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MEMORIAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 
 
 OF THE 
 
 STATE OF 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. 
 
 -awyer, 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 
 
 VOLUME II 
 
 THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 INCORPORATED 
 
 BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 
 
 1916 
 
FTis 
 
 
 Both justice and decency require that we should bestow on our forefathers 
 an honorable remembrance — Thucxdides 
 
 Ji 
 
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 BIOGRAPHICAL 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 GRAY, Asa, 
 
 Distinguished Boiauiit, 
 
 Asa Gray was born at Sanquoit, Oneida 
 county, New York, November 18, 1810, 
 son of Moses and Roxana (Howard) 
 Gray ; grandson of Moses Wiley and Sally 
 (Miller) Gray; great-grandson of Robert 
 and Sarah (Wiley) Gray; and great- 
 great-grandson of John Gray, who emi- 
 grated from Londonderry, province of 
 Ulster, Ireland, in 1718, and settled in 
 Worcester, Massachusetts. 
 
 He was sent to a district school at the 
 age of three years, and at odd times 
 helped in the work of his father's tannery, 
 being entrusted, as he grew older, with 
 feeding the bark mill and driving the 
 horse which turned the mill. When 
 twelve years old he was sent to the Clin- 
 ton grammar school, and from there was 
 transferred to Fairfield Academy. While 
 a student there, he attended the chemistry 
 lectures of "Professor James Hadley, at 
 the Medical College, and in 1826 he en- 
 tered upon the study of medicine at that 
 college, graduating in 1831. In the mean- 
 time he had become interested in the sub- 
 ject of botany from reading an article in 
 Brewster's "Edinburgh Encyclopaedia," 
 had begun an herbarium, and had entered 
 into a correspondence with Dr. John Tor- 
 rey. In 1831 he was invited to deliver a 
 course of botanical lectures at the Fair- 
 field Medical College, and several months 
 later was appointed professor of natural 
 sciences at a school kept by a Mr. Bart- 
 lett, in Utica, New York. Until 1835 he 
 taught chemistry, mineralogy and botany 
 to boys, devoting summer vacations to 
 botanizing: in central New York, north- 
 
 eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In 
 the summer of 1834 he took Professor 
 Hadley's place at Hamilton College, Clin- 
 ton, New York, and gave a course of in- 
 struction in botany and mineralogy. The 
 following winter he obtained leave of ab- 
 sence from the Bartlett school to assist 
 Dr. John Torrey during a course of chem- 
 ical lectures at the College of Physicians 
 and Surgeons in New York City. In De- 
 cember, 1834, he read before the New 
 York Lyceum of Natural History a paper 
 on the new or rare plants of the State of 
 New York, which attracted the attention 
 of scientists, and led to a long series of 
 contributions to the "American Journal 
 of Science." In 1835, while spending the 
 summer at his father's farm, he planned 
 and partly wrote "Elements of Botany," 
 which was published in 1836 and brought 
 him one hundred and fifty dollars. This 
 book was adopted in schools, and for a 
 long time was the only text-book on 
 botany in popular use. In the autumn of 
 1836 he became curator of the Lyceum 
 of Natural History in New York. The 
 same year he was appointed botanist of 
 the Wilkes exploring expedition to the 
 South Pacific, but owing to the delay in 
 starting the expedition, he resigned the 
 position in 1838 to accept the chair of 
 botany and zoology in the University of 
 Michigan. The trustees gave him a year's 
 leave of absence in Europe, with a salary 
 of $1,500 for that year, and put into his 
 hands $5,000 with which to lay a founda- 
 tion for their general library. At Glas- 
 gow he was the guest of Dr. (later Sir) 
 William T. Hooker, who gave him letters 
 of introduction to several eminent Euro- 
 pean botanists. On his return home the 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 University of Michigan gave him another 
 leave of absence without pay, and he 
 turned his attention to the writing of 
 parts iii. and iv. of "Flora of North Amer- 
 ica," parts i. and ii. of which had been 
 published in 1838 in collaboration with 
 Dr. John Torrey. In the summer of 1814 
 he went on a botanical trip up the valley 
 of Virginia, to the mountains of North 
 Carolina, and in January, 1842, he made 
 his first visit to Boston, Massachusetts. 
 During his visit he dined with President 
 Quincy of Harvard, who later used his 
 influence to secure the appointment of 
 Dr. Gray to the Fisher chair of natural 
 history. In 1842 Dr. Gray resigned his 
 position at the University of Michigan, 
 and in the spring of the same year en- 
 tered upon his duties at Harvard Univer- 
 sity, where he remained during the rest 
 of his life, being relieved by the appoint- 
 ment of George L. Goodale as associate 
 in 1872; Charles S. Sargent to the care of 
 the botanic garden in 1873; and Dr. 
 Sereno Watson as curator of the her- 
 barium in 1874. He created the botanical 
 department of Harvard University, and 
 in 1864 presented to the university his 
 herbarium of about 200,000 specimens, 
 and library of 2,200 volumes, on condition 
 that a fire-proof building be provided for 
 their reception, which building was erect- 
 ed by means of a donation from Nathaniel 
 Thayer, of Boston. 
 
 Dr. Gray was elected a fellow of the 
 American Academy of Arts and Sciences 
 in 1841, and was its president in 1863-73; 
 was also president of the American Asso- 
 ciation for the Advancement of Science in 
 1871 ; and in 1874 succeeded Louis Agas- 
 siz as a regent of the Smithsonian Insti- 
 tution. He was one of the charter mem- 
 bers of the National Academy of Sciences, 
 and besides his connection with learned 
 societies in the United States, he was 
 elected a corresponding or an honorary 
 member of the more prominent scientific 
 
 societies of Europe. The degree of Mas- 
 ter of Arts was conferred on him by Har- 
 vard in 1844, and that of Doctor of Laws 
 by Hamilton in 1864, by Harvard in 1875, 
 by McGill in 1884, and by the University 
 of Michigan in 1887. During his last visit 
 to Europe in 1887 he received from Cam- 
 bridge the degree of Doctor of Science, 
 from Edinburgh that of Doctor of Laws, 
 and from Oxford that of Doctor of Civil 
 Law. Dr. Gray reported on the collec- 
 tions of the United States government 
 exploring expeditions, including those 
 made by the Wilkes (1854), Perry (1857), 
 and Rogers (1859) expeditions. He con- 
 tributed largely to periodicals, was on the 
 editorial staff of the "American Journal 
 of Science" for years, and wrote biograph- 
 ical sketches of many eminent scientists. 
 His numerous publications include : "Ele- 
 ments of Botany" (1836) ; the unfinish- 
 ed "Flora of North America," the pub- 
 lication of which was begun in 1838 by 
 himself and Dr. Torrey, and in which the 
 classifications were made according to 
 the natural but hitherto disregarded basis 
 of affinity ; "Manual of the Botany of the 
 Northern United States" (1848, fifth edi- 
 tion, 1867) ; "Genera of the Plants of the 
 United States," illustrated (two volumes, 
 1848-49) ; "Botany of the United States 
 Pacific Exploring Expedition" (1854) ; 
 "First Lessons in Botany and Vegetable 
 Physiology" (1857) ; "How Plants Grow" 
 (1858) ; "Free Examination of Darwin's 
 Treatise" (1861) ; "Field, Forest and Gar 
 den Botany" (1868); "How Plants Be- 
 have" (1872) ; "Darwiniana" (1876) ; "Sy 
 noptical Flora of North America" (1878, 
 1884) ; "Structural Botany or Organog- 
 raphy with Basis of Morphology" (1879) ; 
 and "Natural Science and Religion" 
 (1880). For complete bibliography of 
 Dr. Gray, see the "American Journal of 
 Science" for September and October, 
 1888; also "Memorial of Asa Gray," by 
 William G. Farlow (1888); and "Letters 
 
'LUiO 3UK», &M 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 of Asa Gray," edited by Jane Loring 
 Gray (two volumes, 1893). 
 
 He married, in 1848, Jane, daughter of 
 Charles Greely Loring, of Boston, Massa- 
 chusetts. He died in Cambridge, Massa- 
 chusetts, January 30, 1888. 
 
 FIELD, David Dudley, 
 
 Prominent Lawyer and Author. 
 
 David Dudley Field was born in Had- 
 dam, Connecticut, February 13, 1805, son 
 of the Rev. David Dudley and Submit 
 (Dickinson) Field, and grandson of Cap- 
 tain Timothy Field and of Captain Noah 
 Dickinson, officers in the American army 
 during the Revolution. 
 
 He was graduated at Williams College 
 in 1825, and was admitted to the New 
 York bar in 1828. His labors in the direc- 
 tion of law reform largely influenced 
 legislation in his adopted State, and 
 shaped constitutional amendments. He 
 was a member of the commission on prac- 
 tice and procedure in 1847 tnat formed 
 the code of procedure introduced in Feb- 
 ruary, 1848, and enacted into law their 
 first report in April, 1848, and the entire 
 code of civil and criminal procedure in 
 four instalments completed January, 
 1850. Most of the States of the Union 
 followed New York in adopting this sys- 
 tem, and England and the English colo- 
 nies, including India, made it the basis of 
 new judicature acts. Field's criminal 
 procedure was also adopted by the legis- 
 latures of at least half the States. In 
 1857 he was appointed by the State of 
 New York the head of a commission to 
 prepare a political code, a penal code 
 and a civil code, designed to supersede 
 the unwritten or "common" law. The 
 work of the commission was completed 
 in 1865, and covered the entire province 
 of American law. The penal code was 
 adopted by the State, and other States 
 drew largely from the civil code, Cali- 
 
 fornia and Dakota adopting the entire 
 scheme. In 1866, at a meeting of the 
 British Association for the Promotion 
 of Social Science, he introduced a scheme 
 for the revision of the general law of 
 nations. In 1S72 he presented to the 
 Social Science Congress the result of 
 seven years' labor devoted to the formu- 
 lation of his "Draft Outlines of an Inter- 
 national Code," which attracted the at- 
 tention of jurists and was translated into 
 French, Italian and Chinese. This plan, 
 which included the settlement of disputes 
 between nations by arbitration rather 
 than war. resulted in the formation in 
 1873, at Ghent, of an Institute of Inter- 
 national Law, an association formed to 
 promote the principles of arbitration, and 
 to reform and codify existing laws, and 
 Mr. Field was made its first president. 
 
 He was originally a Democrat, but 
 when the question of the perpetuation of 
 slavery became uppermost as a political 
 issue, he supported the Republican party 
 in 1856, i860 and 1864. In the electoral 
 disput- : 1876 he again took part with 
 the Democrats, and was a representative 
 in the Forty-fourth Congress to fill a 
 vacancy caused by the election of Rep- 
 resentative Smith Ely as mayor of New 
 York City. In 1890 he presided at the 
 great Peace Convention in London. He 
 published : "Letters on the Reform of the 
 Judiciary System" (1839) ; "The Reorgan- 
 ization of the Judiciary" (1846) ; "What 
 shall be done with the Practice of the 
 Courts? Shall it be wholly reformed? 
 Questions Addressed to Lawyers" (1847) ; 
 "The Electoral Votes of 1876 : Who should 
 count them, what should be counted, and 
 the remedy for a wrong count" (1877) ; 
 "Suggestions Respecting the Revision of 
 the Constitution of New York" (1867) ; 
 "Draft Outlines of an International Code" 
 (1872, second edition, 1876) ; "Speeches 
 and Arguments before the Supreme Court 
 of the United States, and Miscellaneous 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Papers" (two volumes, 1884) ; and "Amer- 
 ican Progress in Jurisprudence," prepared 
 for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago 
 (1893). He died in New York City, April 
 18, 1894. 
 
 WEED, Thurlow, 
 
 Distinguished Journalist. 
 
 Thurlow Weed was born in Cairo, 
 Greene county, New York, November 
 15, 1797, son of Joel and Mary (Ells) 
 Weed; grandson of Nathan Weed, a sol- 
 dier in the Continental army, and a de- 
 scendant of Jonas Weed, who emigrated 
 from England in 1630 and settled in Stam- 
 ford, Connecticut. 
 
 He removed with his parents to Cats- 
 kill, New York, in 1799, where he attend- 
 ed school in 1803, and obtained employ- 
 ment in a local tavern, and later shipped 
 as a cabin boy on a sloop trading between 
 Catskill and New York. In 1808 he was 
 employed in the office of the "Catskill 
 Recorder," but in March of that year his 
 family removed to Cincinnatus, Cortland 
 county, New York, and he engaged in 
 clearing land and in farming. In 1809, 
 the family having removed to the vicin- 
 ity of Onondaga, New York, he was em- 
 ployed in an iron smelting furnace. In 
 181 1 he was associated with the "Cort- 
 land County Lynx," and in 1812 with the 
 "Cayuga County Tocsin," and in the 
 printing office of Seward & Williams, 
 Utica, New York. He enlisted as a pri- 
 vate in a New York regiment in 1812, 
 and served on the northern frontier until 
 1S15, when he removed to New York 
 City, and worked as a journeyman printer. 
 In 1817 he became an assistant editor of 
 the "Albany Register," and contributed 
 political articles to the columns of that 
 paper. He was married, April 26, 1818, 
 to Catharine, daughter of Moses and 
 Clarissa (de Montford) Ostrander, of 
 Cooperstown, New York, and they re- 
 
 moved to Norwich, Chenango county, 
 where he established "The Republican 
 Agriculturist." He founded the "Onon- 
 daga County Republican" at Manlius, 
 New York, in 1821, but the following 
 year removed to Rochester, where he be- 
 came junior editor of "The Telegraph," 
 and through its columns advocated the 
 policies of DeWitt Clinton and John 
 Quincy Adams. In 1825 he purchased 
 "The Telegraph" from Everard Peck, and 
 Robert Martin became his partner the 
 next year. During the autumn of 1826, 
 on the abduction of Captain William 
 Morgan for publishing the alleged secrets 
 of Free Masonry, Mr. Weed, in an edi- 
 torial, favored his restoration, which 
 suggestion caused many Masons who 
 were his best patrons to withdraw their 
 patronage from his paper. He accord- 
 ingly assigned his interest in the paper 
 to Martin, and founded the "Anti-Mason 
 Enquirer." On March 22, 1830, he estab- 
 lished the "Albany Evening Journal," in 
 which he opposed the administration of 
 Andrew Jackson and the nullification act. 
 He was active in securing the nomination 
 of William Henry Harrison for president 
 in 1836 and 1840; supported Henry Clay 
 in the national convention of 1844. Win- 
 field Scott in 1852, John C. Fremont in 
 1856, and William H. Seward and Horace 
 Greeley in the overthrow of the Demo- 
 cratic political organization known as the 
 Albany regency, and for many years he 
 was the acknowledged leader of the Whig 
 party in New York. He was one of the 
 founders of the Republican party, and on 
 the nomination of Abraham Lincoln, 
 notwithstanding his disappointment that 
 Seward failed to receive the nomination, 
 he supported his candidacy and his ad- 
 ministration. In 1861 he was sent to 
 Europe in company with Archbishop 
 Hughes and Bishop Mcllvaine to influ- 
 ence the foreign governments to support 
 the United States government in the Civil 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 War time. He resigned the editorial con- 
 trol of the 'Albany Evening Journal" in 
 1865, and in 1867 became editor of the 
 "Commercial Advertiser," in New York 
 City, which position he held till 1868, 
 when ill health caused his retirement. He 
 was a member of the printing house of 
 Weed & Parsons, which in 1839 was 
 awarded the contract for State printing, 
 and held it under successive Whig and 
 Republican administrations. He was the 
 author of: "Letters from Abroad" (1S66) ; 
 "Reminiscences" (1876), and an auto- 
 biography edited by his daughter, Har- 
 riet A. Weed (1882), and completed by 
 his grandson, Thurlow Weed Barnes 
 (1884). He died in New York City, No- 
 vember 22, 1882. 
 
 COOPER, Peter, 
 
 Philanthropist. 
 
 Peter Cooper was born in New York 
 City, February 12, 1791. His father was 
 a hatter, brewer and brickmaker, and 
 served as a lieutenant in the American 
 army during the Revolution ; and both 
 his grandfathers were in the same war, 
 his grandfather Campbell being a deputy 
 quartermaster, and subsequently an alder- 
 man in New York. Peter Cooper was 
 brought up in his father's hat manu- 
 factory, working at the trade from the 
 time he could reach the bench by stand- 
 ing on a stool, and became a proficient 
 workman in all the details of hatmaking. 
 His entire attendance at school was a 
 half-day session during one school year, 
 probably not eighty school days. The 
 business not proving profitable, his father 
 removed to Peekskill, New York, where 
 he engaged in brewing, and here the boy 
 helped in the brewery and delivering the 
 ale. The elder Cooper then removed to 
 Catskill, New York, where he resumed 
 the hatter's business, and combined with 
 it the manufacture of bricks. Here Peter 
 
 was made useful in the handling of bricks 
 during the drying process. The business 
 not being satisfactory to the elder Cooper, 
 he removed to Brooklyn, New York, 
 where with his son he established a hat 
 manufactory on a small scale. They then 
 Went to Newburg, New York, where the 
 father established a brewery. In 1808 
 Peter went to New York with his sav- 
 ings, amounting to ten dollars, which he 
 invested in a lottery and lost. He was 
 then apprenticed to John Woodward, a 
 carriage-maker in New York City, for a 
 term of four years. He lived in a room 
 in a rear building on Broadway, owned 
 by his Grandmother Campbell, and in 
 this room he carried on a workshop, doing 
 carving of parts of coaches, mortising 
 hubs, and such other work out of busi- 
 ness hours as he could readily turn into 
 money. He invented a machine for mor- 
 tising hubs. His employer, when hi^ 
 time had been served, offered to loan him 
 the money to establish a carriage shop of 
 his own, but young Cooper would not 
 run in debt, and declined the offer. About 
 1812 he located at Hempstead, New York, 
 where he found employment in a shop 
 for making machines for shearing cloth. 
 In 1815 he had saved sufficient money to 
 purchase the right to manufacture for the 
 State of New York, and he added to the 
 patent an improvement of his own. His 
 business was very profitable owing to the 
 embargo on foreign trade caused by the 
 war with Great Britain. At this time he 
 was married to Sarah Bedell, of Hemp- 
 stead. The close of the war caused a 
 depreciation in the value of his machines, 
 and he added to his business cabinet- 
 making. He afterward removed to New 
 York and engaged in the grocery busi- 
 ness, and soon after invested all his sav- 
 ings in a glue factory in New York City, 
 which he purchased, with its stock and 
 buildings, on a lease of twenty-one years. 
 Here he produced glue, oil, whiting, pre- 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 pared chalk and isinglass. At the expira- 
 tion of his lease he purchased ten acres 
 of land at Maspeth, Long Island, where 
 he erected extensive glue works which 
 proved very profitable. In 1828 he pur- 
 chased three thousand acres of land with- 
 in the city limits of Baltimore, and con- 
 structed thereon the Canton iron works, 
 where in 1830 he built a steam locomo- 
 tive engine after his own design, the first 
 practical steam locomotive engine en- 
 tirely constructed on the western conti- 
 nent. It was put into practical use on 
 the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, and its 
 timely introduction saved the road from 
 threatened bankruptcy, and gave to Mr. 
 Cooper the credit of being the pioneer in 
 the application of steam to American 
 railways. He sold his Baltimore prop- 
 erty, a portion to the Abbott Iron Com- 
 pany and the remainder to what became 
 the Canton Iron Company, taking his pay 
 in stock at forty-four dollars a share, 
 which he subsequently sold at two hun- 
 dred and thirty dollars a share. He then 
 returned to New York, where he erected 
 an iron foundry which he changed into a 
 rolling mill, using anthracite coal, and 
 made iron wire for the use of the tele- 
 graph, in which invention he was inter- 
 ested. In 1845 ne bu^t three blast fur- 
 naces at Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania, and, 
 in order to control the manufacture, pur- 
 chased the Andover iron mines, connect- 
 ed the mines with the furnaces by a rail- 
 road over a mountainous country, a dis- 
 tance of eight miles, and used forty thou- 
 sand tons of ore per year. This plant be- 
 came the Ironton Iron Works, and pro- 
 duced the first wrought iron beams used 
 in building. He then organized the Tren- 
 ton Iron Works, including rolling mills, 
 blast furnaces, a wire factory, and eleven 
 thousand acres of land known as the 
 Ringwood property. His interest in teleg- 
 raphy in its earliest stages encouraged its 
 projectors, and when the Atlantic cable 
 
 was introduced he was the first and only 
 president of the New York, Newfound- 
 land & London Telegraph Company, and 
 advanced to the company large sums of 
 money at a time when the project was 
 ridiculed by capitalists and the company 
 had no credit except the. backing of its 
 president. For twelve years he held up 
 the concern, and then the stock placed on 
 the market at fifty dollars per share was 
 taken by an English company at ninety 
 dollars per share. He invented a machine 
 for grinding plate of any size to a perfect 
 plane ; a cylindrical machine for puddling 
 iron and reducing ore and pig metals to 
 wrought iron ; and a device for using con- 
 densed air as a propelling power. He de- 
 voted careful thought and study to ques- 
 tions of finance and good government, 
 and made his views widely known, espe- 
 cially on the subject of currency and the 
 duty of the government to provide cheap 
 money. This theory brought him in sym- 
 pathy with the Greenback party, and 
 when the Independent National Conven- 
 tion was held in 1876, he polled 81,740 
 popular votes. He had previously served 
 as city alderman, a member of the com- 
 mon council, a trustee of the public 
 school society and a school commissioner. 
 He chose to be his own executor and 
 his wealth was distributed under his per- 
 sonal direction, while he witnessed the 
 results of his beneficence. His own lack 
 of liberal education induced him to pro- 
 vide for the class to which he had be- 
 longed as a boy and young man. With 
 this end in view he directed the policy of 
 the public school system of New York 
 City as far as his authority as a trustee 
 and commissioner extended, and in 1859 
 he completed the great monument to his 
 memory, "The Cooper Union for the Ad- 
 vancement of Science and Art," at a cost 
 of $630,000, and further sums between 
 1859 and 1882 aggregating $1,603,614.17, 
 expended by trustees in enlarging the in- 
 
t/VSU^ J^a^Z-^U&^^/jZT^ 
 
 '~<^-T—f 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 stitution and rendering it more effective. 
 The design of the projector and bene- 
 factor was to devote the institution "to 
 the instruction and improvement of the 
 inhabitants of the United States in prac- 
 tical science and art, including instruc- 
 tion in branches of knowledge by which 
 men and women earn their daily bread ; 
 in laws of health and improvement of 
 sanitary conditions of families as well as 
 individuals ; in social and political science, 
 whereby communities and nations ad- 
 vance in virtue, wealth and power; and 
 finally in matters which affect the eye, 
 the ear, and the imagination, and furnish 
 a basis for recreation to the working 
 classes." Free lectures, free reading 
 rooms and free galleries of art, with free 
 instruction in the arts of design by which 
 both men and women can gain a liveli- 
 hood, were established and maintained. 
 There was also provision made for a free 
 polytechnic school as soon as the funds 
 were sufficient for the purpose. Mr. 
 Cooper in his will left a further endow- 
 ment of $100,000, and his children added 
 to it $100,000 additional from his bequest 
 to them. 
 
 The one hundredth anniversary of the 
 birth of Peter Cooper was fittingly cele- 
 brated in the large hall of the Cooper 
 Union, at which Mr. Cooper's son-in-law 
 and partner, the Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, 
 presided, and Seth Low, president of Co- 
 lumbia University, read the address of the 
 evening. He was president and director 
 in various banking, insurance and indus- 
 trial associations, and was given the hon- 
 orary degree of Doctor of Laws by the 
 regents of the University of the State of 
 New York in 1879, and by the College of 
 New Jersey in 1883. His son and part- 
 ner, Edward, mayor of New York City. 
 1879-80, administered his estate and car- 
 ried out his plans as to benefactions. A 
 bronze statue of heroic size by St. Gau- 
 dens, supported by a pedestal of Italian 
 
 marble designed by Stephen White, 
 standing in the little green triangle south 
 of Cooper Union, was unveiled February 
 12, 1897. He published: "Ideas for a 
 Science of Good Government, in Ad- 
 dresses, Letters and Articles on a Strictly 
 National Currency, Tariff and Civil Serv- 
 ice (1883). He died in New York City, 
 April 4, 1883. 
 
 BEECHER, Henry Ward, 
 
 Distinguished Clergyman. 
 
 The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher was 
 born in Litchfield, Connecticut, June 24, 
 1813, the fourth son of Lyman and Roxana 
 (Foote) Beecher. His mother died when 
 he was but three years old ; his step- 
 mother, under whose guardianship his 
 childhood days were spent, was an Epis- 
 copalian. Both parents were devoted 
 Christians ; his father was one of the most 
 influential of New England pastors in an 
 important transition period of her his- 
 tory. His home training was of the severe 
 New England type, alleviated, however, 
 by an irrepressible sense of humor in his 
 father, and a poetic and mystical spirit 
 in his stepmother. He was graduated 
 from Amherst College in 1834, in his 
 twenty-first year. He did not stand high 
 in college studies, and was characterized 
 there, as throughout his life, by follow- 
 ing the bent of his own inclination rather 
 than any course marked out for him by 
 others. But that course he followed with 
 diligence, energy, and a patient assiduity. 
 He made a careful study of English litera- 
 ture, submitted himself to a very thor- 
 ough training in elocution, took hold of 
 phrenology and temperance, and partici- 
 pated in prayer meetings and religious 
 labors in neighboring country towns with 
 characteristic fervor and self abandon. 
 His father was an intense and polemical 
 evangelistic divine, yet, for his time, was 
 liberal, taking an active part in the theo- 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 logical controversies of his age as against 
 the old school or extreme Calvinistic 
 party in the orthodox church, laying 
 stress on human liberty and responsibil- 
 ity, and also as against the Unitarian de- 
 nomination, then just coming into promi- 
 nence in New England, urging the doc- 
 trine of the depravity of the race, the 
 divinity of Jesus Christ, the vicarious 
 atonement, regeneration, and the inspira- 
 tion and authority of the Scriptures. On 
 these doctrines Henry Ward was reared, 
 with them he was familiar from his boy- 
 hood, and he never to the day of his death 
 lost the impression they made upon his 
 character and method of thought. But 
 at a very early period they passed with 
 him from a dogma to a vital spiritual ex- 
 perience in which, through a conscious 
 realization of Christ as the manifestation 
 of a God of infinite mercy, coming into the 
 world not to judge, but to redeem and edu- 
 cate. Mr. Beecher himself entered into a 
 new spiritual consciousness, in which love 
 took the place of duty in the law of life, 
 and the place of justice in the inter- 
 pretation of God. He has described with 
 characteristically simple eloquence the 
 "blessed morning of May" when this 
 thought first took possession of him, and 
 it never left him. Henceforth, with no 
 other change than that of increasing 
 clearness of perception, strength of con- 
 viction, and depth of experience, theology 
 took its form ; the depravity of the race 
 was selfishness ; the divinity of Jesus 
 Christ, the personal disclosure of a God 
 of love set forth clearly to human appre- 
 hension in the life of Jesus of Nazareth ; 
 the atonement, a moral and spiritual ac- 
 cess to God the Father, through the reve- 
 lation of Him in Jesus Christ; regenera- 
 tion, a new life born of God, manifesting 
 itself in practical fruits of love ; and the 
 Scriptures, a book infallible and authori- 
 tative only in so far as it revealed through 
 the words and experiences of holy men 
 
 of old these transcendent truths. This 
 experience settled what was to be his life 
 work, and he determined to devote him- 
 self to the Christian ministry. 
 
 Upon graduating from Amherst Col- 
 lege, he entered Lane Theological Semi- 
 nary (Cincinnati), where at this time his 
 father had become professor of system- 
 atic theology, and pursued his studies 
 there, receiving probably quite as much 
 from the spiritual life and keen dialectic 
 conversation at home as from the more 
 formal instructions of the seminary. At 
 the same time he engaged in Christian 
 work as a Bible class teacher, and in 
 journalistic work in connection with a 
 Cincinnati paper in which he toek an 
 active part as an ardent Abolitionist in 
 the anti-slavery campaign then fairly be- 
 gun. His first parish was the Presby- 
 terian church at Laurenceburg, Indiana, 
 a small settlement on the Ohio river. 
 Twenty persons, nineteen -women and 
 one man, constituted the entire church. 
 He was both sexton and preacher, lighted 
 the lamps, swept the church, rang the 
 ball, and took general charge of the edi- 
 fice. After a year or two of service here 
 he was called to a Presbyterian church 
 in Indianapolis, the then growing capital 
 of the State. His remarkable gifts as an 
 orator gave him almost from the first a 
 crowded church. His influence was felt 
 throughout the State in intellectual and 
 moral impulses given to members of the 
 legislature, and to public men, who, at- 
 tracted by his originality, earnestness, 
 practicality and courage, came in great 
 numbers to hear him. His pulpit did not, 
 however, absorb either his thought or his 
 time. He preached throughout the State 
 in itinerant revival labors ; lectured fre- 
 quently, generally without compensation, 
 for impecunious charities ; and edited 
 weekly the agricultural department of the 
 "Indiana Journal." 
 
 After eight years of increasingly sue- 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 cessful ministry in Indiana. Mr. Beecher 
 received and accepted a call to the then 
 newly organized Plymouth Church of 
 Brooklyn, New York, entering upon the 
 duties of his pastorate October 10, 1847, 
 and with this church he remained until 
 his death, March 8, 1887. The history of 
 these forty years is the history of the 
 theological and polemical progress of this 
 country during that time. There was no 
 theological question in which he did not 
 take an interest, no problem having any 
 recognized bearing on the moral well 
 being of the country which he did not 
 study, and upon the practical aspects of 
 which he did not express himself, and no 
 moral or political reform in which he did 
 not take an active part. His fertility of 
 thought was amazing. He rarely ex- 
 changed ; he preached twice every Sab- 
 bath, usually to houses crowded to over- 
 flowing; he lectured through the week, 
 so that there is scarcely any city and few 
 towns of any considerable size and any 
 pretension to literary character in the 
 country in which he has not spoken. He 
 also wrote profusely as a contributor of 
 occasional articles, or as an editor, at 
 one time of the New York "Independ- 
 ent," and subsequently of the "Christian 
 Union," which he founded, and of which 
 he was editor-in-chief until within a few 
 years of his death, when the necessary 
 demands upon him as a lecturer led him 
 to resign the charge of the paper to other 
 hands. A career such as his, so im- 
 mersed in conflict, in which hard blows 
 were both given and taken, could not be 
 passed without arousing bitter enmities. 
 but of all the numerous assaults upon his 
 memory, only one was sufficiently signifi- 
 cant to pass into history, and that has 
 already, for the most part, faded from 
 men's minds, leaving his name unsullied. 
 It is safe to say that no man, unless it be 
 George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, 
 has ever died in America, more widely 
 
 honored, more deeply loved, or more uni- 
 versally regretted. 
 
 Mr. Beecher's great work in life was 
 that of a pulpit and platform orator, and 
 the effects of such an one are necessarily 
 transient ; yet he wrote enough to prove 
 himself master of the pen as well as of 
 the voice. His principal works, apart 
 from his published sermons, are his "Lec- 
 tures to Young Men," delivered during 
 his Indiana ministry ; "Yale Lectures on 
 Preaching," delivered on the Henry Ward 
 Beecher foundation at Yale Theological 
 Seminary ; "Norwood : a Tale of New 
 England Life," a novel, first published in 
 serial form in the "New York Ledger;" 
 "Star Papers," and "Flowers, Fruits and 
 Farming" (one volume each), made up 
 from occasional contributions to various 
 journals; and the "Life of Jesus Christ," 
 left unfinished at his death, but subse- 
 quently completed by his son, with ex- 
 tracts from sermons. As an orator, Mr. 
 Beecher has had no superior, if any equal, 
 in the American pulpit, and probably 
 none in the history of the Christian 
 church. • His themes were extraordinarily 
 varied, everything that concerned the 
 moral wellbeing of men being treated by 
 him as legitimate subjects for the pulpit. 
 He had all the qualities which art en- 
 deavors to cultivate in the orator — a fine 
 physique, rich and full blood currents, 
 that overmastering nervous fire which 
 we call magnetism, a voice equally re- 
 markable for its fervor and flexibility — a 
 true organ of speech, with many and 
 varied stops — and a natural gift of mim- 
 icry in action, tongue, and facial expres- 
 sion. Training would have made him one 
 of the first actors of dramatic history, yet 
 he was not an actor, for he never simu- 
 lated the passion he did not feel. Genuine- 
 ness and simplicity were the foundations 
 upon which he built his oratorical suc- 
 cess, and he never hesitated to disappoint 
 an expectant audience by speaking col- 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 loquially, and even tamely, if the passion 
 was not in him. Hence he was equally 
 liable to disappoint on special occasions 
 when much was expected of him, and to 
 surprise on an occasion when no expec- 
 tation had been aroused. To these natural 
 qualities he added, as the fruit of long 
 and patient training, perfect elocutionary 
 art become a second nature, an over- 
 whelming moral and spiritual earnestness 
 which took complete mastery of him, and 
 a singularly combined self-control and 
 self-abandon, so that in his more impas- 
 sioned moments he seemed utterly to for- 
 get himself, and yet rarely failed to per- 
 ceive instinctively what could serve his 
 purpose of immediate persuasion. He 
 was always in sympathy with his audi- 
 ence, but never robbed his humor of its 
 spontaneity by the self-conscious smile, 
 or his pathos of its power by breaking 
 down himself in eye or voice. His five 
 great orations delivered in England dur- 
 ing the Civil War in 1863. the most 
 potent, though not the only influence in 
 turning public sentiment in that country 
 against slavery and the cause of the 
 South, were, in the difficulties which the 
 orator encountered, his self-poise and 
 self-control, his abundant and varied re- 
 sources, his final victory, and the imme- 
 diate results produced, unparalleled in 
 the world's history of oratory. There is 
 no space in so brief a notice as this for 
 any critical analysis of either the man or 
 his teaching. It must suffice to say, that 
 the excellencies and the defects of both 
 belonged to a man, who, living himself 
 by the power of spontaneous life within, 
 sought to develop a like life in others. 
 More than any man of his time, he led the 
 church and the community from a re- 
 ligion of obedience under external law, to 
 a life of spontaneous spirituality ; from a 
 religion which feared God as a moral gov- 
 ernor, to one which loves Him as a 
 father; from one which regarded atone- 
 
 ment and regeneration as an inexorable, 
 but too frequently dreaded necessity, to 
 one that welcomes them as the incoming 
 of God in the soul ; from one which yield- 
 ed a blind intellectual submission to the 
 Bible as a book of divine decrees, to one 
 which accepts it in a spirit of glad yet 
 free allegiance, as a reflection of the 
 divine character and purposes in the 
 minds and hearts of his enlightened chil- 
 dren. 
 
 Mr. Beecher was married, in 1837, to 
 Eunice Bullard, who survived him ; he 
 also left four children, three sons engaged 
 in business pursuits, and one daughter, 
 married to Samuel Scoville, a Congrega- 
 tional clergyman of New England. On 
 January 13, 1893, a tablet in honor of its 
 famous preacher was dedicated and un- 
 veiled in the vestibule of Plymouth 
 Church. The tablet is of brass and 
 enamel, mounted on a great panel of an- 
 tique oak. A border of interlaced oak 
 leaves surrounds the tablet, upon which 
 appears a medallion bust in bronze. The 
 inscription is in bas relief: "In memoriam 
 Henry Ward Beecher, first pastor of 
 Plymouth Church, 1847-1887. 'I have not 
 concealed Thy loving kindness and Thy 
 truth from the great congregation'." Mr. 
 Beecher died at his home in Brooklyn, 
 New York, March 8, 1887. 
 
 VANDERBILT, William Henry, 
 
 Man of Large Affairs. 
 
 William Plenry Vanderbilt was born in 
 New Brunswick, New Jersey, May 8, 
 1821, son of Cornelius and Sophia (John- 
 son) Vanderbilt. He attended the gram- 
 mar school of Columbia College, and in 
 1838 engaged in business as a ship chand- 
 ler, and later held a position in the bank- 
 ing house of Drew, Robinson & Com- 
 pany. He was married, in 1841, to Maria 
 Louisa, daughter of the Rev. Samuel H. 
 Kissam, of Brooklyn, and in 1842 failing 
 
--r? : --~ 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 health caused his retirement to a small 
 farm at New Dorp, Staten Island. He 
 was appointed receiver of the Staten 
 Island railroad, and became business 
 manager of the railroads under the con- 
 trol of his father. 
 
 He was vice-president of the Harlem 
 & Hudson River railroads in 1864, and 
 of the New York Central in 1865, and it 
 was on his suggestion that the two roads 
 were consolidated and a continuous line 
 from New York to Buffalo was estab- 
 lished in 1869. On his father's death, in 
 1877, he became president of the New 
 York Central & Hudson River railroad, 
 and also obtained control of the Lake 
 Shore & Michigan Southern, the Michi- 
 gan Central, the Chicago & Northwestern 
 and of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincin- 
 nati & Indianapolis railroads. On May 
 4, 1883, he resigned the office of president 
 of the Vanderbilt system, and his sons, 
 Cornelius and William Kissam, were 
 elected to succeed him. 
 
 In payment of a debt of $150,000, bor- 
 rowed by General Grant from Mr. Van- 
 derbilt, two days before the failure of 
 Grant & Ward, Mr. Vanderbilt received 
 from the General deeds of real estate and 
 his swords, medals and paintings, which 
 he placed in the archives of the govern- 
 ment at Washington — a gift to the gov- 
 ernment. Mr. Vanderbilt erected a fine 
 mansion on Fifth avenue, New York 
 City. His benefactions were many ; he 
 presented $200,000 to the endowment of 
 Vanderbilt University, and $100,000 each 
 for a theological school and library in 
 connection with the university ; $500,000 
 to the College of Physicians and Sur- 
 geons ; $50,000 to the Church of St. Bar- 
 tholomew. In 188 1 he gave $103,000 for 
 the removal of the great obelisk from 
 Alexandria, Egypt, to Central Park, New 
 York. In his will he bequeathed $10,- 
 000,000 to each of his eight children ; $2,- 
 000,000 more to his eldest son, Cornelius; 
 
 $1,000,000 to Cornelius, the eldest son of 
 the latter; and the residuary estate to his 
 two eldest sons, Cornelius and William 
 Kissam, subject to the payment of an an- 
 nuity of $200,000 to the widow. 
 
