherman.  His  commis- 
sion as  quartermaster-general,  bearing  the 
signature  of  President  Abraham  Lincoln, 
with  the  sword  which  he  used  during  the 
war,  is  in  possession  of  the  family.  He 
was  mustered  out  of  the  service  on  May 

1,  1865,  as  lieutenant-colonel.  He  had 
held  the  rank  of  assistant  adjutant-gen- 
eral of  United  States  Volunteers. 

Colonel  Rochester  was  throughout  his 
entire  life  a  man  of  deep  literary  and  ar- 
tistic tastes.  After  the  war  he  was  elected 
treasurer  of  the  Art  Museum  of  Cincin- 
nati, and  devoted  a  large  part  of  his  life 
to  his  work  in  this  capacity,  purely  for 
the  love  of  it.  He  was  a  quiet,  scholarly 
man,  of  dignified  demeanor,  possessed  of 
a  wonderful  fund  of  dry  humor.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  Loyal  Legion,  the  Grand 
Army  of  the  Republic,  and  numerous 
other  literary,  military,  fraternal,  art,  and 
civic  societies.  Colonel  Rochester  was 
always  active  in  church  work,  and  was  a 
member  of  St.  Luke's  Church  in  Roches- 
ter, and  St.  Peter's  in  Albany,  in  which 
city  he  resided.  He  married,  January  15, 
1857,  Mary  Hewson  Pruyn,  daughter  of 
Casparus  Francis  Pruyn,  and  a  member 
of  one  of  the  oldest  families  in  the  State 
of  New  York.  Mrs.  Rochester  survives 
her  husband  and  resides  at  No.  435  State 
street,  Albany,  New  York.  The  child  of 
this  marriage  was  :  Montgomery  Hewson 
Rochester.  Colonel  Montgomery  Roches- 
ter died  in  Albany,  New  York,  February 

2,  1909. 

(The   Pruyn   Line). 

(I)  Johannes  Pruyn,  progenitor  of  the 
Pruyn  family  in  America,  was  a  Hol- 
lander. He  had  two  sons,  Francis  and 
Jacob.  Jacob  Pruyn  was  enrolled  among 
the  "Small  Burghers"  of  New  Amster- 
dam,  April    18,    1657;   and   purchased   a 


2/5 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


house  and  lot  "outside  of  the  Gate  of  this 
city,"  February  19,  1659,  from  Sybout 
Classen. 

(II)  Francis  Pruyn,  son  of  Johannes 
Pruyn,  was  in  Albany,  New  York,  as 
early  as  1665,  with  his  wife,  where  he 
was  a  tailor.  It  is  recorded  that  in  1668, 
representing  Jacques  Cornelise  Van  Slyck, 
he  conveyed  a  piece  of  property  in  the 
Colony  of  Rensselaerswyck  (later  Al- 
bany) to  one  Jan  Labatie,  and  later  in  the 
same  year  bought  for  himself  a  lot  at  the 
northwest  corner  of  Maiden  lane  and 
James  street,  in  that  city.  On  February 
19,  1686-87,  he  bought  from  Johannes 
Clute  and  wife,  Bata,  a  lot  on  Broadway, 
Albany,  about  the  third  south  from  Steu- 
ben street,  running  through  to  James 
street,  for  which  he  paid  the  sum  of 
twenty-two  beavers.  His  son,  Johannes, 
afterward  occupied  the  same  house  built 
thereon.  Being  a  Papist,  in  January, 
1669,  he  refused  to  take  the  oath  of  allegi- 
ance to  King  William,  but  expressed  him- 
self willing  to  swear  fidelity.  However, 
his  son,  Johannes  Pruyn,  subscribed.  His 
wife,  Alida,  joined  the  Reformed  Protes- 
tant Dutch  church  in  1683.  She  died  Sep- 
tember 20,  1704,  and  he  died  May  6,  1712. 

(III)  Samuel  Pruyn,  son  of  Francis 
and  Alida  Pruyn,  was  born  December  2, 
1677,  and  buried  January  27,  1752.  In 
1703  he  was  one  of  those  "who  furnished 
labor  and  materials  for  the  Dominie's 
house."  In  1720  his  name  appears  on  the 
list  of  freeholders  in  the  old  third  ward 
of  Albany.  He  lived,  between  1703  and 
1727,  at  the  northeast  corner  of  Maiden 
lane  and  James  street,  Albany.  He  mar- 
ried, January  15,  1704,  Maria  Bogart,  born 
June  14,  1681,  the  daughter  of  Jacob  Cor- 
nelise and  Jeanette  (Quackenbush)  Bo- 
gart. 

(IV)  Francis  Samuelse  Pruyn,  son  of 
Samuel  and  Maria  (Bogart)  Pruyn,  was 
born   in   Albany,   and  baptized  there   on 


March  15,  1705.  He  died  August  27,  1767. 
He  was  a  prominent  man  in  Albany  and 
held  the  following  public  offices:  Fire- 
master,  1731-32;  assistant  alderman,  1745- 
46 ;  alderman  from  the  second  ward,  Al- 
bany, 1761-62.  He  was  twice  married. 
On  the  death  of  his  first  wife,  Anna,  he 
married  Alida  van  Yveren,  daughter  of 
Warner  and  Anna  (Pruyn)  van  Yveren. 

(V)  Casparus  Pruyn,  son  of  Francis 
Samuelse  and  Alida  (van  Yveren)  Pruyn, 
was  born  May  10,  1734.  His  name  ap- 
pears as  lieutenant  on  the  roll  of  the  First 
Albany  County  Regiment;  in  1785  he  was 
an  assessor  of  the  second  ward  of  the 
city.  He  was  for  some  years  an  elder  of 
the  Reformed  Dutch  church.  The  follow- 
ing memorandum,  refers  to  his  aid  of  the 
United  States  government :  "This  is  to 
certify  that  Casparus  Pruyn  has  due  to 
him  from  the  United  States  the  sum  of 
Seventy-one  pounds  four  shillings  specie, 
for  work  done  for  the  use  of  the  Indians, 
by  the  request  of  the  Commissioners  of 
Indian  affairs,  in  1779-1780.  P.  Van 
Rennsselaer."  He  married,  December  19, 
1762,  Catherine  Groesbeck,  born  May  8, 
1737,  died  February  17,  1788,  the  daugh- 
ter of  David  and  Maria  (Van  Poel) 
Groesbeck.  Casparus  Pruyn  died  Octo- 
ber 7,  1817. 

(VI)  Francis  Casparus  Prupn,  son  of 
Casparus  and  Catherine  (Groesbeck) 
Pruyn,  was  born  at  Albany,  New  York, 
July  19,  1769,  and  died  June  14,  1847.  He 
married,  August  30,  1791,  Cornelia  Dun- 
bar, born  January  n,  1770,  and  died  July 
12,  1844,  the  daughter  of  Levinus  and 
Margaret   (Hansen)   Dunbar. 

(VII)  Casparus  Francis  Pruyn,  son  of 
Francis  Casparus  and  Cornelia  (Dunbar) 
Pruyn,  was  born  May  26,  1792.  At  the 
age  of  thirteen  years  he  entered  the  office 
of  the  Van  Rensselaer  estate,  of  which 
vast  property  his  uncle,  Robert  Dunbar, 
was  the  agent.     In  1835  Mr.  Dunbar  re- 


276 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


signed  and  Casparus  F.  Pruyn  was  ap- 
pointed the  agent  for  the  manor,  which 
position  he  filled  very  satisfactorily. 
Upon  the  death  of  General  Stephen  Van 
Rensselaer,  the  Patroon,  on  January  26, 
1839,  the  estate  was  divided,  the  portion 
on  the  east  shore  of  the  Hudson  river 
going  to  William  Paterson  Van  Rensse- 
laer. To  be  in  the  vicinity  of  this  prop- 
erty, of  which  he  still  continued  to  be  the 
agent,  he  removed  to  the  other  side  of  the 
river  to  Bath,  Rensselaer  county.  He 
held  the  position  of  agent  for  "East 
Manor,"  as  it  became  known,  until  he 
resigned  in  1844.  He  died  two  years  later, 
February  11,  1846.  Mr.  Pruyn  married, 
April  19,  1814,  Ann  Hewson,  born  Janu- 
ary 27,  1794,  died  February  12,  1841,  the 
daughter  of  Robert  and  Elizabeth  (Fryer) 
Hewson,  of  Albany. 

(VIII)  Mary  Hewson  Pruyn,  daugh- 
ter of  Casparus  Francis  and  Ann  (Hew- 
son) Pruyn,  was  born  April  13,  1834,  in 
Albany,  New  York.  She  married,  Janu- 
ary 15,  1857,  Montgomery  Rochester,  son 
of  Thomas  Hart  and  Phoebe  Elizabeth 
(Cuming)  Rochester. 


TRACY,  Benjamin  Franklin, 

Lawyer,    Soldier,   Statesman,    Diplomat. 

To  few  men  has  it  been  given  to  bear 
the  master  part  in  so  many  lines  of  en- 
deavor for  the  advancement  of  the  race  as 
fell  to  the  lot  of  General  Benjamin  F. 
Tracy,  and  few  were  able  at  the  age  of 
eighty-five  years,  as  was  he,  to  continue 
in  active  participation  in  the  affairs  of 
life.  Cradled  in  Central  New  York,  he 
was  reared  under  conditions  calculated 
to  bring  out  the  best  that  was  in  him. 
From  a  multitude  of  worthy  ancestors  he 
inherited  those  qualities  of  courage,  forti- 
tude and  adherence  to  principle  which 
have  made  the  New  Englander  and  his 
descendants  the  leaders  in  directing  the 


affairs  of  a  mighty  nation.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  give  a  few  moment's  attention  to 
the  character  of  the  men  who  preceded 
him  in  a  long  line  of  strong  and  efficient 
ancestors. 

The  name  of  Tracy  was  taken  by  a 
Norman  family  from  Traci-Boccage,  in 
the  Arrondisement  of  Caen,  France,  called 
in  the  documents  of  the  eleventh  century, 
Traceium.  At  the  time  of  the  Conquest, 
members  of  this  family  went  to  England 
and  were  subsequently  Lords  of  Barn- 
staple, in  Devonshire,  where  several  par- 
ishes bear  the  word  Tracy  as  a  portion  of 
their  name.  Beginning  with  Ecgbert, 
first  Saxon  King  of  England,  who  reigned 
from  800  to  839,  the  history  of  this  family 
has  been  brought  down  to  the  twenty- 
seventh  generation,  represented  in  this 
country  by  Stephen  Tracy,  the  Pilgrim 
ancestor,  who  came  to  Plymouth,  Massa- 
chusetts, in  the  ship  "Ann,"  in  1623.  He 
was  the  father  of  John  Tracy,  born  at 
Plymouth,  1633,  died  at  Windham,  Con- 
necticut, 1718.  His  wife  Mary  was  a 
daughter  of  Governor  Thomas  Prince,  of 
the  Plymouth  Colony.  Their  son,  John 
Tracy,  was  born  about  1663,  in  Duxbury, 
Massachusetts,  and  was  the  father  of 
John  Tracy,  a  resident  of  Providence, 
Rhode  Island.  John  (4)  Tracy,  son  of 
John  of  Providence,  lived  in  Scituate, 
Rhode  Island,  and  was  the  father  of 
Thomas  Tracy,  the  pioneer  of  Western 
New  York.  He  lived  for  some  time  in 
North  Adams,  Massachusetts,  and  trav- 
eled thence  with  his  wife  and  infant  son 
to  the  headwaters  of  the  Susquehanna 
River,  in  Otsego  county,  New  York, 
where  he  built  a  raft,  and  on  it  conveyed 
his  family  down  the  stream  in  the  year 
1790.  He  landed  at  the  mouth  of  what 
has  since  been  known  as  Tracy  creek,  in 
the  present  Broome  county,  New  York, 
then  a  part  of  Tioga  county.  He  was  the 
father  of  two  sons,  of  whom  the  junior, 


277 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Benjamin  Tracy,  born  1795,  in  Tioga 
county,  resided  at  Owego,  where  he  was 
a  highly  respected  citizen,  and  died  Janu- 
ary 31,  1882,  in  his  eighty-eighth  year. 
He  was  a  soldier  of  the  War  of  1812,  and 
was  an  industrious  pioneer  in  clearing  the 
forests  along  the  Susquehanna,  and  in  the 
cultivation  of  crops.  He  had  four  sons, 
of  whom  the  third  is  the  subject  of  this 
biography. 

General  Benjamin  Franklin  Tracy  was 
born  April  26,  1830,  at  Owego,  and  began 
attendance  at  the  district  school  at  the 
early  age  of  five  years,  and  continued 
through  both  summer  and  winter  terms 
until  the  age  of  thirteen  years,  after  which 
his  summers  were  occupied  by  such  farm 
labor  as  he  was  competent  to  perform. 
At  the  age  of  sixteen  years  his  last  win- 
ter term  of  the  district  school  was  com- 
pleted, and  during  the  following  winter 
he  taught  a  school  in  the  suburb  of 
Owego,  with  success.  Because  of  his  own 
youth,  he  was  advised  against  under- 
taking this  work,  since  the  school  was  one 
of  the  largest  and  most  unruly  in  the 
town.  For  his  efficient  service  in  this 
school  he  received  an  emolument  of  six- 
teen dollars  per  month,  with  board.  His 
father  was  long  a  justice  of  the  peace, 
and  the  attention  of  the  son  was  early 
attracted  to  legal  matters  through  trials 
conducted  before  his  father,  and  he  re- 
solved to  take  up  the  law  as  a  profession. 
As  a  means  of  preparation,  he  joined  a 
debating  club  at  the  age  of  fifteen  years, 
and  soon  attracted  attention  therein  by 
his  power  and  skill  in  public  addresses. 
At  the  age  of  nineteen  years  he  began  the 
study  of  law  with  a  firm  in  Owego,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  May,  185 1.  In 
the  meantime  he  had  conducted  several 
trials  in  justice's  courts,  had  gained 
thereby  some  practical  experience,  and 
clients  came  to  him  rapidly  after  his  ad- 
mission as  an  attorney. 


His  active  mind  grasped  readily  many 
of  the  subjects  attracting  public  interest 
at  this  time,  and  at  a  very  early  age  he  be- 
gan to  take  part  in  the  political  move- 
ments of  his  section.  When  only  twenty- 
three  years  old  he  was  nominated  by  the 
Whig  party  as  candidate  for  district  at- 
torney for  Tioga  county,  and  was  the 
only  candidate  on  the  ticket  who  did  not 
suffer  defeat.  It  is  probable  that  he  was 
the  youngest  district  attorney  ever  elected 
in  this  State.  He  was  again  a  candidate 
in  1856,  and  defeated  his  personal  friend, 
Gilbert  C.  Walker,  the  Democratic  candi- 
date, with  whom  young  Tracy  soon  after 
formed  a  law  partnership.  It  is  worthy 
of  note  in  connection  with  the  beginning 
of  practice  by  General  Tracy,  that  in  his 
first  eight  years  he  never  lost  a  jury  trial 
in  a  court  of  record  in  which  he  was  at- 
torney. His  civil  practice  in  this  time 
exceeded  that  of  any  other  attorney  in 
the  county,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  record 
that  the  court  was  forced  to  adjourn  at 
one  time  because  of  his  illness,  as  there 
was  no  case  on  the  calendar  in  which  he 
was  not  engaged  on  one  side  or  the  other. 
His  active  practice  was  temporarily  aban- 
doned soon  after  this,  and  his  attention 
was  given  to  aiding  in  suppression  of  the 
rebellion  of  1861-65  in  his  native  country. 
At  various  intervals  since,  he  resumed 
practice,  and  actively  engaged  in  the  pro- 
fession of  law,  and  occupied  a  most  com- 
manding position  at  the  bar  of  the  State 
down  to  the  time  of  his  death. 

The  formation  of  the  Free  Soil  party 
occurred  when  he  was  still  a  young  man, 
and  he  was  a  representative  of  this  party 
in  various  conventions,  and  was  among 
the  leaders  in  the  formation  of  the  Repub- 
lican party,  which  began  simultaneously 
in  New  York,  and  in  other  States,  east 
and  west.  His  home  county  was  one  of 
the  first  in  the  State  to  take  action  in  this 
direction,  and  Mr.  Tracy  was  a  delegate 


278 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


in  the  joint  convention  of  Republicans 
and  Whigs  held  at  Auburn  in  September, 
1855.  His  guiding  hand  was  most  potent 
in  directing  the  destinies  of  the  nation  at 
this  and  subsequent  periods,  and  to  him 
has  been  given  credit  for  great  achieve- 
ments in  the  establishment  of  safe  gov- 
ernment, based  upon  sound  principles. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  committee  at  the 
Auburn  convention  in  1855,  to  prepare 
the  address  issued  to  the  people  of  the 
State,  and  in  the  same  year  was  made 
chairman  of  the  Republican  committee  of 
Tioga  county.  In  1861,  immediately  after 
his  party  came  into  governmental  control 
of  the  nation,  he  began  his  legislative 
career  as  a  member  of  the  State  Assenv 
bly,  elected  by  a  combination  of  Repub- 
licans and  War  Democrats.  Here  he  be- 
came the  acknowledged  leader  of  his 
party,  an  unprecedented  accomplishment 
in  a  member's  first  term.  With  patriotic 
ardor  he  engaged  not  only  in  civil  affairs, 
but  also  in  the  military  movements  which 
ultimately  resulted  in  the  downfall  of 
secession.  Between  July  21  and  August 
21,  1861,  young  Tracy  raised  and  equipped 
two  regiments,  as  chairman  of  a  district 
embracing  the  counties  of  Broome,  Tioga 
and  Tompkins. 

He  proceeded  to  Washington  as  colo- 
nel of  the  One  Hundred  and  Ninth  Regi- 
ment New  York  Volunteers,  and  was 
assigned  to  the  protection  of  the  railroad 
leading  into  Washington.  In  the  spring 
of  1864  he  was  attached  to  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac,  and  especially  distinguished 
himself  in  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness, 
during  which  he  suffered  a  complete 
breakdown  from  over-exertion.  For  his 
gallantry  in  this  action  he  received  the 
Congressional  medal  of  honor.  Return- 
ing to  the  north  for  a  short  time  after 
recuperation,  he  was  commissioned  colo- 
nel of  the  One  Hundred  and  Twenty- 
seventh  Regiment  United  States  Volun- 


teers. Before  the  close  of  that  year  he 
was  appointed  commander  of  the  military 
post  at  Elmira,  New  York,  which  included 
a  prison  camp  where  ten  thousand  pris- 
oners had  been  held  by  the  United  States, 
and  also  a  volunteer  camp  for  the  organ- 
ization of  Union  soldiers  to  be  sent  to  the 
front.  Colonel  Tracy  was  brevetted  brig- 
adier-general, March  13,  1865,  "for  gal- 
lant and  meritorious  services  during  the 
war,"  and  three  months  later  he  tendered 
his  resignation,  receiving  an  honorable 
discharge  from  the  army. 

At  this  time  he  removed  to  Brooklyn, 
New  York,  and  became  associated  with 
the  well  known  law  firm  of  Benedict, 
Burr  &  Benedict,  of  New  York  City,  con- 
tinuing at  the  same  time  the  management 
of  his  farm  at  Owego.  He  at  once  took  a 
leading  position  at  the  metropolitan  bar. 
In  October,  1866,  he  was  appointed 
United  States  Attorney  for  the  Eastern 
District  of  New  York,  and  one  of  his  first 
duties  in  this  capacity  was  the  prosecu- 
tion of  the  whiskey  distillers  who  were 
defrauding  the  government  by  the  eva- 
sion of  payment  of  revenue.  Here  he 
achieved  one  of  his  greatest  triumphs  in 
civil  affairs.  His  efforts  were  greatly 
handicapped  by  the  absence  of  adequate 
laws  for  the  protection  of  the  govern- 
ment's interests,  and  he  immediately  set 
about  the  framing  of  statutes  which 
should  prevent  a  continuance  of  the 
frauds  he  was  then  engaged  in  prosecut- 
ing. He  secured  for  the  first  time  a  law 
covering  criminal  conspiracy,  and  fol- 
lowed this  up  by  a  virtual  remoulding  of 
the  internal  revenue  law,  shutting  off  this 
imposition  upon  the  nation.  Under  the 
beneficent  operation  of  the  law  drafted  by 
United  States  District  Attorney  Tracy, 
the  revenue  tax  was  increased  in  one  year 
from,  thirteen  millions  to  sixty  millions  of 
dollars.  In  1873  he  resigned  this  office  in 
order  to  devote  himself  to  private  prac- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


tice,  and  acting  as  counsel  in  much  of  the 
most  important  litigation  of  his  time.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  counsel  which  de- 
fended Henry  Ward  Beecher  in  the 
famous  case  brought  against  him  by 
Theodore  Tilton,  in  association  with  Wil- 
liam M.  Evarts  and  other  leaders  of  the 
bar.  His  opening  of  the  case  for  the  de- 
fense before  the  jury  has  been  character- 
ized as  most  complete  and  masterly,  al- 
though it  was  undertaken  unexpectedly 
through  the  indisposition  of  the  counsel 
to  whom  this  duty  had  been  assigned. 
One  of  the  most  remarkable  triumphs 
achieved  by  General  Tracy  was  the  con- 
viction of  John  Y.  McKane,  a  political 
boss  at  Gravesend,  New  York,  who  had 
been  guilty  of  the  most  brazen  violations 
of  the  election  laws  and  expiated  his 
wrongdoing  by  a  term  in  State's  prison. 
Upon  the  appearance  of  a  vacancy  in  the 
Court  of  Appeals,  General  Tracy  was  ap- 
pointed to  that  bench,  on  which  he  served 
one  year,  and  the  records  show  more  con- 
trolling opinions  written  by  Judge  Tracy 
in  that  period  than  had  ever  been  given 
by  a  single  judge  within  that  limit. 

In  1866,  at  the  famous  Philadelphia 
convention  held  to  protest  against  recon- 
struction, he  opposed  the  enfranchise- 
ment of  the  negro,  and  predicted  the  un- 
fortunate results  which  followed,  and  the 
mistake  of  his  party  at  that  time  is  now 
universally  admitted.  In  1880  he  was  a 
delegate  to  the  Republican  National  Con- 
vention, and  was  one  of  the  "stalwarts" 
who  continued  to  support  General  Grant 
for  the  Presidency  on  every  ballot.  In 
the  following  year  he  was  the  Republican 
nominee  for  mayor  of  the  city  of  Brook- 
lyn, but  proposed  and  executed  his  own 
withdrawal  in  favor  of  Seth  Low,  who 
was  triumphantly  elected,  and  General 
Tracy's  appointment  to  the  Court  of  Ap- 
peals followed  before  the  close  of  that 
year.  In  1892  he  was  nominated  by  the 
Republicans  for  Justice  of  the  Supreme 


Court  in  the  Second  Department,  but 
failed  of  election  through  the  defeat  of 
the  entire  ticket  in  that  year,  though  he 
led  every  candidate  by  twenty-three  thou- 
sand votes.  In  this  campaign,  Grover 
Cleveland  was  elected  Governor  of  New 
York  by  a  majority  of  one  hundred  thou- 
sand. After  a  period  of  rest  and  travel, 
General  Tracy  again  resumed  the  practice 
of  his  profession. 

In  1889  General  Tracy  was  called  by 
President  Harrison  to  the  position  of  Sec- 
retary of  the  Navy,  upon  which  appoint- 
ment contending  factions  of  the  Republi- 
can party  in  New  York  were  united.  Here 
again  General  Tracy  met  the  expectations 
of  his  friends  and  of  the  public,  and 
achieved  one  of  the  most  notable  suc- 
cesses which  marked  his  career  through 
life.  He  is  universally  known  and  ac- 
knowledged to-day  as  "the  father  of  the 
fighting  navy."  Radical  departures  in 
naval  construction  were  adopted  under 
his  direction,  and  three  types  of  vessels 
now  in  universal  use  among  navies  of  the 
world — the  battleship,  the  armored  cruiser 
and  the  scout  cruiser — were  established 
during  his  administration,  equipped  with 
the  nickel  steel  armor  plates  which  are 
now  a  feature  of  every  navy.  The  crea- 
tion and  development  of  the  naval  militia 
was  another  feature  of  his  work;  the  es- 
tablishment of  businesslike  methods  in 
handling  labor  and  in  the  purchasing  and 
disbursing  departments,  were  established; 
and  a  great  improvement  and  an  enor- 
mous increase  in  efficiency  was  the  result. 

Following  his  retirement  from  the 
Navy  Department,  General  Tracy  ren- 
dered most  valuable  public  service  as  one 
of  the  counsel  in  the  controversy  with 
Great  Britain  over  the  Venezuela  bound- 
ary. His  training  and  experience  had 
especially  fitted  him  for  this  service,  and 
the  work  he  performed  demonstrated  his 
fitness  for  this  new  field  of  diplomatic 
law.       Wherever    duty    called,     General 


280 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Tracy  was  always  found  ready  to  give 
freely  of  his  time  and  talents  to  the  pub- 
lic service.  He  accepted  an  appointment 
from  Governor  Morton  as  a  member  of  a 
commission  to  draft  a  charter  for  Greater 
New  York,  when  it  was  created  through 
the  combination  of  its  five  constituent 
boroughs.  He  was  at  once  made  presi- 
dent of  the  commission,  and  the  intricate 
task  of  adjusting  the  rights  and  duties  of 
the  several  boroughs  was  successfully  car- 
ried out  in  a  charter  which  has  worked  in 
the  main  for  the  general  welfare.  In  1909 
he  was  again  called  upon  to  serve  the 
public  as  referee  in  questions  of  great 
moment,  involving  the  construction  of  the 
Brooklyn  subways,  whose  solution  was 
reached  with  remarkable  promptness,  and 
so  carefully  arranged  that  the  court  of 
appeals  sustained  all  of  his  rulings  except 
one,  and  this  point  was  settled  by  divided 
court. 

During  the  intervals  between  these 
various  calls  to  the  public  service,  Gen- 
eral Tracy  was  actively  employed  in  legal 
cases  of  great  importance,  and  took  but 
little  time  for  rest  or  recreation.  It  is 
worthy  of  remark  that  in  his  public  serv- 
ice General  Tracy  was  not  a  seeker  for 
office  except  in  early  manhood,  when  he 
sought  the  position  of  district  attorney 
and  assemblyman ;  every  other  official 
station  which  he  afterwards  filled,  came 
to  him  unsought.  In  his  career  was  rep- 
resented the  antithesis  of  the  usual  course 
in  modern  political  affairs,  and  "the  office 
sought  the  man."  His  brief  holidays 
were  spent  in  travel,  and  until  a  few  days 
before  his  death  he  enjoyed  a  remarkable 
state  of  preservation,  both  mentally  and 
physically,  and  continuing  to  give  to  his 
professional  duties  the  same  care  and 
clearness  of  vision  which  had  marked  all 
his  labors.  In  his  lifetime  he  was  en- 
gaged in  every  branch  of  the  legal  pro- 
fession, civil  and  criminal,  municipal  and 
international,  as  a  public  prosecutor,  State 


and  Federal,  judge  of  the  highest  court  of 
his  State,  cabinet  minister,  framer  of  mu- 
nicipal charters,  political  advisor,  and  also 
rendered  most  arduous  and  faithful  mili- 
tary service.  In  summing  up  his  career, 
"Bench  and  Bar"  for  January,  1915,  thus 
fitly  speaks  of  him : 

To-day,  General  Tracy  in  the  ripeness  of 
years,  is  still  continuing  his  experienced  service 
in  the  profession;  though,  perhaps,  not  as  eager 
as  in  younger  days  for  the  contests  of  jury  trial, 
his  advice  has  lost  none  of  its  readiness,  nor  his 
mind  any  of  its  openness,  nor  his  listening  any 
of  its  patience.  He  early  conquered  the  high 
esteem  of  the  community;  it  has  been  given  to 
him  to  enjoy  it  unimpaired  for  great  length  of 
days,  and  to-day  he  lives  surrounded  by  "All 
that  should  accompany  old  age; — honor,  love, 
obedience,  troops  of  friends," — an  encouraging 
example  of  the  goal  to  which  the  younger  mem- 
bers of  the  Bar  may  hopefully  look  forward. 

Another  authority  says: 

The  diversity  of  public  services  in  which  he 
has  been  engaged  and  the  degree  of  success 
which  he  has  reached,  stamp  General  Tracy  as 
a  man  preeminent  among  his  contemporaries.  As 
a  lawyer,  his  long  experience  in  an  exceptionally 
varied  practice  has  given  him  a  broad  grasp  of 
fundamental  principles,  while  as  an  advocate,  his 
clear  and  skillful  methods  of  presentation  and 
his  powers  of  persuasive  speech  have  made  him 
successful  alike  before  judges  and  juries.  Both 
as  a  civil  and  criminal  lawyer  he  ranks  second  to 
none  in  the  State,  and  is  one  of  the  few  members 
of  his  profession  in  America  who  enjoy  inter- 
national fame.  Not  only  as  a  lawyer  and  impar- 
tial and  conscientious  judge  has  he  attained  dis- 
tinction, but  also  as  an  independent  and  large- 
minded  statesman,  who  has  long  stood  in  the 
foremost  rank  of  the  great  leaders  of  the  Repub- 
lican party  in  the  United  States.  He  has  done 
much  to  bring  Brooklyn  into  prominence  in  con- 
nection with  national  affairs,  and  for  many  years, 
when  he,  General  James  Jourdan,  and  Silas  B. 
Dutcher,  were  the  local  party  leaders,  his  influ- 
ence in  the  Republican  organization  of  that  city 
was  well  nigh  supreme.  For  twenty  years  of  his 
life  he  has  been  in  public  service,  and  it  is  be- 
lieved that  no  American  has  ever  held  a  greater 
number  of  diversified  public  positions,  or  achieved 
a  greater  success  in  all  than  has  General  Tracy. 


28l 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


General  Tracy  was  always  fond  of  agri- 
cultural pursuits,  and  in  the  intervals  of 
professional  and  official  duty  spent  much 
time  in  the  cultivation  of  his  farm  at 
Owego.  At  one  time  he  was  a  noted 
breeder  of  trotting  horses,  and  proprietor 
of  the  famous  Marshland  stud.  In  his 
busy  career  he  devoted  little  attention  to 
club  and  social  life,  but  was  a  member  of 
the  Union  League  and  Metropolitan 
clubs  of  New  York  City,  a  companion  of 
the  first  class  of  the  Military  Order  of  the 
Loyal  Legion,  and  a  comrade  of  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic. 

He  married,  at  Owego,  New  York,  Jan- 
uary 21,  1 85 1,  Delinda  E.,  daughter  of 
Nathaniel  and  Jane  (Brodhead)  Catlin, 
of  that  place,  and  sister  of  General  Isaac 
S.  Catlin.  She  died  in  Washington,  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  March  2,  1890.  Chil- 
dren:  1.  Emma  Louise,  married  in  Brook- 
lyn, New  York,  Ferdinand  Suydam  Wil- 
merding.  2.  Mary  Farrington,  born  at 
Owego,  May,  1876,  died  at  Washington, 
March  3,  1890.  3.  Frank  Brodhead,  mar- 
ried Elizabeth  Cornell,  of  Owego,  New 
York,  and  had  three  sons — Benjamin, 
Thomas  Brodhead  and  James  Burt.  On 
March  3,  1890,  he  was  visited  by  an  afflic- 
tion that  made  him  an  object  of  world- 
wide sympathy,  when  his  house  in  Wash- 
ington was  burned  and  his  wife  and 
youngest  daughter,  Mary  F.,  together  with 
a  female  servant,  perished.  He  himself 
was  rescued  while  unconscious,  and  re- 
mained for  some  days  in  a  critical  condi- 
tion. General  Tracy's  only  granddaugh- 
ter, Alice  Tracy  Wilmerding,  married 
Frederic  R.  Coudert,  and  they  have  four 
sons — Frederic  R.,  Jr.,  Benjamin  Tracy, 
Ferdinand  Wilmerding  and  Alexis  Car- 
rell. 

General  Tracy  died  in  New  York  City 
on  August  6,  1915. 


POTTER,  Robert  Brown, 

Soldier,  Statesman. 

Robert  Potter,  the  founder  of  the  family 
in  America  here  dealt  with,  came  from 
Coventry,  England,  in  1634.  There  is  no 
record  of  the  exact  date  of  his  coming  to 
this  country  or  the  ship  in  which  he  came, 
excepting  that  he  was  a  passenger  with 
the  Rev.  Nathan  Ward,  afterwards  a  min- 
ister of  Ipswich,  Massachusetts.  John, 
son  of  Robert  Potter,  was  born  at  Ports- 
mouth, Rhode  Island,  and  in  1660  was  en- 
rolled a  freeman.  John  (2),  son  of  John 
( 1 )  Potter,  was  born  in  Warwick,  Rhode 
Island,  and  was  killed  by  the  fall  of  a  tree. 
The  jury  of  inquest  on  his  death  judged 
him  "to  be  axedentolly  excesery  to  his 
own  death  occasioned  by  the  fall  of  a 
tree."  John  (3),  son  of  John  (2)  Potter, 
was  born  at  Cranston,  Rhode  Island,  and 
lived  on  the  Rivulet  farm,  one  mile  from 
the  Quaker  meeting  house  at  Cranston. 
Thomas,  son  of  John  (3)  Potter,  was  born 
at  Cranston,  and  married  Esther  Sheldon. 
Their  son,  Joseph  Potter,  removed  with 
his  family  in  1792  to  Beekman  (now  La 
Grange),  Dutchess  county,  New  York. 

Rt.  Rev.  Alonzo  Potter,  D.  D.,  LL.  D., 
bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
of  the  Diocese  of  Pennsylvania,  son  of 
Joseph  and  Anne  (Knight)  Potter,  was 
born  July  10,  1800,  at  Beekman,  New 
York,  and  died  July  4,  1865,  on  board  the 
steamship  "Colorado,"  in  the  harbor  of 
San  Francisco,  California.  He  was  first 
sent  to  the  district  schools  of  his  native 
hamlet,  and  was  there  favored  with  the 
instruction  of  a  Mr.  Thompson,  a  man 
capable  of  appreciating  him.  At  the  age 
of  twelve  he  entered  the  academy  at 
Poughkeepsie,  and  having  secured  a 
scholarship  later  went  to  LTnion  College. 
He  was  confirmed  at  Christ  Church,  Phil- 
adelphia, by  the  venerable  Bishop  White, 
and  beran  his  theological  studies  at  the 


282 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


General  Theological  Seminary.  He  was 
called  to  be  a  tutor  at  the  Union  College 
at  twenty,  and  within  a  year  was  ad- 
vanced to  the  professorship  of  mathe- 
matics. He  was  made  a  priest  by  Bishop 
Bonnell,  and  after  a  period  as  rector  at 
Boston  was  made  Bishop  of  Pennsylva- 
nia. His  biographer  says  of  him:  "He 
lived  more  in  his  three-score  years  than 
most  of  those  who  stretch  to  the  utmost 
limit  of  earthly  continuance  do  in  their 
larger  span."  He  married  (first)  Sarah 
Maria  Knott;  (second)  Sarah  Benedict; 
(third)  Frances  Seton. 

General  Robert  Brown  Potter,  son  of 
the  Rt.  Rev.  Alonzo  and  Sarah  Maria 
(Knott)  Potter,  was  born  July  16,  1829, 
died  at  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  February 
19,  18S7.  His  military  career  began  in 
New  York  City,  and  he  was  intimately 
connected  in  Civil  War  times  with  the 
Ninth  Army  Corps,  whose  chief  was  Gen- 
eral Ambrose  E.  Burnside,  of  Rhode 
Island,  and  therefore  it  can  be  said,  as 
of  Homer  in  ancient  days,  that  three  cities 
can  claim  the  honor  of  his  well-earned 
fame.  After  his  college  course  at  Union 
College,  under  the  care  of  his  grandfather, 
young  Potter  established  himself  in  New 
York  as  a  lawyer,  and  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Civil  War  was  in  successful  prac- 
tice in  New  York  City. 

After  the  war  broke  out,  having  no 
immediate  ties,  his  wife  having  died  in 
1858,  a  year  after  their  marriage,  he  deter- 
mined to  go  to  the  front,  and  immediately 
prepared  himself  by  study  and  drill  to 
take  the  position  to  which  his  ambition 
called  him.  On  the  organization  of  the 
Fifty-first  Regiment  in  New  York  he  re- 
ceived the  commission  of  lieutenant-colo- 
nel. His  superior  was  Colonel  Ferrero, 
and  Charles  W.  Le  Gendre  was  major. 
The  regiment  was  moved  to  Annapolis. 
and  soon  after  was  attached  to  Burnside's 
little    army  at  Annapolis,  and    brigaded 


under  General  Reno.  They  had  their  bap- 
tism of  fire  at  Roanoke  Island,  where 
Potter  led  three  companies  of  his  regi- 
ment to  the  assault  of  the  batteries,  and 
was  the  first  to  enter  the  works.  At  New- 
bern  the  Fifty-first  had  again  the  post  of 
honor,  and  stormed  the  entrenchments  on 
the  left  of  the  rebel  lines.  Here  Major 
Le  Gendre  was  shot  through  the  mouth, 
and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Potter  received  a 
ball  in  the  groin,  which  passed  through 
his  body.  Here  Potter  showed  that  cool 
courage  in  which  he  was  not  excelled, 
not  even  by  Grant.  He  remained  on  the 
field,  in  spite  of  his  wound,  until  the  close 
of  the  memorable  day,  and  his  judgment 
in  pointing  the  line  of  attack  decided  the 
victory  in  favor  of  the  Union  troops. 
From  Newbern  the  Fifty-first  was  moved 
to  support  General  McClellan,  and  soon 
after  General  Pope,  in  what  is  known  as 
the  second  Bull  Run  campaign.  Here 
they  held  the  left  of  the  Federal  lines, 
covering  Pope's  retreat,  and  here  again, 
at  the  critical  point  of  the  day,  the  Union 
lines  broken,  Reno's  brigade  was  called 
to  retrieve  the  disaster,  and  Colonel  Pot- 
ter led  the  gallant  Fifty-first  in  full  view 
of  the  remainder  of  the  army,  and  broke 
the  rebel  lines.  At  South  Mountain,  where 
the  lamented  Reno  fell,  the  Fifty-first  was 
again  in  the  post  of  honor,  and,  at  Antie- 
tam,  Potter  achieved  for  himself  an  al- 
most romantic  fame.  The  Union  troops 
were  disordered,  and  the  bridge  over  An- 
tietam  creek,  the  key  to  the  Federal  posi- 
tion, lay  in  front  of  the  enemy's  line,  and 
under  the  full  fire  of  their  artillery.  Pot- 
ter, seizing  the  flag  of  his  regiment, 
crossed  the  bridge,  calling  on  his  men  to 
follow  him,  and  thus  secured  the  position, 
and  in  the  words  of  McClellan  at  the 
time,  "he  saved  the  day."  Some  day,  it 
has  been  said,  this  action  will  be  as  noted 
in  history  as  is  the  similar  dash  of  Na- 
poleon over  the  bridge  at  Arcolo  or  over 


283 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


the  bridge  at  Lodi.  At  Antietam,  again, 
Potter  was  slightly  wounded.  The  Fifty- 
first,  of  which,  after  the  promotion  of 
Ferrero  to  be  brigadier-general,  Potter 
had  sole  command,  was  sent  with  General 
Burnside,  his  old  commander  and  life- 
long personal  friend,  to  take  part  in  the 
western  campaign  ;  Potter  took  a  place  on 
Burnside's  staff,  and  by  General  Grant's 
special  order  received  an  independent 
command.  During  the  siege  of  Knox- 
ville,  Potter  commanded  the  division  in 
front  of  the  lines,  and  with  a  greatly  in- 
ferior force  so  manoeuvred  for  seven  try- 
ing days  as  to  check  the  advance  of  Gen- 
eral Longstreet  (detached  to  the  cap- 
ture of  the  beleagured  city  from  General 
Hood's  army)  and  to  admit  of  the  relief 
and  reinforcement  of  that  port.  It  will 
be  remembered  that  the  final  assaults  of 
the  rebels  were  defeated  on  the  entrench- 
ments in  an  almost  hand-to-hand  fight. 
Potter  had  now  reached  his  true  position 
as  a  commander  of  large  bodies.  In  the 
Wilderness  campaign  he  was  constantly 
under  fire,  and  unusually  active  in  his 
division.  Here  Major  Le  Gendre,  now 
colonel  of  his  old  regiment,  the  Fifty- 
first,  was  finally  disabled,  losing  an  eye. 
The  assault,  after  the  explosion  of  the 
memorable  mine  at  Petersburg,  fell  to 
General  Burnside's  command.  Unfortu- 
nately this  officer  (General  Burnside),  of 
but  too  facile  a  nature,  left  to  lot  the 
choice  of  the  officer  who  should  lead  the 
assault,  and  that  fell  to  an  incompetent 
officer.  General  Grant  in  his  memoir 
says:  "In  fact,  Potter  and  Wilcox  were 
the  only  division  commanders  General 
Burnside  had  who  were  equal  to  the  occa- 
sion." Neither  of  them  was  chosen.  The 
eventful  history  of  the  mine  explosion 
needs  no  further  reference.  An  intimate 
friend  of  General  Potter  states  that  he  had 
matured  a  plan  for  destroying  the  bridge 
over  the  Appomattox,  which  would  have 


confined  General  Lee's  army  and  saved 
further  fighting.  A  touching  incident  is 
related  by  a  friend  of  General  Potter.  He 
had  mounted  his  horse  in  front  of  Fort 
Sedgwick,  called  "Fort  Hell"  by  his  men, 
to  lead  his  regiment  to  battle,  when  he 
was  struck  by  a  ball  and  wounded  in  the 
groin,  as  stated  above.  While  he  lay  des- 
perately wounded  on  the  field,  he  was 
visited  by  President  Lincoln,  who  spoke 
tenderly  to  him,  and  cheered  him  with 
some  of  his  characteristic  words. 

After  the  war,  General  Potter  was  as- 
signed by  the  Secretary  of  State  to  the 
command  of  Rhode  Island  and  the  Con- 
necticut district  of  the  Military  Depart- 
ment of  the  East,  with  headquarters  in 
Newport,  and  in  the  autumn  of  the  same 
year  he  married  his  second  wife.  A  grace- 
ful compliment  was  paid  to  Mrs.  Potter, 
who  was  in  receipt  of  a  novel  but  accept- 
able wedding  present  in  the  form  of  a  full 
major-general's  commission  for  her  hus- 
band, sent  under  the  seal  of  the  War  De- 
partment by  Secretary  Stanton,  the  Gen- 
eral's brevet  having  already  been  re- 
ceived. In  1866  he  was  appointed  colonel 
of  the  Forty-first  United  States  Infantry 
(colored),  but  never  assumed  command. 
This  closed  his  brilliant  military  career. 
General  Hancock  said  of  him  that  he  was 
one  of  the  twelve  best  officers  (West 
Point  graduates  not  excepted)  in  the 
army,  and  with  his  well-known  modesty 
he  (General  Potter)  was  wont  to  say  that 
he  might  have  made  a  first-rate  officer 
with  the  advantages  of  an  early  education 
at  West  Point. 

After  the  gigantic  failure  of  the  At- 
lantic &  Great  Western  Railroad  Com- 
pany he  was  appointed  receiver,  a  posi- 
tion of  labor  and  trust,  and  for  three 
years  he  lived  in  a  car  on  the  line  of  the 
railroad.  Later,  in  the  hope  of  improving 
his  somewhat  shattered  health,  he  went 
to  England,  residing  in  Warwick  county, 


284 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


following  the  hounds,  and  maintaining  by 
his  generous  hospitality  the  credit  of  his 
native  land  and  a  true  American  gentle- 
man. On  his  return  he  purchased  "The 
Rocks,"  which  he  made  his  residence,  and 
during  the  summer  season  he  entertained 
in  a  liberal  manner.  He  spent  his  winters 
in  Washington,  making  common  house- 
hold with  his  brother,  Congressman  Pot- 
ter. General  Potter  had  a  good  deal  to 
bear  in  his  latter  days  in  the  way  of 
bodily  pain,  and  not  a  little  of  it  may  have 
been  occasioned,  it  may  be  presumed,  by 
the  rigors  of  the  Civil  War,  endured  by 
him  with  immense  patience  and  courage. 
A  memorial  was  erected  to  his  memory 
at  the  place  of  his  burial,  referring  to  his 
services  to  his  country,  and  testifying  to 
the  sincere  admiration  in  which  he  was 
held  by  his  country  men. 

He  married  (first)  April  14,  1857, 
Frances  Tileston  ;  (second)  Abby  Austin 
Stevens,  daughter  of  John  A.  Stevens,  a 
distinguished  financier,  and  president  of 
the  Bank  of  Commerce.  Children  :  Robert 
Burnside,  born  January  29,  1869,  archi- 
tect, New  York  City;  Warwick,  born 
October  31,  1871,  died  October  11,  1893; 
Austin,  born  in  New  York,  January  16, 
1873  ;  Frances  Tileston,  married  James  L. 
Breese. 


CRONK,  Hiram, 

I-ast   Survivor  of  War  of   1812. 

The  last  survivor  of  the  war  with  Great 
Britain  (1812-14)  was  Hiram  Cronk,  a 
resident  of  Oneida  county.  He  was  born 
at  Frankfort,  Herkimer  county,  New 
York,  April  19,  1800. 

He  enlisted  at  North  Western,  Oneida 
county,  August  2,  1814,  in  the  company 
commanded  by  Captain  Edmund  Fuller, 
and  served  until  the  close  of  the  war, 
when  he  received  his  honorable  discharge. 
He  then  returned  to  his  father's  home  in 
North  Western,  and  remained  with  him 


until  he  was  married,  which  occurred 
when  he  was  twenty-five  years  of  age. 
His  wife's  name  was  Mary  Thornton,  a 
resident  of  North  Western.  He  had  six 
children  who  lived  to  mature  age,  and 
four  of  whom  survived  him,  as  follows: 
The  eldest,  Philander,  who  was  still  liv- 
ing in  1912,  at  Ava  at  the  time,  and  in 
his  ninety-second  year;  Hiram,  who  died 
at  the  age  of  twenty-one ;  Van  Rensselaer, 
who  was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Pitts- 
burgh Landing  (Shiloh),  Tennessee; 
Sarah,  widow  of  Jeremiah  Rowley,  who 
in  1912  was  still  living  in  Rome  at  the 
age  of  eight-three,  and  the  person  from 
whom  the  writer  obtained  the  informa- 
tion in  regard  to  Mr.  Cronk;  William, 
who  in  1912  was  living  at  Rome,  aged 
eighty-one  years;  John,  who  died  April 
6,  191 1,  at  Rome,  at  the  age  of  seventy; 
Wayne,  who  died  at  Lee,  aged  thirty- 
four  years  ;  and  George,  in  19 12  was  resid- 
ing in  Oklahoma,  sixty-four  years  of  age. 
Mr.  Cronk  was  a  farmer,  and  lived  on 
his  farm  in  the  town  of  Ava  from  the 
time  of  his  marriage  until  his  death. 
Much  attention  was  paid  to  him  in  his 
later  years,  after  it  became  well  establised 
that  he  was  the  last  survivor  of  the  War 
of  1812.  He  died  at  Dunbrook,  Oneida 
county,  May  13,  1905,  at  the  remarkable 
age  of  one  hundred  and  five  years.  Funer- 
al services  at  his  home  were  largely  at- 
tended. The  remains  were  taken  to 
Brooklyn,  New  York,  for  interment  in 
the  soldiers'  and  sailors'  plot  at  Cypress 
Hill  Cemetery,  and  the  final  obsequies 
were  conducted  with  much  military  pomp. 
Under  the  direction  of  the  authorities  of 
New  York  City,  the  body  lay  in  state  in 
the  City  Hall  for  twenty-four  hours,  and 
the  military  procession  comprised  large 
detachments  of  United  States  soldiers  and 
New  York  National  Guard  troops.  U.  S. 
Grant  Post  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Re- 
public, of  Brooklyn,  was  in  immediate 
charge,  acting  as  a  guard  of  honor. 


285 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


SHERWOOD,  Lyman  Hinsdale, 

Talented   Musician. 

Of  ancient  and  honorable  English  an- 
cestry, Lyman  Hinsdale  Sherwood,  de- 
ceased, a  talented  musician  and  teacher; 
his  father,  Lyman  Sherwood,  deceased, 
an  eminent  lawyer,  judge ;  and  his  son, 
William  Hall  Sherwood,  have  made  the 
name  an  honored  one  in  Wayne  county, 
and  in  the  artistic  world  of  two  conti- 
nents. 

Judge  Lyman  Sherwood,  who  died  in 
Lyons,  September  2,  1865,  at  the  age  of 
sixty-three,  was  a  prominent  member  of 
the  bar  and  judiciary  of  Wayne  county. 
For  many  years  he  was  head  of  the  law 
firm  of  Sherwood  &  Smith,  a  firm  occupy- 
ing a  place  in  the  front  rank  in  Western 
New  York.  Originally  a  Democrat,  he 
went  over  to  the  Republican  party  and 
ever  remained  true  to  that  party.  In  1833 
he  was  elected  surrogate,  and  in  1842  he 
was  appointed  State  Senator  to  fill  the 
vacancy  caused  by  the  resignation  of  Sen- 
ator Mark  H.  Sibley.  He  was  elected 
county  judge  in  1859,  serving  until  1863. 
Judge  Sherwood  is  remembered  as  a  law- 
yer of  fine  ability,  extremely  conscien- 
tious in  the  discharge  of  every  public  or 
private  duty,  and  was  highly  esteemed, 
not  only  in  his  profession  but  by  the  pub- 
lic at  large. 

Lyman  Hinsdale  Sherwood,  son  of 
Judge  Lyman  and  Rhoda  (Hinsdale) 
Sherwood,  was  born  at  Hoosick,  New 
York,  March  28,  1828,  died  in  Lyons,  New 
York,  April  25,  1901.  He  was  a  born  stu- 
dent, and,  although  educated  at  Hobart 
College,  his  home  study  was  very  exten- 
sive, and  his  fluent  knowledge  of  French, 
Latin,  Greek  and  Spanish  was  almost 
wholly  acquired  through  home  study.  He 
was  ambitious  to  obtain  holy  orders,  and 
was  ordained  a  deacon  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  church,  and  performed  a  great 


deal  of  ministerial  and  missionary  work 
without  other  compensation  than  the  sat- 
isfaction which  doing  good  gives.  His 
great  talent  was  music,  and  again, 
through  self-teaching,  he  became  a  fine 
musician  and  musical  instructor.  He 
founded  Lyons  Musical  Academy  in  1854, 
and  through  self-developed  systems  of 
teaching  gave  it  more  than  a  State-wide 
reputation.  His  was  the  second  musical 
academy  in  the  country,  and  drew  its  stu- 
dents from  every  section  of  the  country 
and  from  Canada.  He  taught  his  pupils 
to  analyze  the  written  score,  and  ground- 
ed them  in  the  fundamental  principles  of 
harmony  and  rhythm,  and  the  essentials 
of  his  teaching  of  elementary  theory  have 
not  been  greatly  improved  upon ;  stu- 
dents who  were  instructed  by  him  have, 
in  many  instances,  gone  out  to  win  fame 
for  themselves  as  artists  and  teachers, 
and  never  have  failed  to  ascribe  their  suc- 
cess to  the  teaching  of  Mr.  Sherwood. 
Music  was  the  great  joy  of  his  life,  and 
the  success  of  his  pupils,  particularly  of 
his  children,  was  most  pleasing  and  grati- 
fying, and  no  greater  reward  could  be 
conferred.  He  was,  as  stated,  an  ordained 
deacon  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
church,  and  affiliated  with  the  Republican 
party,  but  nothing  lay  so  near  his  heart 
as  the  institution  he  founded  and  long 
conducted,  the  Lyons  Musical  Academy. 
Mr.  Sherwood  married,  December  21, 
1852,  Mary,  daughter  of  Edmund  and 
Harriet  Balis.  They  were  the  parents  of 
five  children:  1.  William  Hall,  of  whom 
further.  2.  Grace,  born  in  1859;  became 
the  wife  of  Dr.  G.  H.  Watson,  of  Berlin, 
Germany.  3.  Eleanor  P.,  born  in  i860; 
directly  associated  with  her  brother,  Wil- 
liam H.,  for  many  years  in  teaching  in 
the  Sherwood  Music  School,  Chicago.  4. 
Clement  R.,  born  in  1867 ;  first  associated 
with  William  T.  Tinsley  in  the  publishing 
of  the  "Lyons  Republican,"  the  partner- 
ed 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


ship  formed  January  i,  1891,  continuing 
until  Mr.  Tinsley's  death,  April  28,  1893, 
when  Mr.  Sherwood  became  sole  owner 
of  the  paper;  he  died  in  Rockland,  Maine. 
5.  Mary  Clare,  born  in  1868;  her  artistic 
taste  led  her  to  the  study  of  art,  and  pic- 
tures from  her  brush  have  been  exhibited 
in  the  Paris  Salon  and  in  many  of  the 
large  cities  of  the  United  States  and 
Europe,  winning  favorable  mention. 

William  Hall  Sherwood  was  born  in 
Lyons,  New  York,  January  31,  1854.  His 
first  musical  lessons  were  received  from 
his  father,  and  later  he  studied  in  this 
country  with  the  late  William  Mason  and 
other  teachers.  Thoroughly  grounded  in 
the  principles  of  a  sound  musical  educa- 
tion, he  went  to  Europe,  where  he  studied 
for  a  term  of  years  with  masters  of  inter- 
national renown.  In  Berlin  his  profes- 
sors were  Theodore  Kullak,  Weitzmann, 
Wuerst  and  Deppe.  In  Leipsic  he  studied 
with  Richter  and  Karl  Doppler ;  in  Stutt- 
gart with  Scotson  Clark;  and  lastly  in 
Weimar  with  Franz  Liszt.  These  mas- 
ters were  all  impressed  by  the  extra- 
ordinary talents  of  Mr.  Sherwood,  whose 
gifts  as  a  pianist  were  very  marked,  and 
who  won  the  highest  approval  of  the 
critical  fraternity  after  his  first  appear- 
ances as  a  concert  artist.  As  a  student  he 
went  far  beneath  the  surface  in  the  study 
of  musical  literature ;  his  mind  was  ana- 
lytical, and  he  could  give  a  reason  for 
everythere  he  did,  whether  from  a  tech- 
nical or  interpretative  standpoint.  Al- 
though he  was  a  great  classical  player,  he 
was  also  acknowledged  as  one  of  the 
greatest  interpreters  of  Schumann  and 
Liszt.  But  he  did  not  stop  here,  for  he 
kept  abreast  of  the  times  and  played  from 
memory  a  large  part  of  the  important 
publications  of  the  present-day  writers. 
He  championed  the  cause  of  the  American 
composer,  and  had  more  compositions 
dedicated  to  him  than  any  other  musician. 


Mr.  Sherwood  returned  to  the  United 
States  in  1876.  Playing  at  the  Centennial 
in  Philadelphia  with  the  Thomas  Orches- 
tra, he  was  hailed  as  a  player  of  the  first 
rank.  He  began  a  tour  of  concerts  in  the 
principal  cities,  which  were  events  in 
those  days,  and  meant  much  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  music  in  this  country.  His 
programs  were  tremendous,  including  the 
best  known  literature,  and  were  regarded 
as  models  by  pianists  all  over  the  coun- 
try. His  knowledge  of  chamber  music 
was  no  less  remarkable.  He  delved  into 
works  of  technical  and  pedagogic  inter- 
est, using  the  most  recent  and  valuable 
contributions  for  his  own  teaching;  and, 
for  this  reason,  he  was  enabled  to  build 
up  and  systematize  a  method  of  his  own 
which  was  concrete  in  form  and  which 
brought  forth  enthusiastic  praise  from 
Paderewski  and  many  other  eminent 
pianists. 

After  this  tour  of  concerts,  Mr.  Sher- 
wood accepted  a  position  as  teacher  in  the 
New  England  Conservatory  of  Music  in 
Boston.  Later  he  came  to  New  York, 
and  finally  went  to  Chicago.  In  addition 
to  teaching  many  advanced  students,  he 
made  yearly  tours  in  the  south  and  west, 
and  thus  was  heard  in  all  parts  of  his  own 
country,  and  his  art,  always  animated  by 
the  highest  and  severest  ideals,  became 
the  inspiration  for  thousands  of  ambitious 
young  students.  It  is  safe  to  say  that,  of 
the  young  native  pianists  now  rising  to 
prominence  in  Chicago  and  other  Amer- 
ican centers,  two  out  of  three  owe  the 
kindling  of  their  ambition  to  his  playing. 
He  appeared  as  soloist  with  the  Thomas 
Orchestra  in  the  second  season,  1892-93, 
and  again  in  the  eighth  season,  1898-99. 

Other  honors  came  to  Mr.  Sherwood 
early.  His  European  career  was  brilliant. 
Invitations  to  play  with  the  leading  sym- 
phony orchestras  of  Germany  were  ex- 
tended   to    him    before    he    attained    his 


287 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


twenty-fifth  year,  for  as  a  pupil  of  Deppe 
and  Liszt  he  made  a  sensation  in  the  Ger- 
man musical  world.  The  indifference 
with  which  he  regarded  the  verdict  of 
Europe  as  compared  with  the  approval  of 
his  countrymen  is  indicated  by  the  fol- 
lowing incident :  As  he  was  preparing  to 
return  to  America,  after  his  five  years' 
course  of  European  training,  he  received 
from  Dr.  Carl  Reinecke,  then  conductor 
of  the  Leipsic  Gewandhaus  Orchestra,  an 
invitation  to  appear  as  soloist  with  that 
great  organization.  The  Gewandhaus 
Orchestra  was  then  the  most  prominent 
in  Germany,  and  Leipsic  the  center  of  the 
musical  life  of  the  country.  But  Mr. 
Sherwood  had  made  his  plans  for  an 
American  tour,  and  was  looking  forward 
eagerly  to  the  continuance  of  the  work  to 
which  he  had  even  then  dedicated  his  life, 
the  development  of  the  art  in  America  by 
native  musicians.  So  he  turned  his  back 
upon  the  fame  that  lay  within  his  grasp 
and  came  back  to  his  own  people.  Mr. 
Sherwood  began  an  energetic  campaign 
for  himself  and  for  native  art,  and  such 
was  the  force  of  his  personality  that  he 
was  able  to  overcome  the  handicap  im- 
posed by  his  nationality  to  an  extent  that 
has  been  equaled  by  no  other  native  pian- 
ist. 

The  untimely  death  of  Mr.  Sherwood, 
which  occurred  at  his  home  in  Chicago, 
Illinois,  January  7,  191 1,  in  his  fifty-sev- 
enth year,  removed  from,  the  world  of 
music  the  figure  that  most  completely  and 
convincingly  represented  America's  strug- 
gle for  place  and  recognition  among  musi- 
cal nations.  His  name  was  a  household 
word  all  over  the  country. 


HARRIS,  Richard  Baxter, 

Business  Man. 