 While engaged, at his residence, in a 
 spirited discussion of railroad matters 
 with Robert Garrett, the president of the 
 Baltimore & Ohio railroad, Mr. Vander- 
 bilt was suddenly attacked with apoplexy, 
 and died in his study in New York City. 
 December 8, 1885. 
 
 ARTHUR, Chester Alan, 
 
 President of the United States. 
 
 Chester Alan Arthur, twenty-first Pres- 
 ident of the United States, was born at 
 Fairfield, Franklin county, Vermont, Oc- 
 tober 5, 1830, the eldest son of William 
 and Malvina (Stone) Arthur. His father 
 was educated in Ireland, a graduate of 
 Belfast College, who came to America 
 and settled in Vermont, where he became 
 a Baptist preacher. His maternal grand- 
 father, Uriah Stone, was a pioneer set- 
 tler of New Hampshire, who located in 
 Piermont about 1763. 
 
 Chester Alan Arthur attended school 
 first at Union Village, New York, and 
 afterwards at Schenectady. He entered 
 the sophomore class at Union College 
 when fifteen years old, and during his 
 course taught school for two terms to 
 aid in defraying his expenses. He was 
 graduated with high honors in the class 
 of 1848, entered the law school at Balls- 
 ton Spa, and after a short term of lec- 
 tures returned to his father's home at 
 Lansing, New York, where he continued 
 his law studies, fitted a class of boys for 
 college, and taught in the academy at 
 North Pownal, Vermont, as principal, 
 having not yet reached his majority. 
 
 In 1853 he entered the law office of 
 Erastus D. Culver in New York City, 
 was admitted to the bar in 1854, and be- 
 
 T 3 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 came one of the firm of Culver, Parker 
 & Arthur. He had imbibed anti-slavery 
 principles from his father, who was one 
 of the early Abolitionists, and became an 
 advocate of that party, and was one of 
 those who formed the New York Anti- 
 Slavery Society at the house of Gerrit 
 Smith, at Peterboro, New York, Octo- 
 ber 21, 1835. In several notable suits at 
 law he defended the rights of negroes, 
 both as escaped slaves and as citizens, 
 and in these suits was opposed by the 
 most learned legal talent in the country, 
 and won his causes in the highest courts. 
 (See Lemmon vs. People, and the case of 
 Lizzie Jennings, 1855). He was a dele- 
 gate to the New York Republican State 
 Convention at Saratoga in 1856, and was 
 conspicuous in his active support of Gen- 
 eral Fremont in the presidential cam- 
 paign of that year. In 1S57 he took an 
 active part in the reorganization of the 
 State militia, was made judge advocate 
 of the Second Brigade, and in i860 Gov- 
 ernor Morgan appointed him engineer-in- 
 chief on his staff, with the rank of briga- 
 dier-general. On the breaking out of the 
 Civil War he was made acting quarter- 
 master-general of the State. General 
 Arthur displayed remarkable executive 
 ability during his administration of this 
 office, having to provide clothing and 
 transportation for nearly 700,000 men fur- 
 nished by the State of New York for the 
 suppression of the rebellion. His war 
 account with the national government, 
 although much larger than that of any 
 other State, was the first audited at Wash- 
 ington, and it was allowed with the re- 
 duction of one dollar, while the accounts 
 of many other States were cut down from 
 one million to ten millions of dollars. In 
 December, 1861, he was one of a board 
 of engineers, and submitted to the gov 
 ernment a report on the harbor defences 
 of the State and the conditions of the 
 Federal forts. In February, 1862, he was 
 
 commissioned inspector-general, and in 
 May he officially visited the New York 
 troops in McClellan's army, and while on 
 this duty also served as an aide on the 
 staff of Colonel Henry J. Hunt, com- 
 manding the artillery reserve of the army, 
 in anticipation of an immediate attack on 
 Richmond. He was ordered back to New 
 York in June by Governor Morgan, and 
 acted as secretary of the meeting of the 
 governors of the loyal States at the Astor 
 House, New York, June 28, 1862, which 
 prompted the President to call for 300,000 
 volunteers on July 1, 1862. 
 
 At Governor Morgan's request, Gen- 
 eral Arthur resigned his commission as in- 
 spector-general, and was recommissioned 
 as quartermaster-general July 10, 1862. 
 The multiplicity of cares laid upon him 
 at this time is shown in his report made 
 at the close of the official year, under date 
 of January 27, 1863, in which he says: 
 "From August to December 1st, the space 
 of four months, there were completely 
 clothed, uniformed and equipped, sup- 
 plied with camp and garrison equipage, 
 and transported from this State to the 
 seat of war, sixty-eight regiments of in- 
 fantry, two battalions of cavalry, and four 
 battalions of artillery." Horatio Seymour 
 having succeeded Governor Morgan as 
 chief executive of the State, General 
 Arthur resigned as quartermaster-gen- 
 eral, his resignation taking effect Janu- 
 ary 1, 1863. 
 
 In 1862 Mr. Arthur formed a law part- 
 nership with Henry C. Gardner, which 
 in 1867 was dissolved, and General Arthur 
 practiced alone until January 1, 1872, 
 when the firm of Arthur, Phelps & 
 Knevals was formed. Despite an exten- 
 sive law practice, he retained his interest 
 in city, State and national politics, and so 
 strengthened his position through his 
 membership with political organizations 
 that he was regarded as one of the most 
 prominent and influential leaders of the 
 
 14 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Republican party. He was for a time 
 counsel to the city Department of Assess- 
 ment and Taxes, a position which he re- 
 signed. He was appointed Collector of 
 the Port of New York by President 
 Grant, November 20, 1871. His term ex- 
 pired in 1875, and he was promptly re- 
 appointed by the same administration, 
 and his second confirmation by the United 
 States Senate was made without refer- 
 ring it to a committee. The Republican 
 State Convention of 1876, held March 22, 
 at Syracuse, elected delegates, most of 
 whom were pledged to support Senator 
 Conkling for the presidential nomination. 
 Alonzo B. Cornell and Chester A. Arthur 
 were his most active advocates before the 
 National Convention, and not until the 
 seventh ballot was Mr. Conkling's name 
 withdrawn, and sixty-one of the votes of 
 New York given to Rutherford B. Hayes, 
 of Ohio, which secured his nomination. 
 The election was not decided until the 
 following March, 1877. when the Electoral 
 Commission declared that Mr. Hayes was 
 to be president. He selected Hon. John 
 Sherman for Secretary of the Treasury, 
 who deemed it important that the custom 
 house appointments should be in the 
 hands of one more friendly to the Hayes 
 administration than Mr. Arthur. Under 
 the operation of civil service reform, spe- 
 cial agents and commissions were ap- 
 pointed by the new administration to 
 make rigid and searching investigation 
 into General Arthur"s official conduct. 
 The commission, known as the Jay Com- 
 mission, reported adversely, and Col- 
 lector Arthur replied in a letter to Secre- 
 tary Sherman. November 23. 1877. On 
 December 6, Theodore Roosevelt was ap- 
 pointed collector, and L. Bradford Prince, 
 naval officer ; but the United States Senate 
 refused to confirm the appointments, and 
 Arthur and Cornell held their respective 
 offices until the adjournment of Congress 
 on July 11, 1878, when they were sus- 
 
 pended. Arthur had previously declined 
 to resign, as requested by Secretary Sher- 
 man, notwithstanding he was promised a 
 foreign mission. A petition for his reten- 
 tion was signed by the judge of every 
 court in the city, by all the prominent 
 members of the bar, and by eighty-five 
 per cent, of the importing merchants in 
 the collection district ; but at General 
 Arthur's urgent request it was not pre- 
 sented. During his six years of office the 
 percentage of removals was only two and 
 three-quarters per cent, per annum. All 
 appointments except two, to the one hun- 
 dred positions commanding salaries of 
 two thousand dollars a year, were made 
 on the plan of advancing men from the 
 lower to the higher grades on recom- 
 mendation of heads of bureaus. 
 
 The New York delegation to the Chi- 
 cago Republican Convention in June, 
 1880, in which General Arthur was a 
 delegate-at-large, expected to see General 
 Grant nominated for the presidency for 
 a third term. It had no second choice, 
 although several candidates, hopeful of 
 Grant's defeat, were pushing their own 
 names forward with energy and persist- 
 ency. The State of Ohio, with the ex- 
 ception of General Garfield's district, had 
 _ ed its delegates in behalf of John 
 Sherman. Alter a determined contest, 
 which lasted several days, and during 
 which the stalwart New York delegation 
 stood firm, and "302'' in the convention 
 voted repeatedly and persistently for 
 General Grant, the convention was stam- 
 peded by the Sherman supporters flock- 
 ing to the standard of James A. Garfield, 
 and New York's favorite went down to de- 
 feat. In order to placate the "Stalwarts," 
 rather than as an expression of the will 
 of their successful opposition, Chester A. 
 Arthur was unanimously named as the 
 vice-presidential candidate, and Garfield 
 and Arthur were elected president and 
 vice-president of the United States, in 
 
 -I 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 November, 1880. Mr. Arthur appeared 
 as presiding officer of the Senate at its 
 extra session, March 4, 188 1. He in- 
 gratiated himself with the senators 
 through his easy manner and kindly dis- 
 position. The Senate was equally divided 
 politically, and he used his influence 
 against his enemies when their names 
 came before the Senate for confirmation. 
 
 Upon the announcement of President 
 Garfield's death, September 19, 1881, Mi. 
 Arthur, at the suggestion of the cabinet, 
 took the oath of office as President of the 
 United States, September 20, 1881, before 
 Judge James R. Brady, of the New York 
 Supreme Court, and immediately repaired 
 to Elberon, New Jersey, where he met 
 the cabinet and arranged for the funeral 
 ceremonies. On September 22nd he went 
 to Washington, and in the vice-presi- 
 dent's room the oath of office was for- 
 mally administered by Chief Justice 
 Waite. President Arthur, as his first 
 official act, appointed Monday, Septem- 
 ber 26th, as a day of mourning for the 
 late President, and the next day pro- 
 claimed an extraordinary session of the 
 Senate, October 10, to elect a president 
 of the Senate pro tempore. He requested 
 the members of the cabinet of Mr. Gar- 
 field to retain their respective portfolios 
 until the regular session in December, 
 and this request was complied with, ex- 
 cept in the case of the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, who desired that his resigna- 
 tion be accepted, in order that he might 
 become a candidate for the office of Sena- 
 tor from his State. President Arthur 
 offered the portfolio to Edwin D. Mor- 
 gan, the War Governor of New York, 
 whose appointment was confirmed by the 
 Senate, but he declined to serve, and the 
 choice then fell to Charles J. Folger, of 
 New York, who was confirmed October 
 27, 1881. 
 
 President Arthur's administration was 
 marked by no startling conditions calling 
 
 for extraordinary action. He officially 
 presided at the dedication of the monu- 
 ment at Yorktown, Virginia, erected to 
 commemorate the surrender of Corn- 
 wallis, in which dedication America's 
 French allies and German participants 
 were represented. The President, at the 
 close of the celebration, ordered a salute 
 to be fired in honor of the British flag, "in 
 recognition of the friendly relations so 
 long and so happily subsisting between 
 Great Britain and the United States, in 
 the trust and confidence of peace and 
 good will between the two countries for 
 all the centuries to come, and especially 
 as a mark of the profound respect enter- 
 tained by the American people for the 
 illustrious sovereign and gracious lady 
 who sits upon the British throne." Presi- 
 dent Arthur made efforts to secure peace 
 between the warring nations in South 
 America, and to that end proposed a 
 Peace Conference, which suggestion, how- 
 ever, was not acted upon by Congress. 
 The administration also offered its 
 friendly offices to determine peaceably the 
 boundary lines between Mexico and 
 Guatamala, and relocated the boundary 
 line between Mexico and the United 
 States. Through a commission, in which 
 General Grant and W. H. Trescott acted 
 for the United States, reciprocal treaties 
 affecting commercial relations with South 
 American countries were made with 
 Santo Domingo, December 4, 1884, and 
 with Spain in reference to Cuba and 
 Porto Rico, November 18, 1884. These 
 treaties were, however, withdrawn by 
 President Cleveland as inexpedient, with- 
 out affording the Senate an opportunity 
 to act upon them. 
 
 President Arthur proposed a monetary 
 union of the American countries to secure 
 a uniform currency basis, looking to the 
 remonetization of silver. He strongly 
 urged the construction of the interoceanic 
 canal across the Isthmus of Panama, and 
 
 1 6 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 through correspondence with Great Brit- 
 ain asserted that the provisions of the 
 Clayton-Bulwer treaty of April 19, 1850, 
 could not be allowed to interfere with the 
 rights of the United States in controlling 
 such a route in view of the spirit of the 
 "Monroe Doctrine." On December 1, 
 1884, a treaty was made with the repub- 
 lic of Nicaragua, which authorized the 
 United States government to build a 
 canal, railroad, and telegraph line across 
 Nicaraguan territory by way of the lake 
 and San Jose river. This treaty was re- 
 jected by the Senate, and before that body 
 could consider its vote, the treaty was 
 withdrawn by President Cleveland, March 
 12, 1885. President Arthur obtained from 
 the British government a full recognition 
 of the rights of naturalized American 
 citizens of Irish birth, and all such ar- 
 rested as suspects were liberated. A bill 
 passed by Congress, prohibiting the im- 
 migration of Chinese laborers for twenty 
 years, was vetoed by him April 4, 1882, 
 as in violation of a treaty with China. 
 Congress sustained the veto, and passed 
 a modified bill, suspending immigration 
 for ten years, which was amended July 
 5, 1884, and approved by the President. 
 A law was passed August 3, 1882, by 
 which convicts seeking a home in the 
 United States were returned to Europe, 
 and the importation of contract laborers 
 was prohibited by a law passed February 
 26, 1885. President Arthur repeatedly 
 advised the suspension of the coinage of 
 standard silver dollars, and recommended 
 the redemption of all outstanding trade 
 dollars. The removal of stamp taxes on 
 many articles of merchandise and on bank 
 checks and drafts, as well as the taxes on 
 surplus bank capital and deposits, were 
 recommended, and on March 3, 1883, the 
 acts enforcing them were repealed, this 
 resulting in the reduction of the collec- 
 tion districts by one-third. Legislation 
 was recommended looking to the con- 
 
 struction and maintenance of ocean 
 steamships under the American flag; and 
 the subject of coast defences was repeat- 
 edly brought to the attention of Con- 
 gress, an annual appropriation of $1,500,- 
 000 being recommended for the armament 
 of fortifications. In his last annual mes- 
 sage, President Arthur urged the appro- 
 priation of $60,000,000 to be expended 
 during the next ten years, one-tenth an- 
 nually, for coast defences; and his plans, 
 considerably enlarged, were taken up and 
 carried out by the succeeding administra- 
 tion. He vetoed a river and harbor bill 
 appropriating $18,743,875, on the ground 
 that the sum greatly exceeded the needs 
 of the country, that the distribution was 
 unequal, and for the benefit of particular 
 locations ; the bill was passed over his 
 veto. He also vetoed the bill passed July 
 2, 1884, restoring to the army and place 
 on the retired list Major-General Fitz 
 John Porter, then under sentence of court 
 martial ; this veto was also overruled. 
 Important reforms were instituted in the 
 navy, the number of officers was reduced, 
 habitual drunkards were discharged, the 
 repair of old wooden vessels was dis- 
 continued, and the construction of a new 
 fleet of steel ships with modern arma- 
 ments was begun under an advisory board 
 appointed for that purpose. During this 
 administration the postal rates were con- 
 siderably reduced, and many improve- 
 ments were initiated in the general mail 
 service. 
 
 President Arthur appointed Horace 
 Gray, of Massachusetts, to the vacancy 
 on the bench of the United States Su- 
 preme Court caused by the death of Jus- 
 tice Clifford, of Maine, and he was com- 
 missioned December 20, 1881. On the 
 retirement of Justice Hunt, of New York, 
 Roscoe Conkling was appointed to the 
 United States Supreme bench, February 
 24, 1882, and the appointment confirmed, 
 but he declined the office on March 3, 
 
 N Y— Vol 11— 2 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 1882, and Samuel Blatchford, of New 
 York, was appointed and confirmed 
 March 2$, 1882. In his annual message 
 of 1884, President Arthur recommended 
 a suitable pension to General Grant, and 
 upon the refusal of the general to accept 
 any pension whatever, he by special mes- 
 sage, February 3, 1885, urged upon Con- 
 gress the creation of the office of General 
 of the Army on the retired list. The bill 
 was passed March 3, 1885, and on its 
 passage the President named to the office 
 Ulysses S. Grant, and the nomination 
 was confirmed the same day in open 
 Senate amid the demonstrations of ap- 
 proval of a crowded chamber. When the 
 Republican National Convention met at 
 Chicago, June 3, 1884, President Arthur's 
 name was presented by the delegations 
 from New York, Pennsylvania. Missis- 
 sippi, North Carolina and Louisiana. On 
 the first ballot he received the votes of 
 278 delegates, on the second 276, on the 
 third 274, and on the fourth 207, a plu- 
 rality of votes nominating James G. 
 Blaine. He at once telegraphed to the 
 successful candidate his congratulations 
 and assurance of his earnest and candid 
 support. The National Convention en- 
 dorsed the administration of President 
 Arthur as "wise, conservative and pa- 
 triotic, under which the country had been 
 blessed with remarkable prosperity." 
 
 President Arthur, as the guest of the 
 citizens of Boston, attended the celebra- 
 tion of the Webster Historical Societv 
 and made an address in Faneuil Hall. 
 October 11, 1882, and at Marshfield, Octo- 
 ber 13. At Louisville, Kentucky, August 
 2, 1883, he opened the Southern Exposi- 
 tion with an address, and at the opening 
 of the New Orleans World's Industrial 
 and Cotton Centennial Exposition, he per- 
 formed the function by telegraph from 
 the national capital, transmitting his ad- 
 dress and starting the machinery by the 
 electric current. On September 25. 1883. 
 
 he was present at the ceremonies of un- 
 veiling and dedicating the Burnside 
 monument at Bristol, Rhode Island, and 
 on November 26th of the same year at- 
 tended a similar ceremony in New York 
 City, when Washington's statue was first 
 disclosed to public view on the steps 
 of the United States Sub-Treasury build- 
 ing in Wall street. His last official public 
 address was made at the dedication of the 
 Washington Monument in Washington, 
 which was completed during his adminis- 
 tration. 
 
 Mr. Arthur was married, October 29, 
 1859, to Ellen Lewis, daughter of Com- 
 modore William Lewis Herndon, United 
 States Navy. She died January 12, 1880, 
 leaving two children — Chester Alan and 
 Ellen Herndon. While President, Mr. 
 Arthur's sister, Mrs. Mary Arthur Mc- 
 Elroy, presided over the White House, 
 and the elegance of her hospitality was 
 a marked characteristic of his adminis- 
 tration. At the close of his official term, 
 March 4, 1S85, Mr. Arthur returned to his 
 home in New York City, where he died 
 suddenly of apoplexy, November 18, 
 1886. His funeral was attended by those 
 who had been members of his cabinet, 
 by President Cleveland, Chief Justice 
 Waite, ex-President Hayes, Generals 
 Sherman, Sheridan, and Schofield, and 
 Hon. James G. Blaine. He was buried 
 in the Rural Cemetery, Albany, New 
 York. 
 
 SEYMOUR, Horatio, 
 
 Distinguished Statesman. 
 
 Horatio Seymour was born at Pompey 
 Hill, Onondaga county, New York, May 
 31, 1810. He derived his origin from the 
 Seymours who were among the first set- 
 tlers of Hartford, Connecticut, his grand- 
 father. Major Moses Seymour, being 
 captain of a troop of horse during the 
 Revolutionary War, and having distin- 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 guished himself at the surrender of Bur- 
 goyne. Major Seymour had five sons and 
 a daughter ; of his sons, one became dis- 
 tinguished as a financier and bank presi- 
 dent, two were high sheriffs, one was a 
 Representative and Senator in the State 
 of New York, and one was for twelve 
 years United States Senator from Ver- 
 mont. Horatio Seymour's grandfather on 
 his mother's side was Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Forman, of the First New Jersey Regi- 
 ment in the Revolutionary army. His 
 grandmother was a niece of Colonel Wil- 
 liam Ledyard, who commanded at Gro- 
 ton, Connecticut, when that place was 
 sacked and burned by the British, Sep- 
 tember 6, 1781, under command of Bene- 
 dict Arnold. Of the five sons of Major 
 Seymour, Henry, the father of Horatio, 
 settled in Onondaga county, New York, in 
 the beginning of this century and there in 
 the midst of the wilderness was born the 
 future governor of the State. About nine 
 years later the family removed to Utica. 
 Henry Seymour was a colleague of De- 
 Witt Clinton. Like most of the early 
 settlers of Onondaga county, he was a 
 man of a high order of merit and ability. 
 One of the first things done by the pio- 
 neer settlers in this country was to raise 
 money by mortgaging their lands in order 
 to build and endow an academy, and in 
 this academy Horatio Seymour received 
 the rudiments of his education. When 
 he was ten years old, Horatio Seymour 
 was sent to the Oxford Academy, at the 
 time one of the foremost educational in- 
 stitutions of the State, where he remained 
 for about two years, going thence to 
 Geneva (now Hobart) College, where he 
 remained for a like period. From Geneva 
 he went to Captain Partridge's celebrated 
 military academy at Middletown, Con- 
 necticut, where he was graduated. Re- 
 turning to Utica, he began to study law 
 under the two noted jurists, Greene C. 
 Rronson and Samuel Beardsley, and in 
 
 1832 was admitted to practice as an at- 
 torney and counsellor of the Supreme 
 Court of the State of New York and a 
 member of the Oneida county bar. It 
 was about this time that Mr. Seymour 
 married Mary Bleeker, daughter of John 
 R. Bleeker of Albany. 
 
 Although Mr. Seymour was thoroughly 
 versed in the law, he never practiced, 
 from the fact that he was almost immedi- 
 ately obliged to devote his whole time 
 and attention to the large estate which 
 he inherited. He made many acquaint- 
 ances, however, among the foremost men 
 in the State, and when Martin Van Buren 
 became President, having found in Mr. 
 Seymour, as he believed, the elements of 
 a popular leader, he recommended Gov- 
 ernor Marcy to make him his military 
 secretary, which he did. This appoint- 
 ment assisted in bringing about intimate 
 personal relations between Mr. Seymour 
 and the great Democratic leaders in the 
 State, and he continued to hold his con- 
 fidential position near Governor Marcy 
 until 1839. In 1841 he accepted the nomi- 
 nation for the Assembly from the county 
 of Oneida, and was elected by one of the 
 largest majorities ever received by a 
 Democratic candidate in that county, and 
 thus at the age of twenty-seven years 
 actually began his public career. In the 
 Assembly Mr. Seymour at once took 
 rank as a prominent and leading member, 
 and during his first term made a most 
 satisfactory impression. In 1842 he was 
 elected mayor of Utica, and was renomi- 
 nated for that position in 1843, DUt was 
 beaten by sixteen votes. In the autumn 
 of the same year he was re-elected to the 
 Legislature, of which he was a member 
 until the close of 1845, at which session 
 he was elected speaker. In 1850 he re- 
 ceived the nomination from the Demo- 
 cratic party for Governor of the State ; 
 be was defeated, however, by Washing- 
 ton Hunt, the Whig candidate, but, al- 
 
 io 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 though the latter was assisted by the 
 "anti-rent" vote, he only gained his elec- 
 tion by 262 majority in the total poll of 
 429,000. In 1852 Mr. Seymour was a 
 delegate to the Democratic National 
 Convention at Baltimore, and worked in 
 the interest of William L. Marcy for 
 President. In the same year he was 
 again nominated by the Democrats for 
 the governorship of New York, against 
 his old competitor, Washington Hunt, 
 whom he this time defeated by a major- 
 ity of 22,90'). The administration of 
 Governor Seymour was eminently suc- 
 cessful, although it occurred at a period 
 of general party disturbance. The 
 temperance agitators were particularly 
 active, and the Legislature passed a pro- 
 hibitory law which was vetoed by Gov- 
 ernor Seymour. Meanwhile the repeal 
 of the Missouri Compromise had thor- 
 oughly shaken the Democratic party of 
 the North, while the Whig party was 
 abandoned by its leaders and was already 
 making way for the Republican party of 
 the future. All of these discordant and 
 even dangerous elements had to be en- 
 countered in the course of Governor Sey- 
 mour's administration, and were met 
 with the courage and fidelity of a states- 
 man and a patriot. In 1854, Governor 
 Seymour was renominated, there being 
 four tickets in the field. He was defeated 
 by Myron H. Clark, the Whig and Tem- 
 perance candidate, by a plurality of 309 
 votes in a grand total of 469.431. In 
 1856 Governor Seymour went to Cincin- 
 nati as a delegate to the Democratic Na- 
 tional Convention, and gave his support 
 to Buchanan and Breckenridge in the 
 succeeding campaign. His views on the 
 conditions and elements of the existing 
 political situation were deemed to be of 
 so much importance that he was request- 
 ed to give public expression to them. 
 Accordingly, at Springfield, Massachu- 
 setts, on July 4, 1856, before an assem- 
 
 blage numbering many thousands, he de- 
 livered an address on "The Democratic 
 Theory of Government," which was pub- 
 lished throughout the country and cir- 
 culated widely as a campaign document, 
 contributing in no small degree to the 
 Democratic victory of that year. He 
 argued against centralization and for 
 local authority, claiming that under such 
 conditions the slavery question would 
 settle itself by all the States becoming 
 free, the tendency of events being such 
 that power was passing to the free 
 States, and ultimately the ideas which 
 controlled these States would control the 
 Union. On the accession of James Buch- 
 anan to the presidential chair, he tend- 
 ered to Governor Seymour a first-class 
 mission to one of the European courts, 
 but this offer was gracefully declined, and 
 Governor Seymour returned to his farm, 
 where he always showed great interest in 
 agricultural pursuits. 
 
 At the beginning of the Civil War, 
 Governor Seymour, like many other loyal 
 men, sought earnestly to avert the diffi- 
 culties and dangers which he saw were 
 threatening the stability of the Union. 
 He addressed meetings in his own and 
 other States, at which he sought to do 
 away with the false impression then prev- 
 alent throughout the North with regard 
 to the staying power of the Southern 
 people. "Ninety days" was the limit 
 generally fixed for the war which was 
 obviously to take place, and no effort on 
 the part of such statesmen as were un- 
 willing to swim with the tide against 
 their own convictions had any effect in 
 changing this impression. Governor 
 Seymour had opposed the Republicans 
 during the campaign, but he actively sup- 
 ported the administration after President 
 Lincoln took office. At a Democratic 
 ratification meeting held in Utica in 1862, 
 he announced in the most spirited manner 
 the intention of Northern Democrats to 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 lose no opportunity of showing their 
 loyalty to the Union. He contributed 
 largely in Oneida county to the funds 
 raised for the purpose of enlisting sol- 
 diers, and while attending a meeting of 
 the State Military Association in 1862, at 
 Albany, he began his address by saying, 
 "We denounce the rebellion as most 
 wicked, because it wages war against the 
 best government the world has ever 
 seen." In September of that year, he was 
 enthusiastically renominated as a candi- 
 date for the executive chair of the State 
 of New York. Upon receiving this nomi- 
 nation, he adopted a course at that time 
 unusual in the political history of the 
 State, which was to undertake a personal 
 campaign, by traversing the State and 
 addressing meetings. He spoke at out- 
 door gatherings as many as nine times a 
 week during the campaign, a most trying 
 and fatiguing undertaking, but which re- 
 sulted in his being elected by a majority 
 of 10,752 votes. In his message to the 
 Senate after his election, Governor Sey- 
 mour put on record his declaration that 
 under no circumstances could the division 
 of the Union be conceded, and in the 
 strongest manner announced his inten- 
 tion to aid in upholding the government, 
 and showing respect to the authority of 
 its rulers. He protested against arbitrary 
 arrests, the suppression of newspapers, 
 and the imprisonment of persons without 
 due process of law, holding that the fact 
 of an existing rebellion could not sus- 
 pend a single right of the citizens of loyal 
 States. Throughout his administration 
 Governor Seymour was conspicuous by 
 his energy and ability in raising troops. 
 Within three days after the special de- 
 mand which was made on the occasion of 
 the invasion of Pennsylvania, 12,000 State 
 militia, thoroughly equipped, were on 
 their way to Harrisburg. It was while 
 the New York militia were absent from 
 the city in Pennsylvania that the series 
 
 of outbreaks known as the "draft riots" 
 took place. A more unfortunate time 
 could not have been even accidentally 
 appointed for the announcement in New 
 York of the names of those who were 
 drafted. It has never, however, been 
 satisfactorily shown that this particular 
 period was not chosen designedly by the 
 War Department. Two points with re- 
 gard to the draft were especially obnox- 
 ious — one was, that while the poor must 
 go to the war, "willy-nilly," the rich could 
 avoid it by paying $300 to buy a sub- 
 stitute; the other was, that the quota 
 demanded from New York was inaccu- 
 rate and unjust, so excessive in fact that 
 the general government was forced after- 
 ward to correct it. Governor Seymour 
 endeavored to have the quota corrected 
 and the draft postponed, but the latter 
 began on Saturday, July 11, 1863, the 
 names being published on Sunday. From 
 that time until Thursday evening the city 
 was in the hands of the rioters ; about a 
 thousand lives were lost, and property 
 amounting to several million dollars was 
 destroyed. As soon as the riots began, 
 Governor Seymour went at once to the 
 metropolis, where he issued proclamations 
 declaring the city to be in a state of 
 insurrection, ordering all persons engaged 
 in riotous proceedings to return to their 
 homes and employments, and declaring 
 that he should use all the power neces- 
 sary to restore peace and order. He made 
 public addresses urging the mob to dis- 
 perse, and insisting upon obedience 
 to the law, while at the same time he 
 used every effort to obtain troops and 
 enroll volunteers. By judiciously re- 
 fraining from stirring up the already 
 excited passions of the rioters, and, aided 
 by the few soldiers in the forts under the 
 command of Major-General John E. 
 Wool, Governor Seymour did much to- 
 ward allaying the excitement, which end- 
 ed on Thursday evening, July 16th. On 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 April i6, 1864, the State Legislature, 
 which was Republican, passed a resolu- 
 tion thanking Governor Seymour for 
 having procured the correction of the 
 errors committed in regard to the draft 
 by the authorities at Washington. In 
 the same year Governor Seymour was a 
 candidate for re-election as governor, but 
 was defeated by Reuben E. Fenton, by a 
 majority of 8,293. 
 
 After the war was ended, Governor 
 Seymour continued to be prominent in 
 politics. He strongly opposed the Re- 
 publican party, as was natural from a 
 Democratic standpoint, and after pre- 
 siding over State conventions in 1867 and 
 1868, he was elected permanent chairman 
 of the National Convention which met in 
 New York City on July 4, 1868, when 
 Seymour and Blair were nominated as the 
 Democratic candidates for president and 
 vice-president. At the election, Governor 
 Seymour was defeated by General Grant, 
 the popular vote being 3,015,071 for 
 Grant, and 2,709,213 for Seymour. From 
 this time forward, Mr. Seymour refused 
 to let his name be used as a candidate 
 for any public office. In 1864 he had 
 built on the Deerfield Hills, near Utica, 
 New York, a plain frame cottage, spacious 
 and hospitable, located on the highest 
 point on his farm. Here he devoted him- 
 self to reading and agricultural pursuits, 
 up to the time of his death, which occur- 
 red February 12, 1886. 
 
 HUNT, Ward, 
 
 Distinguished Jurist. 
 
 Ward Hunt was born at Utica, New 
 York, June 14, 1810. His father was 
 Montgomery Hunt, for many years cash- 
 ier of the Bank of Utica, and his mother 
 a daughter of Captain Joseph Stringham, 
 of New York City. 
 
 Ward Hunt attended Hamilton Col- 
 lege, New York, later entering Union 
 
 (New York) College, from which he was 
 graduated in 1828. He attended the legal 
 lectures of Judge Gould at Litchfield, 
 Connecticut, and continued his profes- 
 sional studies with Judge Hiram Denio, 
 afterward Judge of the Court of Appeals 
 of the State of New York. He became 
 Judge Denio's partner in law practice, 
 and was his successor on the same 
 bench. In 1838 he was chosen to the 
 New York State Assembly, and served 
 for a single term. In 1844 he was elected 
 mayor of Utica. In the political excite- 
 ment of the time, he took ground with 
 that wing of the Democratic party which 
 opposed the annexation of Texas by the 
 United States and the extension of 
 slavery, and in 1848 took a leading part 
 in the movement for free-soil which se- 
 lected as the nominees of its party Van 
 Buren and Adams. Later, with others, 
 he broke away from old ties and became 
 a prime mover in the formation of the 
 Republican party. In 1865 he was elected 
 by a majority of 32,000 to succeed Judge 
 Denio upon the bench of the New York 
 State Court of Appeals, and became chief 
 judge of the court in 1868. This tribunal 
 having been reconstructed under a con- 
 stitutional amendment, Judge Hunt was 
 retained as Commissioner of Appeals, 
 which position he resigned January 7, 
 1873, to accept his place as one of the 
 justices of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States, to which office he had 
 been appointed by President Grant on 
 the eleventh of December next preceding. 
 In 1883, owing to a failure in health, he 
 resigned his judgeship. 
 
 He was adorned by a generous culture, 
 and was in all relations singularly self- 
 poised. He was faithful to his principles, 
 and devoted to his friends. He excelled 
 in judgment and solidity of acquirements, 
 rather than in brilliancy. His accom- 
 plishments, moreover, extended beyond 
 his profession, for he kept his eyes open 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 to the world of letters and affairs, as well 
 as the narrower sphere of practice and 
 politics. He was a communicant in the 
 Protestant Episcopal church, and often 
 sat in its conventions. As a thinker he 
 was clear and logical ; as a public speaker 
 he was deliberate, and convinced by argu- 
 ment rather than captivated by sentiment 
 or ornament. On the bench, no man 
 labored' with more patience and earnest 
 zeal for justice than he. His decisions 
 are simple in diction, forcible in state- 
 ment, and exhaustive in their treatment 
 of the cases at issue. Both Union and 
 Rutgers College gave him the degree of 
 LL. D. He died at Washington, D. C, 
 March 24, 1886. 
 
 TILDEN, Samuel Jones, 
 
 Distinguished Statesman. 
 
 This distinguished statesman and im- 
 maculate citizen was born at New Leba- 
 non, Columbia county, New York, Feb- 
 ruary 9, 1814. His English ancestor, Na- 
 thaniel Tilden, who had been mayor of 
 Tenterden, Kent, emigrated in 1763 and 
 settled at Scituate, Massachusetts, 
 whence his son removed to Lebanon, Con- 
 necticut. The grandfather of Samuel 
 J. Tilden founded New Lebanon, New 
 York; his father was a farmer, merchant, 
 and friend of Van Buren. 
 
 At the age of eighteen, young Tilden 
 drew up an address which was approved 
 by Van Buren, signed by prominent 
 Democrats, and published in the "Albany 
 Argus." Soon after this he spent some 
 time at Yale, but transferred himself to 
 the University of New York, where he 
 was graduated in 1837. In that year 
 sundry articles from his pen on the treas- 
 ury question appeared in "The Argus," 
 over the signature of "Crisso." In 1838 
 he wrote the resolutions for two meet- 
 ings of workingmen in Tammany Hall, 
 February 6th and 26th, and at a debate 
 
 in Columbia county answered a speech 
 of United States Senator N. P. Tall- 
 madge. His speech at New Lebanon, 
 October 3, 1840, on currency, prices and 
 wages, including the history of the United 
 States Bank, was circulated as a cam- 
 paign document, and pronounced by 
 Conde Raguet "the clearest exposition of 
 the subjects that has yet appeared." He 
 was admitted to the bar in 1841, and 
 opened an office in Pine street, New 
 York. In 1844 he began the publication 
 of the "Morning News," and edited it 
 through the campaign which ended in 
 Polk's election. In 1845 ne was elected 
 to the New York Assembly, and in 1846 
 was a member of the Constitutional Con- 
 vention and of its committees of finance 
 and canals. Beginning in 1846 he de- 
 voted himself to his legal practice, which 
 rapidly became lucrative and important, 
 including much railroad business. He 
 won much reputation by his defence of 
 the Pennsylvania Coal Company against 
 a claim of the Delaware and Hudson 
 Canal Company for extra toll, in a case 
 which occupied the court for ten weeks. 
 His services were given without fee to 
 A. C. Flagg, whose election as city comp- 
 troller was contested in 1856. Another 
 famous case was the claim of Mrs. Cun- 
 ningham, the supposed murderess, tri- 
 umphantly opposed by Mr. Tilden, to 
 administer the Burdell estate in 1857. 
 
 However busy at the law, Mr. Tilden 
 never lost his interest in municipal, State 
 and national politics He joined the free- 
 foil movement of 1848, urged constitu- 
 tional methods in connection with canal 
 improvements in 185 1, and was the "soft- 
 shell" nominee for attorney-general in 
 1855. At the outset of the political dis- 
 turbances which culminated in the Civil 
 War, he warned a Southerner, in Decem- 
 ber, 1S60, that the South "must not expect 
 Northern Democrats to hold the govern- 
 ment while they were whipping it," and 
 
 23 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 said : "I will do everything to sustain 
 President Lincoln in a civil war, if it 
 occurs, that I would do to sustain An- 
 drew Jackson if he were president." 
 General Dix blamed him somewhat later 
 for not uniting in the call for the mass- 
 meeting, nor attending it, after the attack 
 on Fort Sumter. His course during the 
 war was moderate, and he disliked extra 
 constitutional methods. His most illus- 
 trious public service was his unrelenting 
 war on the notorious Tweed ring, ana 
 his highest praise came from Tweed him- 
 self in 1869: "Sam Tilden wants to over- 
 throw Tammany Hall. He wants to 
 drive me out of politics. He wants to 
 stop the pickings, starve out the bugs, 
 and run the government of the city as if 
 it was a blanked little country store up in 
 New Lebanon. He wants to bring the 
 hayloft and the cheese-press down to the 
 city, and crush out the machine. He 
 wants to get a crowd of country reform- 
 ers in the Legislature * * * And then, 
 when he gets everything well fixed to 
 suit him, he wants to go to the United 
 States Senate." Mr. Tilden did, indeed, 
 "want" most of these things, and he ob- 
 tained them. As chairman of the Demo- 
 cratic State Committee, and in the Legis- 
 lature, which he re-entered for this pur- 
 pose, he brought all his influence to bear 
 against the criminal misgovernment of 
 the city. He was a founder of the Bar 
 Association, and directed its impeach- 
 ment of Judges Barnard and Cardozo in 
 1872. After exposure of ring methods in 
 July, 1871, by "The Times" he pursued 
 the conspirators individually. These 
 labors of reform were his almost exclusive 
 business for sixteen months. His friends 
 estimated that the neglect of his profes- 
 sional and private affairs during this time 
 cost him "enough to endow a public 
 charity." The sum was quite as well 
 spent in furthering public justice; the 
 ring was broken, and its members pris- 
 
 oners of fugitives. (See "The New York 
 City Ring: Its Origin, Maturity, and 
 Fall," 1873). 
 
 In 1874 Mr. Tilden was elected gov- 
 ernor, with 50,000 majority over General 
 John A. Dix. Among the more notable 
 deliverances of his administration were 
 his messages of January 5, January 12, 
 March 19 (against the canal ring), and 
 May 11, 1875 ; June 4, March 24, 1876, and 
 his speeches at Buffalo and Utica, August 
 10 and September 30, 1875. During his 
 administration the construction of the 
 present capitol building at Albany was 
 begun. The National Democratic Con- 
 vention meeting at St. Louis in June, 
 
 1876, nominated him for president on the 
 second ballot. The election was un- 
 usually close, and its result long doubtful. 
 Mr. Tilden had a popular majority over 
 Mr. Rutherford B. Hayes of nearly 251,- 
 000, and over all rivals of near 160,000, 
 but the votes of Louisiana, South Caro- 
 lina and Florida were claimed by both 
 parties ; intimidation of Republican 
 voters in States, and false returns by Re- 
 publican canvassing boards, were charg- 
 ed. The excited passions of that anxious 
 time and the unprecedented embarrass- 
 ment of the situation, live in the memory 
 of all mature Americans. To avoid a 
 deadlock in Congress, the Senate agreed 
 to leave the decision to an Electoral Com- 
 mission of fifteen, and this, by a strict 
 party vote of eight to seven, accepted the 
 returns of the canvassers in the three 
 doubtful States, and reported, March 2, 
 
 1877, the majority of a single vote for Mr. 
 Hayes. Many counseled seating Mr. Til- 
 den by force, and civil war would un- 
 doubtedly have resulted had not Mr. Til- 
 den strenuously resisted everything but 
 acquiescence in the decision of the Elec- 
 toral Commission. Mr. Tilden retained 
 the respect and confidence of his party in 
 an enlarged degree, but refused to allow 
 the use of his name as a presidential can- 
 
 24 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 didate in 1880 and 1884. During the latter 
 years of his life Mr. Tilden was probably 
 the chief figure in the Democratic party, 
 and his opinion was sought on all ques- 
 tions of State or national politics. His 
 last important expression of opinion was 
 in a letter to J. G. Carlisle, then speaker 
 of the house, urging the necessity of 
 liberal appropriations for a system of 
 coast defences, that the seaboard of the 
 country might be secured against naval 
 attacks. 
 
 Mr. Tilden died at his country house, 
 Greystone, near Yonkers, New York, Au- 
 gust 4, 1886, leaving a large part of his 
 fortune of $5,000,000 to found a free 
 library in New York; but his heirs (he 
 was a bachelor) contested the will, which 
 was broken, after which the heirs con- 
 tributed a much smaller sum to endow 
 the library. Probably Mr. Tilden drew 
 more wills disposing of large estates than 
 any man of his day in the legal profes- 
 sion, but, when making his own, he did 
 not succeed in avoiding legal obstruc- 
 tions which invalidated the instrument. 
 A campaign life of him was written by 
 T. P. Cook (1876); his "Writings and 
 Speeches" were edited by John Bigelow 
 (two volumes, 1885). 
 
 WHEELER, William Almon, 
 Lawyer, Statesman. 
 
 William Almon Wheeler was born in 
 Malone, Franklin county, New York, 
 June 30, 1819. His ancestors both on his 
 father's and his mother's side were Revo- 
 lutionary soldiers. The two families 
 moved respectively from Massachusetts 
 and Connecticut, and settled near High- 
 gate and Castleton, Vermont, where Mr. 
 Wheeler's father was born. After a par- 
 tial course in the University of Vermont, 
 he became a lawyer, married Eliza Wood- 
 ward, and removed to Malone, where he 
 died, leaving his son William A. Wheeler 
 
 at the time eight years old, with two sis- 
 ters and their mother, without means of 
 support. 
 
 Young Wheeler was kept at school 
 until he was able to teach, when he took 
 charge of a country school, gradually 
 earning enough to justify him in passing 
 two years at the University of Vermont. 
 He then studied law for four years at 
 Malone, New York, where he was admit- 
 ted to the bar, and from that time for- 
 ward he was almost continuously in pub- 
 lic office. While studying law he was 
 elected town clerk at a salary of twenty 
 dollars a year, and then was made school 
 commissioner and subsequently school 
 inspector. In 1847, although a Whig, he 
 was elected district attorney on a Union 
 ticket which carried a Democrat for 
 county judge. At the close of his term 
 as district attorney he was elected to the 
 Assembly, and served in that body in 
 1850 and 1851. In 1857 he was elected 
 to the State Senate, in which he served 
 until 1859. Two years later he was elec- 
 ted to the Thirty-seventh Congress. He 
 remained in Washington City during the 
 Congressional term, and then retired to 
 private life, holding no other official posi- 
 tion until his election to the Forty-first 
 Congress, after which he was in the 
 House of Representatives continuously 
 until 1877. 
 
 In the meantime, Mr. Wheeler had 
 other appointments of a business or pri- 
 vate character, involving a great many 
 important trusts, being one of the com- 
 missioners of the State Parks, commis- 
 sioner of the State Survey, and for some 
 time cashier of the Malone Bank. He 
 was also a member of the board of trus- 
 tees for the management of the bank- 
 rupt Northern Railroad, afterward the 
 Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain road. 
 It is said while Mr. Wheeler did not own 
 a dollar's stock in the road, he brought 
 the bonds up to par from about a valu- 
 
 25 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ation of four cents on the dollar, in eleven 
 years, and they were paid in full, with 
 interest. While Mr. Wheeler was a mem- 
 ber of Congress, the notorious "salary 
 grab" act was passed. Mr. Wheeler took 
 the addition of salary which fell to him, 
 bought government bonds with it, assign- 
 ed them to the Secretary of the Treasury, 
 and turning them over to the latter, had 
 them canceled, in this way putting the 
 money beyond the possible reach of him- 
 self or his heirs. In 1875 Mr. Wheeler 
 was chairman of the house committee on 
 southern affairs, and did good service to 
 the country by pacifying the political 
 situation in Louisiana, a plan which he 
 had formulated for the adjudication of the 
 seriously complicated condition of affairs 
 in that State, being the means of settling 
 the existing tioubles. In the Republican 
 convention at Cincinnati in 1876, Mr. 
 Wheeler was one of the candidates for 
 the presidency, but, on the nomination of 
 Rutherford B. Hayes, he was made the 
 candidate for vice-president. The duties 
 of president of the Senate, however, had 
 no particular attractions for him, al- 
 though he discharged them satisfactorily. 
 In 1879, New York politics were con- 
 vulsed by the factional fight between the 
 "stalwart" and "half-breed" sections of 
 the Republican party. It became essen- 
 tial that an end should be put to this con- 
 dition of things, and when the State Con- 
 vention met in Saratoga, Roscoe Conk- 
 ling, at the time Senator, was made 
 temporary chairman, and Vice-President 
 Wheeler permanent chairman. The re- 
 sult was a temporary reconciliation be- 
 tween the "stalwarts" and "half-breeds," 
 which was marked by Mr. Conkling 
 striding up to the chair, and shaking the 
 vice-president by the hand. Two years 
 before, Mr. Conkling and Mr. Piatt at 
 Rochester had assailed the administration 
 ruthlessly. Two years afterward, the 
 party feud culminated in the destructive 
 
 senatorial fight in Albany, and the assas- 
 sination of President Garfield at Wash- 
 ington City. In 1881 Mr. Wheeler was 
 asked to allow the use of his name as a 
 candidate for the United States Senate, 
 but he declined the honor, having re- 
 solved to pass the remainder of his life in 
 the community where he was born, and 
 where he was known as a warm friend 
 and a wise counselor. His health also 
 was poor, and indeed from this time for- 
 ward he continued to lose ground, being 
 always able, however, to go about until 
 the winter of 1886. In 1887, he received 
 a chill, followed by fever, out of which 
 he rallied, and continued in a better con- 
 dition until June. He then suddenly 
 failed, sank into an unconscious condition 
 from which he could not be roused, and 
 died on June 4, 1887, so easily and pain- 
 lessly that those who were at his bed- 
 side could scarcely tell the moment when 
 he expired. 
 
 TAYLOR, Bayard, 
 
 Traveler, Poet, Lecturer, Diplomat. 
 
 Among American men of letters, Bay- 
 ard Taylor occupies a high place. He 
 was a voluminous writer, but never hack- 
 nied or careless. His phrase was scholar- 
 ly and pure, yet graceful and sparkling. 
 He featured the "Tribune," even when 
 Raymond, Dana, Reid and Hay contrib- 
 uted to its columns. As a traveler he was 
 the keenest of observers and the most 
 fascinating of narrators. He caught the 
 local coloring wherever he went and drew 
 vivid pictures of the lands he visited and 
 the men and manners with which he be- 
 came conversant. There are few books 
 of travel of larger repute for wealth of 
 information or accuracy of information 
 than those from his pen. They are stand- 
 ard works. As a lecturer he was a "bright, 
 particular star" in the "Golden age of the 
 Lyceum." His verse was keyed to lofti- 
 
 2(\ 
 
a^-L^ct^ 
 

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 est strains — rhythmical and noble ; with 
 something of Browning, but without any 
 of Browning's obscurity ; and never de- 
 scending to the lower scale. His "Faust" 
 is by all reviewers conceded to be the 
 most felicitous translation of the great, 
 great Goethe's immortal drama. Taylor 
 "touched nothing he did not adorn." 
 
 Bayard Taylor was born in Kennett 
 Square, Chester county, Pennsylvania, 
 January II, 1825, son of Joseph and Re- 
 becca (Way) Taylor, grandson of John 
 and Ann (Bucher) Taylor; and a de- 
 scendant of Robert Taylor, of Little 
 Leigh, Cheshire, England, and of Berja- 
 min Mendenhall, who immigrated to the 
 United States with William Penn in 
 1681, the former settling near Brandy- 
 wine Creek, and the latter at Concord, 
 Pennsylvania, and of Melchior Breneman, 
 a Mennonite minister, whose grand- 
 father came from Switzerland in 1709, 
 and settled in Lancaster county. 
 
 Bayard Taylor was named for Jame:- 
 A. Bayard, of Delaware, and originally 
 signed his name J. Bayard Taylor. In 
 1829 the family removed to Hazeldel! 
 farm, in East Marlborough township, 
 which was part of the original land- 
 grant made by William Penn to Robert 
 Taylor. At the age of six he attended 
 a Quaker school, and in 1837-40 was a 
 student at Bolmar's Academy, Westches- 
 ter, Pennsylvania. He completed his 
 education at Unionville Academy, 1840- 
 42, serving as tutor during his course ; 
 and while so engaged he collected a 
 mineralogical cabinet and an herbarium, 
 and attempted drawing and painting. 
 His first essay, "On the Art of Painting," 
 was read before the Kennett Literary 
 Circle, 1838; a description of a visit to the 
 Brandywine battlefield appeared in the 
 "West Chester Register" in 1840, and his 
 first published poem. "The Soliloquy of a 
 Young Poet," appeared in the "Saturday 
 Evening Post" in 1841. He was appren- 
 
 ticed to Henry E. Evans, printer and 
 publisher of the "Village Record," West 
 Chester, 1842-44, where he continued the 
 study of German and Spanish, and aided 
 in organizing "The Thespians," a dra- 
 matic society. Through the friendly in- 
 terest of Rufus W. Griswold he published 
 and sold by subscription, "Ximena, and 
 Other Poems" in February, 1844. After 
 reading "The Tourist in Europe," he was 
 consumed with a desire to travel abroad, 
 and to that end sold several of his poems, 
 and by the advice of Nathaniel P. Willis 
 applied to J. R. Chandler, of the "United 
 States Gazette," and S. D. Patterson, of 
 the "New York Post," who each engaged 
 him as a foreign correspondent, paying 
 him fifty dollars in advance. These 
 orders were supplemented by an order 
 from Horace Greeley for contributions to 
 "The Tribune," and he sailed for Oxford 
 in July, 1844. He made a pedestrian 
 tour through Scotland, England and Bel- 
 gium ; spent the winter of 1845 m Frank- 
 fort, Germany, in the home of Richard 
 S. Willis, American consul, perfecting his 
 knowledge of the German language ; and 
 continued his walking tour in the spring 
 through Bohemia, Moravia, and Vienna, 
 to Florence, Italy, where he began the 
 study of Italian. He embarked in Janu- 
 ary, 1846, as a deck passenger for Mar- 
 seilles. Upon his arrival in Lyons, he 
 was suffering from lack of food and 
 clothes, and from exposure, and was 
 obliged to send for funds to Paris, which 
 city he reached in February. While in 
 London, awaiting aid from home, he was 
 employed in making out catalogues and 
 in packing books by Mr. Putnam, Lon- 
 don agent of the American publishing 
 firm. He arrived in New York City on 
 June 1, 1846. He visited Boston, and 
 published anonymously "The Norse- 
 man's Ride," 1846-47, which Whittier 
 copied in the "National Era," and which 
 through correspondence led to a loyal 
 
 27 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 friendship with the poet. He was asso- 
 ciate editor of "The Pioneer," Phoenix- 
 ville, Pennsylvania, 1846-47, and publish- 
 ed his foreign letters as "Views Afoot," 
 in December, 1847. I' 1 tne following 
 January he removed to New York, where 
 he was first employed by Charles Fenno 
 Hoffman, and as a teacher of bcllcs-lcttrcs 
 in Miss Green's school. Later he was 
 connected with "The Tribune," of which 
 he became a stockholder in 1849. He 
 was editor of "The Union Magazine and 
 Christian Inquirer," from March to Sep- 
 tember, 1848 ; wrote book-reviews for 
 George R. Graham ; and was New York 
 correspondent for the "Saturday Evening 
 Post." He was offered the permanent 
 editorship of "Graham's Magazine," 
 which did not materialize, owing to the 
 financial condition of the paper. Through 
 Hoffman, with whom he lived, and N. 
 P. Willis, he was introduced to the liter- 
 ary and social circles of New York. As 
 correspondent of "The Tribune," he in- 
 vestigated the gold fields in California in 
 1849-50, an account of his observations 
 appearing the same year in "Eldorado." 
 On October 24, 1850, he was married to 
 Mary S. Agnew, who died the following 
 December 21. 
 
 After editing the "Cyclopaedia of Liter- 
 ature and Fine Arts " Mr. Taylor sailed 
 as "Tribune" correspondent for Liver- 
 pool, April 19, 185 1. He spent some time 
 in London, and arrived in Alexandria on 
 November 1, 185 1. He traveled up the 
 "White Nile;" subsequently visited Pales- 
 tine, Sicily, Italy, Spain, and Asia Minor; 
 and in May, 1853, under the auspices of 
 "The Tribune," joined Commodore 
 Perry's expedition to Japan, enlisting as 
 master's mate, and resigning after four 
 months' service. While in Japan, Hum- 
 phrey Marshall, United States commis- 
 sioner, offered to attach him to his staff. 
 
 He reached New York on December 
 20, 1853. He lectured on "The Arabs," 
 
 "India," and "Japan and Loo Choo," 1854- 
 55 ; wrote voluminously, and was engaged 
 in building a summer residence on Pusey 
 farm, near Kennett, Pennsylvania. His 
 health failing in July, 1855, ne revisited 
 Germany, taking with him his sisters and 
 brother, and on December 1, 1856, set out 
 for Norway and Lapland, which journey 
 he described in "Northern Travel" 
 (1857). He married (second) in Octo- 
 ber, 1857, Marie, daughter of Peter An- 
 dreas Hansen, of Gotha, Germany, astron- 
 omer and director of the Ducal observa- 
 tory, and they had one child, Lilian, born 
 August 3, 1858, who married Dr. Kiliani, 
 of Halle, Germany. His wife translated 
 several of his works into German, and 
 subsequently edited his poems, plays and 
 essays. 
 
 After his marriage, Mr. Taylor visited 
 Greece, Poland and Russia, and arrived 
 at Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, on Oc- 
 tober 24, 1858. He continued his connec- 
 tion with "The Tribune ;" contributed 
 literary sketches of travel to the "New 
 York Mercury ;" conducted extensive lec- 
 ture tours, and dedicated his new home, 
 "Cedarcroft," by a famous house-warm- 
 ing, October 18-19, i860. In 1861 his 
 contributions to the press were "trumpet 
 calls" to the defence of the Republic, 
 "Scott and the Veteran" rousing the 
 greatest enthusiasm, and, guarded by a 
 force of police, he defended George Wil- 
 liam Curtis in an oration delivered in 
 Brooklyn and in Philadelphia. In May, 
 1862, he was appointed secretary to 
 Simon Cameron, United States Minister 
 to Russia ; he was charge d'affaires at St. 
 Petersburg, September-May, 1863, when 
 he resigned, and for a time was occupied 
 in the study of the life of Goethe in 
 Gotha, returning to the United States 
 upon the death of his brother, Colonel 
 Frederic Taylor, at Gettysburg. The 
 year 1867 he spent in European travel, in 
 letter writing and painting; translated 
 
 28 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 "Faust" at Corsica, in 1868; was non- 
 resident lecturer on German literature at 
 Cornell University, 1870-77, subsequently 
 repeating the lectures before the Pea- 
 body Institute, Baltimore; visited Cali- 
 fornia for his health in the spring of 
 1870; lectured upon earliest German 
 literature in Ithaca, New York, in 1871, 
 and the same year was associate editor of 
 Scribner's "Library of Travel." In conse- 
 quence of financial embarrassment, he 
 leased "Cedarcroft," and removed to 
 New York, whence he sailed, June 6, 
 1872, for Weimar, Germany, to collect 
 materials for his lives of Goethe and 
 Schiller, and where in January, 1873, he 
 repeated a lecture given in Hamburg the 
 previous December, on American liter- 
 ature, for the benefit of the Frauenverein, 
 the whole court being present. Obliged 
 to seek Italy for his health, he reported 
 the Vienna exhibition of 1873 f° r "The 
 Tribune," contributed the Cairo letters, 
 February-April, 1874, and as press corre- 
 spondent visited Iceland on the occasion 
 of its millennial anniversary. He returned 
 to New York, September 9, 1874; collec- 
 ted and published his letters on Egypt 
 and Iceland ; and was engaged in lectur- 
 ing, edited Appleton's "Picturesque Eu- 
 rope," and in 1876 resumed daily work 
 on "The Tribune." 
 
 He was appointed United States Minis- 
 ter to Germany by President Hayes in 
 February, 1878, his appointment being the 
 occasion of many receptions and banquets 
 in his honor. He was made an honorary 
 member of the Phi Beta Kappa society of 
 Harvard College in 1850, writing at its 
 request the commencement poem of that 
 year, "The American Legend." He was a 
 member of the Century Association from 
 185 1 ; composed the "Gettysburg Ode" 
 for the dedication of the national monu- 
 ment, July 1, 1869; the "Shakespearian 
 Statue," for the unveiling of Ward's 
 statue in Central Park, New York, May 
 
 23, 1872 ; and was requested to write the 
 national ode for the United States Cen- 
 tennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, July 
 4, 1876. In addition to his translation ot 
 Faust (Part I., 1870; Part II., 1872;, his 
 miscellaneous works include: "Hannah 
 Thurston" (1863); "John Godfrey's For- 
 tunes" (1864); "The Story of Kennett" 
 C1866) ; "Joseph and His Friend" (1870) ; 
 "Beauty and the Beast, and Tales of 
 Home" (1872); "A School History of 
 Germany" (1874) ; "The Echo Club" 
 1 1876) ; "Boys of Other Countries" 
 (1876) ; "Studies in German Literature" 
 (1879); "Critical Essays and Literary 
 Notes" (1880) ; the two latter works were 
 edited by his wife, previously mentioned, 
 and published posthumously. His works 
 of travel, not already mentioned, include : 
 "A Journey to Central Africa," and "The 
 Land of the Saracen" (1854) ; "A Visit 
 to India, China and Japan" (1855) ; 
 "Travels in Greece and Rome" (1859) ; 
 "At Home and Abroad" (first series, 
 1859; second, 1862) ; "Colorado: A Sum- 
 mer Trip" (1867) ; "By-Ways of Europe" 
 (1869). He was author of the following 
 dramas: "The Golden Wedding," a 
 masque (1868); "The Masque of the 
 Gods" (1872); "The Prophet" (1874), 
 and of the poems (not already noted) : 
 "Rhymes of Travel, Ballads and Poems" 
 (1849); "A Book of Romances, Lyrics 
 and Songs" (1851) ; "Poems of the 
 Orient" (1854) ; "Poems of Home and 
 Travel" (1855) ; "The Poet's Journal" 
 (1862); "The Poems of Bayard Taylor" 
 (1864) ; "The Picture of St. John" (1866) ; 
 "Lars: a Pastoral of Norway" (1873); 
 "Plome Pastorals, Ballads and Lyrics" 
 (1875). The "Poetical Works and the 
 Dramatic Works of Bayard Taylor" were 
 edited by his wife, and published posthu- 
 mously (1880). 
 
 Bayard Taylor died in Berlin, Ger- 
 many, just after the publication of his 
 "Prince Deukalion," December 19, 1878. 
 
 29 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 His body was brought to America on 
 March 13, 1879, and lay in state in the 
 New York City Hall, where an oration 
 was delivered by Algernon S. Sullivan, 
 and was buried in the Hicksite Cemetery, 
 Longwood, Pennsylvania. "In Memo- 
 riam" verses were published by his 
 friends, Stedman, Stoddard and Boker, 
 and a monody was composed by T. B. 
 Aldrich. The date of his death was De- 
 cember 19, 1878. 
 
 CONKLING, Roscoe, 
 
 Distinguished Political Leader and Orator. 
 
 Roscoe Conkling was born in Albany, 
 New York, October 30, 1829, the son of 
 Alfred Conkling, who practiced law at 
 Canajoharie in the early part of the nine- 
 teenth century, was a Congressman, and 
 in 1825 United States district judge for 
 the Northern District of New York, a 
 position which he held for twenty-seven 
 years. He was also a voluminous writer 
 on law topics. The family originally 
 migrated from England in 1635, John 
 Conkling having landed at Boston and 
 settled at Salem in Massachusetts, where 
 he and his sons were among the first to 
 manufacture glass in America. From 
 Massachusetts the family removed to 
 Long Island, two of John Conkling's 
 sons having settled respectively at East- 
 hampton and Southold, and trom Ananias, 
 the former of these, Judge Conkling was 
 descended. Plis wife, who was Roscoe's 
 mother, was Eliza Cockburn, who lived 
 in Schenectady, and was called for her 
 beauty "the belle of the Mohawk valley." 
 She is said to have been a relative of the 
 late Lord Chief Justice Cockburn, of 
 England. She named her son Roscoe, a 
 favorite name with her on account of the 
 author of the "Lives of Lorenzo de Medici 
 and Pope Leo X." 
 
 During the first nine years of his life, 
 young Roscoe resided in Albany, but in 
 
 1S39 Judge Conkling removed his resi- 
 dence to Auburn, where the family con- 
 tinued to live until about the year 1864. 
 Roscoe, however, left home in 1842, and 
 entered the Mount Washington Collegi- 
 ate Institute in the city of New York. In 
 1846 he removed to Utica, and entered the 
 law offices of Spencer & Kernan, com- 
 posed of Joshua A. Spencer and Francis 
 Kernan, two of the leading lawyers of the 
 State. His leisure time the young law 
 student devoted to the study of English 
 literature, and within a year after settling 
 at Utica he was called upon to speak in 
 public, and during the campaign of Tay- 
 lor and Fillmore began to be known as a 
 political stump speaker. Mr. Conkling 
 was admitted to the bar in the early part 
 of 1850, and in the same year was ap- 
 pointed by Governor Fish district attor- 
 ney of Albany. At the end of his term ' 
 of office he began the practice of law in 
 Utica, entering into partnership with 
 Thomas H. Walker, an ex-mayor of the 
 city, with whom he remained engaged in 
 business until 1855. He now rapidly 
 rose to prominence at the Oneida county 
 bar, which included some of the most emi- 
 nent lawyers in the country. Among 
 these able men, Conkling soon gained a 
 reputation not only for brilliancy as a 
 pleader, but also for the care and skill 
 with which his cases were prepared. 
 During the political campaign when Gen- 
 eral Winfield Scott was the candidate for 
 the presidency on the Whig ticket, Ros- 
 coe Conkling first won his reputation as a 
 campaign speaker, although the result of 
 the election was disastrous to the Whigs. 
 In the canvass of 1854 he took an active 
 part. This was the beginning of the 
 movement which resulted in the Repub- 
 lican party. From 1855 to 1862 Mr. 
 Conkling was associated in business with 
 Montgomery H. Throop, the author of 
 the New York annotated code, who re- 
 sumed the position of office-lawyer, while 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Roscoe Conkling acted as advocate. On 
 June 25, 1855, Roscoe Conkling married 
 Julia, daughter of Henry Seymour, and 
 sister of Horatio Seymour, who at that 
 time had just completed his first term of 
 service as governor of New York. 
 
 On the nomination of John C. Fremont 
 by the Republicans for the presidency, 
 Mr. Conkling began to make speeches 
 throughout the counties of Oneida and 
 Herkimer, and New York State went 
 Republican both for president and gov- 
 ernor. At this time, while Mr. Conkling 
 was unwilling to have the reputation of 
 being a criminal lawyer, he was remark- 
 ably successful in such criminal cases as 
 he undertook, and he had now become 
 so formidable as an advocate that it was 
 customary for lawyers in Oneida county 
 to advise their clients to retain him in 
 important cases, for the purpose of keep- 
 ing him from the service of the other 
 side. In 1858 Mr. Conkling carried his 
 city, and was elected mayor, while at the 
 same time Oneida county elected him to 
 "represent it in Congress. He remained 
 in the mayor's office until the latter part 
 of 1859, when he resigned to take his seat 
 in Congress. He now went with his 
 family to Washington City, where he set- 
 tled, and entered upon his larger career. 
 He entered the House of Representatives 
 at a most exciting period. Slavery was 
 then a supreme issue throughout the 
 country ; the raid of John Brown in Vir- 
 ginia had just occurred ; and, soon after 
 Mr. Conkling's first appearance in the 
 House, he was one of those who stood 
 by the side of Thaddeus Stevens to pro- 
 tect him from personal assault at the 
 hands of southern fire-eaters. After the 
 nomination of Lincoln and Hamlin at 
 Chicago, Mr. Conkling left Washington 
 to take the stump in their behalf. In the 
 election following, Mr. Conkling received 
 a majority of 3,563 votes over his com- 
 petitor for Congress. During the next 
 
 session he began to make his influence 
 felt and his remarkable eloquence recog- 
 nized in the house. At the extra session 
 of the Thirty-seventh Congress, called 
 July 4, 1861, Mr. Conkling took an active 
 part in the work, being chairman of the 
 committee on the District of Columbia. 
 On January 6, 1862, he spoke to the ques- 
 tion of the terrible military blunder at 
 Ball's Bluff, and his speech produced a 
 profound impression upon the house and 
 upon the country, accompanied as it was 
 by the passage of a resolution demand- 
 ing from the Secretary of War informa- 
 tion as to the responsibility for the dis- 
 astrous movement in question. The 
 speech made by Mr. Conkling at this 
 time gave him a national reputation as an 
 orator. A notable incident in his career 
 was his opposition to the legal tender act 
 of 1802, one of the few occasions when he 
 agreed with his brother, Frederic A. 
 Conkling, who was then in Congress with 
 him, in opposing a motion without regard 
 to party lines. The bill, which provided 
 for the issue of $150,000,000 of non-inter- 
 est bearing United States notes and the 
 issue of bonds to an amount not exceed- 
 ing $500,000,000, was passed despite the 
 Conkling resistance. Mr. Conkling advo- 
 cated and voted for a bill to confiscate the 
 property of rebels, and also for an act re- 
 ducing congressional mileage. His posi- 
 tion in Congress was always that of one 
 resisting extravagant expenditures, and 
 using every effort to obtain economy in the 
 public expenses. In the election of 1862, 
 Roscoe Conkling was defeated by ninety- 
 eight votes. He returned to Utica, and 
 resumed the practice of his profession, in 
 the meantime receiving at the hands of 
 prominent citizens of New York the 
 honor of a complimentary dinner. For 
 the next two years he remained at home 
 in Utica. occupied with the practice of 
 law. His real legal ability had now an 
 opportunity to show itself, especially his 
 
 3* 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 genius for cross-examination and the in- 
 fluence which he exerted in addressing 
 juries, which caused him to remark: "My 
 proper place is to be before twelve men 
 in the box." At the election of 1864, Mr. 
 Conkling labored earnestly in behalf of 
 Mr. Lincoln, and he was himself renomi- 
 nated for Congress by a convention held 
 at Rome, September 22 in that year. He 
 was strongly supported by the leading 
 New York papers, and was successful by 
 a majority of 1,150 votes, receiving the 
 suffrage of a very large number of Dem- 
 ocrats, some of whom were among his 
 most profound admirers. Mr. Conkling 
 was re-elected to Congress in 1866, re- 
 ceiving thirty-nine more votes than Reu- 
 ben E. Fenton obtained for governor. 
 On December 17, 1866, in the House of 
 Representatives he voted, in company 
 with eighty-nine others, for the resolu- 
 tion proposing to impeach President 
 Johnson. In the winter of 1866, the New 
 York Legislature was called upon to elect 
 a successor in the United States Senate 
 to ex-Judge Ira Harris. Mr. Conkling 
 was nominated by a Republican caucus 
 held January 9, 1867. His competitors 
 were the retiring senator, Judge Ira Har- 
 ris, and Noah Davis. On the fifth ballot, 
 Mr. Conkling received fifty-nine votes, 
 against forty-nine for Judge Davis, when 
 he was declared by the Legislature elect- 
 ed in due form. From this time forward, 
 Mr. Conkling was a power to be con- 
 sidered in the government. He was a 
 member of the committees on appropria- 
 tions, judiciary, and mines and mining. 
 His first speech in the Senate was on the 
 proposed impeachment of Henry A. 
 Smythe, collector of the port of New 
 York, and which was described as "elec- 
 trifying" the Senate. Three weeks after 
 he had entered that body, it was said of 
 Mr. Conkling that, although "the young- 
 est man as well as the youngest senator 
 on the floor, he is already the leader of 
 
 the Senate." He continued to hold the 
 office during three terms, and in that 
 time possibly no other member was lis- 
 tened to with the same earnestness and 
 consideration as he. Mr. Conkling felt 
 the defeat of the movement to impeach 
 President Johnson as a great personal 
 disappointment, and he did not cease to 
 antagonize him during the remainder of 
 his administration. President Grant's ad- 
 ministration, on the contrary, he support- 
 ed zealously, while he undoubtedly ex- 
 ercised over it more influence than any 
 other Senator. In the Cincinnati Con- 
 vention of 1876, Mr. Conkling received 
 ninety-three votes as a candidate for the 
 Presidency. At the convention of the Re- 
 publican party in 1880, Mr. Conkling 
 nominated General Grant for a third term, 
 quoting in beginning his speech, the lines 
 of "Miles O'Reilly" (Charles G. Halpine) : 
 
 When asked what State he hails from, 
 
 Our sole reply shall be, 
 He comes from Appomattox, 
 
 And its famous apple-tree. 
 
 Following came the most famous short 
 speech of Senator Conkling's life. He 
 stood on a reporter's table, and every 
 word he uttered was heard by everyone 
 within the great hall, which was packed 
 to the walls. In closing he said : "The 
 purpose of the Democratic party is spoils. 
 Its very hope for existence is in the solid 
 South. Its success is a menace to order 
 and prosperity. I say this convention 
 can overthrow that party ; it can dissolve 
 and emancipate the solid South. It can 
 speed the nation in a career of grandeur 
 eclipsing all past achievements. Gentle- 
 men, we have only to listen above the din, 
 and look beyond the dust of the hour, to 
 behold the Republican party advancing, 
 with its ensigns resplendent with illus- 
 trious achievements, marching to certain 
 and lasting victory with its great marshal 
 at its head." From this time throughout 
 
 32 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 the desperate battle of the convention, 
 the 306 who formed "the Old Guard" 
 which stood by Grant, followed unflinch- 
 ingly the lead of Roscoe Conkling, but 
 the tune of the convention had been set 
 to the keynote of "Anything to beat 
 Grant !" Efforts were even made to in- 
 duce Senator Conkling to permit his 
 name to go before the convention for 
 nomination. On the thirty-sixth ballot 
 the deadlock was broken. James A. Gar- 
 field and his followers deserted John 
 Sherman, and the former received 399 
 votes, and was declared nominated for 
 president of the United States. It was 
 not until after the most earnest solicita- 
 tion on the part of General Grant that 
 Mr. Conkling decided to speak in the 
 interest of Mr. Garfield in the campaign 
 which followed. He did this at a cost to 
 himself of $29,000, with which he pur- 
 chased from his clients the legal services 
 which they had retained him to perform. 
 At the solicitation of Simon Cameron, 
 Senator Conkling finally joined with Gen- 
 eral Grant in a visit to Mr. Garfield at 
 Mentor, Ohio, which visit was considered 
 by Garfield to have saved him from de- 
 feat at the subsequent election, as it in- 
 sured the support which Mr. Conkling 
 gave to the ticket from that time on until 
 election. This fact, however, did not pre- 
 vent the action on the part of President 
 Garfield which resulted in the resignation 
 of Roscoe Conkling and Thomas C. Piatt, 
 the two Senators from New York, in 1881. 
 The immediate cause of their resignation 
 was the removal by the President of the 
 collector of the port of New York, Mr. 
 Merritt, and the appointment to that posi- 
 tion of Mr. Robertson, against which 
 action a most earnest protest was made 
 and signed by -Chester A. Arthur. T. C. 
 Piatt. Thomas L. James and Roscoe 
 Conkling. At the ensuing election in the 
 Legislature of the State of New York, 
 the places of Senators Conkling and Piatt 
 N Y-Vol 11— 3 33 
 
 were filled by Elbridge G. Lapham and 
 Warner Miller respectively. This ended 
 Mr. Conkling's public life. It is said of 
 him that during his last seven years in 
 the Senate, no other member of that body, 
 since the time of Webster and Clay exer- 
 cised so much influence on legislation as 
 did he. 
 
 Soon after his political retirement, Mr. 
 Conkling became the counsel of the 
 Northern Pacific Railroad Company. He 
 had an office in New York City. In Feb- 
 ruary, 1882, he was nominated by Presi- 
 dent Arthur as Associate Justice of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, and 
 the nomination was confirmed by the 
 Senate, but was declined by Mr. Conkling. 
 From this time forward he practiced his 
 profession in the courts of New York and 
 before the Supreme Court at Washing- 
 ton with great success, his fees in some 
 cases being as much as $50,000. His last 
 illness was believed to be the result of 
 terrible exposure during the great bliz- 
 zard of March 12, 18S8, when he walked 
 from his office at Wall street to the New 
 York Club at Twenty-fifth street, being 
 nearly prostrated at the time, and never 
 entirely recovering thereafter. He died 
 in New York City, April 18, 1888. 
 
 ASTOR, John Jacob (3rd), 
 
 Capitalist. 
 
 John Jacob Astor (3rd) was born in 
 New York City, June 10, 1822, eldest son 
 of William B. and Margaret Rebecca 
 (Armstrong) Astor, and grandson of the 
 first John Jacob Astor. He was gradu- 
 ated from Columbia College in 1839, he 
 then studied at Gottingen, and was after- 
 wards graduated from the Harvard Law 
 School, and practiced his profession for 
 a year. 
 
 His occupation in life was mainly ad- 
 ministering the interests of his share of 
 the family estate. Like his father and 
 
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Long Island. He did most of the work 
 himself, including the presswork. The 
 paper was published weekly, and after it 
 was out he rode through the Long Island 
 towns on horseback, delivering copies. 
 He soon became restless, however, and 
 went to New York City, where he ob- 
 tained work on "The Aurora" and "The 
 Tattler." After a time he was offered a 
 good position on the "Brooklyn Eagle," 
 with which he remained two years. 
 About 1847-48, being again free, he de- 
 voted his time to making pedestrian tours 
 through various parts of the United 
 States and Canada. At length he was 
 offered a position on the staff of the "New 
 Orleans Crescent," in which he continued 
 for something over a year, when he re- 
 signed, giving up a large salary, to travel 
 with his brother, who was suffering from 
 consumption. Returning to Brooklyn he 
 started "The Freeman," at first as a 
 weekly, then as a daily. During the first 
 years of the war he wrote for "Vanity 
 Fair," and other comic or satirical papers 
 in New York, and was a recognized mem- 
 ber of a group of young "Bohemians," as 
 they were called, made up of musical, 
 dramatic and literary critics attached to 
 the daily and weekly press. At this time 
 he led the life of a literary free-lance. 
 The continuance of the war, however, 
 and the concentration of the public mind 
 upon its episodes and exigencies, drew 
 him to Washington, and from there to the 
 front, where he became known as the 
 friend and comrade of the sick and 
 wounded. He labored in the army hos- 
 pitals, showing a tenderness which only 
 the very few who knew him best had ever 
 appreciated. He received a clerkship in 
 the Department of the Interior from 
 President Lincoln, from which he is said 
 to have been removed by Secretary Har- 
 lan, on account of the character of his 
 poetical writings. He then received an 
 appointment in the Attorney-General's 
 
 office. In 1873, owing to a paralytic 
 shock, he was obliged to give up his posi- 
 tion and retire to his brother's house in 
 Camden, New Jersey. A few months 
 later, the sudden death of his mother in 
 his presence brought about a relapse. He 
 was physically disabled from that time, 
 but his mind continued clear, and his oc- 
 casional literary efforts evinced the orig- 
 inality and quaint power of his earlier 
 writings. 
 