A  young  man  of  fine  business  ability, 
Mr.  Harris  had  not  the  physical  strength 
to  meet  the  constant  demands  his  energy 


imposed  and  he  was  obliged  to  retire  from 
active  business  for  a  time  to  recuperate. 
He  elected  a  trip  around  the  world  as  the 
best  medium  to  recover  strength  and 
starting  from  Kansas  City,  Missouri, 
where  he  was  then  in  business,  he  started 
via  New  York.  He  had  accomplished  the 
trip  with  a  great  deal  of  satisfaction  until 
his  arrival  at  Liverpool,  England,  home- 
ward bound,  when  he  was  stricken  with 
a  fatal  illness  and  there  died.  He  was  a 
native  son  of  New  York,  and  from  his 
sixteenth  year  until  removal  to  Kansas 
City  in  1889  had  been  engaged  in  the  dry 
goods  business  in  the  city  of  Rochester. 
He  was  a  son  of  Edward  and  Emma 
(Hall)  Harris,  his  father  a  prominent 
attorney  and  business  man  of  Rochester. 
Richard  Baxter  Harris  was  born  in 
Rochester,  New  York,  December  25,  1866, 
died  in  Liverpool,  England,  December  28, 
1901,  aged  thirty-five  years.  He  was  edu- 
cated in  private  schools,  but  having  a 
strong  desire  to  enter  business,  he  left 
school  at  the  age  of  sixteen  to  become  a 
clerk  in  the  employ  of  the  Sibley  Dry 
Goods  Company.  He  developed  unusual 
business  quality  and  became  a  trusted 
and  confidential  employe,  remaining  with 
the  same  house  seven  years.  In  1889  he 
went  west,  locating  in  Kansas  City,  Mis- 
souri, where  he  organized  and  was  a  part- 
ner in  the  Doggett  Dry  Goods  Company. 
He  remained  in  Kansas  City  in  success- 
ful business  until  the  failure  of  his  health 
obliged  him  to  retire.  He  had  nearly  com- 
pleted a  tour  of  the  world  when  the  end 
came  in  Liverpool,  England,  and  a  life  of 
brilliant  promise  ended.  He  was  a  Re- 
publican in  politics,  but  took  no  active 
part  in  public  affairs,  although  a  broad- 
minded  man,  deeply  interested  in  all  that 
pertained  to  good  citizenship.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  Third  Presbyterian  Church 
in  Rochester. 

Mr.  Harris  married,  October  23,  1889, 


288 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Cornelia,  daughter  of  Sylvanus  J.  and 
Caroline  (Ridgway)  Macy,  of  New  York 
City.  Mrs.  Harris  is  a  resident  of  Roches- 
ter, her  home  No.  1127  East  avenue.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Harris  were  the  parents  of  three 
children,  all  of  whom  are  at  the  Roches- 
ter home  with  their  mother:  Mary  K., 
married  George  H.  Hawks,  and  has  two 
sons,  George  H.,  Jr.,  and  Thomas  H. ; 
Richard  Macy,  and  Edward  Harris. 


OTIS,  General  Elwell  Stephen, 

Distinguished  Army  Officer. 

With  the  death  of  General  Otis  there 
passed  from  human  view  a  most  striking 
character  and  one  of  the  heroes  developed 
during  that  four  years  of  internal  strife 
that  plunged  the  Nation  in  woe.  He  was 
twenty-four  years  of  age  when  in  1862  he 
went  to  the  front  with  the  rank  of  captain 
and  when  he  was  retired  with  the  rank 
of  major-general  of  the  United  States 
army,  forty  years  of  military  service  had 
been  placed  to  his  credit  in  the  records  of 
the  war  department. 

Few  men  of  his  period  crowded  into  a 
life  of  seventy-one  years  so  varied  an 
experience  in  different  professions,  in  as 
many  climes  as  he.  Educated  for  the 
law  and  admitted  to  the  bar,  he  gave  up 
his  profession  at  his  country's  call  and 
the  sword  he  then  took  up  as  the  emblem 
of  a  new  profession,  was  gallantly  wielded 
for  forty  years  against  his  country's  ene- 
mies in  rebellion  in  the  South,  against 
the  wild  red  warriors  of  the  west  and 
against  the  brown  men  of  the  Philippines. 
Service  in  the  field  was  varied  by  many 
peaceful  honors  peculiar  to  the  soldier's 
profession,  service  that  was  performed  as 
ably  and  faithfully  as  that  in  the  field.  As 
commander  of  the  army  forces  at  Manila 
he  had  a  most  difficult  problem  to  solve, 
but  with  wisdom  he  pursued  an  aggres- 
sive policy  toward  the  foes  of  the  United 


States,  winning  the  warm  commendation 
of  President  McKinley.  The  following 
"soldier's  tribute  to  a  soldier"  is  from  the 
address  delivered  at  his  funeral  held  in 
the  Brick  Presbyterian  Church  in  Roch- 
ester by  Rev.  Rob  Roy  Converse,  D.  D., 
a  clergyman  who  of  all  others  was  best 
fitted  to  deliver  the  eulogy : 

One  of  our  great  men  has  fallen.  We  have 
met  to-day  to  lay  our  poor  tribute  on  the  bier 
of  one  who  fought  forty  years  for  what  he  knew 
to  be  right.  He  never  faltered  in  his  efforts  to 
bring  about  right  solutions  of  problems  that 
came  within  his  province  and  from  his  career  we 
may  draw  a  valuable  lesson.  Napoleon  was  a 
warrior  of  the  first  rank,  Richelieu  was  a  most 
profound  diplomat  and  Seneca  was  an  accom- 
plished student  of  mankind  and  its  foibles.  All 
the  best  characteristics  of  these  three  are  min- 
gled in  the  personality  of  our  dead  friend.  Few 
persons  in  military  or  civil  life  have  undergone 
such  vicissitudes  as  those  which  came  to  General 
Otis  and  none  have  met  those  trials  with  the 
indomitable  serenity  and  pertinacity  which  make 
remarkable  the  character  of  the  man  we  are 
honoring  to-day. 

Elwell  Stephen  Otis  was  born  near 
Frederick  City,  Maryland,  March  25, 
1838,  and  died  at  his  home  in  Gates,  two 
miles  west  of  Rochester,  October  21, 1909, 
son  of  William  and  Mary  A.  C.  (Late) 
Otis.  Early  in  life  he  came  to  Rochester, 
and  ever  regarded  that  city  as  his  home, 
although  so  much  of  his  life  was  spent  far 
from  the  home  of  his  youth.  After  gradu- 
ation from  the  public  schools  he  entered 
the  University  of  Rochester,  whence  he 
was  graduated  Bachelor  of  Arts,  also 
being  awarded  the  key  of  the  Delta  Psi 
fraternity  that  proclaims  excellence  in 
scholarship.  After  his  graduation  from 
the  University  in  1858.  deciding  upon 
the  legal  profession  as  the  field  of  activity 
best  suited  to  his  talents,  he  entered  Har- 
vard Law  School,  whence  he  was  grad- 
uated LL.  B.,  class  of  i860.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  Monroe  county  bar  the 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


same  year,  and  until  September,  1862, 
practiced  his  profession  in  Rochester,  also 
serving  as  clerk  to  the  Board  of  Super- 
visors. When  he  became  convinced  that 
the  struggle  between  the  North  and  the 
South  was  to  be  a  long  and  bitterly  fought 
contest,  he  abandoned  all  thought  of  a 
legal  career,  recruited  a  company,  and  on 
September  13,  1862,  went  to  the  front  as 
captain  of  Company  B,  One  Hundred  and 
Fortieth  Regiment,  New  York  Volunteer 
Infantry,  under  the  command  of  Colonel 
Ryan.  He  saw  hard  service  with  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  under  its  different 
commanders,  and  at  the  battle  of  the  Wil- 
derness, where  the  One  Hundred  and 
Fortieth  lost  Colonel  Ryan  and  three 
hundred  and  fifty-five  enlisted  men  and 
officers,  was  given  command  of  the  sorely 
stricken  regiment.  He  had  previously 
won  promotion  to  the  rank  of  lieutenant- 
colonel,  "for  gallant  and  meritorious  con- 
duct on  the  field  of  battle,"  his  commis- 
sion dating  December  23,  1863,  but  al- 
though promoted  colonel,  he  was  never 
mustered  into  the  United  States  service 
as  such,  as  his  regiment  under  the  then 
existing  orders  lacked  sufficient  numeri- 
cal strength. 

At  the  battle  of  Chapel  House,  fought 
October  1,  1864,  near  Petersburg,  Colonel 
Otis  received  what  was  thought  a  neces- 
sarily fatal  wound,  but  his  naturally  strong 
constitution  responded  to  the  skillful 
treatment  of  his  doctors  and  the  constant 
care  of  capable  nurses,  and  in  due  course 
of  time  he  was  again  in  the  field.  For 
gallantry  during  the  Spottsylvania  cam- 
paign he  was  brevetted  colonel  and  briga- 
dier-general of  volunteers,  and  prior  to 
receiving  his  wound  had  commanded  a 
brigade  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 

On  January  24,  1865,  he  was  mustered 
out  of  the  service  and  returned  to  his 
father's  home  in  Gates.  He  resumed  the 
practice  of  law   in  Rochester.     But    his 


military  experiences  had  imbued  him 
with  a  strong  desire  to  become  a  part  of 
the  regular  United  States  army,  and  upon 
applying  for  a  commission  in  keeping 
with  his  rank  in  the  volunteer  service, 
was  successful.  On  July  28,  1866,  he 
was  commissioned  lieutenant-colonel  of 
the  Twenty-second  Infantry  Regiment, 
United  States  Army,  and  on  March  2, 
1867,  was  brevetted  colonel.  On  Febru- 
ary 8,  1880,  he  was  commissioned  colonel 
of  the  Twentieth  Regiment  of  Infantry, 
and  for  several  years  was  engaged  in 
active  service  in  the  West.  He  com- 
manded in  several  campaigns  against  the 
Indians  in  the  Northwest,  and  in  one  en- 
gagement on  the  banks  of  the  Powder 
river  in  Montana,  with  but  a  handful  of 
men,  put  a  large  force  of  the  hostiles  to 
full  flight,  and  in  a  long  pursuit  about 
exterminated  the  band.  He  organized 
the  School  of  Infantry  and  Cavalry  at 
I'ort  Leavenworth,  Kansas,  and  con- 
ducted it  from  1S81  to  1885.  Later  he 
was  given  charge  of  the  important  work 
of  abridging  and  improving  the  code  of 
army  regulations.  This  work  was  varied 
with  court-martial  assignments,  one  of 
which  was  to  serve  as  judge-advocate  of 
the  court  which  condemned  Captain 
Oberlin  M.  Carter  to  a  term  of  imprison- 
ment for  the  embezzlement  of  moneys  in 
connection  with  harbor  work  at  Savan- 
nah. On  November  28,  1893,  he  was  com- 
missioned brigadier-general  of  the  regu- 
lar army. 

When  in  April,  1898,  war  was  declared 
against  Spain,  a  commingling  of  regulars 
and  volunteer  forces  brought  about  a  re- 
arrangement of  army  positions.  Briga- 
dier-General Otis  of  the  regular  army 
also  became  by  appointment,  major-gen- 
eral of  volunteers,  May  4,  1898,  and  on 
May  19,  1898,  was  assigned  to  duty  in 
San  Francisco,  in  charge  of  the  mobiliz- 
ing and  shipment  of  troops  to  the  Philip- 


290 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


pines.  On  July  15  of  the  same  year  he 
sailed  for  the  Philippines,  and  on  August 
29  succeeded  Major-General  Merritt  as 
commander  of  the  United  States  forces 
and  as  governor  of  the  Islands.  He  had 
a  most  difficult  duty  to  perform,  subduing 
the  natives  and  bringing  peace  to  the 
islands  being  but  a  small  portion  of  the 
burden  he  carried.  But  he  ruled  wisely 
and  well,  and  when  on  May  5,  1900,  he 
was  relieved  at  his  own  request  on  ac- 
count of  illness,  it  was  his  satisfaction  to 
realize  that  the  course  he  had  pursued 
had  resulted  in  an  almost  complete  pacifi- 
cation of  the  important  islands,  and  had 
received  the  warm  approval  of  the  Presi- 
dent, publicly  and  officially  expressed. 
He  was  brevetted  major-general  in  1899 
for  "military  skill  and  most  distinguished 
services  in  the  Philippines,"  and  on  June 
16,  1900,  was  commissioned  major-gen- 
eral of  the  United  States  army.  After  his 
return  to  the  United  States,  General  Otis 
was  placed  in  command  of  the  Military 
Department  of  the  Lakes,  with  headquar- 
ters at  Chicago,  assuming  that  duty  Octo- 
ber 29,  1900,  and  relinquishing  it  March 
28,  1902,  having  arrived  at  the  age  of 
sixty-four  years,  the  age  of  retirement 
from  active  military  service. 

On  June  12,  1900,  while  General  Otis 
was  spending  a  few  days  in  Rochester  be- 
fore going  to  his  command  in  Chicago,  the 
friends  of  his  boyhood  and  his  riper  years 
accorded  him  a  notable  ovation.  After 
his  retirement,  when  he  returned  to  his 
boyhood  home  in  Gates,  they  again  ac- 
corded him  generous  reception,  ovation 
and  congratulation,  at  the  close  of  a  long 
and  most  honorable  military  career.  Gen- 
eral Otis  was  tried  by  every  test  that  can 
be  applied  to  a  soldier,  and  most  nobly 
withstood  them  all.  The  battlefield  but 
proved  his  bravery  and  thorough  familiar- 
ity with  the  art  and  science  of  war, 
whether     conducted     against     organized 


forces  skillfully  commanded,  against  the 
red  men  of  the  frontier,  whose  cunning 
supplied  the  lack  of  organization,  or 
against  the  brown  men  of  the  Philippines, 
whose  methods  were  at  variance  with  all 
recognized  practices  of  warfare.  As  mili- 
tary governor,  loyalty  and  faithful  per- 
formance of  difficult  duty  went  hand  in 
hand  with  a  wisdom  and  executive  ability 
that  would  have  brought  credit  to  the 
trained  statesman.  And  so  in  every  sta- 
tion he  was  called  to  fill  during  his  forty 
years'  service  as  a  soldier. 

During  the  seven  years  of  life  spent  at 
his  attractive  home  near  Rochester,  be- 
tween his  retirement  and  his  death,  he 
took  an  active  interest  in  political  affairs, 
often  serving  as  a  delegate  to  Republican 
State  conventions  and  sitting  in  party 
councils,  his  opinions  and  his  advice 
carrying  weight.  He  observed  all  the 
social  amenities  of  life  and  fraternized 
with  his  friends  through  membership 
in  the  Genesee  Valley  and  the  Rochester 
Country  clubs.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Brick  Presbyterian  Church,  and  from  its 
portals  was  borne  to  his  last  resting  place 
in  beautiful  Mt.  Hope,  on  the  shoulders 
of  soldiers  of  the  regular  army,  march- 
ing to  the  strains  of  appropriate  music 
furnished  by  the  band  of  the  Twenty- 
fourth  Regiment  of  Infantry,  from  the 
military  post  at  Sacketts  Harbor.  Bat- 
talions of  regular  troops  from  Western 
New  York  frontier  forts  and  companies 
of  National  Guardsmen  from  Rochester, 
with  officers  of  the  regular  army  repre- 
senting the  War  Department  of  the  gov- 
ernment, were  the  military  features  of  the 
funeral  of  Rochester's  greatest  soldier, 
while  the  citizen  honorary  pallbearers 
and  the  many  civilians  who  thronged  the 
church  and  vicinity  proved  how  close  the 
dead  hero  was  to  his  fellow  citizens. 

General  Otis  married  (first)  Louise 
Selden,  of  Rochester,  who  bore  him  two 


291 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


daughters :  Laura  Lee,  now  Mrs.  Harry 
K.  Elston,  of  Santa  Barbara,  California, 
and  Mary  Louise,  now  wife  of  Ralph 
Isham,  of  Chicago.  He  married  (second) 
Mrs.  Louise  Bowman  McAllister,  of 
Wilkes-Barre,  Pennsylvania,  their  only 
child  a  daughter,  Louise  B.,  now  Mrs. 
George  O.  Wagner,  of  New  York  City. 


VICK,  James, 

Seedsman,  Florist,  Philanthropist. 

Wherever  flowers  bloom  and  grasses 
grow  throughout  America  the  name  of 
this  eminent  florist  is  known,  loved  and 
honored.  To  him,  more  than  any  other, 
are  the  people  indebted  during  the  last 
thirty  years  for  judicious  training  and 
stimulating  encouragement  in  the  ex- 
quisite art  of  floriculture.  When  extra- 
ordinary success  in  life  is  achieved  from 
the  smallest  beginnings,  and  a  man  dies 
honored,  beloved  and  beneficent  in  good 
deeds,  it  is  natural  to  ask:  "How  did  he 
accomplish  these  results?  What  princi- 
ples actuated  him?  What  has  made  him 
great?"  Let  us  look  at  the  elements  of 
this  man's  life,  so  loved  and  useful,  and 
take  inspiration  from  the  footprints  he 
has  left — 

Footprints,  that  perhaps  another — 
Sailing  o'er  Life's  solemn  main, 

A  forlorn  and  shipwrecked  brother — 
Seeing,  shall  take  heart  again. 

James  Vick  was  born  in  Portsmouth, 
England,  but  came  to  New  York  City 
with  his  parents  when  fifteen  years  old, 
and  was  immediately  placed  by  them  to 
learn  the  printer's  trade.  After  becoming 
a  practical  printer,  he  set  type  in  the  com- 
posing room  of  the  "Knickerbocker  Mag- 
azine" with  Horace  Greeley,  and  the 
friendship  begun  then  continued  un- 
abated through  that  eminent  journalist's 
life.  His  youth  was  singularly  pure  and 
free   from  vice  and  marked  by   disinter- 


ested kindness  to  others,  respect  to  his 
superiors,  faithfulness  to  his  parents  and 
daily  duties,  and  reverence  for  all  good 
things.  These  years  and  those  to  follow 
were  also  characterized  by  a  student's 
love  of  books  and  an  intense  love  of 
nature.  His  fondness  for  trees,  plants 
and  flowers  became  a  passion.  Every 
spare  hour  was  spent  in  the  study  of  their 
nature,  habits  and  beauties,  until  his 
knowledge  in  this  line  became  extensive 
enough  to  have  compiled  a  botany,  and 
his  later  career  forcibly  justifies  the  wis- 
dom of  following  the  bent  of  one's  native 
taste  or  talent  in  study. 

After  a  term  of  years,  Mr.  Vick  re- 
moved to  Rochester,  New  York,  still  pur- 
suing his  trade  as  compositor  in  different 
newspaper  offices,  and  finally  buying  an 
interest  in  the  Rochester  "Democrat," 
which  after  a  few  months  was  sold  that 
fie  might  publish  a  paper  called  the 
"North  Star,"  an  anti-slavery  organ. 
During  this  time  he  contributed  frequent 
racy  articles  to  the  "Genesee  Farmer," 
published  by  the  much-lamented  Luther 
Tucker,  and  not  long  after  became  its  edi- 
tor, in  1850  assuming  its  publication  and 
running  its  circulation  up  to  fifty  thou- 
sand. Three  years  later  he  purchased  the 
"Horticulturist"  at  Albany,  removing  it 
to  Rochester.  A  youth  of  rectitude,  econ- 
omy, diligence  and  energy  was  beginning 
already  to  reap  success. 

In  1857  he  became  the  horticultural  edi- 
tor of  the  "Rural  New  Yorker,"  and  then 
began  the  seed  enterprise  which  ulti- 
mately gave  him  a  world-wide  reputation. 
He  imported  seeds  from  England  and 
bulbs  from  Holland,  testing  them  in  his 
own  little  garden,  in  which  every  nook  of 
ground  was  made  available,  and  so  his 
stock  and  means  increased,  little  gardens 
sprung  to  life  on  Monroe  avenue,  Good- 
man and  Main  streets,  and  glowed  with 
beauty.    In  his  paper  he  described  flowers 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


and  plants,  illustrating  with  engravings —  three  thousand  letters !  All  these  changes 
thus  educating  the  popular  taste.  The 
crisp  raciness  of  his  style,  illuminated  by 
a  genial,  kindly  soul  and  devotion  to  its 
object,  rendered  everything  from  his  pen 
extremely  popular.  Meanwhile  his  traffic 
in  seeds  was  assuming  such  proportions 
that  from  i860  he  decided  to  give  up  the 
remainder  of  his  life  to  this  important 
business.  Gradually  he  set  up  his  seed 
and  bulb  warehouses  which  became  hives 
of  industry,  where  hundreds  of  skilled 
operatives  were  employed  in  preparing 
and  sending  abroad  the  products  of  his 
gardens,  issuing  his  catalogues  and 
charming  "Floral  Guide,"  monthly  maga- 
zine, and  other  periodicals.  Of  the 
"Floral  Guide"  alone,  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  have  been  mailed  yearly. 
It  was  a  common  occurrence  to  receive 
three  thousand  letters  of  orders  and  in- 
quiries per  day,  and  the  postage  of  this 
vast  establishment  often  amounted  to 
thirty  thousand  dollars  in  one  year.  Very 
touchingly  does  his  son  allude  to  the  days 
gone  by,  "when  father  brought  home  in 
his  pocket  the  entire  day's  mail,  and  when 
he  was  allowed  to  earn  his  first  spending 
money  making  little  seed-bags  by  the 
thousand.  After  supper,  father  would 
take  the  few  orders  received  during  the 
day  to  an  upper  room  in  the  house,  ar- 
ranged for  this  purpose,  and  there  call 
off  the  articles  named  in  the  order,  while 
his  youthful  assistant  would  run  around 
the  room,  gathering  from  the  boxes  the 
various  seeds  wanted.  The  next  morn- 
ing father  might  be  seen  carrying  a 
market  basket  neatly  covered  over  with 
paper  to  the  post  office.  This  was  the 
extent  of  our  mail  then.  What  a  contrast 
between  that  and  at  the  time  of  his  death, 
when,  instead  of  the  little  four-page  cata- 
logue of  early  date,  he  mailed  nearly  a 
quarter  of  a  million  copies  of  the  "Floral 
Guide,"    and    often    received    daily    over 


our  dear  father  lived  to  see,  and  yet  never 
was  too  busy  to  wear  a  cheerful  face  or 
say  a  kind  word." 

Busy  he  certainly  was,  and  driven  by 
the  variety  and  detail  of  his  business,  but 
not  too  hurried  to  keep  pure  and  clean 
the  fountain  within,  from  whence  spring 
all  kindly  virtues — all  noble  deeds ;  not 
too  busy  to  bend  his  ear  to  a  child  asking 
for  a  flower,  or  to  arrange  with  his  own 
hands  a  floral  offering  for  some  poor 
widow's  dead.  We  see  him  now  in  his 
beautiful  gardens  or  hothouses,  his  eyes 
beaming  with  pleasure  over  some  open- 
ing bud,  inhaling  the  delicious  fragrance 
with  ever-new  delight,  or,  with  animated 
face  discoursing  on  some  new,  rare  plant 
with  the  enthusiasm  of  an  artist.  Artist 
he  certainly  was.  Human  life  is  every- 
where made  up  of  illusions  and  hard  reali- 
ties. Of  these  illusions  many  are  an  eter- 
nal source  of  joy — such  as  the  images 
that  glow  under  the  poet's  wand  and  the 
harmonies  of  color  in  art  and  nature. 
These  waken  an  inner  music  in  the  soul 
and  exalt  its  nature  and  sympathies.  To 
a  very  striking  degree  was  this  true  of 
Mr.  Vick.  Hear  the  poetical  ring  in  his 
own  words: 

I  have  labored  to  teach  people  to  love  and  cul- 
tivate flowers,  for  it  is  one  of  the  few  pleasures 
that  improve  alike  the  mind  and  the  heart  and 
make  every  true  lover  of  these  beautiful  crea- 
tions of  Infinite  Love  wiser,  purer,  and  nobler. 
It  teaches  industry,  patience,  faith,  and  hope.  It 
is  a  pleasure  that  brings  no  pain — a  sweet  with- 
out a  snare.  We  gaze  upon  the  beautiful  plants 
and  brilliant  flowers  with  a  delicious  commin- 
gling of  admiration  and  love.  They  are  the  off- 
springs of  our  forethought,  taste,  and  care — a 
mysterious  and  glorious  creation.  They  grow, 
truly,  but  very  like  the  stars  and  the  rainbow. 

Mr.  Vick's  vast  correspondence  and  the 
publication  of  his  "Floral  Guide"  and  a 
magazine,  have  rapidly  diffused  a  taste 


293 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


for  floriculture  among  the  masses  hitherto 
unknown  in  America.  The  homes  of  the 
poor  in  the  dreariest  spots — those  of  the 
pioneer  in  far-off  Kansas,  Colorado,  Ne- 
braska and  Texas — became  spots  of 
beauty,  blooming  like  the  rose,  under  Mr. 
Vick's  encouragement  and  judicious 
teaching.  Many  a  woman's  heart,  aching 
under  its  limitations  and  burdens,  has 
found  cheer  and  inspiration  to  the  refine- 
ments and  beauties  of  existence  through 
his  influence.  Many  a  man  has  been 
stimulated  to  efforts  for  the  adornment 
of  his  ground  and  improvements  of  his 
home  by  the  charming  "Guide"  upon  his 
table,  who  would  otherwise  have  spent 
his  spare  moments  in  idleness  or  dissipa- 
tion. Hosts  of  children  have  caught  the 
spirit,  laying  by  their  hoarded  pennies 
for  seeds  and  plants,  and  laboring  with 
flushed  faces  and  joyous  hearts  to  "help 
papa"  in  the  garden,  or  in  their  own  pri- 
vate nooks  studying  the  mysteries  of  seed 
and  bulb. 

Far-reaching  as  the  limitless  prairies 
from  the  rugged  coast  of  Maine  has  been 
the  influence  of  this  noble  life — with  its 
sunny  heart  and  smile,  its  intense  love  of 
nature,  its  symmetry  and  order,  its  stanch 
integrity,  its  beneficence  and  love  for  hu- 
manity and  God.  Say  not  that  such  men 
die. 

Were  a  star  quenched  on  high, 

For  ages  would  its  light, 
Still  traveling  downward  from  the  sky, 

Shine  on  our  mortal  sight. 

So,  when  a  good  man  dies, 

For  years  beyond  our  ken 
The  light  he  leaves  behind  him  lies 

Upon  the  paths  of  men. 

Mr.  Vick  was  for  many  years  a  corre- 
sponding member  of  the  Royal  Horticul- 
tural Society  of  England,  and  secretary 
of  the  American  Pomological  Society. 
Frequent    communication    with     foreign 


lands  sharpened  his  intellectual  life  and 
deepened  his  already  passionate  love  of 
the  beautiful  in  nature.  Its  potent  results 
were  seen  in  the  beauty  of  the  parks  in 
his  own  and  other  cities  and  the  freedom 
which  he  extended  to  travelers  in  his  own 
gardens,  where  a  feast  of  beauty  was  per- 
petually spread  during  the  summer 
months  and  practical  lessons  exemplified. 

Mr.  Vick  was  superintendent  of  the 
Sunday  school  for  twenty-five  years  in 
the  church  where  his  genial  presence  so 
long  lent  both  practical  and  unconscious 
aid  to  the  pastor  and  people.  Perhaps 
nowhere  was  his  great  personal  mag- 
netism more  conspicuous  than  among  the 
children.  He  loved  them  with  all  his 
heart,  and  the  children  knew  it — as  what 
child  does  not  yield  to  the  potent  spell 
of  a  child-lover? 

Much  of  the  influence  he  exerted  and 
success  which  he  attained  is  due  to  this 
strong  personal  magnetism  which  he  was 
able  to  infuse  into  his  publications  and 
correspondence.  It  was  as  though  a 
friend  took  you  by  the  hand  and  sat  by 
your  fireside,  or  strolled  through  your 
gardenplot,  sympathizing  with  your  con^ 
dition  and  circumstances  and  thoroughly 
cognizant  of  your  need,  and  who  would 
in  nowise  advise  you  selfishly  or  un- 
wisely. Practicing  the  strictest  integrity 
with  both  employees  and  patrons,  dis- 
pensing noble  charities  and  kindness  in 
every  walk  of  life,  what  wonder  that  suc- 
cess crowned  the  years ! 

When  fatal  illness  came  upon  him,  Mr. 
Vick  was  still  planning  improvements  and 
and  enlargements — still  beautifying  the 
grounds  which  will  continue  to  be  a  joy 
to  the  beholder.    So 

Death  takes  us  by  surprise 
And  stays  our  hurrying  feet; 

The  great  design  unfinished  lies — 
Our  lives  are  incomplete. 


294 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


From  the  midst  of  the  flowers  he  loved 
— those  smiles  of  God — he  was  carried 
gently  to  the  gardens  of  the  Lord  and 
crowned  with  the  amaranths  of  Heaven. 
To  the  loving  ones  about  him,  when  sur- 
prised by  the  call  of  death,  he  said:  "Man 
may  make  blunders,  but  the  Lord  does 
all  things  well.  He  will  take  care  of  you. 
God  bless  you  all !" — and  died  as  peace- 
fully as  shuts  the  lily's  cup  or  the  roses 
that  he  loved  so  well. 

The  crowning  beauty  of  his  life  was 
seen  in  his  domestic  relations.  As  son, 
husband,  father,  his  was  a  life  without  a 
flaw.  We  dare  not  venture  to  touch  the 
loss  and  grief  of  those  who  "were  brought 
up  by  his  side  with  great  delight,"  but  as 
for  us,  who  miss  his  illuminating  pres- 
ence— 

Something  is  gone  from  Nature  since  he  died, 
And  summer  is  not  summer,  nor  can  be! 


LINDSLEY,  Smith  M., 

Lawyer,   Man  of  Affairs. 

There  was  that  quality  displayed  in  the 
life  of  Smith  M.  Lindsley  that  wherever 
found  makes  for  success  and  that  was  the 
old  time,  new  time,  all  the  time  virtue, 
industry.  He  was  a  man  of  brilliant 
mind  and  superior  equipment,  learned  in 
his  profession  but  that  would  have  all 
gone  for  naught  without  the  trait  upon 
which  was  founded  his  reputation  of  be- 
ing "an  almost  tireless  worker."  To  that 
he  added  its  twin  virtue  courage  and  he 
entered  every  legal  contest  with  fullest 
preparation  and  fearless  confidence,  no 
matter  who,  how  many,  or  how  eminent 
the  opposing  counsel  might  be.  Perhaps 
no  lawyer  was  ever  more  devoted  to  his 
profession,  for  to  him  the  law  was  a  "jeal- 
ous mistress"  and  no  alluring  offers  of 
political  preferment — and  they  were  many 
— ever  tempted  him  away  from  his  allegi- 


ance. He  was  of  rugged  Sullivan  county 
stock,  the  Lindsleys  in  many  branches 
having  figured  prominently  in  the  history 
of  that  county. 

Eliud  Lindsley  was  one  of  the  pioneers 
of  the  Monticello  section  of  Sullivan 
county, — a  man  of  upright  life  and  un- 
bending integrity  whose  strong  character 
left  its  impress  upon  the  life  of  his  com- 
•munity.  His  son,  Rufus  B.  Lindsley,  was 
a  substantial  farmer  and  stock  dealer, 
long  a  resident  of  Monticello.  He  in- 
herited the  sturdy  characteristics  of  his 
father  and  in  turn  transmitted  them  to  his 
son  in  whom  they  took  root  and  bore 
abundant  fruit.  He  married  a  daughter 
of  Smith  Weed,  also  a  Sullivan  county 
pioneer,  a  member  of  the  same  family 
which  produced  Smith  M.  Weed,  of  Clin- 
ton county,  New  York. 

Smith  M.  Lindsley,  son  of  Rufus  B. 
Lindsley,  was  born  in  Monticello,  New 
York,  in  1847,  and  died  at  his  home  in 
Utica,  New  York,  May  17,  1909.  He  was 
educated  at  the  then  famous  Monticello 
Academy  and  Wyoming  Seminary  and 
College,  near  Wilkes-Barre,  Pennsylva- 
nia, and  after  graduation  at  the  latter  in- 
stitution served  as  a  member  of  the 
faculty  for  one  year;  but  pedagogy  had 
no  part  in  his  plan  of  life,  his  ambition 
craving  a  legal  career.  After  teaching  for 
a  year,  he  began  the  study  of  law  in 
Wilkes-Barre  under  the  direction  of  a 
lawyer  of  that  city  until  1869,  then 
finished  under  the  preceptorship  of  Fran- 
cis Kernan,  the  eminent  lawyer  of  Utica. 
New  York.  In  1870  he  was  admitted  to 
the  Utica  county  bar,  and  immediately 
began  the  practice  of  law  in  Utica.  He 
so  quickly  gained  public  confidence,  and 
so  impressed  the  public  with  his  ability, 
that  in  1872  he  was  elected  city  attorney, 
although  every  other  Democrat  but  one 
was  defeated  at  the  city  election  that 
year.     He  served  with  such  acceptability 


295 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF   BIOGRAPHY 


that  he  was  reelected  by  an  increased  ma- 
jority and  a  third  term  was  insisted  on 
by  his  friends,  but  in  the  meantime  his 
private  practice  had  grown  to  such  pro- 
portions that  either  his  private  clients  or 
the  city's  legal  business  must  suffer.  He 
chose  the  latter  alternative  and  refused  a 
third  term. 

From  that  time  forward,  Mr.  Lindsley 
gave  his  full  time  and  energy  to  the  pri- 
vate practice  of  the  profession  to  which 
he  had  dedicated  his  life.  He  won  the 
confidence  of  the  business  interests  of 
his  city,  and  in  the  many  cases  he  tried  in 
the  State  and  Federal  courts  he  was  re- 
garded as  a  brilliant  pleader,  especially 
strong  in  the  preparation  of  his  cases  and 
in  their  forcible  presentation.  He  repre- 
sented important  interests  and  in  many  of 
them  fought  over  delicate  and  intricate 
points  of  law  winning  many  notable  vic- 
tories. One  of  his  most  celebrated  cases 
was  the  successful  defense  of  the  "Utica 
Observer"  in  the  Van  Auken  libel  suit  in 
1891,  his  victory  bringing  widely  spoken 
commendation  from  the  legal  profession 
and  the  press  from  all  over  the  State.  It 
was  as  a  trial  lawyer,  and  in  arguments 
of  appeals,  that  he  won  his  greatest 
prominence  and  he  was  continually  re- 
tained by  other  lawyers  as  advisory  coun- 
sel for  the  trial  of  cases  and  for  the  argu- 
ment of  appeals.  In  several  important 
trials  he  was  selected  by  the  attorney- 
general  of  the  State  to  act  for  the  State 
and  his  practice  as  a  consultant  was  very 
large.  Said  one  who  knew  him  well: 
"He  has  acquired  his  present  conspicuous 
position  at  the  bar  by  being  an  almost 
tireless  worker.  He  sharpened  his  natu- 
ral abilities  by  fearless  contests  with  the 
ablest  among  those  in  the  profession 
when  he  began.  When  he  enters  court 
with  a  case,  not  one  atom  or  item  of 
preparation  is  wanting.  Every  fact  is 
marshaled  and  weighed  and  in  his  mind 


is  placed  where  it  belongs  and  where  it 
will  be  most  effective." 

Pie  was  standing  counsel  and  attorney 
for  several  insurance  companies,  and  had 
unusual  success  in  their  service.  That 
he  possessed  business  ability  of  a  high 
order  was  recognized  by  the  directors  of 
the  First  National  Bank  of  Chittenango, 
who  in  1885  elected  him  president  of  that 
institution,  an  office  he  ably  filled  until 
his  death.  In  1887-88-89,  he  was  supreme 
regent  of  the  great  fraternal  insurance 
order,  the  Royal  Arcanum,  and  through 
his  legal  acumen  effected  settlement  of 
many  intricate  problems  involving  con- 
tests, claims  and  settlements.  He  threw 
his  whole  soul  into  the  work  of  the  order, 
infused  new  vigor,  and  during  his  term 
as  supreme  regent  its  growth  was  phe- 
nomenal. He  traveled  to  all  parts  of  the 
country  on  the  business  of  the  order  as 
its  official  head  and  formed  many  life- 
long friendships  in  faraway  States.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  Masonic  Order  and 
of  the  Independent  Order  of  Odd  Fel- 
lows, and  affiliated  with  many  societies, 
legal,  benevolent  and  special.  Genial, 
brilliant  and  courteous  he  was  a  favorite 
socially.  Men  admired  him  for  the  manly 
independence  of  his  character  and  his  up- 
right life  and  held  him  in  highest  esteem. 

A  Democrat  in  politics,  Mr.  Lindsley 
could,  had  he  willed  it  so,  gone  far  in 
public  life,  but  beyond  the  two  terms  as 
city  attorney  he  steadfastly  declined 
every  offer  that  meant  political  elevation. 
In  1884,  he  was  the  nominee  of  a  joint 
convention  representing  all  shades  of 
political  opinion,  for  the  office  of  mayor 
of  Utica,  but  his  determination  to  allow 
nothing  to  interfere  with  his  professional 
career  was  unshaken,  and  he  refused  the 
honor.  In  1895,  a  severer  test  was  im- 
posed by  his  own  party  unanimously 
nominating  him  for  the  high  and  purely 
judicial    office.    Justice    of    the    Supreme 


296 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Court,  but  that  honor,  too,  was  declined, 
as  were  many  others  of  a  similiar  nature. 
He  adhered  ever  to  the  stand  taken  in 
early  life  and  died  as  he  had  lived,  a  pri- 
vate citizen  and  a  great  lawyer. 

Mr.  Lindsley  married,  in  1873,  Dorlissa 
Johnstown,  daughter  of  John  W.  Johns- 
town, an  eminent  lawyer  of  the  Sullivan 
county  bar,  who  survives  her  husband,  a 
resident  of  Utica.  They  had  two  children : 
Lew  Johnstown,  born  February  II,  1874, 
died  December  4,  1878;  Orma,  born  May 
21,  1876,  died  November  26,  1894. 


CHARLTON,  John, 

Founder  of  Noted  Nurseries. 

When  the  career  of  John  Charlton 
ended  at  the  age  of  nearly  eighty-one 
years,  another  of  the  veteran  horticul- 
turists passed  from  view,  a  man  who 
ranked  in  his  knowledge  of  plants  and 
flowers  as  the  peer  of  the  greatest  of 
those  who  made  Rochester  known  far  and 
near  as  the  Flower  City.  Mr.  Charlton 
was  known  throughout  the  country  as  the 
founder  and  proprietor  of  the  John  Charl- 
ton &  Sons  Nurseries,  and  as  a  blue 
ribbon  exhibitor  of  fruits  and  flowers 
at  the  large  fairs.  His  name  was  known 
in  the  far  away  parts  of  the  world  as  an 
importer  of  the  rare  and  beautiful  in  plant 
life.  He  was  the  first  to  introduce  to 
America  a  number  of  the  Chinese  and 
Japanese  flowering  and  ornamental  shrubs 
that  have  since  become  popular  in  the 
beautifying  of  parks  and  private  grounds. 
He  raised  the  then  famous  Peter  Hender- 
son carnation  from  seed  and  sold  it  to 
Louisville,  Kentucky,  florists,  receiving 
six  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  for  it.  He 
introduced  the  Pocklington  grape  and  the 
Golden  Prolific  gooseberry,  and  propa- 
gated new  varieties  of  grape,  the  Charl- 
ton and  the  Purity.  Prior  to  1883  he  did 
a  general  nursery  business,  but  after  that 


date  he  gave  his  entire  time  to  roses, 
clematis,  grapes  and  small  fruits.  But 
his  capable  sons  were  admitted  to  part- 
nership and  a  general  nursery  business 
conducted  under  the  firm  name  of  John 
Charlton  &  Sons,  with  nurseries  and 
greenhouses  on  Culver  road.  It  is  a  won- 
derful monument  John  Charlton  erected 
to  his  own  memory — a  monument  not  to 
crumble  with  the  lapse  of  time,  but  to 
annually  renew  its  beauty ;  and,  so  long 
as  men  and  women  love  plants  and 
flowers,  so  long  will  his  monument  en- 
dure. He  made  the  earth  more  attrac- 
tive, homes  more  beautiful,  fruit  farming 
more  profitable,  and  he  loved  his  work. 
Eighty  years  did  not  quench  his  ardor, 
nor  weaken  his  love,  nor  deter  his  experi- 
ments to  produce  new  varieties,  but  to 
the  end  he  was  the  same  enthusiast ;  and, 
while  the  weight  of  years  caused  the  bur- 
den to  be  laid  largely  on  the  sons,  there 
never  was  a  time  when  John  Charlton  & 
Sons  was  not  dominated  by  the  spirit  of 
its  founder  of  the  firm,  and  ever  will  be, 
for  that  spirit  lives  in  the  sons,  John  A. 
and  Joseph  M.  Charlton,  upon  whom  the 
ownership  and  management  devolves. 

John  Charlton  was  born  at  Hornings- 
ham,  Wiltshire,  England,  November  19, 
1835,  died  at  Rochester,  New  York,  Au- 
gust 2,  1916.  From  childhood  he  dis- 
played not  only  a  love  for  flowers,  but  a 
desire  to  study  their  formation  and 
habits.  All  through  his  school  years  this 
love  of  botany  was  clearly  developed  and 
at  the  age  of  seventeen  years  he  was 
apprenticed  for  three  years  at  Longleat 
Gardens,  the  estate  of  the  Marquis  of 
Bath,  Longleat  being  noted  as  one  of  the 
finest  gardens  in  England.  There  were 
twenty-three  applications  for  the  place 
which  he  secured,  not  through  influence, 
but  solely  from  the  fact  that  he  had  al- 
ready progressed  far  along  the  path  he 
had   chosen   to  follow.     He   remained   at 


297 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Longleat  the  full  term  of  apprenticeship 
and  had  so  well  improved  those  years  that 
the  owners  of  several  estates  strove  to 
secure  his  services  as  head  gardener. 

He  accepted  the  offer  of  the  owner  of 
an  estate  on  the  Island  of  Guernsey,  in 
the  English  Channel,  and  for  some  time 
was  in  full  charge  of  his  large  gardens. 
While  that  position  was  a  very  satisfac- 
tory one,  Mr.  Charlton  was  ambitious,  and 
had  decided  that  when  opportunity  offered 
he  would  emigrate  to  the  United  States. 
He  finally  carried  out  his  plans,  and  in 
1857  located  at  Rochester,  New  York,  his 
first  position  being  with  George  J.  Whit- 
ney, in  charge  of  the  latter's  gardens, 
which  term  includes  plants,  fruits  and 
flowers  only.  He  was  next  engaged  in 
the  same  capacity  by  Joseph  Hall,  and  in 
addition  to  the  gardens  he  had  the  care 
of  greenhouses  and  grapery.  He  was  so 
engaged  until  1861,  but  during  that  period 
spent  one  winter  at  his  old  English  home. 

In  1861  he  purchased  a  tract  of  land  at 
the  corner  of  Culver  road  and  University 
avenue,  Rochester,  and  spent  four  years 
of  hard  work  in  preparing  it  for  raising 
fruits  and  flowers  according  to  the  plans 
he  had  laid  down  after  careful  study  and 
research  combined  with  his  own  experi- 
ence and  knowledge.  He  planned  to  de- 
part from  the  beaten  path  followed  by 
most  nurserymen,  in  fact  he  was  less  the 
nurseryman  than  the  horticulturist.  He 
followed  out  his  plans  to  the  letter  and 
soon  John  Charlton  &  Sons  became  the 
magnet  which  drew  visitors  and  patrons 
from  far  and  near,  attracted  by  the  novel- 
ties in  fruits  and  flowers  there  grown. 
He  was  among  the  very  first  to  grow 
grape  vines  and  fuchias  for  the  market; 
his  Peter  Henderson  carnation  sold  for 
the  then  fabulous  price  of  six  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars,  and  a  decade  later  would 
have  brought  as  many  thousands.  The 
production  of  this  carnation  was  the  be- 


ginning of  the  great  improvement  in  this 
flower.  In  1869  he  brought  the  ampclop- 
sis  veitchii  from  England  and  was  the 
first  to  advertise  it  in  this  country ;  new 
varieties  of  grapes  were  introduced  and 
propagated  and  John  Charlton  became 
famous  among  horticulturists.  In  1883 
he  decided  to  devote  his  entire  time  to 
the  growing  of  roses,  clematis,  grapes 
and  small  fruits  and  to  carry  out  his  plans 
acquired  more  land  and  greatly  enlarged 
the  area  of  his  greenhouses.  The  firm  of 
John  Charlton  &  Sons  was  formed  by  the 
admission  of  his  two  sons  and  a  general 
wholesale  and  retail  business  in  small  and 
large  fruits,  plants,  rare  and  common 
flowers  of  his  special  love,  particularly 
roses,  was  begun,  which  has  ever  pros- 
pered under  the  care  of  himself  and  his 
sons. 

The  secret  of  his  success  was  not  more 
attributable  to  the  talent  he  possessed 
than  from  the  fact  that  he  devoted  him- 
self entirely  to  his  business.  He  studied 
plant  life  most  deeply,  and  never  was 
satisfied  with  what  he  knew,  but  was  al- 
ways delving  for  more  knowledge.  He  not 
only  won  first  premiums  with  his  exhibits 
at  great  fairs  all  over  the  country,  but 
also  the  respect  and  admiration  of  his 
contemporaries  who  sought  the  advice 
and  opinions  of  the  quiet,  unostentatious 
man  who  had  made  the  Charlton  Nur- 
series famous. 

Mr.  Charlton  married  Sarah  McAskie. 
born  in  the  north  of  Ireland,  who  sur- 
vives him  with  four  children :  John  A., 
of  John  Charlton  &  Sons,  married  Emma, 
daughter  of  Professor  John  G.  Allen,  and 
has  children:  Florence  and  Howard; 
Joseph  M.,  of  John  Charlton  &  Sons,  also 
the  head  of  the  Charlton  Nursery  Com- 
pany, a  distinct  business  from  John  Charl- 
ton &  Sons,  but  in  the  same  line,  married 
Delia  McLean  ;  Fannie,  married  William 
B.  Kerr;   and  Margaret.     The  sons  also 


298 


:.  tic« 
iarm,  409 


BUELL,  George  C, 

Merchant,  Financier. 

d    biography 
part  record  thi 
attained  milit. 

tinction,  or  who  in  any  othe 
passed  through  extraordinan 
oi  fortune.     The  unostenta 
of  private  life,  althou 
1  portant  to  tl. 

cannot    fron 
ii  the  public  annals.  But  the  names 
of    men   who   have 

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ute  1 
and  publ  vithout 

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member  of  the 

Company,  whole: 

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riling  adventures  are 

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most   substantial    qualities    of    character. 

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•me  home  and 
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299 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


untitled  men,  but  only  in  acknowledge- 
ment of  distinguished  service.  Motto: 
Prodcsse  quam  conspici.  In  ancient  rec- 
ords we  read  that  one  Robert  Buele  was 
made  Knight  of  the  Shire  for  Hunting- 
donshire in  1440,  under  Henry  IV.  De- 
scending two  hundred  years  through  a 
line  of  knights  and  baronets  to  1610,  there 
was  born : 

William  Buell,  in  Chesterton,  Hunting- 
donshire, England,  the  ancestor  of  all  of 
that  name  in  America,  who  died  at  Wind- 
sor, November  23,  1681.  He  sailed  from 
Plymouth,  England,  March  31,  1630,  in 
the  company  conducted  by  the  Rev.  John 
Wareham,  on  the  ship  "Mary  and  John," 
and  landed  at  Nantasket,  Boston  Bay, 
May  30.  He  settled  at  Dorchester,  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  five  years  later  became 
one  of  the  proprietors  of  the  new  settle- 
ment at  Windsor.     After  residing  there 

five  years,  he  married  Mary  .     He 

had  children :  Samuel  and  Peter,  and 
probably  others. 

Eben  Norton  Buell,  a  lineal  descendant 
of  William  Buell,  was  a  resident  of 
Goshen,  Connecticut,  from  whence  he 
removed  to  East  Bloomfield,  Ontario 
county,  New  York;  subsequently  he  re- 
moved to  Geneseo,  Livingston  county, 
New  York ;  and  finally  to  Rochester, 
Monroe  county,  New  York,  early  in  the 
history  of  that  city,  and  was  there  en- 
gaged in  the  canal  forwarding  business 
and  in  fire  insurance.  He  married  Re- 
becca Root,  daughter  of  Jesse  Root,  Jr., 
of  Hartford,  Connecticut,  and  grand- 
daughter of  Jesse  Root,  Chief  Justice  of 
the  State  of  Connecticut,  and  among  his 
children  were:  George  C,  the  subject  of 
this  sketch ;  Henry,  a  resident  of  New 
York  City;  Mrs.  Bethune  Duffield,  of 
Detroit,  Michigan ;  and  Mrs.  Henry 
Haight,  of  San  Francisco,  California. 

George  C.  Buell  was  born  at  Geneseo, 
Livingston   county,   New  York,   October 


12,  1822,  and  died  at  his  home,  No.  9 
Livingston  Park,  Rochester,  January  24, 
1898.  His  education  was  commenced  in 
the  public  schools  of  his  native  town,  and 
continued  in  those  of  Rochester,  from 
which  he  was  graduated.  In  1844  he 
established  himself  in  mercantile  business 
at  No.  129  East  Main  street,  known  as 
Minerva  Hall  Block.  He  commenced  as 
a  retail  grocer,  but  the  success  attending 
his  progressive  methods  soon  necessitated 
larger  working  facilities.  He  accordingly 
moved  to  a  large  building  on  Exchange 
street,  where  he  engaged  in  the  whole- 
sale grocery  business,  and  was  identified 
with  this  line  of  commercial  enterprise 
for  many  years,  amassing  a  considerable 
fortune.  He  invested  this  very  profitably 
in  real  estate.  He  was  a  director  of  the 
New  York  Central  &  Hudson  River  Rail- 
road Company  ;  a  director  and  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  Traders'  National  Bank  of 
Rochester;  an  official  of  the  American 
Ballot  Machine  Company;  a  trustee  of 
Auburn  Theological  Seminary ;  a  trustee 
of  the  Rochester  Orphan  Asylum  and 
Rochester  Industrial  School ;  a  member 
of  the  commission  that  arranged  for  the 
elevation  of  the  New  York  Central  tracks 
through  the  city  of  Rochester;  a  charter 
member  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
which  was  organized  in  1887,  a  member 
of  the  first  board  of  trustees,  and  for  ten 
years  was  the  leading  spirit  of  this  repre- 
sentative body  of  men.  His  political  affili- 
ations were  with  the  Republican  party. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  Genesee  Valley 
Club  of  Rochester,  and  he  was  also  a 
member  of  the  Union  League  Club  of 
New  York  City.  Like  his  father,  he  was 
a  member  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church.  He  was  one  of  the  organizers 
of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associ- 
ation, and  served  as  president  of  this  body 
several  years.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Sons   of  the  American   Revolution.     Mr 


300 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Buell  was  a  man  of  broad  and  liberal 
tendencies,  giving  his  support  to  all  meas- 
ures which  tended  to  the  improvement 
and  development  of  the  city,  in  matters 
of  art  he  did  especially  notable  work  in 
calling  public  attention  to  such  matters. 
This  taste  was  especially  cultivated  in  his 
own  home,  in  which  were  to  be  found 
many  fine  examples  of  the  painters'  art. 

Mr.  Buell  married  (first)  in  Rochester, 
in  May,  1845,  Julia  Gilkison,  daughter  oi 
Dr.  Gilkison,  of  Rochester.  She  died  in 
March,  1847.  He  married  (second)  in 
Rochester,  October  24,  1850,  Elizabeth 
House  Bloss,  daughter  of  William  Clough 
Bloss  and  Mary  Bangs  (Blossom)  Bloss. 
She  died  in  March,  1863.  He  married 
(third)  Alice  Elizabeth  Ely,  daughter  of 
Lorenzo  D.  Ely  and  Caroline  Cornelia 
(Culver)  Ely.  She  survived  him.  Chil- 
dren by  the  second  marriage  were:  Ed- 
ward Norton,  died  May  28,  1870;  Mary 
Blossom,  who  married  William  H.  Aver- 
ell,  of  Ogdensburg,  New  York ;  Paul  Clif- 
ford, died  December  30,  1856;  Elizabeth 
Bloss,  died  February  19,  1865 ;  George 
Clifford,  who  was  associated  in  business 
with  his  father,  and  who  married  Gertrude 
M.  Ackerman,  of  Chicago,  Illinois.  Chil- 
dren by  the  third  marriage  were  :  Ely,  who 
married  Lulu  I.  McAllaster,  of  Rochester, 
New  York;  Ernest  Norton,  died  Septem- 
ber 13,  1873;  Henry  Douglas,  who  mar- 
ried Cornelia  G.  Robinson,  of  Rochester, 
New  York ;  and  Alice  Ray,  who  married 
Rev.  Du  Bois  S.  Morris,  of  Hwai  Yuen, 
China. 


BROWN,  James  H., 

Business  Man,  Public  Official. 

Aaron  Brown,  grandfather  of  James  H. 
Brown,  resided  in  Austerlitz,  Massachu- 
setts, and  in  1813  removed  from  there  to 
Rochester,  New  York,  where  he  worked 
as  a  carpenter  and  joiner,  erecting  some 


of  the  fine  houses  of  that  city.  He  died 
October  26,  1676,  at  the  old  homestead, 
aged  eighty-nine  years,  having  been  a 
widower  for  seventy  years. 

Henry  S.  Brown,  father  of  James  H. 
Brown,  was  the  second  white  child  born 
in  Rochester,  New  York.  His  birth  oc- 
curred in  a  house  built  from  the  logs  cut 
and  hewed  from  the  trees  which  then 
covered  the  entire  section,  located  on 
West  North  street,  at  what  is  now  No. 
540  Hudson  street.  It  was  a  comfortable, 
roomy  type  of  the  old  homestead,  as  com- 
fort was  then  considered,  a  type  now  al- 
most extinct.  Mr.  Brown  and  his  wife 
lived  to  celebrate  their  golden  wedding 
in  the  house  they  built,  and  eight  years 
later  death  separated  them.  Afterward 
the  old  house  was  modernized,  and  James 
H.  Brown,  the  son,  retained  it  as  his  home 
until  his  death. 

James  H.  Brown  was  born  October  5, 
1846,  in  Rochester,  died  there  in  Decem- 
ber, 1915.  He  was  the  personification  of 
loyalty  and  was  decisive  regarding  his 
likes  and  dislikes,  but  he  never  disliked 
anybody  nor  anything  without  having 
first  given  them  or  it  the  benefit  of  the 
doubt,  and  he  invariably  found  his  keen 
sense  of  intuition  had  not  been  playing  him 
false.  He  was  not  of  a  vacillating  char- 
acter, never  tiring  of  the  same  surround- 
ings throughout  his  lifetime ;  and  he  was 
equally  as  staunch  and  steady  where  his 
friendships  were  concerned.  In  his  busi- 
ness dealings  he  was  always  honorable 
and  square,  was  very  competent,  and  at 
one  time  his  father  and  he  conducted  a 
stone  quarry  and  a  real  estate  business, 
handling  the  family  property  exclusively 
and  were  very  successful.  He  was  active 
in  politics,  although  preferring  that  what- 
ever he  did  in  a  political  way  should  be 
of  assistance  to  his  friends  rather  than  to 
himself;  but  nevertheless  he  was  elected 
to  represent   the   old   thirteenth,   and   he 


301 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


served  as  supervisor  for  two  years  as  a 
Republican.  He  aided  in  organizing  the 
Monroe  County  Supervisors  and  Ex-Su- 
pervisors Association,  and  was  then  its 
treasurer  and  secretary  and  served  as 
such  until  his  death,  never  missing  a 
meeting  until  his  last  illness,  August, 
1915.  A  legislative  act  went  into  effect 
in  1888  by  which  a  board  of  park  com- 
missioners was  appointed  for  Rochester. 
Mr.  Brown  was  selected  as  one  of  the 
board  and  he  served  in  the  capacity  of 
park  commissioner  for  over  twenty  years, 
during  which  time  he  personally  con- 
ferred frequently  with  the  landscape 
architect  in  his  endeavor  to  make  Seneca 
Park  an  especially  beautiful  one,  and  de- 
voted a  great  deal  of  his  time  to  the 
project  and  studied  to  restore  its  natu- 
ral scenery.  He  was  instrumental  in  the 
purchase  of  property  which  was  then  in 
possession  of  farmers,  but  finally  bought 
by  the  city.  Previous  to  purchase,  Mr 
Brown  traversed  ever  foot  of  it  and  he 
never  wearied  planning  to  promote  the 
development  of  that  beautiful  and  pic- 
turesque park  for  Rochester.  The  little 
lake  therein  is  fed  by  natural  springs,  and 
in  preparing  its  bed  Mr.  Brown  and  the 
architect  were  positive  that  they  had  re- 
stored a  natural  pond.  Mr.  Brown  was 
a  nature  lover,  and  his  recreation  mostly 
consisted  of  those  sports  and  pleasures 
that  were  connected  with  outdoor  life. 
He  had  a  keen  sense  of  appreciation  for 
the  beauties  of  nature,  admiring  a  splen- 
did sunset,  a  beautiful  starry  sky,  a  rosy 
dawn  or  the  fresh,  brilliant  green  of 
spring,  with  the  keen  sensibilities  and 
artistic  temperament  of  a  landscape 
painter.  His  love  for  the  great  outdoors 
was  not  only  confined  to  a  love  for  sights 
offered  by  nature,  but  he  was  enthusiastic 
over  the  enjoyment  offered  to  a  sports- 
man.   He  was  a  member  of  the  Rod  and 


Gun  clubs,  the  Geneseo  Sportsman's  Club 
and  other  similar  organizations,  an  expert 
marksman,  and  won  a  number  of  medals 
and  trophies  at  the  state  meets  of  gun 
clubs. 

When  he  was  only  a  boy  of  twenty  he 
became  a  member  of  the  official  board  of 
the  Asbury  Methodist  Church,  his  father 
having  been  an  officer  of  the  church  for 
seventy  years.  For  more  than  twenty- 
five  years,  James  H.  Brown  was  treasurer 
of  its  Sunday  school,  and  devoted  to  the 
interests  of  the  church  which  he  loved, 
but  he  was  liberal  in  thought,  broad- 
minded  regarding  other  denominations, 
and  refrained  from  criticism  or  discus- 
sion of  creed.  The  lines  of  decisiveness 
and  of  liberality  were  plainly  discernible 
in  the  face  of  Mr.  Brown;  there  was  no 
trace  of  impulsiveness  upon  it ;  although 
there  was  a  slight  trace  of  aggressive- 
ness, he  was  anything  but  aggressive,  but 
he  possessed  a  goodly  amount  of  tenacity 
in  his  character  whenever  he  felt  positive 
of  his   argument   or  knowledge. 

Mr.  Brown  was  a  man  who  created  a 
favorable  impression  both  in  a  business 
and  in  a  social  way,  and  that  impression 
was  one  that  was  never  obliterated  by 
any  unkind  or  underhand  action.  He  was 
not  actually  known  as  a  philanthropist, 
but  his  deeds  of  kindness  were  numerous. 
In  conversation  Mr.  Brown  never  rushed 
into  a  subject  without  being  well  in- 
formed and  any  topic  he  discussed  was 
made  concise  and  interesting.  He  had 
tasted  the  joys  and  successes  of  life  and 
accepted  them  modestly. 

Mr.  Brown  never  married,  and  is  sur- 
vived in  Rochester  by  two  sisters :  Mrs. 
Phoebe  J.  Vose,  who  resides  with  her 
sister,  Mrs.  George  H.  Waldron,  at  No. 
526  Meigs  street,  Rochester.  His  only 
brother,  Francis  A.  Brown,  is  a  resident 
of  Des  Moines,  Iowa. 


302 


J^L#r  "rf^^z&TZ^^C^t 


ELLWANGER,  George, 

Business  Man,  Financier. 

He  who  builds  up  a  great  en* 

i 

:ld  or  he  wh> 
in  the  > 
lion.     The 
been  wes 

a  monument  in  large  undr:; 

.ch  a  one  was  George  Ell- 

vho  was  a  pioneer  in  the  i 

in  Western  New  York.    Mis  life 

.ire  the 

to  her 

sons  ■    !  lass 

- 

I 
tke  his  home  in  the 
United  States. 