 As a poet Walt Whitman became 
 known to the public through his "Leaves 
 of Grass," the first edition of which was 
 printed in Brooklyn, much of the type 
 being set up by the author himself. It 
 was published in New York in 1855. The 
 boldness of the manner and matter of 
 this volume, while it attracted general 
 attention, incurred the most severe criti- 
 cism. Those who were attached to the 
 conventional forms of literature opposed 
 it on account of its complete divergence 
 from these : while those who insisted on 
 immaculate language and pure ideas, 
 called it simply indecent. Very few copies 
 of the first edition of "Leaves of Grass" 
 were sold, and a number of those sent out 
 by the author as gifts were returned to 
 him with scathing criticism ; yet Ralph 
 Waldo Emerson wrote under date ol 
 Concord, Massachusetts, July 21, 1855: 
 "I give you joy of your free and brave 
 thought. I have great joy in it. I find 
 in it incomparable things said incom- 
 parably well, as they must be. I find the 
 courage of treatment which so delights 
 us, and which large perception only can 
 inspire." E. C. Stedman complained : 
 "Not that he discussed matters which 
 others timidly evade, but that he did not 
 do it in a clean way. That he was too 
 anatomical and maladorous. withal. Fur- 
 thermore that in this department he 
 showed excessive interest, and applied its 
 imagery to other departments as if with 
 a special purpose to lug it in." A second 
 
 35 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 edition of "Leaves of Grass" was pub- 
 lished in Boston in i860, and it was re- 
 published in London by Longmans & 
 Company, edited by Rossetti. By the 
 best literary minds of Great Britain, Walt 
 Whitman was quickly recognized as a 
 new poetical avatar. "He is the first 
 representative democrat in art of the 
 American continent," said Edward Dow- 
 den. "At the same time he is before all 
 else a living man and must not be com- 
 pelled to appear as mere official repre- 
 sentative of anything. He will not be 
 comprehended in a formula. No view of 
 him can image the substance, the life ana 
 movement of his manhood, which con- 
 tracts and dilates, and is all over sensi- 
 tive and vital." His work has also been 
 admirably characterized by Robert L. 
 Stevenson: "In spite of an uneven and 
 emphatic key of expression, something 
 trenchant and straightforward, some- 
 thing simple and surprising, distinguishes 
 his poems. He has sayings that come 
 home to one like the Bible. We fall upon 
 Whitman, after the works of so many 
 men who write better, with a sense of re- 
 lief from strain, with a sense of touching 
 nature, as when one passed out of the 
 flaring, noisy thoroughfares of a great 
 city into what he himself has called, with 
 unexcelled imaginative justice of lan- 
 guage, 'the huge and thoughtful night'." 
 In 1865 Mr. Whitman published: 
 "Drum Taps," in 1867 "Memoranda Dur- 
 ing the War," and in 1870 a volume of 
 prose essays called "Democratic Vistas." 
 His other works are: "Passage to India" 
 
 (1870) ; "After All, Not to Create Only" 
 
 (1871) ; "As Strong as a Bird on Pinions 
 Free" (1872); "Two Rivulets" (1873); 
 "Specimen Days and Collect" (1883); 
 "November Boughs" (1885I ; and "Sands 
 at Seventy" (1888). In the meantime 
 new editions were issued of "Leaves of 
 Grass" in the United States, England and 
 Scotland. It will take the judgment of 
 
 posterity to decide whether Whitman or 
 his accusers are right, but the fact re- 
 mains that if there was anything un- 
 healthy or unworthy in the recesses of 
 Whitman's moral nature, his acts contra- 
 dict it. Those who have known him inti- 
 mately from his youth acknowledge his 
 life to have been pure and wholesome, 
 charitable and beneficent. 
 
 In 1889, on the occasion of his seven- 
 tieth birthday, Mr. Whitman was ten- 
 dered a public dinner by a large num- 
 ber of his friends and admirers. He died 
 March 26, 1892. 
 
 BOWEN, Henry Chandler, 
 
 Founder of "The Independent." 
 
 Henry Chandler Bowen was born in 
 Woodstock, Connecticut, September 11, 
 1813. In 1833 he went to New York City 
 as clerk with the drygoods firm of Arthur 
 Tappan & Company. In 1838 he formed 
 with another clerk. Theodore McNamee, 
 the firm of Bowen & McNamee. He 
 afterwards was head of the firm of Bowen, 
 Holmes & Company. The outbreak of 
 the Civil War compelled the firm to re- 
 tire from business. He was married, 
 June 6, 1843, to Lucy Maria, daughter of 
 Lewis Tappan. 
 
 At the time of the fugitive slave law 
 excitement in 1852, Mr. Bowen's firm was 
 boycotted in the south and elsewhere on 
 account of his denunciation of the fugi- 
 tive slave law, and the letter in which he 
 refused to sign the call for the Castle 
 Garden meeting in support of that enact- 
 ment, became famous on account of the 
 sentence in which he said that the firm of 
 Bowen & McNamee had "its goods, but 
 not its principles, for sale." Mr. Bowen 
 was a member of the "Albany Conven- 
 tion" of Congregationalists in 1852, which 
 abrogated the "Plan of Union" with Pres- 
 byterians. Later, with others, he organ- 
 ized the Congregationalist Union, to 
 
 36 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 which he gave the sum of $5,000. At the 
 Albany Convention, Mr. Bowen pledged 
 the sum of $10,000 to aid in building Con- 
 gregational churches, on condition that 
 $40,000 more should be raised by the 
 churches, and over $60,000 was raised. 
 He was one of the original founders of 
 the Broadway Tabernacle and of the 
 Church of the Pilgrims and Plymouth 
 Church, Brooklyn. He heartily adopted 
 the anti-slavery views of Arthur and 
 Lewis Tappan, and, with a view to pro- 
 viding an organ for liberal and anti-slav- 
 ery Congregationalism, he established 
 "The Independent" in 1848, under the 
 editorship of Dr. Leonard Bacon, Dr. 
 Joseph P. Thompson, Dr. R. S. Storrs, 
 and Dr. Joshua Leavitt. When the orig- 
 inal editors retired, he made the paper un- 
 denominational, under the editorship of 
 Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. After 1871 
 he was himself editor, as well as pro- 
 prietor and publisher, withdrawing from 
 all other business. He died in Brooklyn, 
 New York, February 24, 1896. 
 
 WILLARD, Frances Elizabeth, 
 
 Educator. Temperance Reformer. 
 
 Frances Elizabeth Willard was born in 
 Churchville, New York, September 28, 
 1839, daughter of Josiah Flint and Mary 
 Thompson (Hill) Willard; granddaugh- 
 ter of John and Polly (Thompson) Hill; 
 and a descendant of Major-General Simon 
 Willard, who came from Horsmonden, 
 England, in 1634, and founded Concord, 
 Massachusetts, in 1635, serving as judge 
 of the supreme, superior and admiralty 
 courts. 
 
 She was taken by her parents to Ober- 
 lin, Ohio, in 1840, and in 1846 to Wiscon- 
 sin, where her mother engaged in teach- 
 ing school and her father in farming. She 
 attended the Milwaukee Female College 
 in 1857 ; and was graduated from the 
 Northwestern Female College, Evanston, 
 
 Illinois, in 1859. She was Professor of 
 Natural Science in the last-named col- 
 lege, in 1862-66; and preceptress of Gene- 
 see Wesleyan Seminary, Lima, New York, 
 in 1866-67. She studied and traveled in 
 Europe and the Holy Land in 1868-70. 
 From 1871 to 1874 she was president of 
 the Woman's College of Northwestern 
 University, and introduced the system of 
 self-government which became generally 
 adopted in other colleges. She was Pro- 
 fessor of ^Esthetics in the Northwestern 
 University in 1873-74, resigning in the 
 latter year to identify herself with the 
 cause of temperance. She was corres- 
 ponding secretary of the National 
 Women's Christian Temperance Union 
 from 1874 to 1878, and president of the 
 Union from 1879 to l &9%- In l %& 2 sne 
 became a member of the central commit- 
 tee of the National Prohibition party, and 
 in 1883 toured the United States, organ- 
 izing and strengthening the women's tem- 
 perance work. She also founded in 1883 
 and was president (1883-98) of the 
 World's Women's Christian Temperance 
 Union. She presented, under the aus- 
 pices of the National Women's Christian 
 Temperance Union, memorials to each of 
 the four political conventions for the 
 nomination of president of the United 
 States in 1884. She was a founder of the 
 Home Protection party in 1884, and a 
 member of its executive committee, and 
 accepted the leadership of the White 
 Cross movement in her own union in 
 1886, which remained her special depart- 
 ment until her death. She was president 
 of the Woman's Council of the United 
 States from its organization in 1887; a 
 delegate to the General Conference of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church in 1887, and 
 was elected to the Ecumenical Confer- 
 ence of 1889, but was refused admittance. 
 She was president of the American branch 
 of the International Council of Women 
 of the World's Women's Christian Tem- 
 
 37 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 perance Union in 1888; chairman of the 
 World's Temperance Committee of the 
 Columbian Exposition in 1893, and was 
 also head of the purity work of the 
 World's and National Women's Chris- 
 tian Temperance Unions. The honorary 
 degree of Master of Arts was conferred 
 upon her by Syracuse University, 1871, 
 and that of Doctor of Laws by Ohio Wes- 
 leyan University in 1894. She lectured 
 extensively in Europe and the United 
 States on temperance; edited the "Chi- 
 cago Daily Post," and the "Union Sig- 
 nal ;" was a director of the Women's Tem- 
 perance Publishing Association of Chi- 
 cago; associate editor of "Our Day," Bos- 
 ton, Massachusetts ; and author of : "Nine- 
 teen Beautiful Years" (1864) ; "Women 
 and Temperance" (1883) ; "Hints and 
 Helps" (1875); "How to Win" (1884); 
 "Glimpses of Fifty Years" (1889) ; 
 "Woman in the Pulpit" (1888); "A 
 Classic Town" (1890) ; and the following 
 leaflets : "A White Life for Two," "The 
 White Cross Manual," and "The Coming 
 Brotherhood." 
 
 She died in New York City, February 
 18, 1898. A white marble bust by Lorado 
 Taft was placed to her memory in North- 
 western University in 1898. Her estate 
 was bequeathed to the eventual benefit of 
 the National Women's Christian Tem- 
 perance Union. 
 
 INGERSOLL, Robert Green, 
 
 Lawyer, Orator, Author. 
 
 Robert Green Ingersoll was born at 
 Dresden, Yates county, New York, Au- 
 gust n, 1833, son of John and Mary 
 (Livingston) Ingersoll. His father was 
 a Congregational clergyman, well known 
 in New York State for his eloquence and 
 broad views ; his mother was a daughter 
 of Judge Robert Livingston, of Ogdens- 
 burg, New York, and his wife, Agnes O. 
 Adams. 
 
 Having completed his education in the 
 schools of Illinois, whither his father had 
 removed in 1843, Robert G. Ingersoll stud- 
 ied law and was admitted to the bar. He 
 opened an office at Shawneetown, Illinois, 
 in partnership with his elder brother, 
 Eben C. Ingersoll, who was representa- 
 tive in Congress from Illinois (1864-70), 
 and both became active in law and poli- 
 tics. In 1857 he removed to Peoria, Illi- 
 nois, then a rapidly growing business 
 centre, and here in i860 he was an unsuc- 
 cessful candidate for Congress on the 
 Democratic ticket. From the opening of 
 the Civil War he was active in his ad- 
 vocacy of the Federal cause, and in 1862 
 went to the front as colonel of the Elev- 
 enth Illinois Cavalry Regiment. He was 
 captured and held prisoner for several 
 months, but was finally exchanged, and 
 in 1864 resigned from the army to resume 
 the practice of law. 
 
 Having changed his allegiance to the 
 Republican party, in 1866. Mr. Ingersoll 
 was appointed attorney-general of Illi- 
 nois, and further demonstrated his polit- 
 ical importance as delegate to several suc- 
 cessive national conventions. In the con- 
 vention of 1876 he proposed the name of 
 James G. Blaine as candidate for presi- 
 dent, with a brilliant oration, in which he 
 originated the famous title, "Plumed 
 Knight" as a designation for the Maine 
 senator. In 1877 he declined appoint- 
 ment as minister to Germany. He ap- 
 peared is several historic litigations, most 
 notedly as counsel for the alleged "Star 
 Route" conspirators, Brady and Dorsey, 
 when he secured an acquittal. On ac- 
 count of his enhanced reputation he re- 
 moved to Washington City, and some 
 years later to New York City, where he 
 resided until his death. 
 
 He was one of the most eloquent and 
 powerful orators of the day; he had few 
 equals before a jury, and was equally ac- 
 ceptable as a campaign speaker and on 
 
 38 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 the lecture platform II is widest reputa- 
 tion, however, rests on his many attacks 
 on certain popular forms of Christain 
 teaching, as well as on the divine author- 
 ity of the Bible, and which abounded in 
 sarcasm and humor. His lectures, which 
 were published complete in 1883, con- 
 tain such titles as "The Gods," "Ghosts," 
 "Skulls," "Some Mistakes of Moses." 
 Some of the best sayings were issued in 
 book form in 1884, under the title, "Prose 
 Poems and Selections." He also lectured 
 repeatedly on the life and work of 
 Thomas Paine and on Shakespeare. Colo- 
 nel Ingersoll was pre-eminent among 
 modern orators for high poetical power 
 and command of apt and beautiful 
 imagery in expressing his ideas. He had 
 few, if any, equals in his ability to touch 
 the deepest chords of feeling. 
 
 In 1862 he was married to Eva A. 
 Parker, of Groveland, Illinois. They had 
 two daughters. He died at Dobbs Ferry, 
 New York, July 21, 1899. 
 
 STANTON, Elizabeth Cady, 
 
 Reformer. 
 
 Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in 
 Johnstown, New York, November 12, 
 1815 ; daughter of Judge Daniel Cady and 
 Margaret (Livingston) Cady; and grand- 
 daughter of Colonel James Livingston. 
 
 She was graduated from Johnstown 
 Academy, taking the second prize in 
 Greek, in 1829, and from Mrs. EmmaWil- 
 lard's seminary, Troy, New York, in 1832. 
 She subsequently read law in her father's 
 office, also acting as his amanuensis, and 
 through this environment became inter- 
 ested in obtaining equal laws for women. 
 She was married, May 1, 1840, to Henry 
 Brewster Stanton, whom she accom- 
 panied to the World's Anti-Slavery Con- 
 vention at London, England, participat- 
 ing in the debate in regard to the admis- 
 sion of women as delegates to the con- 
 
 vention. While abroad, she formed a 
 friendship with Mrs. Lucretia Mott, with 
 whom she issued the call for the first 
 Woman's Rights Convention, held in 
 Seneca Falls, New York, July 19-20, 
 1848, and which inaugurated the woman 
 suffrage movement. Although not ad- 
 mitted to the bar, as women were not 
 at that time, she became really a great 
 lawyer, especially versed in constitu- 
 tional law. In 1848 she secured the 
 passage of her "married woman's prop- 
 erty bill," and in 1854 addressed both 
 houses of the New York Legislature in 
 opposition to the unjust laws for women. 
 She again addressed the legislature in 
 i860, by request, advocating divorce for 
 drunkenness, and in 1867 urged upon the 
 legislature and the State Constitutional 
 ('(invention the right of women to vote, 
 and she subsequently canvassed numer- 
 ous States in behalf of equal suffrage. 
 She was a candidate for representative in 
 the United States Congress in 1868, and 
 from 1868 annually appeared before a 
 committee of congress, advocating a six- 
 teenth amendment to the constitution of 
 the LJnited States, granting suffrage to 
 women. She stands historically as for 
 years the foremost and ablest cham- 
 pion of female suffrage and the enlarge- 
 ment of the legal rights of her sex. 
 She resided in Tenafly. New Jersey, 
 1870-90, and subsequently in New York 
 Citv. She was the mother of Dan- 
 iel Cady Stanton, Louisiana State Sena- 
 tor, 1870; Henry Stanton (Columbia, 
 Bachelor of Law, 1865). corporation law- 
 yer; Plon. Gerrit Smith Stanton (Colum- 
 bia. Bachelor of Law, 1865) ; Theodore 
 Stanton (Cornell, Bachelor of Arts, 1876; 
 Master of Arts), journalist and author of 
 "Woman Question in Europe ;" Margaret 
 Stanton Lawrence (Vassar, Bachelor of 
 Arts, 1876), professor of physical train- 
 ing; Harriet Stanton Blatch (Vassar, 
 Bachelor of Arts, 187S; Master of Arts), 
 
 .TO 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 president New York Equal Suffrage 
 League (1902-03) ; Robert Livingston 
 Stanton (Cornell, Bachelor of Science, 
 1880; Columbia, Bachelor of Law, 1881). 
 Mrs. Stanton was president of the na- 
 tional committee of her party, 1855-65 ; 
 of the Woman's Loyal League, 1861 ; of 
 the National Woman Suffrage Associa- 
 tion, 1865-93, and honorary president, 
 1893-1903 ; and first president and founder 
 of the International Council of Women, 
 1888. In 1868, with Susan B. Anthony 
 and Parker Pillsbury, she established and 
 edited "The Revolution," a weekly re- 
 form newspaper. She was the author of : 
 "The History of Woman Suffrage" (with 
 Susan B. Anthony and Matilda J. Gage, 
 three volumes, 1880-86; volume four, 
 1903) ; "Eighty Years and More," an auto- 
 biography (1895) ! "The Woman's Bible" 
 (1895) ; and of contributions to period- 
 icals at home and abroad. Her eightieth 
 birthday (1895) was widely celebrated. 
 She died in New York City, October 2, 
 1902, the funeral address being delivered 
 by the Rev. Moncure D. Conway, and 
 was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, New 
 York City, where her husband was also 
 buried, the Rev. Phoebe A. Hanaford 
 officiating. A memorial service was held 
 in New York City, on November 19, 
 1902, William Lloyd Garrison delivering 
 an address. 
 
 CLEVELAND, Grover, 
 
 Lawyer, Statesman, President. 
 
 Grover Cleveland, son of Rev. Richard 
 Falley and Ann (Neal) Cleveland, was 
 born March 18, 1837, in Caldwell, New 
 Jersey, in a small two-story building 
 which was the parsonage of the Presby- 
 terian church of which his father was 
 then pastor, and which is yet standing. 
 He was named Stephen Grover for his 
 father's predecessor in the pastorate, but 
 in childhood the first name was dropped. 
 
 When he was three years old his par- 
 ents removed to Fayetteville, Onondaga 
 county, New York, where he lived until 
 he was fourteen, attending the district 
 school and academy. He was of studious 
 habits, and his frank open disposition 
 made him a favorite with both his teach- 
 ers and fellows. He left the academy be- 
 fore he could complete the course, and 
 took employment in a village store, his 
 wages being fifty dollars for the first year 
 and one hundred dollars for the second 
 year, but soon after the beginning of the 
 latter period he removed to Clinton, New 
 York, whither his parents had preceded 
 him, and resumed studies at the academy 
 in preparation for admission to Hamilton 
 College. The death of his father, how- 
 ever, disappointed this expectation, and 
 made it necessary for him to enter upon 
 self-support. He accordingly accepted a 
 position as bookkeeper and assistant 
 teacher in the New York Institution for 
 the Blind, which he filled acceptably for 
 a year. Starting west in search of more 
 lucrative employment, with twenty-five 
 dollars to defray his expenses, he stopped 
 on the way at Buffalo, New York, to 
 make a farewell visit to his uncle, Lewis 
 F. Allen, a stock farmer, who induced 
 him to remain and aid him in the com- 
 pilation of "Allen's American Shorthorn 
 Herd Book." In return he received the 
 sum of fifty dollars, and with this aid he 
 entered the law offices of Rogers, Bowen 
 & Rogers, at Buffalo, as a clerk and law 
 student. His student life was one of 
 arduous labor and vigorous economy and 
 self-denial. For a few months he served 
 without compensation as a copyist, and 
 then received a wage of four dollars a 
 week. He became confidential clerk to 
 his employers, and was admitted to the 
 bar in 1859. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland's public life began in 
 1863, when he was appointed assistant 
 district attorney for Erie county. A 
 
 40 
 

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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 staunch Democrat from his first studies 
 in American history and politics, he had 
 been a sturdy supporter of his party and 
 an industrious worker from the day in 
 1858 when he cast his first vote. In the 
 office to which he was chosen he acquit- 
 ted himself so well that at the expiration 
 of his term he received the unanimous 
 nomination for district attorney. He had 
 for his Republican opponent a warm per- 
 sonal friend, Lyman K. Bass, who was 
 elected by a plurality of five hundred ; 
 Mr. Cleveland, however, polled more than 
 his party vote in all the city wards. Re- 
 tiring from office in January, 1866, he 
 formed a law partnership with Isaac V. 
 Vanderpoel, former State Treasurer, 
 under the firm name of Vanderpoel & 
 Cleveland. In 1869 he became a mem- 
 ber of the law firm of Laning, Cleveland 
 & Folsom, his partners being Albert P. 
 Laning, former State Senator, and for 
 years attorney for the Canada Southern 
 and Lake Shore railways, and Oscar Fol- 
 som, former United States District At- 
 torney. As in previous years, he sent the 
 large portion of his earnings to his 
 mother, to aid her in support of her fam- 
 ily. In 1870 at the earnest solicitation of 
 his party friends, and against his own 
 earnestly expressed desire, he consented 
 to become candidate for sheriff, and 
 was elected after a stubbornly contested 
 canvass. His official conduct was warmly 
 approved by the people. At the expira- 
 tion of his term of office he resumed the 
 practice of law, in association with Ly- 
 man K. Bass and Wilson S. Bissell. Mr. 
 Bass retired in 1879 on account of ill 
 health, the firm becoming Cleveland & 
 Bissell. In 1881 George J. Sicard was 
 admitted to partnership. During all these 
 changes Mr. Cleveland shared in a large 
 and lucrative business, while he had at- 
 tracted the admiration of bench and bar 
 for the care with which he prepared his 
 
 cases, and the ability and industry with 
 which he contested them. 
 
 In 1 88 1 Mr. Cleveland was nominated 
 for Mayor of Buffalo on a platform ad- 
 vocating administrative reform and econ- 
 omy in municipal expenditures, and was 
 elected by the largest majority ever given 
 a candidate for that office, and at an elec- 
 tion where, although the Democrats car- 
 ried their local ticket to success, the Re- 
 publicans carried the city for their State 
 ticket by more than one thousand plural- 
 ity. His administration carried unstinted 
 approval, for his courageous devotion to 
 the interests of the people and his suc- 
 cess in checking unwise, illegal and ex- 
 travagant expenditures, saving to the city 
 a million dollars in the first six months 
 of his term, and he was a popular favorite 
 as "The Veto Mayor." He was now a 
 State celebrity, and the convention of his 
 party held September 22, 1882, at Syra- 
 cuse, nominated him for Governor. He 
 was elected over the Republican nomi- 
 nee, Charles J. Folger, by the tremendous 
 plurality of 192,854 — the largest plurality 
 ever given a gubernatorial candidate in 
 any state in the Union. Among the chief 
 acts of his administration were his ap- 
 proval of a bill to submit to the people a 
 proposition to abolish contract prison 
 labor; his veto of a bill permitting wide 
 latitude to savings bank directors in in- 
 vestment of deposits ; his veto of a similar 
 bill respecting insurance companies ; and 
 his veto of a bill to establish a monopoly 
 by limiting the right to construct certain 
 street railways to companies heretofore 
 organized, to the exclusion of such as 
 should hereafter obtain the consent of 
 property owners and local authorities. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland was nominated for Pres- 
 ident by the Democratic National Con- 
 vention in Chicago, in July, 1884, receiv- 
 ing 683 votes out of a total of 820. His 
 Republican opponent was Hon. James G. 
 
 4i 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Blaine. The campaign was remarkable 
 for the discussion of the personal char- 
 acters and qualifications of the candidates 
 rather than political principles. At the 
 election Mr. Cleveland received a major- 
 ity of thirty-seven in the Electoral Col- 
 lege, and a majority in the popular vote 
 of 23,005, out of a total of 10,067,610. At 
 his inauguration, March 4, 1885, he de- 
 livered an admirable inaugural address, 
 with flowing ease, and his modesty and 
 sincerity impressed all hearers. He took 
 his official oath upon a small morocco- 
 bound, gilt-edged Bible, a gift from his 
 mother when as a lad he first left home. 
 Among the most important acts of his ad- 
 ministration was his proclamation of 
 March 13, 1885, for the removal of white 
 intruders from Oklahoma, Indian Terri- 
 tory; and, after the burning of Aspinwall, 
 Panama, by the revolutionists, March 31, 
 1885, his ordering a naval expedition to 
 protect American persons and property. 
 Mr. Cleveland was unanimously re- 
 nominated for President in 1888, but was 
 defeated by Benjamin Harrison, Repub- 
 lican, although his plurality in the popu- 
 lar vote was more than 100,000. He then 
 located in the city of New York and again 
 took up his profession. In June, 1892, he 
 was nominated for the Presidency a third 
 time, by the Democratic National Con- 
 vention in Chicago, receiving on the first 
 ballot 617^ votes out of 910, the nomi- 
 nation then being made unanimous. At 
 the election he defeated Benjamin Harri- 
 son by a plurality of no in the Electoral 
 College, and a plurality of 379,150 in the 
 popular vote. He was inaugurated March 
 4, 1S93, m tne presence of a vast multi- 
 tude in midst of a blinding snowstorm. 
 The military and civic parade was more 
 imposing than on any other similar occa- 
 sion. His administration was marked by 
 some most unusual features. His first 
 important act was to call a special session 
 of Congress. August 7, 1893, an< ^ ul P ur " 
 
 suance of his recommendation was re- 
 pealed the act of 1890 calling for the 
 monthly purchase of $4,500,000 of silver 
 bullion. In this he was opposed by the 
 silver wing of his party. Elected as he 
 was on a tariff-reform platform, both 
 houses of Congress were in accord with 
 him on that issue, and in 1894 was passed 
 the Wilson bill, a tariff-for-revenue-only 
 measure. The industrial and financial 
 stagnation of that period was ascribed by 
 the Republicans to this measure, while 
 the Free-Silver Democrats attributed it 
 in large degree to the repeal of the silver- 
 purchase measure, and in November of 
 the same year the Republicans won a 
 protective tariff victory, with the result 
 that during the latter half of President 
 Cleveland's administration he had to deal 
 with a Republican Congress. He per- 
 formed invaluable service to law and 
 order and protection to property by his 
 firm stand with reference to the railroad 
 riots in July, 1894, ordering United States 
 troops to Chicago and other railroad cen- 
 ters to enforce the orders and processes 
 of the Federal Courts, and to prevent 
 interference with inter-state commerce 
 and the transmission of the United States 
 mails. On January 1, 1895, he appointed, 
 with the consent of the Senate, the com- 
 mission to inquire into the Venezuelan 
 boundary. During the insurrection in 
 Cuba he took strong measures against 
 the violation of the neutrality laws. In 
 February, in order to preserve the na- 
 tional credit, he ordered an issue of four 
 per cent, thirty-year bonds to the amount 
 of $62,000,000. May 29th he vetoed the 
 river and harbor bill calling for an imme- 
 diate expenditure of $17,000,000, and au- 
 thorizing contracts for the further sum of 
 $62,000,000, but the bill was passed over 
 his veto. In the summer of the same 
 year he received the signal compliment of 
 being chosen as arbitrator in the dispute 
 between Italv and Colombia, in which the 
 
 42 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 former claimed large pecuniary damages 
 for injuries sustained by Indians during 
 the revolution of 1885. Late in 1895, in 
 his annual message, he recommended a 
 general reform of banking and currency 
 laws, and accomplished the settlement of 
 the Venezuelan boundary, the treaty 
 being signed February 2, 1896. In the 
 latter year he issued an order under which 
 thirty thousand additional posts in the 
 civil service were placed under restric- 
 tions formulated by the Board of Civil 
 Service Commissioners. In the same year 
 he sent General Fitzhugh Lee to Havana 
 as consul-general — an appointment which 
 was approved by a great mass of Union 
 veterans almost as heartily as it was by 
 the ex-Confederates. On June 16, 1896, 
 he issued an open letter condemning the 
 free-silver movement, and approving the 
 principles of the Gold Wing of the Dem- 
 ocratic party, a document which had a 
 salutary and far-reaching effect. Before 
 the expiration of his official term he had 
 the great pleasure of witnessing the exe- 
 cution of a treaty between the United 
 States and Great Britain providing for 
 the establishment of an international 
 tribunal of general arbitration. 
 
 One of President Cleveland's last pub- 
 lic appearances before retiring from his 
 high office, was the delivery of an address 
 at the sesquicentennial celebration of 
 Princeton College, which took on its more 
 appropriate title of University. Shortly 
 afterward he purchased a home in Prince- 
 ton, where his first son was born. Known 
 as a polished and forceful writer, Mr. 
 Cleveland's most important papers have 
 been widely published. His annual mes- 
 sage of 1887 was issued in a sumptuous 
 edition de luxe, illustrated by the famous 
 artist, Thomas Nast. An important com- 
 pilation of his utterances was made by 
 Francis Gottsberger, of New York, under 
 the title, "Principles and Purposes of Our 
 
 Form of Government, As Set Forth In 
 Public Papers of Grover Cleveland," and 
 George F. Parker edited a volume /'Writ- 
 ings and Speeches of Grover Cleveland." 
 In 1904 appeared "Presidential Prob- 
 lems," a volume of essays by Mr. Cleve- 
 land, two of which were originally de- 
 livered at Princeton University, the others 
 being articles which had their original ap- 
 pearance in leading magazines. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland was of striking personal- 
 ity, commanding respect and confidence 
 under all circumstances and before all 
 manner of assemblages. Physically of 
 large and powerful frame, in motion he 
 was deliberate and firm, yet without 
 slowness. In manner and voice he was 
 genial and agreeable. Broad-minded and 
 liberal in thought, he was tolerant and 
 charitable. In religion he was a man of 
 conscience rather than of any set creed. 
 All his personal habits were marked by 
 Democratic simplicity, and totally de- 
 void of ostentation. After his retirement 
 from the loftiest place open to an Amer- 
 ican, he steadily grew in the regard and 
 affection of the people, while publicists 
 and political students are only beginning 
 to adequately measure the wisdom and 
 beneficence which were the characteris- 
 tics of his public career. He died June 
 24, 1 90S. 
 
 In the second year of his first Presi- 
 dential term, June 2, 1886, President 
 Cleveland was married to Miss Frances 
 Folsom, the ceremony being performed 
 by Rev. Byron Sunderland, D. D., in the 
 Blue Room in the White House. Chil- 
 dren : Ruth, born in New York City, Oc- 
 tober 3, 1891 ; Esther C, in Washington 
 City, (the first child ever born in the 
 White House), September 9, 1893; Maria 
 C, at "Gray Gables," Buzzards' Bay. 
 Massachusetts, July 7, 1895 ! Richard 
 Folsom. at Westland, New Jersey, Octo- 
 ber 28, 1897. 
 
 43 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 BIGELOW, John, 
 
 Author, Diplomat. 
 
 John Bigelow was born in Maiden, 
 Ulster county, New York, November 25, 
 1817. He entered Union College at an 
 early age, and was graduated in 1835. 
 On leaving college he entered the office 
 of Robert and Theodore Sedgwick, New 
 York City, and in 1839 began the practice 
 of law. He became a frequent contrib- 
 utor to leading journals, and was editor 
 of "The Plebeian" and the "Democratic 
 Review." His articles attracted much at- 
 tention, especially those on "Constitu- 
 tional Reform;" "The Reciprocal Influ- 
 ences of Religious Liberty and Physical 
 Sciences," and "Executive Patronage." 
 In 1844 he prepared a work entitled "Com- 
 merce of the Prairies," and was otherwise 
 engaged in literary pursuits. He was ap- 
 pointed inspector of the Sing Sing State 
 Prison by Governor Wright in 1845, an ^ 
 held the office three years. During his 
 term of service he made three important 
 reports to the State Legislature concern- 
 ing a more discreet and economical man- 
 agement of the institution. 
 
 He gave up the practice of law in the 
 fall of 1849, and became joint editor and 
 proprietor with William Cullen Bryant 
 of the "New York Evening Post." He 
 visited the island of Jamaica in 1850, and 
 afterward collected his letters to the 
 "Evening Post," and published them in 
 book form under the title, "Jamaica in 
 1850; or the Effect of Sixteen Years of 
 Freedom on a Slave Colon}." He also 
 visited Hayti, and made a careful study 
 of the resources and government of the 
 island, which was given to the "Evening 
 Post" in a series of letters. In 1856 he 
 wrote a biography of John C. Fremont. 
 In 1859 and i860 he was in Europe, and 
 during his absence continued to write to 
 "The Post" sketches of his travels, arti- 
 cles on the political questions of the day. 
 
 and carefully studied essays on conspicu- 
 ous Frenchmen, such as Montesquieu and 
 Buffon. In 1861 he was appointed Con- 
 sul-General to Paris by President Lin- 
 coln, and while there he published his 
 "Les Etats-Unis d'Amerique en 1863." 
 In 1865 Mr. Bigelow was appointed 
 charge d'affaires, and as soon as the sen- 
 timents of the French government could 
 be ascertained, he was confirmed as En- 
 voy Extraordinary and Minister Pleni- 
 potentiary to France, and served as such 
 until 1867. Returning home, he was 
 elected Secretary of State for New York 
 and served during 1867 and 1868. He re- 
 visited Europe in 1870, taking up his resi- 
 dence in Berlin, and during the period of 
 the Franco-German war remained in that 
 city. He then returned home, and was 
 in 1875 appointed a commissioner of State 
 canals by Governor Tilden, and in the 
 same year was re-elected Secretary of 
 State. In 1874 he compiled a "Life of 
 Franklin," which, after much diligent 
 search he had found in France. In 1886, 
 under the authority of the New York 
 Chamber of Commerce, he made an im- 
 portant report concerning the Panama 
 Canal, in recognition of which he was 
 elected an honorary member of the cham- 
 ber. In this year he also received from 
 Racine College, Wisconsin, the degree of 
 Doctor of Laws. By the will of Samuel 
 J. Tilden, Mr. Bigelow was appointed his 
 biographer, and a trustee of the bulk of 
 his estate set apart for the establishment 
 of a public library in New York City. 
 After Mr. Tilden's death, August 4, 1886, 
 the will was broken by the heirs, after a 
 memorable litigation, the Court of Ap- 
 peals making the final decision October 
 27, 1891. One of the heirs, Mrs. Wil- 
 liam B. Hazard, a niece, relinquished to 
 the trustees over two million dollars of 
 her share of the estate to aid in carrying 
 out her uncle's wishes. On February 22, 
 1895, a joint committee representing the 
 
 44 
 
^yLn-SLls^SIS & &-* K. 
 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Tilden fund and the Astor and Lenox 
 libraries, agreed to the establishment of 
 a great public library, to be known as the 
 New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox 
 and Tilden foundations, incorporated by 
 the Act of Legislature, and on May 27, 
 1895, Mr. Bigelow was elected president 
 of the consolidated board of trustees, and 
 was afterwards appointed chairman of 
 the executive committee and of the com- 
 mittee on library books. 
 
 He wrote and published: "Les Etats- 
 Unis dAmerique en 1863" (1863) ; "Some 
 Recollections of the Late Antoine Pierre 
 Berryer" (1869) ; "The Wit and Wisdom 
 of the Haytians" (1876) ; "Molinos the 
 Quietist" (1882) ; "The Life of William 
 Cullen Bryant" (1886) ; "Emanuel Swed- 
 enborg" (1888) ; "France and the Confed- 
 erate Navy, 1862-1868" (1888) ; "The Life 
 of Samuel J. Tilden" (two volumes, 1895), 
 and "The Mystery of Sleep" (1896). He 
 died in 1911. 
 
 MORGAN, John Pierpont, 
 
 Man of Largest Affairs. 
 
 Celtic in origin, the name Morgan, in 
 the principality of Wales, is older than 
 the advent of the Saxon race or language. 
 The derivation has not been conclusively 
 determined, but Dixon, an English au- 
 thority on surnames, says that it means 
 by sea, or by the sea, which is probably 
 as nearly accurate as any explanation 
 may be. The name is allied to the Scotch 
 ceann mor, meaning big head, or perhaps 
 big headland. Another possible deriva- 
 tion is from the Welsh more can, mean- 
 ing sea burn, which is not essentially dif- 
 ferent from the former interpretation, by 
 the sea. The name was common at the 
 time of the Conquest, and appears in the 
 Domesday Book and in the Battle Abbey 
 Roll. 
 
 In the latter part of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury the family from which were derived 
 
 the ancestors of the American branch, 
 moved from Wales to Bristol, England. 
 The immediate family of Miles Morgan, 
 who came to Massachusetts, was of Gla- 
 morganshire, Wales, and there is reason 
 to believe that his father was William 
 Morgan. Among the early families of 
 the American pioneers there was tradi- 
 tion of a little book owned by James Mor- 
 gan, the brother of Miles Morgan, dated 
 before 1600, and inscribed with the name 
 of William Morgan of Llandaff. Other 
 evidence in the shape of antique gold 
 sleeve-buttons stamped "W. M.," in the 
 possession of James Morgan, pointed to 
 the same conclusion, and these were said 
 to have been an heirloom from William 
 Morgan of Llandaff. Arms : Or, a griffin 
 segreant sable. Crest: A reindeer's head 
 couped or, attired gules. Motto: Onward 
 and Upward. 
 
 (I) Miles Morgan, who founded the 
 family of his name in New England, was 
 born probably in Llandaff, Glamorgan- 
 shire, Wales, about 1615. Accompany- 
 ing his older brother James Morgan, who 
 settled in New London, Connecticut, and 
 John Morgan, who went to Virginia, he 
 sailed from Bristol, England, and arrived 
 in Boston in April, 1636. His first resi- 
 dence was in Roxbury, and there it is be- 
 lieved he remained some years. Subse- 
 quently he joined the company which, led 
 by Sir William Pynchon, had founded 
 Agawam (Springfield) on the Connecti- 
 cut river. It is not a historical certainty 
 that he was with the first company which 
 went inland from Boston, or that he was 
 one of the founders of Agawam. That 
 place was established in 1636, and the 
 name of Miles Morgan appears on the 
 records in 1643, showing that he was 
 there before that time, but how long be- 
 fore is not known. 
 