He    v  -cember   2,    : 

.eppach.  in  the  Remsthal,  called 
in   the 

amid   t! 

ig   his   youth, 

,   field  for. the 

ighbor- 

four  years  ii  .rticul- 

tural   institution   in  1   there 

brought  him   -     goodly  a 
measure  of    success   in    hi 
Ambitious    for    advantages    that    would 
prove  tangible  assets  in  a  business  life, 
lie  came  to  the  United  States  in  1835  and 


. 
celebrated.     The  foil 

•as  admitted  to  a  par: 
covered  the  succeed  ii 

- 
tlement  i 

their   goods    more   a 
those  ni 
sun  urf 

trade  was  also  enjoyed.    Ad 

- 

I 
■ 

different    type  of    bi 

1  ever  for  a  m 
from  the  hon. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


the  outset.  It  was  always  their  endeavor 
to  please  their  patrons  by  supplying  stock 
of  the  highest  quality,  gaining  a  fair  profit 
on  their  sales,  yet  never  overreaching  an- 
other in  a  business  transaction.  The  firm 
name  therefore  became  synonymous  with 
commercial  integrity  and  the  records  of 
Mr.  Ellwanger  and  of  Mr.  Barry  both 
furnish  an  example  that  is  indeed  worthy 
of  emulation.  The  former  became  widely 
known  in  financial  circles  through  close 
association  with  the  banking  interest  of 
Rochester,  being  successively  a  director 
of  the  Union  Bank  and  Flour  City  Bank 
and  a  trustee  of  the  Monroe  County  Sav- 
ings Bank  and  the  Rochester  Trust  & 
Safe  Deposit  Company.  The  Rochester 
Gas  Company  also  profited  by  his  serv- 
ices and  sound  advice  as  a  director,  and 
he  was  connected  in  similar  official  ca- 
pacity with  the  Eastman  Kodak  Com- 
pany and  the  Rochester  &  Brighton  Street 
Railway  Company. 

In  1846  occurred  the  marriage  of  George 
Ellwanger  and  Miss  Cornelia  Brooks,  a 
daughter  of  General  Micah  Brooks,  a 
pioneer  of  Western  New  York.  They 
had  four  sons,  George  H.,  Henry  B.,  Wil- 
liam D.  and  Edward  S.,  to  whom  liberal 
educational  advantages  were  afforded  as 
were  also  the  means  of  study  and  travel 
abroad.  The  eldest  son  became  a  promi- 
nent factor  in  the  conduct  of  the  nursery 
business. 

Mr.  Ellwanger  passed  away,  November 
26,  1906,  full  of  years  and  honors.  He 
was  not  only  known  as  a  preeminently 
active  and  successful  business  man,  but 
one  whose  devotion  to  the  city  was 
marked  by  many  tangible  proofs.  He 
studied  the  city's  needs  and  its  possibili- 
ties, labored  to  meet  the  former  and  to 
enlarge  the  latter,  working  not  only  for 
the  interests  of  the  moment  but  also  for 
the  welfare  of  the  future.  He  retained 
in    remarkable    manner    the    vigor    and 


strength  of  manhood  and  long  after  he 
had  passed  the  psalmist's  alloted  span  of 
three  score  years  and  ten  he  was  an  active 
factor  in  business  life.  To  have  attained 
to  the  extreme  fullness  of  years  and  to 
have  had  one's  ken  broadened  to  a  com- 
prehension of  all  that  has  been  accom- 
plished within  the  flight  of  many  days  is 
of  itself  sufficient  to  render  consonant  a 
detailed  consideration  of  such  a  life  in  a 
work  of  this  order,  but  in  the  case  at  hand 
there  are  more  pertinent,  more  distin- 
guishing elements — those  of  usefulness, 
of  high  honor,  of  marked  intellectuality, 
of  broad  charity — which  lift  high  in  rever- 
ence the  subjective  personality  of  one 
who  stood  as  one  of  nature's  noblemen, 
"four-square  to  every  wind  that  blows." 
No  shadows  darkened  any  period  of  his 
long,  honorable  and  eventful  life  and  it 
therefore  becomes  an  important  public 
duty  to  perpetuate  his  memory.  His  ex- 
ample stands  as  an  object  lesson  to  those 
who  come  after  him. 


ELLWANGER,  William  De  Lancey, 

Lawyer,  Author. 

William  De  Lancey  Ellwanger  was 
justly  accorded  a  place  among  the  promi- 
nent and  distinguished  citizens  of  Roches- 
ter, and  he  was  widely  known  throughout 
the  country  as  an  author  of  marked  abil- 
ity. He  was  born  in  Rochester,  Septem- 
ber 27,  1854,  and  was  a  son  of  George  and 
Cornelia   (Brooks)   Ellwanger. 

The  boyhood  and  youth  of  William  De 
Lancey  Ellwanger  was  devoted  to  the 
acquirement  of  a  good  education.  He 
attended  Racine  College  and  later  was  a 
student  at  Yale,  graduating  from  the  lat- 
ter institution  in  1876.  He  studied  law 
in  the  office  of  Oscar  Craig,  of  Rochester, 
and  was  later  graduated  from  the  Albany 
Law  School.  After  his  admission  to  the 
bar  in  1878  he  formed  a  partnership  with 


UfSIu 


' 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Joseph  S.  Hunn  in  1881,  and  they  sue-  CONVERSE,  Rev.  Roy  M. 
cessfully  engaged  in  practice  until  1904, 
being  at  that  time  the  oldest  law  firm  of 
the  city.  Mr.  Hunn  was  then  appointed 
one  of  the  trustees  of  the  Hiram  Sibley 
estate  and  the  partnership  was  dissolved, 
but  for  eight  years  prior  to  this  Mr.  Ell- 
wanger  had  devoted  the  greater  part  of 
his  time  and  attention  to  literary  work, 
contributing  many  able  articles  to  vari- 
ous magazines  and  newspapers,  including 
the  "Century"  and  "New  York  Sun."  Be- 
sides this  he  published  several  books 
which  won  favor  with  the  reading  public 
and  his  writings  embraced  both  prose  and 
poetry.  Among  his  publications  are  "The 
Collecting  of  Stevensons,"  "Some  Reli- 
gious Helps  to  a  Literary  Style,"  "A 
Snuff  Box  Full  of  Trees,"  which  appeared 
in  the  "New  York  Sun"  and  was  an  article 
on  the  big  trees  of  California ;  "A  Sum- 
mer Snowflake  and  Drift  of  Other  Verse 
and  Song"  and  "The  Oriental  Rug,"  a 
monograph  on  eastern  rugs,  carpets,  etc. 
Besides  his  interest  in  Oriental  rugs  he 
took  an  interest  in  Oriental  porcelains 
and  also  in  gardening,  following  in  his 
father's  footsteps  in  this  direction,  as  did 
also  his  brothers,  who  were  considered 
authorities  on  the  standard  rose. 

On  May  10,  1887,  in  Rochester,  Mr. 
Ellwanger  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Laura  Selden,  daughter  of  Henry  R.  Sel- 
den,  and  one  daughter  was  born  to  them, 
Evelyn,  June,  1895. 

Mr.  Ellwanger  died  at  his  late  home, 
February  16,  1913.  He  will  be  remem- 
bered as  a  man  of  fine  social  gifts,  and  of 
scholarly,  artistic  and  broad  culture.  His 
literary  judgments  were  accurate,  and  his 
writings  were  characterized  by  a  discrimi- 
nating treatment  of  the  theme,  by  a  subtle 
humor,  a  delicate  fancy,  and  by  a  most 
felicitous  style. 


Soldier,  Educator,  Priest. 

Rev.  Roy  McGregor  Converse  was 
born  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  November  16, 
1844.  Early  in  life  his  family  removed  to 
Western  Pennsylvania,  where  his  prelim- 
inary education  was  acquired,  and  there, 
one  week  after  the  first  battle  of  Bull 
Run,  and  yet  in  his  sixteenth  year,  he  en- 
listed in  the  Eleventh  Regiment  Penn- 
sylvania Reserves,  serving  until  honor- 
ably discharged  July  4,  1865.  He  saw 
hard  service,  was  wounded  at  Gettysburg, 
and  at  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness  dur- 
ing the  second  day's  fighting  (May  5, 
1864)  was  taken  prisoner.  With  between 
two  and  three  thousand  other  Union  pris- 
oners he  was  sent  in  a  freight  train  to 
Andersonville,  fifty  miles  away,  and  there 
spent  five  frightful  months  ere  being  sent 
to  another  prison  at  Florence,  from  which 
he  was  released  on  December  5,  1864.  In 
later  years  he  prepared  an  address  upon 
his  prison  experiences  that  he  delivered 
many  times  at  the  invitation  of  different 
organizations. 

After  the  war  he  returned  to  Western 
Pennsylvania  and  entered  Washington 
and  Jefferson  College,  from  which  he  was 
graduated  Bachelor  of  Arts  in  1867,  stand- 
ing first  in  his  class,  being  a  member  of 
the  Phi  Beta  Kappa,  honorary  society,  and 
also  of  the  Phi  Kappa  Psi  fraternity.  The 
college  subsequently  awarded  him  the  de- 
gree of  Master  of  Arts.  He  received  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Gris- 
wold  College  in  1889,  and  the  degrees  of 
Doctor  of  Civil  Laws  in  1897  and  Doctor 
of  Laws  in  1912,  both  from  Hobart  Col- 
lege. During  the  years  1868-69  he  was 
professor  of  mathematics  and  astronomy 
in  his  alma  mater.  He  then  became  inter- 
ested in  mining  engineering,  and  after 
completing  the  course  therein  and  receiv- 


305 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


ing  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Science 
from  the  Columbia  School  of  Mines,  he 
engaged  actively  for  a  time  in  the  de- 
velopment of  certain  properties,  chiefly 
placer  mines  in  Wyoming.  He  then  de- 
cided to  enter  the  Christian  ministry, 
took  a  course  in  Divinity  and  became  a 
minister  of  the  Presbyterian  church. 
Later  he  became  a  convert  to  the  Protes- 
tant Episcopal  faith,  was  ordained  a  dea- 
con in  1878  and  a  priest  in  1879,  Bishop 
John  Williams  officiating  at  the  ordina- 
tion ceremonies.  From  1879  until  1883 
he  was  rector  of  St.  John's  parish  at 
Waterbury,  Connecticut,  and  from  1883 
until  1888  rector  of  Christ  Church  at 
Corning,  New  York.  For  the  following 
nine  years  he  was  engaged  in  educational 
work  as  professor  of  psychology,  philos- 
ophy and  metaphysics  in  Hobart  College, 
also  acted  as  chaplain  of  the  college  and 
was  especially  beloved  by  the  students. 

In  1897  Dr.  Converse  became  rector  of 
St.  Luke's  Parish,  Rochester,  the  oldest 
church  of  that  communion  in  the  city, 
and  spent  the  last  eighteen  years  of  a 
beautiful,  valuable  life  in  the  service  of 
that  parish.  The  good  he  there  accom- 
plished can  never  be  even  estimated. 
Every  department  of  the  church  was 
thoroughly  organized,  the  parishioners 
inspired  with  a  spirit  of  zeal  and  conse- 
cration, a  parish  endowment  fund,  now 
of  large  proportions,  was  started,  and 
above  all  a  strong  spiritual  atmosphere 
created.  His  graceful  oratory,  "the  elo- 
quence of  deliberation  rather  than  of 
heated  controversy,"  drew  large  audi- 
ences, and  as  a  preacher  he  was  greatly 
admired,  as  a  priest  of  God  reverenced, 
as  a  pastor  greatly  beloved.  At  the  anni- 
versary of  the  tenth  year  of  his  steward- 
ship, at  a  banquet  given  in  his  honor,  one 
of  his  vestrymen  in  presenting  him  with 
a  generous  purse  thus  voiced  the  feeling 
throughout  the  parish:    "You  have   en- 


deared yourself  to  us  in  countless  ways. 
You  have  been  a  constant  example  to  us 
in  magnanimity,  in  unworldliness  and 
purity  of  motive  and  high  minded  Chris- 
tian courtesy,  showing  in  yourself  all 
through  the  week  what  you  preach  on 
Sunday.  You  have  helped  us  in  our  joys 
and  in  our  sorrows.  You  have  done  us 
good  and  our  city  has  felt  your  beneficent 
influence.  That  St.  Luke's  has  continu- 
ally flourished  under  your  rectorate  might 
be  easily  proved  by  a  brief  history  of  the 
church  during  these  ten  years.  We  are 
proud  of  our  rector  and  our  rector's  wife, 
a  charming  lady  beloved  by  the  parish 
and  throughout  the  city." 

Dr.  Converse  also  received  at  several 
conventions  of  the  dioceses  of  Central 
and  Western  New  York  a  highly  honor- 
able vote  for  bishop  of  the  diocese,  indi- 
cative of  the  esteem  in  which  he  was  held 
by  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  church 
throughout  the  State.  Outside  his  parish 
he  was  equally  esteemed,  establishing  in 
his  manly  way  cordial  relations  with  men 
of  all  creeds  and  beliefs.  He  served  for 
several  years  as  chaplain  of  the  Third 
Regiment  New  York  National  Guard, 
and  was  until  his  death  chaplain  of 
Thomas  Post,  Grand  Army  of  the  Repub- 
lic. Thoroughly  cultured  and  well  in- 
formed on  all  subjects,  he  was  a  valued 
member  of  the  Alpha  Chi  Club,  composed 
entirely  in  its  membership  of  professors 
and  clergymen,  also  of  the  Pundit,  a 
strictly  literary  club.  Before  these  two 
clubs  many  remarkable  papers  have  been 
presented — Dr.  Converse  contributing  fre- 
quently. His  interest  in  big  game  hunt-  j 
ing  was  very  great  and  he  accumulated 
during  his  lifetime  a  valuable  collection 
of  heads,  etc.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Moose  Hunters'  Club  of  Rochester,  the 
Canadian  Camp  of  New  York,  and  the 
National  Geographical  Society.  He  was 
also     connected     with     the      following: 


306 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Browning  Club  of  Rochester,  Ministerial 
Association  of  Rochester,  the  Rochester 
Historical  Association,  the  Rochester 
Clerical  Association,  the  Actors'  Alliance 
(as  chaplain),  National  Society  of  Ander- 
sonville  Survivors  (vice-president),  the 
board  of  trustees  of  the  Church  Home 
(vice-president),  Genesee  Valley  Club  of 
Rochester,  and  Country  Club  of  Roches- 
ter. 

He  knew  men  under  every  condition ; 
had  touched  elbows  with  them  on  the 
field  of  battle,  going  forward  with  them 
in  victory,  falling  back  with  them  in  de- 
feat and  suffering  with  them  in  military 
prisons;  had  mingled  with  them  in  col- 
lege halls  as  student,  chaplain  and  pro- 
fessor; had  sat  with  them  around  forest 
campfires  after  a  day's  sport ;  had  minis- 
tered to  their  souls  as  pastor  and  priest, 
and  no  man  was  more  highly  esteemed 
among  men,  nor  more  genuinely  wel- 
comed to  their  homes,  their  places  of 
business  and  their  pleasures  than  he.  His 
love  of  athletics  and  of  "out  of  doors" 
that  took  him  out  and  into  the  wonders 
and  beauties  of  nature,  attracted  men  in 
admiration  for  the  minister  who  could 
do  the  things  they  did,  enjoyed  the  things 
they  did,  and  then  in  noblest  sentiment 
could  describe  earth's  wonders,  always 
keeping  in  view  the  God  who  created,  the 
King  to  whom  he  owed  allegiance  and 
for  whose  service  he  would  win  them.  So 
one  of  the  "manliest  of  men,"  as  he  stood 
in  the  pulpit  and  in  eloquent  words  spoke 
for  his  Master,  he  impressed  his  hearers 
and  carried  conviction  to  their  souls,  as 
in  the  deep  rich  voice  with  which  he  was 
endowed,  he  told  the  "old,  old  story"  of 
the  Cross.  His  sunny  heart,  kindly 
greeting,  sympathetic  word  and  gracious 
mien  all  added  to  his  influence  over  men 
and  gave  him  opportunity  to  reach  those 
who  were  beyond  the  reach  of  his  pulpit 
preaching. 


Dr.  Converse  was  endowed  with  an  ex- 
ceptional memory  coupled  with  remark- 
able clearness  of  thought  founded  upon 
thorough  and  profound  scholarship 
throughout  his  life.  His  intellectual  abil- 
ity is  reflected  in  the  broad  field  of  activ- 
ity covered  by  his  numerous  essays  and 
addresses  other  than  those  of  a  theologi- 
cal nature.  Of  his  sermons  it  has  been 
said :  "A  clear  and  profound  preacher 
with  a  splendid  command  of  language,  his 
sermons  and  addresses  were  models  of 
sanctified  public  oratory  replete  with 
sound  learning." 

As  a  scholar  and  for  part  of  his  life  as 
a  teacher,  his  breadth  and  depth  of  learn- 
ing was  remarkable,  including  intensive 
studies  and  researches  at  different  periods 
in  the  various  fields  of  theology  and  liter- 
ature, history,  science,  philosophy.  His 
command  of  languages  was  also  note- 
worthy, including  a  fluent  use  of  French, 
Italian  and  German,  and  a  thorough 
working  knowledge  of  Spanish,  Latin, 
Greek,  Hebrew  and  Arabic,  and  to  a 
lesser  degree  of  Sanscrit.  Dr.  Converse 
never  published  any  of  his  sermons  or 
other  papers.  At  various  times,  however, 
colleges  and  institutions  have  reprinted 
individual  pieces,  some  of  which  obtained 
a  considerable  circularization. 

He  died  at  his  residence,  St.  Luke's 
rectory,  September  20,  191 5.  A  city 
mourns  the  loss  of  a  valued  citizen  as  a 
parish  mourns  a  well  loved  pastor  and  a 
church  mourns  the  loss  of  one  of  her 
brightest  lights.  At  his  last  sad  rites  the 
Rt.  Rev.  William  D.  Walker,  bishop  of 
the  Episcopal  Diocese  of  Western  New 
York,  officiated,  assisted  by  the  rectors  of 
other  Episcopal  churches  of  Rochester, 
while  vestrymen,  wardens  and  members 
of  his  own  parish  vied  with  city  and 
county  officials  in  rendering  him  honor 
by  their  presence.  He  was  laid  at  rest  in 
Mount    Hope    Cemetery.      He    married 


307 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Mary  A.  Howard,  of  Corning,  New  York, 
who  survives  him  with  two  sons,  Paul 
Howard  McGregor  and  Rob  Roy  Stearns 
Converse. 


CURRAN,  Richard,  M.  D., 

Physician,  Philanthropist. 

The  man  who  has  lived  for  others  and 
who  has  brought  into  exercise  the  best 
energies  of  his  mind  and  heart  that  he 
might  make  the  world  the  brighter  and 
better  for  his  having  lived  in  it,  cannot 
fail  to  be  possessed  of  a  serenity  of  soul 
which  makes  itself  felt  in  every  word  and 
in  every  action.  Such  a  man  was  the  late 
Dr.  Richard  Curran,  of  Rochester,  New 
York,  whose  influence  will  be  felt  long 
after  his  earthly  remains  have  crumbled 
into  dust.  To  have  achieved  fame  in  one 
direction  is  conceded  to  be  an  enviable 
condition  by  the  majority  of  human 
beings,  but  in  the  late  Dr.  Curran  we  had 
a  man  who  had  attained  honor  and  emi- 
nence as  a  soldier,  a  statesman,  a  business 
man  and  a  philanthropist.  In  every  in- 
stance he  always  labored  for  the  best  in- 
terests of  humanity,  with  never  a  thought 
of  self-aggrandizement.  His  courage  and 
fearlessness  in  the  face  of  dangers  which 
might  well  have  daunted  the  bravest  men, 
his  personal  self-sacrifice,  his  executive 
ability  and  foresight,  and  his  talent  for 
conducting  a  number  of  important  affairs 
to  a  successful  issue  at  the  same  time, 
were  little  short  of  marvelous.  He  had 
endeared  himself  to  all  classes,  and  he 
was  revered,  loved  and  admired  far  be- 
yond the  measure  which  falls  to  the  lot 
of  ordinary  men. 

Dr.  Richard  Curran  was  born  near 
Innis,  County  Clare,  Ireland,  January  13, 
1838,  and  died  in  Rochester,  New  York, 
June  1,  1915.  In  the  year  1850  he  came 
to  this  country  with  his  parents.  His  edu- 
cation had  been  commenced  in  his  native 


land,  and  in  this  country  it  was  continued 
at  the  public  schools  of  Seneca  Falls,  New 
York,  where  his  parents  made  their  home, 
and  completed  by  a  course  at  the  Seneca 
Falls  Academy.  He  devoted  himself  to 
the  study  of  medicine  in  the  office  of  Dr. 
Davis,  of  Seneca  Falls,  and  at  Harvard 
University,  completing  his  medical  course 
in  1859.  His  career  during  the  progress 
of  the  Civil  War  was  a  notably  honorable 
one.  Early  in  1861  he  assisted  in  raising 
two  companies,  and  with  these  joined  the 
Thirty-third  Regiment,  New  York  Vol- 
unteer Infantry,  a  two  years'  regiment, 
and  was  mustered  into  service,  May  22, 
1861.  He  was  made  hospital  steward, 
and  soon  afterward  appointed  assistant 
surgeon,  remaining  with  this  regiment 
until  its  close  of  service,  in  May,  1863. 
In  July,  1863,  he  was  mustered  into  the 
Sixth  Regiment,  New  York  Cavalry,  as 
assistant  surgeon,  and  in  September, 
1864,  was  mustered  into  the  Ninth  Regi- 
ment, New  York  Cavalry,  as  surgeon, 
with  which  rank  he  remained  until  the 
close  of  the  war,  being  honorably  dis- 
charged at  Clauds  Mills,  Virginia,  July 
17,  1865,  as  brevet  major.  During  the 
greater  part  of  his  term  of  service  he  was 
in  charge  of  brigade  and  division  operat- 
ing corps,  and  engaged  in  organizing  field 
hospitals,  and  as  he  had  a  great  liking 
for  conservative  surgery,  he  performed 
many  difficult  operations  and  resections 
which  attracted  much  attention  at  the 
time.  (See  "Medical  Records  of  the  Re- 
bellion"). Dr.  Curran  was  awarded  the 
medal  of  honor  of  the  Loyal  Legion  of 
the  United  States  of  America  for  valor 
and  courage  displayed  at  the  battle  of 
Antietam,  and  following  is  an  account  in 
his  own  words : 

To  the  Hon.  Russell  A.  Alger, 
Secretary  of  War: 
On   the   morning   of   September   17,   1862,   the 
command  to  which  I  belonged  (33rd  N.  Y.  Inf. 


308 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Vol.  3rd  Brigade,  2nd  Div.,  6th  Corps)  after  a 
forced  march  arrived  on  the  battlefield  of  Antie- 
tam.  My  regiment  and  brigade  were  immedi- 
ately put  into  action;  I  was  the  only  medical 
officer  present  with  the  regiment  at  that  time, 
and  in  the  absence  of  orders  how  to  proceed  or 
where  to  report,  I  decided  to  follow  my  regi- 
ment, and  this  brought  me  at  once  in  the  midst 
of  a  terrible  battle  which  lasted  but  a  short  time, 
as  the  enemy,  after  a  stubborn  resistance, 
yielded  and  fell  far  to  the  rear.  The  loss,  in 
killed  and  wounded  sustained  by  the  Third  Bri- 
gade in  this  charge  and  subsequent  effort  to  hold 
the  position  was  three  hundred  and  thirteen 
(313)-  The  ground  at  this  point  of  the  battle- 
field was  a  shallow  valley,  looking  east  and  west, 
the  elevated  land  on  the  south  being  occupied  by 
the  Confederates,  while  the  ridge  on  the  north 
was  held  by  our  troops  and  batteries.  From  this 
formation  of  ground  it  was  impossible  for  the 
wounded  to  reach  the  field  hospitals  in  the  rear 
without  being  exposed  to  the  fire  of  the  enemy. 
In  a  battle  men  will  suffer  their  wounds  to 
remain  undressed  and  uncared  for  for  a  long 
time  if  in  a  comparatively  secure  place,  rather 
than  expose  their  lives  in  seeking  surgical  atten- 
tion, and  this  was  the  case  with  our  wounded  at 
the  time  of  which  I  speak.  At  this  time  the 
wounded  Union  and  Confederate  numbering 
many  hundreds,  preferred  remaining  close  to 
the  ground  and  in  the  shelter  of  the  valley, 
rather  than  take  the  risk  of  seeking  care  in  the 
rear,  as  stated  above.  During  the  severest  of 
the  fight  and  later  on,  I  was  told  many  times  by 
the  officers  and  men  that  if  I  did  not  seek  a 
place  of  safety  I  would  surely  be  killed.  I  real- 
ized that  the  danger  was  great  and  that  the 
warnings  in  a  measure  were  just,  but  here  were 
the  wounded  and  suffering  of  my  command,  and 
here  I  believed  was  my  place  of  duty,  even  if  it 
cost  my  life. 

Close  to  the  lines,  and  a  little  to  the  right, 
were  a  number  of  stacks  of  straw.  I  visited  the 
place  and  found  that  many  of  the  disabled  had 
already  availed  themselves  of  the  protection 
afforded  by  these  stacks.  Without  delay  I  had 
all  the  wounded  led  or  carried  to  this  place,  and 
here,  with  such  assistance  as  I  could  organize, 
although  exposed  to  the  overhead  firing  of  shot 
and  shell,  I  worked  with  all  the  zeal  and  strength 
I  could  muster,  caring  for  the  wounded  and 
dying  until  far  into  the  night.  In  the  report 
of  the  commanding  officer  of  the  brigade  I 
am  mentioned  twice,  in  one  place  as  follows: 
"Assistant  Surgeon  Richard  Curran,  Thirty- 
third  New  York  Volunteers,  was  in  charge  of 


our  temporary  hospital  which  unavoidably  was 
under  fire,  but  he  attended  faithfully  to  his 
severe  duties,  and  I  beg  to  mention  this  officer 
with  particular  commendation.  His  example  is 
but  too  rare  most  unfortunately."  (See  Series 
1,  Vol.  XIX,  Part  I,  Reports  of  War  of  Rebel- 
lion). 

I  remained  with  the  Thirty-third,  which  was  a 
two-year  regiment,  until  it  was  mustered  out. 
Later  I  was  commissioned  assistant  surgeon  of 
the  Sixth  New  York  Cavalry  and  after  a  few 
months  was  made  surgeon  of  the  Ninth  New 
York  Cavalry,  with  which  regiment  I  remained 
until  the  close  of  the  Rebellion.  For  some  time 
many  of  my  army  friends,  who  knew  of  my 
perilous  position  in  this  battle,  as  well  as  other 
occasions  equally  trying,  have  urged  me  to  apply 
for  the  Medal  of  Honor,  as  they  believed  me 
entitled  to  it.  I  have  hesitated,  partially  because 
of  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  evidence — the 
colonel,  the  lieutenant-colonel,  the  major  and 
most  of  the  captains  and  other  officers  of  the 
regiment  being  dead — and  largely  because  it 
might  be  urged  that  the  position  for  a  medical 
officer  during  a  battle  was  in  the  rear  and  in  a 
place  of  safety,  rather  than  in  actual  battle  and 
exposed  to  danger.  All  this  I  well  understand, 
but  in  answer  I  want  to  say  that  my  regiment 
was  ordered  into  this  fight  immediately  on  arriv- 
ing on  the  battlefield,  and  in  the  absence  of 
orders  and  with  the  best  intentions  I  followed 
and  happily  in  no  other  position  could  I  have 
rendered  equally  as  good  service,  for  I  am  con- 
fident that  by  my  action  many  lives  were  saved. 
When  advised  to  go  to  the  rear  and  to  a  place  of 
safety,  I  could  possibly  have  done  so,  and  all 
would  have  credited  me  with  doing  my  duty,  but 
I  believed  a  great  opportunity  was  at  hand  to 
render  a  marked  service  at  a  critical  junction, 
even  though  my  life  might  be  forfeit.  I  took  the 
chances  and  humbly  believe  the  service  was  ren- 
dered, and  if  I  am  entitled  to  the  medal,  it  is 
for  this  act  and  this  alone. 

From  the  time  he  was  entitled  to  cast  a 
vote,  Dr.  Curran  had  given  his  active  sup- 
port to  the  interests  of  the  Republican 
party,  and  so  marked  were  his  abilities 
that  he  was  honored  with  a  number  of 
offices  of  public  trust  and  responsibility. 
He  served  as  a  school  commissioner  in 
1876;  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Park 
Commissioners  in  1888,  being  one  of  the 
earliest   members  of  this  body;  he  was 


309 


-.  :lopedia  of  biography 


elected  to  represent  his   section   in   the 

I  rgislature  in  1S91.  and  the  follow- 

]  major  of  Rochester. 

frairs  Dr.  Curran  was  also 

well  and  favorably  known.    He  conducted 

for  many   fears,    1   drug  store  at  Main 

ind   North   Fitzhugh    street 

In  1865  he  associated  himself  in  a  business 

partnership  with  his  "brother  in  arms," 

I-eorge  W.  Goler,  and  the  concern 

ifaoa  that  time  known  under  the  name 

in  &:  Goler.    For  a  long  time  Dr. 

Curran  had  also  been  connected  with  the 

New  York  &  Kentucky  Company.     His 

religious   affiliations  were 

ithedral  Parish,  of  which  he  was 
one  of  the  oldest  members,  and  was 
identified  with  the  first  rental  of 
that  church.  He  was  an  active 
member  and  vigorous  supporter  of  many 
religious  organizations  and  the  :r.:tre5: 
he  took  never  flagged.  His  fraternal 
membership  was  with  Marshall  Post, 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic. 

Dr.  Curran  married  (first)  Mary  Anne 
Rogers,  who  died  in  1875;  he  married 
(second)  in  1882,  Katherine  Winifred 
the  first  marriage  there  were 
four  daughters,  and  by  the  second,  one 
[survive  their  father:  Mrs. 
Frank  ;.  Hone.  Mrs.  Richard  J.  Decker. 
Mis  Emma  C  Sm  ::'-.  Monica  X..  Cyril 
::h  the  prominent  law  firm 
of  Hornblower,  Miller,  Potter  &  Earl,  of 
Xew  York  City.  He  is  also  survived  by 
two  brothers  and  two  sisters :  Rev.  Dan- 
iel Curran.  of  Indianapolis,  Indiana ;  Rev. 
Charles  Curran,  of  Xew  Albany,  Indiana ; 
Mrs.  Mary  Tobin,  of  Seneca  Falls 
York;  Mrs.  Kate  Southwick  of  Parsons, 
Kansa;  re  the  letters  of  con- 

dolence received  by  the  family  from  emi- 
nent people  all  over  the  country,  and 
large  the  space  devoted  to  editorial  men- 
tion of  Dr.  Curran  in  the  columns  of  the 
daily  press,  but  the  limits  of  this  article 


will  permit  of  but  one  extract,  this  being 
from  the  Rochester  "Evening  Times," 
which  said  in  part: 

Dr.   Cnrran  was  a  man  of  quiet  and  refined 

-ends   and  loyal 

: :  mmunity   in   which    he 

lived.    He  was  ambitions  for  the  success  of  good 

-i  placed  the  welfare  of  others  above 

his  own  advancement.     He  was  a  lover  of  good 

books  and  a  student  of  the  best  literature.    He 

rationally  well  informed  and  possessed 

a  constant  wealth  of  incident  and  anecdote  which 

1-  1  sosrce  of  delight  to  those  of  his  intimate 
acquaintanceship.  He  served  as  surgeon  during 
the  four  years  of  the  Gvil  War,  and  his  services 
to  his  country  during  that  trying  period  were  of 
the  greatest  value.     In  all  the  relationships  of 

r/r—  ::?.:;:  .:  ::  V:  .  -  .- : :  --.it.  ;:- :-  "  r.  : 
left  the  impress  of  a  fine  and  well  rounded  char- 
acter upon  the  times  in  which  he  Ei 
viewed  life  with  the  calm  security  of  one  who 
possessed  a  well  trained  and  well  balanced  mind, 
and  contributed  to  the  comfort  and  ha:  [ 
those  about  him.  And  he  will  be  remembered  as 
one  who  lived  his  life  with  a  fine  regard  for 
others  and  a  high  ;er.;e  ::'  Us  KSBOasB 


PASS,  James, 

Mannfactarer.    Authority    on    Ceramic". 

James  Pass  was  a  son  of  Richard  Pass, 
a  pottery  manufacturer,  located  in  the 
heart  of  the  pottery  district  of  England. 
In  1863  Richard  Pass  brought  his  family 
to  America,  and  for  a  time  lived  in  Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio.  After  the  close  of  the  Civil 
War  he  removed  to  Trenton,  Xew  Jersey, 
and  in  1875  to  Syracuse,  Xew  York, 
where  he  was  superintendent  of  the 
Onondaga  Pottery  Company.  This  posi- 
tion he  continued  to  fill  until  his  death  in 
1884.  His  wife's  maiden  name  was  Anne 
Greatbach,  also  a  native  of  England,  who 
died  in  Syracuse  in  1895. 

James  Pass  was  born  June  1,  1856,  in 
Burslem,  Staffordshire,  England,  and  was 
seven  years  of  age  when  he  came  with 
his  parents  to  this  country.  His  educa- 
tion was  principally  acquired  in  the  com- 


3-0 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


mon  schools  of  Trenton,  New  Jersey,  and 
when  quite  young  he  was  apprenticed  to 
a  pottery  manufacturer  of  Trenton,  serv- 
ing there  under  the  superintendency  of 
his  father  until  he  removed  to  Syracuse. 
In  1877-78  he  pursued  a  special  course  in 
chemistry,  under  Professor  Brown,  of 
Syracuse  University,  to  aid  him  in  the 
pottery  business.  Following  this  he  was 
appointed  foreman  of  the  Onondaga  Pot- 
tery Company,  under  his  father,  who  was 
superintendent,  the  establishment  em- 
ploying at  that  time  fifty  persons.  Mr. 
Pass  continued  as  foreman  until  1881, 
after  which  he  spent  three  years  in  the 
West.  Returning  to  Syracuse  in  18S4,  he 
became  general  superintendent  of  the 
Onondaga  Pottery  Company,  succeeding 
his  father,  and  in  1891  was  made  general 
manager,  later  becoming  president.  Un- 
der his  direction  the  business  of  the 
Onondaga  Pottery  Company  increased 
until  it  now  employs  seven  hundred  per- 
sons. The  product  originally  was  earth- 
enware, but  Mr.  Pass  developed  what  is 
called  "Syracuse  china,"  now  the  princi- 
pal output  of  the  company,  and  known 
all  over  the  United  States  and  in  foreign 
lands.  Immediately  after  his  permanent 
settlement  at  Syracuse,  in  1884,  Mr.  Pass 
began  experimenting  in  the  manufacture 
of  china,  and  a  few  years  later  com- 
menced its  manufacture.  The  splendid 
Syracuse  china  of  to-day  is  the  outcome 
of  alternate  defeats  and  victories,  which 
attended  his  labors  and  experiments,  in 
his  effort  to  prove  to  the  world  that  the 
American  potter  could  make  china.  In 
1890  Mr.  Pass  formed  a  partnership  with 
A.  P.  Seymour  and  began  the  manufac- 
ture of  porcelain  for  electric  insulation. 
During  the  first  year  the  business  was 
confined  to  making  porcelain  for  large 
electrical  companies.  Later  they  estab- 
lished a  line  of  electrical  supplies  of  their 
own,   which   was   placed   on   the   market. 


Of  a  scientific  turn  of  mind,  the  greater 
part  of  Mr.  Pass'  spare  time  was  devoted 
to  study,  particularly  along  lines  con- 
cerned with  his  business  interests.  His 
business  career  was  remarkably  success- 
ful. 

Mr.  Pass  was  one  of  the  charter  mem- 
bers of  the  American  Ceramic  Society, 
and  his  indefatigable  efforts  and  re- 
searches commanded  the  attention  of  pot- 
ters both  here  and  abroad.  He  was  presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  Potters'  Asso- 
ciation in  1896  and  1897,  and  for  several 
years  was  a  member  of  the  art  and  design 
committee  of  that  organization.  He  died 
at  his  residence  on  Avery  avenue,  Syra- 
cuse, October  31,  1913.  In  his  death  the 
pottery  industry  of  America  has  suffered 
a  severe  loss,  not  only  because  of  his 
prominence  as  president  and  general  man- 
ager of  the  Onondaga  Pottery  Company, 
but  because  of  the  influence  he  exercised 
on  American  ceramics.  To  obtain  a  true 
estimate  of  this  influence,  one  has  but  to 
consider  the  conditions  of  the  potting  art 
in  this  country  previous  to  the  com- 
mencement of  his  labors.  Mr.  Pass  was 
a  member  of  the  Century  Club,  Syracuse 
Country  Club,  Citizens'  Club,  the  Syra- 
cuse section  of  the  American  Chemical 
Society  and  the  Engineers'  Club  of  New 
York  City.  He  was  president  of  Pass  & 
Seymour  Company,  Inc.,  manufacturers 
of  electrical  porcelain,  and  a  director  of 
the  First  National  Bank.  In  1890  he  mar- 
ried Adelaide  M.  Salisbury,  of  Syracuse, 
who  survives  him,  with  three  children, 
Eleanor  S.,  Richard  H.  and  James  S. 

The  editorial  columns  of  the  Syracuse 
"Post  Standard"  of  November  1,  1913, 
said : 

A  CAPTAIN  OF  INDUSTRY. 

Syracuse  has  not  become  the  great  industrial 

center    because    great    industries     have    located 

here,  but  because  small  industries  have  grown, 

through  the  energy  and  business   ability  of  the 


311 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


men  who  established  them,  into  great  and  pros- 
perous ones.  There  is  no  more  striking  exam- 
ple of  steady  and  deserved  growth  than  the 
Onondaga  Pottery;  and  the  man  responsible  for 
its  success  has  been  James  Pass.  It  has  been 
due  to  his  sound  judgment,  to  his  exceptional 
knowledge  of  pottery  trade  and  manufacture  and 
to  his  unremitting  attention  to  business  that  his 
factory  has  become  one  of  the  greatest  in  the 
city,  one  of  the  largest  employers  of  labor,  one 
of  the  largest  shippers,  and  that  the  product  of 
that  factory  finds  a  market  in  all  nations.  Syra- 
cuse china  is  sold  to-day  wherever  men  trade  in 
the  finest  products  of  the  potter's  science  and 
art.  James  Pass  was  not  widely  known  in  this 
community.  But  he  was  known  an  ong  the  busi- 
ness men  of  this  community  as  a  man  of  integ- 
rity, of  ability  and  of  rare  judgment,  as  a  con- 
genial companion  and  a  good  citizen. 


BEACH,  Otis  Seth, 

Business  Man,  Public   Official. 

From  the  time  of  his  graduation  from 
Owego  Free  Academy  in  1878  until  his 
death  in  1915,  Mr.  Beach  was  closely 
identified  with  the  business  interests  of 
Owego,  New  York,  as  clerk,  partner  and 
sole  proprietor  of  Beach  &  Parmalee, 
druggists.  Constant  and  devoted  to  his 
business,  that  was,  however,  but  one  item 
in  a  career  of  extraordinary  usefulness 
and  activity.  He  was  one  of  the  best 
known  fraternal  men  of  the  State ;  one  of 
the  oldest  active  members  of  the  Owego 
Fire  Department  and  a  public  official  hon- 
ored and  trusted.  His  character  was  ex- 
emplary and  his  reputation  for  integrity 
above  the  slightest  reproach.  In  busi- 
ness, in  politics,  in  public  service  and  in 
his  home  the  sterling  attributes  of  the 
man  were  ever  manifest.  Kind,  sympa- 
thetic, genial,  energetic  and  generous,  he 
drew  men  to  him  and  ever  retained  their 
respect  and  confidence. 

Mr.  Beach  was  a  descendant  of  John 
Beach,  first  on  record  in  New  Haven 
Colony  in  1643.  He  and  wife  Mary  were 
the  parents  of  ten  children,  the  line  of 
descent  through  Nathaniel,  the  third  son. 


Nathaniel  Beach,  son  of  John  and  Mary 
Beach,  was  born  in  Stratford,  Connecti- 
cut, in  1662,  and  died  in  1747.  He  mar- 
ried, in  1686,  Sarah  Porter,  who  bore  him 
ten  children. 

Israel  Beach,  sixth  son  of  Nathaniel  and 
Sarah  (Porter)  Beach,  was  born  in  Strat- 
ford, May  3,  1707,  and  died  there  in  1793. 
He  was  a  soldier  of  the  French  War, 
1758-59,  the  powder  horn  he  carried 
through  the  invasion  of  Canada  being  yet 
preserved  in  the  family.  He  cleared  the 
"Bear  Swamp"  farm,  on  which  he  built 
a  house  in  1735,  this  farm  yet  being 
owned  by  descendants.  He  married,  July 
1,  1731,  Hannah  Burrit,  who  bore  him 
seven  sons  and  daughters. 

Nathaniel  Beach  (named  for  his  Grand- 
father Beach),  eldest  son  of  Israel  and 
Hannah  (Burrit)  Beach,  was  born  in 
Stratford,  July  30,  1735,  and  there  met 
accidental  death,  February  27,  1818.  Like 
his  father  he  was  a  carpenter  and  lived  on 
the  "Bear  Swamp"  farm.  He  married, 
March  22,  1758,  Patience  Peet,  who  be- 
came the  mother  of  six  children. 

Nathan  Beach,  second  son  of  Nathaniel 
and  Patience  (Peet)  Beach,  was  born  in 
Stratford  in  1770,  and  in  1816,  after  hav- 
ing resided  in  Easton,  Connecticut,  moved 
to  Liberty,  Sullivan  county,  New  York, 
where  both  he  and  his  wife  died  leaving 
five  children. 

Nathan  (2)  Beach,  son  of  Nathan  (1) 
Beach,  was  born  April  17,  1800,  during 
the  family  residence  at  Easton,  and  died 
January  6,  1888,  in  Owego,  New  York. 
From  the  age  of  sixteen  years  he  resided 
with  his  parents  in  Liberty ;  moved  to 
Unadilla.  Otsego  county,  about  1837,  and 
in  1838  settled  in  the  town  of  Owego, 
Tioga  county.  He  was  by  occupation  a 
farmer,  very  religious  in  his  nature,  an 
earnest  Bible  student.  He  married  (first) 
at  Liberty,  Anna  Hoover,  (second)  Olive 
Ingersoll.  He  had  four  children  by  his 
first  wife. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


William  A.  Beach,  eldest  son  of  Nathan 
(2)  Beach  and  his  firstwife,  Anna  (Hoo- 
ver) Beach,  was  born  at  Liberty,  New 
York,  October  30,  1823,  and  died  in  Owe- 
go,  May  10,  1892.  He  was  a  millwright 
and  stationary  engineer  operating  in  Al- 
legheny county,  Pennsylvania,  and  in  the 
West  prior  to  his  settlement  in  the  town 
of  Owego,  where  he  engaged  in  farming. 
He  married,  in  1853,  Helen  Frances  Grif- 
fin, who  bore  him  two  sons,  Arthur  Na- 
than Alfred  and  Otis  Seth  Beach. 

Otis  Seth  Beach,  son  of  William  A.  and 
Helen  Frances  (Griffin)  Beach,  was  born 
at  the  home  farm  near  Gaskill  Corners, 
town  of  Owego,  Tioga  county,  New  York, 
February  24,  i860,  died  in  the  city  of 
Owego,  at  his  home,  No.  65  Church  street, 
October  5,  1915.  In  1875  his  parents 
moved  to  the  village  of  Owego  that  their 
sons  might  have  better  educational  ad- 
vantages and  for  the  next  three  years  Otis 
S.  attended  Owego  Free  Academy,  sup- 
plementing the  previous  courses  taken  in 
the  public  schools  of  Gaskill  Corners.  In 
1878  he  entered  the  employ  of  the  drug 
firm  of  Charles  K.  Lincoln  &  Son,  located 
at  the  corner  of  North  avenue  and  Main 
street,  their  place  of  business  known  as 
the  "Central  Drug  Store."  He  continued 
a  clerk  until  1882,  then  in  association 
with  A.  W.  Parmalee  purchased  the  busi- 
ness, operating  until  about  1894  as  Beach 
&  Parmalee.  He  then  bought  his  part- 
ner's interest  and  continued  in  success- 
ful business  until  his  death.  He  was  an 
efficient,  capable  business  man,  highly 
esteemed  in  mercantile  and  financial  cir- 
cles as  a  man  whose  word  and  honor  was 
held  inviolate. 

The  public  service  rendered  by  Mr. 
Beach  was  varied  and  valuable.  He  was 
an  ardent  Democrat  in  a  strongly  Repub- 
lican town,  but  only  once  was  he  de- 
feated at  the  polls,  so  great  was  his  popu- 
larity  among  the  voters,   irrespective   of 


party.  In  1891  he  was  elected  supervisor, 
also  in  1907  and  1909.  In  the  November 
election,  1910,  he  was  elected  assembly- 
man by  496  votes,  the  normal  Republican 
majority  being  then  about  1,400  in  Tioga 
county.  At  the  ensuing  legislative  ses- 
sion he  joined  the  opposition  to  the  elec- 
tion of  William  F.  Sheehan  as  United 
States  senator,  and  during  that  long  and 
memorable  contest  stood  firmly  against 
the  caucus  nominee,  finally  defeating  him 
and  electing  a  compromise  candidate, 
Judge  James  A.  O'Gorman.  In  191 1  Mr. 
Beach  was  a  candidate  to  succeed  himself 
but  encountered  an  adverse  majority  of 
200.  In  1912  he  was  the  Democratic  can- 
didate for  county  clerk,  carrying  the 
county  by  274  majority.  He  continued 
in  that  office  until  his  death,  and  as  in 
every  other  trust  confided  to  him  was 
faithful  and  efficient,  winning  alike  the 
respect,  confidence  and  commendation  of 
both  political  friends  and  foes  by  his  de- 
votion to  duty  and  his  independence  of 
action.  In  1904  he  was  president  of  the 
Owego  Business  Men's  Association,  and 
ever  afterward  a  director ;  for  several 
years  he  was  a  member  of  the  Owego 
Board  of  Health ;  had  been  village  trus- 
tee ;  was  a  member  of  the  board  of  com- 
missioners of  Evergreen  Cemetery,  in  fact 
in  all  Owego's  commercial  or  social  prog- 
ress he  bore  a  helpful  part.  Mr.  Beach 
always  took  an  active  part  in  the  affairs 
of  the  Owego  Fire  Department,  had  been 
a  member  of  Defiance  Hook  and  Ladder 
Company  No.  5  since  1881  and  its  treas- 
urer since  1884.  He  was  foreman  of  the 
company  in  1886  and  was  older  in  years 
of  membership  than  any  other  member  of 
the  company.  In  1889  and  1890  he  was 
chief  engineer  of  the  Owego  Fire  Depart- 
ment. 

In  the  fraternal  orders,  Mr.  Beach  held 
not  only  high  official  positions  in  the  vari- 
ous bodies,  but  was  firmly  intrenched  in 


313 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


the  loving  esteem  of  his  brethren.  He 
held  all  degrees  in  York  and  Scottish  Rite 
Masonry  up  to  and  including  the  thirty- 
second  degree.  He  was  a  past  master  of 
Friendship  Lodge,  No.  153,  Free  and  Ac- 
cepted Masons;  past  high  priest  of  New 
Jerusalem  Chapter,  No.  47,  Royal  Arch 
Masons ;  past  eminent  commander  of 
Malta  Commandery,  No.  21,  Knights 
Templar,  his  record  in  the  commandery 
being  most  remarkable.  He  was  an  officer 
of  that  body — which  meets  every  two 
weeks — for  eight  years,  passing  all  the 
chairs  and  during  that  time  missed  but 
one  meeting  and  that  through  absence 
from  Owego  on  business  to  a  distant  part 
of  the  State.  In  Scottish  Rite  he  be- 
longed to  the  various  bodies  of  Otseningo 
Consistory,  holding  thirty-two  degrees, 
and  was  a  noble  of  Kalurah  Temple, 
Nobles  of  the  Mystic  Shrine,  of  Bingham- 
ton.  He  was  past  sachem  of  Ahwaga 
Tribe,  No.  40,  Improved  Order  of  Red 
Men  ;  member  of  Regal  Lodge,  No.  863, 
Independent  Order  of  Odd  Fellows,  and 
of  Owego  Lodge,  No.  1039,  Benevolent 
and  Protective  Order  of  Elks. 

Thus  his  life  was  passed,  "spending 
and  being  spent"  in  the  service  of  his  fel- 
low men.  Bearing  in  mind  his  great 
popularity,  the  scenes  at  his  last  sad  rites 
were  not  surprising.  It  is  worthy  of  com- 
ment that  although  not  a  member  of  the 
bar,  official  action  was  taken  by  the  Tioga 
County  Court  and  by  the  Supreme  Court 
upon  his  death.  The  County  Court  ad- 
journed for  the  day,  while  in  the  Supreme 
Court  members  of  the  bar  of  Tioga  coun- 
ty paid  eloquent  tribute  to  his  memory. 
The  Supreme  Court  adjourned  during  the 
funeral  hours.  Judge  George  F.  Andrews, 
of  the  County  Court,  at  a  meeting  of  the 
Tioga  County  Bar  spoke  eloquently  of 
Mr.  Beach  as  a  citizen,  as  a  man  and  of 
his  efficiency  as  clerk  of  Tioga  county. 
District  Attorney  Frank  Beck,  Frank  L. 


Howard,  of  Waverly ;  Frank  A.  Darrow, 
Martin  S.  Lynch  and  Justice  Davis  of  the 
Supreme  Court  all  joined  in  tributes  of 
respect.  Martin  S.  Lynch  spoke  of  him 
as  his  friend  from  boyhood  when  they 
lived  upon  adjoining  farms,  went  to  the 
same  public  school  and  were  fellow  stu- 
dents at  the  academy.  He  testified,  "Otis 
Beach  was  always  considerate  of  others 
and  obliging,  yet  he  had  that  firmness 
which  is  rare  in  a  man  of  his  nature.  His 
popularity  did  not  grow  through  adver- 
tisement but  quietness.  His  popularity 
came  throught  strict  attendance  to  what- 
ever he  had  in  hand  to  do.  He  gave  strict 
attention  to  business  and  had  that  rare 
quality  of  never  speaking  disparagingly 
of  another."  Mr.  Darrow  spoke  of  him  as 
one  of  the  most  popular  men  in  the  coun- 
ty, "honest,  courteous,  eminently  fair  and 
square  in  all  his  acts." 

Business  was  entirely  suspended  in 
Owego  during  the  hour  his  funeral  serv- 
ices were  being  held  in  the  First  Presby- 
terian Union  Church  where  the  body  lay 
in  state  for  an  hour  preceding  the  serv- 
ices. Malta  Commandery,  Knights  Tem- 
plar, were  in  charge  of  the  services  at 
Evergreen  Cemetery,  in  the  presence  of 
the  members  of  Friendship  Lodge  of  Free 
Masons,  Owego  Lodge  of  Elks,  Defiance 
Hook  and  Ladder  Company  and  other  fire 
organizations.  Nearly  every  member  of 
the  Tioga  county  bar,  led  by  Judge  An- 
drews, and  all  of  the  foregoing  bodies  at- 
tended as  organizations  and  a  vast  assem- 
blage of  friends  and  acquaintances  came 
from  every  town  in  the  county  or  vicinity. 
At  the  grave  to  which  he  was  borne  by 
Templars,  in  full  uniform,  the  beautiful 
impressive  Templar  service  for  the  dead 
was  given  in  full,  while  at  the  religious 
service  at  the  church  a  Masonic  quartette 
sang  "Abide  With  Me"  and  "Silent 
Night."  Greater  honor  was  never  paid 
any  man   in  Owego  than  was  accorded 


314 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Otis   Seth   Beach  by  the  friends  of   his     of    the   eleven  children  of    Michael  and 


youth  and  entire  life,  his  business  associ- 
ates and  his  brethren. 

Mr.  Beach  married,  October  26,  1892, 
Lena  M.  Writer,  of  Owego,  daughter  of 
Gabriel  M.  and  Hannah  (Cable)  Writer, 
who  survives  him  with  two  children: 
Harold  Franklin,  a  young  man  of  twenty- 
one,  and  Jeannette  Helen,  two  years 
younger. 


CARROLL,  Daniel  W., 

Business  Man,  Public  Official. 

There  is  a  great  difference  in  men.  As 
a  man  rises  from  the  commonplace,  from 
the  rank  and  file,  the  void  left  in  the  com- 
munity by  his  death  is  in  direct  propor- 
tion as  he  was  more  or  less  indispensable 
to  its  civic  interests.  The  death  of  the 
average,  though  it  brings  its  complement 
of  sorrow  and  suffering  to  a  few,  causes 
no  pause  in  the  activity  of  the  world-at- 
large,  no  awed  and  reverent  stand-still  in 
which  takes  place,  perhaps  for  the  first 
time  adequately,  a  reckoning  of  the  value 
of  the  life  just  passed.  But  at  the  gather- 
ing to  his  fathers  of  a  man  of  prominence, 
a  leader  among  men,  the  world  halts  in 
its  mad  onrush  and  indulges  in  a  quiet 
study  of  cause  and  effect.  Nothing  is 
more  exacting  than  the  great  American 
public,  it  demands  the  best ;  but,  when  it 
finds  superior  worth,  praise  is  more  often 
than  not  bestowed  with  profusion,  more 
valued  because  truly  deserved.  The  sin- 
cere and  widespread  grief  which  followed 
the  death  of  Daniel  Walter  Carroll  in 
Yonkers,  on  January  1,  1915,  is  convinc- 
ing evidence  of  the  great  and  irreplaceable 
loss  which  the  civic,  business  and  social 
life  of  the  city  in  which  he  was  so  un- 
deniably and  deservedly  prominent,  sus- 
tained. 

Daniel  Walter  Carroll  was  born  in 
Troy,  New  York,  on  April  13,  1870,  one 


Elizabeth  (Ryan)  Carroll,  natives  respec- 
tively of  Ireland  and  Canada.  Mr.  Car- 
roll was  a  graduate  of  the  grammar  and 
high  schools  of  Troy.  In  1889  he  came  to 
Yonkers,  and  for  three  years  served  in 
the  capacity  of  clerk  in  the  Benjamin 
Franklin  Transportation  Company.  He 
then  went  back  to  Troy  and  took  over  the 
management  of  a  grocery  business  which 
his  father  had  previously  started.  Mr. 
Carroll  remained  in  Troy  for  five  years 
coming  back  to  Yonkers  at  the  expiration 
of  that  period.  Continuing  in  the  same 
business,  he  opened  at  the  corner  of  Elm 
and  Oak  streets  a  grocery  store  which  he 
maintained  for  three  years,  during  which 
time  he  was  gradually  becoming  identi- 
fied with  public  interests  and  a  figure  to 
be  reckoned  with  in  Democratic  politics. 
From  this  time  onward,  Mr.  Carroll 
was  always  active  in  politics  of  the  higher 
calibre  which  have  as  an  end  the  greatest 
good  of  the  public  life  which  they  control. 
His  high  purpose  and  unimpeachable 
integrity  were  recognized,  and  he  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  Democratic  city 
committee  No  greater  test  of  his  reli- 
ability and  ability  can  be  found  than  the 
fact  that  he  remained  secretary  of  this 
committee  from  1904  until  the  time  of  his 
death  in  1915.  In  1906  Mr.  Carroll  was 
appointed  a  member  of  the  board  of  as- 
sessors, which  position  his  father  had  held 
before  him.  It  is  not  very  often  true  that 
the  occupant  of  an  appointive  office  is 
the  choice  of  the  majority  of  the  people. 
Where  the  power  of  filling  an  office  is 
vested  in  the  chief  executive  of  a  munici- 
pality of  the  size  of  Yonkers,  the  force  of 
public  opinion  cannot  be  made  sufficiently 
strong  to  have  a  deciding  weight,  nor  can 
its  power  be  made  to  be  felt  in  any  appre- 
ciable degree  over  the  occupant  of  an 
office  in  which  it  was  not  the  creative 
agent.     No  matter  how  painstaking  and 


315 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


judicious  the  choice  of  the  executive  may 
be,  it  rarely  concurs  entirely  with  the 
choice  of  the  people.  When  the  office  of 
assessor  became  elective  through  popular 
legislation  Mr.  Carroll  was  elected  with 
an  overwhelming  majority  to  that  post  of 
trust.  No  greater  tribute  to  his  stand- 
ing in  the  estimation  of  his  fellow  citizens 
could  possibly  have  been  given  him.  His 
term  in  office  as  assessor  began  on  Janu- 
ary i,  1908;  in  191 1  he  was  reelected,  and 
in  January,  1912,  entered  upon  a  term 
which  would  have  expired  in  December 
of  the  year  of  his  death. 

Aside  from  his  high  standing  in  the 
official  affairs  of  the  city  government,  he 
was  one  of  its  most  popular  men,  readily 
making  friends  of  every  man  and  woman 
whom  he  met.  Because  of  his  genius  for 
making  and  keeping  friends,  Mr.  Carroll 
was  much  sought  socially.  His  relations 
with  his  colleagues  in  official  life,  as  is 
not  very  often  the  case,  were  intimate  and 
pleasant  to  an  unusual  degree,  and  his 
friends  in  the  world  of  his  work  were  cor- 
dially received  in  his  home.  Mr.  Carroll 
was  a  thoroughly  hard  working  official, 
devoting  his  best  strength  and  energy  to 
his  labor  for  the  city.  He  was  acceded  to 
be  beyond  a  doubt  an  expert  in  real  estate 
values  and  assessments.  As  one  thor- 
oughly conversant  with  all  departments 
of  municipal  government,  his  advice  was 
sought  on  wellnigh  all  questions  of  public 
importance.  Mr.  Carroll  was  most  in- 
fluential, if  not  the  most  influential  man 
in  the  Democratic  organization  of  the 
city,  and  a  most  important  member  of  the 
inner  circle  of  Democratic  politics. 

Mr.  Carroll  was  married,  in  Yonkers, 
on  June  8,  1903,  to  Rose  V.  O'Brien,  who 
was  born  June  8,  1879,  one  of  the  thirteen 
children  of  James  and  Catherine  (Dolan) 
O'Brien,  natives  of  Ireland.  Mrs.  Car- 
roll's father,  upon  coming  to  America, 
settled  in  Yonkers,  where  he  followed  for 
a  time  the  trade  of  rustic  maker.   He  later 


entered  Democratic  politics  and  became 
an  assessor.  Her  mother  is  still  living 
and  a  resident  of  Yonkers. 

Mr.  Carroll  was  connected  fraternally 
with  many  social  societies  and  secret 
orders,  some  of  which  are  here  given.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  Troy  Council  of 
the  Catholic  Benevolent  Legion,  and  of 
the  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians,  and  of 
the  Knights  of  Columbus.  Mr.  Carroll 
was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the  Yonkers 
Lodge  of  Moose,  and  its  first  dictator.  He 
was  also  a  member  of  the  board  of  direc- 
tors of  the  City  Club. 

The  character  of  Mr.  Carroll  was  in  all 
respects  exemplary,  possessing,  as  popu- 
lar opinion  seems  to  indicate,  not  even 
those  minor  defects  which  are  willingly 
and  eagerly  overlooked  in  a  great  and 
generous  nature.  He  was  essentially  a 
home  man,  though  he  fulfilled  all  duties 
of  a  social  nature  incumbent  upon  a  man 
in  public  life.  In  a  quiet  and  unostenta- 
tious way  he  gave  largely  and  freely  to 
charity,  and  because  of  the  quiet  way  in 
which  he  did  go  about  all  the  details  of 
his  life  the  good  which  he  did  cannot  be 
truly  estimated.  He  was  extremely  popu- 
lar and  had  friends  in  all  walks  of  life,  to 
whom  his  tragic  death  as  a  comparatively 
young  man  at  the  meridian  of  a  success- 
ful and  highly  useful  career  came  as  a 
shock,  terrible  and  grievous.  The  tribute 
of  Mayor  Lennon,  of  Yonkers,  to  Mr 
Carroll  voices  but  briefly  and  inadequate- 
ly the  grief  of  the  entire  city  at  its  be- 
reavement : 

The  sudden  and  tragic  death  of  Mr.  Carroll  was 
a  great  shock  to  me.  He  was  a  dear  personal 
friend.  As  a  public  official  he  was  zealous  and 
competent.  The  city  has  lost  a  faithful  and  de- 
voted public  servant.  It  is  significant  that  even 
his  untimely  end  came  while  engaged  in  the 
affairs  of  his  office.  His  characteristic  good 
humor  and  wit,  as  well  as  his  other  personal  quali- 
ties endeared  him  to  a  very  large  circle  of  friends 
to  whom  his  death  is  a  severe  blow. 
6 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Upon  receiving  the  news  of  Mr.  Car- 
roll's death,  which  occurred  on  January  7, 
1915,  in  a  fatal  auto  accident  while  he 
was  about  the  city's  business  in  one  of  its 
own  cars,  the  flags  on  the  City  Hall  and 
City  Club  were  lowered  and  kept  at  half- 
mast. 