 He became one of the leading men of 
 Agawam. He acquired an extensive tract 
 of land, and was also a trader, sailing a 
 
 45 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 vessel up and down the river. One of the 
 few fortified houses in Agawam belonged 
 to him, and he was one of the leaders of 
 the militia, having the rank of sergeant. 
 In all the fighting in which the little set- 
 tlement was engaged to protect itself 
 from the attack of the surrounding sav- 
 ages, he was much depended upon for his 
 valor and his skill as a soldier. When, 
 during King Philip's War, in 1675, tri e 
 Indians made an attack on Agawam and 
 nearly destroyed the town, his house was 
 the central place of refuge for the be- 
 leagured inhabitants. His sons, follow- 
 ing the footsteps of their father, were 
 two noted Indian hunters, and one of 
 them, Pelatiah Morgan, was killed by the 
 Indians. In the "records or list of ye 
 names of the townsmen or men of this 
 Towne of Springfield in February, 1664, 
 written by Elizur Holyoke," he appears 
 as Serj. Miles Morgan. In 1655-57, 1660- 
 62-68 he was a selectman. He served as 
 constable one year, and at different times 
 as fence viewer, highway surveyor, and 
 overseer of highways, and also on various 
 town committees. He died May 28, 1699. 
 A bronze statue of a Puritan soldier 
 standing in one of the public parks of 
 Springfield enduringly commemorates his 
 fame. 
 
 He married (first) in 1643, Prudence 
 Gilbert, of Beverly Massachusetts. The 
 tradition is that on the vessel on which 
 he came to Boston, Prudence Gilbert was 
 also a passenger, and there he made her 
 acquaintance. She was coming to the 
 new world to join members of her family 
 already located in Beverly. After he had 
 settled in Springfield he sent word to her 
 and proposed marriage. She accepted 
 the offer, and the young man, with two 
 friends and an Indian guide leading pack 
 horses, marched across Massachusetts 
 from the Connecticut river to the "land 
 of the people of the east," where the two 
 young people were married. After the 
 
 marriage the household goods of the 
 young couple were laden on the pack- 
 horses, and the bride, on foot, tramped 
 back to Springfield, one hundred and 
 twenty miles, escorted by the bridegroom 
 and his friends. She died January 14, 
 1660. He married (second) February 15, 
 1670, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas and 
 Margaret Bliss. 
 
 (II) Nathaniel, son of Miles and Eliz- 
 abeth (Bliss) Morgan, was born in 
 Springfield, June 14, 1671. He settled in 
 West Springfield, where he made his 
 home during his entire life and was a suc- 
 cessful farmer. He died August 30, 1752. 
 He married, January 17, 1691, Hannah 
 Bird, who died June 7, 1751. Of the 
 seven sons and two daughters of this 
 marriage, all the sons and one daughter 
 lived to be over seventy years of age. 
 
 (III) Joseph, son of Nathaniel and 
 Hannah (Bird) Morgan, was born De- 
 cember 3, 1702. He lived on the paternal 
 farm in West Springfield. He died No- 
 vember 7, 1773. He married, in 1735, 
 Mary Stebbins, daughter of Benjamin 
 Stebbins ; she was born July 6, 1712, and 
 died December 6, 1798. 
 
 (IV) Joseph (2), son of Joseph (1) 
 and Mary (Stebbins) Morgan, was born 
 February 19, 1736. He was a captain of 
 militia, and in character as well as in 
 physique he was reckoned one of the 
 staunchest men of western Massachu- 
 setts. He married, September 9, 1765, 
 Experience Smith, born October 23, 1741. 
 
 (V) Joseph (3), son of Joseph (2) and 
 Experience (Smith) Morgan, was born 
 January 4, 1780. Leaving home when he 
 was a young man, he settled in Hartford, 
 Connecticut, and became a successful and 
 respected hotelkeeper. He died in 1847. 
 He married Sarah Spencer, of Middle- 
 town, Connecticut. 
 
 (VI) Junius Spencer, son of Joseph 
 (3) and Sarah (Spencer) Morgan, was 
 born in West Springfield, Massachusetts, 
 
 46 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 April 14, 1813. His early years were 
 spent in Hartford, Connecticut, where he 
 was educated. When he had grown to 
 manhood he went to Boston and entered 
 the banking house of Albert Wells, where 
 he gained his first knowledge of that busi- 
 ness in which he afterward became suc- 
 cessful and distinguished. In July, 1834, 
 he moved to New York, entering the 
 banking house of Morgan, Ketchum & 
 Company. Remaining in New York only 
 about two years, he returned to his native 
 city and there established himself in busi- 
 ness as a dry goods merchant in the firms 
 of Howe, Mather & Company and Mather, 
 Morgan & Company. Subsequently he 
 went again to Boston, and, still continu- 
 ing in the dry goods business, became a 
 partner of J. M. Beebe in the famous firm 
 of Beebe, Morgan & Company, which in 
 its prime was one of the largest and most 
 influential houses in that trade in the 
 United States. 
 
 Mr. Morgan visited England in 1853, 
 and, upon the invitation of George Pea- 
 body, became associated with that great 
 banker as his partner in October. 1854. 
 In ten years he succeeded entirely to the 
 business of Mr. Peabody, and established 
 the house of J. S. Morgan & Company, 
 which shortly became one of the largest 
 banking houses in the world. The later 
 years of his life were spent largely abroad, 
 but he never lost his love for his native 
 country', and during the civil war he gave 
 substantial assistance to the cause of the 
 national government. He was a man of 
 generous instincts, and contributed hand- 
 somely to the support of educational and 
 public institutions. His activity as a lay- 
 man in the affairs of the Protestant Epis- 
 copal church was noteworthy, and among 
 other institutions. Trinity College, of 
 Hartford. Connecticut, owed much to his 
 munificence. He died in Nice, France, 
 in 1895, as tne result of an accident. He 
 married, in Boston, in 1836, Juliet Pier- 
 
 pont, daughter of Rev. John and Alary 
 Sheldon (Lord) Pierpont. 
 
 (VII) John Pierpont Morgan, only son 
 of Junius Spencer and Juliet (Pierpont) 
 Morgan, was born in Hartford, Connecti- 
 cut, April 17, 1837; died in Rome, Italy, 
 March 31, 191 3. 
 
 He was educated in the English high 
 school in Boston, and then studied in the 
 University of Gottingen, Germany, where 
 he completed a full course, returning to 
 the United States when twenty years of 
 age. He engaged in the banking busi- 
 ness with Duncan Sherman & Company, 
 of New York City, in 1857, and there ob- 
 tained a full knowledge of finance in a 
 house which at that time was one of the 
 most prominent in the country. In i860 
 he became American agent and attorney 
 for George Peabody & Company, of Lon- 
 don, with which house his father was 
 connected, and in 1864 he engaged in 
 banking on his own account in the firm 
 of Dabney, Morgan & Company. In 1871 
 he became a member of the famous bank- 
 ing house of Drexel, Morgan & Company, 
 the name of which in 1895 was changed 
 to J- P. Morgan & Company. At the 
 same time he was also a member of the 
 firm of J. S. Morgan & Company, of Lon- 
 don, of which his father was the founder, 
 and, upon the death of his parent, he suc- 
 ceeded him in that concern. Thus he was 
 head of the greatest private bank in Amer- 
 ica, and of one of the most influential 
 monetary institutions in England. 
 
 His pre-eminence as a banker and finan- 
 cier was recognized for nearly a quarter 
 of a century. In those respects he was 
 one of the most potent powers that the 
 United States has ever known, and rival- 
 led even the strongest men in Europe. 
 In the wonderful industrial and financial 
 development which characterized the clos- 
 ing years of the nineteenth century in the 
 United States, and especially in the de- 
 velopment of that movement toward the 
 
 47 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 consolidation of industrial enterprises, 
 Mr. Morgan was not only prominent, but 
 it is not too much to say that, at that 
 time, he exercised the most powerful and 
 helpful influence ever displayed by any 
 man in the financial history of the coun- 
 try. Particularly will his genius and in- 
 defatigable labors in the organization and 
 development of the United States Steel 
 Corporation be long remembered as a 
 masterly achievement, and, in the opin- 
 ion of many, as laying the substantial 
 foundation for the great industrial pros- 
 perity of the country which followed in 
 the years immediately after this accom- 
 plishment. 
 
 Mr. Morgan was connected with nearly 
 all notable financial undertakings of his 
 time, and his influence was always of the 
 soundest character and conducive to the 
 public welfare as well as to the investing 
 interests. A list of the important re- 
 organizations of railroad companies, the 
 negotiations of loans, and the underwrit- 
 ing of industrial enterprises which have 
 been handled by him would be long and 
 imposing. Also in public affairs were his 
 services to the country of inestimable 
 value. Especially in 1894 and 1895, an< i 
 at other times of threatened monetary 
 stringency, he contributed substantially 
 and effectively to protecting the credit of 
 the United States treasury. 
 
 Although, when the banking disturb- 
 ances which developed in New York City 
 in the autumn of 1907 threatened to over- 
 whelm the entire country with supreme 
 disaster, he had been largely retired from 
 active participation in affairs, Mr. Mor- 
 gan came forward again to save the situ- 
 ation. In the grave emergency which 
 then arose he took the lead in measures 
 instituted to prevent the widespread de- 
 struction of public credit and overthrow 
 of industrial and financial institutions 
 that was imminent. His leadership in 
 
 those trying days was unreservedly ac- 
 cepted by men who were foremost in the 
 financial world in New York City, and 
 as well throughout the United States. 
 Among his associates he was relied upon 
 for initiative and for powerful influence, 
 and even the national administration de- 
 pended upon his advice and his assist- 
 ance. After the battle had been won and 
 confidence restored, it was everywhere 
 recognized that his financial genius and 
 his masterly control of men and affairs 
 had been the main instruments in saving 
 the country, if not the world, from the 
 worst disaster that had impended for a 
 generation. The great masters of finance 
 in London, Paris, and other monetary 
 centers of Europe did not withhold their 
 warmest praise and indorsement of his 
 accomplishment, while his associates in 
 the American fields of finance and indus- 
 try have been profuse in acknowledgment 
 of the pre-eminent service that he ren- 
 dered to the country. 
 
 Mr. Morgan was also a large investor 
 in the great business enterprises of the 
 country, and a director in more than two 
 score financial, railroad, and industrial 
 corporations. Typically foremost among 
 the enterprises in which he held impor 
 tant interests and exercised pronounced 
 influence in the direction of their affairs 
 were the following: The United States 
 Steel Corporation, the Cleveland, Cincin- 
 nati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad Com- 
 pany, the First National Bank of the City 
 of New York, the General Electric Com- 
 pany, the Lake Erie & Western Railroad 
 Company, the Lake Shore & Michigan 
 Southern Railway Company, the Michi- 
 gan Central Railroad Company, the Na- 
 tional Bank of Commerce of New York, 
 the New York & Harlem River Railroad 
 Company, the New York Central & Hud- 
 son River Railroad Company, the New 
 York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Company, the West Shore Railroad Com- 
 pany, and the Western Union Telegraph 
 Company. 
 
 A man of broad culture and refined 
 tastes, Mr. Morgan did not confine him- 
 self to business affairs. He was particu- 
 larly interested in art, being one of its 
 most generous patrons, and one of the ac- 
 complished connoisseurs of the world. 
 Some of the finest works of the great 
 masters of olden times and of the present 
 were owned by him. His collection of 
 art objects is recognized as one of the 
 largest, most important, and most valu- 
 able ever brought together by a single 
 private individual. A considerable part 
 of this great collection was acquired dur- 
 ing the ten years or so preceding 1908, 
 and has been kept in Kensington Mu- 
 seum, London, in the Metropolitan Mu- 
 seum of Art, in New York City, and in 
 Mr. Morgan's private galleries in London 
 and New York. It consists not only of 
 rare and valuable paintings, but exquisite 
 porcelains, marble reliefs, bronzes, en- 
 amels, fabrics, and other objects. 
 
 Mr. Morgan's New York residence was 
 in Madison avenue, and he had a country 
 seat, "Cragston," at Highland Falls, New 
 York. He also had a house at Roehamp- 
 ton, near Wimbledon, a suburb of Lon- 
 don, and one near Kensington. Adjoin- 
 ing his New York City residence he had 
 a fine private art gallery which con- 
 tains many of his art treasures. He was 
 a member of the leading clubs of New 
 York City and London, was one of the 
 founders and president of the Metropoli- 
 tan Club of New York, and was for sev- 
 eral years commodore of the New York 
 Yacht Club. Particularly interested in 
 the Metropolitan Art Museum, he was a 
 generous benefactor to that institution 
 and was its president. He arranged to 
 erect in Hartford, Connecticut, an art 
 building in memory of his father, to be 
 called the Morgan Memorial ; the corner- 
 
 N Y— Vol II— 4 
 
 stone of this edifice was laid April 23, 
 1908. He was one of the trustees of Co- 
 lumbia University, a director or trustee 
 of various other educational and philan- 
 thropic institutions, a member of the 
 Protestant Episcopal church, and several 
 times was a lay delegate from the diocese 
 of New York to the general conventions 
 of that religious body. 
 
 He married (first) Amelia, daughter of 
 Jonathan and Mary (Cady) Sturgess, of 
 New York City. She died, and he mar- 
 ried (second) in 1865, Frances Louise, 
 daughter of Charles and Louise (Kirk- 
 land) Tracy, of New York City: Issue: 
 1. John Pierpont Morgan, born 1867; 
 graduated from Harvard University, class 
 of 1889, and since then has been engaged 
 in the banking business with his father. 
 He resides in Madison avenue, New York 
 City, and is a member of the Metropoli- 
 tan, Union, University, Riding, New York 
 Yacht, and other clubs. He married, in 
 1 891, Jane Norton Grew, daughter of 
 Henry Sturgis and Jane Norton (Wig- 
 glesworth) Grew, of Boston ; she was 
 born in Boston, September 30, 1868. They 
 have one son, Junius Spencer Morgan, 
 born in 1892. 2. Louisa Pierpont Mor- 
 gan, married Herbert L. Satterlee. 3. 
 Juliet Pierpont Morgan, married W. Pier- 
 son Hamilton. 4. Anne Tracy Morgan. 
 
 GRANT, Ulysses Simpson, 
 
 Distinguished Soldier, President. 
 
 Ulysses Simpson Grant, eighteenth 
 President of the United States, was born 
 at Point Pleasant, Ohio, April 27, 1822, 
 the eldest son of Jesse Root and Hannah 
 (Simpson) Grant; grandson of Captain 
 Noah and Rachel (Kelly) Grant, and of 
 John Simpson, of Montgomery county, 
 Pennsylvania ; great-grandson of Noah 
 and Susannah (Delano) Grant, and of 
 John Simpson, an early settler in Penn- 
 sylvania ; great-great-grandson of Noah 
 
 49 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 and Martha ^Huntington) Grant; great- 
 great-great-grandson of Samuel and 
 Grace (Miner) Grant; great-great-great- 
 great-grandson of Samuel and Mary 
 (Porter) Grant; and great-great-great- 
 great-great-grandson of Matthew and 
 Priscilla Grant, who left Plymouth, Eng- 
 land, on the ship "Mary and John," 
 landed at Nantasket, Massachusetts, and 
 purchased land of the Indians at East 
 Windsor Hill, Connecticut, where the 
 settlement and the farm remained the 
 property of the Grant family, and in 1900 
 was occupied by Roswell Grant. In the 
 homestead built in 1697, tne descendants 
 of Matthew Grant have lived in peace ex- 
 cept for two years during the Revolution- 
 ary War, when it was used as a prison 
 for captured British officers. 
 
 The father of Ulysses S. Grant was a 
 tanner, and also owner of a small farm 
 at Point Pleasant, and Ulysses, prefer- 
 ring farm work and driving horses to 
 work in the tannery, was indulged in his 
 preference, and besides conducting the 
 farm and grinding bark at the tannery, 
 he cared for the horses, did the teaming, 
 and carried passengers between the neigh- 
 boring towns. He attended the subscrip- 
 tion school of the village, and was sent 
 for the term of 1836-37 to the academy at 
 Maysville, Kentucky. His father was 
 ambitious to give him a better education 
 than the neighborhood afforded, and as 
 the boy had saved over one hundred dol- 
 lars of his earnings with which to pay his 
 entrance fees to some school, he consult- 
 ed with Ulysses as to his preference, and 
 the boy selected the United States Mili- 
 tary Academy at West Point. His father 
 wrote to Senator Samuel Morris, at 
 Washington, applying for an appoint- 
 ment, and was referred to Representative 
 Thomas L. Hamer, of Georgetown. In 
 writing to Mr. Hamer, who was an ac- 
 quaintance of the family, Mr. Grant re- 
 ferred to his son as H. Ulysses, the boy 
 
 having at his birth received the name of 
 Hiram Ulysses. Just before leaving for 
 West Point, young Grant changed the 
 initials on his trunk from H. U. G. to 
 U. H. G., and entered his name at the 
 hotel "Ulysses H. Grant." When Rep- 
 resentative Hamer filled the official ap- 
 pointment, knowing his familiar name 
 and also the maiden name of his mother 
 (Simpson), he wrote the name Ulysses 
 S. Grant. When the young cadet reached 
 West Point he notified the officials of the 
 error, but they were not willing to cor- 
 rect it, and he adopted the official name. 
 At the academy he had among his class- 
 mates Sherman, Thomas, McClellan, 
 Burnside, Hancock, Rosecrans, Pope, 
 Franklin, Longstreet, Ingalls, and several 
 others who afterward became prominent 
 in the Civil War. He was a good mathe- 
 matician and a superior horseman, but 
 only an average student, and was gradu- 
 ated twenty-first in the class of thirty- 
 nine in 1843. He was brevetted second 
 lieutenant and attached to the Fourth In- 
 fantry, stationed at Jefferson barracks, 
 Missouri. The next year he accompanied 
 the regiment to Camp Salubrity, Louisi- 
 ana, and in September, 1845. received his 
 commission as second lieutenant, and 
 with his regiment was ordered to Corpus 
 Christi, to become part of the army of 
 occupation recruiting for General Tay- 
 lor's invasion of Mexico. His first battle 
 was Palo Alto, May 8, 1846, and at 
 Resaca de la Palma the next day he was 
 in command of the company. As regi- 
 mental quartermaster of the Fourth In- 
 fantry, he was given charge of the pack- 
 train and army wagons on the march of 
 the army to Monterey. In the reduction 
 of Black Fort, on September 21, he joined 
 his regiment, and being the only officer 
 mounted, led the charge, taking full com- 
 mand on the death of the adjutant. When 
 General Taylor called for a volunteer to 
 order up the delayed ammunition train. 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 then far in the rear, cut off from the com- 
 manding general and his forces by the 
 Mexicans, Lieutenant Grant performed 
 the hazardous mission with success. 
 With his regiment he was transferred to 
 the army under General Scott, and 
 reached Vera Cruz on March 9, 1847. He 
 took part in the siege that terminated in 
 the capture of the city, March 29, 1847. 
 In the march to the Mexican capital he 
 fought in the battle of Cerro Gordo, April 
 17-18; the capture of San Antonio, and 
 the battle of Churubusco, August 20, and 
 the battle of Molino del Rey, September 
 8, 1847. For action in the last-named 
 battle he was brevetted first lieutenant, 
 and for action in the battle of Chapul- 
 tepec he was brevetted captain. He was 
 personally commended by General Worth 
 for his bravery as exhibited on the march, 
 and on reaching the Mexican capital he 
 was promoted to first lieutenant. He had 
 as companion officers in Mexico, Davis. 
 Lee, Johnston, Holmes, Pemberton. 
 Euckner, Longstreet, Hebert, and other 
 noted Confederate leaders. He remained 
 in Mexico until the summer of 1848, when 
 he accompanied his regiment to Pasca- 
 goula, Mississippi. He was then sta- 
 tioned at Detroit, Michigan, and Sackett 
 Harbor, New York, and in July, 1852, 
 was ordered with the Fourth United 
 States Infantry to San Francisco, Cali- 
 fornia, and Fort Vancouver, Oregon, by 
 way of New York and the Isthmus of 
 Darien. His position as quartermaster 
 made his labors severe in crossing the 
 isthmus, as the recruits were attacked by 
 yellow fever. On August 5, 1853, he was 
 promoted to captain, at Fort Humboldt, 
 California. 
 
 Not finding army life in the far west 
 congenial, he resigned his commission, 
 July 31, 1854, and returned to New York, 
 where he borrowed fifty dollars of a class- 
 mate, S. B. Buckner, which sum enabled 
 him to reach his father's home at Cov- 
 
 ington, Kentucky. He then went to St. 
 Louis, and settled on a farm near that 
 city, which, together with three slaves, 
 had been given to his wife as a wedding 
 gift by her father. In May, i860, failing 
 to succeed either as farmer, a real estate 
 agent, or a collector of taxes, he removed 
 his family to Galena, Illinois, where he 
 was a clerk in his father's store, con- 
 ducted by his two brothers and a brother- 
 in-law. At the outbreak of the Civil War 
 he presided at a patriotic meeting held at 
 Galena to raise a company for service in 
 the Federal army, and volunteered to 
 drill the Jo Daviess Guard, a company of 
 volunteers then forming. On April 25, 
 1861, he took the company to Springfield, 
 where Governor Yates secured his tem- 
 porary services as mustering officer in 
 the adjutant-general's office. He then 
 wrote to the adjutant-general at Wash- 
 ington, D. C, offering his services to the 
 government, but the War Department 
 never answered his communication. After 
 visiting Cincinnati, Ohio, to see his class- 
 mate, George B. McClellan, and after 
 offering his services to Governor Deni- 
 son at Columbus, Ohio, he returned to 
 Springfield, Illinois, and entered the vol- 
 unteer service as colonel of the Twenty- 
 first Illinois Infantry Regiment, June 17, 
 1861, which regiment he marched into 
 Missouri. On July 31 Colonel Grant was 
 made commander of a sub-district under 
 General John Pope, commanding the 
 military district of Northern Missouri. 
 He was made brigadier-general of volun- 
 teers, August 7, 1861, by President Lin- 
 coln, at the request of Representative 
 Washburne, his commission dating from 
 May 17. He was sent to Ironton, thence 
 to St. Louis, from there to Jefferson City, 
 and back to St. Louis, all within eighteen 
 days, and was finally assigned to the 
 command of the district of southeastern 
 Missouri, with headquarters at Cairo, 
 Illinois. He occupied Paducah, Ken 
 
 5i 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 tucky, September 6, 1861, and on the 
 morning of the 7th attacked the Confed- 
 erate forces at Belmont, Missouri, and 
 with 2,500 men drove out the enemy and 
 captured their camp, after a sharp battle 
 in which he had a horse shot under him. 
 The Confederates were reinforced and re- 
 newed the fight, forcing Grant to fall 
 back to his transports before a force of 
 upwards of 7,000 men. He brought off 
 with him 175 prisoners, and lost 485 men, 
 the Confederate loss being 642. He then 
 conceived the plan of capturing Forts 
 Henry and Donelson by a co-operation of 
 the army with the navy represented by 
 iron-clad gunboats under Commodore 
 Foote. The consent of General H. W. 
 Halleck, the department commander, was 
 reluctantly given after repeated urging, 
 and on February 6, 1862, Fort Henry fell 
 into the hands of the naval force under 
 Admiral Foote. Fort Donelson, with 
 15,000 men, increased on the 15th to 
 27,000, withstood a three days' assault, 
 and, after a desperate effort on the part 
 of the Confederate commanders to cut 
 their way out of the fort, in which Gen- 
 erals Floyd and Pillow escaped in the 
 night on a steamboat, and 3,000 infantry 
 and Forrest's cavalry escaped through 
 the Union lines, General S. B. Buckner 
 unconditionally surrendered on January 
 16, 1862, after some parley, conforming 
 to the terms dictated by General Grant. 
 The capture included 14,623 men, 65 
 cannon, and 17,600 small arms. The loss 
 in killed and wounded was about 2,000 
 on each side. On receiving his parole 
 General Buckner received from Grant a 
 sum of money which enabled him to 
 reach his home with comfort, a thought- 
 ful provision on the part of the conqueror 
 to the conquered, and a return for the 
 favor received by Captain Grant from 
 Buckner in 1854. 
 
 General Grant was made major-general 
 of volunteers, his commission dating Feb- 
 
 ruary 16, 1862. He urged the prompt 
 following up of his victory with an ad- 
 vance on Nashville, and on February 28 
 set out for that place without awaiting 
 orders, after having telegraphed to Gen- 
 eral Halleck that he should proceed if he 
 were not directed to the contrary. He 
 was ordered to remain at Fort Henry, 
 and at the same time was superseded in 
 the command by General Smith. On 
 March 13, 1862, he was restored to com- 
 mand, the Confederate troops having 
 concentrated near Corinth, Mississippi, 
 and he transferred his headquarters on 
 the 17th to Savannah on the Tennessee 
 river, where he found an army of 38,000 
 men encamped on both sides of the river. 
 He immediately mobilized the force on 
 the west bank of the river near Pittsburg 
 Landing with the right resting on Shiloh 
 church, making a line of battle nearly 
 three miles in length. Here he was 
 directed to await the arrival of General 
 Buell's army, 40,000 strong, who were 
 moving through Tennessee by forced 
 marches. On April 6, 1862, the Confed- 
 erate army, under General A. S. John- 
 ston, made an early morning attack on 
 the right of Grant's line and drove it 
 back, following up their success all along 
 the line. About noon General Johnston 
 was killed, and General Beauregard took 
 the command. With the aid of the gun- 
 boats in the river, Grant was enabled by 
 falling back to the river to withstand the 
 the onslaught of Beauregard's troops 
 until Buell came up in the evening, when 
 the fortunes of war turned in favor of the 
 Federal army, and the Confederates fell 
 back upon Corinth. There they en- 
 trenched and maintained their position 
 till May 29, when Beauregard evacuated 
 the place and retreated southward along 
 the line of the Mobile & Ohio railroad. 
 General Halleck took command of the 
 Federal army in person on April n, and 
 Grant became second in command, in 
 
 52 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 charge of the right wing and reserve. 
 The army had been reinforced to about 
 100,000 men, officered by Thomas, Pope, 
 Buell and McClernand, and the Confed- 
 erates were 70,000 strong and entrenched. 
 An advance on Corinth was begun April 
 30, 1862, and on May 30 the place was 
 found evacuated, and Grant moved his 
 headquarters to Memphis, Tennessee. On 
 July 11, 1862, Halleck was appointed gen- 
 eral-in-chief of all the Federal forces ; on 
 July 15 Grant returned to Corinth as 
 commander of the Army of the Tennes- 
 see, and on October 25 he was made com- 
 mander of the Department of the Ten- 
 nessee, including Cairo, Forts Donelson 
 and Henry, Northern Mississippi, and 
 Kentucky and Tennessee west of the 
 Tennessee river. On September 19-20, 
 1862, the battle of Iuka was fought, and 
 on October 3-4 the battle of Corinth, 
 where the Confederates were repulsed 
 with great loss, and on the 5th the battle 
 of the Hatchie River took place, which 
 still further demoralized the Confederate 
 forces, and Grant pursued the retreating 
 army into Mississippi. On November 4, 
 1862, he seized Grand Junction and La 
 Grange, on the 13th the cavalry occupied 
 Holly Springs, and on December 5 Grant 
 reached Oxford. On the 8th he ordered 
 Sherman to take transports down the 
 Mississippi to co-operate in the attack on 
 Vicksburg, and on December 20 the Con- 
 federates recaptured Holly Springs, where 
 the Federals had a large supply of stores. 
 This determined Grant to abandon the 
 land expedition, and he took personal 
 command of the expedition down the 
 Mississippi, establishing his headquarters 
 at Memphis, January 10, 1863, and on the 
 29th with 50,000 men, in co-operation 
 with Admiral Porter's gunboat fleet of 
 280 guns and 800 men, and with the army 
 of General Banks, who was ascending the 
 Mississippi from New Orleans to capture 
 Port Hudson, he began the investment of 
 
 Vicksburg, with the purpose of besieging 
 the city from the high ground to the east 
 of the place. He constructed a canal 
 across the peninsula to open a line for 
 supplies, but was detained by high water 
 and constant breaking of the levees. He 
 next undertook to turn the Mississippi 
 from its course by opening a new chan- 
 nel to the Red river, but this plan, too, 
 was abandoned. He then determined to 
 run the batteries of Vicksburg and ferry 
 the army across the river thirty miles 
 south of Vicksburg, and march to the 
 rear of the city by way of Port Gibson. 
 He drove General Bowen, the Confed- 
 erate commander, out of the place, routed 
 his army, captured 650 prisoners, took 
 possession May 1, 1863, entered Grand 
 Gulf on the 15th. Pemberton was at 
 Vicksburg with 52,000 men, Joseph E. 
 Johnston at Jackson with an equally 
 effective army, and Grant placed his force 
 between the two armies and determined 
 to prevent their concentration. He de- 
 feated Johnston at Raymond, May 12, 
 1863, captured the city of Jackson on the 
 14th, and attacked Pemberton at Cham- 
 pion's Hill on the 16th, defeating him and 
 causing a Confederate loss of 4,000 killed 
 and wounded, besides 3,000 prisoners and 
 30 guns. He carried Big Black River 
 bridge, May 17, where he captured 1,757 
 prisoners and 18 guns, and on the 18th 
 drove Pemberton's army within the works 
 at Vicksburg. The siege began May 23, 
 and by June 30 the Federal army had 220 
 field guns in position and 71,000 troops 
 who, besides conducting the siege, had to 
 defend their rear against the army of 
 Johnston, work night and day in mining 
 the enemy's works, and meet the con- 
 stant assaults in front and rear. Gen- 
 eral Pemberton surrendered July 4, 1863, 
 with 31,600 officers and men, 172 can- 
 non, 60,000 muskets, and quantities of 
 ammunition. On the fall of Vicksburg, 
 Port Hudson surrendered to General 
 
 53 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Banks, and the Mississippi river was 
 opened to the Federal army. Grant was 
 made a major-general in the regular 
 army, and Congress voted a gold medal 
 to him, and its thanks to him and his 
 army. He proposed to the government 
 that he move on Mobile, but was over- 
 ruled, and his army was divided up to re- 
 inforce Banks and Schofield, and for use 
 in Kentucky. He then visited New Or- 
 leans, where he was injured by a fall of 
 his horse. On recovering from his injury 
 he returned to Vicksburg, and on Octo- 
 ber 6, 1863, was directed to send what 
 force he could to Chattanooga to co- 
 operate with Rosecrans, and to report at 
 Cairo to take command of the Military 
 District of the Mississippi. He reached 
 the place October 16, and on October 23, 
 1863, assumed command of the army at 
 Chattanooga, and concentrated his troops 
 around the place. The same day he as- 
 saulted the enemy's lines, continued the 
 assault on the 24th, and on the 25th re- 
 pelled the lines and drove the Confed- 
 erates out of Tennessee, after capturing 
 6,442 men, 40 pieces of artillery, and 7,000 
 stand of small arms. He was in Knox- 
 ville, Tennessee, December 25-28, and 
 then went to Nashville, where he estab- 
 lished his headquarters, January 13, 1864. 
 On March 1, 1864, General Grant was 
 nominated by President Lincoln for lieu- 
 tenant-general, the rank having been re- 
 vived by Congress, and on March 2 the 
 appointment was confirmed by the Sen- 
 ate. He arrived in Washington, D. C, 
 on the 8th, and there first met President 
 Lincoln on the 9th, and received from 
 him his commission. He was given com- 
 mand of the entire Federal army, March 
 12, 1864. and established his headquarters 
 at Culpeper, Virginia, on the 26th. He 
 planned a vigorous and continuous move- 
 ment against the armies of the Confed- 
 eracy wherever stationed, and assigned 
 Sherman to move against Johnston, 
 
 Banks to operate against Mobile, Sigel 
 against Breckinridge, Butler against Rich- 
 mond from the south of the James, and 
 Meade to cover Washington and assume 
 the offensive against the army of Lee — 
 all to move May 4, 1864. Grant fought 
 the battle of the Wilderness, May 5-6-7. 
 On the morning of the nth he sent to 
 Washington the famous sentence: "I pro- 
 pose to fight it out on this line if it takes 
 all summer," and from this time there 
 was continuous fighting between the two 
 armies, Grant directing the Federal move- 
 ments day by day, until April 7, 1865, 
 when Grant sent a note from Farmville 
 to Lee, asking for the surrender of his 
 army. On the morning of the 8th Lee 
 sent his reply that, while his cause was 
 not hopeless, he would be pleased to learn 
 the terms proposed. Grant replied that 
 he would insist on but one condition, that 
 the men and officers surrendered should 
 be disqualified for taking up arms until 
 properly exchanged. Meanwhile the Sec- 
 ond and Sixth Corps were pursuing Lee's 
 troops in full retreat on the north side 
 of the Appomattox, and Sheridan, Ord 
 and the Fifth Corps were equally active 
 on the south side to prevent Lee from 
 escaping toward Lynchburg. Toward 
 midnight, on the 8th, Grant received a 
 note from Lee proposing a meeting at 
 10 o'clock the next morning, the Qth, to 
 make terms that might lead to peace. 
 Grant replied that he had no authority 
 to treat on the subject of peace, but that 
 if the South would lay down their arms, 
 such an act would save thousands of 
 lives and hundreds of millions of prop- 
 erty, and do much toward hastening the 
 event. Lee's advance reached Appomat- 
 tox Court House early in the morning of 
 April 9th, and Ord, Sheridan and Grif- 
 fin reached the same point at the same 
 time, and Lee attacked the Federal cav- 
 alry, but finding infantry also on his 
 front, he sent in a flag of truce with a 
 
 54 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 note to General Grant asking for an inter- 
 view. This note was received while 
 Grant was on the road approaching Ap- 
 pomattox Court House, and he replied 
 that he would move forward and meet 
 the Confederate leader at any place he 
 would designate. The reply from Lee led 
 Grant to a house in the village where, on 
 the afternoon of April 9, 1865, the terms 
 of surrender were drawn up by General 
 Grant and accepted by General Lee, after 
 a conference of three hours. The army 
 of 28,356 men were paroled and afterward 
 20,000 stragglers and deserters came in 
 and were also paroled. Grant promptly 
 suppressed all demonstration of rejoicing 
 on the part of the victorious army on the 
 field and on April 10th started for Wash- 
 ington to hasten the disbanding of the 
 armies and stop needless expense to the 
 government. He left Washington to 
 visit his family on the morning of April 
 14, and consequently was not in the city 
 on the night of the assassination of the 
 President, and the attempted assault on 
 members of the cabinet. He went to Ra- 
 leigh, North Carolina, upon learning of 
 Sherman's unacceptable terms for the 
 surrender of Johnston's army, and, after 
 consulting with General Sherman, allow- 
 ed that commander to renew negotiations 
 and receive the surrender in modified 
 terms, April 26, 1865, when Sherman 
 paroled 31,243 of Johnston's army. Gen- 
 eral Canby captured the defences of Mo- 
 bile, Alabama, April 9, and the city was 
 evacuated on the nth leaving 200 guns 
 and 4,000 prisoners, after 9,000 of the 
 garrison escaped. Wilson's cavalry oper- 
 ating in Alabama captured Selma on 
 April 2, Tuscaloosa on the 5th, occupied 
 Montgomery the capital on the 14th, cap- 
 tured West Point and Columbus, Georgia, 
 on the 16th, and Macon, Georgia, surren- 
 dered on the 21st. The command of 
 Kirby southwest of the Mississippi sur- 
 
 rendered on the 26th, and the Rebellion 
 was ended. 
 
 The people of the whole country were 
 anxious to see and do honor to the hero 
 of Appomattox, and he visited the north- 
 ern states and Canada in June, July and 
 August, 1865, and was everywhere re- 
 ceived with civic, military and social 
 honors. The citizens of New York City 
 welcomed him in November by a ban- 
 quet and reception in which the enthusi- 
 asm knew no bounds. In December he 
 made a tour of the southern States, and 
 his observations made the basis of the 
 reconstruction laws passed by Congress. 
 He defended the rights of paroled mili- 
 tary officers of the late Confederacy 
 against the action of the United States 
 courts in cases of indictment for treason, 
 and claimed that the conditions of sur- 
 render placed such officers outside the 
 jurisdiction of civil courts. In this he 
 opposed the administration, and when it 
 became a personal matter between him- 
 self and the President, he declared his 
 intention to resign his position in the 
 army if the armistice granted by him 
 should be disregarded by the courts or 
 the President. This decision resulted in 
 the abandonment of the position taken 
 by the executive and judicial branches of 
 the government. He visited Buffalo, 
 New York, in June, 1866, and there took 
 effective measures to stop the invasion 
 of Canada by Fenians, accredited citizens 
 of the United States in sympathy with 
 Irish patriots. On July 25, 1866, he was 
 made general of the United States army, 
 a grade higher than had ever before ex- 
 isted in America, and created by Act of 
 Congress as a reward for his services in 
 the suppression of the rebellion. Presi- 
 dent Johnson, in his official position of 
 commander-in-chief of the army, ordered 
 General Grant to proceed on a special 
 mission to Mexico and subsequently to 
 
 55 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 the far west, both of which orders Grant 
 disregarded as not included in his duties 
 as a military officer, and not suggested 
 for the benefit of the army of the coun- 
 try, but made in a spirit of pique because 
 he had refused to approve the policy of 
 the President toward the south. On 
 March 4, 1867, the Thirty-ninth Congress, 
 in order to protect General Grant in his 
 action, passed an act providing that "all 
 orders and instructions relating to mili- 
 tary operations shall be issued through 
 the general of the army," and further 
 provided that the general of the army 
 should "not be removed, suspended or re- 
 lieved from command or assigned to duty 
 elsewhere than at the headquarters at 
 Washington, except at his own request, 
 without the previous approval of the Sen- 
 ate." The clause was attached to the 
 army appropriation bill, which received 
 the signature of the President under pro- 
 test against this clause. The Attorney- 
 General declared the clause unconstitu- 
 tional, and the President undertook to 
 send out this opinion to the district com- 
 manders through the Secretary of War. 
 who refused to distribute the opinion, 
 and the President issued it through the 
 Adjutant-General's office. General Sheri- 
 dan, in command of the Fifth Military 
 District, sought the advice of the general 
 of the army, who replied that a "legal 
 opinion was not entitled to the force of 
 an order," and therefore he was at liberty 
 "to enforce his own construction of the 
 law until otherwise ordered." and in July 
 Congress passed an act making the orders 
 of district commanders "subject to the 
 disapproval of the general of the army." 
 In this way Grant became superior to 
 the President in shaping the affairs of 
 reconstruction in the southern States, and 
 the President met the situation by re- 
 moving General Sheridan immediately 
 after the adjournment of Congress, and 
 appointing General W. S. Hancock in his 
 
 place. Subsequently some of the orders 
 of Hancock were revoked by the general 
 of the army, and this caused some bitter- 
 ness between the two officers, which, 
 however, was not lasting, as when Con- 
 gress undertook to muster Hancock out 
 of the United States service for his acts 
 in Louisiana, Grant opposed the measure 
 and it was defeated, and he soon after 
 recommended Hancock to promotion to 
 the rank of major-general in the regular 
 army, and secured his appointment. On 
 August 12, 1867, President Johnson sus- 
 pended Secretary of War Stanton and 
 appointed Grant secretary ad interim. 
 Grant protested against this action, but 
 retained the position until the Senate had 
 refused to confirm the suspension, Janu- 
 ary 14, 1S68, when Grant informed the 
 President that he could not hold the 
 office in opposition to the will of Con- 
 gress, and General Thomas was appoint- 
 ed in his place. 
 