SNYDER,  William  Wallace, 

Public-Spirited   Citizen. 

Prominent  in  the  commercial  world  of 
New  York  and  New  Jersey,  was  William 
Wallace  Snyder,  whose  death  on  Febru- 
ary 10,  1915,  at  the  age  of  sixty-seven 
years,  removed  from  Mount  Vernon,  New 
York,  one  of  its  most  prominent  and  pub- 
lic-spirited citizens  and  one  who  had  iden- 
tified himself  with  its  interests  most 
closely. 

William  Wallace  Snyder  was  born  Au- 
gust 1,  1847,  at  Orange,  New  Jersey,  a 
son  of  John  and  Almira  (Andruss) 
Snyder,  of  that  city.  His  paternal  grand- 
parents came  from  Germany  to  this  coun- 
try, being  the  first  of  this  branch  of  the 
family  to  locate  here.  He  spent  the  years 
of  his  childhood  and  early  youth  in 
Orange  and  there  received  the  prelimi- 
nary portion  of  his  education,  attending 
the  private  schools  of  the  city  and  the 
Newark  Academy.  In  early  youth  Mr. 
Snyder  had  decided  to  follow  the  law  as 
a  profession,  and  with  this  view  he  ma- 
triculated at  the  New  York  University 
and  took  the  law  course  there.  He  proved 
an  apt  student  in  this  subject  and  was 
graduated  with  honors,  but  although  emi- 
nently fitted  by  gifts  and  acquirements 
for  this  profession,  Mr.  Snyder  did  not 
persevere  in  his  practice  for  any  length  of 
time.  His  attention  had  become  engaged 
with  the  mercantile  opportunities  opened 
to  him  in  that  part  of  the  country  and 
while  still  a  comparatively  young  man  he 
engaged  in  the  dry  goods  business,  open- 


ing four  stores,  one  in  Newark,  and  three 
in  Trenton,  New  Jersey.  He  later  sold 
his  Newark  branch  and  devoted  his  time 
to  his  three  stores  in  Trenton.  His  suc- 
cess in  this  enterprise  was  great,  the 
stores  prospering  highly  from  the  outset. 
Mr.  Snyder's  business  foresight  was  un- 
usually accurate  and  it  was  due  to  his 
capable  management  that  the  business  in 
Doth  places  grew  to  such  large  propor- 
tions. He  was  enabled,  after  a  number  of 
years  spent  in  this  occupation,  to  retire 
entirely  from  active  business  life,  and 
upon  his  retirement  he  came  to  Mount 
Vernon,  New  York,  and  there  established 
his  permanent  home,  at  No.  127  Elm  ave- 
nue ;  he  also  had  a  summer  home  called 
"Sunset  Hall,"  at  Bedford  Hills.  New 
York.  He  remained  a  resident  of  Mount 
Vernon  up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  tak- 
ing an  extremely  active  part  in  the  affairs 
of  his  adopted  city.  He  was  a  leader  in 
many  important  movements  there  and  be- 
came a  conspicuous  figure  in  Mount  Ver- 
non's general  life.  He  was  greatly  in- 
terested in  all  military  matters  and  a 
strong  advocate  of  military  training  for 
boys  and  worked  practically  for  his  ideal. 
He  became  the  captain  of  what  was 
known  as  the  Boys'  Brigade,  a  local  or- 
ganization with  many  of  the  ideals  of  the 
later  Boy  Scouts.  The  Boys'  Brigade 
was  connected  with  the  First  Presby- 
terian Church  of  Mount  Vernon,  of  which 
Mr.  Snyder  was  a  devoted  member.  He 
was  also  prominent  in  fraternal  circles 
and  was  a  member  of  the  Independent 
Order  of  Odd  Fellows.  By  right  of  his 
mother's  lineal  descent,  he  was  a  member 
of  the  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution ; 
likewise  all  his  children  are  member  of 
the  Revolutionary  societies.  Late  in  life 
he  joined  the  Episcopal  church  and  at- 
tended the  Church  of  the  Ascension  of 
that  denomination  at  Mount  Vernon. 
Mr.  Snyder  married,  March  5,  1898,  at 


317 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OE  BIOGRAPHY 


Buffalo,  New  York,  Sarah  Whiteneack, 
daughter  of  Alfred  and  Eliza  (Hill) 
Whiteneack,  old  and  highly  respected 
residents  of  Pleasant  Valley,  Mercer 
county,  New  Jersey.  To  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Snyder  five  children  were  born,  as  fol- 
lows :  Helen,  September  7, 1899,  at  Irving- 
ton,  New  Jersey ;  William  W.,  January 
29,  1901,  at  Mount  Vernon,  New  York; 
Andrew  T.,  March  18,  1902,  at  Mount 
Vernon ;  Gretchen  S.,  October  6,  1905 ; 
Edward  H.,  November  12,  1906,  both  of 
the  latter  children  being  born  at  Bedford 
Hills,  New  York. 

William  Wallace  Snyder  brought  to 
the  shaping  of  his  career  a  very  happy 
and  unusual  combination  of  character- 
istics, which  won  for  him  his  success  as  a 
business  man  and  his  still  greater  success 
as  a  man.  Underlying  the  rest  of  his 
personality  and  serving  as  the  surest  and 
most  imperishable  foundation  for  it,  was 
that  strong,  practical  morality  that  has  so 
distinguished  the  hardy  race  of  which  he 
was  a  descendant.  His  philanthropy  was 
great  and  sprang  from  the  sincere  kind- 
ness of  his  heart,  which  embraced  all  men 
in  its  regard,  and  from  the  culture  and 
enlightenment  of  his  mind  which  gives 
intelligence  and  definite  direction  to  his 
natural  altruism.  Closely  correlated  to 
this  was  his  sturdy  democracy,  not  in- 
compatible with  a  healthy  pride  in  the 
long  line  of  worthy  forbears.  In  spite  of 
his  strong  social  instincts,  he  was  a  man 
of  intense  domestic  feelings  who  took  his 
greatest  pleasure  in  the  intimate  relations 
of  the  home  and  family,  and  made  himself 
beloved  by  those  who  were  thus  closely 
associated  with  him.  He  had  many 
friends  and  among  them,  as  in  the  com- 
munity at  large,  he  exerted  a  powerful  in- 
fluence which  was  always  wielded  on  the 
side  of  right  and  justice. 


BARRY,  Patrick, 

Horticulturist,  Financier. 

Patrick  Barry  was  the  son  of  an  Irish 
farmer  and  was  born  near  the  city  of  Bel- 
fast, Ireland,  in  1816.  He  received  a 
liberal  education,  and  at  the  age  of 
eighteen  became  a  teacher  in  one  of  the 
Irish  national  schools.  After  having 
taught  two  years  he  resigned  and  re- 
solved to  make  the  United  States  his 
future  home  and  country.  Accordingly, 
in  1836,  he  came  to  New  York  and  short- 
ly after  his  arrival  was  offered  a  clerkship 
by  the  Princes,  celebrated  nurserymen  of 
the  period,  at  Flushing,  Long  Island, 
which  he  accepted.  He  remained  with 
them  four  years,  during  which  time  he 
acquired  a  practical  knowledge  of  the 
nursery  business.  In  1840  he  removed  to 
Rochester,  and  in  July  of  that  year  formed 
a  partnership  with  George  Ellwanger, 
which  continued  to  the  time  of  his  de- 
mise. The  firm  of  Ellwanger  &  Barry 
established,  upon  seven  acres  of  ground 
as  a  beginning,  what  are  now  of  vast  ex- 
tent and  world-wide  fame,  "The  Mount 
Hope  Nurseries,"  which,  transplanted  in 
every  State  and  territory  of  the  Union 
and  in  foreign  lands,  have  made  the  im- 
press of  Patrick  Barry's  genius  upon  the 
face  of  the  earth.  His  industry  was  one 
of  genuine  production  of  wealth  from  the 
soil.  Its  creations  from  nature  have,  in 
their  fruits  and  flowers,  and  trees  and 
shrubs,  ministered  to  those  senses  of  man 
whose  gratification  refines  life  and  makes  it 
enjoyable,  and  it  is  a  pleasure  to  know  that 
it  was  duly  rewarded  by  a  rich  return. 

While  building  up  this  great  industry 
Mr.  Barry  acted  well  many  other  parts. 
His  pen  was  not  idle.  To  the  instruction 
and  influence  flowing  from  it  is  horticul- 
ture much  indebted  for  its  advancement 
during  sixty  years  in  this  country.     Fol- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


lowing  many  miscellaneous  contributions 
to  the  literature  of  that  particular  field, 
Mr.  Barry,  in  1852,  published  his  first 
popular  work,  "The  Fruit  Garden."  The 
edition  was  soon  exhausted  and  another 
and  larger  one  followed  in  1855.  In  1852 
"The  Horticulturist"  passed  from  the 
hands  of  Luther  Tucker  into  those  of 
James  Vick,  and  was  removed  from  Al- 
bany to  Rochester  in  order  that  the  la- 
mented Downing,  drowned  in  the  "Henry 
Clay"  disaster  on  the  Hudson  river,  might 
be  succeeded  in  its  editorial  chair  by  Mr. 
Barry,  who  conducted  it  several  years  and 
until  its  purchase  by  the  Messrs.  Smith, 
of  Philadelphia.  Mr.  Barry's  chief  and 
most  valuable  work,  however,  was  his 
"Catalogue  of  the  American  Pomological 
Society,"  which  is  the  accepted  guide  of 
American  fruit  growers  and  is  regarded 
as  standard  authority  throughout  the 
world.  But  outside  of  the  nursery  and 
the  sanctum  Mr.  Barry  was  no  less  busily 
and  usefully  engaged.  Regular  in  habit 
and  methodical  in  action,  he  was  enabled 
to  perform  duties  as  varied  in  character 
as  they  were  successful  in  result. 

For  more  than  twenty  years  he  was 
president  of  the  Western  New  York  Hor- 
ticultural Society,  which  is  the  most  pros- 
perous and  important  of  its  kind  in  the 
United  States.  He  was  president  of  the 
New  York  State  Agricultural  Society  and 
a  member  of  the  board  of  control  of  New 
York  State  Agricultural  Experimental 
Station.  At  times  he  filled  offices  of  im- 
portance to  the  local  community,  such  as 
alderman  of  the  city  and  supervisor  of 
the  county  and  has  frequently  declined  the 
tender  of  others.  The  Flour  City  Na- 
tional Bank,  of  which  Mr.  Barry  was 
president  and  of  which  he  was  also  direc- 
tor nearly  from  the  outset,  was  one  of  the 
largest  and  most  prosperous  of  financial 
institutions  of  Western  New  York.  Be- 
sides the  Flour  City  National  Bank,  Mr. 


Barry  was  prominently  identified  with 
many  other  important  enterprises  of 
Rochester,  filling  such  positions  as  presi- 
dent of  the  Mechanics'  Savings  Bank, 
president  of  the  Rochester  City  &  Brigh- 
ton Railroad  Company,  president  of  the 
Powers  Hotel  Company,  president  of  the 
Rochester  Gas  Company,  a  trustee  of  the 
Rochester  Trust  &  Safe  Deposit  Com- 
pany, member  of  the  commission  appoint- 
ed by  the  Legislature  to  supervise  the 
elevation  of  the  Central  Railroad  track 
through  the  city,  etc.  He  aided  largely 
in  building  up  the  central  business  prop- 
erty of  Rochester,  of  which  he  was  a  con- 
siderable owner,  and  in  developing  the 
valuable  water  power  of  the  lower  falls 
of  the  Genesee  river,  connected  with 
which  he  had  large  interests. 

In  all  his  walks  Patrick  Barry  was  an 
upright  man, — a  model  of  industry,  in- 
tegrity and  honor.  No  one  in  the  city 
where  he  lived  his  busy  and  eventful  life 
was  field  in  higher  esteem  by  his  fellow 
citizens  ;  and  the  life  of  no  man  in  Roches- 
ter furnished  a  better  example  or  stronger 
incentive  to  the  youth  of  the  present  day 
who  would  make  for  themselves  a  spot- 
less name  and  achieve  enduring  fame. 

Mr.  Barry  married,  in  1847,  Harriet 
Huestis,  a  native  of  Richfield,  Otsego 
county,  New  York.  Eight  children  were 
born  of  this  union,  six  sons  and  two 
daughters.  Five  sons  and  one  daughter, 
the  eldest,  have  passed  away;  the  eldest 
son  and  the  youngest  daughter  are  liv- 
ing. Mr.  Barry  died  June  23,  1890,  and 
while  fruit  growing  remains  an  industry 
of  the  country  his  memory  will  be  cher- 
ished as  the  promoter  of  valuable  knowl- 
edge along  this  line.  In  his  home  city, 
where  he  was  widely  known  he  had  a 
very  large  circle  of  friends,  and  his  own 
life  was  an  exemplification  of  the  Emer- 
sonian philosophy  that  "the  way  to  win  a 
friend  is  to  be  one." 


319 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


GILL,  David, 

Builder,  Real  Estate  Operator. 

It  is  a  theory  that  receives  a  general 
acceptance  that  that  part  of  a  race  of 
people  which  migrate  to  distant  lands  in 
search  of  freer  institutions,  fortune  or 
even  adventure,  is  among  the  most  enter- 
prising portion  of  the  community  and  is 
on  the  whole  a  most  desirable  class  for  a 
new  country  to  give  welcome  to.  If  one 
will  stop  to  consider  the  facts  in  the  case 
he  will  receive  a  strong  confirmation  of 
this  belief,  for  surely  it  is  obvious  that 
it  requires  no  mean  degree  of  courage  to 
give  up  the  familiar  things  that  have  sur- 
rounded us  in  youth  and  venture  forth 
into  a  world  that  is  strange  to  us,  and,  if 
we  except  those  comparatively  few  in- 
dividuals which  are  obliged  to  do  so  be- 
cause they  have  made  themselves  so  un- 
desirable as  to  be  hunted  from  home,  it 
is  clear  that  those  who  leave  are  the  pos- 
sessors of  this  courage,  a  characteristic 
that  in  itself  is  a  strong  recommendation. 
Our  own  country  is  surely  the  best  in- 
stance of  the  truth  of  this  contention, 
with  its  virile  people,  its  constructive  en- 
ergy, its  immense  optimism,  springing, 
as  we  do,  from  nothing  but  just  emi- 
grants from  other  lands.  If  an  individual 
case  were  needed  to  lend  additional 
weight  to  the  theory,  it  would  be  difficult 
to  find  a  better  one  than  that  of  David 
Gill,  the  distinguished  gentleman  whose 
name  heads  this  brief  appreciation,  who, 
himself  an  immigrant  and  a  child  of  immi- 
grants, came  to  this  country  and  became 
so  closely  identified  with  the  life  of  his 
adopted  community,  Rondout,  Kingston, 
New  York,  where  his  death  on  June  4, 
1910,  was  felt  as  a  very  real  loss  by  the 
entire  community. 

Born  March  4,  1824,  at  Quebec,  Canada, 
Mr.  Gill  was  a  son  of  Alexander  and  Jane 
(Kerr)   Gill,  natives  of  Ireland,  who  had 


come  from  there  to  the  western  province  in 
their  youth.  Mr.  Gill  spent  his  own  child- 
hood in  the  city  of  his  birth  and  there 
received  his  education,  attending  for  this 
purpose  the  excellent  schools  of  Quebec, 
where  he  proved  himself  an  apt  scholar 
and  gave  signs  of  that  industry  and  in- 
telligence which  so  markedly  character- 
ized him  in  later  life  and  was  the  founda- 
tion of  his  great  business  success.  After 
completing  his  schooling  in  Quebec  he 
applied  himself  to  mastering  the  trade  of 
carpentry  and  with  much  success,  making 
himself  an  expert  in  his  craft  so  that  he 
easily  secured  work  in  the  city.  His  par- 
ents dying,  Mr.  Gill  came  to  the  United 
States  in  the  year  1848,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-four,  and  settled  in  Rondout, 
Kingston,  which  was  his  home  and  the 
scene  of  his  busy  activities  thereafter  un- 
til the  close  of  his  life.  He  had  entered 
the  lumber  business  before  leaving  Can- 
ada and  in  this  he  continued,  plying  his 
trade  as  a  carpenter  also.  He  was  a 
young  man  of  small  means  when  he  came 
to  this  country,  but  his  capacity  for  hard 
work  and  a  quick,  almost  intuitive  insight 
into  business  values  soon  pushed  him  for- 
ward into  the  first  rank  of  the  city's  men 
of  affairs.  By  dint  of  industry  and  thrift 
he  soon  began  adding  to  his  small  capital 
and  as  soon  as  it  became  possible  began 
to  build  small  houses  on  his  own  account 
and  sell  them  at  moderate  figures.  In 
this  venture  he  was  very  successful  and 
was  soon  traveling  the  road  to  fortune. 
His  method,  as  time  went  on,  was  to  pur- 
chase undeveloped  properties,  preferably 
on  both  sides  of  a  street,  grade  them  and 
erect  attractive  houses  upon  them.  His 
taste  in  designing  these,  together  with  the 
reputation  that  he  soon  earned  of  putting 
only  the  best  of  material  and  workman- 
ship into  them,  brought  him  ready  pur- 
chasers and  kept  him  busy  building  more. 
Indeed,  there  are  few  men  who  have  done 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


so  much  toward  developing  this  section 
of  the  city  on  the  most  attractive  and 
desirable  lines  as  Mr.  Gill.  He  never,  in 
the  pursuit  of  his  own  interests,  forgot 
for  a  moment  his  obligations  to  the  com- 
munity and  it  was  always  with  this  in 
sight  that  he  carried  on  his  developing 
operations,  thus  keeping  up  and  improv- 
ing the  general  tone  of  the  locality  and 
greatly  increasing  real  estate  values  there. 
After  engaging  in  this  enterprise  for  up- 
wards of  thirty  years,  Mr.  Gill  gave  it  up 
and  devoted  his  attention  to  another  busi- 
ness that  had  grown  up  in  connection 
with  it.  This  was  the  sale  of  coal  and 
cement,  which  he  purchased  by  the  boat 
load  from  other  places  and  then  retailed 
throughout  the  city.  In  1893,  at  the  age 
of  sixty-nine  years,  Mr.  Gill's  health, 
which  until  then  had  been  excellent,  suc- 
cumbed to  a  severe  rheumatic  trouble 
which  forced  him  to  give  up  his  active 
life.  The  great  business  that  he  had  de- 
veloped was  carried  on  by  his  eldest  son, 
David  Gill,  Jr.  The  last  seventeen  years 
of  Mr.  Gill's  life  were  spent  in  the  midst 
of  his  family  and  in  pursuance  of  less 
arduous  duties  than  that  of  conducting 
his  business  operations.  Though  a  man 
of  leisure  in  one  sense  of  the  word,  he 
was  of  far  too  active  a  nature  to  sink  into 
idleness  and  took  part  in  the  social  and 
religious  life  of  the  community  to  as  great 
an  extent  as  his  painful  malady  permitted. 
Besides  his  extremely  important  busi- 
ness activities,  Mr.  Gill  had  through  all 
the  years  of  his  residence  in  Rondout 
been  a  prominent  figure  in  the  general 
life  of  the  place.  In  politics,  in  the  social 
circles,  both  club  and  military,  he  was 
well-known  and  his  energetic  work  in  the 
cause  of  education  and  the  schools  was  of 
a  kind  to  draw  the  grateful  attention  of 
his  fellow  citizens.  He  allied  himself  to 
the  local  organization  of  the  Republican 
party,  the  principles  and  policies  of  which 


he  staunchly  advocated,  and  did  much  to 
aid  the  Republican  cause  in  the  city.  He 
was  no  seeker  of  office,  but  he  did  con- 
sent to  take  the  candidacy  for  the  asses- 
sorship  of  the  city,  was  elected  and  held 
that  post  for  three  years.  He  was  treas- 
urer of  the  school  at  Puckscookie  for 
many  years  and  under  his  skillful  man- 
agement the  affairs  of  that  institution 
prospered  greatly.  In  the  year  1850  the 
military  body  known  as  the  Jackson 
Rifles  was  organized  in  Kingston  and 
Mr.  Gill  became  a  member.  He  was  also 
a  member  for  a  considerable  period  of 
the  fire  company  there.  In  the  matter  of 
religion  he  was  a  Presbyterian  and  great- 
ly interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  church 
of  that  denomination  in  Rondout,  of  which 
he  was  a  faithful  member. 

In  March,  1857,  Mr.  Gill  was  united  in 
marriage  with  Isabella  Caldwell,  who 
was,  like  himself,  a  native  of  Canada,  but 
whom  he  met  and  married  in  the  Ameri- 
can city  where  both  had  made  their  home. 
Mrs.  Gill  was  a  daughter  of  Francis  and 
Isabella  Caldwell,  natives  of  Scotland, 
who  had  come  to  Canada  in  their  youth. 
To  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gill  were  born  four 
children  as  follows  :  1.  David,  Jr.,  who  now 
conducts  the  great  coal  and  cement  busi- 
ness founded  by  his  father;  married 
Emma  Steward,  and  they  are  the  parents 
of  five  children:  Earl,  Ruth,  Dorothy, 
Helen  and  Bessie.  2.  Walter,  now  sur- 
rogate of  Ulster  county ;  married  Mar- 
garet Van  Kurran,  by  whom  he  has  had 
three  children:  Walter,  LeRoy  and  Flla. 
3.  Thomas,  late  a  successful  practicing 
physician  at  Hobart,  Delaware  county, 
New  York,  but  now  deceased.  4.  Alfonzo, 
died  in  infancy. 

Mr.  Gill  was  that  type  of  man  whose 
presence  is  most  valuable  in  a  commu- 
nity, the  versatile  man  whose  activities 
are  of  so  varied  an  order  that  there  is 
scarcely  a  department  in  the  life  of  his 


321 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF   BIOGRAPHY 


fellow  citizens  in  which  he  is  not  promi- 
nent. A  man  of  enthusiastic,  though 
quiet  public  spirit,  who  was  ever  ready 
and  able  to  take  the  lead  in  any  important 
movement  undertaken  with  the  commu- 
nity's interests  in  view.  A  generous  and 
liberal  giver  to  all  good  causes,  he  was 
highly  respected  by  his  fellows  who  felt 
keenly  the  obligation  that  the  whole  place 
were  under  to  him.  He  was  devoted  to 
his  own  home  and  nothing  gave  so  much 
or  such  unalloyed  happiness  as  the  inti- 
mate intercourse  with  his  family  and  per- 
sonal friends  about  his  fireside.  That  he 
was  able  to  indulge  this  taste  amply  dur- 
ing his  declining  years  was  a  fact  on 
which  he  often  dwelt  with  pleasure,  and 
it  was  certainly  a  great  compensation 
even  for  that  most  painful  of  afflictions, 
rheumatism,  with  which  those  years  were 
burdened.  The  possessor,  at  once  of  the 
fundamental  virtues,  and  a  most  attrac- 
tive personality,  he  gathered  and  held 
about  him  an  unusually  large  and  devoted 
circle  of  friends  who  felt  and  still  feel 
that  his  death  has  left  a  gap  quite  impos- 
sible to  fill. 


VALENTINE,  George, 

Business    Man,    Public    Official. 

In  the  carrying  on  of  our  public  affairs 
we  often  find  men  of  large  capability  who 
adequately  perform  the  functions  that  the 
community  entrusts  to  them  and  even 
men  of  brilliancy  in  some  line  of  activity 
who  are  chosen  to  this  or  that  office  be- 
cause their  capacities  seem  to  be  in  line 
with  the  work  to  be  done,  but  a  real  talent 
for  public  affairs  as  such  is  very  unusual 
and  almost  invariably  means  advance- 
ment of  a  high  order  for  its  possessor. 
Such  a  talent,  however,  was  the  posses- 
sion of  George  Valentine,  late  of  New 
Rochelle,  New  York,  whose  death  there 
on  February  27,  1915,  was  felt  as  a  seri- 


ous loss  by  the  entire  community,  a  talent 
for  taking  care  of  community  affairs  of 
any  and  every  nature,  for  perceiving  the 
real  advantage  for  the  city  and  seeking 
it  with  insistence  amid  all  the  confusion 
of  political  debate  and  the  conflicting  pur- 
poses of  other  men  not  so  disinterested  as 
he.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  was  but 
forty-three  years  of  age,  the  record  that 
Mr.  Valentine  had  established  in  his  city's 
service  was  equalled  by  very  few,  even 
among  men  who  had  completed  the  full 
measure  of  human  life. 

Born  in  New  Rochelle,  October  3,  1872, 
Mr.  Valentine  made  that  city  his  home 
during  the  whole  of  his  all-too-brief  life 
and  it  was  there  that  his  associations  were 
all  formed  and  his  affection  centered.  He 
was  the  son  of  George  and  Jane  (Golden) 
Valentine,  old  and  well-known  residents 
of  the  place,  and  it  was  there  that  he  re- 
ceived his  education,  attending  the  ex- 
cellent local  public  schools  for  that  pur- 
pose. Upon  completing  his  studies,  he 
entered  politics  and  it  was  in  this  depart- 
ment of  affairs  that  his  career  lay.  In  the 
year  1898,  when  about  twenty-six  years 
of  age,  he  entered  into  partnership  with 
his  brother,  William  Valentine,  and  the 
two  young  men  established  themselves  in 
a  plumbing  business  in  which  they  met 
with  eminent  success.  The  location  of 
this  establishment  was  No.  11  Lawton 
street,  and  here  Mr.  George  Valentine 
continued  until  the  time  of  his  death. 
The  reputation  which  the  young  men  won 
as  men  of  the  most  scrupulous  business 
integrity  and  probity,  whose  obligations 
were  kept  to  the  letter,  was  one  of  the 
principal  factors  in  the  great  success  that 
they  had.  another  contributing  cause  be- 
ing the  extremely  attractive  personality 
of  Mr.  Valentine. 

One  of  the  earliest  connections  with  the 
public  service  of  Mr.  Valentine  was  that 
as  a  member  of  the  New  Rochelle   Fire 


322 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Department  in  which  he  quickly  worked 
up  to  the  post  of  captain  in  which  he 
served  for  a  number  of  years.  His  career 
in  this  organization  was  in  a  manner 
typical  of  his  entire  life,  for  in  whatever 
sphere  of  action  he  found  himself  he  en- 
tered into  the  work  with  so  much  enthu- 
siasm and  spirit  that  he  rendered  himself 
invaluable  to  his  fellows  and  rapidly  rose 
to  first  place.  He  was  elected  a  member 
of  the  fire  commission  in  the  year  191 1, 
and  quickly  became  chairman  of  the  board 
and  shortly  afterwards,  in  the  same  year, 
he  was  the  successful  candidate  to  the 
City  Council  from  the  Third  Ward.  From 
that  time  until  the  close  of  his  life  he  was 
returned  to  this  body  and  during  the 
period  of  his  service  there  proved  himself 
a  most  valuable  and  disinterested  servant 
of  the  people.  For  a  period  of  about 
fourteen  months  before  his  death  he  was 
president  of  the  Council  and  in  that  ca- 
pacity became  automatically  a  member  of 
the  board  of  estimate.  He  had  proved 
himself  one  of  the  dominant  factors  in  the 
Council  and  it  was  because  of  his  inde- 
fatigable work  and  the  recognition  on  the 
part  of  his  fellow  members  that  he  was 
naturally  a  leader  of  men  that  he  had 
been  chosen  president,  and  now  on  the 
board  of  estimate  he  was  equally  active 
and  equally  successful.  In  some  ways  his 
work  on  this  body  was  the  most  valuable 
that  he  performed  for  the  city,  and  al- 
though, of  course,  all  men  in  such  a 
position  necessarily  have  their  opponents, 
none  were  so  bold  as  to  call  into  question 
the  sincerity  of  his  intentions  or  the  hon- 
esty of  his  methods.  Certainly  his  con- 
stituents were  most  enthusiastic  in  their 
approbation  and  always  stood  behind  him 
with  their  approval  in  all  his  policies  and 
official  acts.  The  same  talent  in  practical 
affairs,  the  same  power  of  a  strong  and 
attractive  personality  that  made  him  so 
successful  in  his  business,  he  applied  to 


the  business  of  the  community  and  with 
the  same  result  that  all  that  was  under- 
taken at  his  suggestion  or  under  his  direc- 
tion prospered  and  brought  about  its 
benefit  to  the  community. 

But  it  was  not  merely  in  his  official 
capacity  that  he  took  a  keen  interest  or 
an  active  part  in  the  affairs  of  the  city. 
In  every  worthy  department  of  its  life 
he  was  a  prominent  figure  and  in  that  of 
the  clubs  and  general  social  affairs  he  was 
especially  so.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
New  Rochelle  Lodge,  Benevolent  and 
Protective  Order  of  Elks ;  Echo  Lodge, 
Knights  of  Pythias;  and  the  Firemen's 
Benevolent  Fund  Association.  In  the 
matter  of  his  religious  belief,  Mr.  Valen- 
tine was  a  Presbyterian,  a  member  of  the 
North  Avenue  Church  of  that  denomina- 
tion in  the  work  of  which  he  was  ex- 
tremely active,  giving  liberally  of  his  time 
and  wealth  in  its  support  and  especially 
toward  the  advancement  of  the  philan- 
thropic movements  connected  therewith. 

Mr.  Valentine  was  united  in  marriage 
with  Carrie  Beaulah,  of  New  York.  To 
this  union  were  born  two  children,  George 
and  Marion,  who  with  their  mother  sur- 
vive Mr.  Valentine  and  still  make  their 
residence  in  New  Rochelle. 

There  is  always  an  element  of  tragedy 
in  the  death  of  a  man  before  the  comple- 
tion of  the  allotted  three  score  years  and 
ten,  but  this  is  deepened  and  made  com- 
mon property  when  that  man  is  gifted 
with  the  brilliant  talents  and  capabilities 
of  Mr.  Valentine,  especially  when  he  is 
exerting  them  in  the  service  of  his  fel- 
lows at  the  very  zenith  of  so  promising  a 
career.  His  faculties  may  hardly  be  said 
to  have  reached  their  full  development 
and  certainly,  with  his  youthful  success 
behind  him  and  his  prominence  in  the 
community's  regard  still  in  his  grasp,  his 
career  would  have  led  him  much  higher 
and  into  realms  in  which  he  would  have 


323 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


won  great  honor  for  himself  and  done  a 
still  more  considerable  service  to  his  fel- 
lows. No  one  who  followed  his  political 
course  and  realized  the  significance  of  his 
official  acts  but  acknowledged  frankly  his 
remarkable  grasp  of  affairs  and  that  he 
was  the  right  man  in  the  right  place.  In 
his  various  capacities  as  a  member  of  the 
Council,  as  its  president,  and,  above  all, 
as  member  of  the  board  of  estimate,  he 
was  brought  into  the  most  intimate  con- 
tact with  all  the  issues  that  were  before 
the  community  in  that  day,  and  his  hand- 
ling of  the  same  displayed  a  quite  unusual 
union  of  the  idealistic  and  practical  points 
of  view  which  gave  additional  value  and 
effect  to  his  service.  He  was  a  man  of 
large  mental  balance  and  the  interests  of 
the  city  were  never  in  any  danger  of  suf- 
fering either  from  neglect  or  lack  of  fore- 
sight on  his  part.  As  far  as  the  former 
was  concerned,  so  devoted  was  he  to  the 
task  placed  upon  his  shoulders  by  his  fel- 
low citizens  that  he  rather  neglected  his 
own  interests,  and  even  his  health,  in  its 
discharge,  and  by  the  same  token  it  was 
obvious  how  sincere  were  his  motives  and 
how  deeply  to  heart  he  took  his  duties. 
Perhaps  the  greatest  thing  accomplished 
by  Mr.  Valentine,  however,  was  not  his 
services  to  the  people  as  an  officer  of  gov- 
ernment, important  as  these  were,  but  the 
still  more  unusual  feat  of  remaining  the 
perfectly  simple-minded,  democratic  figure 
that  he  had  always  been  in  spite  of  his 
somewhat  extraordinary  success.  Whether 
president  of  the  Council  or  member  of  the 
board  of  estimate,  he  was  always  famili- 
arly known  to  those  who  knew  him  at  all 
as  "George"  and  this  would  have  un- 
doubtedly continued  to  the  end  of  how- 
ever long  a  life  he  might  have  lived,  what- 
ever posts  he  might  have  been  called  upon 
to  fill.  To  remain  the  equal  of  one's  fel- 
lows on  all  other  grounds  while  rising 
above  them  officially,  to  remember  that 


great  doctrine  of  democracy  that  the  offi- 
cial is  merely  the  servant  of  the  people — 
the  common  people,  is  one  of  the  most 
difficult  and  one  of  the  most  worthy 
achievements  a  man  may  have  to  his 
credit,  and  it  was  preeminently  the 
achievement  of  George  Valentine.  With 
him  it  was  never  the  office  in  relation  to 
himself  and  his  ambitions  that  was  to  be 
considered,  but  the  office  in  relation  to 
the  task  it  imposed,  the  functions  in  which 
it  involved  the  incumbent.  The  same 
simplicity  and  singleness  of  outlook  char- 
acterized him  in  all  the  relations  of  life 
and  he  had  no  time  to  think  of  what  he 
was  because  of  that  more  important  prob- 
lem of  what  he  was  to  do.  The  personal 
effect  of  such  a  character  upon  the  com- 
munity in  which  he  dwells  is  greater  than 
any  which  springs  from  any  official  act, 
however  important,  but  it  was  Mr.  Val- 
entine's distinction  that  he  could  be  of 
value  to  the  community  in  both  ways  so 
that  it  may  well  be  said  that  it  was  the 
better  for  his  having  lived  therein. 


ABRAMS,  Alanson, 

Representative  Citizen. 

It  is  not  by  any  means  the  appearance 
of  a  few  geniuses  and  men  of  extraordi- 
nary power  in  a  community  that  give  it 
a  claim  to  be  regarded  as  exceptional,  for 
such  men  appear  at  all  times  and  under 
all  conditions,  almost,  it  would  seem, 
without  any  obvious  connection  with  the 
society  in  which  they  take  root.  But 
that  which  marks  a  people  as  of  more 
than  usual  worth  and  virtue  is  the  pos- 
session by  the  rank  and  file  of  those  quali- 
ties of  courage  and  enterprise  that  spell 
success  in  the  great  struggle  for  ex- 
istence. In  all  communities  where  this 
is  so.  in  our  own,  for  instance,  there  is 
always  a  class  of  men  not  to  be  counted 
among  the  great  men  whose  deeds  affect 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


the  course  of  history,  but  rather  types  of 
the  average  man  yet  with  their  traits  of 
character  all  pointed  and  enlarged  so  that 
they  become  their  leaders  and  attain  to 
a  more  vivid  and  notable  individuality. 
Such  a  man  was  the  late  Alanson  Abrams, 
of  Hempstead,  Long  Island,  whose  death 
there  on  January  7,  19 16,  at  the  age  of 
seventy-one  years,  was  felt  as  a  loss  by 
the  community  generally.  Alert,  intelli- 
gent, enterprising  beyond  the  average, 
he  yet  possessed  the  attitude  of  mind,  the 
view  point  of  his  fellows  generally  so 
that  he  was  in  complete  sympathy  with 
their  aims  and  motives,  so  that  he  was 
naturally  among  them  a  leader,  a  man 
respected  and  sought  for  because  of  the 
aid  that  men  felt  him  able  and  willing  to 
give  either  as  advice  or  in  some  more 
material   form. 

Born  in  Lynbrook,  Long  Island,  New 
York,  October  19,  1844,  Mr.  Abrams  was 
a  son  of  Townsend  and  Sarah  Ann  (Fow- 
ler) Abrams,  life-long  residents  of  the 
town.  His  childhood  was  passed  in  the 
town  of  his  birth  and  it  was  there  that  he 
obtained  his  education  at  the  local 
schools.  When  he  was  still  very  young 
his  parents  removed  to  Brooklyn  and  he 
lived  in  that  city  until  he  had  reached  his 
thirty-seventh  year.  He  then  came  to 
Long  Island  and  there  purchased  two 
hundred  acres  of  farm  land  at  West 
Hempstead.  As  is  well  known  this  par- 
ticular section  of  Long  Island  has  de- 
veloped enormously  during  the  past  sev- 
eral decades  and  the  rapid  growth  of 
population  gave  to  Mr.  Abrams'  tract  a 
very  great  value  which  he  still  further 
increased  by  judicious  improvements. 
The  department  in  which  he  was  best 
known  to  the  community  was  politics,  in 
which  he  was  extremely  active,  particu- 
larly in  local  affairs.  He  was  a  staunch 
Republican  and  regarded  as  a  leader  in 
the  Hempstead  organization  of  the  party, 


taking  a  prominent  part  in  its  activities 
and  working  hard  to  advance  its  cause. 
In  spite  of  this,  however,  he  was  entirely 
indifferent  to  political  preferment  and 
public  office  and  though  often  urged  to 
take  posts  of  responsibility  in  the  gift  of 
his  party,  consented  only  once  to  do  so. 
He  did  accept  the  appointment  as  receiver 
of  taxes  in  Hempstead  town  and  held  the 
same  for  nine  years,  from  1900  to  1909. 
In  this  capacity  he  gave  the  community 
most  efficient  service  and  made  himself 
satisfactory  to  both  political  friends  and 
foes.  Aside  from  this  one  exception,  he 
was  content  and  preferred  to  exert  his  in- 
fluence merely  as  a  private  citizen.  Mr. 
Abrams  was  a  conspicuous  figure  in  so- 
cial and  club  circles  in  Hempstead  and 
was  a  member  of  several  important  or- 
ganizations, among  the  most  prominent 
of  which  was  the  Independent  Order  of 
Odd  Fellows.  He  was  also  a  member  of 
the  Queens  and  Nassau  Counties  Agri- 
cultural Society  and  for  the  two  years  be- 
tween 191 1  and  1913  was  president  there- 
of. 

Mr.  Abrams  was  twice  married.  His 
first  wife  was  S.  Amelia  Pearsall,  daugh- 
ter of  David  and  Phebe  (Mott)  Pearsall, 
whom  he  married  December  13,  1865,  and 
by  whom  he  had  one  daughter,  Adelaide, 
now  Mrs.  William  W.  Rapelye,  of  Hemp- 
stead, Long  Island.  Mrs.  Abrams  died 
March  20,  1876.  On  January  6,  1881,  Mr. 
Abrams  married  Josephine  Davison, 
daughter  of  Charles  and  Alma  (Wright) 
Davison,  by  whom  he  had  one  daughter, 
Blanche  Alansorene,  now  Mrs.  George 
H.  Lowden,  of  Hempstead,  Long  Island. 
Mrs.  Abrams  died  March  3,  1898. 

The  personality  of  Mr.  Abrams  was  a 
very  attractive  one,  his  character  wholly 
commendable.  Possessed  of  a  broad  and 
tolerant  outlook,  he  judged  charitably  of 
his  fellows  and  was  quick  to  forgive  them 
for  faults  he  knew  to  be  human.     A  true 


325 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


sense  of  humor  which  showed  itself  in  a 
genial  laugh  and  a  twinkling  eye  added 
to  his  frank  and  open  manner  and  made 
men  feel  sure  of  a  gracious  reception 
without  regard  to  their  outward  circum- 
stances, and  their  feelings  in  this  mattet 
did  not  betray  them,  for  Mr.  Abrams  had 
the  seeing  eye  that  penetrated  beneath 
the  habit  of  a  man  to  the  character  under- 
lying it,  so  that  rich  and  poor,  high  and 
low,  found  him  easy  of  approach.  He 
was  a  man's  man,  as  the  phrase  goes,  fond 
of  the  things  that  appeal  to  men,  whose 
aims  and  feelings  and  opinions  other 
men  felt  stood  on  common  ground  with 
their  own,  and  who  sought  and  found 
comradeship  in  the  ranks  of  his  fellows. 
He  was  a  most  delightful  companion, 
witty  and  full  of  that  essential  good  cheer 
so  much  more  important  than  humor, 
even,  and  without  which,  wit  is  a  weapon 
rather  than  a  bond.  In  all  the  relations 
of  life  he  measured  up  to  the  standards 
set  by  society  but  so  rarely  lived  up  to  by 
its  members. 


TEALL,  Isaac, 

Civil  War  Veteran,  Business  Man. 

There  was  a  fine  quality  characteristic 
of  Isaac  Teall,  best  understood  and  ap- 
preciated by  more  intimate  friends.  Al- 
though a  successful  business  man,  profit 
was  not  so  sure  a  barometer  of  success  as 
his  own  estimate  of  the  service  rendered 
in  securing  that  profit.  He  had  an  honest 
pride  in  his  ability  to  do  things  right  and 
an  honest  pride  in  doing  them  in  Roches- 
ter, for  his  love  for  his  adopted  city  was 
not  surpassed  by  any  native  son.  This 
pride  in  himself  as  a  director  of  public 
banquets  was  indeed  largely  founded  on 
his  civic  pride.  He  was  anxious  that 
every  celebrity  who  was  publicly  enter- 
tained in  Rochester  should  be  impressed 
with  the  fact  that  everything  in  the  city 


was  of  the  highest  class,  that  things  were 
done  equally  well,  if  not  a  little  better 
than  elsewhere,  and  in  his  particular  field 
he  felt  a  heavy  weight  of  responsibility 
that  it  should  be  of  a  quality  unsurpassed. 
In  striving  for  the  highest  ideals,  catering 
became  to  him  an  art,  not  a  business,  and 
as  his  fame  grew  so  grew  his  love  for  and 
pride  in  his  art.  For  half  a  century  he 
was  a  caterer,  starting  humbly  and  reach- 
ing a  height  of  success  where  there  were 
no  rivals.  In  all  Western  New  York  he 
was  the  highest  authority  and  no  func- 
tion, political,  social  or  otherwise,  but 
gained  additional  distinction  from  the  fact 
that  "Teall"  was  the  caterer.  He  took  no 
part  in  public  political  life,  but  when  a 
lad  of  twenty  years  enlisted  and  fought 
for  the  preservation  of  the  integrity  of 
the  country  which  had  adopted  him. 
Courtly  and  courteous  he  was  a  gentle- 
man we  love  to  refer  to  as  one  of  the  "old 
school"  and  his  personal  friends  were 
"legion,"  numbered  among  the  oldest  and 
best  families  of  Western  New  York  as 
well  as  in  his  home  city,  Rochester,  while 
his  fame  was  State  wide. 

Isaac  Teall  was  born  in  Chiltenham, 
Gloucestershire,  England,  April  3,  1844, 
died  at  his  home,  No.  84  Troup  street. 
Rochester,  New  York,  November  26, 1915, 
son  of  Philip  and  Ruth  (Smith)  Teall. 
He  was  brought  to  the  United  States  by 
his  parents  when  three  years  of  age,  the 
family  settling  in  Rochester,  New  York, 
where  Philip  Teall  died  in  August,  1864, 
his  wife,  Ruth,  surviving  him  until  Au- 
gust, 1895.  He  was  educated  in  Rochester 
public  schools.  In  1864  he  enlisted  in 
Company  E,  Fifty-fourth  Regiment  New 
York  Volunteers,  serving  until  honorably 
discharged  at  the  close  of  the  war. 

In  1867  two  very  important  events  in 
his  life  occurred,  his  marriage  and  his 
start  in  business  as  a  retail  dealer  in  ice 
cream.      He    began    business   in   a   very 


326 


way  but  h<  dy  to 

its  details  an< 

ve.      In 

tble  to 

g  estab- 

iuth   ave- 

. 

nue.     ]  r 

19    the     I.    Teall    C 
Company,   with    Mr.    Teall 
and  manager. 

century  until 

j  racuse, 

or  publi  im]  >ort 

tion  of  I 

■ 
adhering 
fairness 
for  his  ave  him  a  n 

functions     thai 

wedding 

mother:-  marter 
of  a  cen;  !c  won  many  friend- 
ships, true  and  lasting,  and  dv>- 
hours  of  suffering  at  '.he  hospital  so  many 
were  the  flor;  ances  of  these 
friends  I  resembled  a  conser- 

vas  a  charter  member  of 
r  of  Commerce,  a 
0  Lodge,  Free  and 


rind  re- 
held  in 

■ 

Grand   Army  of  th( 

indeed  the  soul  of  I  to  his 

family,   his   friends.    I 

.-d  that 
r  land" 
numerous  were  the  i 
,  by  his  famil; 

high  reganl 
and  the  est'.- 
:  sleeps  in  Mount  i : 
there  with  the  friends  of  a  lifetinrK 
:he  great  day  of  Resurrection. 

Frances   Spencer,   whi 
.'.ughter,  Flore 
ster. 

FORSYTH,  John. 

Business   Man. 

>ng  all  the  various  races  and  peoples 

to  make  up  the  cpmpkx  structure 

look  in 

.  influence  up 
re  for  its  de. 
•.nd    intellige' 

nent   in  our  I 
mi 
uality  in  the  a 
that  in  a  future  age  s 

though  they  ma 

has  do 
this  gr< 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


grants  to  these  shores  has  there  been  a 
greater  proportion  of  virtues  and  abilities 
than  these  sturdy  sons  of  the  North  have 
brought  with  them  to  leaven  the  mass  of 
our  population  here.  A  fine  example  of 
his  fellow  countrymen  was  John  Forsyth, 
late  of  New  Rochelle,  New  York,  exhibit- 
ing, as  he  did,  in  his  own  person  all  the 
characteristic  Scottish  virtues,  whose 
death  in  the  city  of  his  adoption  here  on 
July  17,  1915,  took  from  the  community 
one  of  its  most  public  spirited  and  active 
citizens. 

Born  December  12,  1867,  in  Paisley, 
Scotland,  Mr.  Forsyth  passed  the  first 
twenty-two  years  of  his  life  in  his  native 
land  and  there  in  his  father's  home  formed 
the  childish  associations  which  ripened 
into  a  love  of  the  old  home  that  con- 
tinued the  remainder  of  his  life.  He  was 
a  son  of  John  and  Janet  (Speice)  Forsyth, 
old  residents  of  Paisley,  Scotland,  and  it 
was  under  the  influence  of  these  good 
and  worthy  people  that  his  character  de- 
veloped in  the  excellent  manner  that  it 
did.  He  attended  the  local  schools  of 
his  native  region  and  there  received  a 
good  education,  and  afterwards  learned 
the  carpenter's  trade  as  an  apprentice. 
He  was  a  clever  student  and  afterwards 
displayed  great  aptitude  in  mastering  the 
handicraft  he  had  chosen,  so  that  almost 
before  he  had  reached  manhood  he  was 
quite  well  able  to  provide  for  himself  and 
it  was  when  he  was  still  little  more  than 
a  youth  that  he  added  to  his  cares  by 
taking  a  wife.  Mr.  Forsyth  was  not 
merely  a  bright  man  in  his  calling,  but 
one  who  possessed  real  enterprise  and  it 
was  as  a  youth  that  he  heard  the  accounts 
of  the  great  American  republic  that  first 
awakened  a  desire  in  him  to  leave  his 
native  land  and  try  his  fortunes  else- 
where in  the  world.  Even  his  marriage 
and  the  consequent  increased  responsibili- 
ties could  not  divert  his  mind  from  this 


wish,  which  still  grew  and  developed  un- 
til it  became  a  set  purpose  and  determina- 
tion; and,  accordingly,  when  but  twenty- 
two  years  of  age,  he  embarked  with  his 
wife  for  the  new  land.  He  landed  at  the 
port  of  New  York  and  thence  made  his 
way  to  New  Rochelle,  where  he  found 
employment  in  his  old  trade.  He  was  a 
man  of  unusual  skill  in  this  trade,  as  has 
already  been  remarked,  and  he  now  made 
a  great  reputation  as  the  best  carpenter  in 
New  Rochelle,  a  reputation  which  he 
maintained  during  the  many  years  that  he 
worked  in  this  capacity  in  the  city.  He 
was  rapidly  promoted  to  a  position  as 
boss  carpenter,  and  often  had  charge  of 
many  subordinates  in  important  works. 
His  trustworthiness  was  proverbial  and 
everyone  desired  to  have  him  in  whatever 
work  they  were  interested  in,  knowing 
well  that  if  he  were  responsible  all  the 
details  would  be  properly  handled.  He 
was  appointed  school  carpenter  by  the 
city  government  and  held  this  post  for 
upwards  of  twelve  years.  As  his  fortunes 
were  bettered,  he  gradually  undertook 
some  contracting  business  and  in  this 
he  prospered  well,  becoming  known  in 
course  of  time  as  one  of  the  city's  most 
substantial  business  men.  He  was  always 
keenly  interested  in  the  cause  of  labor 
and  had  joined  the  union  in  Scotland 
when  he  was  twenty-one,  nor  did  he  lose 
that  interest,  as  so  many  do,  when  he 
joined  the  ranks  of  those  who  employ 
others,  but  continued  to  work  for  its  cause 
until  the  end  of  his  life. 

Mr.  Forsyth  was  a  man  of  too  large  a 
point  of  view  to  rest  content  with  the 
mere  pursuit  of  his  private  interests,  but 
it  was  always  his  desire  to  give  such  of 
his  time  and  energy  as  it  was  possible  to 
do  to  the  affairs  of  the  community.  He 
was  naturally  interested  in  politics  and 
became  a  staunch  supporter  of  the  Re- 
publican   party   with   the   principles   and 


328 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


policies  of  which  he  found  himself  in 
agreement.  But  although  he  was  active 
in  public  affairs,  and  did  much  in  the 
cause  of  government  in  the  city,  it  was 
always  in  the  capacity  of  private  citizen 
and  he  shrank  from  rather  than  sought 
anything  in  the  nature  of  political  prefer- 
ment or  public  office.  Socially  he  was  a 
conspicuous  figure  and  enjoyed  keenly  the 
informal  intercourse  with  his  fellow  men. 
He  was  not  a  great  club  man,  however, 
nor  did  he  figure  in  the 'fraternal  circles 
of  the  city,  although  he  was  a  member  of 
the  Men's  Club  and  interested  in  its  ac- 
tivities. In  the  matter  of  religion  Mr. 
Forsyth  was  a  Presbyterian  and  strongly 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  his  church  and 
during  the  whole  of  his  residence  in  New 
Rochelle  was  a  member  of  the  Presby- 
terian church  there,  giving  liberally  in 
support  of  its  work. 

On  April  9,  1889,  Mr.  Forsyth  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Agnes  Herd,  who 
like  himself  was  a  native  of  Scotland,  a 
daughter  of  Samuel  and  Agnes  (McFar- 
land)  Herd.  Their  marriage  was  cele- 
brated shortly  before  the  young  couple 
came  to  America  and  they  were  the  par- 
ents of  eight  children,  six  of  whom,  with 
their  mother,  survive  Mr.  Forsyth.  They 
were  as  follows :  John,  who  died  at  the 
age  of  sixteen  months ;  Agnes  McFar- 
land,  who  died  at  the  age  of  twenty  years ; 
Jessie  Spence,  Margaret,  Elizabeth  Herd, 
Emma  Neves,  Isabelle  Herd  and  Ruth, 
all  of  whom  reside  with  their  mother  in 
New  Rochelle. 

The  character  of  Mr.  Forsyth  was  one 
particularly  well  balanced  in  which  the 
sterner  virtues  were  relieved  by  a  most 
gracious  exterior,  his  attractions  appear- 
ing upon  the  former  like  blossoms  on  a 
gnarled  apple  tree,  increasing  the  effect 
of  both.  An  almost  Puritanic  sense  of 
honor  and  the  discharge  of  obligations 
was  the  very  essence  of  his  nature,  but 


this  Puritanic  conscience  existed  only  in 
so  far  as  his  own  conduct  was  concerned 
and  for  others  he  was  tolerant  to  a  fault, 
if  that  be  possible.  His  industry  and  the 
courage  with  which  he  surmounted  all 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  his  aim  were  well 
worthy  of  remark  and  all  praise.  These 
were  the  qualities  that  brought  him  suc- 
cess and  the  admiration  of  those  with 
whom  he  came  in  contact,  but  there  were 
others  which,  if  less  fundamental,  were 
not  less  potent  in  their  influence  upon 
those  about  him.  Such  was  his  hearty 
friendship,  his  open  candid  manner,  his 
warm  greeting  which  did  not  alter  for 
rich  or  poor,  high  or  low,  and  such  also 
was  his  ready  charity  which  made  all 
men  feel  that  he  was  a  friend  who  would 
not  desert  them  in  the  time  of  need.  In 
every  relation  of  life  his  conduct  was 
irreproachable,  in  the  home,  in  the  marts 
of  trade  or  the  forum  of  public  opinion, 
in  all  he  may  well  stand  as  a  model  upon 
which  the  youth  of  the  community  can 
afford  to  model  themselves. 


CONWAY,  Henry, 

Business  Man. 

Henry  Conway  and  his  sons,  John  and 
Henry  L.,  have  been  known  in  Rochester, 
New  York,  since  Henry  Conway  and  his 
bride  settled  in  that  city  in  1841.  The 
cooperage  business  established  by  the 
father  was  conducted  by  the  sons  until 
about  1890,  then  passed  to  other  hands, 
the  sons  going  into  the  tobacco  business 
yet  conducted  by  Henry  L.  Conway. 
Father  and  sons  were  men  of  energy, 
keen  in  their  business  judgment,  and  bore 
an  important  part  in  the  development  of 
the  ninth  ward  of  Rochester,  Henry  Con- 
way at  one  time  owning  practically  all 
the  best  property  in  that  section.  His 
first  home  was  at  No.  201  Frank  street, 
the   site  of  the  present  residence  of  his 


329 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


son  Henry  L.  He  was  a  man  of  plain 
life,  strong  character  and  as  one  of  the 
olden  time  residents  was  connected  with 
much  that  has  now  passed  away.  But 
his  sons  who  succeeded  him  inherited  the 
characteristics  that  won  him  success  and 
worthily  bore  the  name. 

Henry  Conway,  son  of  Henry  and 
Elizabeth  Conway,  was  born  in  County 
Derry,  Ireland,  about  1815,  died  at 
Rochester,  New  York,  August  12,  1875. 
He  was  connected  with  linen  manufac- 
ture in  Ireland  and  there  spent  his  youth 
and  early  manhood.  He  was  possessed  of 
a  good  common  school  education  and  be- 
fore coming  to  America  had  proven  his 
energy  as  well  as  his  ability  to  make  his 
way  in  the  world.  He  married,  in  Ire- 
land, Margaret  Maguire,  and  with  her 
came  to  America  in  the  spring  of  1841, 
lured  by  the  stories  of  the  wonderful  op- 
portunities here.  The  sailing  vessel  on 
which  they  came  experienced  rough 
weather,  making  the  passage  a  long  and 
disagreeable  one.  After  arriving  in  New 
York  City  he  carefully  examined  sev- 
eral available  locations,  finally  choosing 
Rochester.  He  located  his  home  on  land 
he  bought  at  No.  201  Frank  street,  and  at 
once  began  the  manufacture  of  barrels,  a 
commodity  which  flour  mills  and  apple 
growers  there  used  in  large  quantities.  He 
continued  his  cooperage  business  until  his 
death  thirty-four  years  later,  and  was 
very  successful.  As  he  prospered  he  ex- 
panded and  invested  in  real  estate  having 
made  a  great  deal  of  money  as  his  once 
waste  land  came  into  the  market 

He  was  a  Democrat  in  politics  but 
never  had  any  desire  for  office,  his  busi- 
ness and  his  real  estate  dealing  keeping 
him  fully  occupied.  He  was  a  member  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  church  and  he  and 
his  family  were  among  the  earlier  mem- 
bers of  the  Cathedral  parish.  Quiet  and 
retiring  in  disposition,  he  was  well  liked. 


He  was  very  charitable,  giving  liberally 
to  the  church  and  philanthropy.  Nine 
children  were  born  to  Henry  and  Mar- 
garet (Macguire)  Conway,  two  of  whom 
yet  are  living:  Henry  L.  and  Elizabeth. 
The  children  were :  John,  William  J., 
Margaret,  Sarah,  Mary,  Henry  L.,  Eliza- 
beth, Patrick,  and  another  that  died  in 
childhood. 

John  Conway,  his  eldest  son,  was  very 
much  like  his  father,  quiet  and  retiring 
in  disposition  but  very  energetic  and  ca- 
pable. He  was  associated  with  his  father 
in  the  cooperage  plant  and  with  his 
brother,  Henry  L.,  founded  a  grocery 
business  which  they  successfully  con- 
ducted for  fifteen  years.  In  1890  John 
and  Henry  L.  Conway  began  the  tobacco 
business  that  they  jointly  conducted  until 
John's  death,  July  16,  1914.  Henry  L. 
then  became  sole  proprietor  and  yet  con- 
ducts the  business  which  has  ever  been 
a  prosperous  one.  John  Conway  never 
married,  said  he  "did  not  have  time."  He 
was  also  very  charitable  and  aided  many 
poor  emigrants  to  obtain  homes.  Henry 
L.  and  his  sister  Elizabeth  reside  at  the 
old  homestead  in  the  ninth  ward.  The 
changes  of  the  past  half  century  are  no- 
where more  apparent  than  in  that  ward, 
formerly  undeveloped  and  owned  almost 
entirely  by  Henry  Conway. 


MORRIS,  Thomas,  Jr., 

Business  Man. 

The  business  annals  of  Yonkers  show 
the  names  of  many  men  distinguished  in 
different  callings  and  as  citizens  worthy 
of  all  possible  respect.  Conspicuous 
among  these  names  which  now  belong 
to  the  past  is  that  of  the  late  Thomas 
Morris,  Jr.,  proprietor  of  the  well-known 
Morris  Iron  Works.  Although  Mr.  Mor- 
ris is  now  no  longer  seen  in  the  places 
where  he  was  so  long  a  familiar  presence 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


the  influence  of  his  strong  personality  is 
still  felt  in  various  departments  of  the 
city's  life. 

Thomas  Morris,  Sr.,  father  of  Thomas 
Morris,  Jr.,  was  born  in  England  and 
emigrated  to  the  United  States,  settling 
in  Yonkers,  where  he  opened  a  small 
shop.  By  dint  of  industry  and  native 
ability  he  caused  this  insignificant  place 
to  expand  into  the  Morris  Iron  Works 
and  built  up  a  business  which  he  was  able 
to  bequeath  in  a  flourishing  condition  to 
his  son  and  namesake. 

Thomas  Morris,  Jr.,  was  born  in  Yon- 
kers, and  received  his  early  education  in 
the  public  schools  of  his  native  city,  also 
attending  St.  Mary's  Parochial  School. 
When  he  had  reached  the  age  of  sixteen 
his  course  of  study  was  abruptly  termi- 
nated. Mr.  Morris,  Sr.,  had  taken  his  elder 
son  into  the  business  and  when  the  young 
man  died  Thomas  was  taken  out  of  school 
by  his  father  in  order  that  he  might  fill 
the  vacancy  caused  by  the  death  of  his 
brother.  The  sequel  amply  justified  the 
father  in  his  action.  Thomas  Morris,  from 
the  day  that  he  became  associated  with 
the  business,  proved  that  he  was  in  his 
true  sphere.  His  fidelity  and  diligence 
rendered  him  valuable  from  the  begin- 
ning, and  as  his  talents  developed  he  be- 
came in  very  truth  his  father's  right  hand. 
His  father  gave  to  him  the  business  dur- 
ing his  life,  and  the  next  fifteen  years 
were  years  of  wonderful  prosperity.  Mr. 
Morris,  by  his  far-sighted,  capable  manage- 
ment, greatly  enlarged  the  scope  of  the 
business,  bringing  the  whole  establish- 
ment up  to  a  high  standard  of  efficiency. 
In  October,  1912,  he  was  forced  to  retire 
by  reason  of  ill  health,  but  the  business 
is  now  successfully  conducted  by  his 
widow  and  son 

While  giving  his  vote  and  influence  to 
the  support  of  the  principles  advocated 


by  the  Republican  party,  Mr.  Morris 
never  took  any  active  part  in  the  affairs 
of  the  organization.  In  charitable  and 
philanthropic  work  he  was  most  cordially 
interested,  contributing  both  of  his  time 
and  means  to  enterprises  which  he  deem- 
ed worthy.  The  extent  of  his  private 
benefactions  will  never  be  fully  known, 
so  much  did  he  shrink  from  all  that 
savored  of  publicity  or  ostentation.  He 
was  exalted  ruler  of  the  Benevolent  and 
Protective  Order  of  Elks  and  a  grand 
knight  of  the  Knights  of  Columbus,  also 
belonging  to  the  City  Club  and  the  Pali- 
sade Boat  Club.  He  was  a  member  of 
St.  Mary's  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

The  appearance  of  a  man  like  Thomas 
Morris  is,  perhaps,  best  described  by  re- 
counting his  actions  and  endeavoring  to 
give  some  idea  of  his  disposition  and  per- 
sonality, for  the  reason  that  his  dominant 
traits  of  character  were  reflected  in  his 
countenance  and  plainly  manifested  in  his 
frank,  dignified  and  cordial  manner.  It 
might  truly  be  said  of  him  that  he  looked 
the  man  he  was. 

Mr.  Morris  married,  in  October,  1892, 
in  Mount  Vernon,  Annie,  daughter  of 
Patrick  and  Mary  Tynan,  and  they  be- 
came the  parents  of  two  children :  Wil- 
liam T.,  who  in  association  with  his 
mother  now  takes  charge  of  his  father's 
business;  and  Marie,  attending  an  art 
school  in  New  York  City.  Mr.  Morris 
had  the  happiness  to  secure  for  his  life- 
companion  a  woman  who  possessed,  in 
addition  to  the  domestic  virtues,  a  degree 
of  business  acumen  rarely  found  in  mem- 
bers of  her  sex.  Of  this  she  has  given 
evidence  in  her  widowhood  by  the  wise 
and  skillful  manner  in  which,  with  the 
assistance  of  her  son,  she  has  conducted 
the  business  of  which  her  husband  was  so 
long  the  able  and  sagacious  head.  Mr. 
Morris  loved  home  and  family  above  all 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


else  on  earth  and  although  a  man  of  so- 
cial temperament  was  never  so  happy  as 
in  the  domestic  circle. 

Ere  he  had  reached  the  half-century 
milestone  this  good  and  useful  man  was 
summoned  from  the  scene  of  his  labors, 
passing  away  March  15,  191 3,  at  the  age 
of  forty-seven  years.  All  his  life  he  had 
possessed,  in  constantly  increasing  meas- 
ure, the  sincere  respect  and  cordial  liking 
of  his  community.  The  deep  affliction  of 
his  widow  and  children  was  shared  by  his 
father,  Thomas  Morris,  and  three  sisters, 
the  Misses  Mary,  Jane  and  Elizabeth 
Morris,  who  were  left  to  mourn  the  loss 
of  an  affectionate  son  and  brother. 

Thomas  Morris,  Jr.,  was  a  type  of  man 
not  soon  forgotten.  His  was  an  individu- 
ality which  stamped  itself  upon  the  mem- 
ory of  every  one  who  was  in  any  way 
associated  with  him.  In  all  the  relations 
of  life  he  set  an  example  worthy  of  emula- 
tion. As  a  business  man  his  ability  was 
coupled  with  incorruptible  honesty;  as 
citizen  he  sought  only  the  public  good ; 
as  friend  and  neighbor  he  was  thoughtful, 
kind  and  genial ;  and  what  he  was  in  his 
family  none  can  say  except  those  who 
knew  him  in  the  sacred  relationships  of 
the  household.  Such  men  are  of  blessed 
memory. 


TURNBULL,  Daniel, 

Active  in  Community  Affairs. 

Daniel  Turnbull  was  a  worthy  and  true 
representative  of  the  type  of  men  who 
start  in  life  with  only  the  consciousness 
of  a  latent  creative  ability  within  them  as 
a  foundation  and  incentive  on  which  to 
build  their  careers.  It  is  these  men  who, 
through  sheer  force  of  ability,  power  and 
perseverance,  are  found  at  the  heads  of 
the  country's  great  enterprises,  guiding 
them  onward  to  ultimate  success,  initiat- 
ing on  their  course  the  beginnings  of  the 


greatness  of  the  future.  They  are  the 
reserve  fund  of  what  is  colloquially 
known  as  "big  business,"  and  in  a  large 
proportion  are  men  who  have  worked 
through  every  step  of  their  upward  climb- 
ing. Their  achievement  is  the  result  of 
their  own  toil,  mental  always  and  in  some 
cases  manual. 

Daniel  Turnbull  was  born  August  21, 
1861,  in  New  Castle-on-the-Tyne,  Eng- 
land, the  son  of  Adam  and  Sarah  (Don- 
nelly) Turnbull.  He  was  educated  in  his 
home  city  at  a  private  school,  and  at  the 
age  of  twenty-two  years  came  to  Ameri- 
ca on  a  visit  to  some  friends.  He  re- 
turned to  England  after  a  few  months,  and 
a  year  later  returned  to  America  with  the 
intention  of  entering  business.  Mr.  Turn- 
bull  was  then  twenty-three  years  old,  and 
made  his  first  home  on  Long  Island. 
Shortly  afterwards  he  secured  employ- 
ment in  the  United  States  Iron  Foundry, 
filling  the  position  of  comparatively  minor 
importance  which  offered  him  his  initial 
chance  for  success.  He  remained  with 
the  United  States  Iron  Foundry  for  four 
years,  upon  the  expiration  of  which  time 
he  became  identified  with  the  Kings 
County  Iron  Foundry  Company,  gradu- 
ally working  himself  up  through  every 
stage  of  the  work  into  the  position  of 
manager  and  employer.  At  the  time  of 
his  death  which  occurred  on  March  12, 
1915,  he  was  vice-president  of  the  Kings 
County  Iron  Foundry  Company,  which  is 
one  of  the  largest  enterprises  of  its  kind 
in  the  city  and  State.  The  position  en- 
tailed vast  responsibility  and  demanded 
of  its  incumbent  ability  and  intellect  of  a 
high  order.  His  thorough  knowledge  of 
all  the  conditions  of  the  business  itself, 
and  those  under  which  the  men  worked, 
proved  an  important  factor  in  the  success 
of  his  management  of  those  duties  which 
fell  to  him,  and  during  the  entire  time  of 
his    vice-presidency,    which     covered    a 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


period  of  twenty-four  years,  the  success 
of  the  whole  business  was  markedly  fur- 
thered by  his  efforts.  Mr.  Turnbull  was  a 
man  who  because  of  his  magnetic  person- 
ality had  friends  in  all  walks  of  life, 
among  his  employees,  among  those  whom 
he  met  in  business,  and  those  whom  he 
met  socially.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Reliance  Masonic  Lodge,  The  Commerce 
Club,  the  Good  Ground  Country  Club, 
the  Weight  Club,  and  attended  with  his 
family  the  Church  of  the  Nativity,  in 
Brooklyn. 

On  August  i,  1885,  Mr.  Turnbull  was 
married  to  Christine  Bechtold,  daughter 
of  George  and  Margaret  Bechtold.  Their 
children  are:  Daniel  Gale,  George  Adams, 
Mary  Lillian  Martin,  Alice  Elizabeth, 
Sarah,  Robert  Bruce,  Elizabeth,  Mar- 
guerite. Mrs.  Turnbull  survives  her  hus- 
band and  still  resides  in  Flatbush. 

Mr.  Turnbull's  life  was  exemplary  in 
its  intimate  details  as  it  was  in  business. 
The  high  standards  of  honor  and  conduct 
which  he  applied  to  his  life  in  his  home  he 
likewise  carried  into  his  relations  outside 
of  it,  thereby  causing  in  his  death  a  void 
in  two  circles  as  large  as  they  were  far- 
reaching  and  different. 


SEARLES,  Orson, 

Naval  Veteran  of   Civil  War. 

There  is  nothing  in  this  world,  however 
great  its  intrinsic  value,  which  has  not 
that  value  increased  by  the  power  of  con- 
trast. This  is  a  truism  in  art  and,  al- 
though less  generally  recognized,  is  equal- 
ly a  fact  in  every  department  of  life. 
Thus,  for  example,  it  is  true  in  the  case  of 
those  personal  graces  of  character  that  we 
value  so  greatly  in  our  friends,  and  which 
never  show  to  such  excellent  advantage 
as  when  in  contrast  with  the  more  rugged 
and  austere  virtues,  just  as  half  the  charm 
of  apple  blossoms  is  due  to  the  gnarled 


branch  upon  which  they  blow.  Such  was 
the  character  of  the  late  Orson  Searles, 
of  Yonkers,  New  York,  whose  death  on 
September  2,  1914,  was  a  very  real  loss  to 
the  entire  community.  With  him  the 
graces  that  quickly  win  friends  for  us 
were  not  missing,  and  gained  a  double 
effectiveness  from  their  budding,  as  it 
were,  upon  the  almost  Puritanic  honesty 
and  earnestness  that  formed  the  basis  of 
his  nature. 

Orson  Searles  was  born  December  29, 
1845,  at  Ossining,  New  York,  a  son  of 
Isaac  and  Eliza  Jane  Searles,  of  that 
place.  He  grew  to  manhood  in  his  native 
town  and  there  received  his  education, 
attending  the  old  Broadway  School  for 
the  purpose.  The  Civil  War  broke  out 
while  he  was  still  a  schoolboy  and  too 
young  to  enlist,  but  his  ambition  to  take 
part  in  the  great  struggle  was  very 
strong  and  when  he  had  reached  the  age 
of  nineteen  years  he  ran  away  from  home 
and  enlisted  in  the  United  States  navy. 
The  war  had  not  ceased  at  that  time  and 
he  saw  considerable  active  service,  not- 
ably at  Galveston  Bay  and  other  parts 
of  the  Gulf  waters.  When  hostilities 
finally  ceased  he  was  honorably  dis- 
charged from  the  service  on  July  11,  1865. 
from  the  United  States  gunboat  "Ouas- 
co."  Returning  to  Ossining,  Mr.  Searles 
secured  employment  as  a  gardener  and 
continued  in  that  occupation  until  his  re- 
moval to  Yonkers  with  his  entire  family. 
In  Yonkers  he  was  given  the  position  of 
janitor  in  the  Annex  of  School  No.  2  and 
held  that  position  for  a  period  of  five 
years  or  until  his  failing  health  compelled 
him  to  withdraw  from  all  active  work. 
Mr.  Searles  was  a  conspicuous  figure  in 
the  general  life  of  both  Ossining  and 
Yonkers,  especially  in  social  and  club  cir- 
cles. He- was  a  member  of  Kitching  Post, 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  and  was 
prominent    in    the    work    of   his    veteran 


333 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


comrades.  In  the  matter  of  religion,  he 
was  a  staunch  Methodist  and  liberally 
supported  the  work  of  the  church. 

Orson  Searles  was  twice  married.  His 
first  wife  was  Margaret  Hitchcock,  of 
Yorktown,  New  York,  and  to  them  were 
born  two  children:  Henry  and  Frederick, 
both  of  whom  survive  their  father.  After 
the  death  of  his  first  wife,  Mr.  Searles 
married,  August  14,  1897,  Sarah  J.  Cra- 
ven, of  Yonkers,  a  daughter  of  George 
and  Jane  Craven,  of  that  place.  To  them 
one  daughter,  Elsie,  was  born,  who  with 
her  mother  survives  Mr.  Searles  and 
makes  her  home  in  Yonkers  at  the 
present  time. 

Lives  that  really  count  in  the  affairs  of 
a  community  are  rare  and  it  is  not  by  any 
means  the  case  that  the  most  conspicu- 
ous are  the  most  influential.  Patient,  per- 
sistent effort,  though  its  fruit  is  often 
quite  invisible  even  to  those  who  actually 
benefit  by  it,  is  always  effective  and, 
though  its  reward,  as  the  world  measures 
rewards,  is  meagre  enough,  yet  its  actual 
result  is  certain  and  the  inward  satisfac- 
tion on  the  part  of  one  who  can  look  back 
upon  a  task  well  done  outweighs  any 
recognition  that  the  world  can  give.  So 
it  was  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Searles  whose 
character  was  of  such  a  kind  that  it  could 
not  fail  to  exert  a  potent  influence  for 
good  wherever  it  came  into  contact  with 
his  fellow  men.  The  friends  that  he  made 
he  kept  and  he  left  at  his  death  a  host  of 
them  to  sorrow  for  his  loss  and  to  insure 
that  his  memory  remain  green  for  many 
years. 


ALLEN,  John  B., 

Leader   Among   Men. 

There  are  two  or  three  periods  in  the 
history  of  the  United  States  so  full  of  the 
stir  of  great  events,  so  full  of  that  atmos- 
phere  that   surrounds   men   who  are   en- 


gaged in  momentous  affairs,  that  they 
cast  a  sort  of  glamour  of  romance  over  all 
the  figures  who  participated  in  the  life  of 
the  times,  so  that  we  have  but  to  know 
that  such  a  man  was  identified  promi- 
nently therewith  in  order  to  feel  a  keen 
interest  in  his  career.  One  of  these 
periods  was  that  late  colonial  time  when 
the  irresistible  spirit  of  freedom  was 
abroad  so  potently  in  the  land  and  which 
ended  only  with  the  complete  emancipa- 
tion of  the  colonies  through  the  Revolu- 
tion and  their  consolidation  into  the  great 
Union  which  has  since  become  the  type 
of  republicanism  for  the  world.  Another 
period  is  that  in  which  the  integrity  of 
that  same  Union  was  in  peril  and  the 
spirit  of  freedom  was  again  threatened, 
though  not  in  our  own  but  in  the  persons 
of  our  weaker  brothers,  a  period  which 
culminated  in  the  dreadful  Civil  War  in 
which,  at  the  expense  of  endless  life  and 
wealth,  these  ideals  were  finally  vindi- 
cated. When  in  addition  to  the  glamour 
of  the  time  there  is  added  the  charm  of 
a  really  vivid  personality,  we  have  the 
elements  of  the  highest  interest.  These 
elements  are  all  contained  in  a  high  de- 
gree in  the  life  and  career  of  John  B. 
Allen,  late  of  Mount  Vernon,  New  York, 
whose  death  there  on  August  11, 1910,  at  the 
age  of  ninety-five  years,  removed  from  the 
community  one  of  the  most  prominent  of 
its  citizens,  and  who  during  the  course  of 
his  long  life  participated  in  some  of  the 
most  stirring  chapters  of  our  history. 

John  B.  Allen  was  born  February  8, 
1815,  in  New  Jersey.  His  family  was  one 
that  had  long  occupied  a  prominent  posi- 
tion in  the  community,  his  great-uncle  be- 
ing the  famous  Ethan  Allen  of  the  Revo- 
lution. Mr.  Allen  was  educated  in  the 
district  schools  of  New  Jersey,  and  after 
leaving  school  he  went  from  Trenton  to 
New  York  City  on  foot.  He  then  entered 
the  hotel  business  at  the  old  Holt's  Hotel 


35- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


in  lower  Manhattan.  Then  he  secured  a 
position  as  a  clerk  in  a  grocery  store  and 
continued  in  the  grocery  business.  He 
later  owned  a  grocery  business  and  lived 
in  Greenwich  village.  But  it  was  not  so 
much  in  this  realm  of  activity  that  he 
made  his  reputation  as  a  man  of  affairs, 
but  in  politics,  where  he  distinguished 
himself  highly  during  the  troublous  years 
before  the  Civil  War.  He  was  identified 
with  the  Republican  party  almost  from 
its  first  organization  and  his  fortunes 
shared  in  the  rapid  rise  to  prominence  of 
the  party.  He  held  a  number  of  impor- 
tant elective  and  appointive  offices  and  in 
all  of  them  performed  an  invaluable  serv- 
ice to  his  constituents,  his  party  and  the 
community-at-large.  In  the  year  i860  he 
was  sent  as  a  delegate  to  the  Republican 
National  Convention  from  New  York  and 
it  was  there  that,  in  a  certain  sense,  the 
destiny  of  the  whole  people  was  affected 
by  his  action.  He  had  had  the  courage  to 
join  the  newly  formed  Republican  party, 
casting  aside  the  older  political  associ- 
ations, and  he  now  had  the  much  greater 
courage  to  break  with  that  party,  or 
rather  with  its  leaders,  and  institute  a 
movement  which  proved  the  greatest  pos- 
sible benefit  to  it  and  the  salvation  of  the 
great  Union,  whose  citizen  he  was.  There 
was  probably  but  one  man  in  the  country 
at  that  time  who  could  have  guided  the 
ship  of  state  in  safety  through  the  terrible 
storm  that  was  on  the  point  of  breaking, 
and  that  was  the  man  who  actually  did 
hold  the  helm  with  a  grasp  so  firm  that 
he  has  become  one  of  the  giant  figures  of 
the  ages.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  man 
to  whom  the  most  foresighted  looked  for 
leadership  among  the  gathering  difficul- 
ties, but  Abraham  Lincoln  was  not  in 
favor  with  the  powers  that  be.  In  the 
convention  itself  there  was  much  vacilla- 
tion and  talk  of  compromise,  when  Mr. 
Allen,  breaking  with  his  colleagues,  de- 


clared himself  in  favor  of  Lincoln's  candi- 
dacy and  thus  started  the  landslide  that 
resulted  in  his  nomination.  How  fate 
would  have  worked  out  the  problems  of 
that  epoch  had  this  not  occurred  it  is,  of 
course,  impossible  to  say,  and  doubtless 
Abraham  Lincoln  would  have  ultimately 
reached  the  place  for  which  his  mighty 
powers  fitted  him,  yet  who  can  say  with 
what  delays  and  with  what  further  perils 
to  the  Nation.  Another  service  rendered 
by  Mr.  Allen  to  his  country  was  his  work 
in  exposing  the  fraud  of  a  fellow  New 
Yorker  in  attempting  to  cheat  the  govern- 
ment in  the  sale  to  it  of  large  numbers  of 
cattle  for  the  army. 

John  B.  Allen  married  Harriet  Hunter, 
of  Tarrytown.  To  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Allen 
were  born  seven  children,  six  boys  and 
one  girl,  of  whom  four  are  deceased.  The 
three  that  survive  are  as  follows :  George, 
now  a  resident  of  Boston,  where  he  is 
engaged  in  the  rattan  furniture  business ; 
Levi,  a  resident  of  New  York,  where  he 
is  now  retired ;  and  Mary  Louise,  now 
Mrs.  J.  Homer  Travis,  of  Mount  Vernon. 
The  marriage  of  Mrs.  Travis  occurred  on 
January  27,  1864,  Mr.  Travis  being  the 
son  of  Leonard  and  Maria  A.  (Harris) 
Travis,  old  and  highly  honored  residents 
of  Seneca  county,  New  York.  It  was  with 
this  daughter,  Mrs.  Travis,  that  Mr.  Allen 
lived  during  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  in 
the  charming  home  at  No.  153  W.  Second 
street.  Mount  Vernon. 


MATHEWSON,  Everett  Irving, 

Hotel    Proprietor,    Philanthropist. 

A  man's  reputation  is  the  property  of 
the  world.  The  laws  of  nature  have  for- 
bidden isolation.  Every  human  being 
submits  to  the  controlling  influence  of 
others,  or  as  a  master  wields  a  power  for 
good  or  evil  on  the  masses  of  mankind. 
There  can   be   no  impropriety  in  justly 


335 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF   BIOGRAPHY 


scanning  the  acts  of  any  man  as  they 
affect  his  public,  social  and  business  rela- 
tions. If  he  be  honest  and  successful  in 
his  chosen  field  of  endeavor,  investigation 
will  brighten  his  fame  and  point  the  path 
along  which  others  may  follow  with  like 
success.  In  presenting  to  the  readers  of 
this  volume  the  history  of  the  late  Ever- 
ett Irving  Mathewson  we  record  an  ac- 
count of  a  life  that  has  been  honorable, 
useful  and  successful.  As  a  descendant 
of  Revolutionary  ancestors,  he  was  true 
to  the  traditions  of  his  race,  and  in  his 
life  as  a  business  man  he  exemplified  most 
worthily  the  traits  of  his  soldierly  fore- 
fathers, wisdom  in  decision,  promptness 
in  action,  courage  and  coolness  in  times 
of  trial,  and  unwavering  allegiance  to 
strict  principles  and  high  ideals. 

Everett  Irving  Mathewson,  son  of 
Syria  Wilbur  and  Anna  Elizabeth  (Hill) 
Mathewson,  was  born  in  East  Greenwich, 
Rhode  Island,  November  2,  1865.  He  re- 
ceived his  education  in  the  schools  of  East 
Greenwich,  which  course  of  study  pre- 
pared him  for  his  active  business  career, 
which  was  begun  by  him  in  association 
with  his  father,  Syria  Wilbur  Mathew- 
son, Sr.,  and  his  brother,  Syria  Wilbur 
Mathewson,  Jr.,  in  the  hotel  business,  in 
which  occupation  they  were  eminently 
successful,  conducting  a  house  noted  for 
its  excellent  equipment,  attractive  appear- 
ance and  excellent  cuisine,  catering  to 
only  the  best  class  of  the  traveling  public 
who  appreciated  fully  the  efforts  put  forth 
for  their  comfort  and  entertainment.  The 
naturally  fine  administrative  ability  of 
Everett  I.  Mathewson  was  developed  by 
exercise  and  he  was  an  active  factor  in 
the  success  of  the  enterprise.  The  New 
Mathewson  Hotel,  located  at  Narragan- 
sett  Pier,  Rhode  Island,  is  widely  known 
and  highly  appreciated,  and  none  among 
the  many  who,  during  the  season,  were 
guests  at  this  hostelry  will  ever  forget 


its  admirable  management  or  the  genial 
personality  of  its  proprietors,  and  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  the  number  of  its  friends 
included  every  one  who  had  ever  enjoyed 
its  hospitality.  The  winter  home  of  Mr. 
Everett  I.  Mathewson,  during  the  latter 
years  of  his  life,  was  at  Mount  Vernon, 
New  York,  where  he  was  held  in  the 
highest  esteem  as  one  of  the  most  valued 
citizens  of  that  place.  He  was  a  Republi- 
can in  politics,  and  his  interest  in  all  that 
made  for  reform  was  earnest  and  helpful. 
His  participation  in  philanthropic  work 
constituted  one  of  his  favorite  forms  of 
activity,  he  contributing  liberally  to  every 
worthy  project  for  the  betterment  of 
mankind.  He  was  a  member  and  vestry- 
man of  Trinity  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church,  being  also  enrolled  in  its  Men's 
Club,  which  he  served  in  the  capacity  of 
president  for  several  years.  He  also  held 
membership  in  the  Sons  of  the  Revolu- 
tion and  the  Hotel  Men's  Association. 

Mr.  Mathewson  married,  January  27, 
1892,  in  New  York  City,  Mabel  Halley 
Hawthorne,  daughter  of  Edmund  Halley 
and  Julia  Ann  (Hawthorne)  Benson,  of 
New  York  City.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Mathew- 
son were  the  parents  of  one  daughter, 
Edith  Benson,  born  in  1893,  married,  in 
1913,  William  S.  Budworth,  Jr.,  of  Mount 
Vernon,  New  York.  On  the  paternal 
side  Mr.  Budworth  comes  of  English  and 
French  lineage,  and  on  the  maternal  side 
traces  his  descent  from  Charles  Cotes- 
worth  Pinckney,  who  uttered  the  im- 
mortal words :  "Millions  for  defense,  but 
not  one  cent  for  tribute !"  Mr.  Mathew- 
son's  marriage  was  the  cornerstone  of  his 
happiness,  his  wife  being  a  college-bred 
woman  and  devoted  to  home  and  its 
duties  and  combining  force  of  character 
with  sweetness  of  disposition. 

Syria  Wilbur  Mathewson,  father  of 
Everett  Irving  Mathewson,  was  of  East 
Greenwich,   Rhode   Island,  and  was   en- 


336 


),  ^/ctten 


RAPHY 


,.    took 

married 

b  Hill,  of  Revolutionary  fame.  The 
mestead  at  East  Greenwi 
j ring-    the    Colonial    peril 

for  Indepe:. 
son  were  the  ''ie  fol- 

Pier,  Rhode  Island  : 

Greenwich,  Rhode  Island;   and  Ida  Bur- 
ho  became   the  wife   of  John  J. 
Benson,    of     Narragansett    Pier,    Rhode 
Island. 

were  alii  .icously  sadc 

the  announcement  of  the  deal 

h    occurred    at     his 
summer  home,  January   II, 

immunity  he 

brief  res 
sphere- 

whether  con- 
in,  offi- 
cial bu.-  e  or  clubmar. 
found  to  l>c  a  man  true  to  himself  and 
true  to  In 


GUION,  Alfred  Beck, 

Financier. 

Success,  par 
us,  the  chief  reason  b<  -e,  that 

ite  counsel  to 

N  Y-3--22 


those  men  who  do  m 

Born    September    . 
Orleans 
member 

iot  families,  so  many 
. 
came  from  France,  where  they  had  lived 
- 
al  and  settled  in  the  j 

date.    It  was  from  there  * 
Guion's  branch  of  the  family  moved  to 
New   Orleans 

:d  throughou 
of  them  making  their  home  in  Cal 

i  tween  New  York  ai 

uncle   of   the    Mr.    Guion   of   this 

ther  before  her  mam 
of  New  Orleans,  a  1: 

ill  a  youth  an 

ed  in  a  prom 
-rage  firm  of  ' 

mained  with  tl 

•tire  active  period  of  I 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


to  many  important  clubs  and  organiza- 
tions. He  was  a  member  of  the  Hiawatha 
Lodge,  Free  and  Accepted  Masons,  and 
held  the  office  of  grand  master  there.  He 
was  also  the  grand  master  of  the  West- 
chester county  branch.  The  members  of 
his  family  possessed  a  strong  taste  for 
military  matters,  his  father  having  been 
a  chaplain  in  the  regular  army  of  the 
United  States,  and  Mr.  Guion  joined  the 
Twenty-third  Regiment  of  Brooklyn,  New 
York,  National  Guard.  He  was  an  Epis- 
copalian in  his  religious  belief  and  was 
for  a  number  of  years  vestryman  of  the 
Church  of  the  Ascension  of  Mount  Ver- 
non and  superintendent  of  the  Sunday 
school. 

On  September  16,  1882,  Mr.  Guion  was 
married  to  Ella  Duryee,  of  New  York 
City,  a  daughter  of  Joseph  W.  Duryee 
and  a  member  of  a  very  old  and  honor- 
able New  York  family.  Mrs.  Guion's 
mother  before  her  marriage  was  Eliza  P. 
Beadel,  a  member  of  a  very  prominent 
Long  Island  family.  Mr.  Duryee  was 
very  prominent  in  the  lumber  business 
and  for  many  years  had  offices  at  Cherry 
street,  New  York  City,  moving  from  there 
with  the  progress  of  business  up-town  to 
Thirty-fourth  street  on  the  East  river, 
and  was  a  prominent  owner  of  real  estate. 
He  died  in  New  York  City  in  1896  at  the 
age  of  seventy-two  years.  His  home  stood 
on  Forty-second  street  where  the  new 
building  of  the  Corn  Exchange  Bank  is 
now  located.  To  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Guion  two 
children  were  born :  Alfred  Duryee,  who 
married  Aria  Peabody,  of  Mount  Vernon, 
and  by  her  had  two  children,  Alfred  Pea- 
body  and  Daniel  Beck ;  and  Elsie  May. 


WYATT,  Francis, 

Consulting  Chemist,  Author. 

The  people  of  America  is  without  doubt 
the  most  composite  in  the  world  to-day, 


if  not  of  any  time  recorded  in  history.  Into 
this  country  has  poured  in  an  unending 
stream,  the  surplus  populations  of  most 
of  the  countries  of  Europe,  of  many  di- 
vergent races  to  be  finally  commingled 
here,  where  they  shall  form,  as  we  ardent- 
ly believe  and  trust,  the  foundation  of  a 
new  and  virile  race  which  will  be  the  first 
since  the  aboriginal  red  men  with  a  valid 
claim  to  the  name  American.  But  al- 
though there  are  so  many  varying  ele- 
ments, each  bringing  with  it  its  own  par- 
ticular characteristics,  yet  there  can  be  no 
question  that  there  is  a  certain  dominant 
quality  or  tone  to  the  people  of  this  land 
which  seems  to  survive  the  successive 
inundations  of  foreign  blood  and  asserts 
itself  in  the  conduct  of  even  the  most  out- 
landish after  a  certain  period  of  residence 
here,  and  which  very  probably  will  char- 
acterize the  coming  American  race.  If 
one  should  inquire  further  as  to  what  this 
character  is,  and  where  it  has  originated, 
it  will  be  scarcely  possible  to  avoid  the 
conclusion  that,  even  as  in  the  earliest 
period  of  our  colonization,  we  are  still 
dominently  English,  that  our  traits,  our 
institutions  and  customs,  our  whole  social 
makeup  have  been  derived  from  this 
source  and  that  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
for  many  year  we  have  drawn  no  recruits 
from  England  in  comparison  to  the  num- 
bers that  have  reached  us  from  other 
sources,  yet,  even  to-day,  we  may  still 
confidently  congratulate  ourselves  upon 
being  essentially  Anglo-Saxon.  Of  course, 
the  natural  birth  increase  has  been  great 
and  has  kept  a  much  larger  proportion 
of  English  blood  in  our  veins  than  might 
have  been  supposed  possible,  but,  in  so  far 
as  our  ideals  and  customs  are  concerned, 
there  has  been  another  factor  at  work.  In 
the  first  place  these  ideals  and  customs 
are  of  an  extremely  definite  character  and 
of  that  positive  type  that  is  apt  to  impress 
itself  upon   others.      Besides   this   it   has 


338 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


always  been  the  case  that  no  matter  how 
great  the  influx  of  aliens,  these  have  al- 
ways been  comparatively  few  to  the  great 
mass  of  the  population  already  impressed 
with  these  ideals,  so  that  they  too  could 
soon  absorb  them  and  be  ready  in  their 
turn  to  proselytize  among  the  next  group 
to  arrive  upon  our  shores.  While  this  is 
true,  it  is  always  pleasant  to  welcome  to- 
day additional  members  of  the  great 
people  to  whom  we  owe  so  much  of  our 
national  life  and  character,  as  additional 
leaven,  as  it  were,  for  the  alteration  of  the 
great  mass  of  outlanders  forever  reaching 
the  United  States.  More  especially  should 
this  welcome  be  a  warm  one  when  those 
who  come  are  of  the  very  best  type  of 
their  countrymen,  men  of  character  and 
action,  intelligence  and  culture,  the  most 
effective  unity  possible  to  uphold  and 
make  prevail  those  ideals,  that  habit  of 
mind  in  which  so  many  repose  our  faith 
for  the  future  of  the  country.  Such  a  man 
was  the  late  Francis  Wyatt,  of  Forest 
Hills,  Long  Island,  and  New  York  City, 
where,  although  he  was  a  resident  of  this 
country  less  than  half  his  life,  he  became 
most  intimately  identified  with  the  life  of 
his  adopted  community,  so  that  his  death 
on  February  27,  1916,  was  felt  as  a  severe 
loss  throughout  a  very  wide  circle  of 
friends. 

Just  as  in  an  earlier  age  many  of  his 
own  countrymen  of  the  most  cultured 
class  came  to  this  land  to  try  their  for- 
tunes here,  so  Mr.  Wyatt  in  more  recent 
times  came  to  try  his  and  with  a  success 
not  less  conspicuous  than  theirs.  He  was 
born  in  1854,  in  Portsmouth,  England. 
Mr.  Wyatt's  education  was  an  unusu- 
ally complete  one,  his  early  studies  be- 
ing conducted  in  Winchester,  England, 
and  he  later  traveled  to  various  conti- 
nental cities  where  he  pursued  his  stud- 
ies, especially  in  Brussels  and  Paris,  re- 
maining ten  years  in  the  two  cities.     In 


1887  he  came  to  the  United  States  and 
settled  in  New  York  City  where  he  took 
up  analytical  chemistry  and  carried  on 
business  as  a  consulting  chemist  for  a 
considerable  period.  He  soon  made  a 
wide  reputation  as  an  authority  on  fer- 
mentation and  ferments  generally,  and 
taught  a  junior  class  in  this  subject. 
About  this  time  he  wrote  a  book  upon  the 
phosphates  of  America  and  became  a  fre- 
quent contributor  to  the  current  scientific 
journals  and  periodicals,  and  greatly 
added  to  his  reputation  in  this  manner, 
his  name  becoming  very  well  known  in 
scientific  circles  and  his  audience  a  large 
one.  He  became  a  member  of  the  Ameri- 
can Chemical  Society  and  founded  the  Na- 
tional Brewers  Academy  with  headquar- 
ters on  West  Twenty-third  street,  New 
York  City,  and  was  president  of  this  in- 
stitution for  many  years.  He  was  con- 
nected with  many  other  important  scien- 
tific societies  and  organizations,  among 
which  should  be  noted  especially:  The 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Sci- 
ence, The  British  Brewing  Institute,  and 
numbers  of  others  of  national  and  inter- 
national importance. 

As  a  scientist  the  prominence  of  Mr. 
Wyatt  was  great,  but  he  did  not  confine 
his  interests  and  activities  to  his  own  pro- 
fession or  even  to  scientific  matters  gen- 
erally. On  the  contrary,  he  was  unosten- 
tatiously prominent  in  the  social  and  club 
life  of  this  part  of  the  country  and  be- 
longed to  the  most  important  organiza- 
tions of  this  kind  in  more  than  one  city. 
He  was  a  member  of  such  representative 
bodies  as  the  Lambs'  Club  of  New  York, 
the  University  Club  of  Philadelphia  and 
the  Algonquin  Club  of  Boston.  But  it 
was  not  merely  as  a  formal  member  of 
these  and  other  similar  organizations  that 
Mr.  Wyatt  played  a  part  in  the  social  life 
of  the  community.  He  was  by  nature  a 
charming  and  genial  companion  and  host 

39 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


and  he  won  for  himself  a  remarkably  large 
circle  of  most  devoted  friends,  who  prized 
his  companionship  as  a  privilege.  The 
life  of  Mr.  Wyatt  was  spent  very  quietly 
in  his  beautiful  home  at  Forest  Hills,  Long 
Island,  and  it  was  here  that  he  found  his 
greatest  happiness,  in  the  intimate  inter- 
course of  his  household.  His  chief  recre- 
ation was  travel  and  he  was  most  happily 
situated  to  indulge  this  taste,  his  work  be- 
ing of  a  kind  that  permitted  absences  from 
it  on  his  part.  During  the  middle  and 
latter  portions  of  his  life,  he  went  nearly 
every  year  upon  some  journey  for  his 
pleasure  and  relaxation,  visiting  many 
foreign  countries  besides  various  parts 
of  his  adopted  one,  and  few  better  travel- 
ed men  than  he  was  are  to  be  found.  The 
same  qualities  that  made  Mr.  Wyatt  so 
highly  successful  in  his  profession  and  in 
scientific  matters  generally,  gave  him  dis- 
tinction in  other  matters  of  intellect  and 
taste.  He  was,  for  instance,  an  accom- 
plished musician  and  a  keen  and  able 
critic,  in  that  and  other  arts.  He  was  a 
great  reader  and  his  taste  covered  a  wide 
range  in  literature,  but  his  particular 
hobby  was  the  stories  of  Dickens,  with  all 
of  which  he  was  very  familiar,  holding 
their  author  in  the  profoundest  admira- 
tion. The  last  two  years  of  his  life  were 
somewhat  troubled  by  ill  health,  but  this 
he  did  not  allow  to  interfere  with  his 
work  or  other  activities  until  two  months 
before  his  death  it  became  so  marked  that 
he  was  obliged  to  submit  to  it.  His  cour- 
age and  patience,  his  honest  enthusiasm 
and  good  cheer,  he  maintained  to  the  very 
end  so  no  one  remembers  him  otherwise 
than  in  the  full  possession  of  those  facul- 
ties which  endeared  him  to  all  his  associ- 
ates. 

Mr.  Wyatt  was  married,  in  1S90,  to 
Helen  Neville,  of  Quebec,  Canada.  Mrs. 
Wyatt  survives  her  husband  and  is  still 
a  resident  of  Forest  Hills. 


VAN  HOUTON,  Erskine, 

Man  of  Affairs. 

Little  as  the  majority  of  people  are 
prone  to  admit  it,  talent  is  a  common 
thing,  especially  in  a  democracy  such  as  this 
country,  where  the  faculties  and  qualities 
of  men  are  allowed  full  development,  nay, 
if  they  are  of  a  high  order  fostered,  and 
their  possessors  aided  in  their  efforts  to 
succeed  by  a  community  anxious  to  avail 
itself  of  every  man's  capabilities.  Yes, 
talent  is  a  common  thing  among  us  and  it 
is  even  true  that  the  average  man  is 
talented  in  some  direction  or  another  al- 
though it  does  not  always  appear  for  lack 
of  opportunity.  What  is  not  so  generally 
found,  however,  is  a  variety  of  talents  in 
one  and  the  same  person,  the  person  we 
speak  of  as  versatile  and  to  whom  we  can 
trust  a  great  multiplicity  of  things  in  the 
confident  assurance  that  they  will  all  be 
attended  to  with  good  judgment  and  dis- 
cretion. Now  and  then,  however,  such  a 
man  appears  and  it  is  rare  indeed,  if  his 
talents  be  not  totally  out  of  harmony  with 
the  ideals  and  standards  of  the  age,  that 
he  does  not  make  a  great  success  of  life 
and  come  to  a  position  of  prominence  in 
the  regard  of  his  fellows.  Such  a  man 
was  Erskine  Van  Houton,  the  distin- 
guished gentleman  whose  name  heads  this 
brief  sketch,  who  won  distinction  in  busi- 
ness and  as  the  head  of  a  great  educa- 
tional institution  and  whose  death  on 
March  18,  1915,  was  a  loss  at  once  to  the 
community  where  he  made  his  home. 
Mount  Vernon,  New  York,  and  to  the 
great  city  of  New  York,  the  scene  of  his 
principal  activities. 

Erskine  Van  Houton  was  born  March 
8,  1853,  in  New  York  City,  and  there  made 
his  home  with  his  parents,  Henry  and 
Rachel  (Ury)  Van  Houton,  highly  hon- 
ored residents  of  that  place,  during  his 
boyhood  attending  the  local  public  schools 
340 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


where  he  gained  a  splendid  education. 
Upon  completing  his  schooling,  he  formed 
a  partnership  with  John  Banta,  of  New 
York,  and  engaged  in  the  building  and 
contracting  business  there.  In  this  enter- 
prise they  were  very  successful  from 
the  outset  and  built  up  a  large  trade  of 
the  best  type  and  of  a  highly  remuner- 
ative character.  He  became  very  well 
known  in  the  city  as  a  skilled  contractor 
to  whom  might  be  entrusted  any  kind  of 
work  and  who,  to  his  ability  to  accom- 
plish it,  united  the  most  strict  integrity 
which  impelled  him  to  do  his  best  by  each 
customer.  Indeed  his  policy  of  living  up 
to  the  spirit  of  his  contract  as  well  as  to 
the  letter  was  one  of  the  chief  factors  in 
the  success  that  came  to  him.  Later  he 
removed  to  Mount  Vernon  and  there 
made  his  home  until  the  time  of  his  death. 
It  was  undoubtedly  due  to  his  reputa- 
tion as  a  man  of  business  and  affairs  that 
he  first  became  connected  with  the  other 
department  in  which  he  won  distinction, 
that  of  education.  He  had  always  been 
keenly  interested  in  educational  matters, 
especially  in  that  practical  kind  of  educa- 
tion to  which  schools  are  turning  more 
and  more  to-day  and  which  has  for  its 
object  the  fitting  of  boy  or  girl  for  the 
actual  struggle  of  life  by  instructing  them 
in  trades  and  various  handicrafts.  This 
interest,  which  was  well  known,  added  to 
his  business  ability,  was  what  caused  his 
name  to  be  mentioned  in  connection  with 
the  general  superintendency  of  the  great 
New  York  Trade  Schools  situated  at 
Sixty-seventh  street  and  First  avenue 
in  the  city,  when  the  question  of  filling 
that  office  arose.  The  post  was  finally 
offered  him  and  he  accepted  at  once,  feel- 
ing that  it  was  one  in  which  he  could  do 
a  great  service  to  the  community  gener- 
ally and  put  into  practice  a  number  of  his 
theories  which  he  felt  sure  would  aid  the 
movement      materially.      The      problem 


which  rested  on  his  shoulders  in  his  as- 
sumption of  his  post  was  indeed  a  vast 
one,  consisting  as  it  did  of  that  of  bring- 
ing hope  and  opportunity  into  the  lives  of 
that  innumerable  multitude  of  children 
that  is  forever  struggling  up  to  a  partial 
manhood  and  womanhood  and  as  con- 
stantly renewed  in  the  great  "East  Side" 
of  the  city.  Perceiving,  as  he  did,  the 
threat  that  such  an  unguided  growth  as 
that  which  the  average  poor  child  re- 
ceives constituted  to  the  future  of  the 
community,  Mr.  Van  Houton  threw  him- 
self heart  and  soul  into  his  task  of  in- 
creasing the  power  of  each  child  in  the 
school  to  meet  the  well-nigh  overwhelm- 
ing problems  which  were  offered  to  them 
by  life,  to  increase  the  personal  coeffi- 
cient, to  give  knowledge  and  the  con- 
fidence that  springs  from  knowledge  to 
all.  Of  no  man  can  it  be  said  that  he  has 
solved  this  problem,  for  it  is  a  problem 
that  in  its  very  nature  must  continue  as 
long  as  poverty  and  its  attendant  evils 
shall  endure,  but  of  some  it  may  be  said, 
and  of  Mr.  Van  Houton  among  the  num- 
ber, that  they  gave  their  best  endeavors 
to  its  solution  and  did  much  to  alleviate 
conditions  in  the  case  of  those  who  came 
under  their  immediate  observation.  All 
his  life  he  remained  intensely  interested 
in  these  trade  schools  and  his  incumbency 
in  the  office  of  general  superintendent 
was  the  occasion  of  many  improvements 
being  added  to  their  equipment  and  a 
general  development  in  the  efficiency  of 
the  institution. 

Mr.  Van  Houton  was  one  of  those  men 
whose  energy  is  so  great  that  they  take 
upon  their  shoulders  all  manner  of  obli- 
gations and  duties,  yet  always  seem  able 
to  discharge  them.  Besides  his  work  as 
school  superintendent  and  his  somewhat 
exacting  business,  he  found  time  to 
mingle  in  the  general  life  of  the  commu- 
nity and  in  some  of  its  departments  to 


341 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


take  a  conspicuous  part.  He  was  active 
in  the  social  and  club  circles  and  was  a 
member  of  several  important  organiza- 
tions. His  interest  in  the  problems  of  the 
working  man  was  always  keen  and  he 
was  a  prominent  member  of  the  Me- 
chanics' Society,  and  he  was  also  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Building  Society.  In  the 
matter  of  religion  Mr.  Van  Houton  was 
brought  up  in  the  Dutch  Reformed 
church,  but  in  later  years  he  joined  the 
Methodist  church  and  during  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life  was  a  faithful  at- 
tendant on  divine  service  at  the  church 
of  that  denomination  in  Mount  Vernon. 

In  1887  Mr.  Van  Houton  was  united 
in  marriage  with  Clara  K.  Gregor,  of  New 
York  City,  a  daughter  of  William  and 
Katherinc  Gregor,  old  residents  of  the 
city.  To  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Van  Houton  were 
born  five  children  as  follows:  Richard, 
Erskine,  Leonard,  Katherine  and  Clarence. 

Erskine  Van  Houton  was  one  of  that 
extremely  valuable  type  of  man  in  which 
are  combined  high  ideals  and  a  capacity 
for  practical  affairs,  for,  in  the  modern 
vernacular,  "getting  things  done."  A 
valuable  type  because,  in  contrast  with 
some  of  his  fellows  to-day,  the  things  that 
he  gets  done  are  things  very  well  worth 
while  doing,  not  only  from  the  standpoint 
of  his  own  personal  interests,  but  from 
that  of  the  community's  generally.  To 
him  does  the  city,  and  especially  that 
great  element  of  the  poor  and  downtrod- 
den whom  he  labored  so  many  years  to 
aid,  owe  a  great  debt  of  gratitude  difficult 
to  discharge. 


LOWN,  David, 

Business  Man. 

To  a  certain  class  of  men  the  idea,  much 
less  the  reality  of  dependence,  beyond  a 
certain  point  on  the  will  and  inclinations 
in  any  relation  in  life  of  another,  is  in- 


tolerable. The  ability  and  hence  the  sheer 
necessity  for  controlling  power  is  para- 
mount in  them  and  interference  is  rancor- 
ous. But  let  it  not  be  implied  that  these 
men  are  blind  to  the  necessity  for  man- 
agement. They  recognize  the  fact  that 
without  it  all  would  be  chaos,  wherefore 
are  they  the  more  ambitious  to  attain  to 
it.  To  the  inferior  mind,  direction  as  to 
where  it  shall  apply  its  energies,  and  as 
to  how  it  shall  apply  them,  is  indispen- 
sable. Responsibility  is  a  thing  unde- 
sired,  much  less  sought  after.  This  is  un- 
hesitatingly relegated  to  those  men  whose 
aim  and  hope  it  is — the  men  upon  whom 
the  restraint  of  supervision  is  degrading 
to  themselves  in  their  own  eyes,  and 
therefore  galling.  These  men  are  the  or- 
ganizers, the  masters  whose  creative  in- 
tellects provide  the  material  upon  which 
the  underling  does  the  mechanical  work. 
With  the  ideal  of  achievement  in  the 
future  as  their  goal,  they  sacrifice  un- 
daunted to  their  hope,  silently  striving 
toward  the  independence  which  is  the 
essential  factor  in  their  lives  and  happi- 
ness. A  mere  principle  impossible  except 
to  a  chosen  few,  laudable  but  the  cause 
of  unrest  among  the  majority,  you  may 
say !  The  answer  is, — Yes,  but  it  is  the 
spirit  which  made  possible  this  free  land 
of  ours! 

A  man  whose  life  was  one  long  and 
ardent  dedication  to  this  principle,  which 
he  held  as  sacred,  was  David  Lown,  a 
representative  and  important  citizen  of 
the  city  of  Poughkeepsie,  New  York.  Mr. 
Lown  was  the  son  of  Jacob  Lown,  and 
was  born  in  the  town  of  Red  Hook, 
Dutchess  county,  New  York,  in  the  year 
1820.  His  boyhood  was  spent  in  his  na- 
tive town,  where  he  received  his  educa- 
tion, which,  because  of  his  distaste  for 
the  inactivity  of  school  life,  stopped  when 
he  reached  the  age  of  seventeen.  At  this 
time  he  went  to  New  York  City  and  there 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


commenced  to  learn  the  trade  of  cooper- 
ing. His  work  was  interrupted,  but  soon 
after  assumed,  and  the  course  of  his  train- 
ing in  his  trade  finished  at  Nyack  in  Rock- 
land county,  New  York.  This  work  he 
followed  for  some  years  as  a  journeyman. 
David  Lown's  young  manhood  covered 
that  wonderful  period  following  the  War 
of  1812,  when  the  whole  country  went  for- 
ward apace,  when  the  merchant  marine 
grew  and  spread  its  influence  into  the 
farthest  ports,  bringing  in  its  wake  in- 
creased commerce,  prosperity  and  na- 
tional advance.  The  spirit  of  progress 
entered  him  as  it  did  every  true  son  of  the 
soil  and  desire  for  independent  pursuits 
was  rampant  in  him.  Finally,  in  1845,  he 
grasped  the  opportunity  extended  to  him 
and  established  himself  independently  in 
a  manufacturing  line  of  the  trade  which 
he  had  learned.  This  was  at  Barrytown, 
Dutchess  county,  New  York,  and  in  1857 
he  removed  to  Poughkeepsie,  New  York, 
and  there  engaged  in  the  same  industry 
on  a  larger  scale  at  the  Whale  Dock,  the 
firm  which  he  established  being  at  one 
time  known  as  Lown  &  Paulding.  In 
1871  Mr.  Lown  erected  the  present  fine 
cooperage  plant  in  Bridge  street,  and  was 
actively  identified  with  this  enterprise  un- 
til the  time  of  his  death.  He  was  honored 
and  respected  as  only  a  gentleman  of 
impeccable  honesty  and  wise  and  judici- 
ous business  ability  can  be  honored  by  his 
employees,  who  numbered  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  fifty  for  many  years.  To  these 
he  was  a  fatherly  friend  and  adviser  as 
well  as  competent  employer. 

On  July  9,  1845,  Mr.  Lown  married 
Jane  Maria  Coon,  daughter  of  Jacob  and 
Elizabeth  (Rockefeller)  Coon,  of  Cler- 
mont. Mrs.  Lown  died  January  28,  1916. 
Six  children  survive  them. 

Mr.  Lown  was  a  member  of  the  frater- 
nal order  of  Masons,  which  took  charge 
of  his  funeral,  and  was  also  a  member  of 


Steam  Engine  Company,  Nc.  4,  of  Pough- 
keepsie, which  placed  its  flag  at  half-mast 
out  of  respect  to  his  memory.  Though 
he  had  no  other  fraternal  connections  the 
circle  of  his  friends  at  all  times  was  very 
large.  He  possessed  that  magnetism  of 
personality  which  becomes  an  important 
factor  in  the  making  of  friends  of  the  ac- 
quaintances of  business,  as  well  as  those 
met  in  social  life.  The  sterling  qualities 
of  his  character,  the  generosity  of  his  na- 
ture and  the  openness  and  fairness  of  all 
his  dealings  made  him  a  man  sought  as 
a  confidant  and  adviser  by  all  manner  of 
men.  His  influence  in  the  city  was  one 
for  good  and  for  municipal  advance  and 
he  was  at  all  times  active  in  its  interests 
and  reforms,  a  benefactor  whose  loss  was 
a  serious  one.  The  death  of  Mr.  Lown 
occurred  after  an  illness  of  long  duration, 
at  his  home  on  North  Clover  street, 
Poughkeepsie,  May  23,  1877. 


MYERS,  William  Everett, 

Representative  Citizen. 

We  are  always  duly  interested  and 
properly  impressed  by  the  success  won 
by  unusual  talents  and  powers  out  of  the 
common  ;  it  appeals  to  a  very  fundamen- 
tal trait  in  all  of  us,  the  account  of  the 
exploits  of  others  more  gifted  than  our- 
selves ;  we  find  it  vastly  entertaining  to 
read  of  some  coup  which  we  feel  utterly 
beyond  the  reach  of  our  own  humble 
abilities,  we  are  delighted  at  hearing  a 
report  of  how  St.  George  disposed  of  the 
dragon.  But  it  may  be  questioned  if  such 
matters  are  of  as  really  vital  interest  to 
us,  certainly  they  are  not  so  important,  as 
that  other  class  of  record  which  describes 
how  worth  has  won  its  way  upward, 
through  doubts  and  difficulties,  from 
humble  beginnings  to  a  recognized  place 
in  the  regard  of  men,  and  trusted  to  no 
power  but   its  own   indomitable   courage 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


and  indefatigable  patience  for  the  result. 
It  is  in  the  latter  kind  rather  than  the  for- 
mer that  a  lesson  is  contained  for  the  rest 
of  us,  and  it  is  a  story  not  uncommon  in 
this  western  land  of  ours.  Like  many  of 
the  other  common  things  of  life,  however, 
it  is  perennially  inspiring  and  with  each 
repetition,  each  reappearance  under  new 
circumstances  we  feel  a  reawakened  sym- 
pathy, a  renewed  wonderment  regarding 
the  forces  and  traits  of  character  that 
have  thus  triumphed  over  obstacles  and 
difficulties,  and  a  strengthened  determin- 
ation to  emulate  them.  Such  an  example 
we  may  find  in  the  life  of  William  Everett 
Myers,  of  Yonkers,  New  York,  who  by 
sheer  perseverance  and  hard  work  gradu- 
ally forced  his  way  upward  from  the  posi- 
tion he  held  to  one  of  influence  and  con- 
trol in  the  financial  and  industrial  world. 
William  Everett  Myers  was  born  at 
Rhinebeck,  New  York,  April  5,  1865.  He 
was  a  son  of  Virgil  and  Gertrude  (Cole) 
Myers,  old  and  highly  respected  residents 
of  that  place,  who  were  the  parents  of 
two  other  children:  Anna,  died  at  the  age 
of  seventeen  years.  David,  married  Eliza- 
beth NifTen,  of  Yonkers ;  he  was  con- 
nected like  his  brother,  William  E.,  with 
the  Otis  Elevator  Company ;  he  died  in 
1912;  they  had  one  child,  Gertrude.  The 
youthful  associations  of  William  Everett 
Myers  are  not  with  Rhinebeck,  however, 
but  with  Yonkers,  New  York,  whither  he 
moved  with  his  parents  at  the  age  of  five 
years.  It  was  here  also  that  he  received 
his  education,  attending  the  excellent  pub- 
lic schools  of  the  city  for  that  purpose  and 
proving  himself  an  ambitious  student. 
Immediately  after  leaving  school  he 
secured  a  position  with  the  Otis  Elevator 
Company  of  Yonkers,  New  York,  the 
largest  concern  engaged  in  this  business 
in  the  world.  Mr.  Myers'  association  with 
the  Otis  people  was  a  most  satisfactory 
one    for   all    concerned   and    he    rapidly 


worked  his  way  up  the  ladder  until  he 
became  superintendent  of  the  costs  and 
stocks  department  of  the  company.  For 
twenty-three  years  he  remained  with  the 
Otis  Company  and  it  was  only  his  death, 
which  occurred  on  September  1,  1915, 
which  severed  the  connection. 

Mr.  Myers  was  very  active  socially  in 
the  city  of  Yonkers  and  was  connected 
prominently  with  the  Masonic  order 
there.  He  was  a  member  of  the  local 
lodges  of  the  Free  and  Accepted  Masons, 
the  chapter  of  the  Royal  Arch  Masons 
and  the  commandery  of  Knights  Tem- 
plar. He  was  greatly  interested  in  the 
order  and  was  prominently  identified  with 
it  for  more  than  twenty-two  years.  In 
his  religious  belief  Mr.  Myers  was  an 
Episcopalian  and  attended  St.  Andrew's 
Church  of  that  denomination  in  Yonkers. 

On  January  31,  1900,  Mr.  Myers  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Henrietta  Dop- 
man,  of  Alpine,  Bergen  county,  New  Jer- 
sey, a  daughter  of  Herman  and  Alice 
(Dalton)  Dopman,  of  that  place.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Dopman  died  when  Mrs.  Henrietta 
(Dopman)  Myers  was  quite  young;  they 
had  four  children:  Anna,  Sarah,  Christo- 
pher and  Henrietta.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Myers 
were  the  parents  of  two  children :  Alice 
D.,  born  April  16,  1903,  in  Yonkers  ;  Wil- 
liam E.,  born  June  4,  1905,  in  Yonkers. 


MURPHY,  Peter  A., 

Public  Official. 

The  word  hero  is  one  whose  connota- 
tions are  so  magnificent,  whose  associ- 
ations lie  close  to  the  most  sacred  ideals 
of  the  race  and  stir  such  overwhelming 
and  inspiring  thoughts  within  us,  that  we 
very  properly  resent  a  light  or  ill-advised 
use  of  it,  feeling  that  it  should  be  re- 
served for  those  who  have  shown  them- 
selves well  worthy  of  it  by  some  deed 
which  thrills  and  stimulates  the  imagina- 


;r  until  he 
costs  and 
any,  For 
d  with  the 
his  death, 

'•  m 

socially  in 
connected 
«ic  order 

tie  local 
d  Masons, 
i  Masons 
?hts  Tern- 
in  the 
itified  with 
years,  In 
s  was  an 
Andrew's 
i  Yonkers. 
lyers  was 
ietta  Dop- 
Xew  Jer- 
and  Alice 

Mr.  and 


ed  ideals 
/helming 
,  that  we 
1-advised 

d  be  re- 

thetn- 

time  deed 

imagina- 


*P$vrr~7Z  \ . 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


tions  of  us  all.  Such  a  deed  was  that  done  by 
the  young  man  whose  name  heads  this 
brief  and  inadequate  appreciation,  Peter 
A.  Murphy,  late  of  New  Rochelle,  New 
York,  who  in  the  midst  of  circumstances 
of  the  utmost  terror,  in  the  midst  of  great 
pain,  in  the  face  of  imminent  death,  calm- 
ly chose  to  reject  the  rescue  that  offered, 
until  he  had  seen  it  accorded  to  all  or 
many  others,  of  whom,  because  of  their 
sex,  he  felt  himself  the  natural  protector 
and  champion.  Pinned  under  the  debris 
of  a  wrecked  train,  suffering  with  injuries 
that  eventually  proved  his  death,  he  sent 
those  who  would  have  assisted  him  to  the 
aid  of  the  women  who  shared  that  dread- 
ful situation  with  him,  facing  as  a  stoic 
might  his  own  uncertain  fate  without 
flinching.  For  this  piece  of  unusual  and 
splendid  courage,  he  was  popularly  dubbed 
the  "Tunnel  Hero,"  from  the  place  where 
his  dreadful  experience  occurred.  A  short, 
but  valuable  life  ended  in  a  fashion  so 
glorious  is  a  fortune  from  which  perhaps 
we  might  all  shrink,  but  it  is  a  fortune 
which  any  man  with  a  high  ideal  of  honor 
must  also  envy  in  his  better  moments. 