 The Republican National Convention 
 of 1868 on its first ballot unanimously 
 nominated General Grant for the Presi- 
 dency, and in his letter of acceptance he 
 made use of the famous words: "Let us 
 have peace." In the general election in 
 November, 1868, the electors on his ticket 
 received of the popular vote 3,015,071 to 
 2,709,615 for the Democratic electors and 
 on the meeting of the electoral college in 
 1869 he received 214 votes to 80 for 
 Horatio Seymour, three States (Missis- 
 sippi, Texas and Virginia) not voting. 
 He was inaugurated the eighteenth Presi- 
 dent of the United States, March 4, 1869. 
 He called to his aid as executive advisors, 
 Elihu P>. Washburn, of Illinois, as Secre- 
 tary of State, and on his resignation the 
 same year to accept the mission to France. 
 Hamilton Fish, of New York; George S. 
 Routwell, of Massachusetts, as Secretary 
 of the Treasury ; John A. Rawlins, of Illi- 
 nois, as Secretary of War, and on his 
 death. September 9, 1869, William W. 
 
 56 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Belknap, of Iowa; Jacob D. Cox, of Ohio, 
 as Secretary of the Interior, and on his 
 resignation in December, 1870, Columbus 
 Delano, of Ohio; Adolph E. Borie, of 
 Pennsylvania, as Secretary of the Navy, 
 and on his resignation, June 22, 1869, 
 George M. Robeson, of New Jersey ; John 
 A. J. Creswell, of Maryland, as Post- 
 master-General ; and Ebenezer R. Hoar, 
 of Massachusetts, as Attorney-General. 
 and on his resignation, June 23, 1870, 
 Amos T. Akerman, of Georgia, and on 
 his resignation, December 14, 1871, 
 George H. Williams, of Oregon. Presi- 
 dent Grant advocated in his inaugural 
 address the speedy return to specie pay- 
 ment, and Congress passed the act on 
 March 18, 1869, which was a pledge to 
 pay the debts of the United States in coin 
 unless the obligation expressly stipulated 
 to the contrary, and in accordance with 
 his views as expressed in his annual mes- 
 sage to Congress a bill was passed and 
 approved July 14, 1870, authorizing the 
 funding of the public debt at a lower rate 
 of interest, through the issue of $200,- 
 000,000 of bonds at five per cent., 300,- 
 000,000 at four and a half per cent., and 
 $1,000,000,000 at four per cent. His In- 
 dian policy was shaped to the end of 
 civilizing the savages with a view to their 
 ultimate citizenship, and his policy while 
 not always successful introduced human- 
 ity and justice to take the place of brute 
 force. He favored the annexation of 
 Santo Domingo, and recommended the 
 adoption of the fifteenth amendment to 
 the constitution of the United States. He 
 also advanced the principles of civil serv- 
 ice reform in the civil administration, ap- 
 pointing a commission which recom- 
 mended competitive examinations, and 
 it was put in operation June 1, 1872, but 
 failed to be effective at the time on ac- 
 count of opposition from Congress. On 
 May 4, 1872, he issued a proclamation 
 ordering all unlawful armed bands to dis- 
 
 perse in the states in which conflicts be- 
 tween the white and colored races were 
 rife, and said that he would "not hesitate 
 to exhaust the powers vested in the exec- 
 utive, whenever and wherever it shall be- 
 come necessary to do so for the purpose 
 of securing to all citizens of the United 
 States the peaceful enjoyment of the 
 rights guaranteed to them by the consti- 
 tution and the laws." As the proclama- 
 tion was disregarded he issued a further 
 warning October 12, and on the 17th sus- 
 pended the writ of habeas corpus in parts 
 of North and South Carolina, and after a 
 few vigorous prosecutions of offenders 
 the outrage ceased. The famous treaty 
 of Washington, made May 8, 1871, by a 
 high joint commission, by its terms re- 
 ferred the claims of the United States 
 against Great Britain growing out of the 
 operations of the Confederate cruiser 
 "Alabama," to a court of arbitration held 
 in Geneva, Switzerland, and in Septem- 
 ber, 1872, awarded to the United States 
 $15,500,000, which was paid in full. This 
 was largely the result of the policy of 
 President Grant and his secretary of state, 
 and was the beginning of a friendship 
 between the two English-speaking na- 
 tions of the globe that suggested arbi- 
 tration as an acceptable substitute for 
 war in the settlement of disputes between 
 equally intelligent nations. President 
 Grant's first administration left him some 
 enemies in the Republican party, who 
 classed his actions as imperial and his 
 measures as arbitary. This disaffection 
 resulted in the calling of a national con- 
 vention at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1872, under 
 the name of "Liberal Republicans," and 
 the nomination of Horace Greeley for 
 President. The convention claiming to 
 be regular met at Philadelphia, Pennsyl- 
 vania, June 5, 1872, and renominated 
 Grant and approved of his administra- 
 tion. In the election in November, 1872, 
 he was re-elected, receiving of the popu- 
 
 57 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 lar vote 3,597,070 to 2,843,079 for Horace 
 Greeley, and in the electoral college of 
 
 1873 he received 286 votes to 42 for 
 Thomas A. Hendricks, 18 for B. Gratz 
 Brown, 2 for Charles J. Jenkins, and one 
 for David Davis, the 14 votes of Arkan- 
 sas and Louisiana not being counted by 
 reason of charges of fraud and illegality. 
 In making up his cabinet he continued 
 the portfolio of state in the hands of Ham- 
 ilton Fish ; gave the treasurership to Wil- 
 liam A. Richardson, of Massachusetts, 
 who had been assistant secretary under 
 Secretary Boutwell through his first ad- 
 ministration, and on his resignation in 
 
 1874 to accept a seat on the bench of the 
 L'nited States Court of Claims, to Ben- 
 jamin H. Bristow, of Kentucky, and on 
 his resignation in June, 1876, to Lot M. 
 Morrill, of Maine ; the portfolio of war 
 was left with William W. Belknap, of 
 Iowa, and on his resignation, March 7, 
 1876, was transferred to Alphonso Taft, 
 of Ohio, and on his transfer to the attor- 
 ney-generalship, to James D. Cameron, 
 of Pennsylvania; the portfolio of the in- 
 terior was continued in the hands of Co- 
 lumbus Delano, of Ohio, until 1875, when 
 he resigned, and it went to Zachariah 
 Chandler, of Michigan ; the naval port- 
 folio was continued with George M. Robe- 
 son, of New Jersey ; the postmaster-gen- 
 eralship with John A. J. Creswell, and on 
 his resignation, July 3, 1874, it was tem- 
 porarily filled by Assistant Postmaster- 
 General James W. Marshall, of Virginia, 
 and permanently later in the same year 
 by Marshall Jewell, of Connecticut, and 
 on his resignation in 1876 by James N. 
 Tyner, of Indianapolis, former assistant 
 postmaster-general ; and the attorney- 
 generalship was continued by George H. 
 Williams, of Oregon, until May 15, 1875, 
 when he resigned to practice law, and 
 was succeeded by Edward Pierrepont, of 
 New York. 
 
 The second administration of Presi- 
 
 dent Grant was marked by the passage 
 of the resumption act and the detection 
 and punishment of the prominent United 
 States officials conspicuous in the forma- 
 tion of a ring designed to enrich the mem- 
 bers under cloak of their official positions 
 and by wrongfully using the name of the 
 President. His words, "let no guilty man 
 escape," rang the death-knell of the ring. 
 He attended the inauguration of Presi- 
 dent Hayes, March 4, 1877, and at once 
 withdrew to private life. On May 17, 
 1877, he set sail with his wife, his son, 
 Frederick Dent Grant, and a private sec- 
 retary, for his memorable tour of the 
 world, and was received with distin- 
 guished honors by the chief ruler of every 
 country visited. The record of his tour 
 was preserved by John Russell Young, 
 who accompanied him through most of 
 his tour and published "Around the 
 World with General Grant, 1877-79" (two 
 volumes, 1880). In 1880 he visited Cuba 
 and Mexico, and returning to the United 
 States, went with his family to his old 
 home at Galena, Illinois. The Repub- 
 lican National Convention of June, 1880, 
 assembled at Chicago, Illinois, presented 
 his name as a candidate for the Presi- 
 dency, and for thirty-six consecutive bal- 
 lots his name was recorded as having re- 
 ceived from 302 to 313 votes, standing 
 in almost every vote 306, and the num- 
 ber was attached to his loyal friends, who 
 after the convention caused an iron medal 
 to be cast with the legend, "Loyal 306," 
 as a souvenir of the event. It is not 
 known that General Grant was in any 
 way a party to this struggle, and the only 
 suggestion came from his lips after he 
 returned from his tour, when he spoke of 
 the superior insight that the intercourse 
 with the chief rulers of the world gave 
 to a man entrusted with the administra- 
 tion of governmental affairs. He sup- 
 ported the candidacy of James A. Gar- 
 field. On December 25. 1883, he received 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 such injuries to his hip from a fall on the 
 ice as made him permanently lame. He 
 became a silent partner in the banking 
 firm of Grant & Ward in New York, his 
 son, Frederick Dent Grant, and Ferdi- 
 nand Ward being the active partners. In 
 this business he not only invested all his 
 savings and those of other members of 
 his family, but when he was appealed to 
 for further funds he borrowed $100,000 
 from William H. Yanderbilt on his per- 
 sonal credit. The entire sum was lost 
 through the dishonesty of Ward, whose 
 will dominated the concern, and who was 
 found to have absorbed most of the capi- 
 tal and to have traded in imaginary gov- 
 ernment contracts which he represented 
 as obtained through the influence of Gen- 
 eral Grant. When the end came, the 
 Grant family were all bankrupt, and the 
 greatest general of his age and the twice 
 chosen President of the United States 
 was obliged to depend on money thrust 
 upon him by his friends, and to give up 
 his swords, medals and other evidences 
 of the esteem of the peoples of the globe, 
 a sacrifice voluntarily made by him to 
 secure a debt of honor. Mr. Vanderbilt 
 subsequently returned these priceless 
 souvenirs to Mrs. Grant, who made them 
 the property of the nation by depositing 
 them in the National Museum at Wash- 
 ington, D. C. In 1884 he was attacked 
 by a disease which proved to be cancer at 
 the root of the tongue, and. knowing that 
 his days were numbered, the heroic in- 
 valid accepted the suggestion of an enter- 
 prising publisher, and set out to write 
 his "Personal Memoirs," in which he told 
 the story of his life down to the close of 
 the war. This work was done between 
 February 27, 1885, when he signed the 
 contract with the publishers, and July 21, 
 1885, two days before his death. His 
 widow received as a copyright from the 
 sale of this remarkable book over $500,- 
 000, and before the general died he knew 
 
 that the proceeds from his work had 
 already put his family beyond the dan- 
 ger that threatened the closing years of 
 his life. The government also tardily 
 came to his aid, and on March 4, 1885, 
 Congress created him a general on the 
 retired list, thus restoring him to his for- 
 mer rank, with full pay. His last days, 
 spent at Mt. McGregor, near Saratoga, 
 New York, were anxious ones for the 
 family gathered in the Drexel cottage, 
 and for the nation watching with the fam- 
 ily the news of his death, which came 
 Thursday morning, July 23, 1885. His 
 funeral was most imposing and was at- 
 tended by 12,000 United States soldiers 
 in uniform ; representatives from every 
 State, and, in fact, from every nation ; the 
 chiefs of the departments of the Federal 
 government ; the ranking officers of the 
 army and navy; 18,000 veterans of the 
 Civil War, north and south, mingled ; and 
 representatives from both houses of Con- 
 gress. The two ex-Presidents, Hayes 
 and Arthur, were present. His remains 
 were committed to a tomb in Riverside 
 Park, on the banks of the Hudson river, 
 in New York City, and a grateful public 
 through a popular subscription erected 
 on the spot an appropriate monument, 
 the corner-stone of which was laid by 
 President Harrison, April 25, 1892, and 
 the casket containing the dust of the 
 great commander was deposited in its 
 final resting place April 29, 1897, when 
 the completed monument was dedicated. 
 He received the honorary degree of Doc- 
 tor of Laws from Bowdoin and Union col- 
 leges in 1865, and from Harvard in 1872. 
 See "Military History of Ulysses S. Grant 
 from April, 1861, to April, 1865," by Adam 
 Badeau (three volumes, 1867-68) ; "Life 
 of Gen. U. S. Grant," by Gen. James H. 
 Wilson and Charles A. Dana (1868) ; 
 "Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, writ- 
 ten by himself" (two volumes, 1885-86) ; 
 General Grant in "Great Commanders" 
 
 59 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 series, by James Grant Wilson (1897) ; 
 and "General Grant's Letters to a Friend" 
 (1897). He married, August 22, 1848, 
 Julia, daughter of Frederick T. Dent, and 
 a sister of Captain Frederick T. Dent, a 
 classmate at West Point. He died at Mt. 
 McGregor, near Saratoga, New York, 
 July 23, 1885. 
 
 FRANCIS, John Morgan, 
 
 Journalist, Diplomat. 
 
 John Morgan Francis was born in 
 Prattsburg, New York, March 6, 1823; 
 son of Richard and Alary (Stewart) 
 Francis. His father was a midshipman 
 in the British navy, whose admiration 
 for America was so great that he re- 
 signed his commission, emigrated from 
 Wales to the United States about 1795, 
 and first settled near Utica, New York, 
 and became an American citizen, mov- 
 ing later to Steuben county, and locating 
 at Prattsburg. Joseph Stewart, his 
 grandfather on the maternal side, served 
 in the American army from the begin- 
 ning to the end of the Revolution, and 
 was present at the execution of Major 
 Andre, the spy, near West Point, in 1780. 
 
 John Morgan Francis was the twelfth 
 of thirteen children, and in 1838, when 
 in his fifteenth year, he entered the office 
 of the "Ontario Messenger" at Canan- 
 daigua, New York, where he served until 
 1843. Later he became assistant editor 
 of the "Wayne County Sentinel" of Pal- 
 myra ; of the "Rochester Daily Adver- 
 tiser," and in 1846 of the "Troy North- 
 ern Budget," a Democratic paper of which 
 he became joint proprietor and sole edi- 
 tor. He supported the candidacy of Tay- 
 lor and Fillmore in 1848, and in 1849 
 joined Henry O'Reilly, proprietor of "The 
 Advertiser," Rochester, New York, in his 
 telegraph enterprise. He was next em- 
 ployed as editorial writer on the "Troy 
 Post" and on the "Daily Whig." He 
 
 founded the "Troy Daily Times," June 
 25, 1851, and for forty-six years continued 
 as its editor-in-chief and senior proprietor, 
 making it one of the leading Republican 
 journals of the State, with a circulation 
 as large as that of any newspaper in the 
 State, outside of New York City. In 
 1S67-68 he was a member of the State 
 Constitutional Convention. In 1871 Pres- 
 ident Grant appointed him United States 
 Minister Resident to Greece, and he re- 
 mained at Athens for three years, when 
 he resigned, November 17, 1873, and 
 made a tour of the world with his wife. 
 In 1881 he was selected by President 
 Garfield for United States Minister Resi- 
 dent to Belgium, but before the name 
 was presented to Congress the President 
 was killed. In 1882 he was appointed by 
 President Arthur, United States Minis- 
 ter Resident to Portugal, and in 1884 was 
 promoted Envoy Extraordinary and Min- 
 ister Plenipotentiary to Austria-Hungary. 
 He resigned and returned to America in 
 1885, on the accession of President Cleve- 
 land, and resumed his editorial labors on 
 the "Troy Daily Times." In 1893 he was 
 one of fifteen prominent citizens nomi- 
 nated by the Republican State Conven- 
 tion for delegates-at-large to the consti- 
 tutional convention provided by law to be 
 held the following year, all of whom were 
 elected, Mr. Francis receiving the largest 
 vote cast for a delegate-at-large. He took 
 a very active part in the proceedings of 
 the convention, which was in session in 
 the capitol at Albany throughout the en- 
 tire summer of 1894, and he was influ- 
 ential in shaping many of the sections of 
 the revised constitution which was sub- 
 mitted to the people and adopted by a 
 large vote in the November election of 
 that year. He was chairman of the com- 
 mittee on bill of rights, and the second 
 member of the committees on cities and 
 civil service. The arduous labors of Mr. 
 Francis in the constitutional convention 
 
 60 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 undoubtedly led to the breaking down of 
 his health and the illness which termi- 
 nated fatally. 
 
 For many years prior to his death, his 
 son, Charles S. Francis, had been asso- 
 ciated with him in conducting the "Troy 
 Times," holding an equal partnership, the 
 firm name being J. M. Francis & Son. 
 During that period Charles S. Francis 
 had the active management of "The 
 Times." and became sole editor and pro- 
 prietor upon his father's death, which 
 occurred at his residence in Troy, New 
 York, June 18, 1897. 
 
 GOULD, Jay, 
 
 Noted Financier. 
 
 Jay Gould was born at Stratton's Falls, 
 near Roxbury, Delaware county, New 
 York, May 27, 1836, son of John Burr 
 and Mary (More) Gould, and a descend- 
 ant of Abraham Gould, a lieutenant-colo- 
 nel in the Continental army, Fourth Con- 
 necticut Regiment, who was killed when 
 Tryon made his raid on Danbury ; and 
 also a descendant of Major Nathan Gould, 
 who emigrated from England to Connec- 
 ticut in 1646, and was one of the nine- 
 teen signers of the petition for the Con- 
 necticut charter. John Burr Gould was 
 the first white male child born in Dela- 
 ware county, New York. 
 
 Jason, afterward Jay Gould, was edu- 
 cated at the district school and at Hobart 
 Academy. When fifteen years old, he 
 was a clerk in a tinshop in Roxbury, and 
 when sixteen a partner and manager of 
 the business. Meanwhile he studied sur- 
 veying and civil engineering, deriving his 
 instruction from books without the aid of 
 a master. His father sold his farm and 
 became a clerk for the son, who engaged 
 to survey Ulster county, and who was 
 promised twenty dollars per month for 
 his services, but his employer failed to 
 pay him, and he completed the work and 
 
 sold it for $500. He then sold his tinshop 
 and removed to Albany, where he can- 
 vassed the legislature for the contract of 
 surveying the State, but was unsuccess- 
 ful. He then undertook the work him- 
 self, employing men to survey the various 
 counties. He wrote histories of Ulster, 
 Sullivan and Greene counties and from 
 the sale of his books and maps accumu- 
 lated $5,000. With this money he joined 
 Zadock Pratt in establishing a tannery 
 in Pennsylvania, the place becoming 
 known as Gouldsboro, where a postoffice 
 was established, and Mr. Gould, then 
 twenty years old, was made postmaster. 
 He also became the largest stockholder 
 and a director in the bank at Strouds- 
 burg. In 1859 ne bought out Pratt's in- 
 terest and sold it to Charles L. Leupp & 
 Company for $80,000. This led to a law- 
 suit and dispossession proceedings ac- 
 complished by force, and Mr. Gould be- 
 came sole owner. He then sold the tan- 
 nery and removed to New York City, 
 where in 1862 he was married to Helen 
 Day, daughter of Daniel G. Miller, of the 
 grocery firm of Philip Dater & Company, 
 and through his father-in-law he engaged 
 in speculation in railroad stock. He 
 bought the entire issue of the first mort- 
 gage bonds of the Rutland & Washing- 
 ton railroad at ten cents on the dollar, 
 and soon afterward, with Russell Sage, of 
 Troy, took up the Rensselaer & Saratoga 
 railroad. Making considerable money, he 
 bought the stock of the Cleveland & Pitts- 
 burgh railroad at sixty-five and sold it at 
 one hundred and twenty. He lost some 
 money in Union Pacific, but made mil- 
 lions in Missouri Pacific, and soon after 
 obtained control of the Erie railway, be- 
 coming its president and a partner in a 
 series of questionable transactions with 
 James Fisk, Jr. This introduced him to 
 the legislature of New York, to Supreme 
 Court judges, and to association with 
 William M. Tweed, the financial and rail- 
 
 6i 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ioad magnate of the time, and Mr. Gould 
 retired from the presidency of the road 
 with a colossal fortune. This was largely 
 augmented by the transaction in gold in 
 which President Grant's brother-in-law, 
 Corbin, was a prominent factor, and this 
 incident was the inauguration of private 
 and public dinners given to executive offi- 
 cials by the holders of large interests 
 subject to official action, and resulted in 
 the great panic in Wall street known in 
 the history of finance as "Black Friday," 
 September 24, 1869. He then became in- 
 terested in the American Telegraph Com- 
 pany, with which organization he laid an 
 Atlantic cable, broke down the rates of 
 the monopoly, the Western Union Tele- 
 graph Company, and thus forced an amal- 
 gamation of the two, with Mr. Gould as 
 a chief stockholder. He afterward be- 
 came largely interested in the Wabash, 
 the Kansas Pacific, the Union Pacific, the 
 International & Great Northern, the Man- 
 hattan Elevated, the St. Louis, the Iron 
 Mountain & Southern, the St. Louis & 
 Southwestern, and the Texas Pacific rail- 
 roads, and at the time of his death his 
 railroad holdings were estimated at $75,- 
 000,000. 
 
 His wife died January 13, 1889, and 
 left six children, four boys and two girls. 
 George J., Edwin, Howard and Frank be- 
 came the owners of the railroad properties 
 of their father, held positions as directors 
 and officers in many of them, and proved 
 themselves able business managers. 
 Helen Miller retained possession of the 
 city and country homes of her parents, 
 and devoted her life to charity, which she 
 personally dispensed ; she married, Janu- 
 ary 22, 1913, at Tarrytown, New York, 
 Finley J. Shepard. Her sister Anna 
 was married to Count de Castellane of 
 France. The children of Jay Gould gave 
 to the village of Roxbury, New York, as 
 a memorial to their father, a church edi- 
 fice costing about $150,000, and which 
 
 was dedicated October 13, 1894. Jay 
 Gould died in New York City, December 
 
 FISH, Hamilton, 
 
 Legislator, Diplomat, Statesman. 
 
 Hamilton Fish, one of the important 
 men of the Civil War period, and a man 
 of great intellectual and personal worth, 
 was born in New York City, August 3, 
 1808; son of Colonel Nicholas and Eliza- 
 beth (Stuyvesant) Fish. He was gradu- 
 ated at Columbia University in 1827, and 
 studied law, and was admitted to the bar. 
 In 1834 he was defeated with the Whig 
 ticket as a candidate for the State As- 
 sembly. In 1842 he was elected a repre- 
 sentative to the Twenty-eighth Congress 
 from the Sixth New York District, de- 
 feating John McKeon, Democrat. He was 
 an unsuccessful candidate for re-election 
 in 18^4. In 1846 he was the unsuccess- 
 ful Whig candidate for Lieutenant-Gov- 
 ernor, but was elected to that office in 
 1847 to fill trie unexpired term of Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor Addison Gardiner, re- 
 signed. He was elected Governor of 
 New York in 1848, and in 185 1 to the 
 United States Senate as successor to 
 Daniel S. Dickinson, Democrat. In the 
 Senate he strenuously opposed the repeal 
 of the Missouri Compromise and in 1856 
 aided in the organization of the Repub- 
 lican party. 
 
 On retiring from the Senate, March 4. 
 1857, he resumed the practice of law in 
 New York City. He visited Europe with 
 his family, 1859-60. He advocated the 
 nomination of William H. Seward for the 
 Presidency in i860; but cordially sup- 
 ported Abraham Lincoln in the Presi- 
 dential canvass, and from 1861 upheld 
 the Union cause with voice and purse. 
 He was a commissioner with Bishop 
 Ames, appointed by Secretary of War 
 Stanton, in January, 1862, "to relieve the 
 
 62 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 necessities and provide for the comfort 
 of Federal soldiers in Confederate pris- 
 ons," and the refusal of the Confederate 
 governors to receive the commissioners 
 except for the purpose of arranging for 
 a general exchange, resulted in the sys- 
 tem of exchange soon after adopted. On 
 March u, 1869, Mr. Fish became Secre- 
 tary of State of the United States in Pres- 
 ident Grant's cabinet, to succeed Elihu 
 B. Washburn, appointed United States 
 Minister to France, and he held the posi- 
 tion up to the close of President Grant's 
 second term, March 3, 1877, and in Presi- 
 dent Hayes's cabinet up to the 12th of 
 March, when William M. Evarts was 
 called to the office. He originally sug- 
 gested the joint high commission to ar- 
 range the differences with Great Britain 
 in 1871, of which he became a member, 
 and plenipotentiary to sign the treaty set- 
 tling the Alabama claims and the north- 
 western boundary question with Great 
 Britain the same year. In November, 
 1873, he negotiated the settlement of the 
 / 'irginius question with the Spanish min- 
 ister at Washington. 
 
 Governor Fish was a trustee of Colum- 
 bia College, 1840-93, and chairman of the 
 board, 1859-93 ; president of the general 
 society of the Cincinnati, 1854-93; chair- 
 man of the Union Defence Committee, 
 1861-65; president of the New York His- 
 torical Society, 1867-69; trustee of the 
 Astor Library, and one of the original 
 trustees of the Peabody Education Fund, 
 appointed by the founder. Mr. Fish be- 
 queathed $50,000 to Columbia College ; 
 $5,000 to St. Luke's Hospital, and $2,000 
 to the Bellevue Training School for 
 Nurses. He received the honorary de- 
 gree of Doctor of Laws from Columbia 
 in 1850, from Union in 1869, and from 
 Harvard in 1871. 
 
 He was married, in 1836, to Julia, 
 daughter of the Hon. John Kean, of New 
 Jersey. She died in 1887, leaving three 
 
 sons — Hamilton, Nicholas and Stuyve- 
 sant ; and four daughters, who married, 
 respectively, William E. Rogers, Colonel 
 Samuel N. Benjamin, the Hon. Hugh 
 Oliver Northcote, of England, and Sid- 
 ney Webster. He died at Glen-Clyffe, 
 near Garrison-on-Hudson, New York, 
 September 7, 1893. 
 
 BARNARD, Frederick Augustus, 
 
 Distinguished Educator and Author. 
 
 Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard, a 
 distinguished educator whose great abil- 
 ities made him a principal factor in the 
 large development of Columbia Univer- 
 sity, was born at Sheffield, Berkshire 
 county, Massachusetts, March 5, 1809, 
 son of Robert Foster and Augusta (Por- 
 ter) Barnard. 
 
 He was graduated from Yale College 
 in 1828, and at once entered upon edu- 
 cational work. He taught in a grammar 
 school in Hartford ; was tutor in Yale 
 College, and a teacher in the Asylum for 
 Deaf Mutes at Hartford, and in the New 
 York Institution for the Instruction of 
 the Deaf and Dumb. From 1837 to 1848 
 he was Professor of Mathematics and 
 Natural Philosophy in the University of 
 Alabama, and afterwards Professor of 
 Chemistry in the same institution. In 
 1854 he was ordained to the priesthood of 
 the Protestant Episcopal church. He 
 was made Professor of Astronomy and 
 Mathematics in the University of Mis- 
 sissippi, and two years later he was elect- 
 ed president and chancellor. Upon the 
 threatened outbreak of the Civil War he 
 went to Labrador to observe the esclipse 
 of the sun, and in 1862 journeyed to the 
 southern hemisphere to carry out astro- 
 nomical researches. In 1862 he was ap- 
 pointed director of the printing and litho- 
 graphing of the maps and charts of the 
 Coast Survey, which office he held until 
 1864, when he was chosen president of 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Columbia College, in New York City. In 
 1867 he was United States Commissioner 
 to the Paris Exposition, and on his return 
 he published a valuable "Report on Ma- 
 chinery and the Industrial Arts." He 
 was again commissioned to the Paris Ex- 
 position of 1878. 
 
 President Barnard transformed Colum- 
 bia College into one of the great univer- 
 sities of the United States. The Law 
 School, the School of Mines, the School 
 of Political Science, and the Barnard Col- 
 lege for Women, were housed and almost 
 founded through his exertions. The wide 
 range of his scholarship admirably fitted 
 him to sympathize with the many depart- 
 ments of a great university, and, in addi- 
 tion to the schools already established by 
 his influence, at the time of his death he 
 was planning for a School of Letters and 
 Philosophy. He also originated a sys- 
 tem of the teaching of the deaf and dumb. 
 He was editor-in-chief of "Johnson's Cy- 
 clopaedia," many articles on the exact 
 sciences and mathematics being from his 
 pen. President Barnard won many scien- 
 tific honors. He was one of the original 
 incorporators of and foreign secretary to 
 the National Academy of Sciences from 
 1874 to 1880; president of the American 
 Meteorological Society, also of the Amer- 
 ican Association for the Advancement of 
 Science, of the board of experts of the 
 American Bureau of Mines, of the Amer- 
 ican Institute, and also an honorary cor- 
 respondent to many foreign scientific 
 associations. In 1855 Jefferson College, 
 Mississippi, conferred upon him the de- 
 gree of Doctor of Laws ; Yale College 
 conferred the same degree in 1859; the 
 University of Mississippi gave him the 
 degree of S. T. D. in 1861, and in 1872 
 the University of the State of New York 
 that of L. H. D. He published a "Treatise 
 on Arithmetic" (1830) ; one on "Ana- 
 lytical Grammar" (1836) ; "Letters on 
 Collegiate Government" (1855) ; "A His- 
 
 tory of the United States Coast Survey" 
 (1857) ; "Recent Progress of Science" 
 (1859); "The Metric System" (1871) ; 
 "Mono-Metallism, Bi-Metallism, and In- 
 ternational Coinage" (1879) ; "Two 
 Papers on Academic Degrees" (1880) ; 
 "Imaginary Metrological System of the 
 Great Pyramid" (1884), and "Theory of 
 Magic Squares and of Magic Cubes" in 
 National Academy of Science (1888). 
 
 Professor Barnard died in New York 
 City, April 27, 1889, and is buried in the 
 old cemetery at Sheffield, Massachusetts. 
 
 BADEAU, Adam, 
 
 Soldier, Author. 
 
 General Adam Badeau's fame princi- 
 pally rests upon his three volume "Mili- 
 tary History of Ulysses S. Grant," which, 
 from its first publication, has been recog- 
 nized as not only a very complete narra- 
 tive of the military career of the great 
 commander, but also as the fullest and 
 most complete history of the Civil War. 
 The entire work was written, so said a 
 capable critic, "with that soldierly re- 
 spect for high qualities which is the first 
 characteristic of a good military history." 
 It is painful to record that in the produc- 
 tion of this admirable work, were in- 
 volved financial difficulties which seri- 
 ously clouded the friendly relations of 
 author and subject. 
 
 Adam Badeau was born in New York 
 City, December 29, 1831. He was edu- 
 cated by private tutors and at a boarding 
 school in Tarrytown, New York. As a 
 young man he served as a clerk in the 
 New York Street Department, and dur- 
 ing the same period wrote essays and 
 dramatic criticisms for "Noah's Sunday 
 Times," which were afterwards put into 
 book form under the title of "Vaga- 
 bondia." In 1862 he entered the military 
 service as aide-de-camp on the staff of 
 General Thomas W. Sherman, serving at 
 
 64 
 
iS*/c<La>yns. Cocwdo 
 

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 New Orleans, and in the investment and 
 siege of Port Hudson, on the Mississippi 
 river, where he led an assault upon the 
 Confederate works and was severely- 
 wounded. In March, 1864, Badeau be- 
 came military secretary to General 
 Ulysses S. Grant, on the personal recom- 
 mendation of that officer's adjutant-gen- 
 eral, General John A. Rawlins. Badeau 
 served in that capacity, in closest rela- 
 tionship with General Grant, from the 
 beginning of the Wilderness campaign 
 until March, 1869, nearly four years after 
 the close of the war, at first with the rank 
 of lieutenant-colonel and afterward of 
 colonel of volunteers, and being retired as 
 captain in the regular army and brevet 
 brigadier-general. 
 
 Soon after General Grant entered upon 
 the Presidency, General Badeau was sent 
 to London as secretary of legation, serv- 
 ing as such from May to December, 1869. 
 Early in the following year he was made 
 bearer of government dispatches to 
 Madrid, and in May was returned to Lon- 
 don as Consul-General, and served in that 
 capacity until September, 1881, except- 
 ing the years 1877-78, when, under leave 
 of absence he accompanied General Grant 
 on his journey around the world. Mean- 
 time he had declined proffered ministerial 
 appointments to Brussels and Copen- 
 hagen. For two years beginning in May, 
 1882, he was Consul-General at Havana, 
 resigning that post because of differences 
 with the Department of State. 
 
 Soon after retiring from the diplomatic 
 service, General Badeau entered upon an 
 engagement to assist General Grant in 
 the preparation of his personal memoirs, 
 his duties being mainly those of an aman- 
 uensis. When General Grant's health be- 
 gan to fail, Badeau demanded a certain 
 monthly stipend, also a share of the 
 profits arising from publications. Gen- 
 eral Grant, regarding this as practically 
 a demand that Badeau should perform 
 N Y-Vol 11 — 5 
 
 all the literary work and that he himself 
 (Grant) should appear as the author, pro- 
 tested in a severe letter, and dismissed 
 Badeau from his service. After the death 
 of General Grant, Badeau made certain 
 demands upon the estate, based upon the 
 prior arrangement with General Grant, 
 and the disputed claim was settled by 
 General Frederick D. Grant at the sum 
 of $10,000. 
 
 General Badeau now devoted himself 
 to writing for magazines and newspapers, 
 principally upon his personal experiences 
 and observations at home and abroad. 
 Continuous application impaired his eye- 
 sight seriously, and successive operations 
 for cataract undermined his physical 
 strength. He finally succumbed to apo- 
 plexy, dying March 19, 1895, at Ridge- 
 wood, New Jersey. Besides the works 
 previously mentioned, he published "Con- 
 spiracy : a Cuban Romance" (1885); 
 "Aristocracy in England" (1886); and 
 "Grant in Peace, from Appomattox to 
 Mt. McGregor" (1887). 
 
 HALLECK, Henry Wager, 
 
 Civil War General-in-Chief. 
 
 Major-General Henry Wager Halleck 
 was born in Westernville, New York, 
 January 16, 1815. He was a descendant 
 of Peter Halleck (or Hallock), of Long 
 Island, 1640, and of Henry Wager, an 
 early settler of central New York. 
 
 He was a student at Union College, 
 Schenectady, New York, and was gradu- 
 ated from the United States Military 
 Academy in 1839, third in a class of 
 thirty-one. He was commissioned sec- 
 ond lieutenant in the Engineer Corps, 
 and was retained at the academy as As- 
 sistant Professor of Engineering. On 
 July 28, 1840, he was transferred to the 
 Board of Engineers, Washington, D. C, 
 as assistant; was engaged on the forti- 
 fications in New York harbor, 1840-47, 
 
 65 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 and during that period visited Europe on 
 a tour of inspection of public works. He 
 was promoted to first lieutenant in 1845, 
 and in 1847 was ordered to California as 
 engineer for the western coast. He sailed 
 on the transport "Lexington," and land- 
 ed at Monterey, California, which he 
 made a military base by fortifying the 
 port, and which also became the rendez- 
 vous of the Pacific squadron. He ac- 
 companied several expeditions ; was chief 
 of staff to Colonel Burton, and took part 
 in various skirmishes in Lower California 
 in November, 1847; commanded the vol- 
 unteers who marched to San Antonio, and 
 on March 16, 1848, surprised the Mexi- 
 can garrison ; engaged in a skirmish at 
 Todos Santos, March 30 ; and aided Com- 
 modore Shubrick, U. S. N., in the capture 
 of Mazatlan, of which place he was for a 
 time lieutenant-governor. He was brev- 
 etted captain to date from May 1, 1847, 
 for "gallant and meritorious services" in 
 these engagements. He was military 
 secretary to the military governors, Ma- 
 son and Riley, and was commended for 
 "great energy, high administrative qual- 
 ities, excellent judgment and admirable 
 adaptability to his varied and onerous 
 duties." He was a member of the con- 
 vention that met at Monterey, Septem- 
 ber 1, 1849, t0 Ir ame a constitution for 
 California, wrote the instrument, and re- 
 fused to represent the State in the United 
 States Senate, preferring to continue his 
 service in the army as aide-de-camp on 
 the staff of General Riley. He was in- 
 spector and engineer of lighthouses, 1852- 
 53; a member of the board of engineers 
 for fortifications on the Pacific coast, 
 1853-54; was promoted captain of engi- 
 neers, July 1, 1853, and resigned from 
 the army, August, 1854, to become head 
 of a law firm in San Francisco, with large 
 landed interests in the State. He was 
 director-general of the New Almaden 
 quicksilver mines, 1850-61 ; president of 
 
 the Pacific & Atlantic railroad from San 
 Jose to San Francisco, 1855-61 ; and 
 major-general of the State militia, 1860- 
 61. The Civil War having broken out, at 
 the urgent recommendation of General 
 Scott, he was commissioned major-gen- 
 eral in the United States army, to date 
 from August 19, 1861. He was made 
 commander of the Department of Mis- 
 souri, which embraced western Kentucky, 
 Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, 
 Missouri and Arkansas, with headquar- 
 ters at St. Louis. He brought to this 
 position a military training and experi- 
 ence that in three months placed the Fed- 
 eral army in possession of all the terri- 
 tory under his control, save southern 
 Missouri and western Kentucky, and 
 then, with the aid of the gunboat flotilla 
 of Admiral Foote and the army of Gen- 
 eral Grant, he directed the military oper- 
 ations that resulted in the capture of 
 Forts Henry and Donelson ; the posses- 
 sion of Bowling Green, Columbus, and 
 Nashville ; of New Madrid, Columbus and 
 Island No. 10 on the Mississippi, and of 
 the whole of Missouri and northern Ar- 
 kansas, establishing the Federal army on 
 a line extending from Chattanooga to 
 Memphis. The departments of Kansas 
 and Ohio were placed in his department 
 March 11, 1862, and the whole became 
 known as the Department of the Missis- 
 sippi, which included the territory be- 
 tween the Alleghany and Rocky moun- 
 tains. After the battle of Shiloh, Gen- 
 eral Halleck personally took the field and 
 moved against Corinth, which had been 
 fortified by the Confederate army, and 
 on reaching the place, May 30, it fell into 
 his hands without an assault, the enemy 
 having evacuated the place. He directed 
 the pursuit of the fleeing Confederates, 
 General Pope following up the direct re- 
 treat, while General William T. Sherman 
 marched to Memphis, already captured 
 by the gunboats before his arrival, and 
 
 66 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 General Buell marched against Chatta- 
 nooga. General Halleck held the forti- 
 fications at Corinth, repaired railroad 
 communications, and prepared to operate 
 against Vicksburg, when on July 23 he 
 accepted the appointment, made by Presi- 
 dent Lincoln, as general-in-chief of the 
 armies of the United States, with head- 
 quarters at Washington, D. C. 
 