Born  April  29,  1869,  in  New  Rochelle, 
Peter  A.  Murphy  was  a  son  of  Patrick 
and  Bridget  (Dee)  Murphy,  old  and  high- 
ly respected  residents  of  the  city.  He 
grew  to  manhood  in  his  native  place  and 
there  obtained  an  excellent  education  in 
in  the  local  schools,  proving  himself  an 
apt  and  brilliant  scholar.  From  early 
youth  he  took  a  keen  interest  in  political 
questions,  particularly  those  of  local  appli- 
cation, and  allied  himself  with  the  Repub- 
lican organization  of  his  city  where  he 
did  such  good  work  that  he  was  quickly 
recognized  as  a  leader.  He  identified  him- 
self generally  with  the  life  of  the  place 
and  joined  the  Relief  Engine  Company 
and  many  other  organizations  and  was 
one  of  the  best  known  figures  in  the  city. 
At  the  time  of  the  terrible  accident  in  the 


Park  avenue  tunnel,  in  which  the  Dan- 
bury  express,  of  which  he  was  a  pas- 
senger, was  telescoped  by  a  New  York 
Central  train,  and  in  which  he  received 
those  injuries  which  finally  caused  his 
death,  Mr.  Murphy  was  but  thirty-three 
years  of  age.  The  date  was  January  8, 
1902,  and  for  many  months  thereafter  he 
was  helpless,  one  of  his  legs  being  so 
badly  hurt  that  amputation  was  neces- 
sary and  his  whole  system  suffering  from 
shock  and  strain.  Indeed  the  gravest  of 
all  the  complications  arising  from  the 
event  was  of  this  nature,  his  organism  be- 
ing so  greatly  weakened  that  tuberculosis 
set  in.  In  spite  of  these  terrible  circum- 
stances, however,  Mr.  Murphy  regained  a 
certain  amount  of  health  and  strength  and 
made  a  temporary  recovery.  With  a 
courage  truly  remarkable  he  once  more 
took  up  his  activities  and,  although  a 
great  sufferer,  was  actually  the  Republi- 
can candidate  for  receiver  of  taxes  in  New 
Rochelle  the  following  year.  What  was 
more  he  was  elected  and  served  most 
efficiently  for  upwards  of  two  years.  To- 
wards the  close  of  1905  he  was  compelled 
to  go  South  for  his  health  and  returned 
somewhat  benefited,  but.it  was  necessary 
thereafter  for  him  to  repeat  his  southern 
trip  every  winter.  Little  by  little  the 
insidious  disease  which  had  seized  him 
overmastered  a  constitution  already 
gravely  weakened,  and  in  the  winter  of 
1907-08  made  its  dread  progress  despite 
the  southern  climate  and  outdoor  life. 
The  following  spring  he  returned  to  his 
home  with  the  full  realization  that  he 
could  no  longer  resist  its  inroads  and  it 
was  on  May  7  in  the  latter  year  that  he 
gave  up  the  splendid  battle  he  had  been 
waging,  although  his  courage  and  good 
cheer  remained  unbroken  to  the  last.  Be- 
sides his  political  and  official  activities, 
Mr.  Murphy  was  a  conspicuous  figure  in 
social  circles  and  a  member  of  a  number 


345 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


of  fraternal  orders  and  similar  organiza- 
tions. Chief  of  these  was  the  Knights  of 
Columbus  in  which  he  was  especially 
active. 

On  June  27,  1894,  Mr.  Murphy  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Mary  C.  Parker, 
a  daughter  of  Michael  and  Bridget  (Daly) 
Parker.  To  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Murphy  were 
born  five  children,  four  sons  and  one 
daughter,  as  follows:  Robert  A.,  Francis 
E.,  Harold  Peter,  Marion  C.  and  Kenneth 
P.  Mrs.  Murphy  and  her  children  survive 
Mr.  Murphy  and  still  make  their  home  in 
New  Rochelle.  Through  all  the  long  and 
trying  period  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Murphy 
after  the  accident,  his  wife  was  a  partaker 
with  him  of  all  his  sufferings  and  hard- 
ships, a  constant  companion  forever  min- 
istering to  his  wants  and  proving  herself 
a  worthy  helpmeet  to  her  afflicted  but 
resolute  husband. 

The  heroism  of  Mr.  Murphy  in  the 
great  emergency  of  his  life  has  already 
been  spoken  of,  but  there  is  a  courage 
exhibited  by  many  in  the  performance  of 
daily  duties  under  trial  which,  if  less 
striking,  is  perhaps  equally  difficult  and 
praiseworthy.  This  courage  was  also  Mr. 
Murphy's  possession,  who  during  the  six 
years  following  his  injury  was  a  constant 
sufferer  and  no  less  a  constant  hero.  From 
youth  he  had  the  keenest  sense  of  justice 
and  it  was  his  constant  endeavor,  especi- 
ally in  his  official  capacities,  to  treat  every 
man  with  the  utmost  impartiality  and 
fairness.  For  a  man  who  is  a  victim  of  ill 
health  and  suffering  this  is  no  easy  task, 
subject  as  he  almost  inevitably  is  to  the 
most  varying  moods.  Yet  there  were 
none  of  his  friends  who  were  aware  of 
any  difference  in  his  conduct  or  manner. 
He  never  spoke  ill  of  any  man,  and  his 
greeting  was  always  cordial  and  accom- 
panied by  the  warmest  of  smiles.  It  is 
unusual  to  preserve  a  ready  sympathy 
with  one's  fellows  when  one's  own  for- 


tune is  hard,  but  it  was  the  distinction  of 
Mr.  Murphy  that  he  accomplished  this 
great  task  in  fact  as  well  as  appearance. 
His  death  has  left  a  gap  not  to  be  filled, 
not  only  in  the  life  of  his  family  and 
friends,  but  in  the  affairs  of  the  commu- 
nity of  which  he  was  so  worthy  a  mem- 
ber. 


PAULEY,  George, 

Business  Man. 

There  are  times  when,  in  the  perusal  of 
the  records  of  prominent  men,  especially 
those  who  have  won  their  successes  early 
in  life,  we  are  inclined  to  feel  that  destiny 
has  her  favorites  with  whom  she  deals 
with  partiality,  conferring  upon  them 
favors  of  all  kinds  that  she  withholds 
from  other  men,  talents,  abilities,  quali- 
ties of  mind  and  spirit,  which  make 
smooth  to  their  feet  paths,  the  roughest 
to  others,  and  which  help  with  compara- 
tive ease  to  achievements  of  which  the 
average  man  often  entirely  despairs.  Yet 
a  closer  examination  generally  dispels 
this  illusion.  Men,  indeed,  are  given 
talents  above  the  ordinary  but  none  are 
reprieved  from  the  necessity  of  using 
them,  and  we  have  it  upon  the  highest 
authority  that  in  proportion  as  we  receive 
so  we  must  render  again  in  the  final  ac- 
count. No,  the  man  of  talent  is  not  com- 
monly the  one  that  works  the  least,  but 
rather  the  most,  and  his  accomplishments 
are  more  generally  the  result  of  efforts 
from  which  we  would  be  apt  to  shrink 
than  the  spontaneous  fruits  of  unculti- 
vated abilities,  for  there  is  a  very  great 
element  of  truth  in  the  pronouncement  of 
Carlyle  that  "genius  is  an  infinite  ca- 
pacity for  taking  pains."  This  was  un- 
questionably true  in  the  case  of  George 
Pauley,  the  distinguished  gentleman 
whose  name  heads  this  brief  sketch  and 
whose  death  at  Gloversville,  New  York. 


346 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


on  April  22,  1912,  deprived  that  town  of 
one  of  its  most  active  and  public-spirited 
citizens. 

Born  October  23,  1854,  at  Northamp- 
ton, New  York,  Mr.  Pauley  was  a  son  of 
Peter  and  Caroline  Pauley,  old  and  high- 
ly respected  residents  of  that  place.  He 
did  not  remain  in  his  native  town  very 
long,  however,  for  it  was  only  shortly 
after  his  birth  that  his  parents  removed  to 
Gloversville,  in  the  same  State.  It  was 
thus  that  even  his  earliest  associations 
were  with  the  town  that  was  to  be  his 
home  for  the  remainder  of  his  life,  and 
with  the  activities  of  which  he  was  so 
closely  identified.  His  education  was  ob- 
tained in  the  public  schools  of  Glovers- 
ville, where  he  made  a  considerable  repu- 
tation for  himself  as  an  excellent  student, 
intelligent,  industrious  and  painstaking, 
and  upon  completing  his  studies  at  once 
entered  his  father's  business  of  teaming 
and  trucking,  in  which  the  elder  man  had 
successfully  established  himself.  He  re- 
mained in  this  association  with  his  father 
until  the  latter's  death  and  he  then  con- 
tinued it  alone  up  to  within  a  few  months 
of  his  own  death.  He  was  extremely  suc- 
cessful in  this  enterprise  and  did  a  large 
business  and  of  such  a  kind  that  it 
brought  with  it  a  splendid  reputation  for 
integrity  and  probity,  a  reputation  not 
surpassed  by  any  other  business  man  in 
the  town.  But  although  this  always  re- 
mained his  first  consideration,  in  so  far  as 
business  matters  were  concerned,  he  by 
no  means  confined  himself  to  the  one  ven- 
ture but  associated  himself  with  a  num- 
ber of  industrial  concerns  of  importance, 
such  as  the  Gloversville  Knitting  Com- 
pany, of  which  for  some  time  he  was  the 
secretary. 

He  was  a  man  of  wide  sympathies  and 
interests,  willing  to  devote  all  his  energies 
to  business  under  any  circumstances, 
however  varied  his  enterprises  might  be. 


He  sought  and  found  at  once  pleasure  and 
the  elements  of  culture  in  other  aspects 
of  the  community's  life  and  was  a  promi- 
nent figure  in  many  departments  thereof. 
He  was  active  in  the  social  life  and  was 
once  a  member  of  the  Independent  Order 
of  Odd  Fellows.  In  the  matter  of  his  re- 
ligious belief  he  was  a  Presbyterian  and 
a  faithful  attendant  upon  divine  service 
at  the  First  Church  of  that  denomination 
in  Gloversville.  Rather  than  soliciting 
anything  in  a  political  sense,  Mr.  Pauley 
was  requested  by  many  of  his  friends  to 
run  for  various  offices  in  town  politics. 
but  he  declined  these  and  would  only  take 
part  as  a  conscientious  voter.  He  was 
affiliated  with  the  Republican  party. 

On  December  27,  1876,  Mr.  Pauley  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Josephine  Pearse, 
of  Schenectady,  New  York,  a  daughter  of 
Nicholas  and  Anna  M.  (Bradt)  Pearse,  of 
that  place.  To  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Pauley  were 
born  two  children  as  follows:  I.  Grace, 
born  January  18, 1878,  who  married  Harry 
A.  Steele,  of  Gloversville,  and  they  have 
three  children:  Josephine  L.,  Harriet  G. 
and  Clara  E.  2.  Edna  M.,  born  November 
26,  1887,  who  married  Charles  W.  Broock- 
ins,  of  Gloversville. 

Mr.  Pauley  was  a  man  of  unusual  busi- 
ness acumen,  a  man  whose  noteworthy 
success  was  entirely  due  to  his  own  un- 
aided efforts,  his  clear  insight  into  con- 
ditions and  his  painstaking  work  for  his 
objectives.  None  of  the  business  houses 
with  which  he  was  associated  at  any  time 
but  felt  the  benefit  of  his  judgment  and 
his  talent  for  organization  and  manage- 
ment. His  virtues  were  of  that  funda- 
mental and  sterling  character  that  claimed 
the  admiration  of  all  men  and  he  won  the 
general  respect  of  his  fellow  citizens  in 
Gloversville  with  his  candid  straightfor- 
wardness in  all  the  relations  of  life  and 
the  scrupulousness  with  which  he  ful- 
filled his  obligations.     There  is  no  doubt 


347 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


but  that  his  life  might  well  serve  as  a 
model  for  the  youth  of  the  community 
who  desire  to  succeed  in  business  with 
clean  hands  and  untroubled  consciences. 


WALTJEN,  Henry, 

Artistic  Decorator. 

An  honorable  life  closed  with  the  pass- 
ing of  Henry  Waltjen,  of  Rochester,  who, 
born  far  across  the  seas,  brought  to  his 
adopted  country  the  sterling  traits  of  his 
German  ancestors  and  became  one  of  the 
prosperous,  capable  business  men  of  his 
adopted  city  and  another  illustration  of 
the  value  of  the  German  citizen  in  the 
United  States.  To  this  land  of  opportu- 
nity he  brought  the  thrift,  energy  and  per- 
severance of  the  Fatherland,  combining 
the  virtues  of  the  German  with  the 
modern  ideas  of  the  New  World  and  win- 
ning high  reputation  as  an  interior  decora- 
tive artist.  The  business  he  followed  in 
Rochester  was  learned  in  the  Fatherland 
under  the  expert  direction  of  his  father, 
a  veteran  of  the  German  Revolution  of 
1848,  who  carried  on  his  business  in  the 
city  of  Bremen. 

Henry  Waltjen  was  born  in  Bremen, 
Germany,  in  1851,  died  at  his  home  in 
Rochester,  New  York,  May  28,  1909,  son 
of  Henry  and  Louise  Waltjen.  He  was 
educated  in  the  excellent  schools  of 
Bremen,  and  on  arriving  at  a  suitable  age 
he  began  learning  the  decoration  trade 
with  his  father  who  carefully  taught  his 
son  the  business  from  its  initial  phase. 
At  the  age  of  seventeen  years  the  young 
man  sailed  for  the  United  States,  believ- 
ing that  greater  opportunities  awaited 
him  here.  He  first  located  in  New  York 
City,  where  he  worked  at  his  trade  until 
1876,  also  acquiring  American  ways, 
methods  and  speech.  In  1876  he  came  to 
Rochester,  working  for  others  for  two 
years,  then  in  1878  establishing  in  busi- 
ness under  his  own  name.    He  prospered 


and  as  the  years  progressed  became  one 
of  the  leading  decorators  of  the  city,  em- 
ployed many  men  and  fully  realized  the 
ambition  which  brought  him  across  the 
seas.  He  became  well-known  in  Roches- 
ter and  was  highly  esteemed  as  a  man  of 
honor  and  as  a  good  citizen.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce 
and  a  leading  member  of  the  Rochester 
Maennerchor  Society,  serving  the  latter 
at  one  time  as  president.  He  was  inde- 
pendent in  his  political  action,  supporting 
men  and  measures  he  deemed  for  the  best 
interests  of  all.  He  was  a  member  of 
Salem  German  Lutheran  Church,  and  was 
ever  ready  to  aid  any  good  cause. 

Mr.  Waltjen  married,  in  New  York 
City,  December  5,  1875,  Margaret,  daugh- 
ter of  Christian  and  Dorothea  Seebach, 
who  survives  him,  residing  at  No.  146 
Linden  street,  Rochester.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Waltjen  were  the  parents  of  three  daugh- 
ters :  Louise,  wife  of  Robert  Buedingen, 
of  the  firm  of  William  Buedingen  &  Son, 
paper  box  manufacturers  of  Rochester; 
Dora  and  Meta,  the  two  last  named  as 
managers  for  their  mother,  continuing 
the  business  established  by  their  father, 
Waltjen's  Painters  and  Decorators,  han- 
dling everything  in  wall  coverings  with 
show  rooms  at  No.  394  East  Main  street. 
Inheriting  the  business  ability  of  their 
honored  father,  the  daughters  are  splen- 
did examples  of  the  American  woman  in 
business  and  "Waltjen's"  retains  all  of  its 
old  time  popularity  under  their  manage- 
ment. 


SEITZ,  Frederick  C, 

Builder  and  Contractor. 

For  a  little  over  half  a  century  Mr. 
Seitz  was  a  resident  of  Rochester,  New 
York,  coming  in  1854  from  Germany,  a 
lad  of  twelve  years.  He  rapidly  imbibed 
the  spirit  of  American  institutions  and 
even    before    attaining   citizenship   wore 


348 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


the  colors  of  his  adopted  country  and 
proved  the  sincerity  of  his  intentions  by 
battling  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union. 
With  the  scars  of  battle  upon  him  he  re- 
turned to  Rochester,  and  for  forty-five 
years  thereafter,  as  apprentice,  journey- 
man and  contractor,  was  identified  with 
the  building  interests  of  his  adopted  city. 
He  left  a  record  of  sterling  integrity  and 
capability  as  a  contractor,  efficiency  as  a 
public  official,  devotion  to  the  First  Lu- 
theran Church  and  to  the  principles  of  the 
Masonic  order,  that  marks  him  as  one  of 
the  men  of  his  day  whose  memory  will 
long  be  kept  green  in  the  hearts  of  all 
those  with  whom  he  came  in  contact. 
Wurttemberg,  the  German  Kingdom  from 
which  he  came,  has  long  been  noted  for 
the  excellence  of  its  higher  educational  in- 
stitutions and  for  the  widespread  diffu- 
sion of  public  education.  Amid  such  sur- 
roundings he  acquired  the  love  of  knowl- 
edge that  distinguished  his  life  and  there 
he  laid  the  foundation  of  an  excellent 
education  that  to  one  of  his  intelligence 
was  ample  for  all  the  demands  of  an  ac- 
tive business  life. 

Frederick  C.  Seitz  was  born  at  Hen- 
ingen,  Wurttemberg,  Germany,  July  7, 
1842,  died  at  Rochester,  New  York,  Au- 
gust 5,  191  o,  after  an  illness  of  several 
months.  He  came  to  the  United  States 
in  1854  and  at  once  made  Rochester  his 
home.  Seven  years  later  he  enlisted  in 
Company  G,  Thirteenth  Regiment  New 
York  Volunteer  Infantry,  serving  with 
that  command  until  transferred  to  Com- 
pany K,  Third  Regiment  New  York 
Cavalry,  continuing  in  active  service  un- 
til honorably  discharged  and  mustered 
out  at  the  close  of  the  war.  He  then 
returned  to  Rochester  and  completed 
his  apprenticeship,  becoming  an  expert 
worker  in  wood.  He  followed  the  house 
carpenter's  trade  for  several  years  and 
after  thoroughly  mastering  the  details  of 


building  construction  applied  this  knowl- 
edge and  his  mechanical  skill  to  his  own 
advantage,  beginning  contracting  in  1881. 
Fie  was  master  of  his  business  and  proved 
this  fact  in  the  execution  of  his  first  con- 
tracts, and  to  his  ability  as  a  builder  there 
are  many  edifices  standing  in  Rochester 
as  monuments.  To  efficiency  he  added  a 
rugged  honesty  which,  winning  the  public 
confidence,  never  betrayed  it  during  the 
twenty-nine  years  he  lived  in  the  public 
eye  as  a  master  builder.  He  continued  in 
prosperous  business  until  his  death  and 
in  fields  outside  that  of  building  won 
distinction  as  an  able  man  of  affairs.  He 
was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the  Building 
Exchange,  serving  as  vice-president  and 
at  other  times  as  director.  He  was  also 
a  director  of  the  American  Brewing  Com- 
pany, of  Rochester,  and  of  the  German 
Insurance  Company. 

He  took  a  deep  interest  in  public  affairs 
but  had  little  inclination  for  office,  al- 
though he  was  a  member  of  the  board  of 
park  commissioners,  and  for  one  term 
served  on  the  executive  board  of  the  city 
of  Rochester.  He  attained  the  highest 
degree  in  Masonry,  thirty-third  degree, 
and  was  held  in  high  esteem  by  his 
brethren  of  the  Rite.  Other  leading  orders 
claimed  his  support  and  in  him  burned 
the  true  fraternal  fires,  friendship  and 
brotherly  love.  He  was  a  devoted  mem- 
ber of  the  First  German  Lutheran  Church 
and  for  the  quarter  of  a  century  preced- 
ing his  death  he  served  that  church  as 
president  of  the  board  of  trustees.  He 
was  liberal  in  his  donations  to  church 
and  charity,  holding  it  a  duty  and  a 
privilege  to  aid  in  the  maintenance  of 
Christian  and  philanthropic  purpose. 

Mr.  Seitz  married  Magdalena  Meier, 
who  survives  him.  Children:  Charles  F., 
William  C,  Frederick  A.,  Arthur  G., 
Louise  C,  Emelie  C.  and  Bertha  M.,  wife 
of  Fred  H.  Snyder.  Mr.  Seitz  sleeps  in 
Mount  Hope  Cemetery. 


349 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


VAY,  Rudolph, 

Business   Mas,   Musician. 

Of  all  the  varied  influences  that  have 
gone  to  make  this  country  the  most  pros- 
perous and  progressive  on  the  face  of  the 
earth,  perhaps  none  is  so  pronounced  as 
the  strong  German  element  which  has 
been  infused  into  the  Nation.  It  is  felt 
as  a  tremendous  force  for  good  wherever 
men  from  the  Fatherland  have  taken  up 
their  abode,  and  especially  may  we  note 
how  strongly  the  influence  is  discernible 
in  the  rapid  advancement  of  New  York 
State,  and  her  chief  city  of  the  like  name. 
There  is  an  earnestness  and  purposeful- 
ness  about  the  German  people  than  can 
be  claimed  by  no  other  nation  on  earth ; 
distinguished  at  once  by  lofty  ideals  and 
a  most  intense  practicality,  it  is  their 
mission  to  definitely  conceive  of  progress 
and  to  carry  it  into  the  fullest  and  highest 
realization. 

Among  these  men  of  progress,  deep 
thinkers  and  hard  workers,  who  came  to 
this  country  for  its  betterment,  must  be 
mentioned  the  late  Rudolph  Vay,  of 
Rochester,  New  York,  who  was  for  many 
years  a  well-known  business  man  in  that 
city.  As  with  most  persons  who  have 
attained  success,  Mr.  Vay  made  his  way 
in  the  world  with  no  other  capital  than 
his  energy  and  determination,  coupled 
with  business  foresight  and  ability,  and 
his  genuine  worth  and  strict  integrity 
won  the  confidence  and  high  esteem  of  all 
with  whom  he  came  in  contact.  His  his- 
tory is  that  of  a  strong  man  who  set  him- 
self to  succeed  in  spite  of  all  obstacles; 
and  he  studied  and  fought  and  wrought 
until  he  stood  as  one  of  the  foremost  busi- 
ness men  of  the  city. 

Rudolph  Vay  was  born  in  Breitbach, 
Bavaria,  Germany,  November  23,  1839, 
and  died  at  his  home,  No.  395  Maple 
street,  Rochester,  after  an  illness  of  but 
a    few    days'   duration,   January   6,    1910. 


He  came  to  this  country  in  very  early 
manhood,  and  for  a  period  of  two  years 
resided  in  Buffalo,  New  York,  where  he 
taught  school,  and  was  the  organist  of  St. 
Mary's  Church.  He  then  came  to  Roches- 
ter, and  from  that  time  was  identified 
with  the  interests  of  the  city  in  a  number 
of  directions.  He  established  himself  in 
the  dry  goods  business,  which  he  carried 
on  successfully  for  many  years.  As  one 
of  the  organizers  of  the  Rochester  Ger- 
man Insurance  Company,  he  became  well 
known,  and  served  as  secretary  of  this 
corporation  for  some  time.  His  influence 
was  also  of  moment  in  the  Flower  City 
Brewing  Company,  of  which  he  was  presi- 
dent for  some  years.  Another  field  of  his 
activity  was  along  musical  lines;  for  a 
period  of  twenty-five  years  he  was  or- 
ganist and  director  of  the  choir  in  SS. 
Peter  and  Paul  Church,  and  subsequently 
held  a  similar  position  in  the  Holy  Fam- 
ily Church.  With  public  affairs  his  active 
mind  was  also  occupied,  and  he  repre- 
sented the  Eleventh  Ward  two  years  as 
a  member  of  the  Common  Council  of  the 
city.  He  was  a  pioneer  member  of  the 
Liederkranz  of  Rochester,  a  well  known 
musical  organization,  and  organized  the 
Order  of  Knights  of  St.  John  of  SS.  Peter 
and  Paul  Church. 

Mr.  Vay  married  Eva  Mandell,  of  Ba- 
varia, and  of  this  marriage  there  were  six 
sons  and  four  daughters. 


McGRAN,  Frank  J., 

Man  of  Affairs. 

There  have  been  many  forms  of  aris- 
tocracy tried  and  discarded  in  the  course 
of  the  mighty  evolution  that  the  social 
relations  of  man  have  undergone  from 
the  earliest  period  down  to  the  present 
day,  aristocracies  of  strength,  of  cunning, 
of  race,  of  class,  even  of  belief,  of  so  many 
diverse  things,  indeed,  as  to  defy  the 
imagination   and   memory  of    those  who 


350 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


would  list  them.  It  seems,  so  great  is 
the  tendency  of  men  to  organize  their  so- 
cial institutions  about  some  such  special 
and  exclusive  body,  almost  as  though 
there  was  something  inherent  in  human 
nature  that  demanded  it,  and  this  idea  is 
given  a  startling  support  in  the  fact  that 
even  in  the  case  of  democracies  that  are 
supposed  to  be  in  revolt  against  all  aris- 
tocracies the  tendency  to  discover  and 
emphasize  certain  classes  is  of  recurrent 
appearance.  It  would  be  a  very  natural 
conclusion  that  such  an  aristocracy  mak- 
ing its  appearance  in  the  midst  of  a  de- 
mocracy must  find  its  significant  distinc- 
tion in  the  matter  of  brains,  but  if  the  de- 
mocracy be  a  true  one,  even  this  is  con- 
trary to  its  spirit,  for  the  man  of  no  brains 
has  rights  quite  as  inviolate  as  the  genius, 
who  in  very  virtue  of  his  own  clear  sight 
is  continually  tempted  to  disregard  them. 
An  aristocracy  of  worth — of  which,  un- 
doubtedly, brains  is  an  essential  element 
— is  the  only  one  that  a  democracy  can 
tolerate  and  remain  true  to  itself,  and  also 
it  may  be  said  that  this  it  must  not  only 
tolerate  but  encourage  and  foster  if  it  is 
to  remain  vital  and  would  continue  to 
grow.  This  it  is  that  the  people  of  the 
United  States  have,  with  an  instinctive 
wisdom,  done,  and  this  is  what  has  ac- 
counted for  the  phenomenal  progress  made 
by  them  in  the  early  years  of  their  exis- 
tence as  a  nation.  It  has  been  that  prac- 
tice that  has  made  so  many,  even  of  the 
smaller  communities,  take  on  the  bust- 
ling, wide-awake  air  so  characteristic  of 
America,  and  that  accounts  for  the  ap- 
pearance of  so  many  men  of  talent  from 
the  ranks,  as  it  were,  men  who  under 
other  institutions  must  have  wasted  their 
abilities  in  more  or  less  vain  endeavors  to 
express  themselves.  Such  a  man  was 
Frank  J.  McGran,  the  successful  business 
man,  the  prominent  man  of  affairs,  who 
made  himself  felt  as  a  factor  in  the  life  of 


his  community,  and  whose  death  in  New 
Rochelle,  New  York,  on  March  7,  1914, 
was  felt  as  a  loss  throughout  that  place. 

Born  August  9, 187 1,  in  Newtown,  Con- 
necticut, a  son  of  John  and  Bridget  (Wel- 
den)  McGran,  well-known  residents  of 
that  town,  he  passed  the  years  of  his 
childhood  and  youth  in  his  native  region, 
engaged  in  the  appropriate  occupations 
of  that  period  of  life.  His  education  was 
obtained  in  the  excellent  local  schools, 
and  upon  completing  his  studies  he  en- 
gaged there  in  a  furniture  and  undertak- 
ing business  and  was  eminently  success- 
ful. This  enterprise  he  carried  on  in 
partnership  with  a  Mr.  Taylor,  under  the 
firm  name  of  Taylor  &  McGran.  His 
partner  was  a  man  much  Mr.  McGran's 
senior  in  years  and  from  him  he  learned 
the  business  very  fully.  In  1896  Mr.  Mc- 
Gran severed  his  connection  with  this 
concern,  came  to  New  Rochelle,  New 
York,  and  there  opened  a  similar  estab- 
lishment in  an  old  frame  building  situated 
at  No.  17  Centre  avenue.  Here  his  suc- 
cess was  great  and  in  course  of  time  he 
pulled  the  original  building  down  and 
erected  in  its  place  the  handsome  stone 
structure  which  now  stands  on  that  site, 
and  in  which  his  business  is  conducted  to 
this  day. 

But  it  was  not  so  much  as  a  business 
man  as  in  the  part  he  played  in  conduct- 
ing public  affairs  that  Mr.  McGran  was 
well-known  in  the  city  of  his  adoption, 
for  in  the  latter  department  of  activity  he 
was  felt  as  a  very  positive  influence  for 
good.  He  was  a  staunch  supporter  of  the 
Democratic  party  and  allied  himself  to 
the  local  organization  thereof,  taking  such 
active  part  in  its  work  that  he  was  very 
soon  recognized  as  a  leader."  During  the 
administration  of  Mayor  Dillon  he  served 
most  effectively  as  clerk  of  the  board  of 
health,  and  won  the  confidence  of  the 
community  for  the  able  way  in  which  he 


351 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


handled  his  duties.  A  little  later,  under 
Mayor  Raymond,  he  was  elected  to  the 
office  of  receiver  of  taxes  and  served  with 
equal  success  in  that  capacity  during  the 
administration.  In  1912  Mr.  McGran  was 
appointed  to  a  post  in  the  State  comp- 
troller's office,  in  the  transfer  tax  depart- 
ment, and  thereafter  carried  on  his  work 
in  New  York  City  where  this  office  was 
situated.  He  was  still  serving  in  this  ca- 
pacity at  the  time  of  his  death.  In  the 
social  circles  of  his  town  Mr.  McGran 
was  extremely  prominent  and  was  a 
member  of  a  great  number  of  fraternal 
societies  and  other  organizations  in  the 
life  of  which  he  was  conspicuous.  While 
living  in  Newtown,  Connecticut,  he 
joined  the  fraternity  of  the  Knights  of 
Columbus,  and  upon  coming  to  New 
Rochelle  was  one  of  the  founders  of  a 
council  of  that  order  there  and  was  en- 
rolled as  a  charter  member.  He  was 
elected  its  deputy  grand  knight  for  the 
first  two  years  of  its  existence  and  after- 
wards served  a  term  as  its  grand  knight. 
He  also  received  the  honor  of  member- 
ship in  the  Color  Guard,  Second  New 
York  Regiment,  Fourth  Degree.  Mr. 
McGran  was  also  a  member  of  the  New 
Rochelle  Lodge,  Benevolent  and  Protec- 
tive Order  of  Elks ;  Knickerbocker  Camp, 
Modern  Woodmen  of  America ;  New 
Rochelle  Council,  Royal  Arcanum ;  Di- 
vision Five,  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians  ; 
the  Democratic  Club  and  the  Neptune 
Fire  Company.  In  the  matter  of  religion 
Mr.  McGran  was  a  staunch  Catholic,  a 
member  of  the  Church  of  the  Blessed 
Sacrament,  New  Rochelle,  active  in  the 
work  of  the  parish  and  a  member  of  a 
number  of  organizations  connected  there- 
with, the  Irish  Benevolent  Society  and 
the  Holy  Name  Society,  and  he  was  also 
a  member  of  the  Robert  Emmet  Club. 

Throughout  the  eighteen  years  during 
which  Mr.  McGran  lived  and  carried  on 


his  business  in  New  Rochelle,  he  retained 
an  affection  for  the  city  of  his  choice 
which  expressed  itself  in  many  effective 
ways.  He  was  extremely  public  spirited 
and  was  ever  ready  to  take  part  in  any 
movement  or  undertaking  which  had  the 
common  weal  as  an  object  and  which 
appealed  to  his  sense  of  what  was  wise 
and  appropriate.  His  charities  were  large 
but  unostentatious,  and  despite  the  promi- 
nent part  he  took  in  the  community's 
affairs  he  was  always  of  a  retiring  dis- 
position. Such  men  it  is  always  more 
than  usually  the  duty  of  posterity  to  re- 
member, in  order  that  what  they  have 
neglected  in  their  own  behalf  may  be 
rectified  and  their  names  receive  some- 
thing, even  if  but  a  tithe,  of  the  credit 
that  is  their  due. 


WARD,  Patrick  H., 

Business  Man,  Public-Spirited  Citizen. 

No  history  of  Poughkeepsie  would  be 
complete  without  the  name  of  the  late 
Patrick  H.  Ward,  and  this  not  merely 
because  Mr.  Ward  was  a  prominent  busi- 
ness man  and  useful  citizen,  but  also  for 
the  additional  reason  that  he  was  through- 
out his  entire  life  identified  with  the  city 
of  his  birth.  Poughkeepsie  always  re- 
mained the  centre  of  Mr.  Ward's  interests 
and  never  did  he  cease  to  be  numbered 
among  her  most  loyal  sons. 

Murtaugh  Ward,  father  of  Patrick  H. 
Ward,  was  born  in  1800,  in  County  Down, 
Ireland,  and  emigrated  to  the  United 
States,  1821,  settling  in  the  City  of  New 
York  and  later  removing  to  Poughkeepsie, 
where  the  remainder  of  his  life  was  passed. 
Mr.  Ward  married,  in  New  York,  about 
1835,  Mary  Shannon,  who  was,  a  native 
of  Connaught,  Ireland,  but  who  had,  as 
he  did,  come  at  an  early  age  to  the  United 
States. 

Patrick  H.  Ward,  son  of  Murtaugh  and 


352 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Mary  ^Shannon)  Ward,  was  born  June 
8,  1845,  m  Poughkeepsie,  New  York,  and 
received  his  education  in  St.  Peter's 
School.  After  completing  his  course  of 
study  he  was  apprenticed  to  a  firm  of 
competent  plumbers  in  Poughkeepsie  for 
the  purpose  of  learning  the  trade,  and 
that  he  did  so  with  exceptional  thorough- 
ness his  fellow  citizens  can  bear  abundant 
witness.  For  a  number  of  years  Mr. 
Ward  was  associated  with  a  firm  that  did 
the  plumbing  work  for  Vassar  College,  and 
from  the  first  he  ranked  as  a  skillful 
workman,  being  also  liberally  endowed 
with  industry,  energy  and  business  ability. 
In  1874  he  found  himself  in  circumstances 
which  justified  him  in  going  into  busi- 
ness for  himself  and  achieved  a  success  as 
a  man  of  his  caliber  could  hardly  fail  to 
do.  It  was  his  firm  which  put  the  plumb- 
ing into  the  new  post  office  building  of 
Poughkeepsie  and  into  the  Hudson  River 
State  Hospital,  an  institution  which  is 
credited  with  having  the  most  perfect 
system  of  sanitary  plumbing  in  the 
United  States. 

In  addition  to  his  qualifications  as  a 
business  man  and  a  captain  of  industry, 
Mr.  Ward  possessed  no  small  degree  of 
literary  ability  and  was  widely  known  as 
the  author  of  a  number  of  articles  for 
plumbers'  trade  journals.  In  everything 
pertaining  to  his  trade  he  was  looked 
upon  as  an  authority  and  the  productions 
of  his  pen  were  read  with  lively  interest 
and  regarded  as  sources  of  valuable  in- 
formation. In  politics  Mr.  Ward  was  an 
Independent,  always  considering  the 
merits  of  the  candidates  irrespective  of 
party  prejudice.  He  was  a  member  of 
the  board  of  aldermen  and  served  for  a 
time  as  police  commissioner  of  Pough- 
keepsie. In  his  discharge  of  the  duties 
of  both  these  offices  he  manifested  a  full 
measure  of  efficiency  and  the  sincerest 
public  spirit,  having  an  eye  single  to  the 
welfare  of  the  communitv  and  the  fulfil- 


ment of  his  trust.  He  went  out  of  office 
with  a  record  honorable  to  himself  and 
satisfactory  to  his  fellow  citizens.  In  the 
cause  of  temperance  Mr.  Ward  felt  a 
special  interest,  advocating  it  not  only  by 
the  spoken  and  written  word,  but  by  the 
more  potent  agency  of  example.  He  was  en- 
rolled in  St.  Peter's  Temperance  Society, 
belonged  to  the  Knights  of  Columbus, 
and  was  a  member  of  St.  Peter's  Church, 
contributing  liberally  to  its  work  and  sup- 
port. 

The  personality  of  a  man  so  recently 
removed  is  too  vividly  remembered  by 
his  friends  and  neighbors  to  need  descrip- 
tion here.  Mr.  Ward's  strong  presence 
and  genial  manner  seem  still  almost 
present  with  us  and  it  requires  but  a 
slight  effort  of  memory  to  call  before  us 
the  face  which  reflected  the  character  and 
disposition  that  we  knew  so  well,  but  for 
the  sake  of  those  who  are  to  come  after 
us  it  is  to  be  wished  that  the  lineaments 
of  this  excellent  man  might  be  preserved 
by  the  pencil  of  the  artist. 

Mr.  Ward  married,  September  25,  1872, 
in  Poughkeepsie,  Catherine  J.  Doyle,  a 
native  of  Boulogne,  France,  born  March 
28,  1849,  who  came  in  early  youth  to  the 
United  States.  Their  children  are:  I.  J. 
Rigney,  now  undertaker  in  Poughkeepsie  ; 
married,  February  21, 1909,  Ellen  Sheedy, 
of  Poughkeepsie.  2.  Thomas  J.,  now  con- 
ducting his  father's  business ;  married, 
July  24,  1906,  Mary  Haley,  of  Staatsburg, 
New  York,  and  their  children  are:  Thom- 
as A.,  Mary  C,  Monica  J.,  William  R. 
and  Angelica  T.  3.  Lawrence,  now  liv- 
ing in  Poughkeepsie,  unmarried.  4.  Mary 
Grace,  teacher  of  music  and  organist  of 
St.  Peter's  Church  of  this  city.  5.  Joseph, 
died  in  1885.  6.  Angelica,  died  in  1887. 
7.  Catherine  R.,  formerly  a  teacher  in  the 
public  schools  of  Poughkeepsie ;  now  the 
wife  of  Frank  Kearney  and  mother  of  two 
children :  Catherine  Patricia  and  Regina 
Frances.     All  of  Mr.  Patrick  H.  Ward's 


353 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


children  and  their  children  were  born  in 
Poughkeepsie.  Mr.  Ward  was,  above  all 
else,  a  lover  of  home  and  family  and  his 
fireside  was  made  dear  to  him  by  the 
presence  of  a  most  devoted  wife,  a  woman 
who  lived  in  and  for  her  husband  and 
children.  In  those  sons  and  daughters, 
grateful,  affectionate  and  growing  up  to 
be  useful  members  of  society,  the  parents 
found  their  highest  happiness. 

Some  few  years  before  his  death  Mr. 
Ward  retired  from  business,  but  never 
lost  his  interest  in  local  or  national 
affairs,  in  the  world  of  business  or  in  the 
sphere  of  politics.  The  leisure  which  was 
his  during  this  period  of  his  life  gave 
him  larger  opportunities  for  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  society  of  the  many  friends 
his  sterling  qualities  had  drawn  around 
him.  It  was  a  shock  to  the  entire  com- 
munity when,  on  July  10,  1915,  it  was 
announced  that  Patrick  H.  Ward  had 
passed  away.  All  felt  that  the  city  had 
lost  one  of  its  finest  representative  men. 

Seldom  are  we  called  upon  to  chronicle 
a  life  more  fully  rounded  and  complete 
than  that  of  the  upright  and  honorable 
man  of  whose  career  we  have  given  an 
outline  so  extremely  imperfect  and  in- 
adequate. As  an  industrial  leader,  as  a 
business  man  of  note  and  as  a  citizen  dis- 
interestedly devoted  to  the  public  service 
Patrick  H.  Ward  will  long  be  remem- 
bered. He  did  much  to  increase  the  ma- 
terial prosperity  of  Poughkeepsie  and  he 
was  largely  instrumental  in  the  promo- 
tion of  municipal  reform.  His  native  city 
pays  him  the  tribute  of  gratitude  and  re- 
spect, hoping  and  desiring  that  the  future 
may  give  her  many  more  men  of  the  same 
type  of  true  nobility. 


FORD,  Frank  Ray, 

Highly    Regarded    Citizen. 

The  debt  that  we  owe  to  the  man  who 
simply   brings   good    cheer    in    his    com- 


pany, whose  presence  of  its  own  virtue 
suggests  camaraderie  and  good  fellowship, 
is  commonly  underestimated  and,  if  not 
explicitly  denied,  at  least  forgotten.  The 
man  who  builds  up  a  great  business,  the 
man  who  erects  a  library  or  school,  who 
establishes  a  park  or  donates  a  collection 
is  commented  upon,  his  gift  thought  of 
as  a  sort  of  a  monument  to  his  name,  its 
value  appraised  and  his  title  to  note,  in  a 
large  measure,  gauged  thereby.  This  is, 
of  course,  due  to  the  fact  that  libraries 
and  collections  are  tangible  things  which 
we  can  face  familiarly,  lay  a  yard  stick 
upon,  as  it  were,  and  compute  in  terms  of 
dollars  and  cents,  while  in  this  age  of 
what  we  choose  to  call  practical  common 
sense  we  are  apt  to  be  somewhat  con- 
fused, if  not  abashed,  when  confronted 
with  a  spiritual  fact  like  honor  or  senti- 
ment. And  yet,  taken  in  its  larger  aspect, 
is  not  a  smile  or  an  hour  of  warm  friend- 
ship a  better  and  more  enduring  monu- 
ment to  a  man  than  a  dozen  shafts, 
though  they  should  be  of  alabaster  ?  And 
about  these  gifts,  as  bestowed  upon  us 
by  some  of  the  more  positive  and  power- 
ful personalities,  there  is  something 
which,  to  the  sense,  bulk  almost  like  a  solid, 
ponderable  thing.  It  is  as  though  such 
friendship  was  as  sheltering  as  a  house, 
such  good  cheer  as  warm  as  a  tavern 
when  the  blaze  is  first  kindled.  Such  a 
man  and  such  a  substantial  boon  the 
friendship  and  cheer  that  he  carried  with 
him  and  ever  flung  about  him  for  all  to 
gather,  like  a  king's  largesse,  was  Frank 
Ray  Ford,  who  although  he  was  debarred 
from  that  active  part  in  the  life  of  the 
community  which  his  tastes  would  have 
impelled  him  to,  and  his  talents  fitted  him 
for,  by  a  cruel  affliction,  was  yet  a  man  of 
whose  friendship  all  who  knew  him  were 
proud,  and  whose  personality  was  an  in- 
fluence for  good  wherever  it  came. 

Mr.   Ford  was  a  native  of  Cincinnati, 


354 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Ohio,  having  been  born  there,  March  5, 
1857,  but  his  associations  with  the  place 
of  his  birth  were  comparatively  slight,  as 
his  parents  moved  away  from  there  when 
he  was  but  five  years  of  age  and  came  to 
New  York  City.  Mr.  Ford's  education 
was  received  in  Philadelphia,  to  which 
city  he  was  sent  to  school  when  he  came 
of  an  age  to  leave  home.  The  great  afflic- 
tion of  blindness  came  upon  him  in  early 
life,  and  of  course  placed  an  insuperable 
barrier  in  the  way  of  many  careers  that 
would  otherwise  have  been  open  to  him. 
With  the  courage  of  the  true  philosopher, 
however,  he  settled  down  to  make  the 
most  of  his  life.  He  came  to  Yonkers, 
New  York,  while  still  a  young  man  and 
there  made  his  home  from  that  time  to 
the  close  of  his  life.  He  mingled  with  his 
fellow  citizens  freely  and  became  a  very 
well  known  figure  in  certain  circles  and 
was  popular  wherever  he  appeared  on 
account  of  the  courageous  and  cheerful 
manner  with  which  he  bore  his  affliction. 
He  was  especially  fond  of  out-door  sports 
and  exercise  and  was  devoted  to  boating 
and  automobiling.  He  did  not  personally 
engage  in  active  business,  but  he  was 
quite  capable  of  looking  after  his  own 
affairs  and  managed  his  estate  success- 
fully. He  was  an  active  and  popular 
member  of  the  Yonkers  Corinthian  Yacht 
Club,  and  took  a  considerable  part  in  the 
informal  social  life  of  the  city.  In  his 
religious  belief  Mr.  Ford  was  a  Baptist 
and  attended  for  many  years  the  Warbur- 
ton  Avenue  Church  of  that  denomination, 
contributing  generously  to  its  work,  espe- 
cially where  this  was  connected  with 
some  philanthropic  or  charitable  purpose. 
The  death  of  Mr.  Ford  occurred  May  22, 
1914,  at  the  age  of  fifty-seven  years,  and 
cut  short  a  life  in  which  spiritual  power 
had  triumphed  in  a  very  unusual  degree 
over  material  obstacles  and  physical  dis- 
abilities. 


Mr.  Ford  was  united  in  marriage,  on 
May  28,  1890,  with  Isabella  Dunlap,  of 
New  York  City,  a  daughter  of  William 
and  Margret  (Tripler)  Dunlap,  old  and 
highly  respected  residents  of  that  place. 
Mrs.  Ford  survives  her  husband  and  still 
makes  Yonkers  her  place  of  residence. 


BROMM,  Helfrich, 

Business  Man. 

When  the  many  diverse  elements  now 
seething  in  this  great  melting  pot  of  the 
nations,  the  United  States,  have  become 
finally  amalgamated  and  the  resultant 
race  which  we  may  then  justly  call 
"American"  emerges,  it  will  be  found  be- 
yond a  doubt  that  it  owes  a  great  debt 
of  gratitude  to  the  Germanic  peoples  that 
have  entered  into  its  makeup  in  such 
great  numbers  and  have  leavened  the  whole 
mass  with  their  strong  and  characteristic 
racial  virtues  of  patient  industry,  com- 
plete devotion  to  the  cause  they  have 
chosen  and  the  most  untiring  pursuit  of 
the  objective  they  have  set  themselves. 
In  innumerable  throngs  they  have  come 
from  the  "Fatherland"  hither,  each  strong 
in  the  above  virtues,  each  a  potential  fac- 
tor in  the  race  to  be.  A  splendid  example 
of  the  best  type  of  this  great  people  was 
Helfrich  Bromm,  late  of  White  Plains, 
New  York,  the  distinguished  gentleman 
whose  death  in  that  place  removed  from 
the  community  one  of  its  foremost  mer- 
chants and  business  men  and  a  citizen 
prominent  in  every  worthy  department  of 
the  city's  life.  This  loss,  which  occurred 
on  December  26,  1915,  was  felt  by  the  en- 
tire community  which  had  grown  to  ap- 
preciate his  sterling  qualities  through 
many  years  of  disinterested,  public-spirit- 
ed service. 

Born  in  the  Province  of  Hesse-Cassel, 
Germany,  April  5,  1845,  Mr.  Bromm  was 
a  son  of  W.  and  Anna  Katrina  (Brown) 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Bromm,  highly  respected  citizens  of  that 
region.  His  father  was  a  cavalryman  in 
the  German  army  and  had  seen  active 
service  in  the  wars  of  the  period  so 
troublous  in  European  affairs,  and  had 
taken  part  in  a  number  of  pitched  battles. 
The  son,  Helfrich,  passed  the  first  sixteen 
years  of  his  life  in  his  native  region,  per- 
forming the  same  tasks  and  enjoying  the 
same  pastimes  that  his  fellows  of  that 
time  and  place  were  accustomed  to  and 
gaining  his  education  in  the  local  volke- 
schule.  He  was  a  bright  and  enterprising 
youth  and  the  accounts  he  heard  of  the 
United  States,  the  great  republic  across 
the  water,  made  him  anxious  to  test  for 
himself  these  wonders.  Accordingly,  in 
1861,  he  sailed  for  this  country,  landing 
in  New  York  City,  and  made  that  place 
his  home  for  about  two  years.  In  1863 
he  came  to  White  Plains  where  he  estab- 
lished himself  in  a  tailoring  business 
which  he  continued  to  conduct  for  the 
remainder  of  his  life.  He  was  highly 
successful  in  this  enterprise  and  came  in 
time  to  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  most 
substantial  merchants  in  the  entire 
region. 

Business  affairs  made  a  very  consider- 
able demand  upon  the  time  and  energy 
of  Mr.  Bromm,  yet  not  enough  to  prevent 
him  from  taking  an  active  part  in  other 
departments  of  the  community's  life.  In 
the  matter  of  politics,  for  instance,  he 
was  extremely  prominent  and  did  much 
to  advance  the  cause  of  the  Republican 
party  locally,  he  being  a  staunch  sup- 
porter of  its  principles  and  policies.  But 
though  he  was  so  active,  he  consistently 
refused  public  office  of  any  kind  or  politi- 
cal preferment  and  only  served  in  iwo 
very  minor  posts,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
his  colleagues  urged  him  often  to  accept 
candidacies  more  in  keeping  with  his 
talents  and  abilities.    He  was  an  Episco- 


palian in  religious  belief  and  for  many 
years  attended  Grace  Episcopal  Church 
at  White  Plains  and  liberally  supported 
the  work  of  the  parish,  especially  the 
philanthropies  connected  therewith.  He 
was  active  also  in  social  and  fraternal 
circles  in  White  Plains  and  belonged  to  a 
number  of  organizations  among  which 
should  be  mentioned  Hebron  Lodge,  In- 
dependent Order  of  Odd  Fellows. 

On  February  13,  1866,  Mr.  Bromm  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Margaret  Foster 
Fausset,  of  White  Plains,  who  died  in 
1908,  a  daughter  of  Arthur  and  Jane 
(Foster)  Fausset,  old  and  honored  resi- 
dents of  that  town.  Upon  his  death  Mr. 
Bromm  was  survived  by  three  children, 
as  follows :  Anna  K.,  now  the  wife  of 
George  Foster,  of  New  York  City,  a  prac- 
ticing engineer,  and  the  son  of  James  and 
Lillian  (Struttle)  Foster,  of  that  place; 
Mary  Jane,  now  Mrs.  Joseph  Smith,  of 
Clogher,  County  Tyrone,  Ireland ;  Robert 
C,  assistant  auditor  of  passenger  ac- 
counts of  the  New  York  Central  &  Hud- 
son River  Railroad  Company,  and  form- 
erly chief  engineer  of  the  White  Plains 
Fire  Department.  Another  son,  William 
J.,  died  in  191 3,  at  the  age  of  forty-one 
years. 

Mr.  Bromm  was  a  splendid  type  of  the 
substantial  merchant  upon  whose  efforts 
the  prosperity  of  a  community  so  largely 
depends.  Of  unimpeachable  honesty  and 
business  integrity,  he  enjoyed  an  enviable 
reputation  among  his  fellows  and  was  one 
of  the  most  conspicuous  figures  in  the 
community.  In  his  home  he  was  a  de- 
voted husband  and  father,  always  seeking 
the  happiness  of  those  about  him  even  at 
the  expense  of  his  own,  and  in  all  the  rela- 
tions of  life  he  might  well  serve  as  a 
model  for  the  youth  of  the  community  to 
pattern  themselves  after. 


356 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


MACDONALD,  Peter, 

Florist. 

Among  the  citizens  sent  to  the  United 
States  from  various  parts  of  the  Old 
World  natives  of  Caledonia  are  not,  per- 
haps, as  numerous  as  those  of  some  other 
lands,  but  none  can  say  that  they  do  not 
make  up  in  force  of  character  and  ability 
for  any  deficiency  in  numbers.  Yonkers 
has  been  fortunate  enough  to  count 
among  her  citizens  many  of  these  stal- 
wart Scotsmen,  some  of  whom  have  now 
passed  into  the  history  of  the  city.  Of 
these  one  of  the  best  known  and  most 
highly  esteemed  was  the  late  Peter  Mac- 
donald,  for  a  score  of  years  superintend- 
ent of  the  estate  of  the  late  William  F. 
Cochran  and  during  the  closing  years  of 
his  life  engaged  in  business  as  a  florist. 
Mr.  Macdonald  was  also  active  in  social 
and  fraternal  circles  of  Yonkers  and  the 
vicinity. 

Peter  Macdonald  was  born  in  the  beau- 
tiful city  of  Inverness,  Scotland,  May  n, 
1854,  and  there  received  his  education. 
On  reaching  manhood  he  decided  to  seek 
his  fortune  beyond  the  seas,  and  accord- 
ingly he  and  his  bride,  Ann  (Campkin) 
Macdonald,  sailed  for  the  United  States, 
eventually  finding  a  home  in  Yonkers. 
Both  by  education  and  natural  talent  he 
was  fitted  for  a  position  of  exceptional 
trust  and  responsibility,  and  this  he 
secured  when  he  became  superintendent 
of  the  estate  of  William  F.  Cochran.  The 
manner  in  which  he  performed  the 
duties  of  his  office  proved  him  to  be 
possessed  of  fine  administrative  ability 
and  a  rare  capacity  for  detail  and  gave 
him  high  standing  as  a  man  endowed 
with  qualities  which  rendered  him  valu- 
able to  the  community.  After  serving  in 
this  important  position  for  twenty  years 
Mr.  Macdonald  resigned  in  order  to  en- 
gage in  business  as  a  florist.     His  estab- 


lishment was  on  Main  street  and  as  its 
well  informed  and  courteous  proprietor 
he  is  vividly  remembered  by  many  of 
the  citizens  of  Yonkers.  Some  one  has 
said  that  a  gardener  is  always  Scotch, 
and  if  this  be  so  the  business  of  a  florist 
was  singularly  appropriate  for  Mr.  Mac- 
donald in  view  of  his  nationality  as  well 
as  of  his  love  for  flowers  and  his  knowl- 
edge in  regard  to  their  cultivation. 

Eminently  social  in  his  disposition,  Mr. 
Macdonald  was  identified  with  a  number 
of  organizations.  He  belonged  to  the 
Yonkers  Horticultural  Society  and  was  a 
former  member  of  the  Tarrytown  Horti- 
cultural Society.  In  the  Clan  MacGregor 
he  held  an  honorary  membership  and  he 
affiliated  with  Rising  Star  Lodge,  Free 
and  Accepted  Masons ;  Terrace  City 
Chapter,  Royal  Arch  Masons ;  Yonkers 
Commandery,  Knights  Templar;  and 
Yonkers  Council,  Royal  Arcanum.  At 
the  meetings  of  all  these  bodies  he  was 
ever  a  welcome  presence  by  reason  of  the 
sincere  respect  felt  for  his  sterling  quali- 
ties and  the  cordial  regard  inspired  by 
his  genial  nature  and  friendly  disposition. 
In  Mr.  Macdonald's  speech  there  always 
lingered  a  trace  of  his  native  Scottish  ac- 
cent, imparting  to  his  conversation  a  de- 
lightful raciness  and  pungency  which 
none  who  had  the  pleasure  of  speaking 
with  him  ever  forgot.  In  fact,  his  whole 
personality  was  redolent  of  his  birth- 
place, showing  him  to  belong  to  the  land 
of  Scott  and  Burns,  but  none  the  less  was 
he  a  loyal  American  citizen,  earnest  in 
the  promotion  of  the  best  interests  of  his 
community. 

Mr.  Macdonald  married  Ann  Campkin, 
of  London,  and  they  were  the  parents  of 
the  following  children :  William  Angus, 
of  Yonkers ;  James,  also  of  Yonkers ; 
Alexander  P.,  of  Yonkers ;  Anna,  wife  of 
Frederick  Maxwell;  and  Grace,  wife  of 
Matthias  August  Thormahlen.  The  home 


357 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


life  of  Mr.  Macdonald  was  very  happy. 
He  was  a  most  affectionate  husband  and 
father,  and  his  wife,  a  most  excellent 
woman,  lived  in  and  for  her  husband  and 
children. 

Peter  Macdonald  did  not  live  to  be  an 
old  man.  On  April  10,  1912,  almost  in  his 
prime,  he  passed  away,  after  a  busy,  use- 
ful and  happy  life.  His  friends  and  neigh- 
bors, and  his  friends  were  found  in  all 
classes  of  the  community,  mourned  for 
him  as  an  able,  honest  and  lovable  man, 
a  man  of  unblemished  integrity,  earnest 
public  spirit  and  great  kindness  of  heart. 
It  is  to  be  wished  that  the  land  from 
which  Mr.  Macdonald  came  would  send 
us  more  of  her  sons.  It  would  be  well 
for  our  country  to  have  a  larger  infusion 
of  Caledonian  blood.  Our  old  Anglo- 
American  stock  has  received,  to  its  great 
advantage,  shoots  from  Ireland,  Wales, 
Holland,  Germany,  France,  Scandinavia 
and  Southern  Europe,  and  those  that 
have  been  grafted  upon  it  from  the  "land 
of  brown  heath  and  shaggy  wood"  have 
demonstrated  the  immense  value  which 
would  accrue  to  us  from  a  reinforcement 
of  Scotsmen.  May  the  future  bring  us 
more  of  the  type  of  Peter  Macdonald. 


DERIVAN,  James  Francis, 
Business  Man. 

James  Francis  Derivan,lateof  Yonkers, 
New  York,  was  a  fine  example  of  the  best 
English  type  which  sends  its  sons  abroad 
to  all  parts  of  the  world  in  that  great 
movement  of  expansion  that  has  meant 
the  domination  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
peoples. 

James  Francis  Derivan  was  born  on  July 
20,  1859,  at  Stratford,  England,  but  his 
associations  were  very  limited  with  his 
historical  birthplace  as  he  came  with  his 
parents  to  the  United  States  while  yet  a 
small  child.  His  parents,  Thomas  and 
Ellen  (Carey)  Derivan,  made  their  home 


in  the  New  World  in  New  York  City  and 
it  was  in  the  fine  public  schools  of  the 
Western  Metropolis  that  young  Mr.  Deri- 
van gained  his  education.  Upon  com- 
pleting his  studies  he  engaged  in  the  meat 
business  in  an  enterprise  of  his  own  which 
did  business  under  the  style  of  Derivan 
&  Company.  His  father  and  himself 
formed  a  partnership  and  continued  this 
business  until  the  death  of  the  elder  man 
after  which  Mr.  Derivan  continued  it 
alone.  He  was  highly  successful  in  this 
enterprise  and  in  the  year  1886  came  to 
Yonkers,  New  York,  where  he  purchased 
a  handsome  house,  and  lived  there  during 
the  remainder  of  his  life.  He  was  very 
prominent  in  the  community,  especially 
in  connection  with  his  religious  associ- 
ations. He  was  a  staunch  Catholic  and 
attended  St.  Mary's  Church  in  Yonkers 
and  was  a  member  of  a  number  of  organ- 
izations connected  therewith.  He  was  a 
prominent  member  of  the  Knights  of 
Columbus  and  of  the  Society  of  St.  Vin- 
cent de  Paul.  Mr.  Derivan  died  Decem- 
ber 8,  1914. 


PARPART,  Max, 

Expert  Insurance  Official,  Mnsician. 

Max  Parpart,  whose  death  occurred  in 
Mount  Vernon,  New  York,  June  7,  1905, 
though  not  a  native  of  this  country,  was 
one  of  the  representative  men  of  his 
adopted  community,  whose  name  is  iden- 
tified with  the  great  industrial  and  busi- 
ness development  of  the  city  wherein  he 
made  his  home  for  the  major  part  of  his 
life.  He  was  a  member  of  a  well-known 
German  family.  Born  at  Dusseldorf, 
Germany,  on  May  19,  1846,  Max  Parpart 
passed  the  years  of  his  childhood  and 
young  manhood  in  his  native  land.  He 
received  his  education  in  the  local  volke- 
schule  and  the  universities  in  Berlin  and 
Hamburg,  and  on  coming  of  age  rendered 
the  usual  military  services  to  the  Father- 


358 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


land.  He  served  his  full  term  in  the  Ger- 
man army,  and  being  a  man  of  very  large 
build  was  one  of  those  selected  for  the 
Emperor's  Guard.  For  a  number  of  years 
he  was  in  attendance  on  Kaiser  Wilhelm 
I.,  the  grandfather  of  the  present  emperor. 
After  completing  his  military  duties,  Mr. 
Parpart  set  sail  for  the  United  States  and 
upon  arriving  in  this  country  made  his 
home  in  New  York  City,  later  moving  to 
Mount  Vernon,  New  York.  He  at  once 
identified  himself  closely  with  the  affairs 
of  his  adopted  city  and  became  a  promi- 
nent figure  in  its  life.  His  business  asso- 
ciations were  with  the  Westchester  Fire 
Insurance  Company  for  which  he  was  the 
chief  adjuster  of  losses,  as  well  as  special 
agent  in  charge  of  eastern  agencies. 
For  above  twenty  years  he  served  this 
company  most  effectively  and  his  services 
were  greatly  in  demand  by  other  com- 
panies by  reason  of  his  comprehensive 
knowledge  of  adjustment  of  losses.  He 
was  also  the  president  of  the  New  York 
&  Wakefield  Co-Operative  Building  & 
Loan  Association,  a  most  successful  con- 
cern which  took  a  large  part  in  the  build- 
ing up  of  the  residential  districts  of  the 
suburbs  around  New  York  City.  Mr. 
Parpart  was  still  active  in  these  concerns 
at  the  time  of  his  death,  which  occurred 
in  his  home  at  No.  127  South  Third  ave- 
nue, Mount  Vernon. 

It  was  not  alone  in  the  world  of  busi- 
ness that  Mr.  Parpart  played  an  impor- 
tant part  in  the  life  of  Mount  Vernon. 
He  was  a  man  of  strong  social  tastes  and 
impulses,  and  besides  taking  part  very 
largely  in  the  informal  social  life  of  the 
community  was  a  member  of  a  number  of 
important  organizations  there.  Among 
these  should  be  numbered  the  Old  City 
Club  of  Mount  Vernon  and  the  Republi- 
can Club  of  New  York  City.  Perhaps  the 
strongest  interest  of  Mr.  Parpart  outside 
that  of  his  business  and  family  relations 


was  that  in  connection  with  the  art  of 
music,  of  which  he  was  a  devoted  lover. 
He  himself  was  an  accomplished  pianist 
and  cellist  and  he  was  one  of  the  organ- 
izers and  for  several  years  the  president 
of  the  Mozart  Club  of  Mount  Vernon. 
This  club  took  a  very  active  part  in  the 
musical  life  of  the  community  and  did  a 
great  deal  to  cultivate  taste  in  this  art. 

Shortly  after  Mr.  Parpart's  arrival  in 
the  United  States,  he  was  united  in  mar- 
riage with  Ottilia  Berger,  whose  death 
occurred  on  August  5,  1901,  after  more 
than  twenty-five  years  of  wedded  life. 

The  character  of  Mr.  Parpart  was  a 
particularly  pleasant  one  and  combined 
many  admirable  traits.  His  honesty  was 
beyond  impeachment  and  was  apparent 
to  the  most  casual  observer  in  his  frank 
and  open  manner  and  bearing.  What  he 
thought  he  said,  but  with  an  appearance 
of  sincerity  and  friendliness  of  intention 
that  disarmed  ofifence,  and  won  him  a 
host  of  devoted  friends.  He  was  in  addi- 
tion possessed  of  a  heart  which  could  not 
brook  oppression  or  endure  human  mis- 
fortune, and  he  was  accordingly  a  cham- 
pion of  the  poor  in  his  city,  and  not  only 
resisted  many  attempts  at  their  exploita- 
tion, but  materially  aided  them  with  his 
own  wealth.  His  many  charities  were  not 
of  an  ostentatious  kind,  however,  and  the 
majority  of  them  would  probably  never 
have  been  heard  of  but  for  the  gratitude 
of  the  beneficiaries.  His  death,  therefore, 
was  not  only  a  loss  to  his  immediate  fam- 
ily and  his  many  personal  friends  and  ac- 
quaintances, but  to  the  community  at 
large,  so  many  members  of  which  were 
thus  deprived  of  a  ready  champion  and 
benefactor. 


HEYERDAHL,  Valentin, 

Expert  in  China  Goods. 

America  owes  a  deep  debt  of  gratitude 
to  many  of  the   European   countries  for 


359 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


those  of  their  enterprising  sons  who  have 
come  to  its  shores  and  have  helped  to 
form  our  own  strong  and  independent 
citizenship,  but  to  none  does  she  owe 
more  than  to  Norway  which,  if  it  has  not 
contributed  so  great  a  proportion  of  its 
population  as  some  other  countries  where 
the  oppression  has  driven  forth  the  in- 
habitants to  seek  new  homes  in  strange 
lands,  has  yet  sent  thither  so  fine  a  type 
of  manhood  that  it  cannot  fail  to  prove  a 
most  valuable  factor  in  the  future  con- 
stitution of  the  American  people.  No- 
where could  be  found  a  better  and  more 
characteristic  example  of  this  splendid 
type  than  in  the  person  of  Valentin  Hey- 
erdahl,  of  Mount  Vernon,  New  York, 
whose  death  on  November  25,  1907,  de- 
prived that  place  of  one  of  its  most  promi- 
nent citizens  and  the  importing  business 
of  one  of  its  most  enterprising  exponents. 
His  career  in  the  United  States  has  been 
one  of  which  both  that  country  and  his 
native  land  may  well  be  proud. 

Born  at  Bergen,  Norway,  March  25, 
1870,  Valentin  Heyerdahl  passed  the  early 
years  of  his  life  in  that  far  Northern  city, 
gaining  the  splendid  health  and  vigorous 
strength  which  characterizes  the  rugged 
sons  of  that  wholesome,  if  inclement, 
clime.  While  still  a  mere  youth,  he 
moved  to  the  capital  city  of  Sweden, 
Christiania,  but  did  not  remain  there 
long.  His  next  move  was  a  much  longer 
one  and  brought  him  all  the  way  to  New 
York  City,  in  the  far  Western  Republic 
of  which  he  had  heard  tales  in  his  child- 
hood. He  was  but  fifteen  years  of  age 
when  he  made  this  trip  and  he  brought 
with  him  his  mother  and  a  sister,  who 
lived  in  the  City  of  New  York  for  about 
a  year.  Their  migration  to  the  "New 
World"  was  occasioned  by  the  death  of 
Mr.  Heyerdahl's  father,  whc,  like  himself, 
was  named  Valentin.  The  elder  Heyer- 
dahl was  a  very  prominent  physician  in 


Norway  and  was  connected  with  a  num- 
ber of  the  largest  hospitals  in  that  coun-  1 
try.  He  was  a  man  of  unusual  brilliancy, 
a  popular  and  learned  lecturer  and  spoke 
eight  different  languages.  His  wife,  I 
Bernhardine  Sophie  (Rosener)  Heyer- 
dahl, was  a  native  of  Norway  but  of  Ger- 
man descent.  The  death  of  Dr.  Heyer- 
dahl, which  caused  his  family  to  travel 
abroad,  occurred  when  he  was  still  a 
young  man. 

After  a  year  spent  in  New  York,  young 
Mr.  Heyerdahl  came  with  his  mother  and 
sister  to  Mount  Vernon,  which  town 
has  been  their  home  from  that  time  to  the 
present.  He  secured  a  position  with  the 
Haviland  Company,  importers  on  a  large 
scale  of  Limoges  china.  Being  of  an  ex- 
tremely ambitious  temperament,  he  did 
not  discontinue  his  studies,  however,  but 
attended  night  school  while  working  for 
this  concern.  His  association  with  the 
Haviland  people  was  a  very  satisfactory 
one  and  continued  for  seventeen  years,  at 
the  end  of  which  time  Mr.  Heyerdahl  was 
one  of  their  most  trusted  and  important 
employees.  He  severed  this  connection, 
however,  to  become  a  representative  of 
the  important  firm  of  Gerard,  Dufrasy  & 
Abbott  of  New  York  City,  and  remained 
in  this  association  until  the  time  of  his 
death.  Mr.  Heyerdahl's  business  involved 
his  traveling  every  year  in  Europe,  in  the 
interests  of  the  American  trade,  especially 
in  connection  with  the  importation  of  fine 
wares  and  china  from  the  famous  Li- 
moges factories  in  France. 

Mr.  Heyerdahl  was  one  of  those  men 
whose  interests  are  of  so  wide  a  character 
that  they  find  it  impossible  to  confine 
their  efforts  to  the  business  of  making  a 
living.  He  was  interested  in  well  nigh 
every  aspect  of  the  life  of  the  community 
and  took  a  very  active  part  therein.  He 
belonged  to  a  great  many  organizations 
of    prominence    and   was    a   conspicuous 


360 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


figure  in  them  all.  He  joined  the  Seventh 
Regiment,  New  York  National  Guard, 
and  continued  a  member  of  that  body  for 
a  number  of  years.  He  was  a  very  active 
Free  Mason  and  was  a  member  of  all  the 
related  bodies  in  his  neighborhood.  He 
also  belonged  to  the  Mecca  Lodge,  Royal 
Arcanum,  and  to  the  Westchester  Wheel- 
men Club  and  the  Hardware  Club  of  New 
York  City.  He  was  a  Republican  in  his 
politics  and  took  an  active  part  in  local 
affairs,  holding  office  in  the  Mount  Ver- 
non Republican  Club  for  a  long  period. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  First  Baptist 
Church  of  Mount  Vernon. 

Mr.  Heyerdahl  was  united  in  marriage, 
on  October  i,  1890,  with  Ida  Elizabeth 
Tobin,  of  Mount  Vernon,  a  daughter  of 
John  and  Phoebe  Jane  (Pease)  Tobin,  old 
and  highly  respected  residents  of  that 
city.  The  Pease  family  is  a  very  old  one 
in  Mount  Vernon,  it  having  resided  there 
from  pre-Revolutionary  times,  children  of 
the  fifth  generation  from  the  original 
Pease  living  there  at  the  present  time.  To 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Heyerdahl  two  children 
were  born :  Valentin,  the  fourth  consecu- 
tive generation  to  bear  this  name,  and 
Maude.  These  two  children  are  at  present 
attending  school  in  Mount  Vernon,  where 
the  son  is  taking  a  course  in  architectural 
drawing  and  designing  in  the  Commercial 
Art  School  of  Mount  Vernon. 


RAY,  James, 

Veteran  of  Civil  War,  Express  Official. 

Among  the  well-known  old  New  York 
families,  those  of  Ray  and  Willett  are  ex- 
ceedingly prominent.  The  members  of 
both  of  these  houses  have  distinguished 
themselves  in  the  affairs  of  their  respec- 
tive communities  for  a  number  of  genera- 
tions. The  late  James  Ray,  whose  death 
in  New  York  City,  on  October  28,  1893, 
was  felt  as  a  loss  by  a  host  of  his  associ- 


ates, was  a  descendant  of  both  of  these 
houses  and  in  his  life  maintained  the 
worthy  standards  set  by  his  ancestors. 

Born  May  23,  1836,  in  the  City  of  New 
York,  James  Ray  was  a  member  of  a  well- 
known  family  which  had  resided  in  that 
region  for  a  number  of  generations.  His 
grandfather  was  Colonel  Marinus  Wil- 
lett, of  Revolutionary  War  fame,  and  the 
talent  for  military  matters  descended 
upon  James  Ray.  His  parents  were 
James  Hawes  and  Margaretta  Marinus 
(Willett)  Ray,  of  New  York  City,  where 
they  were  prominent  in  the  social  world 
of  their  time. 

The  early  life  of  James  Ray  was  spent 
in  the  city  of  his  birth  and  his  education 
was  procured  in  the  various  educational 
institutions  there.  The  preliminary  part 
was  gained  in  the  private  schools  where 
he  proved  himself,  even  as  a  boy,  an  ex- 
cellent student  and  made  the  most  of  all 
the  advantages  which  those  schools  of- 
fered even  in  those  days.  Upon  com- 
pleting his  preparatory  studies  here,  he 
matriculated  at  Columbia  University,  it 
being  his  father's  and  his  own  desire  that 
he  should  have  a  college  course.  At 
Columbia  he  continued  the  excellent  rec- 
ord made  as  a  student  in  the  private 
schools  and  won  for  himself  the  regard  of 
his  masters  and  instructors  and  the  affec- 
tion of  his  fellow  students.  The  home  of 
his  parents  at  this  time  stood  about  where 
the  present  Williamsburgh  Bridge  is  now 
situated  so  that  he  was  very  conveniently 
located  for  his  studies  at  the  university, 
which  was  then  located  at  Murray  street. 
He  graduated  from  this  famous  institu- 
tion with  honors. 

The  estate  owned  by  his  family  was  a 
very  old  one  and  had  been  granted  to  his 
ancestors  by  the  government  for  services 
rendered  it  by  them,  and  the  old  home 
possessed  many  delightful  associations 
for  the  young  man  in  the  impressionable 


361 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


years  of  his  youth.  One  of  the  most  im- 
portant events  in  the  early  manhood  of 
Mr.  Ray,  as  it  was  in  the  life  of  so  many 
at  that  period,  was  the  breaking  out  of 
the  terrible  struggle  between  the  North 
and  South  into  civil  war,  and  the  call 
which  was  made  upon  the  patriotism  of 
its  citizens  by  the  Union  was  instantly  re- 
sponded to  by  him.  He  enlisted  in  Com- 
pany K,  Seventh  Regiment  New  York 
Volunteer  Infantry,  and  fought  in  the 
war  with  the  rank  of  lieutenant.  After 
the  close  of  hostilities,  Mr.  Ray  returned 
to  New  York  City,  was  associated  with 
an  important  company,  the  East  India 
Brokerage  Company,  and  later  became 
connected  with  the  National  Express 
Company,  holding  an  excellent  position 
in  the  auditing  department  of  that  great 
concern,  and  remained  with  it  until  his 
death,  in  1893. 

Mr.  Ray  was  a  prominent  figure  in  the 
social  life  of  the  city  and  was  a  member 
of  a  number  of  clubs  and  similar  organ- 
izations. He  never  gave  up  the  military 
associations  formed  by  him  during  the 
war  and  was  a  member  of  Lafayette  Post, 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  and  of  the 
Veteran  Organization  of  Company  K, 
Seventh  Regiment,  being  especially  ac- 
tive in  the  latter.  He  was  captain  of  the' 
Veterans.  Through  his  grandfather, 
Colonel  Willett,  he  was  eligible  to  mem- 
bership in  ihe  National  Society  of  the 
Sons  of  the  Revolution  and  was  for 
many  years  a  most  prominent  member  of 
that  organization.  In  his  religious  belief 
Mr.  Ray  was  an  Episcopalian  and  at- 
tended St.  Andrew's  Church  of  that  de- 
nomination. 

Mr.  Ray  was  married,  on  October  12, 
1864,  to  Caroline  Patrick,  like  himself  a 
native  of  New  York  City,  and  a  daughter 
of  Robert  M.  and  Caroline  (Halsey)  Pat- 
rick, old  and  well-known  residents  of  that 
place.     To  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ray  were  born 


four  children  as  follows :  Kate,  who  was 
married  to  Joseph  E.  Lloyd,  of  New  York 
City ;  Roberta,  who  was  married  to  Harry 
P.  Sackett,  also  of  New  York  City,  and 
they  have  one  son,  Ray  P. ;  James,  died 
in  infancy;  and  Margaretta  Willett. 

Mr.  Ray's  character  was  an  unusually 
attractive  one  and  combined  many  of  the 
traits  that  are  associated  with  success 
A  face  in  which  strong  will  and  a  genial 
temper  seemed  equally  to  rule  was  the 
accurate  mirror  of  his  mind  and  heart, 
and  his  objects  were  won  as  much  by  his 
power  of  persuading  the  thoughts  of 
others  as  by  his  own  direct  and  forceful 
efforts  to  reach  them.  His  friends  were 
many  and  true,  and  his  death  caused  a 
feeling  of  deep  sorrow  to  spread  through 
a  wide  circle  of  his  friends.  His  tastes 
were  of  the  manly,  open  sort  that  are  so 
powerful  in  their  appeal  to  men ;  life  in 
the  open  air  and  the  hardy  sports  con- 
nected therewith,  formed  his  recreation 
which  he  indulged  in  as  often  as  the 
opportunity  arose.  He  was  an  influential 
and  a  popular  figure  in  the  general  life  of 
the  community,  as  was  well  shown  by  the 
many  testimonials  of  admiration  called 
forth  by  his  decease. 


MORAN,  Daniel, 

Enterprising  Citizen. 

The  long  life  of  Daniel  Moran,  which 
touched  octogenarian  distinction,  was 
lived  on  two  continents,  eighteen  years  in 
Ireland,  sixty-two  years  in  the  United 
States,  and  over  half  a  century  of  those 
years  in  Lyons,  New  York,  to  which  place 
he  came  a  young  man  of  twenty-seven 
years,  splendidly  equipped  for  success. 
For  fifty-three  years  he  was  a  man  of  ac- 
tion, tireless  in  his  energy,  at  his  place  of 
business  every  day,  his  home  his  only 
recreation  and  his  greatest  joy.  He  con- 
ducted large  business  dealings  and  as  the 


362 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


head  of  several  enterprises  gave  each  his 
personal  attention.  He  bore  his  full  share 
of  care  with  never  failing  good  nature, 
and  with  skillful  management  and  rare 
judgment  brought  his  various  undertak- 
ings to  a  successful  issue. 

The  long  span  of  business  years  with 
great  responsibilities  brought  generous 
returns  and  left  few  imprints  of  their 
weight.  His  fine  face  did  not  indicate  the 
more  than  eighty  years  he  had  attained, 
and  he  also  retained  a  splendid  mental 
poise  and  his  keen  sense  of  humor  to  the 
last.  He  went  through  life  with  a  clean 
mind,  clean  heart  and  clean  hands,  and  as 
husband,  father,  friend  and  citizen  his 
record  shines  as  a  bright  example  fitting 
to  accompany  his  record  of  strict  ad- 
herence to  right  as  a  business  man.  He 
left  to  his  family  and  to  his  friends  a 
spotless  reputation  and  the  record  of  an 
honorable  life,  a  heritage  which  shall 
never  pass  away. 

Daniel  Moran  was  born  in  Queens 
county,  Ireland,  August  15,  1833.  In  1851 
he  came  to  the  United  States,  locating  at 
Waterloo,  New  York,  where  his  father 
had  established  a  merchant  tailoring  and 
clothing  business,  and  with  the  assistance 
of  this  son  conducted  it  for  several  years. 
Daniel  Moran  became  familiar  with  the 
management  of  the  business  in  its  every 
detail  and  continued  in  Waterloo  until 
1861,  locating  in  Lyons  in  July  of  that 
year.  There  he  established  a  similar  line 
of  business,  rapidly  gained  public  favor, 
and  as  the  years  passed  transacted  an  ex- 
tensive trade.  His  first  business  place, 
which  he  opened  July  25,  1861,  was  on 
Canal  street,  but  a  year  later  he  moved 
to  the  location  next  door  which  he  ever 
after  occupied  and  shortly  afterward  pur- 
chased the  same.  In  course  of  time  he 
admitted  his  son,  Daniel  P.  Moran,  as  a 
partner,  the  firm  conducting  business  as 
the  D.  P.  Moran  Company.    The  founder 


of  the  business,  as  the  years  rolled  by. 
never  surrendered  his  active  interest  in  it, 
but  was  regularly  at  the  store  and  kept  in 
close  touch  with  the  business  until  his 
last  illness.  As  his  own  fortunes  im- 
proved with  each  year,  he  took  a  deep  in- 
terest in  the  prosperity  .of  Lyons  and  was 
a  constant  worker  for  the  establishment 
of  new  industries  in  the  village.  He  gave 
financial  aid  and  his  personal  support  to 
many  projects,  and  to  his  aid  and  that  of 
others  is  due  the  establishing  in  Lyons  of 
the  Silver  Plate  Company,  the  Lyons 
Pottery  Company,  the  Electric  Light 
Company,  the  Lyons  Cut  Glass  Com- 
pany, etc.  He  was  one  of  the  prime 
movers  in  the  building  of  the  Lyons 
Water  Works,  Lyons  being  the  first  vil- 
lage between  Syracuse  and  Rochester  to 
build  water  works  and  install  a  system  of 
public  water  supply. 

Mr.  Moran  was  a  Democrat  in  politics, 
but  would  not  accept  any  office  in  the 
village,  except  membership  on  the  board 
of  education  for  several  terms.  He  was 
also  the  first  president  of  the  Lyons 
Board  of  Trade.  He  was  a  man  whose 
sympathies  were  readily  awakened  and 
he  was  a  generous  contributor  to  charity, 
to  what  extent  will  never  be  known,  as  he 
was  very  unostentatious  in  his  giving,  mak- 
ing no  mention  of  his  gifts  to  anyone.  He 
was  most  genial  and  friendly,  witty  in 
speech  and  very  companionable.  He  was 
a  member  and  liberal  supporter  of  St. 
Michael's  Church,  he  having  been  the 
leading  factor  in  securing  for  that  parish 
the  beautiful  site  on  which  the  church 
edifice  was  erected. 

Mr.  Moran  married  Bridget  A.  FitzPat- 
rick,  daughter  of  John  and  Mary  (Kelly) 
FitzPatrick,  and  a  direct  descendant  of 
the  house  of  Ossory,  Ireland,  a  family 
noted  for  military  valor  and  missionary 
service.  Mrs.  Moran  survives  her  hus- 
band.   Her  brother,  the  Rev.  Father  Fitz- 


363 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Patrick,  at  the  time  of  her  marriage  was 
rector  of  St.  Michael's  Church,  Lyons, 
New  York.  Children  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Moran:  i.  Marie,  became  the  wife  of 
Burton  Lawler,  of  Boston,  Massachu- 
setts. 2.  Fitz  James,  deceased.  3.  Eliza- 
beth, Mrs.  Finigan,  lecturer  in  the  paro- 
chial and  other  schools  for  the  State  De- 
partment of  Health  of  New  York ;  she  is 
the  mother  of  two  children :  John  Joseph, 
medical  student  of  Buffalo,  and  Daniel 
Moran.  4.  Daniel  P.,  his  father's  part- 
ner and  successor  in  business.  5.  Emily, 
became  the  wife  of  William  I.  Dean,  M. 
D.,  of  Rochester  ;  eight  children  :  Daniel, 
William  I.,  Marie  Louise,  Paul  David, 
Sterling  Michaga,  Richard,  Emily,  Alice 
Elizabeth.  6.  John  J.,  M.  D.,  deceased. 
7.  Birgitta,  became  the  wife  of  Thomas 
P.  Farmer,  M.  D.,  of  Syracuse;  she  won 
the  Hiram  Gee  prize  and  a  fellowship 
from  the  University  of  Syracuse ;  they 
are  the  parents  of  one  daughter,  Mary 
Margaret.    8.  Genevieve  A.,  deceased. 

Daniel  Moran  died  at  his  home  on 
Phelps  street,  Lyons,  New  York,  May  14, 
1914.  The  funeral  services  were  con- 
ducted in  St.  Michael's  Church,  Right 
Reverend  Bishop  Hickey,  of  Rochester, 
and  several  priests  officiating.  A  male 
quartette  from  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral 
sang  the  Gregorian  Mass  and  every  honor 
of  the  church  was  paid  him.  The  busi- 
ness men  of  Lyons  closed  their  stores  and 
attended  in  a  body,  and  delegations  were 
present  from  many  localities.  The  in- 
terment was  in  Elmwood  Cemeterv. 


DELANEY,  Bernard  A., 

Revered  Priest. 

Whatever  the  satisfaction  enjoyed  by 
the  man  who  makes  a  success  of  some 
worldly  project,  it  is,  of  necessity,  a  little 
thing  in  comparison  to  that  which  comes 
to  him  from  the  surrender  of  all  earthly 


aims  in  the  dedication  of  himself  to  the 
greatest  of  all  works,  the  making  of  God's 
will  prevail  upon  this  earth.  They  are 
incommensurate,  for  not  only  is  the  one 
greater  than  the  other,  but  different  al- 
together in  type  and  in  some  respects 
even  its  opposite.  For  if  it  be  a  satisfac- 
tion to  achieve  material  success,  it  is  still 
more  so  voluntarily  to  give  it  up.  Fore- 
bearance  is  always  greater  than  fulfill- 
ment, for  forebearance  is  only  the  nega- 
tive of  another  and  greater  fulfillment. 
Therefore  it  is  that  we  experience  a  cer- 
tain feeling  of  reverence  when  he  ap- 
proach the  records  of  those  devoted  men 
who  have  abandoned  earthly  objectives 
in  their  zeal  for  heavenly,  the  awe  that 
we  might  feel  for  a  great  temple  into  the 
threshold  of  which  only  we  were  ad- 
mitted but  from  which  we  might  catch 
a  glimpse  of  the  lovely  interior.  Of  such 
men  the  Catholic  church  offers  us  innu- 
merable examples  in  the  persons  of  its 
countless  priests,  none  of  whom  but  have 
surrendered  all  of  those  things  which  to 
most  men  appear  chiefly  to  make  life 
desirable  in  order  that  they  may  follow 
the  great  calling  they  have  chosen  with 
as  few  of  the  entanglements  of  the  world 
as  the  frailty  of  human  flesh  makes  pos- 
sible. But  it  is  her  wise,  if  austere,  policy 
to  demand  that  final  sacrifice  of  her  priest- 
hood that  shall  consummate  and  confirm 
the  rest,  that  of  giving  up  even  the  honor 
which  the  world  might  accord  them  for 
their  deeds,  to  lose  almost  their  personal- 
ities in  the  greater  one  of  the  church.  It 
is,  therefore,  appropriate  in  setting  forth 
the  career  of  a  priest  of  the  Catholic 
church  that  this  should  be  borne  in  mind, 
that  he  should  be  treated  merely  as  one 
of  a  great  company  who  have  thus  de- 
voted themselves  to  the  great  work  and 
not  as  a  brilliant  or  learned  or  profound 
individual.  He  shall  have  an  impersonal, 
not  a  personal  glory ;   his  honor  shall  be 


364 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


that  of  a  class,  not  of  an  individual ;  he 
shall  be  praised  as  a  priest  but  not  as  a 
man. 

Bernard  A.  Delaney  was  born  onDecem- 
ber  13,  18S9,  in  Yonkers,  New  York,  and 
died  September  7,  1915.  From  his  early 
youth  he  exhibited  those  moral  character- 
istics which,  together  with  his  training, 
led  him  to  the  priesthood.  His  early 
education  was  obtained  in  the  parochial 
school  attached  to  the  Church  of  the 
Immaculate  Conception  in  Yonkers, 
where  he  came  under  the  influence  of  the 
good  men  into  whose  company  he  was 
later  admitted.  Graduating  from  this  in- 
stitution in  June,  1904,  he  entered  Cathe- 
dral College  the  following  autumn  and 
there  continued  his  studies.  Already  with 
a  strong  purpose  to  become  a  priest, 
these  gradually  took  on  more  and  more 
the  character  of  a  preparation  for  that 
high  office,  and  with  his  graduation  there- 
from in  1909  he  was  ready  to  enter  upon 
the  final  stage  of  the  long  and  arduous 
studies  prescribed  for  those  who  have 
formed  his  purpose.  At  the  Seminary  of 
St.  Joseph,  in  Dunwoodie,  Yonkers,  he 
spent  six  years  in  the  study  of  theology 
and  philosophy  and  in  becoming  wholly 
steeped  in  the  tradition  and  associations 
of  Catholicism.  From  the  outset  his  na- 
ture had  been  in  harmony  with  this  tra- 
dition and  during  the  long  schooling  he 
was  troubled  with  fewer  of  the  doubts  of 
the  neophite  as  to  the  genuineness  of  his 
call  than  are  experienced  by  the  majority 
of  his  fellows.  Of  those  other  and  nobler 
doubts  as  to  his  own  worthiness  for  the 
great  task  he  contemplated  undertaking, 
he  had  his  full  share,  however,  and  it  was 
only  his  positive  conviction  that  God  may 
work  with  the  humblest  tool  that  nerved 
him  to  shoulder  the  immense  responsibili- 
ties of  his  office.  He  persevered  accord- 
ingly and  at  the  age  of  twenty-five  was 
ordained  to  the  Holy  Priesthood  by  His 


Eminence, Cardinal  John  M.  Farley,  of  New 
York.  The  ordination  took  place  on  May 
29>  IQI5>  ar>d  on  the  following  day  that 
event  occurred  to  which  the  novice  looks 
forward  with  the  greatest  fervor,  the  cele- 
bration of  his  first  mass.  Father  Delaney 
celebrated  a  solemn  high  mass  in  the 
Church  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  in 
Yonkers,  returning  thus  for  this  crown- 
ing happiness  to  the  very  cradle  of  his 
religious  training.  He  was  promptly  as- 
signed to  duty  at  St.  Cecelia's  Church, 
New  York  City,  and  there  worthily  per- 
formed the  duties  of  his  sacred  office. 

Much  might  be  said  of  the  talents  and 
abilities  displayed  by  Father  Delaney 
during  his  childhood  and  youth,  but  for 
the  consideration  already  noticed.  To 
him,  however,  this  is  no  hardship  who 
has  put  ambition  and  the  applause  of  the 
world  behind  him  as  of  no  value.  To  him 
the  only  honor  that  he  is  jealous  of,  the 
only  praise  that  pleases,  is  that  of  God 
and  the  Holy  Church  to  which  he  has 
dedicated  his  whole  life  and  being. 


RICKARD,  Michael, 

Leader   Among   Men. 

In  noting  the  rapid  and  spectacular  rise 
to  prominence  of  some  of  the  natural 
leaders  of  men  it  often  seems  as  though 
their  achievements  were  the  results  of 
powers  out  of  the  possession  of  average 
men,  and  smacked  rather  of  the  miracu- 
lous and  an  intervening  fate,  so  easily, 
apparently,  are  obstacles  overcome  and 
so  completely  does  every  factor  seem  to 
bend  itself  to  the  fore-ordained  result.  In 
the  great  majority  of  cases,  however,  such 
appearance  is  entirely  deceptive  and  the 
brilliant  outcome  is  the  last  term  in  a 
series  of  events  as  logical  and  orderly  as 
any  in  the  most  humble  experience,  and 
of  effort  as  unremitting  and  arduous  as 
that  with  which  we  ourselves  are  familiar. 


365 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Often  the  most  startling  coup  has  been 
planned  and  pondered  through  long  and 
dark  preliminaries,  like  the  meteor  which 
only  bursts  into  spectacular  display  after 
a  long  and  chilly  journey  through  outer 
space.  Such,  in  a  large  measure,  was  true 
in  the  case  of  Michael  Rickard,  late  of 
Albany,  New  York,  whose  name  heads 
this  brief  appreciation  and  whose  reputa- 
tion in  the  city  and  State  for  success, 
gained  without  the  compromise  of  his 
ideals,  is  equalled  by  few  of  his  fellow 
citizens.  His  rise  to  power  and  influence 
was  doubtless  rapid,  but  it  was  the  out- 
come of  conscientious  labor  and  consis- 
tent effort,  effort  and  labor  which  doubt- 
less felt  discouragement  and  sorrow  at 
their  own  limitations,  such  as  we  have  all 
experienced  in  the  course  of  our  lives. 
If  this  were  not  so  how  would  it  be  pos- 
sible to  explain  the  kindly  tolerance,  the 
broad  human  sympathy  and  understand- 
ing which  he  displayed  through  all  his 
wide  and  varied  experience  and  inter- 
course with  his  fellow  men,  for  what  we 
have  not  ourselves  experienced  we  have 
small  patience  with  in  others.  It  was  thus 
that  his  death  on  December  12,  1896,  was 
felt  as  a  general  loss  to  the  community 
where  he  made  his  home,  to  his  political 
party  and  to  his  State. 

Michael  Rickard  was  born  February  2, 
1837,  in  the  little  village  of  East  Creek, 
New  York,  a  son  of  Thomas  and  Eliza- 
beth (Gorman)  Rickard,  old  and  highly 
respected  residents  of  the  place.  His 
early  years  were  spent,  however,  at  Little 
Falls,  New  York,  in  which  city  he  at- 
tended school  and  received  his  education. 
It  was  during  this  portion  of  his  life, 
spent  as  it  was  in  the  splendid  climate 
and  invigorating  rural  surroundings  of 
Central  New  York  State,  that  Mr.  Rick- 
ard acquired  that  rugged  physical  health 
that  stood  him  in  such  good  stead  in  after 
life    and    in    the    midst    of   heavy   labors. 


While  still  little  more  than  a  lad  he  gave 
up  his  studies  and  began  his  long  associ- 
ation with  the  railroads  that  was  to  lead 
into  so  brilliant  a  career.  Little  did  he 
imagine  that  this  would  come  about,  ex- 
cept in  the  more  or  less  vague  way  in 
which  youth  always  plans  for  future  ac- 
complishment, nor  is  it  to  be  wondered 
at  that  it  was  scarcely  to  be  foreseen, 
when  it  is  considered  that  his  first  associ- 
ation with  the  railroads  was  in  that  most 
humble  capacity  of  train  hand.  However, 
Mr.  Rickard  was  no  ordinary  train  hand 
and  he  filled  one  after  another  the  vari- 
ous ranks  that  intervened  between  that 
and  the  responsible  position  of  engineer, 
filled  them  for  much  shorter  periods  than 
most  of  his  fellows,  pushed  ahead,  as  he 
was  from  rank  to  rank.  And  yet  this 
preliminary  part  of  his  career  was,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  longest  part  of  it.  Mr. 
Rickard  was  gifted  with  the  ability  of 
carrying  out  his  duties  in  whatever  posi- 
tion he  happened  to  be  placed  with  the 
closest  observance  of  detail,  and  yet,  at 
the  same  time,  regarded  these  duties  and 
the  position  itself  in  their  larger  aspects 
It  was  for  this  reason  that  he  soon  be- 
came a  great  leader  among  his  fellow 
engineers  and  a  particularly  influential 
figure  in  the  powerful  organization  known 
as  the  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  Engi- 
neers. At  about  this  time  he  removed  from 
Little  Falls  and  came  to  the  city  of  Utica 
to  live,  and  it  was  here  that  he  played  an 
active  part  in  the  affairs  of  this  order. 
But  it  was  not  by  any  means  to  this  in- 
terest that  Mr.  Rickard  confined  his  en- 
ergies, however  much  he  might  feel  its 
importance.  He  rightly  felt  that  the  way 
to  exercise  the  strongest  influence  upon 
the  conditions  that  he  had  at  heart  to 
alter  was  not  merely  as  an  engineer,  how- 
ever sincere  and  strong  a  one,  but  rather 
as  a  public  man,  a  man  who  was  popular 
and  wielded  influence  with  all  classes  of 
66 


''CVV/c/i'/'./  •     // .     /ff/t       ^/(ff/rs> 


t,uently  the   n 

!  y  after 

thereof 

influence,  indeo-  i  .iake  it- 

wide  reputatic  i'ltdli- 

gent   sp  1888  he  re- 

ceived th  ■•■'   V'ork 

State  railroa'i  r  and  at  once 

•mself  in  a  pi  I  effec- 

tively carry  out  the  reforms  he  had  so 

. 
hirnsel 
upon  bol 

such    re  'ought 

most  de 

recog- 

During 

repute 
public  servant. 

Mr.  Rickard  wab 
cial   and   club   circles  of  Albany 

-.tent  of  New  York 
a  mem  fanhattan   Cli 


!  and  is  still  lu 
York. 


VAN  LEUVEN,  Cornelius  iMyer, 

AgrioaltnrUt,   Prominent   Citixen.. 

Thei 
complei 
of  our 

■ 
| 

■ 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


completely,  nor  colored  the  subsequent 
development  of  the  society  there.  It  was 
with  the  career  of  these  great  people  that 
the  romantic  eye  of  Washington  Irving 
was  most  particularly  charmed,  and  it 
was  his  pen  more  than  any  other  that  has 
crystallized  those  dim  traditions  into  the 
famous  tales  that  reconstruct  for  us  and 
for  the  future  a  social  status  possessing 
a  most  definite  and  characteristic  beauty 
of  its  own.  Many  of  the  descendants  of 
these  worthy  and  courageous  people,  who 
braved  the  wilderness  and  all  its  un- 
known perils,  still  inhabit  the  neighbor- 
hood of  their  father's  exploits  and  the 
names  that  were  then  prominent  are 
prominent  to-day.  A  striking  example  of 
this  is  to  be  found  in  the  well-known 
Van  Leuven  family  of  which  the  late  Cor- 
nelius Myer  Van  Leuven  was  a  distin- 
guished representative,  and  which  from 
early  days  down  to  the  present  has  held 
a  prominent  place  in  the  regard  of  the 
community.  Although  not  a  native  of 
Kingston,  New  York,  Mr.  Van  Leuven's 
career  was  identified  with  that  prosper- 
ous city  and  his  death  there  on  December 
5,  1888,  was  a  very  real  loss  to  the  city 
generally. 

Cornelius  Myer  Van  Leuven  was  a  son 
of  Andrew  and  Lea  (Myer)  Van  Leuven, 
and  was  descended  on  both  sides  of  the 
house  from  old  and  prominent  families  of 
the  State,  his  mother's  family,  the  Myers, 
having  been  conspicuous  in  the  life  of 
Albany  county  for  many  years.  The  birth 
of  Cornelius  M.  Van  Leuven  took  place 
on  August  7,  1803,  probably  at  Rens- 
selaerville,  Albany  county.  It  was  here 
that  he  spent  the  early  years  of  his  life 
and  received  his  education  and  formed  all 
the  associations  of  childhood.  When  a  very 
young  man  his  parents  removed  to  Kings- 
ton with  their  entire  family  and  this  place 
was  his  home  from  that  time  until  the 
close  of  his  life.     His  parents,  with  the 


remainder  of  the  family,  removed  to  the 
Western  part  of  New  York  State  and  set- 
tled in  the  vicinity  of  the  little  town  of 
Lyons,  remaining  there  until  the  former 
died,  when  the  children  went  still  further 
west  and  made  their  home  in  Michigan. 
Cornelius  M.,  on  the  contrary,  remained 
in  Kingston,  where  he  had  already  formed 
strong  ties,  his  marriage  being  the 
greatest  of  these,  besides  which  he  also 
had  business  interests.  When  the  Van 
Leuvens  had  first  come  to  Kingston  they 
had  purchased  a  fine  farm  situated  on 
what  was  then  known  as  the  old  Plank 
road,  now  the  Delaware  Pike  road,  where 
Andrew  Van  Leuven  carried  on  successful 
farming  operations  for  a  number  of  years. 
With  his  marriage,  however,  Cornelius 
M.  Van  Leuven  became  the  owner  of  a 
valuable  farm,  for  many  years  the  old  De- 
Witt  homestead  upon  which  stood  one  of 
the  most  charming  of  the  old  farmhouses 
in  that  region.  The  old  DeWitt  mansion 
was  a  perfect  model  of  the  colonial  archi- 
tecture of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  it 
was  built,  and  until  its  destruction  a  few 
years  ago  was  one  of  the  landmarks  of 
the  countryside.  Here  Mr.  Van  Leuven 
continued  to  reside  and  was  highly  sue-  ; 
cessful  as  a  farmer  during  the  remainder 
of  his  life. 

Mr.  Van  Leuven  was  a  prominent 
figure  in  the  general  life  of  the  commu- 
nity where  he  resided  and  was  identified 
with  many  important  movements  under- 
taken with  the  welfare  of  the  city  as  their 
objective.  A  Whig  in  politics,  he  was  an 
ardent  worker  in  the  cause  of  his  party 
but,  being  of  a  retiring  nature,  he  con- 
sistently refused  all  offers  of  public  office, 
preferring  to  remain  in  private  life  and 
exert  what  influence  he  could  in  that  ca- 
pacity. He  was  a  member  of  the  Agri- 
cultural Society  of  Kingston  and  active  in 
the  interests  of  the  farmers  in  that  local- 
ity-    In    the  matter  of    relisrion    he  was 


368 


".DIA  OF  BIOGR 


aliiliated     with     th< 

Kingston  and 

philanthropic  n 

the  worl 

of  his  family  were   connected    v 

church,  and  li!  were  strongly 

religious  in  their  bcliets  and  feelings. 

Mr.  Van  Leu  I  Mrs.  DeWitt, 

the  widow  of  eminent 

Kingston  farm  of  one 

of  the  oldest  milies,  through 

whom  mentioned   be- 

came first  the  property  of  his  wife  and 
later,  through  her  second  marriage,  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  Van  Leuvens.  Mrs. 
Van  Leuven  was  herself  one  of  a  very  old 
and  pr.  .    York  family,  being 

descended  fron  in  both  sides 

of  the  h  ients  of  those 

parts  be  a.     Before  her 

first    mai  was    Margaret    Van 

Keuren,  of  Kingston.  Her  mother,  Mrs. 
Van  Keuren,  was  a  -  :ind  in 

this  fa; 
even  mere   intc 

house  is  still  standing,  an  : 
erectcij 

.  ing  times  it 

during  the  R? . 
soldiers 
of  stont 
most  of 
original 
old  hoi) 
and  John  str< 

ways  been  in  the  possession  of  th. 
family  which,  like  itself,  has  been  identi- 
fied with  Kingston  since  the  days  before 
n  independt 
the  mother 


d  ;  and  had  tw  • 

ness,   and    was 
;iank  of 
Kingst 
30,  18;  - 

daUghtv  .,-  and  Jeanct  • 

. 

born  }.;.  and  married 

tie  child, 

^ocial  circles. 

al  his- 

her  native  town  and  the  whole 

surrounding  district  and  is  a  great  stu- 

genealogicti1 

■.rence  to  the  maiiy  disting 
she  traces  her  •;■ 

s  wl      1  is  val     ble  in  i 
0 

!1  it 

■ 
- 

p  rtu 
stitnulat 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


devoted    to    his    immediate     family    and      carefully  done  as  the  first.    In  all  his  work 


found  no  other  happiness  so  great  as  the 
intimate  intercourse  with  his  own  house- 
hold about  his  own  fireside. 


EILINGER,  Frederick  Rudolph, 

Expert   Chemist. 

Frederick  R.  Eilinger,  who  had  been  in 
the  employ  of  the  city  of  Rochester  as 
chemist  to  the  board  of  health  for  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century,  and  in  point  of  service 
the  oldest  officer  of  that  important  board, 
was  born  June  n,  1863,  son  of  Henry  and 
Mary  (Hussong)  Eilinger,  of  Germany, 
and  his  death  occurred  in  Rochester,  New 
York,  March  15,  1916. 

The  early  life  of  Frederick  Rudolph 
Eilinger  was  spent  in  attending  the  Ger- 
man private  schools  of  Rochester,  com- 
pleting his  studies  at  the  age  of  seventeen 
years,  when  he  became  an  employee  in  a 
drug  store,  and  later  he  attended  a  school 
in  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania,  and  sub- 
sequently graduated  at  the  College  of 
Pharmacy,  Philadelphia.  He  was  ap- 
pointed city  chemist  by  the  Common 
Council,  in  1891,  Dr.  J.  J.  A.  Burke  then 
being  chief  of  the  department  of  health, 
and  he  was  succeeded  by  Dr.  Sibley,  both 
of  whom  are  now  deceased.  Later  Dr. 
George  W.  Goeler  became  head  of  the 
department  and  he  came  to  rely  upon  his 
chemist's  judgment  and  long  experience 
as  had  his  predecessors.  Mr.  Eilinger 
was  a  close  friend  of  Dr.  Goeler,  who 
collaborated  with  him  in  his  work.  Mr. 
Eilinger  was  connected  with  the  board 
of  health  during  all  the  long  years  in 
which  the  milk  campaign  was  being 
waged,  and  it  was  due  to  him,  as  much 
as  any  one,  that  the  technical  details  for 
both  the  chemical  and  bacteriological  ex- 
aminations of  milk  were  prosecuted.  Ex- 
actness was  his  hobby  and  he  could  do 
the  same  kind  of  work  over  a  thousand 
times,  and  the  last  analysis  would  be  as 


he  was  singularly  fair,  and  the  men  whom 
he  appealed  against  in  court,  as  well  as 
those  for  whom  he  appeared,  had  a  like 
respect  for  him.  His  conclusions  carried 
with  them  the  weight  of  an  authority  and 
were  never  seriously  questioned.  He 
gave  his  life,  to  the  service  of  the  city, 
having  no  other  professional  interests, 
and  his  devotion  to  the  cause  of  public 
health  was  remarkable  and  continued  the 
ruling  passion  of  his  life  until  its  very 
end.  He  was  particularly  valuable  in  the 
position  he  filled  so  long,  not  alone  for  his 
technical  and  professional  knowledge,  but 
for  his  conscientious  performance  of  his 
duty,  and  to  him  is  given  the  major  credit 
for  Rochester's  preeminence  among 
American  cities  in  the  purity  of  milk 
sold  in  the  city.  Mr.  Eilinger  was  a  mem- 
ber of  Valley  Lodge,  Free  and  Accepted 
Masons ;  Tippecanoe  Lodge,  Independent 
Order  of  Odd  Fellows ;  and  Flower  City 
Lodge,  Independent  Order  of  Foresters. 
He  was  a  good  student,  a  careful  chemist, 
a  delightful  companion,  and  was  highly 
regarded  by  all  who  knew  him. 

Mr.  Eilinger  married,  July  26,  1914, 
Jennie  Sodeman,  of  Attica,  New  York, 
who  survives  him,  daughter  of  Charles 
and  Sophia   (Witman)   Sodeman. 


PARKER,  Charles, 

Expert  Mining  Engineer. 

The  great  enterprise  and  ability  so 
characteristic  of  the  race  from  which  he 
was  sprung  was  exhibited  in  a  unusual- 
ly high  degree  in  the  career  of  Charles 
Parker.  His  life  was  passed  in  the  most 
various  parts  of  the  world,  in  the  pur- 
suit of  a  calling  requiring  the  extreme  of 
courage,  coolness  and  initiative,  and  the 
versatility  displayed  by  him  in  meeting 
new  conditions  and  the  courage  in  carry- 
ing into  effect  what  his  judgment  directed 
formed  the  basis  of  his  success. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Born  at  Inverness,  Scotland,  on  May 
15,  i860,  Charles  Parker  came  of  a  family 
in  which  culture  and  a  high  degree  of 
education  were  traditions.  From  the  ear- 
liest years  of  his  life  it  had  been  arranged 
that  he  should  be  no  exception  to  this 
and  his  father  sent  him  accordingly  to  the 
best  schools  where  he  quickly  proved  him- 
self a  student  of  unusual  aptness  and  dili- 
gence. Upon  completing  this  prepara- 
tory course,  he  went  to  England  and  en- 
tered Kings  College  at  Oxford.  At  this 
famous  university  he  carried  on  a  very 
extensive  series  of  studies  and  maintained 
in  all  of  them  the  high  reputation  as  a 
student  which  he  had  already  gained  in 
school.  The  atmosphere  of  Oxford  and 
its  wonderful  traditions  operated  strong- 
ly on  the  imagination  of  the  young  man 
and  gave  him  a  very  strong  taste  for  the 
life  of  scholarship  which  he  had  such 
ample  opportunity  of  witnessing  there. 
It  was  an  age,  however,  when  science  was 
beginning  to  take  the  immense  place 
which  it  now  occupies  in  our  studies  and 
Mr.  Parker's  practical  Scotch  mind  in- 
clined him  to  the  scientific  side  of  the 
curriculum  in  as  far  as  his  choice  for  a 
career  in  life  went.  He  did  not,  however, 
neglect  the  classical  aspect  entirely,  and 
at  his  final  graduation  he  was  the  posses- 
sor of  many  degrees,  both  academic  and 
scientific.  At  the  age  of  twenty-one,  he 
left  Great  Britain  entirely  and  came  to 
the  United  States  where  he  took  a  course 
of  civil  engineering  at  the  well-known 
Stevens  Institute  at  Hoboken,  New  Jer- 
sey. He  also  attended  Columbia  Uni- 
versity and  studied  the  subject  of  phar- 
macy there.  Of  an  extremely  enterpris- 
ing nature,  it  was  Mr.  Parker's  great  de- 
sire to  see  the  world  and  he  felt  himself 
amply  prepared  to  earn  his  livelihood  in 
any  quarter  in  which  he  might  happen  to 
locate.  Leaving  the  East  he  went  to 
the  prosperous  and  progressive  City  of 


Seattle,  Washington,  where  he  practiced 
pharmacy  for  about  one  year.  The  great 
mining  interests  of  the  West,  however, 
appealed  to  his  fondness  for  enterprise 
and  afforded  an  unusually  fine  opportu- 
nity for  the  use  of  his  many  scientific 
acquirements.  He  became  a  mining  en- 
gineer and  followed  that  profession 
throughout  the  remainder  of  his  life. 
This  is  not  a  profession  calculated  to  al- 
low a  man  to  remain  settled  in  any  one 
place  for  a  great  period  and  certainly  Mr. 
Parker's  life  bears  witness  to  this  fact. 
Western  America  was  traversed  pretty 
thoroughly  by  him,  his  first  important 
business  being  near  Leadville,  Colorado,  in 
the  little  mining  settlement  of  Granite.  Here 
he  remained  upwards  of  three  years  and 
then  went  to  British  Columbia  where  he 
stayed  in  various  places  aggregating 
about  the  same  period.  Returning  to  the 
United  States,  he  was  engaged  in  mining 
operations  in  Oregon  for  some  five  years 
and  once  more  spent  about  a  year  in  the 
City  of  Seattle,  but  North  America  was 
not  the  only  region  in  which  Mr.  Parker 
carried  on  his  activities.  For  some  time 
he  stayed  in  Peru  and  other  parts  of 
South  America  and  later  still  was  en- 
gaged in  extensive  operations  in  the  great 
mining  region  of  South  Africa.  He  be- 
came very  prominently  known  in  his  pro- 
fession throughout  the  world  and  was  re- 
garded as  a  high  authority  on  many  min- 
ing questions.  A  strong  and  decisive  per- 
sonality and  a  readiness  to  take  advan- 
tage of  opportunities  quickly,  added  to 
his  great  technical  knowledge  of  his  sub- 
ject, made  him  a  highly  successful  opera- 
tor and  brought  him  to  the  front  of  his 
profession.  During  the  latter  part  of  his 
life  it  was  his  business  to  promote  mines 
and  in  this  branch  of  his  work  he  had 
connections  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  It 
is  scarcely  needful  to  say  that  he  was  an 
immense  traveler  and  few  men  have  been 


37i 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  EIOGRAPHY 


more  continually  busy  than  was  he.  He  by 
no  means  lost  touch  with  the  affairs  and 
interests  of  his  native  country  and  his 
name  was  well-known  in  many  scientific 
circles  there.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Mining  and  Metallurgical  Institute  of 
England,  of  the  Institute  of  Civil  Engi- 
neers of  that  country  and  a  Fellow  of  the 
Royal  Geological  Society  of  London.  He 
was  also  a  member  of  the  Horticultural 
Society  of  England  and  was  all  his  life 
highly  interested  in  the  scientific  culture 
of  plants. 

Mr.  Parker  was  united  in  marriage,  on 
November  28,  1893,  at  Yonkers,  New 
York,  with  Adelaide  Scott,  a  daughter  of 
Archibald  and  Jane  (Dimond)  Scott,  of 
New  York  City.  Mrs.  Parker,  like  him- 
self, was  of  Scotch  descent.  For  some 
time  they  lived  at  Leadville,  Colorado, 
and  then  Mrs.  Parker  accompanied  her 
husband  to  the  various  points  in  the 
United  States  that  his  business  led  him. 
Upon  his  leaving  the  United  States  for 
South  America,  she  returned  to  the  East 
and  made  her  home  in  Yonkers,  and  that 
city  was  Mr.  Parker's  headquarters  from 
that  time  until  his  death.  He  and  Mrs. 
Parker  had  a  delightful  home  there  and 
in  spite  of  the  many  absences  which  the 
nature  of  his  business  required,  a  great 
part  of  the  former's  time  was  spent  there. 
It  was  there  that  his  death  finally  oc- 
curred, on  December  15,  1914.  To  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Parker  three  children  were  born : 
Adelaide  Helen,  Ethel  Winifred  and  Mar- 
guerite Florence.  Mr.  Parker  is  survived 
by  his  wife  and  children. 


ROMER,  William, 

Lawyer, 

The  legal  profession  has  even  been  ably 
and  worthily  represented  at  White  Plains, 
and  prominent  among  those  later  mem- 
bers who  during  the  last  thirty  years  and 


more  fully  maintained  its  old-time  pres- 
tige was  the  late  William  Romer,  not 
many  years  deceased.  Mr.  Romer  had  a 
long  and  brilliant  professional  record  and 
before  coming  to  White  Plains  had  been 
one  of  the  ornaments  of  the  bar  of  the 
City  of  New  York. 

William  Romer  was  born  at  Pleasant- 
ville,  and  was  the  son  of  James  H.  Romer. 
His  literary  education  was  liberal  and  his 
professional  equipment  prepared  him  to 
take  the  high  place  at  the  bar  which  he 
afterward  attained.  For  many  years  he 
had  an  office  in  New  York  City,  situated 
in  the  World  Building,  and  the  large 
practice  which  he  built  up  and  for  many 
years  retained  proved  that  natural  talent 
no  less  than  thorough  equipment  had 
fitted  him  for  his  chosen  profession.  He 
possessed  to  an  unusual  degree  the  judi- 
cial mind  and  his  acute  perceptions  and 
readiness  of  resource,  combined  with  his 
wealth  of  legal  knowledge,  rendered  him 
a  formidable  antagonist.  Eventually,  Mr. 
Romer  was  forced  by  impaired  health  to 
relinquish  his  work  in  New  York  and  to 
withdraw  to  the  comparative  quiet  and 
seclusion  of  White  Plains.  Here  his  pro- 
fessional duties  were  less  onerous  and  it 
thus  became  possible  for  him  to  indulge 
his  taste  for  reading  and  literary  pursuits. 
These  were  far  from  being  solely  the 
result  of  education,  his  years  at  Wesleyan 
University,  of  which  institution  he  was  a 
graduate,  having  merely  fostered  what 
nature  had  already  implanted.  He  was 
especially  interested  in  local  history  and 
after  taking  up  his  abode  at  White  Plains 
made  a  study  of  its  records  and  traditions 
as  well  as  of  those  of  Westchester  county. 
On  this  subject  he  was  a  recognized 
authority,  being  frequently  appealed  to 
for  the  settlement  of  disputed  points.  Mr. 
Romer  was  a  brilliant  conversationalist 
and  a  man  of  most  attractive  personality. 
His  friends  were  legion  and  he  numbered 


372 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


among  them  many  of  the  prominent  men 
of  the  State.  Among  the  organizations 
to  which  he  belonged  was  the  Westches- 
ter Bar  Association  and  at  the  time  of  his 
death  he  was  the  oldest  member  of  that 
body.  He  was  a  member  of  St.  Paul's 
Methodist  Protestant  Church. 

Mr.  Romer  married  Elgiva  E.,  daugh- 
ter of  George  H.  Purser,  of  Yonkers, 
New  York,  and  they  were  the  parents  of 
two  sons:  William  Purser  and  Charles 
H.  To  the  ties  of  home  and  kindred  Mr. 
Romer  was  always  sincerely  devoted  and 
his  happiest  hours  were  those  passed  at 
his  own  fireside. 

The  loss  of  such  a  man  to  his  commu- 
nity leaves  a  void  better  imagined  than 
described.  When,  on  August  30,  1913, 
this  venerable  lawyer,  useful  citizen  and 
worthy  man  was  gathered  to  his  fathers 
the  sense  of  bereavement  was  well-nigh 
universal.  He  was  in  the  seventy-ninth 
year  of  his  age  and  for  thirty  years  had 
been  a  resident  of  White  Plains.  Even 
now,  so  vividly  remembered  is  he  that 
his  friends  and  neighbors  almost  expect 
to  meet  him  in  the  places  where  he  was 
so  long  a  familiar  and  revered  presence. 
In  the  annals  of  the  Westchester  county 
bar  are  inscribed  many  names  to  which 
the  present  members  point  with  just  and 
laudable  pride,  but  truly  can  it  be  said 
that  not  one  among  them  represents  a 
record  longer  or  in  all  respects  more  un- 
impeachably  honorable  than  that  of  Wil- 
liam Romer. 


COTTRELL,  George  Williamson, 
Publisher. 

The  accident  of  birth  places  some  men 
at  the  top  of  the  ladder  and  some  men  at 
the  foot,  and  it  is  rarely  the  case  that  the 
men  who  become  the  world's  leaders  start 
other  than  on  the  lowest  rung.  The  re- 
spect   of    every    self-respecting    man    is 


given  to  him  who  starts  at  the  zero  point, 
with  no  assets  except  ability  and  purpose, 
and  arrives  at  a  position  of  appreciable 
importance  in  the  scheme  of  things. 

Such  a  man  was  the  late  George  Wil- 
liamson Cottrell,  well-known  publisher  of 
Boston,  Massachusetts,  and  for  five  years 
previous  to  his  death  a  man  of  public 
importance  in  the  town  of  Mount  Vernon, 
which  he  was  influential  in  incorporating  as 
a  city.  Mr.  Cottrell  was  born  in  County 
Cork,  Ireland,  in  1823,  the  son  of  Benjamin 
and  FJizabeth  Cottrell.  He  was  one  of  thir- 
teen children,  and  came  to  America  with 
the  entire  family  in  the  year  1830.  They 
settled  in  the  lower  part  of  New  York 
City,  where  the  family  conducted  a  hotel 
for  several  years,  on  a  site  which  is  now 
an  old  landmark,  namely,  the  corner  of 
Cedar  and  Greenwich  streets.  George  W. 
Cottrell  attended  the  local  schools,  but 
his  education  was  curtailed  by  the  neces- 
sity of  his  becoming  self-supporting  at  an 
early  age.  Upon  leaving  school  he  secured 
employment  in  various  mercantile  estab- 
lishments in  the  city,  but  gave  up  this 
line  of  work  because  he  saw  that  it  offered 
no  opportunities  of  advancement  to  a  man 
without  capital.  He  later  became  associ- 
ated with  the  John  McLaughlin  Com- 
pany, publishers  of  children's  books  and 
games.  This  was  his  first  connection 
with  the  publishing  business  with  which 
he  was  connected  for  the  remainder  of  his 
business  life.  A  few  years  later,  after  he 
had  become  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
the  details  of  the  business,  he  went  to 
Boston.  Here  he  started  in  publishing 
for  himself,  under  the  firm  name  of 
George  W.  Cottrell.  This  business  he 
conducted  until  the  time  of  his  retire- 
ment in  1890,  a  prosperous,  successful 
venture  at  No.  36  Cornhill.  During  his 
residence  in  Boston  Mr.  Cottrell  became 
associated  with  the  most  prominent  and 
influential  men  of  the  city,  many  of  whom 


373 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


became  his  fast  friends.  His  place  in  the 
business  and  social  life  of  Boston,  where 
he  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  life,  was 
an  honored  and  respected  one.  In  1890 
Mr.  Cottrell  retired  from  business,  and 
returning  to  New  York  State  settled  in 
Mount  Vernon,  which  at  that  time  was 
merely  a  village  on  the  outskirts  of  New 
York  City.  Relieved  of  the  necessity  of 
constant  participation  in  business  affairs, 
Mr.  Cottrell  entered  immediately  into  the 
public  life  of  the  village,  and  became 
closely  identified  with  its  civic  affairs. 
Mr.  Cottrell  worked  earnestly  for  the  in- 
corporation of  Mount  Vernon  as  a  city, 
and  was  one  of  the  men  most  influential 
in  gaining  that  end.  Mount  Vernon  since 
that  time  has  grown  enormously  in  both 
population  and  industry,  whereby  proving 
the  sagacity  of  the  judgment  of  the  men 
who  foresaw  the  possibilities  of  the  little 
village.  Mr.  Cottrell  was  active  also  in 
community  welfare  work. 

Mr.  Cottrell  was  twice  married.  His 
second  wife  was  Mary  Eliza  Tisdale,  a 
daughter  of  Leonard  and  Ann  (Engel) 
Tisdale,  of  Dowagiac,  Michigan.  Their 
children  are:  Marie  P.;  Bertha,  married 
Lyndon  Lee  ;  Grace  Williamson  ;  George 
Williamson.  Mrs.  Cottrell  survives  her 
husband  and  resides  at  No.  54  Glen  ave- 
nue, Mount  Vernon. 

Mr.  Cottrell's  death  occurred  on  Feb- 
ruary 19,  1895,  in  his  seventy-second  year. 
In  his  five  years'  residence  in  Mount  Ver- 
non he  had  become  widely  known,  loved 
and  respected,  and  his  death  was  a  cause 
of  genuine  sorrow  to  a  vast  number  of 
friends. 


TIER,  Daniel, 

Enterprising  Citizen. 

It  has  been  said  of  these  United  States 
of  ours  that  they  have  produced  no 
famous  liars;  which  statement  is  as  true 


as  it  is  complimentary.  Our  tendencies 
as  a  race  are  not  Machiavellian,  nor  can 
we  name  a  character  analagous  with  Bar- 
on Munchausen.  We  have  had,  neverthe- 
less, our  diplomats  and  have  sustained 
nobly  and  to  our  conspicuous  advantage 
our  affairs  international  and  do  nestic,  al- 
ways without  resort  to  double  dealing, 
criminal  subtlety,  and  satanic  strategy. 
Fairness  of  dealing,  sterling  character, 
high  moral  purpose,  worthy  aims,  no  ad- 
vance or  gain  at  the  expense  of  the  weak 
and  defenceless,  these  have  been  the  goal 
of  America,  the  rock  on  which  she  has 
built.  Is  it  any  wonder  then  that  we  have 
in  our  new  and  clean  life  put  forth  none 
to  equal  Machiavelli  and  Munchausen, 
products  of  an  aged  and  then  degenerate 
civilization. 