 General Halleck at once ordered the 
 withdrawal of General McClellan's army 
 from the Peninsula, and his letter to that 
 commander under date of October 28, 
 
 1863, was the only official explanation of 
 the removal of McClellan from the com- 
 mand of the Army of the Potomac, No- 
 vember 7, 1863. When General Grant 
 was made lieutenant-general, March 12, 
 
 1864, under a special act of Congress cre- 
 ating the rank for him, General Halleck 
 was made chief-of-staff, and continued in 
 Washington until April 19, 1865, when he 
 was transferred to Richmond, Virginia, 
 as commander of the Military Division 
 of the James. His orders to the officers 
 in command of the forces operating in 
 North Carolina against the army of Gen- 
 eral Joseph E. Johnston, "to pay no re- 
 gard to any truce or orders of General 
 Sherman respecting hostilities," and "to 
 push onward regardless of orders from 
 any one except General Grant and cut off 
 Johnston's retreat," caused a breach in 
 the long existing friendship between the 
 two commanders. On August 30, 1865, 
 he was transferred to the command of the 
 Military Division of the Pacific and on 
 being relieved by General George H. 
 Thomas was transferred to the Military 
 Division of the South, with headquarters 
 at Louisville, Kentucky, March 16. 1869. 
 
 He was elected Professor of Engineer- 
 ing in the Lawrence Scientific School of 
 Harvard University, in 1848, but declined 
 the appointment. Union College con- 
 ferred upon him the honorary degree of 
 Master of Arts in 1843, an d that of Doc- 
 
 tor of Laws in 1862. He delivered before 
 the Lowell Institute, Boston, Massachu- 
 setts, in the winter of 1845-46, twelve lec- 
 tures on the science of war, which were 
 published as "Elements of Military Art 
 and Science" (1846, 2d ed. 1861), and this 
 work became the manual for volunteer 
 officers of the Civil War. During his 
 seven months' voyage to California 
 around "The Horn," he translated Baron 
 Jomini's "Vie Politique et Militaire de 
 Napoleon," which he published in 1864. 
 He also published: "A Collection of Min- 
 ing Laws of Spain and Mexico" (1859); 
 a translation of DeFooz on "The Law of 
 Mines, with Introductory Remarks" 
 (i860) ; and "International Law on Rules 
 regulating the Intercourse of States in 
 Peace and War" (1861), condensed and 
 adapted to use in schools and colleges 
 (1866). He died at Louisville, Kentucky. 
 January 9, 1872. 
 
 COX, Samuel Sullivan, 
 
 Distinguished Statesman and Orator. 
 
 Samuel Sullivan Cox was born at 
 Zanesville, Ohio. September 30, 1824 
 His grandfather was General James Cox. 
 of Monmouth, New Jersey, a soldier in 
 the Revolution, who fought in the battles 
 of the Brandywine, Germantown and 
 Monmouth. Mr. Cox's father was Eze- 
 kiel Taylor Cox, a prominent Democrat, 
 and in 1832-33 a member of the Ohio 
 Senate, who in 1818 married the daugh- 
 ter of Samuel Sullivan, State Treasurer 
 of Ohio, after whom he named his son. 
 
 Samuel S. Cox, after studying in the 
 public schools of Zanesville, Ohio, en- 
 tered the Ohio University, at Athens, and 
 afterwards Brown University, Providence 
 Rhode Island, where he was graduated 
 in 1846. Having determined to adopt the 
 law as his profession, Mr. Cox went to 
 Cincinnati, and entered the office of a Mr. 
 Worthington, and from that time until 
 
 67 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 1851 devoted himself to his legal studies. 
 In the latter year he crossed the ocean 
 and traveled in Europe, and on his return 
 published a description of his tour under 
 the title of "The Buckeye Abroad." Mr. 
 Cox had natural gifts in the direction of 
 literature, and even while in college he 
 was able to assist in maintaining himself 
 by his literary work, besides obtaining 
 prizes in classics, history, literature, and 
 political economy. In 1853 he went to 
 Columbus, Ohio, where he assumed the 
 position of editor of the "Ohio States- 
 man," and from this time forward inter- 
 ested himself in political affairs. It was 
 shortly after this period that the sobriquet 
 of "Sunset" Cox began to be applied to 
 him. The occasion for this was an article 
 he wrote entitled "The Great Sunset," 
 and in which occurred the following pass- 
 age : 
 
 What a stormful sunset was that of last night! 
 How glorious was the storm and how splendid 
 the setting of the sun! We do not remember 
 ever having seen the like on our round globe. 
 The scene opened in the West with the whole 
 horizon full of golden inter-penetrating lustre, 
 which covered the foliage and brightened every 
 bough in its own rich dyes. The colors grew 
 deeper and richer until the golden lustre was 
 transformed into a storm-cloud full of finest 
 lightnings, which leaped in dazzling zig-zags all 
 over and around the city. The wind arose in 
 fury. The tender shrubs and giant trees made 
 obeisance to its majesty — some even snapped 
 before its force. The strawberry beds and grass 
 plots "turned up their whites" to see Zephyrus 
 march by. Then the rains came, and the pools 
 and gutters filled rapidly and hurried away; the 
 thunders roared grandly, and the fire-bells caught 
 the excitement and rang with hearty chorus. 
 The South and the East received the copious 
 showers, and the West at one time brightened 
 up into a border-line of azure worthy of a Sici- 
 lian sky. 
 
 This brilliant style of writing was a 
 new feature in Ohio journalism, and, as 
 the title "Sunset" chanced to agree with 
 Mr. Cox's two initials, and as the article 
 
 in question achieved a wide newspaper 
 popularity, he was ever after alluded to 
 in the press as "Sunset" Cox. 
 
 From his entrance into journalism and 
 political life, Mr. Cox was a Democrat. 
 In 1855 President Pierce offered him the 
 position of secretary of legation at the 
 American Embassy in London. He de- 
 clined this position, but afterward accept- 
 ed that of secretary of legation at Lima ; 
 Peru ; but on his arrival at the Isthmus 
 of Panama, while en route there, was 
 seized by an attack of the local fever and 
 was obliged to return home ; whereupon 
 he resigned the office. In 1857 Mr. Cox 
 began his long period of legislative serv- 
 ice, having been elected to Congress on 
 December 7th from the old Licking- 
 Franklin district of Ohio. It happened 
 that his speech on the Lecompton (Kan- 
 sas) Constitution was the first delivered 
 in the new hall of representatives in the 
 capitol at ^'ashington, on the day when 
 it was first occupied for legislative busi- 
 ness, December 16, 1857. In the debate 
 on the important questions under consid- 
 eration Mr. Cox soon made an impression 
 upon the house. His active mind and 
 keen foresight anticipated the possible 
 consequences of raising a sectional issue, 
 and from this time forward he used his 
 best efforts to accommodate the ques- 
 tions at issue, and provide, if possible, 
 for a peaceful solution of them. During 
 the administrations of Presidents Bu- 
 chanan and Lincoln, including the stir- 
 ring years of the Civil War, Mr. Cox was 
 three times elected to Congress from 
 Ohio. During the war he sustained the 
 government by voting for money and 
 men to prosecute it, although he not in- 
 frequently differed from the policy of the 
 administration. In 1863 Mr. Cox was the 
 Democratic candidate for speaker of the 
 House of Representatives, in opposition 
 to Schuyler Colfax ; but as the Repub- 
 lican party was in the majority in the 
 
 68 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 house, he was defeated. In 1865 ^ r - Cox 
 published a volume entitled "Eight Years 
 in Congress," in which he presented his 
 observations and experience while a 
 member of the House of Representatives 
 up to that time. He was defeated in his 
 district in Ohio for re-election in the 
 same year. 
 
 He had by this time obtained a national 
 reputation, not only as an able represent- 
 ative in Congress, but as a brilliant, 
 humorous and popular speaker. He fore- 
 saw that Ohio was destined to soon be- 
 come a permanently Republican State, 
 and, wishing to live where his own party 
 held the supremacy, in 1866 he changed 
 his residence from Ohio to New York 
 City. The wisdom of this was made ap- 
 parent by his election in 1868 to the 
 Forty-first Congress as a representative 
 from New York City. In 1869 Mr. Cox 
 paid another visit to Europe, during 
 which excursion he traveled through 
 Italy and northern Africa. He busied 
 himself in writing during his tour, and on 
 his arrival in London on his way home, 
 published an account of his journey en- 
 titled "A Search for Winter Sunbeams," 
 and which was afterward reprinted in the 
 United States. In 1870 he ran against 
 Horace Greeley for Congress, defeating 
 him by about one thousand votes. Two 
 years later he was defeated by Lyman 
 Tremain for Congressman-at-large ; he 
 was, however, elected to the same Con- 
 gress to fill the vacancy caused by the 
 death of James Brooks. From this time 
 forward down to the day of his death, Mr. 
 Cox was re-elected continuously as a 
 member of Congress from the city of 
 New York. At the opening of the Forty- 
 fifth Congress, in 1877, he was once more 
 a candidate for the speakership, and al- 
 though he was never elected to that posi- 
 tion, his knowledge of parliamentary law 
 and his appreciation of the amenities of 
 legislative intercourse, made his services 
 
 extremely valuable, and he frequently 
 served as speaker pro ton. 
 
 During the Forty-fifth Congress, Mr. 
 Cox took upon himself by special resolu- 
 tion the work of the new census law, 
 which he successfully advocated, being 
 also the author of the plan of apportion- 
 ment adopted by the house. The ability 
 with which he handled this important 
 matter drew from General Francis A. 
 Walker, the distinguished statistician and 
 economist who superintended the tenth 
 census, a graceful and most flattering 
 public testimonial. In his treatment of 
 legislative questions Mr. Cox was a close 
 student of every subject which would 
 throw any light upon it. He always 
 aimed at obtaining for the people of the 
 United States the widest liberty of indus- 
 try, trade and self-government. He was 
 the introducer and champion for many 
 years of an important bill concerning the 
 Life-saving Service, and finally witnessed 
 its passage, and also introduced and car- 
 ried through a bill for the protection of 
 immigrants, and for the inspection of 
 steamships, which put an end to many 
 scandalous abuses. His work in Con- 
 gress also brought about the raising of 
 the salaries of letter-carriers, and the 
 granting them a vacation without loss of 
 pay — an accomplishment which made the 
 letters-carriers of the country his friends 
 for all time. During all the long period 
 in which Mr. Cox was a metropolitan 
 congressman, he took a prominent part 
 in almost every important debate which 
 occupied the attention of the house, sus- 
 taining the interests of the city of New 
 York by every means in his power. He 
 opposed high tariff and monopolies. He 
 served on important special committees 
 of the house, such as the one appointed 
 to investigate the doings of "Black Fri- 
 day," and the one on the Ku-Klux-Klan 
 troubles. 
 
 Mr. Cox was for many years a regent 
 
 69 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 of the Smithsonian Institution. In the 
 summer of 1881 he made his third trip 
 to Europe, during which he visited Hol- 
 land, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Turkey, 
 Egypt and Greece. One of the first acts 
 of President Cleveland on taking his seat 
 in the Presidential chair in 1885, was to 
 appoint Mr. Cox Minister to Turkey, 
 which resulted in the most happy man- 
 ner. He made a very favorable impres- 
 sion upon the Sultan, and during his stay 
 in Turkey was successful in clearing up 
 several diplomatic complications. He re- 
 signed, however, at the end of one year, 
 and, at the close of his embassy, both Mr. 
 and Mrs. Cox were decorated by the Sul- 
 tan. On his return to the United States 
 he was re-elected to Congress. Besides 
 the works previously mentioned, he pub- 
 lished : "Puritanism in Politics" (1863); 
 "Why We Laugh" (1876) ; "Arctic Sun- 
 beams" (1882); "Orient Sunbeams" and 
 "The Three Decades of Federal Legisla- 
 tion" (1885). His death was felt as a 
 national loss. It occurred just after his 
 return from a visit to the four new States 
 of the Northwest, which, in Congress, he 
 had been largely instrumental in creating 
 The strain of his long journey, with its 
 sightseeing and public speaking, proved 
 to be more than his constitution could 
 bear, and he died at his residence in New 
 York, No. 13 East Twelfth street, Sep- 
 tember 12, 1889. He was married in early 
 life to Julia Buckingham, of Muskingum, 
 county, Ohio. 
 
 SCHOFIELD, John McAllister. 
 
 Distinguished Civil War Soldier. 
 
 General John McAllister Schofield was 
 born in Chautauqua county, New York. 
 September 29, 1831. His father, a clergy- 
 man, removed to Bristol, Illinois, when 
 the son was about twelve years of age, 
 and in 1845 to Freeport, in the same 
 State. 
 
 In June, 1849, young Schofield entered 
 the United States Military Academy at 
 West Point, from which he was gradu- 
 ated in 1853, seventh in the same class 
 with McPherson, Sheridan, Sill, Terrill, 
 Tyler and Hood, all of whom became 
 general officers in the Union army dur- 
 ing the Civil War, except the last named, 
 who served in the Confederate army. 
 July 1, 1853, he was made brevet second 
 lieutenant of artillery, serving at Fort 
 Moultrie, South Carolina, and August 31, 
 1853 ; promoted to second lieutenant of 
 the First Artillery, stationed in Florida, 
 1854-1855. From November 19, 1855, 
 until August 28, i860, he was on duty at 
 the West Point Military Academy as act- 
 ing assistant, and then as assistant Pro- 
 fessor of Natural and Experimental Phil- 
 osophy. While on leave of absence for 
 one year, he held the chair of Professor 
 of Physics at Washington University, St. 
 Louis, Missouri, but when the Civil War 
 began he waived the remainder of his 
 leave, and was made mustering officer of 
 Missouri troops, April 20, 1861, serving 
 one month. By permission of the War 
 Department he accepted the commission 
 of major of the First Regiment Missouri 
 Volunteers, April 26th, and on May 14th 
 he received the rank of captain in the First 
 Artillery of the regular army, remaining, 
 however, with the Missouri troops. As 
 chief-of-staff to General Nathaniel Lyon 
 he participated in the battle of Wilson's 
 Creek, Missouri, August 10th. In the fall 
 of the same year he was charged with the 
 conversion of the First Missouri Infantry 
 into an artillery regiment, and with Bat- 
 tery A, hastily forwarded from St. Louis, 
 took part in the battle of Fredericktown. 
 Missouri, October 19th. On November 
 2 1 st he was appointed by the President 
 brigadier-general of volunteers, and on 
 the 26th he received a similar commis- 
 sion from the governor of Missouri in 
 the Missouri State militia, with orders to 
 
 70 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 organize and equip a force of ten thou- 
 sand men to be at the service of the Fed- 
 eral government, within the limits of the 
 State, while the war should last, and 
 which should relieve the main armies for 
 service in more important fields. From 
 February 15th till September 26, 1862, he 
 was thus engaged, commanding the Dis- 
 trict of the Missouri. From the last date 
 until April, 1863, he organized and com- 
 manded the Army of the Frontier in the 
 southwest part of the State and in north- 
 west Arkansas, driving the Confederates 
 south of the Arkansas river, having been 
 made major-general of volunteers No- 
 vember 29, 1862. For about one month, 
 April 20th till May 13, 1863, General 
 Schofield commanded the Third Division 
 of the Fourteenth Army Corps (Army of 
 the Cumberland), but was assigned to 
 the command of the Department of the 
 Missouri, May 13, 1863, and retained it 
 until January 31, 1864, sending troops to 
 assist General Grant in the capture of 
 Vicksburg, operating successfully to ob- 
 tain possession of the line of the Arkan- 
 sas river, and clearing the State of guer- 
 rilla and border war. 
 
 By request of General Grant, January 
 31, 1864, General Schofield was assigned 
 to command the Department and Army 
 of the Ohio, the last consisting of the 
 Twenty-third Corps, numbering 13,559 
 men, and twenty-eight guns, with about 
 4,000 cavalry, forming the left wing of 
 General William T. Sherman's army in 
 Georgia. With this force he took part in 
 all the battles and operations of the en- 
 tire Atlanta campaign, viz. : the demon- 
 stration at Buzzard's Roost Gap, the bat- 
 tles of Resaca and Dallas, the movement 
 against and engagements near Lost 
 Mountain, the action of Kulp's Farm, the 
 battle of Kenesaw Mountain, the passage 
 of the Chattahoochee river, and the bat- 
 tles near and siege of Atlanta, ending in 
 the capture of that city September 2, 
 
 1864. In October, 1864, General Scho- 
 field was sent by General Sherman to 
 Tennessee, to the assistance of General 
 George H. Thomas, commanding the 
 troops in the field opposed to General 
 Hood, from November 3d till December 
 1st. Falling back and skirmishing from 
 Pulaski to Columbia, and from the latter 
 place to Spring Hill, he finally gave bat- 
 tle at Franklin, November 30th, and re- 
 pulsed the enemy's largely superior force 
 with a loss to them of 1,750 killed, 3,800 
 wounded, and 700 prisoners, while the 
 total loss of the Federal forces was only 
 2,300. General Schofield also participated 
 in the battle of Nashville, December 15th 
 and 16th, and was engaged in the pur- 
 suit of Hood's army until January 14, 
 
 1865, which terminated the campaign. 
 His commission of brigadier-general in 
 the United States army was dated from 
 the battle of Franklin, and March 13, 
 1865, he also received the rank of brevet 
 major-general in the regular army, for 
 "gallant and meritorious services" in the 
 same battle. 
 
 To co-operate with General Sherman's 
 army on the Atlantic coast after 
 its famous "March to the Sea," the 
 Twenty-third Army Corps, commanded 
 by General Schofield, was transported in 
 fourteen days, with all its material, from 
 Clifton, Tennessee, to Washington, D. C, 
 and by February 8, 1865. reached North 
 Carolina. Fort Anderson was taken Feb- 
 ruary 19th ; Wilmington, February 22d ; 
 and Kinston, March 8th-ioth, a junction 
 being effected with General Sherman at 
 Goldsboro, North Carolina, March 22d. 
 At the surrender of Johnston's army at 
 Durham Station, April 26th, General 
 Schofield executed the military conven- 
 tion of capitulation, receiving the arms 
 and paroling prisoners. He remained in 
 command of the Department of North 
 Carolina until June 21st. After the war, 
 he visited Europe on a special mission 
 
 7i 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 relative to the occupation of Mexico by 
 French troops. From August 16, 1866, 
 till June, 1868, he was in command first 
 of the Department of the Potomac, and 
 then of the First Military District of Vir- 
 ginia, as constituted under the reconstruc- 
 tion laws. On June 2, 1868, he was ap- 
 pointed Secretary of War by President 
 Johnston, retaining the office under Pres- 
 ident Grant until March 14, 1869, and 
 March 4th of the same year he was made 
 major-general. From March 20, 1869, till 
 May 3, 1870, he was in command of the 
 Department of the Missouri, and from the 
 last date to July, 1876, of the Military 
 Division of the Pacific ; the period from 
 December 30, 1872, to April, 1873, being 
 spent on a special mission to the 
 Hawaiian Islands. Until January 21, 
 1881, he was superintendent of the Mili- 
 tary Academy at West Point. For a few 
 months thereafter he commanded the 
 Division of the Gulf, spending the year 
 subsequent in travel in Europe, October 
 15, 1882, he again commanded the Mili- 
 tary Division of the Pacific, and Novem- 
 ber 1, 1883, he succeeded General Sheri- 
 dan in command of the Military Division 
 of the Missouri, with headquarters at 
 Chicago. Illinois. From April 2, 1886, he 
 commanded the Military Division of the 
 Atlantic, and August 14, 1888, on the 
 death of General Sheridan, was assigned 
 by President Cleveland to command the 
 United States army, with headquarters at 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 In addition to his military services in 
 the field, General Schofield presided over 
 important boards of officers, notably that 
 of 1870, which adopted the "Tactics," 
 soon after adopted for use in the army 
 and the Fitz-John Porter board of 1878. 
 He was later under Act of Congress ex- 
 officio president of the board of ordnance 
 and fortifications. He died in 1906. 
 
 PAULDING, Hiram, 
 
 Distinguished Naval Officer. 
 
 Hiram Paulding, son of the famous 
 John Paulding, one of the captors of 
 Major Andre, was born December 11, 
 1797, near Peekskill, New York, and died 
 October 20, 1878. He was brought up 
 on his father's farm, and led the usual 
 life of a country boy, laboring on the 
 tarm in the summer and attending school 
 in the winter, until he attained his four- 
 teenth year, when Mr. Pierre Van Cort- 
 landt, then a member of Congress, sent 
 to the father a midshipman's commis- 
 sion for Hiram. 
 
 Young Paulding, on receiving the ap- 
 pointment, September 1, 1811, was 
 placed in charge of a certain Master Gib- 
 bons, an Irish exile, for the purpose of 
 receiving instruction in mathematics and 
 navigation ; but the next year, as soon as 
 war with Great Britain was declared, his 
 studies were brought to a close, and he 
 was ordered to join Commodore Chaun- 
 cey's squadron on Lake Ontario. His 
 journey northward in the summer of 
 1812 was an eventful one, he making the 
 trip from New York to Albany in an 
 oyster schooner, and from thence to 
 Utica in a lumbering old stage. He had 
 at the latter place met a good natured 
 drum major bound to Sackett's Harbor, 
 and the two joined the regiment of Colo- 
 nel Tuttle, which was making a forced 
 march to the frontier. The regiment 
 reached Sackett's Harbor just in time to 
 repulse a raid of the Canadian forces, 
 which had landed in that vicinity, and 
 voung Paulding's endurance and pluck 
 made a favorable impression upon Colo- 
 nel Tuttle and his officers. Reporting to 
 Commodore Chauncey, he soon saw some 
 stirring service. He was soon transferred 
 to the "President." on Lake Champlain, 
 the flagship of the squadron of Master 
 
 72 
 
vbjtto^-S4c&r^i>ox*£- jN-istOs***' acot^uoC^va^ 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Commandant Macdonough, an officer of 
 great spirit and experience, who had 
 fought side by side with Decatur at 
 Tripoli. But the years 1812-13 were not 
 fortunate ones for the American flotilla. 
 Two of the latter were captured after 
 a sanguinary contest, and the third was 
 soon blockaded in Burlington Bay by the 
 British squadron, Macdonough having 
 but one vessel, originally a transport, to 
 oppose to the enemy's power on the lake. 
 Being a man of indomitable energy, he 
 set to work and during the winter of 
 1813-14 succeeded in building another 
 fleet. Two new. vessels were built, other 
 lake craft purchased and adapted to the 
 service, and by September 3, Macdon- 
 ough found himself with his improvised 
 squadron anchored in Plattsburg Bay, 
 where he was joined by the bark "Eagle," 
 which had been built with unexampled 
 rapidity. Paulding participated in the 
 numerous skirmishes which our seamen 
 had with the enemy, both on land and on 
 water, before the completion of the new 
 flotilla, and thus became inured to tne 
 vicissitudes and dangers of war. About 
 the same time the British army, admir- 
 ably equipped, and nearly 12,000 strong, 
 appeared before Plattsburg, held by 
 General Macomb with less than 1,500 
 men. Their object was to penetrate if 
 possible as far as Albany, and the control 
 of Lake Champlain thus became a mat- 
 ter of vital importance. One of the 
 American gunboats, in opposing the 
 march of the British troops, became dis- 
 abled, and, with some of the cutters of 
 the squadron. Midshipman Paulding, 
 now attached to the "Ticonderoga," was 
 sent to tow her to a position of safety. 
 This, his first responsible service, he ac- 
 complished in the midst of a gale and 
 under a heavy fire, with great difficulty 
 and some loss of life, the results, how- 
 ever, being satisfactory to his superiors. 
 Sir George Prevost, the commander of 
 
 the British forces, now merely awaited 
 the arrival of Commodore Downie's 
 squadron to make a combined land and 
 water attack on the Americans. Finally 
 it arrived, September nth, Sunday morn- 
 ing, and shortly after the fleet rounded 
 Cumberland Head, with true British 
 pluck, it steered boldly for the Amer- 
 ican anchorage. A light breeze set in, 
 and soon the hostile squadron was with- 
 in range of Macdonough's broadsides. 
 Though greatly superior in force, the 
 enemy was completely routed, and, at 
 the close of the engagement, of the sev- 
 enteen British flags which had previously 
 been displayed, not one was to be seen. 
 The British flagship "Confiance" lost in 
 killed and wounded, out of a crew of 
 300, no less than 124 men, including the 
 Commodore. The flagship of the Amer- 
 ican squadron, the "Saratoga." lost fifty- 
 seven in killed and wounded out of a 
 crew of 212. All the enemy's large ves- 
 sels were captured, some row-galleys, 
 which had previously struck their colors, 
 only escaping because there was not a 
 mast in the American flotilla which 
 would bear the pressure of canvas, so 
 riddled were they by shot. On this 
 memorable occasion young Paulding, 
 though only seventeen years of age, was 
 entrusted with the duties of a lieutenant, 
 on board the "Ticonderoga." This ves- 
 sel bore the whole brunt of the attack 
 of the British row-galleys, and its crew 
 fought nobly. Paulding, who had charge 
 of the second division of great guns, was 
 not conscious at the close of the long and 
 bloody contest that he had performed 
 anv very special service, and his gratifi- 
 cation may be imagined when in the 
 evening he overheard his commander 
 say to one of his officers, "that youngster 
 Paulding is a brave little fellow." The 
 consequences of the battle were immedi- 
 ate and important. Sir George Prevost 
 beat a hasty retreat, abandoning much 
 
 73 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 of his heavy artillery and stores, and 
 from that moment until the close of the 
 war the frontier was clear of the enemy. 
 Upon the declaration of peace, Pauld- 
 ing joined the squadron of Commodore 
 Decatur, fitted out to demand redress of 
 the Barbary powers for their insults to 
 the American flag, and June 17-19, 1815. 
 he participated in the capture of the Al- 
 gerine vessels "Masora" and "Estedio." 
 The "Masora" was fought singlehanded 
 by the "Guerriere" of forty-four guns, 
 under the immediate command of Com- 
 modore Decatur, she being the flagship of 
 the squadron. The action took place off 
 the Cape de Gait, in Spain, and resulted 
 in the capture of the two vessels, the 
 "Masora" being a line-of-battle ship of 
 sixty-four guns, under command of the 
 Algerine High Admiral Hamida. The 
 squadron soon appeared before Algiers, 
 and forced the Bey to terms. Thence it 
 proceeded to Tunis on a similar mission, 
 and the result was a complete subjuga- 
 tion of the Bey, who became a firm 
 friend of the United States. The success 
 of this expedition was doubtless due in 
 large measure to the prestige won by our 
 navy in the war with Great Britain in 
 1812, a prestige towards the winning of 
 which Paulding's gallant conduct in the 
 battle of Lake Champlain had in no mean 
 degree contributed. From 1816, when 
 he became a lieutenant by promotion, 
 until 1818, when he joined the "Mace- 
 donian," he was not particularly active. 
 During the following three years he 
 made a cruise in the Pacific, and had the 
 good fortune to witness one of the most 
 daring exploits in naval warfare — the 
 cutting out of the Spanish frigate "Es- 
 merelda" by Lord Cochrane, from under 
 the batteries of Callao Castle, Peru. On 
 his return to the United States in 1821, 
 Paulding procured a leave of absence for 
 eighteen months, which he employed in 
 
 study at the Military Academy of Cap- 
 tain Partridge, in Norwich, Vermont. 
 His forethought enabled him to take 
 tank with the best informed men in the 
 navy. In the autumn of 1822, Paulding 
 joined Commodore Porter's squadron for 
 the suppression of piracy in the West 
 Indies, serving as first lieutenant of the 
 "Sea Gull," the first steamer ever used 
 for war purposes, which had originally 
 been a Jersey ferry-boat, and was the 
 cause of a good deal of merriment ; but 
 Porter rigged her as a galliot, and with 
 her battery of three guns she rendered 
 good services in Cuban waters, though 
 it was predicted by many that she would 
 founder in the first gale she encountered. 
 In 1824 Paulding was ordered to the frig- 
 ate "United States," and made a cruise of 
 nearly four years in the Pacific, perform- 
 ing while there the important service of 
 conveying dispatches from Commodore 
 Hull to the camp of Simon Bolivar, the 
 "Liberator." In the performance of this 
 duty he traversed a belt of wild arid and 
 mountainous country, making a journey 
 of nearly fifteen hundred miles on horse- 
 back. An account of his adventures, 
 under the title of "Six Weeks in the 
 Camp of Bolivar," was published on his 
 return to this country. While on duty 
 on the "United States," in 1826, Pauld- 
 ing volunteered to go on the schooner 
 "Dolphin" to the savage Mulgrave 
 Islands, in search of the American muti- 
 neers of the whaler "Globe." The 
 "Dolphin" was commanded by Lieuten- 
 ant John Percival, better known in the 
 navv as "Mad Jack." Among the mid- 
 shipmen was the late Rear-Admiral 
 Charles H. Davis, who related an act 
 performed on this expedition by Lieu- 
 tenant Paulding, which he said was the 
 boldest he had ever witnessed. With 
 only a cutter's crew, he landed in face of 
 a mob of infuriated savages, several hun- 
 
 74 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 dred in number, armed with clubs and 
 spears, and, while holding a parley, sud- 
 denly seized his man and rapidly march- 
 ed him to the boat, a cocked pistol at his 
 ear. So taken aback were the natives by 
 his audacious conduct that, although 
 friendly to the mutineer, they made no 
 attempt at recapture until it was too late. 
 A very interesting account of this cruise 
 was published by Paulding in New York, 
 in 1831. The preface is so quaint and 
 humorous as to show that he possessed 
 much of the wit that distinguished the 
 author of "The Dutchman's Fireside" — 
 James K. Paulding, afterward Secretary 
 of the Navy. When the "Dolphin" re- 
 turned to the coast of South America, 
 Paulding rejoined the frigate "United 
 States" and in 1828 found himself again in 
 New York. From 1830 to 1844, though 
 constantly employed at sea, his life was 
 comparatively uneventful. For two years 
 he served in the Mediterranean, on the 
 frigate "Constellation," and in the same 
 waters commanded the schooner "Shark," 
 from 1834 to 1837. In February of 
 the latter year he reached the rank of 
 commander, and for three years served 
 in that capacity on the "Levant," in the 
 West Indies. In 1841, for the first time 
 in thirty years, he was assigned to shore 
 duty as executive officer of the New 
 York Navy Yard, under Commodore 
 James Renshaw. Promoted to a captain- 
 cy in 1844, he was ordered to the East 
 Indies in command of the "Vincennes," 
 of twenty guns. This cruise lasted three 
 years, and proved the most dismal of his 
 life, for, while in China, dysentery broke 
 out among the crew and a large number 
 of them succumbed to its fatal effects. 
 The return of Commodore Biddle to the 
 United States left Captain Paulding in 
 command of the Asiatic squadron, a 
 position wherein he displayed zeal, dis- 
 cretion and entire devotion to his coun- 
 
 try's interests. Returning home, after a 
 brief respite he was given the command 
 of the "crack" frigate "St. Lawrence" of 
 forty-four guns, and entrusted with a 
 diplomatic mission to the north of Eu- 
 rope. The French revolution was at its 
 height at this period, and its influence 
 penetrated the remotest corners of Eu- 
 rope. This, probably, made the cruise 
 the most interesting that Paulding ever 
 took in his life. Our government was 
 desirous of aiding the German Confeder- 
 ation to establish a navy, and, while at 
 Rremerhaven, several young Prussians 
 were received on board the "St. Law- 
 rence" to be instructed in nautical 
 science. Captain Paulding was treated 
 with the utmost courtesy by the King of 
 Prussia and Prince Adelbert, the German 
 admiral, being invited to visit Berlin, 
 where he was handsomely entertained at 
 the royal palace, and presented to the 
 members of the German Parliament at 
 Frankfort-on-the-Main. He returned 
 home in 1851, and assumed command of 
 the Washington Navy Yard, where he 
 remained three years. At the expiration 
 of this period, he was appointed to the 
 highest position in the gift of the govern- 
 ment, the command of the West India 
 squadron. On December 8, 1857, he ar- 
 rested Walker, the fillibuster, with all 
 his men, at Greytown, Nicaragua, and 
 sent him to the United States for trial. 
 The republic of Nicaragua, whose soil 
 Walker was alleged to have violated, 
 hastened to tender Paulding its thanks, 
 and presented him with a large tract of 
 land and a magnificent jeweled sword, 
 which present Congress by special act 
 allowed him to accept in 1861. Presi- 
 dent Buchanan did not, however, approve 
 of Paulding's course, and he was accord- 
 ingly relieved from his command, having 
 been at the head of the squadron nearly 
 three years. 
 
 75 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 The three years from 1858 to 1861 
 Paulding spent in comparative inactivity, 
 but on the breaking out of the Civil War 
 he was detailed by President Lincoln to 
 assist Secretary Welles in the Navy De- 
 partment, with the rank of commodore. 
 Among the many onerous duties devolv- 
 ing upon him was the destruction of the 
 Norfolk Navy Yard. His conduct in this 
 matter was much criticized, but received 
 the entire approval of the President and 
 Secretary of the Navy. In September, 
 1861, he served as a member of the board 
 to examine the plans of iron-cased ves- 
 sels, and upon its recommendation that 
 wonderful invention of Ericsson, the 
 "Monitor," was constructed. Shortly 
 after this he was ordered to the command 
 of the New York Navy Yard, the most 
 important station the government pos- 
 sessed. His duties here were extremely 
 arduous, but, although in his sixty-fifth 
 year and technically on the retired list, 
 he displayed an energy and foresight that 
 aided materially in the final success of 
 the Union. It was entirely due to his 
 foresight that the "Monitor" was so 
 speedily equipped for service and enabled 
 to confront and disable the Confederate 
 ram "Merrimac," in March, 1862, and 
 thus arrest her destructive career. In 
 July, 1862, the grade of rear-admiral was 
 created, and President Lincoln directed 
 the appointment of ten of the most dis- 
 tinguished retired officers of the navy to 
 that grade. Hiram Paulding was one of 
 the ten upon whom the honor was con- 
 ferred, and, having survived all his com- 
 rades, was at the time of his death the 
 senior rear-admiral in the navy. During 
 the draft riots in New York City in 1863, 
 Admiral Paulding was largely instru- 
 mental in preventing the destruction of 
 public and private property From 1866 
 to 1869 he was governor of the Naval 
 Asylum in Philadelphia, and in 1870 was 
 
 assigned to the merely nominal duty of 
 port admiral at Boston. This position 
 he relinquished in 1871, after which he 
 resided quietly on his farm at Lloyd's 
 Harbor, on Long Island Sound, where 
 he led a peaceful, happy life, surrounded 
 by his children and grandchildren. In 
 1814 Congress voted him a sword for 
 gallantry on Lake Champlain, and King 
 Victor Emanuel, of Italy, conferred upon 
 him the equestrian order of St. Maurice, 
 whose acceptance Congress authorized, 
 but he rarely displayed it, and probably 
 few of his neighbors at Lloyd's Harbor 
 knew that an Italian knight resided 
 among them. During his long and event- 
 ful life, Admiral Paulding always acted 
 with ability and discretion, having ever 
 in view the public good. Many anecdotes 
 are related illustrating his kindness of 
 spirit. His officers and men universally 
 admired and respected him, and, though 
 a man of most positive views and char- 
 acter, he probably never had an enemy 
 in the service during his long connection 
 with it. The Captain-General of Cuba 
 declared him to be the most distinguish- 
 ed naval officer in bearing whom he had 
 ever seen in the port of Havana. Of 
 stalwart frame, he combined with dig- 
 nity of mien the greater dignity of intel- 
 lect, and although a strict disciplinarian, 
 his kind, benevolent manner irresistibly 
 attracted all who came in contact with 
 him. For many weeks previous to his 
 death he had been gradually failing. All 
 his comrades in the exciting events of 
 1812-15 had preceded him, and he often 
 felt a sense of loneliness of which he 
 wearied and to which death afforded a 
 welcome relief. Brave, honest and pa- 
 triotic, he will always have a foremost 
 place in the hearts of his countrymen, 
 and take rank with the most celebrated 
 naval heroes of the age. 
 
 76 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPin 
 
 PARKER, Willard, 
 
 Distinguished Medical Scientist. 
 
 Willard Parker was born at Hillsbor- 
 ough, New Hampshire, September 2, 
 1800. From an ancestry of English Pur- 
 itan stock he inherited a strong physical 
 constitution, as well as sound mental 
 capacity for the laborious and useful life 
 that lay before him. When he was five 
 years old his family moved to Chelms- 
 ford (now Lowell), Massachusetts, and 
 there the lad worked on his father's farm 
 until he was nineteen. During the latter 
 years of this period he taught a district 
 school, and so earned the money to take 
 him to Harvard College, from which he 
 was graduated A. B. in 1826. It was the 
 wish of his parents and of himself that 
 he should enter the ministry, but fate de- 
 cided otherwise. The story reminds one 
 of Nathan Smith's awakening. While 
 Parker was in his freshman year, his 
 chum was brought low by a strangulated 
 hernia, which the efforts of a neighbor- 
 ing physician failed to reduce. John C. 
 Warren was sent for, and his diagnosis, 
 as well as the facility with which he re- 
 duced the obstruction, so impressed 
 young Parker that he resolved to devote 
 his life to the study and practice of medi- 
 cine. His first advantage was in obtain- 
 ing (1827) the position of house phy- 
 sician at the United States Marine Hos- 
 pital, in Chelsea, Massachusetts, where 
 he served two years under S. D. Town- 
 send. Later he was a pupil of John C. 
 Warren, and upon the creation of the 
 office he was appointed (February 26, 
 1829) house-pupil at the Massachusetts 
 General Hospital, having secured his 
 medical degree from Harvard College 
 meantime, graduating M. D. in Febru- 
 ary, 1830. 
 