A  true  son  of  America,  and  a  man  who 
devoted  his  life  to  an  earnest  effort  to  live 
up  to  her  ideals,  and  to  repay  his  debt  for 
the  wonderful  opportunities  which  she 
offers  every  man,  was  the  late  Daniel 
Tier,  one  of  the  most  prominent  realty 
men  of  his  time  in  Westchester  county, 
and  intimately  connected  with  its  de- 
velopment and  growth. 

Daniel  Tier  was  born  in  New  York 
City,  September  19,  1825,  the  son  of  Jere- 
miah and  Euphemia  (Hunt)  Tier.  He 
attended  the  local  schools  in  Westchester 
county,  and  after  completing  the  course 
offered  by  them  entered  the  academy  at 
White  Plains.  Upon  his  graduation  from 
that  institution  he  immediately  went  into 
business  for  himself,  engaging  in  a  mer- 
cantile line,  in  what  is  now  Williams- 
bridge,  a  part  of  New  York  City,  but  at 
that  time  was  known  as  Williamsbridge, 
New  York.  He  continued  in  this  occupa- 
tion for  a  period  of  twelve  years,  at  the 
expiration  of  which  time  he  entered  into 
the  business  of  the  cultivation  of  flowers, 
conducting  an  establishment  at  Wood- 
lawn.    While  engaged  in  this  business  he 


374 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


became  interested  in  real  estate,  and  after 
eight  years  he  abandoned  his  business  as 
a  florist  and  devoted  his  entire  time  there- 
after to  realty  development.  Mr.  Tier 
dealt  largely  with  the  development  of 
Westchester,  in  New  York  City,  and  in 
this  pursuit  he  was  one  of  the  earliest 
men  to  become  prominent.  This  section, 
which  now  teems  with  population  and  is 
now  a  centre  of  almost  every  form  of  ac- 
tivity, was  at  the  time  when  Mr.  Tier  was 
engaged  in  its  development  comparative- 
ly unsettled.  New  York  had,  in  fact,  gone 
only  a  short  distance  above  the  district 
called  Harlem. 

On  October  13,  1847,  ^r-  Tier  married 
Susan  A.  Bussing,  of  Yonkers,  New  York, 
daughter  of  John  and  Susan  (Briggs) 
Bussing,  members  of  an  old  and  respected 
New  York  family.  The  children  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Daniel  Tier  are:  1.  Daniel.  2. 
Susan,  deceased.  3.  Mary,  married  Thom- 
as C.  Arnow  and  resides  in  Westchester, 
New  York  City.  4.  Jeremiah,  deceased.  5. 
Euphemia,  deceased.  6.  John,  deceased.  7. 
Charles  A.,  living  in  Mount  Vernon,  Chester 
Hill ;  he  was  formerly  engaged  in  the  flor- 
ist business  at  Woodlawn,  now  engaged  in 
the  real  estate  business  at  Mount  Vernon, 
also  a  builder  of  houses  ;  married  Jenny  L. 
Arnow.  8.  Gertrude,  deceased.  9.  Irving, 
died  October  1,  1913;  after  finishing  his 
education  he  engaged  in  business  pursuits, 
accumulating  thereby  a  goodly  compe- 
tence. 

Mr.  Tier's  death  occurred  on  Septem- 
ber 5,  1888. 

After  all  is  taken  into  consideration, 
our  standing  in  the  eyes  of  our  fellows  is  ex- 
actly what  we  make  it,  no  higher  and  no 
lower.  Men  of  ability  are  keen  judges  of 
character,  and  the  appreciation  of  the  fair 
minded  is  given  where  it  is  due.  It  may 
without  exaggeration  be  said  that  in  the 
esteem  of  his  associates  in  business,  in 
the  circle  of  his  friends  socially,  in  all  the 


gamut  of  human  relations,  Daniel  Tier 
held  a  position  high  as  it  was  deserved 
and  enviable. 


COWLING,  John  Thomas, 

Valued  Member  of  Society. 

Probably  there  has  never  been  a  period 
of  history  nor  a  part  of  the  earth's  surface 
where  so  much  has  been  done  to  alter  the 
material  aspect  of  human  life  as  the  sec- 
ond half  of  the  nineteenth  century  and 
the  northern  half  of  that  part  of  the 
United  States  that  lies  along  the  Atlantic 
seaboard.  Causes  too  numerous  even  to 
enumerate  here,  far  less  to  dwell  upon, 
were  responsible  for  the  most  remarkable 
development  of  the  power  of  mechanical 
invention,  of  the  application  of  the  new 
scientific  knowledge  to  the  material  needs 
of  life,  with  the  result  that  there  sprang 
up  a  well  nigh  infinite  number  of  brilliant 
inventions,  devices  of  all  sorts,  the  use  of 
which  so  distinctly  marks  the  life  of  to-day 
from  that  of  all  other  epochs  of  the  world's 
history.  Among  these,  however,  a  few 
inventions  stand  out  as  of  paramount  im- 
portance, centers,  as  it  were,  about  which 
are  grouped  thousands  of  other  inven- 
tions, the  object  of  which  is  but  to  modify 
and  improve  the  use  of  the  great  mechani- 
cal principles  that  had  then  found  its  first 
application.  Such,  for  instance,  was  the 
invention  of  the  steam  locomotive  and  the 
cotton  gin  and  such  was  the  application 
of  electricity  to  the  transmission  of  power, 
at  first  in  the  discovery  of  the  telegraph 
and  telephone  and  later  on  a  scale  that 
made  possible  the  operation  of  machinery 
at  a  distance  from  the  origin  of  the  en- 
erg}-.  It  was  with  the  early  history  of 
the  telephone,  that  epoch-making  inven- 
tion, that  John  Thomas  Cowling,  the  dis- 
tinguished gentleman  whose  name  heads 
this  brief  appreciation,  was  so  closely 
identified.    Mr.  Cowling  in  his  youth  was 


375 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


intensely  interested  in  these  inventions 
and  became  associated  with  the  practical 
extension  of  the  systems  which  were  then 
but  beginning  to  make  their  way  in  the 
business  world.  The  service  that  he 
rendered  in  this  connection  was  of  a  very 
marked  order  and  extended  into  a  number 
of  different  neighborhoods  in  Pennsyl- 
vania and  New  York  and  continued  un- 
brokenly  up  to  the  time  of  his  death  at 
the  age  of  forty-nine  years,  on  September 
18,  1912,  so  that  this  sad  event  was  felt 
as  a  loss  by  a  large  proportion  of  the 
community. 

John  Thomas  Cowling  was  not  an 
American  by  birth,  having  been  born  in 
England,  near  the  border  of  Wales,  De- 
cember 21,  1862,  a  son  of  William  and 
Jane  (Jones)  Cowling.  His  family  was 
an  old  and  prominent  one  in  that  region, 
the  members  of  which  had  for  many  gen- 
erations taken  an  active  and  conspicuous 
part  in  public  affairs.  When  he  was  three 
years  of  age  his  parents  came  to  the 
United  States  and  settled  in  the  great 
anthracite  coal  region  of  Pennsylvania, 
at  first  near  the  town  of  Shamokin  and 
later  at  Wilkes-Barre.  In  the  latter  place 
the  lad  received  his  education,  attending 
the  excellent  public  schools  of  the  city 
and  proving  himself  an  apt  and  intelligent 
pupil.  It  was  during  this  period  that  he 
began  to  develop  the  keen  interest  he  felt 
in  electricity  that  he  afterwards  turned  to 
such  practical  account.  Upon  leaving 
school,  he  secured  a  position  as  night 
operator  and  manager  of  the  first  tele- 
phone company  in  that  section  of  the 
State  and  thus  commenced  his  long  con- 
nection with  this  great  business  at  a  time 
when  it  was  in  its  infancy.  For  several 
years  Mr.  Cowling  was  connected  with 
the  Excelsior  Electrical  Company,  taking 
charge  of  the  construction  work  and 
superintending  the  installment  of  new 
plants   in   various  points   in   that   region, 

35 


among  which  should  be  mentioned  Dan- 
ville, Freeland  and  Plymouth.  He  re- 
mained in  the  employ  of  that  company 
until  he  attained  the  age  of  twenty-six, 
gaining  an  intimate  acquaintance  with 
the  practical  side  of  the  business  and  per- 
fecting his  theoretical  knowledge  until  he 
was  an  expert  in  his  line.  In  1888  he  re- 
moved to  Philadelphia,  severing  his  con- 
nection with  the  Excelsior  Electrical 
Company  which  afterwards  was  absorbed 
in  the  great  trust  that  has  grown  out  of 
the  merging  of  the  separate  and  opposed 
interests  in  the  field.  In  Philadelphia  he 
was  employed  by  the  Powelton  Com- 
pany of  that  city  in  the  same  line  of  work, 
but  in  the  responsible  position  of  super- 
intendent of  that  large  concern,  with 
which  he  remained  for  more  than  ten 
years.  In  1900  he  took  up  his  residence 
in  Tarrytown,  New  York,  and  there  made 
his  home  for  about  six  months,  having 
received  an  offer  of  the  position  of  chief 
electrical  engineer  in  the  great  Westches- 
ter Lighting  Company,  his  work  there  be- 
ing a  brilliant  success.  From  Tarrytown 
he  moved  to  New  Rochelle  and  thence, 
after  about  two  years,  to  Mount  Vernon, 
which  became  his  permanent  home. 

Mr.  Cowling  took  a  conspicuous  part 
in  the  various  departments  of  the  com- 
munity's life  besides  that  of  business,  and 
he  was  a  prominent  citizen  in  each  of  the 
places  where  he  made  his  home.  He  was 
a  Baptist  in  religion  and  a  valued  mem- 
ber of  that  church  in  Mount  Vernon  and 
had  served  as  trustee  for  a  number  of 
years.  He  was  active  in  social  circles  and 
especially  so  as  a  member  of  the  Masonic 
order,  in  which  he  took  many  of  the 
highest  degrees.  He  was  a  member  of 
Hiawatha  Lodge,  Free  and  Accepted  Ma- 
sons;  Royal  Arch  Masons;  Royal  and 
Select  Masters;  Knights  Templar;  Mecca 
Temple,  Nobles  of  the  Mystic  Shrine,  and 
all  the  local  Masonic  bodies. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


On  December  25,  1893,  Mr.  Cowling 
was  united  in  marriage  with  Grace  M. 
Sturdevant,  of  Wilkes-Barre,  Pennsylva- 
nia, a  daughter  of  Sinton  and  L.  Augusta 
(Stilwell)  Sturdevant,  of  that  city.  Mrs. 
Cowling  is  a  member  of  the  old  and  hon- 
ored Sturdevant  family  that  for  more 
than  a  hundred  years  has  lived  in  and 
about  Wilkes-Barre  and  has  been  so 
prominently  identified  with  its  growth 
and  development.  To  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cow- 
ling two  children  were  born,  as  follows : 
Donald,  now  employed  in  the  Westches- 
ter Lighting  Company ;  and  Grace,  who 
makes  her  residence  in  Mount  Vernon 
with  her  mother. 

The  brilliant  career  of  Mr.  Cowling 
was  abruptly  cut  short  by  his  untimely 
death  before  he  had  reached  his  fiftieth 
year  and  just  at  the  time  of  life  when  his 
powers  were  at  their  prime.  Begun  as  it 
had,  it  certainly  gave  the  flattering  prom- 
ise for  a  future  that  he  was,  unfortunate- 
ly, never  to  know.  A  pioneer  in  one  of 
the  largest  and  most  important  of  the 
business  enterprises  of  the  country,  a 
business  that  in  its  nature  is  more  than  a 
business  and  really  forms  one  of  the 
essential  functions  of  modern  society,  he 
had  already  won  a  place  for  himself,  a 
place  in  the  regard  of  the  community  that 
might  well  be  envied  by  those  who  had 
enjoyed  their  full  three  score  years  and 
ten.  Neither  was  it  through  any  mere 
fortunate  combination  of  circumstances 
that  this  achievement  came  about,  but 
purely  through  his  own  efforts,  for  Mr. 
Cowling  deserved  in  the  highest  degree 
the  only  title  that  passes  current  in  demo- 
cratic America,  that  of  self-made  man. 


McNELLIE,  William  E., 

Architect,    Builder 

During  the  comparatively  brief  years  in 
which  this  country  has  enjoyed  existence 


as  a  Nation,  the  immense  scale  of  the 
practical  problems  that  it  has  had  to  solve 
has  in  a  measure  turned  its  thoughts  from 
other  things  so  that  many  of  those  things 
in  which  peoples  of  a  more  leisurely  habit 
of  life  excel  in  have  been  to  some  extent 
neglected  here.  In  conquering  a  Conti- 
nent we  have  found  no  time  to  devote  to 
those  sides  of  life  that  are  generally  con- 
sidered to  give  it  its  final  beauty  and 
grace,  such,  for  instance,  as  the  arts  and 
all  those  matters  which  have  no  very 
definite  material  results,  which  do  not 
lead  to  things  tangible,  that  we  can  han- 
dle and  measure.  In  some  quarters  this 
has  grown  from  a  mere  unconscious 
neglect  to  something  like  a  contempt  for 
anything  merely  beautiful,  and  there  are 
some  who  actually  pride  themselves  on 
their  indifference  to  these  things.  Among 
the  majority,  however,  it  is  simply  a  very 
natural  and  excusable  preoccupation  with 
other  things,  the  things  that  properly 
should  come  first,  the  necessities  of  phy- 
sical life.  There  is  one  exception  to  this 
rule  in  so  far  as  the  arts  are  concerned, 
however,  and  architecture,  profiting  by  its 
dual  character  as  an  art  and  as  one  of  the 
most  elementary  of  practical  crafts,  has 
flourished.  There  are  some  critics  who 
will  not  grant  even  this  and  claim  that 
though  there  is  much  building  here,  archi- 
tecture, properly  so-called,  is  conspicuous 
chiefly  in  its  absence.  There  is,  of  course, 
a  certain  basis  for  this  unkind  criticism 
for  the  same  interest  in  practical  problems 
has  led  us  to  consider  this  side,  rather 
than  that  of  the  beautiful,  in  our  struc- 
tures, but  in  architecture,  the  two  are  so 
intimately  related  that  it  is  impossible  to 
deal  with  either  without  considering  the 
other,  since  there,  if  anywhere,  that  defi- 
nition of  beauty  is  true  which  considers 
it  merely  as  fitness  for  use.  Certainly 
anyone  who  beholds  the  aspect  of  our 
great  cities,  and  especially  that  of  New 


377 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


York,  cannot  fail  to  be  deeply  impressed 
with  a  sense  of  the  beautiful,  the  rugged- 
ly beautiful  perhaps,  yet  none  the  less  the 
beautiful,  in  the  vast  and  beetling  piles, 
so  strikingly  appropriate  to  their  purpose, 
that  rise  as  the  very  stronghold  of  wealth 
and.  power  that  they  are;  nor  can  any- 
one who  is  acquainted  with  the  facts  deny 
that  we  have  produced  men  of  high  artis- 
tic achievement  as  he  recalls  the  names 
of  those  who  have  labored  in  this  field. 
A  worthy  member  of  this  professional 
brotherhood,  and  one  who  was  concerned 
in  the  erection  of  some  of  the  great  New 
York  buildings,  was  William  E.  Mc- 
Nellie,  late  of  New  Rochelle,  New  York, 
whose  death  in  the  Post-Graduate  Hos- 
pital in  New  York  City,  on  April  12,  1915, 
removed  an  active  and  public-spirited 
citizen  from  both  communities. 

Born  August  18,  1854,  in  Mt.  Diablo, 
Contre  Costa,  California,  a  son  of  William 
E.  and  Margaret  (Jardine)  McNellie, 
William  E.  McNellie  possessed  many  of 
the  strong  and  enterprising  qualities  fos- 
tered in  the  virile  West.  He  passed  the 
years  of  boyhood  and  early  youth  in  his 
native  region  and  there  gained  an  ex- 
cellent education.  When  fourteen  years 
old  he  came  to  the  East  and  settled  in  the 
city  of  New  Rochelle,  New  York,  which 
was  his  home  from  that  time  until  the 
close  of  his  life,  although  his  business 
was  carried  on  in  the  metropolitan  center, 
New  York.  Greatly  interested  in  the  sub- 
ject of  architecture,  Mr.  McNellie  sought 
an  entrance  into  the  ranks  of  that  profes- 
sion here  and  was  fortunate  enough  to 
become  associated  with  the  well-known 
firm  of  J.  D.  &  J.  Jardine,  of  New  York 
City.  For  many  years  he  remained  in 
this  association,  rapidly  rising  to  a  post 
as  supervising  architect  for  the  company, 
in  which  capacity  he  had  charge  of  the 
erection  of  many  important  buildings  in 
the  city,  among  which  should  be  mention- 
ed the  great  structure  for  the  New  York 


"Times,"  one  of  the  most  imposing,  both 
from  design  and  location,  in  the  city ;  the 
National  City  Bank  Building  and  the  New 
York  residence  of  Andrew  Carnegie. 
Each  of  these  is  one  of  the  most  perfect 
examples  of  its  particular  kind  of  struc- 
ture in  the  city,  the  arrangement  and 
equipment  of  the  bank  and  the  dwelling 
possessing  a  remarkable  excellence.  Be- 
sides his  work  in  the  city,  Mr.  McNellie 
did  a  great  deal  in  his  home  town  of  New 
Rochelle  and  it  was  under  his  direction 
that  the  New  Rochelle  Hospital,  the  Na- 
tional City  Bank  of  New  Rochelle  and 
the  Public  Library  there,  all  large  modern 
buildings  of  handsome  design  and  admir- 
ably adapted  to  their  uses,  were  erected. 
In  both  New  York  and  New  Rochelle  Mr. 
McNellie  was  extremely  well-known  in 
building  circles  and  was  regarded  as  one 
of  the  leaders  in  his  profession. 

But  Mr.  McNellie  did  not  allow  his  ac- 
tivities in  his  home  city  to  be  limited  to 
his  business  interests.  On  the  contrary 
he  was  active  in  many  aspects  of  the 
community's  life  and  was  a  leader  in 
many  movements  undertaken  with  the 
advancement  of  the  public  interests  in 
view.  He  was  a  conspicuous  figure  in  the 
social  life  of  the  place  and  was  a  member 
of  a  number  of  prominent  organizations, 
notably  of  Lenox  Council,  No.  882.  Royal 
Arcanum,  of  New  York  City.  In  the 
matter  of  religion  Mr.  McNellie  was  a 
Presbyterian,  a  member  of  the  North 
Avenue  Church  of  that  denomination,  and 
prominent  in  the  work  of  the  congrega- 
tion. Mr.  McNellie  erected  a  handsome 
mansion  for  himself  on  Argyle  avenue. 
New  Rochelle,  and  there  dwelt  during  the 
remainder  of  his  life,  as  do  the  members 
of  his  family  at  the  present  time. 

On  November  19,  1885,  Mr.  McNellie 
was  united  in  marriage  with  Helen  Beach, 
of  New  York  City,  a  daughter  of  Henry 
and  Louise  (Wohning)  Beach,  old  and 
highly  respected  residents  of  that  place. 


378 


i 


- 

chosen  profes-  ■■ 

world.     At  the 

amounts   to    .;  . 
mental  virtue 

of  takii 
courage 
mined   in 

and  an 
fresh  an 

in  the  p 

casual 


■ 
pany,  one  of  thi 

i 

■ 
come  to 

- 


CUNNINGHAM,  James, 

Mn.nnf»eturer,  Vhii&ntbi 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


and  skill  increased.  In  1838  he  became 
a  member  of  a  firm  of  carriage  manufac- 
turers operating  under  the  name  of  Kerr, 
Cunningham  &  Company.  This  was  the 
nucleus  of  the  present  large  enterprise, 
one  of  Rochester's  most  important  busi- 
ness concerns.  His  next  location  was  on 
Canal  street,  where  he  was  a  resident  for 
a  considerable  period,  and  the  present 
location  of  the  James  Cunningham,  Son 
&  Company  carriage  factory.  The  origi- 
nal purchase  did  not  represent  by  any 
means  the  holdings  of  the  present  day, 
but  subsequent  additions  have  been  made 
until  now  the  grounds  include  four  acres, 
while  the  buildings  and  equipment  are 
among  the  most  extensive  of  their  kind 
in  the  world.  The  first  factory  building 
was  erected  in  1847  by  Mr.  Cunningham 
and  others  have  been  added  as  growth 
and  increase  in  trade  rendered  their  erec- 
tion necessary.  The  public  was  not  slow 
in  recognizing  the  excellence  and  dura- 
bility of  their  product  and  the  firm  gained 
a  reputation  for  reliability  and  conse- 
quently a  rapidly  increasing  business.  Mr. 
Cunningham  gave  his  personal  super- 
vision to  the  work,  not  merely  the  finan- 
cial end  of  the  enterprise,  but  also  to  the 
mechanical  labor,  and  as  a  result  of  his 
study  and  investigation,  combined  with 
his  inventive  genius,  he  produced  several 
machines  which  simplified  the  construc- 
tive process  and  at  the  same  time  brought 
forth  better  work  than  could  have  been 
secured  by  the  old  methods.  As  the  busi- 
ness increased  year  by  year  the  company 
found  themselves  not  following  the  lead 
of  other  carriage  manufactories,  but  were 
themselves  setting  the  pace  by  introduc- 
ing many  new  styles  of  carriages,  as  well 
as  more  desirable  methods  of  construc- 
tion. In  i88i,Mr.  Cunningham  being  then 
sixty-six  years  of  age,  formed  a  stock 
company  and  thereby  transferred  the 
management  of  the  business  to  younger 


shoulders,  being  succeeded  by  his  sons 
and  son-in-law,  the  former  having  been 
trained  to  the  work  were  thus  well 
qualified  to  take  up  the  burden  which 
their  father  laid  down.  No  man  was  ever 
entitled  to  or  earned  a  more  fitting  rest, 
the  reward  of  years  of  earnest,  honorable 
and  tireless  activity.  He  was  peculiarly 
happy  in  his  relations  with  his  employes, 
being  quick  to  recognize  capability  and 
faithfulness  on  the  part  of  those  who 
served  him. 

Mr.  Cunningham  was  married  in  early 
life  to  Bridget  Jennings,  now  deceased. 
Their  surviving  children  were:  Mrs. 
Charles  H.  Wilkin,  Mrs.  R.  K.  Dryer, 
Joseph  Thomas,  a  sketch  of  whom  fol- 
lows, and  Charles  E.  Cunningham. 

James  Cunningham  died  at  his  home  in 
Rochester,  May  15,  1886,  aged  seventy- 
one  years.  While  his  name  is  held  in 
such  great  esteem  for  the  splendid  busi- 
ness qualities  which  he  displayed,  his 
memory  is  also  an  enduring  one  for  the 
many  lovable  traits  of  character  with 
which  he  was  endowed.  He  was  a  friend 
of  all  philanthropic  institutions  and  con- 
tributed liberally  of  his  means  to  their 
support,  and  always  used  his  citizenship 
in  the  interest  of  every  needed  reform, 
making  for  progress  and  improvement. 
His  ideas  were  ever  forward  and  advance- 
ment might  well  be  termed  his  watch- 
word. It  was  apparent  in  all  his  rela- 
tions, business,  social  and  politic.  In  re- 
viewing his  life  career  it  seems  fitting  to 
say  that  he  accomplished  all  that  was 
possible  and  much  more  than  perhaps 
any  other  man  would  have  done  under 
like  circumstances. 


CUNNINGHAM,  Joseph  Thomas, 
Manufacturer. 

Joseph  Thomas  Cunningham,  of  Roches- 
ter, New  York,  son  of  James  and  Bridget 


380 


:':''i  in  earl] 
ow  deceased, 
were:  Mrs, 
R.  K.  Dryer, 

whom  fol- 
igham. 

it  his  home  in 
aged  seventy- 
Be  is  held  in 
splendid  busi- 
ii-piayed,  his 
(or  the 
laracter  with 
was  a  friend 
ons  and  con- 
eans  to  their 

citizenship 
eded  reform, 
mprovement. 
and  advance- 
watch- 
all  his  rela- 
ilitic,  Inre- 

fitting  to 

that  was 
l3n  perhaps 
done  under 


i.ofRoches- 
and  Bridget 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


(Jennings)  Cunningham,  was  born  in 
Rochester,  New  York,  in  1842.  He  was 
educated  under  the  care  of  the  Christian 
Brothers,  and  after  completing  his  school 
years  was  trained  to  the  business  he  later 
conducted  under  the  capable  instruction 
and  eye  of  his  honored  father.  In  1881, 
when  James  Cunningham  incorporated 
his  business  as  James  Cunningham,  Son 
&  Company,  Joseph  T.  Cunningham  was 
one  of  those  upon  whom  the  burdens  of 
management  fell  and  to  that  company  and 
its  interests  he  devoted  his  life.  The  four 
acres  of  ground  now  occupied  by  the 
plant,  its  extensive  buildings  and  modern 
equipment,  testify  eloquently  to  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  management  and  to  the 
close  attention  it  has  received  from  those 
to  whom  the  business  was  committed  by 
the  founder. 

Mr.  Cunningham  was  a  member  of  the 
Genesee  Valley  and  Rochester  Country 
clubs,  and  a  Roman  Catholic  in  religious 
faith.  He  married,  in  1877,  in  New  York 
City,  Ellen  N.  Keogh,  daughter  of  Au- 
gustus J.  and  Elizabeth  (Donelly)  Keogh. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cunningham  were  the  par- 
ents of  three  children  :  Augustus  J.,  born 
in  1878;  Francis  E.,  1883 ;  Rufus  A.,  1884. 
Mr.  Joseph  Thomas  Cunningham  died 
March  24,  1914. 


BEECHINOR,  Robert  John, 

Accomplished  Business  Man. 

Robert  J.  Beechinor  was  born  April  1, 
1844,  m  Timoleague  Abbey,  Baldimona, 
near  Bandon,  County  Cork,  Ireland,  son 
of  Thomas  Beechinor,  a  country  gentle- 
man, M.  F.  H.,  and  died  July  21,  1909,  at 
his  home  in  Mount  Vernon,  New  York. 
He  was  an  ambitious  and  studious  youth, 
and  received  excellent  educational  oppor- 
tunities at  the  University  of  Dublin,  where 
he  received  a  degree.  He  came  to  Amer- 
ica about  the  beginning  of  our  Civil  War, 


and  at  once  enlisted  as  a  private  in  a  New 
York  regiment. 

Robert  J.  Beechinor  enlisted  in  the 
Union  army  at  Rochester,  New  York,  in 
February,  1862,  under  the  assumed  name 
of  George  A.  Herbert,  which  name  he 
used  throughout  the  war.  His  father  be- 
ing very  ill  at  the  time,  he  did  not  wish 
to  shock  him  by  having  his  name  appear 
in  the  newspapers  should  he  be  killed  or 
wounded.  He  was  appointed  sergeant  of 
Company  I,  Fourth  New  York  Artillery, 
in  April,  1863,  and  for  a  short  time  was 
stationed  at  Fort  Ethan  Allen.  On  June 
21,  1863,  he  was  appointed  commissary 
sergeant  of  Company  A,  Eleventh  Regi- 
ment Heavy  Artillery,  New  York  State 
Volunteers,  stationed  at  Fort  Hamilton. 
On  February  6,  1864,  he  received  a  com- 
mission as  first  lieutenant  and  was  at- 
tached to  Company  G,  Thirtieth  United 
States  Colored  Troops.  Was  again  pro- 
moted on  November  16,  1864,  to  the  rank 
of  captain,  and  was  put  in  command  of 
Company  H,  Thirtieth  United  States 
Colored  Troops.  He  was  dangerously 
wounded  while  leading  his  company  in 
an  engagement  with  Hoke's  division. 
Confederate  States  Army,  on  February 
11,  1864,  near  Wilmington,  North  Caro- 
lina. He  served  in  many  of  the  most  im- 
portant battles  of  the  war,  and  was  in 
command  of  his  company  at  the  battle  of 
the  "Crater"  against  Mahon's  Virginians, 
the  best  troops  of  Longstreet's  corps, 
when  Colonel  Bates  was  dangerously 
wounded  and  eight  officers  and  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  men  of  his  regiment  tasted 
Rebel  lead.  Captain  Beechinor  was  mus- 
tered out  of  the  service  with  his  regiment 
in  December,  1865. 

'  When  the  great  conflict  came  to  an  end, 
Captain  Beechinor  at  once  applied  him- 
self to  the  arts  of  peace,  and  was  found 
just  as  proficient,  active  and  energetic  as 
he  had  proved  himself  while  fighting  the 


:,3. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


battles  of  his  adopted  country.  He  en- 
tered the  employ  of  A.  T.  Stewart  &  Com- 
pany, at  that  time  the  world's  greatest 
mercantile  house,  and  by  his  industry, 
aptitude  and  ever-present  courtesy  he 
here  gained  rapid  promotion.  Eventually 
he  became  foreign  buyer,  and  filled  vari- 
ous other  responsible  positions  in  the  con- 
duct of  this  great  business  enterprise.  He 
continued  through  various  changes  in 
ownership,  and  later  became  associated 
with  A.  S.  Rosenthal  &  Company,  Japa- 
nese silk  importers,  and  in  the  interest  of 
this  firm  traveled  to  all  parts  of  the  world. 
Captain  Beechinor  crossed  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  one  hundred  and  seventy-five 
times,  and  was  as  popular  with  merchants 
of  Europe  as  with  those  of  this  country. 
His  great  business  ability  and  his  win- 
ning personality  engaged  the  attention  of 
any  with  whom  he  transacted  business, 
and  he  was  of  great  service  to  his  em- 
ployers and  naturally  was  the  winner  of 
high  emoluments.  Captain  Beechinor  was 
a  faithful  member  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
church.  He  was  a  keen  student,  fond  of 
reading,  study  and  travel,  and  prepared 
many  papers  covering  his  journeys  about 
the  world,  which,  unfortunately,  were  not 
published.  From  1881  until  his  death  he 
made  his  home  in  Mount  Vernon,  New 
York.  There  he  was  among  the  most 
highly-esteemed  citizens,  and  a  leader  in 
the  promotion  of  progress. 

He  married,  January  30,  1881,  Arabelle 
Moore,  daughter  of  John  and  Mary 
(Walsh)  Moore,  natives  of  Bridgeport, 
Connecticut,  later  of  New  York  City, 
where  both  were  buried.  Captain  and 
Mrs.  Beechinor  were  the  parents  of  twelve 
children,  as  follows:  Robert  Denning,  a 
civil  engineer,  living  in  San  Francisco; 
Harry  Victor;  Herbert  Manning;  Arthur 
Edward,  living  in  Mount  Vernon ;  How- 
ard Francis,  living  in  New  York  City; 
Florence,  died  young;  Ethel  Marie,  mar- 


ried Keron  Francis  Dwyer,  lives  in  New 
York  City;  Raymond  Joseph,  Clifford 
Paul,  Florence  Helena,  Edwina  Taylor 
and  Francis  Valentine,  live  at  home  with 
their  mother. 


UNGRICH,  Henry,  Jr., 

Business  Man. 

The  Ungrich  family,  which  was  worth 
ily  represented  in  the  present  generation 
by  the  late  Henry  Ungrich,  Jr.,  who  was 
a  man  of  enterprise,  sagacity  and  busi- 
ness acumen,  bore  the  following  coat-of- 
arms:  Or,  a  "point"  azure  charged  with 
a  crowned  lion  rampant  argent,  holding 
in  its  dexter  paw  a  sword,  on  each  side 
of  the  "point"  an  eagle  displayed  sable. 
Crest:  Issuing  out  of  a  crowned  helmet 
a  pair  of  wings  displayed,  dexter  per  pale 
sable  and  or,  sinister  per  pale  argent  and 
azure,  between  them  a  demi  lion  as  in  the 
arms.  Mantling:  Dexter,  sable  and  or, 
sinister,  azure  and  argent. 

Henry  Ungrich,  Jr.,  was  born  Septem- 
ber 15,  1850,  in  New  York  City,  the  son 
of  Henry  and  Eliza  (Kamm)  Ungrich, 
both  of  whom  were  members  of  old  and 
honorable  German  families.  Henry  Un- 
grich, Sr.,  was  a  native  of  the  town  of 
Kreuznach,  on  the  Nahe,  a  few  miles 
from  its  junction  with  the  Rhine,  chiefly 
notable  for  its  salt  springs,  which  were 
discovered  in  1478,  and  which,  containing 
iodine  and  bromine,  are  serviceable  in 
many  diseases.  His  wife,  Eliza  (Kamm) 
Ungrich,  was  born  in  Worms.  They  emi- 
grated to  the  United  States  in  1845, 
shortly  after  their  marriage,  and  settled 
in  New  York  City.  Previous  to  his  com- 
ing to  this  country,  Henry  Ungrich  had 
been  a  baker  in  Germany,  and  on  arriving 
in  New  York  City  followed  the  same 
trade,  and  he  was  the  proprietor  of  a 
bakery  in  that  city  at  different  times, 
which   netted  him  a  substantial   income. 


382 


is  born  Septem- 
rk  City,  the  sob 
mn)  Ungrich, 
sbers  of  old  and 
a.  Henry  Un- 
ot  the  ton  oi 
e,  a  few  miles 
e  Rhine,  chiefly 
which  were 
hich,  containing 

serviceable  in 
Eliza  (Karam) 
ins.  They  es- 
tates in 
ge,  and  settled 

s  to  his  com- 

Ungrich  had 
and  on  arriving 

red  the  same 
iroprietor  of  a 
liferent  times, 
tantial  in*1 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


He  died  in  the  year  1901,  and  his  wife  a 
few  years  prior  to  that  date. 

Henry  Ungrich,  Jr.,  attended  the  pub- 
lic schools  of  New  York  City,  and  when 
quite  young  was  graduated  from  the  old 
Thomas  Hunter  School,  public  school  No. 
35.  He  determined  to  continue  his  edu- 
cation and  entered  the  College,  of  New 
York,  now  called  the  University  of  New 
York,  and  after  pursuing  a  course  of 
study  in  that  institution  spent  a  few  years 
as  a  traveling  salesman  for  a  hardware 
firm.  During  this  period  he  traveled  ex- 
tensively, and  became  acquainted  with 
conditions  of  life  and  business  throughout 
the  entire  country,  gaining,  in  addition  to 
the  broad  education  which  traveling  gives, 
a  keenness  of  perception  in  business  which 
later  in  life  stood  him  in  good  stead.  He 
next  was  employed  as  a  traveling  sales- 
man by  a  large  flour  firm.  Later  he  re- 
turned to  New  York  City,  and  entered  his 
father's  establishment,  where  he  con- 
tinued for  several  years,  giving  up  his 
offices  in  this  firm  to  assume  the  manage- 
ment and  control  of  his  father's  extensive 
real  estate  interests,  which  were  princi- 
pally located  in  the  City  of  New  York. 
During  the  period  which  followed  he 
dealt  largely  in  stocks,  maintaining  a  con- 
stant connection  with  the  stock  market. 
Mr.  Ungrich  possessed  that  type  of  busi- 
ness genius  which  enabled  him  to  foresee 
with  a  reasonable  degree  of  certainty  the 
change  in  conditions  affecting  real  estate, 
and  he  purchased  accordingly.  Mr.  Un- 
grich died  very  suddenly  in  San  Francisco, 
California,  April  10,  1915,  while  on  a  busi- 
ness and  pleasure  trip  with  his  wife.  At 
that  time  he  was  a  substantially  wealthy 
man  and  possessed  of  a  considerable  for- 
tune. 

Mr.  Ungrich's  interests  were  largely 
financial,  and  he  was  connected  in  execu- 
tive capacities  with  several  large  firms  of 
that  kind  in  New  York  City,  and  in  White 
Plains,  where  he  resided.  He  was  actively 


identified  with  the  fraternal  and  social  in- 
terests of  the  town  of  White  Plains,  and 
was  especially  prominent  in  Masonic  cir- 
cles. He  was  past  master  of  Harlem 
Lodge,  No.  431,  Free  and  Accepted  Ma- 
sons, and  was  also  a  Knight  Templar.  He 
was  affiliated  with  the  Republican  party, 
though  not  bound  by  party  lines  when 
the  question  of  the  best  fitted  man  for 
office  arose.  He  was  also  a  member  of 
the  Westchester  Congregational  Church 
of  White  Plains. 

Henry  Ungrich  married  (first)  Emily 
Glock,  born  January  16,  1855,  ar>d  died  in 
New  York  City,  March  4,  1901.  They 
had  one  child,  Minnie  Florence,  who  be- 
came the  wife  of  John  D.  Thees,  Jr.,  of 
New  York  City,  now  a  resident  of  New 
Rochelle,  New  York.  They  have  two 
children,  a  daughter,  Glendon,  and  a  son, 
John  D.  Thees,  4th.  He  married  (sec- 
ond) Emma  Leonora  Tyler,  daughter  of 
Charles  B.  and  Mary  Emily  Tyler,  both 
of  whom  were  born  at  North  Castle, 
Westchester  county,  New  York,  Mrs. 
Tyler  being  a  daughter  of  Egbert  and 
Caroline  Littell.  On  the  paternal  and 
maternal  lines  Mrs.  Ungrich,  who  sur- 
vives her  husband  and  is  residing  in 
White  Plains,  is  a  descendant  of  two  of 
the  oldest  families  in  that  section  of  the 
State  of  New  York.  The  pioneer  ances- 
tors of  the  Tyler  and  Littell  families  were 
both  descendants  of  very  long  established 
families  of  England. 

The  name  Tyler  was  adopted  when  the 
use  of  surnames  became  common  in  Eng- 
land, and  is  occupative  in  its  derivation, 
meaning  "the  tyler,"  one  who  bakes  clay 
into  tiles,  a  tiler.  The  Anglo-Saxon  word 
from  which  the  name  was  originally  taken 
is  tigele,  which  is  a  corruption  of  the 
Latin  "tegula,"  tile,  which  comes  from 
the  word,  "tegere,"  to  cover.  The  name 
has  been  variously  spelled  during  the  cen- 
turies since  it  was  first  adopted:  Tylere, 


383 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Tilere,  Tygheler,  Tyghelere,  Tiegheler. 
The  coat-of-arms  of  the  Tyler  family  is  as 
follows :  Sable  on  a  fesse  or,  between 
three  cats  passant  guardant  argent,  a 
cross  moline,  enclosed  by  two  crescents 
gules.  Crest:  A  demi-cat  rampant  and 
erased  or,  charged  on  the  side  with  a 
cross  crosslet  fitchee  gules  in  a  crescent 
of  the  last.  The  first  mention  of  the  name 
in  authentic  records  occurs  in  1273,  Geof- 
frey le  Tylere,  County  Hants.  The  fam- 
ily in  the  United  States  has  given  a  Presi- 
dent to  the  country,  and  has  furnished 
sons  who  have  rendered  signal  service  in 
the  various  departments  of  public  activ- 
ity, and  in  other  walks  of  life. 


The  Littell  family  is  also  a  prominent 
one  in  the  same  section  of  the  State,  and 
before  its  establishment  in  America  held 
a  prominent  position  in  England.  It  also 
is  of  great  antiquity.  The  name  was  orig- 
inally derived  from  a  nickname,  and  is 
of  the  same  class  of  patronymics  as  Bigg, 
Small,  Long,  etc.  It  was  sometimes 
affixed  as  a  sobriquet  on  the  least  of  two 
bearing  the  same  name,  as  follows:  Jo- 
hannes de  Bland,  littill,  1379,  meaning  the 
smaller  in  stature  or  status  of  two  men 
of  the  same  name.  The  coat-of-arms  of 
the  Littell  family  is  as  follows :  Azure,  a 
saltire  engrailed  or,  in  chief  a  mullet  of 
the  last. 


384 


NDEX 


INDEX 


Abrams,  Alanson,  324,  325 

Josephine,  325 

Townsend,  325 
Adams,  Hester  R.,  no 

Myron,  109 
Agnew,  Cornelius  R.,  69 

William,  69 
Allen,  George,  335 

Harriet,  335 

John  B.,  334 
Alvord,  Alexander,  58 

Elisha,  58 

Thomas  G.,  58 
Atkinson,  Hobart  F.,  113 

William,  113 
Augur,  Christopher  C,  Gen.,  62 
Averell,  William  W.,  Gen.,  73 
Averill,  Edward  S.,  255,  256 

Erastus,  256 

Harry  L.,  256 

Mary,  256 

Ralph  E.,  256 

Robert,  256 

Bacon,  Byron  H.,  179 

Goodell  W.,  180 

Harold  A.,  180 

Ronald  H.,  180 
Barnes,  Alfred  S.,  8 

Eli,  8 
Barnett,  Catherine  L.,  158 

Frances  C,  158 

George  F.,  157 

Mary  H.,  158 
Barry,  Harriet,  319 

Patrick,  318 
Beach,  Israel,  312 

Lena  M.,  315 

Nathan,  312 

Nathaniel,  312 

Otis  S.,  312,  313 


William  A.,  313 
Beechinor,  Arabelle,  382 

Robert  J.,  381 

Thomas,  381 
Belknap,  William  S.,  Gen..  68 

William  W.,  Gen.,  68 
Blessing,  Frederick  I.,  42 

James  H.,  41 

Martha,  44 
Bliss,  Calvin,  104 

Calvin  J.,  104 

Charles  E.,  105 

Florence,  102 

Henry,  104 

John,  104 

Solomon,  104 

Thomas,  103 
Briggs,  Alanson,  75 

Charles  A.,  Rev.,  75 
Bromm,  Helfrich,  355 

Margaret  F.,  356 

Robert  C,  356 
Brooks,  Arthur,  Rev.,  14 

William  G,  14 
Brown,  Aaron,  301 

Alexander  J.,  124 

Florence  M.,  125 

Henry  S.,  301 

James  H.,  301 

Margaret  E.,  125 
Browning,  Eva  B.,  162 

John, 160 

John  H.,  160,  161,  162 

Nathaniel,  160 

Thomas,  160 

William,  160 
Buckner,  Franklin  F.,  249,  250 

Lillian  M.,  250 
Buell,  Alice  E.,  301 

Eben  N.,  300 

Elizabeth  H.,  301 

387 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


George  C,  299,  300 
Julia,  301 
William,  300 
Bunny,  Clara,  130 
John,  128 

Carr,  Joseph  B.,  15 

William,  15 
Carroll,  Daniel  W.,  315 

Michael,  315 

Rose  V.,  316 
Cesnola,  Emmanuel,  76 

Mary,  78 
Charlton,  John,  297 

John  A.,  298 

Joseph  M.,  298 

Sarah,  298 
Child,  Jonathan,  243,  244 
Clark,  Brackett  H.,  174 

Daniel  R.,  175 

George  H.,  175 

Lucretia,  175 
Cobb,  Amos  H.,  183,  184 

Angie  M.,  184 

Clarence  S.,  184 

George  W.,  184 

Tyler  P.,  184 
Colfax,  Schuyler,  63 

William,  Gen,.  63 
Converse,  Mary  A.,  308 

Roy  M.,  Rev.,  305 
Conway,  Henry,  329,  330 

Henry  L.,  330 

John,  330 
Corthell,  Elmer  L.,  199 

Emilie  T.,  208 

Howard  L.,  208 

James  L.,  199 

Marie,  208 
Cosgriff,  Andrew,  126 

Annie  C,  128 

Jane,  128 

Lucy  J.,  128 

Philip,  127 
Cottrell,  Benjamin,  373 


George  W.,  373 

Mary  E.,  374 
Coudert,  Frederick  R.,  282 
Cowling,  Donald,  377 

Grace,  yj7 

Grace  M.,  377 

John  T.,  375,  '376 

William,  376 
Cronk,  Hiram,  285 
Crosby,  Howard,  67 

William  B.,  67 
Culver,  Oliver,  234 
Cunningham,,  Bridget,  380 

Ellen  N.,  381 

James,  379 

Joseph  T.,  380 
Curran,  Katherine  W.,  310 

Mary  A.,  310 

Richard,  Dr.,  308 
Cuyler,  Annie  E.,  48 

Theodore  L.,  Rev.,  44 

Davidge,  James,  180 

John,  180 

M.  Ella,  181 

Sherwood  B.,  180 

S.  Richard,  181 

Warren  A.,  181 
Davis,  Emma  B.,  183 

Henry  W.,  181,  182 

Henry  W.,  Jr.,  182 

Samuel,  183 

Sarah  L.,  182 
Dean,  Amos,  23 

Nathaniel,  23 
Delaney,  Bernard  A.,  364,  365 
Derivan,  James  F.,  358 
De  Vinne,  Daniel,  Rev.,  51 

Theodore  L.,  51 
Draper,  Andrew  S.,  231,  232 

Sylvester  B.,  232 
Dunn,  George  W.,  Col.,  117 

Sarah  M.,  119 
Dutcher,  Rebecca  J.,  51 

Silas  B.,  48 


388 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


l-'ggleston,  Mrs.  H.  W.,  119 

George  D.,  119 
Kilinger,  Frederick  R.,  370 

Henry,  370 

Jennie,  370 
Ellwanger,  Cornelia,  304 

Edward  S.,  304 

George,  303 

Laura,  305 

William  D.  L.,  304 
Eisner,  Henry  L.,  Dr.,  1 14 

Henry  L.,  Jr.,  115 

Pauline,  115 
Elwood,  Frank  W.,  196 

Fredericka,  197 

Isaac  R.,  196 
Ely,  Clara  M.,  172 

Mary  C,  171 

Mary  H.,  172 

Richard,  171 

Samuel  M.,  171 
Erickson,  Aaron,  268 

Hannah,  269 

Farrell,  James,  25 

John  H.,  25 
Fitzpatrick,  James  C,  29 

John,  29 
Ford,  Frank  R.,  354 

Isabella,  355 
Forsyth,  Agnes,  329 

John,  327,  328 
Foster,  Anna  K.,  356 

George,  356 
Fowler,  Albert,  105 

Albert  P.,  105 

Florence  D.,  107 

Isaac  S.,  152 

Isabelle,  153 

Thomas  P.,  152 

Gardiner,  Edith,  196 

Edith  E.,  196 

Richard,  195 
Gardner,  John  H.,  122 

Julia  J.,  124 


Susan,  124 

Susan  E.,  123 
Gates,  Ansel  A.,  141 

Charles  G.,  246 

Florence,  247 

John  W.,  141,  142,  246 

Mary  W.,  247 

Stephen,  141 
Gill,  Alexander,  320 

David,  320 

David,  Jr.,  321 

Isabella,  321 

Walter,  321 
Grace,  James,  71 

Lilius,  73 

William  R.,  71 
Guion,  Alfred  B.,  337 

Ella,  338 

Elijah,  337 

Hall,  Florence  T.,  327 

John,  Rev.,  20 

William,  20 
Harriman,  Edward  H.,  53 

Mary  W.,  56 

Orlando,  Rev.,  53 
Harris,  Angie  K.,  97 

Charles  L.,  97 

Cornelia,  289 

Edward,  288 

George  H.,  97 

James,  94 

James  H.,  95 

Martha  M.,  97 

Richard  B.,  288 

Sallie,  95 

William,  94 
Hetherton,  Edward  S.,  121 

Ella,  122 

Sarah  A.,  122 
Heyerdahl,  Ida  E.,  361 

Valentin,  359,  360 
Hooker,  Charles  M.,  245 

Henry  E.,  245 

Horace,  245 

Kate,  246 


389 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Thomas,  Rev.,  245 
Hotchkiss,  Ephilet,  248 

Hiram  G.,  248 

Mary,  249 
Howard,  Alice  P.,  173 

Oliver  H.  P.,  Maj.,  115 
Hoyt,  Burr  C,  189 

David,  189,  190 

Elizabeth  R.,  191 

Martin  B.,  191 
Hun,  Abraham,  18 

Thomas,  Dr.,  18 

James,  Henry,  52 

Henry,  Rev.,  52 
Jenkins,  Arthur,  169 

David,  169 
Jennings,  Edward  R.,  215 

George  E.,  214 

Nancy  B.,  215 

Peter  W.,  214 
Jones,  Elizabeth  R.,  160 

Frank  A.,  Dr.,  158 

Gertrude  M.,  94 

Grace  L.,  160 

W.  Martin,  89 

W.  Martin,  Jr.,  94 
Judson,  Edward  B.,  166,  168 

Harriet,  169 

Keener,  Catherine  E.,  263 

Stephen  N.,  263 
Kent,  Ada  H.,  268 

John,  266 

John  H.,  266 

Julia,  268 
Kipp,  Abraham,  134 

Alice  S.,  136 

Benjamin,  134 

Dorothy  G.,  136 

George  W.,  133,  135 

Howard  H.,  136 

Samuel,  134 
Knowlton,  Abbie  E.,  179 

Annie  D.,  179 

Fred  K.,  179 


Mark  D.,  178 
Samuel  D.,  178 
Knox,  Grace,  193 
James,  191 
James,  Capt.,  191 
Seymour  H.,  191, 
William,  191 


192 


Landon,  Judson  S.,  35 

William,  35 
Latus,  Caroline,  133 

George,  132 

Julia,  133 
Leverich,  John,  156 

Richard,  157 

Susan  M.,  157 

William,  Rev.,  153 
Lown,  David,  342 

Jacob,  342 

Jane  M.,  343 

Macdonald,  Ann,  357 

Peter,  357 
McGran,  Frank  J.,  350,  351 

John,  351 
McNellie,  Helen,  378 

William  E.,  377,  378 
McQuaid,  Bernard  J.,  Rt.  Rev.,  235 
Mahon,  John,  198 

Kate  C,  198 

Mary,  198 

Patrick,  197,  198 
Mandeville,  Edward,  183 

Harriet,  183 

Wilber  J.,  183 
Marvin,  Richard  P.,  21 

Selden  E.,  Gen.,  21 
Mathewson,  Anna  E.,  337 

Everett  I.,  335,  336 

Mabel  H.,  336 

Syria  W.,  336 
Melville,  Herman,  13 
Merrell,  Gaius  L., 


Irving  S.,  174 
Lewis  C,  174 
Mary  A.,  174 


173.  174 


390 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Oliver  D.,  174 

Oliver  E.,  174 
Moran,  Bridget  A.,  363 

Daniel,  362,  363 

Daniel  P.,  364 

Elizabeth,  364 
Morris,  Annie,  331 

Marie,  331 

Thomas,  Jr.,  330,  331 

Thomas,  Sr.,  331 

William  T.,  331 
Morton,  Henry,  30 

Henry  J.,  Rev.,  30 
Murphy,  Mary  C,  346 

Patrick,  345 

Peter  A.,  344,  345 
Murray,  David,  32 
Myers,  Henrietta,  344 

William  E.,  343,  344 

Nearing,  George  E.,  145 

Lucius  A.,  144 

Mary  A.,  145 
Norton,  A.  Tiffany,  186 

Herbert  E.,  187 

James  T.,  186 

Luther  M.,  250,  251 

Matilda  E.,  187 

Sarah  M.,  251 

O'Connor,  Evangeline,  99 

Joseph,  97 
Otis,  Elwell  S.,  Gen.,  289 

Louise,  291 

Louise  B.,  292 

William,  289 

Parker,  Adelaide,  372 

Charles,  370,  371 

Charles  E.,  148,  149 

John  M.,  148,  149 

Mary,  150 
Parpart,  Max,  358 

Ottilia,  359 
Pass,  Adelaide  M.,  311 

James,  310 

Richard,  310 


Pauley,  George,  346,  347 

Josephine,  347 

Peter,  347 
Peck,  Everard,  239 

Mary,  243 

William  F.,  240 
Perkins,  Caroline  E.,  273 

Gilman  H.,  271 
Phelps,  Chester,  219 

George  R.,  218,  219 

Josephine  M.,  220 
Pierrepont,  Edwards,  59 

Giles,  59 
Potter,  Alfred  B.,  172,  173 

Alonzo,  Rt.  Rev.,  28 

Bertha  L.,  173 

Frances,  285 

Frederick  T.,  173 

Henry  C,  Rev.,  56 

Henry  S.,  173 

Hulda  A.,  173 

Robert,  282 

Robert  B.,  282,  285 

Robert  B.,  Gen.,  283 
Potts,  David,  221 

George  A.  H.,  224 

George  C,  220,  225 

Hugh  H.,  223 

John,  222 

Mary  D.,  225 

Mary  L.,  225 

Nancy  W.,  225 

Thomas,  223 
Powers,  Walter  W.,  197 
Pruyn,  Casparus,  276 

Casparus  F.,  276 

Francis,  276 

Francis  C,  276 

Francis  S.,  276 

Johannes,  275 

Samuel,  276 

Raines,  George,  264 

John,  Rev.,  264 
Rapelye,  Adelaide,  325 

William  W.,  325 


391 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Ray,  Caroline,  362 

James,  361 

James  H.,  361 
Ream,  Caroline  T.,  217 

Levi,  215 

Norman  B.,  215 
Rickard,  Elizabeth,  367 

Michael,  365,  366 

Thomas,  366 
Ricketts,  Jonathan,  242 

Mary,  243 
Robson,  James,  187,  188 

James  A.,  187 

William  A.,  188 
Rochester,  Elizabeth  L.,  258 

John,  274 

John  H.,  256,  257 

Mary  H.,  275 

Montgomery,  273,  275 

Nathaniel,  274 

Nicholas,  273 

Thomas  H.,  257,  275 

William,  274 
Romer,  Elgiva  E.,  373 

James  H.,  372 

William,  372 
Russell,  Archimedes,  150,  151 

Moody,  151 

Susan  M.,  152 

Sage,  David,  3 

Elisha,  3 

Margaret  O.,  5 

Marie,  5 

Russell,  3 
Sammis,  Annie,  126 

Elizabeth  W.,  126 

Emma,  126 

Jessie,  126 

Mary,  126 

William  A.,  125 
Sanford,  James,  Dr.,  250 

Marian  L.,  250 
Schurz,  Carl,  Gen.,  78 

Margaretha,  80 
Scrantom,  Hamlet,  238 


Scully,  Michael  P.,  136 

Theresa,  137 
Searles,  Isaac,  333 

Margaret,  334 

Orson,  333 

Sarah  J.,  334 
Seitz,  Frederick  C,  348,  349 

Magdalena,  349 
Seymour,  John,  163 

Moses,  163 

Narcissa,  166 

Richard,  162 

Samuel,  164 

William  H.,  162,  164 
Shearman,  Thomas  G.,  28 
Sherwood,  Asa,  100 

Carl  G.,  102 

Clement  R.,  286 

Eleanor  P.,  286 

George,  100,  101 

Grace  E.,  102 

Isaac,  100,  101 

John,  100 

Lyman,  286 

Lyman  H.,  286 

Mary,  286 

Mary  A.,  102 

Mary  C,  287 

Thomas,  100 

Viola,  102 

William  H.,  287 

William  J.,  102 
Shuart,  Gertrude,  195 

Hannah  S.,  195 

Stella,  195 

William  D.,  193,  194 
Shults,  Charles  S.,  243 

Esther  R.,  243 
Sibley,  Benjamin,  86 

Elizabeth  M.,  89 

Emily,  89 

Hiram,  86 

Hiram  W.,  89 
Sigel,  Elise,  83 

Franz,  Gen.,  81 

Moritz,  81 


392 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Sloan,  Hanna,  132 

Mary  E.,  132 

Samuel,  131 

Timothy,  131 

William  E.,  132 
Slocum,  Henry  W.,  Gen.,  13 
Smalley,  George  W.,  74 
Smith,  Emma  C,  310 

Emma  E.,  148 

Franklin,  145 

Horace,  Dr.,  146 

Pascal  C,  146 
Snyder,  John,  317 

Sarah,  318 

William  W.,  317 
Stanbrough,  Jane,  141 

John  B.,  139 

Lyman  T.,  139 

Margaret,  141 
Stanford,  Josiah,  65 

Leland,  65 
Stranahan,  James  S.  T.,  5 

Samuel,  5 
Swinburne,  John,  Dr.,  60 
Sylvester,  Helen,  166 

W.  B.,  166 

Teall,  Isaac,  326 

Frances,  327 

Philip,  326 
Textor,  Laura,  121 

Reynolds,  120 

Rudolph,  121 
Thormahlen,  Grace,  357 

Matthias  A.,  357 
Tier,  Daniel,  374 

Jeremiah,  374 

Susan  A.,  375 
Tillinghast,  Benjamin  A.,  39 

Charles  W.,  39 
Tracy,  Benjamin  F.,  277,  278 

Charles  S.,  177 

Delinda  E.,  282 

Ellen,  177 

Frank  B.,  282 

Frank  S.,  177 


James  G.,  176,  177 

John,  277 

Lyndon  S.,  177 

Marian,  178 

Mary  F.,  282 

Osgood  V.,  Col.,  175,  176 

Stephen,  277 

William  G.,  177 
Travis,  J.  Homer,  335 

Mary  L.,  335 
Truesdale,  Fannie  G.,  186 

George,  184,  185 

Jessie  A.,  186 

Mary  A.,  186 

Mary  F.,  186 

Samuel,  185 

Samuel  M.,  186 

Sarah,  186 

Stephen  C,  186 
Turnbull,  Adam,  332 

Christian,  333 

Daniel,  332 

Ungrich,  Emily,  383 
Emma  L.,  383 
Henry,  382 
Henry,  Jr.,  382,  383 

Valentine.  Carrie,  323 

George,  322 

William,  322 
Van  Camp,  Harry  T.,  260 

Mary  W.,  260 

William,  258,  260 
Van  Dusen,  Amelia,  180 
Van  Houton,  Clara  K.,  342 

Erskine,  340 

Henry,  340 
Van  Leuven,  Andrew,  368 

Cornelius  M.,  367,  368 

Margaret,  369 

Mary,  369 
Vann,  Irving  G.,  107 
Vay,  Eva,  350 

Rudolph,  350 
Veeder,  Albert,  260,  261 

Albert  F.,  263 


393 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIOGRAPHY 


Gerrit  W.,  261 

Major  Albert,  260 

Martha  A.,  263 

Mary  E.,  262 

Sarah  E.,  262 

Willard  II.,  263 
Vick,  James,  292 
Vose,  Phoebe  J.,  302 

Wagner,  George  O.,  292 

Louise  B.,  292 
Waldron,  Mrs.  George  H.,  302 
Walt j  en,  Dora,  348 

Henry,  348 

Louise,  348 

Margaret,  348 

Meta,  348 
Ward,  Catherine  J.,  353 

Catherine  R.,  353 

Charles  H.,  231 

Henry  A.,  226,  229 

Henry  L.,  231 

Henry  M.,  229 

J.  Rigney,  353 

Lawrence,  353 

Lydia  A.,  231 

Murtaugh,  352 

Patrick  H.,  352 

Phoebe  A.,  231 

Thomas  J.,  353 
Wells,  Alice,  38 

William,  37 
Whitbeck,  Brainerd  H.,  Dr.,  214 


Caleb  V.,  214 

Fannie  A.,  213 

John  F.,  Dr.,  213 

John  F.  W.,  Dr.,  211,  213 
Wilkinson,  Ada,  185 

Edgar  W.,  185 

Eleanor,  184 

Seth,  183 

William,   183 
Williams,  Chauncey  P.,  24 

Josiah,  24 
Wills,  Charles  J.,  137 

Helen  C,  138 

Helen  G.,  139 
Wilmerding,  Ferdinand  S.,  282 
Wilson,  Jacob,  254 
Winspear,  Charles  W.,  251,  252 

Gertrude  E.,  253 

William,  252 
Woodford,  Isabel,  85 

Josiah  C,  83 

Julia  E.,  85 

Stewart  L.,  Gen.,  83 
Wright,  Alfred,  107 

Maria,  109 

Mary  J.,  109 
Wyatt,  Francis,  338 

Helen,  340 

Yates,  Arthur,  208 
Arthur  G.,  208 
Virginia  L.,  211 
William,  Dr.,  208 


394 


2990