 Though Parker was not yet thirty 
 years of age, he had already established 
 
 a reputation as a lecturer. Accordingly, 
 he was invited in the summer of 1829, 
 a year before his graduation, to deliver a 
 course of lectures on anatomy in the 
 Medical School at Woodstock, Vermont. 
 This he did in the winter following, and 
 was appointed Professor of Anatomy in 
 the Vermont Medical College. In 1830 
 he was also elected to the Professorship 
 of Anatomy at the Berkshire Medical 
 Institution. He lectured twice daily at 
 Berkshire, and in 1833 the chair of sur- 
 gery was added to his previous appoint- 
 ment. In 1836 he was offered the Pro- 
 fessorship in Surgery at the Cincinnati 
 Medical College. There he taught for 
 one term, and then went to Europe for 
 study in London and Paris. 
 
 Upon returning to America, Parker 
 was given the chair of Clinical Surgery 
 in the College of Physicians and Sur- 
 geons in New York, where he worked for 
 the next thirty years of his life (1839- 
 1869), and where his work and his ac- 
 complishments were brilliant and un- 
 usual. His rise in his profession seemed 
 instantaneous and complete. He was 
 immediately recognized as a teacher and 
 surgeon of a high order, and his bold 
 operations and distinguished talents soon 
 placed him in the foremost rank. He 
 was a man of high character and broad 
 public spirit. Parker's far-seeing mind 
 appreciated early the deficiencies in the 
 method then employed for teaching sur- 
 gery, and upon his acceptance of the Pro- 
 fessorship of Clinical Surgery he set 
 about making better use of the oppor- 
 tunities offered in a large city. Not hav- 
 ing a hospital service, he visited daily 
 with his students the two city dispen- 
 saries, and gradually succeeded in ob- 
 taining material sufficient for demonstra- 
 tion before the class at the Medical Col- 
 lege, then located in Crosby street, New 
 York City. The anatomical rooms were 
 
 77 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 utilized for the teaching of clinical diag- 
 nosis, and later for the performance of 
 operations illustrating the cases from the 
 dispensaries. Thus grew up a method 
 of holding those "clinics" which are now 
 a factor in medical education. Such 
 work stamped Parker as a resourceful 
 teacher. In 184? Parker became asso- 
 ciated with James R. Wood in reorgan- 
 izing the City Alms House and develop- 
 ing it into Bellevue Hospital, under a 
 board of governors. Parker and Wood 
 were made the visiting physicians. He 
 was also one of the founders of the Acad- 
 emy of Medicine, and was its president. 
 The Health Department of the city was 
 notoriously inefficient, and this ineffi- 
 ciency the Academy of Medicine set out 
 to correct. Under Parker's initiative 
 they brought about the formation of a 
 board of health. Long afterwards a trib- 
 ute to its founders was thus expressed: 
 "This board has inspired most of the 
 legislation upon hygiene, reforming our 
 building laws, giving us improved sew- 
 erage, checking the adulteration of food ; 
 demonstrated the necessity of pure 
 water, and proper ventilation in all parts 
 of our dwellings; it has fought manfully 
 for the preservation of our public parks, 
 the lungs of the city; it has stimulated 
 tree planting, and aided in beautifying 
 the city in a variety of ways." In 1856 
 Parker was appointed surgeon to the 
 New York Hospital. In 1865 he was ap- 
 pointed successor to Valentine Mott as 
 president of the State Inebriate Asylum 
 at Binghamton, the first establishment 
 ever founded for the treatment of 
 drunkenness as a disease. 
 
 Princeton College conferred upon him 
 the degree of LL. D. in 1870, at a time 
 when he was consulting surgeon to the 
 New York Hospital, Bellevue Hospital, 
 St. Luke's Hospital, Roosevelt Hospital, 
 Mt. Sinai Hospital, and Emeritus Pro- 
 
 78 
 
 fessor of Surgery at the College of Phy- 
 sicians and Surgeons. In addition, he 
 had been Professor of Anatomy at 
 Geneva College, and Professor of An- 
 atomy and Surgery at Colby University. 
 During his active career, Parker con- 
 tributed a great deal to the advancement 
 of surgical science. He was the first 
 to suggest the condition which is known 
 as "concussion of the nerves," as distin- 
 guished from concussion of the nerve 
 centers — a state previously mistaken for 
 an inflammation ; he introduced cystos- 
 tomy for the relief of chronic cystitis; 
 he was one of the first to operate for ap- 
 pendicitis, as we recognize it today ; he 
 introduced the division of the sphincter 
 of the rectum near the coccygeal attach- 
 ments, and the widening of the denuded 
 surface in the operation for repair of 
 lacerated perineum. As a teacher Parker 
 had a high reputation. With a fine per- 
 sonal presence and a rare courtesy, he 
 won the regard of his pupils. By his 
 direct and lucid manner he made each 
 step of an operation plain ; and he con- 
 stantly impressed upon his students, 
 both by his own methods and by his dis- 
 course upon the practice of others, the 
 value of simplicity and common sense in 
 operating and in general treatment. His 
 countenance was characterized by a 
 freshness and vigor which showed in his 
 every action the possession and advan- 
 tages of a sound physique. 
 
 The Willard Parker Hospital in New 
 York was erected and named in honor of 
 this man who did so much for medical 
 education. He died in New York, April 
 25, 1884. 
 
 LESLIE, Frank, 
 
 Noted Publisher. 
 
 Frank Leslie was born in Ipswich, 
 England, March 29, 1821. His real name 
 was Henry Carter, and he was the son of 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Joseph Carter, well known throughout 
 England for his extensive glove manu- 
 factory. The latter designed to bring up 
 his son so that he could succeed him in 
 business, and accordingly gave him the 
 benefit of a careful education, and when 
 he was seventeen years of age, placed 
 him in a wholesale drygoods house in 
 London. The boy, however, had from an 
 early age evinced a strong artistic 
 talent, and before he left school had be- 
 come proficient in the use of both the 
 pencil and the graver. On arriving in 
 London, he soon began to make sketches, 
 and some of these he sent to the "Lon- 
 don Illustrated News," which had then 
 recently begun publication. These 
 sketches, he signed "Frank Leslie," 
 adopting the nom dc plume in order that 
 his family and friends should not know 
 what he was doing. His efforts were well 
 received, his sketches being promptly 
 accepted, and he decided to give up the 
 drygoods business, and accordingly made 
 application at the office of the "News" 
 for a position. He was placed in the en- 
 graving department, and before he was 
 of age was superintendent of it. He 
 studied the different branches of the 
 business, besides becoming an expert en- 
 graver on wood. 
 
 While engaged on the "News," he 
 formed the idea of emigrating to Amer- 
 ica, and starting an illustrated paper. In 
 1848 he arrived in New York, and thence 
 went to Boston, where he was first em- 
 ployed on "Gleason's Pictorial." Re- 
 turning to New York, he obtained by 
 legislative act the right to use the name 
 of Frank Leslie in business, doubtless 
 with some foreshadowing in his mind of 
 its possible employment in the future at 
 the head of an illustrated paper or maga- 
 zine. He became superintendent of the 
 engraving department of the "Illustrated 
 News," a pictorial paper published by 
 
 Moses Y. Beach. In 1854 he began the 
 publication of a periodical called "The 
 Gazette of Fashion," on his own account, 
 with the small capital which he had ac- 
 cumulated. This became immediately 
 popular, and was soon followed by the 
 issue of the "New York Journal." On 
 December 14, 1855, appeared the first 
 number of the new illustrated paper bear- 
 ing the title "Frank Leslie's Illustrated 
 Newspaper." Among the first illustra- 
 tions in this paper were those represent- 
 ing the Arctic explorations of Dr. Kane, 
 and the World's Fair in the Crystal 
 Palace. London. From the beginning of 
 the Civil War, Mr. Leslie had a corps of 
 correspondents and artists employed, and 
 kept them scattered all over the country, 
 illustrating the battles, marches, sieges, 
 and other incidents of the great struggle, 
 which were afterward gathered together 
 and published in two large folio volumes, 
 under the title "The Soldier in our Civil 
 War." During this period his paper be- 
 came extraordinarily successful, reaching 
 a very large circulation. Mr. Leslie was 
 the first to introduce into his engraving 
 department a method of speedily execut- 
 ing the work on his illustrations. His 
 process consisted in dividing the block 
 into a great many different parts, each 
 of which was given to a separate work- 
 man to execute, by which means he was 
 enabled to reproduce scenes and occur- 
 rences and publish them in his news- 
 paper in the shortest possible time. One 
 such case occurred in regard to the 
 great prize-fight in England between 
 Tom Sayers and John C. Heenan, the 
 latter being a native of Troy, New York, 
 but known as the "Benicia Boy," from 
 his having first displayed his prowess as 
 a pugilist in Benicia, California. When 
 the fight was about to take place, Mr. 
 Leslie sent over his most expert artists, 
 and sketches were made of the scene. 
 
 79 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 taken on the spot, and as quickly as pos- 
 sible after the fight was over, the artists 
 took steamer for America. While on 
 board the ship the drawing was made 
 upon wood, to represent a double-page 
 cartoon of the prize ring and its sur- 
 roundings, while the fight was in prog- 
 ress. The block was made up of thirty- 
 two different sections joined together, 
 and immediately on the arrival of the 
 steamer in New York a different en- 
 graver was put on each section. The re- 
 sult was that the illustration was com- 
 pleted and the paper, with a full account 
 of the occurrence and this startling 
 double-page cartoon, was on the streets 
 long before any advancement in that 
 direction had been made by rival news- 
 papers. 
 
 Mr. Leslie's establishment grew in im- 
 portance with the growth of his business. 
 For a long time he published ten differ- 
 ent illustrated papers and magazines 
 from his large building in Pearl street, 
 but eventually removed to a fine marble 
 structure in Park place, where all the 
 processes of his vast business were car- 
 ried on, Mr. Leslie employing several 
 hundred persons in the different depart- 
 ments of his establishment. He had 
 gradually added to his first publications, 
 "The Ladies' Journal," "The Boys' and 
 Girls' Weekly," "Chimney Corner," 
 "Boys of America," "Pleasant Hours," 
 "The Budget of Fun," "The Jolly Joker," 
 "Chatterbox," "Illustrated Almanac," 
 "The Sunday Magazine," and the "Pop- 
 ular Monthly." He became very wealthy, 
 and owned a beautiful country-seat call- 
 ed "Interlaken," on Saratoga lake, where 
 he had terraced grounds, fine gardens, 
 kept a steam-yacht, and entertained on 
 a magnificent scale. In New York, he 
 lived in the former residence of William 
 M. Tweed, in Fifth avenue, and on a 
 
 scale of corresponding affluence and lib- 
 erality. The result of this was that in 
 the time of financial stringency, coming 
 on in 1877, he was unable to meet his 
 engagements, and made an assignment. 
 He continued to direct the work of his 
 establishment, however, for the benefit 
 of his creditors, who were represented 
 by Isaac W. England, the publisher of 
 the New York "Sun." 
 
 Mr. Leslie was a prominent Free Ma- 
 son, and a member of the Lotos, Manhat- 
 tan and New York Jockey clubs. As 
 early as 1848 he received from the Amer- 
 ican Institute the medal for perfection 
 in wood engraving. In 1867 he was sent 
 as a commissioner to the Paris Expo- 
 sition, in the department of fine arts, and 
 was personally presented by Napoleon 
 III. with a gold medal for his services as 
 a juryman. In 1876 he was president of 
 the New York State Centennial Com- 
 mission. During the same year he enter- 
 tained at his country home the Emperor 
 and Empress of Brazil. Mr. Leslie had 
 remarkably fine artistic taste and appre- 
 ciation, and possessed a thorough knowl- 
 edge of every detail of his business. He 
 was greatly liked and admired by all in 
 his employ, or who had dealings with 
 him. He was personally a most agree- 
 able and courteous gentleman, and was 
 a most pleasant social companion. He 
 died January 10, 1880. 
 
 Mr. Leslie was twice married. By his 
 first wife he had three sons, all of whom 
 were, previous to his failure, engaged 
 with him in the publishing business. He 
 married, late in life, the former wife of 
 E. G. Squier, at one time United States 
 Minister to Peru. She survived him, and 
 carried on the business of the house, 
 which she reduced materially from time 
 to time by disposing of various of the 
 publications. 
 
 80 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 FOSTER, Henry Allen, 
 
 Lawyer, Jurist, Legislator. 
 
 Henry Allen Foster was born in Hart- 
 ford, Connecticut, May 7, 1800. In early 
 life he removed with his parents to Caze- 
 novia, New York, and in the common 
 schools of that place obtained a practical 
 education which prepared him for an ac- 
 tive career. Later he became a clerk in 
 the office of David B. Johnson, under 
 whose excellent preceptorship he pursued 
 a course of study in law, and was ad- 
 mitted to the New York bar in 1822. 
 
 He early evinced a keen interest in poli- 
 tics, advocating the principles as laid 
 down by the Democratic party, and in 
 183 1 he was elected to serve in the State 
 Senate, his term expiring in 1834; he was 
 again elected in 1841, and served until 
 
 1844, and in 1836 was elected to represent 
 New York State in the Twenty-fifth Con- 
 gress (1837-39). On November 30, 1844, 
 he was temporarily appointed to the 
 United States Senate, as successor to 
 Silas Wright, Jr., who had resigned to be- 
 come Governor, and he continued a mem- 
 ber of the upper house until January 18, 
 
 1845, when he was succeeded by John 
 A. Dix. He was a delegate to the Na- 
 tional Democratic Convention of 1848 
 that nominated Lewis Cass for President, 
 and in 1863 he became a Supreme Court 
 Judge for the Fifth District, serving as 
 such until 1869, meriting the approval 
 and approbation of his constituents and 
 the community-at-large. He possessed 
 considerable talent, as evinced in his posi- 
 tions of legislator, judge and lawyer, in 
 all of which he gained an enviable repu- 
 tation, and he continued in the active 
 practice of his profession up to within a 
 few years of his death. Of the combina- 
 tion of Democratic leaders known as the 
 "Albany Regency," he was the last sur- 
 viving member. He was a member of the 
 board of trustees of Hamilton College, 
 
 N Y— Vol 11—6 
 
 1836-89, and the honorary degree of 
 LL.D. was conferred upon him by that 
 institution of learning in i860. He served 
 as vice-president of the American Colon- 
 ization Society. Judge Foster made his 
 home at Rome, New York, for many 
 years prior to his death, which occurred 
 there on May 12, 1889. 
 
 HARRIS, Townsend, 
 
 Diplomatist. 
 
 Townsend Harris, the first United 
 States minister to Japan, was born in 
 Sandy Hill, Washington county, New 
 York, October 3, 1804, son of Jonathan 
 Harris, grandson of Gilbert and Thank- 
 ful (Townsend) Harris, of Ticonderoga ; 
 New York, and a descendant of Welsh 
 ancestors, who emigrated to America with 
 Roger Williams. His maternal grand- 
 father, John Watson, served with Gilbert 
 Harris in the Continental army under 
 General Gates. The early ancestors set- 
 tled first in Massachusetts and later gen- 
 erations settled in Ulster county, New 
 York, and thence to Essex and Washing- 
 ton counties. 
 
 Townsend Harris was educated partly 
 by his mother, a woman of noble char- 
 acter and stately presence, and partly at 
 the district school. In 1817, when only 
 fourteen years of age, he removed to New 
 York City, and there became a clerk in 
 a drygoods store, and a few years later 
 his father and elder brother removed to 
 New York and the three organized the 
 business of importing china and earthen- 
 ware. After the great fire in New York 
 in 1835, when their store was blown up 
 with gunpowder to prevent the spread of 
 the flames, the business was reorganized 
 as John & Townsend Harris, and it so 
 continued until 1847, in which year Town- 
 send Harris disposed of his interest in 
 the same. He then purchased a half in- 
 terest in a vessel bound for California. 
 
 81 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 He sailed around Cape Horn to Califor- 
 nia, touching at points in South America, 
 and at San Francisco he purchased the 
 other half of the vessel and projected a 
 trading voyage to China and the Dutch 
 and English Indies. In 1848 he sailed 
 as supercargo on one of his own vessels 
 to the South Pacific ocean, visiting all 
 the Asiatic countries on the Indian ocean. 
 For five years he continued in commercial 
 voyaging, and his journal notes his 
 Christmas as follows: 1849, at sea in the 
 North Pacific ocean ; 1850, at Manila ; 
 1851, at Pulo-Penang; 1852, at Singa- 
 pore; 1853, at Hong-Kong; 1S54, at Cal- 
 cutta; 1855, at Ceylon; 1S56, in Japan. 
 He was acting vice-consul for the United 
 States at Ningpo, China, in 1854, and on 
 March 24th of that year wrote to Secre- 
 tary Marcy setting forth the capabilities 
 and importance to the United States of 
 the island of Formosa as a coaling station 
 and depot, and proposed that the United 
 States acquire the island by purchase. He 
 was summoned to the United States by 
 the Secretary of State, and on his way 
 visited India, the Red Sea, Egypt, Alex- 
 andria, Gibraltar, London and Liverpool, 
 and arrived in New York on July 27, 1855 
 On August 4th he was appointed consul- 
 general to Japan, to make a treaty with 
 that government, then first visited by 
 Commodore Perry, and he was also en- 
 trusted by President Pierce to make a 
 commercial treaty with the kingdom of 
 Siam. His appointment as the first com- 
 missioner to Japan was made upon the 
 joint recommendation of William H. 
 Seward and Commodore Perry. He per- 
 sonally purchased the presents sent to 
 the respective rulers. He left New York, 
 October 17, 1855, arrived at Penang, 
 January 19, 1856, where the non-arrival 
 of the "San Jacinto" with his secretary 
 and the rest of his suite kept him waiting 
 seventy-six days, and he reached Siam, 
 April 4th, where he concluded the treaty. 
 
 He left Bangkok, on May 31, 1856, and on 
 August 25, same year, in company with 
 Commodore Perry, he was received by 
 the governor and vice-governor of Shi- 
 moda. He subsequently visited Yeddo, 
 and after two years' residence and numer- 
 ous interviews, much opposition and 
 many vexatious delays, the written prom- 
 ise of the Yeddo government was gained 
 February 17. 1858, and the treaty signed 
 July 29, 1858, by which Japan was opened 
 to the world. On January 7, 1859, Presi- 
 dent Buchanan nominated and the Senate 
 confirmed his appointment as Minister 
 President of the United States to Japan. 
 On June 30 the consulate was removed 
 from Shimoda to Kanagawa, and the 
 American flag was hoisted July 1, 1859. 
 At Yeddo the American Minister held his 
 position alone amid murders, assassina- 
 tions and incendiarisms, after all his col- 
 leagues had retired to Yokohama, and on 
 January 14, i860, his interpreter and pri- 
 vate secretary, Mr. Heusken, was murder- 
 ed. At his suggestion, a Japanese em- 
 bassy of seventy-one persons headed by 
 Shimmi left for the United States by way 
 of San Francisco to exchange ratifications 
 of the treaty which had been signed by 
 the Mikado in 1868, and to obtain a fresh 
 copy of the Perry treaty. On July 10, 
 1861, Mr. Harris sent his resignation to 
 President Lincoln, which was reluctant- 
 ly accepted, October 21, 1861. Before 
 leaving Japan he gave $1,000 for the erec- 
 tion of the American Union Church at 
 Yokohama, built in 1875, and standing on 
 the old Perry treaty ground. After wel- 
 coming his successor, Robert H. Pruyn, 
 he spent some time in travel in Asia and 
 Europe, and then settled in New York 
 City. He received from Queen Victoria 
 a gold watch studded with diamonds, in 
 recognition of the assistance he had given 
 to the British minister to Japan. 
 
 Mr. Harris was a member of the Board 
 of Education of New York City for 
 
 82 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 several years, and president of the board, 
 1846-47. He was one of the prime movers 
 in founding the Free Academy, afterward 
 the College of the City of New York, and 
 he was also one of the founders of the 
 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
 Animals. He was a member of the Volun- 
 teer Fire Department and of the State 
 militia. He was brought up in the Pres- 
 byterian faith, and later joined the 
 communion of the Protestant Episcopal 
 church. He was a member of the Union 
 and other clubs, and learned societies of 
 Europe and America. He was a man of 
 wide culture, of sterling integrity, of great 
 moral strength, and of singularly pure 
 character. He never married. He died in 
 New York City, February 25, 1878. 
 
 LEFFERTS, Marshall, 
 
 Inventor, Soldier. 
 
 Marshall Lefferts was born in Bedford 
 District, Brooklyn, New York. January 
 15, 1821, son of Leffert and Amelia Ann 
 (Cozine) Lefferts, grandson of John L. 
 and Sarah (Cowenhoven) Lefferts, great- 
 grandson of Rem and Ida Cowenhoven, 
 and a descendant of Leffert Pieterson van 
 Haughwout, of Holland, who settled in 
 Flatbush, Long Island, New York, before 
 1688. 
 
 Marshall Lefferts received his educa- 
 tion in the Brooklyn public schools. He 
 became a civil engineer, and subsequently 
 an importer and manufacturer of galvan- 
 ized iron ware. He joined the Seventh 
 Regiment, National Guard State of New 
 York, in 185 1, and in the following year 
 was made its lieutenant-colonel, and suc- 
 ceeded Abram Duryee as colonel in 1859. 
 In response to Lincoln's call for troops to 
 defend the national capital in 1861, the 
 Seventh Regiment was the first New 
 York regiment to march to the front, 
 Colonel Lefferts transporting it by boat 
 to Annapolis. Maryland, and marchin: 
 
 thence across the State to Washington, 
 the march being attended with consider- 
 able hazard. After thirty days' service 
 the regiment returned home, and in 1862 
 and again in 1863 ne ^d the regiment in 
 emergency service at critical periods of 
 the Civil War. While in Frederick, Mary- 
 land, in 1863, Colonel Lefferts was made 
 military governor of the city. The regi- 
 ment was recalled to New York in July, 
 1863, to protect the city from rioters who, 
 in resistance to the draft for military serv- 
 ice, had held the citizens and their prop- 
 erty at their mercy for two or three days. 
 The presence of the Seventh Regiment 
 and its steady and determined march 
 through the streets aided the authorities 
 in gaining control of the rioters, and in 
 the restoration of order. Lefferts resigned 
 the colonelcy of the Seventh Regiment in 
 1865, declined the position of brigadier- 
 general of militia, and accepted the com- 
 mand of the veteran corps of the Seventh 
 Regiment. 
 
 He furnished the first zinc plated wire 
 which came into general use as rustproof. 
 He early recognized the commercial pos- 
 sibilities of the telegraph as invented by 
 Morse, and was a director and president 
 of the companies first organized in New 
 York and New England between 1849 
 and i860. He perfected and patented a 
 system of automatic transmissions, and 
 his invention was purchased by the 
 American Telegraph Company, which 
 employed him as electrical engineer and 
 consulting engineer. He devised the in- 
 strument to measure the distance to de- 
 fects in wires used in the transmission 
 of messages, and made it possible to raise 
 and repair broken submarine cables. The 
 American Telegraph Company consoli- 
 dated with the Western Union Telegraph 
 Company in 1866, and in the following 
 year Mr. Lefferts resigned his position as 
 electrical engineer of the Western Union, 
 and organized the Commercial News De- 
 83 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 partment of that company. In 1869 he 
 was made president of the Gold and Stock 
 Telegraph Company, which company in 
 1871 purchased the Commercial News 
 Department of the Western Union, and 
 he became president and manager of the 
 combined interests. While accompany- 
 ing his military corps to Philadelphia, 
 Pennsylvania, to attend a Fourth of July 
 parade in connection with the Centennial 
 Exhibition, he died suddenly on the cars 
 near Newark, New Jersey, July 3, 1870. 
 
 Mr. Lefferts was married, June 4, 1845, 
 to Mary, daughter of Gilbert and Ann 
 (Raymond) Allen. 
 
 RICHARDSON, Albert Deane, 
 
 Journalist, Author. 
 
 Albert Deane Richardson was born in 
 Franklin, Massachusetts, October 6, 1833, 
 son of Elisha and Harriet (Blake) Rich- 
 ardson, and grandson of Timothy and 
 Julia (Deane) Blake. He was reared on 
 a farm, and his education was obtained 
 in the public schools and at Holliston 
 Academy, where he edited the academy 
 paper and contributed both prose and 
 verse to the "Waverly Magazine" and 
 other Boston publications. He taught 
 school two terms in Medway, Massachu- 
 setts, and in 1851 went to Pittsburgh, 
 Pennsylvania, where he taught for a short 
 time in a district school before engaging 
 in journalistic work on the "Pittsburgh 
 Journal." He also attempted some dra- 
 matic writing at this time, several of his 
 farces being purchased by Barney Wil- 
 liams, and he also appeared a few times 
 on the professional stage. 
 
 He removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 
 1852, where he was local editor of "The 
 Sun," and correspondent for several news- 
 papers. In 1853 he went an a journalistic 
 trip to Niagara Falls and there formed 
 the acquaintance of Junius Henri Browne, 
 who became his life-long friend. He was 
 
 subsequently detailed to report the cele- 
 brated "Matt Ward" trial in Kentucky, 
 the sale of his published report exceeding 
 twenty thousand copies. In 1854 he 
 was employed on the "Cincinnati Union- 
 ist." and afterward edited the Cincinnati 
 "Columbian," declining its entire manage- 
 ment in 1855. In 1857 he went to Kan- 
 sas, and there participated in the exciting 
 events of the anti-slavery agitation, which 
 he graphically described in a series of 
 letters to the "Boston Journal," and he 
 also served as secretary of the territorial 
 legislature. In 1859 he joined Horace 
 Greeley and Henry Villard in a journal- 
 istic expedition to the gold fields of Pike's 
 Peak, in Colorado, and later in the same 
 year he journeyed on horseback through 
 the southwestern territories, visiting the 
 Cherokee and Choctaw reservations, and 
 sending periodical descriptions of his 
 travels to the "New York Sun" and other 
 newspapers. In i860 he made a second 
 trip to Pike's Peak as special correspon- 
 dent of the "New York Tribune," in com- 
 pany with Colonel Thomas W. Knox, 
 with whom he established and edited the 
 "Western Mountaineer." He traveled 
 through the southern states as secret cor- 
 respondent of "The Tribune" in 1860-61, 
 and afterward accompanied the army as 
 a war correspondent. On May 3, 1863, 
 with Junius H. Browne, also of "The 
 Tribune," and Colburn, of the "New York 
 World," he joined the party of thirty-four 
 men who attempted to pass the Vicks- 
 burg batteries on two barges lashed to 
 a steam-tug. They were captured, and 
 held prisoners for twenty-two months at 
 Salisbury, North Carolina, being in six 
 other southern prisons, but finally escap- 
 ed, and after a journey of four hundred 
 miles reached the Federal lines at Straw- 
 berry Plains, Tennessee, in 1865. Dur- 
 ing his imprisonment his wife and infant 
 son. had died, and he himself had con- 
 tracted pneumonia, and was obliged to 
 
 84 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 visit California for the benefit of his 
 health in the spring of 1865 and again in 
 1869. He subsequently resided in New 
 York City, but made frequent visits to 
 other cities of the north, delivering lec- 
 tures on his war experience. He was the 
 author of: "The Field, the Dungeon and 
 the Escape" (1865) ; "Beyond the Missis- 
 sippi" (1866) ; and "Personal History of 
 Ulysses S. Grant" (1868). He was mar- 
 ried in November, 1869, while on his 
 death-bed, to Abby, daughter of William 
 Sage, of Manchester, New Hampshire, 
 and after his death his widow published 
 a collection of his fugitive writings, en- 
 titled "Garnered Sheaves" (1871), to 
 which she prefixed a biographical sketch 
 of the author. Mr. Richardson died De- 
 cember 2, 1869, his death being the result 
 of a shot received while in "The Tribune" 
 office, November 26, 1869, inflicted by 
 Daniel MacFarland. 
 
 SPINNER, Francis Elias, 
 
 U. S. Treasurer During Civil War. 
 
 Francis Elias Spinner was born in Ger- 
 man Flats, New York, January 21, 1802; 
 son of John Peter Spinner. His father 
 was a Roman Catholic priest who became 
 a Protestant and came to America, be- 
 coming pastor of Reformed churches in 
 New York State. 
 
 The son engaged in business at Herki- 
 mer, New York. He early became active 
 in the state militia, entering the service 
 as a lieutenant, and in 1834 had risen to the 
 rank of major-general. Pn 1839 he entered 
 the Mohawk Valley Bank of which he 
 subsequently became president. He serv- 
 ed in the naval office of the New York 
 customs-house from 1845 to J 849- He 
 was a Free-soil Democratic representative 
 from New York in the Thirty-fourth Con- 
 gress, 1855-57, and a Republican represen- 
 tative in the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth 
 
 Congresses, 1857-61, serving on several 
 important committees, and on the special 
 committee appointed to investigate the 
 Brooks-Sumner assault. He was appoint- 
 ed United States Treasurer by President 
 Lincoln, at the instance of Secretary 
 Chase, March 6, 1861, and held the posi- 
 tion through successive administrations 
 until June 30, 1875. He was the first 
 person to employ women in government 
 service, and his unique signature became 
 well-known on the various issues of 
 greenbacks. He died in Jacksonville, 
 Florida, December 31, 1890. 
 
 McCLOSKEY, Rt. Rev. John, 
 
 First American Cardinal. 
 
 John McCloskey, cardinal, and second 
 Archbishop of the Diocese of New York, 
 was born at Brooklyn, New York, March 
 20, 1810. His parents were natives of 
 Derry county, Ireland. He was baptized 
 in St. Peter's Church, one of the two 
 Roman Catholic churches then in New 
 York City. His father dying when he 
 was ten years old, the care of his educa- 
 tion was left to his mother, who, having 
 ample means, gave her son every educa- 
 tional advantage. He was prepared for 
 college in the New York City parochial 
 schools, and was then sent to Mt. St. 
 Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Maryland, 
 and after a brilliant college career he was 
 graduated with high honors in the class 
 of 1827. Having decided to enter the 
 priesthood, he at once began his theo- 
 logical studies, and on January 9, 1834, 
 at the age of twenty-five, was ordained a 
 priest in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Mott 
 street, New York. He was granted the 
 privilege of continuing his studies for two 
 years at the College of the Propaganda, 
 Rome, at that time a mark of great favor. 
 He sailed for Europe in November, 1834, 
 and remained abroad for three years, trav- 
 
 85 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 eling through France and the different 
 countries of Europe after completing his 
 course at the Propaganda. 
 
 Upon his return to America, he was 
 appointed pastor of St. Joseph's Church, 
 New York City, a position which he held 
 for seven years. In 1841 Bishop Hughes 
 appointed the talented young priest presi- 
 dent of St. John's, College, Fordham. He 
 subsequently resumed the rectorship of 
 St. Joseph's Church, and on March 10, 
 1844, was consecrated Bishop of Axieren, 
 and coadjutor to Bishop Hughes, with 
 right of succession. He meanwhile con- 
 tinued his pastorate at St. Joseph's, and 
 in 1847, when the see of Albany was 
 created, was placed in charge of the new 
 diocese, which then contained only forty 
 churches and a few priests. When he 
 was called to the archiepiscopal see of 
 New York, seventeen years later, there 
 were one hundred and thirteen churches 
 in the diocese, eight chapels, fifty-four 
 mission stations, eighty-five missionaries, 
 three academies for boys and one for 
 girls, six orphan asylums, and fifteen pa- 
 rochial schools. As bishop he introduced 
 a number of religious orders, prominent 
 among which were the Jesuits, Oblates, 
 Franciscans, Capuchins, Augustinians, 
 Sisters of Mercy, and Sisters of St. 
 Joseph. He founded the Theological 
 Seminary at Troy, and erected St. Mary's 
 Cathedral at Albany. In 1851 he went 
 abroad, where he was received with 
 marked distinction, especially by Pope 
 Pius IX. Upon the death of Archbishop 
 Hughes in 1864, Bishop McCloskey suc- 
 ceeded to the archbishopric of New York, 
 and was installed on August 21st of that 
 year. The see then included New Eng- 
 land, New Jersey and New York. Arch- 
 bishop McCloskey was in disposition and 
 character entirely unlike his illustrious 
 predecessor. He was able to reap the 
 results of the controversial administra- 
 tion of Archbishop Hughes, without con- 
 
 tinuing the controversies, and his own 
 administration was like oil on the troubl- 
 ed waters. "He was never hasty or im- 
 prudent in his public life, but ever silent, 
 persevering, gracious, winning, and final- 
 ly triumphant. He had the bearing of a 
 prince, was a ripe scholar, and a bold and 
 devoted churchman. His eloquence was 
 of a tender, deeply religious kind, uttered 
 with fervid sincerity, and in language at 
 once simple and elegant. He was a man of 
 energy and of sleepless vigilance in the 
 discharge of his duties, which he perform- 
 ed in the most unostentatious manner. He 
 provoked no conflicts, offered no opinions, 
 but with humility and prayerfulness toil- 
 ed on in the sphere of his own duties." 
 He was of a delicate but commanding 
 physique, and had a countenance which, 
 with its broad, high forehead, was strong- 
 ly expressive of amiability and benevo- 
 lence. He was energetic in the adminis- 
 tration of his diocese, was particularly 
 active in the building of the Catholic 
 Protectory in Westchester, erected not 
 only many handsome churches, but the 
 Institute for Deaf Mutes at Fordham, 
 homes for destitute boys and girls in con- 
 nection with St. Stephen's and St. Ann's 
 churches, and the Foundling Asylum ; 
 and established orphan asylums and 
 homes for aged men and women through- 
 out the city of New York. He especially 
 devoted himself to the completion of the 
 cathedral begun by Archbishop Hughes, 
 to the interior arrangements of which he 
 gave his personal supervision. 
 
 Archbishop McCloskey attended the 
 Vatican council in 1869, serving on the 
 committee on discipline. In 1874 he again 
 went abroad, principally to look after the 
 construction of altars, statues, stained 
 windows, and interior decorations for the 
 cathedral, to which he contributed $30,000 
 from his private fortune. On March 15, 
 1879, he was elevated to the dignity of 
 cardinal, in the consistory then held at 
 
 86 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 the Vatican, being the first American pre- 
 late to be thus honored. On April 27, of 
 the same year, the ceremony of investing 
 him with the insignia of his new office 
 was performed by Archbishop Bayley of 
 Baltimore, before the very altar at which 
 he had been ordained a priest and con- 
 secrated a bishop. He continued the ac- 
 tive administration of his diocese until 
 1880, when, on account of failing health, 
 he requested that Bishop Corrigan, of 
 Newark, be appointed his coadjutor, with 
 right of succession. Cardinal McCloskey 
 attended the conclave which was held at 
 Rome in 1878, to elect a successor to Pius 
 IX, and on May, 1879, dedicated the new 
 St. Patrick's Cathedral. In January, 1884, 
 the golden anniversary of his elevation to 
 the priesthood was celebrated, and on this 
 occasion the clergy of his diocese present- 
 ed him with an address which read : 
 "Fifty years ago there were in this city 
 but six churches ; now there are sixty. 
 There were then but twenty priests in the 
 diocese ; now there are three hundred and 
 eighty. At that time there were in the 
 whole United States only nine bishops ; 
 now there are fifty-nine. Then there was 
 but one archbishop ; now there are eleven, 
 one of whom has been raised to the great 
 senate of the Universal Church." 
 
 Cardinal McCloskey's declining days 
 were marked by the same tranquillity 
 that had characterized his entire life. 
 After his death, his body was with appro- 
 priate ceremonies deposited in the vault 
 under the sanctuary of St. Patrick's Ca- 
 thedral. At that time the New York 
 "Sun" said of him editorially: "His learn- 
 ing, his piety, his humility, his truly 
 Christian zeal, earned for him universal 
 respect which will be today manifested 
 as his body is carried to the tomb. The 
 first American cardinal has died at a time 
 when all Christians are ready to honor 
 his memory as that of a man who has 
 done measureless service in the cause 
 
 of religion, good morals and humanity 
 * * * Protestants and Catholics will 
 join in sincerely mourning the first 
 American cardinal as a Christian hero 
 lost." Cardinal McCloskey died October 
 10, 1885. 
 
 HAMILTON, Schuyler, 
 
 Soldier, Civil Engineer. 
 
 Schuyler Hamilton was born in New 
 York City, July 25, 1822, son of John 
 Church and Maria Eliza (Van den Heu- 
 vel) Hamilton ; grandson of General Alex- 
 ander and Elizabeth (Schuyler) Hamil- 
 ton ; and great-grandson of General 
 Philip Schuyler. 
 
 He was graduated from the United 
 States Military Academy in 1841, and en- 
 tered the army as second lieutenant in 
 the First Infantry, serving on the plains. 
 For a time he was at West Point as as- 
 sistant instructor of tactics. He served 
 in the Mexican war. where he was bre- 
 vetted first lieutenant for gallantry at 
 Monterey, September 21-23, I '^4°. an d 
 where he received a ball in his abdomen, 
 was left on the field for dead, but revived 
 and fought through the battle. He was 
 brevetted captain for gallantry, August 
 13, 1847, a t Nil Flores, where he was 
 severely wounded by being run through 
 with a lance, which passed entirely 
 through his body and left lung, in a hand- 
 to-hand combat with a Mexican lancer. 
 He was promoted to first lieutenant in 
 March, 1848; was acting aide to General 
 Winfield Scott, 1847-54. and resigned 
 from the army May 31, 1855. at San Fran- 
 cisco, California. 
 
 When the Civil War broke out, he 
 marched as a private in the Seventh Regi- 
 ment, New York State Militia, and went 
 with that organization to the defence of 
 Washington. He offered to pledge him- 
 self for canteens and haversacks furnished 
 the regiment, and paid for their transpor- 
 
 87 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 tation. He afterward served on the staff 
 of General Benjamin F. Butler ; was later 
 appointed military secretary with the 
 rank of lieutenant-colonel, United States 
 Army, on the staff of General Winfield 
 Scott, serving from May 9, 1861, until he 
 retired, November 1, 1861, and in that 
 capacity he was instrumental in prevent- 
 ing the murder of certain Confederate 
 prisoners of war captured on the battle- 
 field of Bull Run, July 21, 1861. He was 
 thanked for this service by the President, 
 in the presence of General Scott and 
 members of the cabinet, but no publicity 
 could prudently be given to the service 
 at the time. He was appointed additional 
 aide-de-camp to General Scott, with the 
 rank of colonel and served from August 7 
 to November 12, 1861, when the aides 
 were disbanded. He was then made as- 
 sistant chief of staff to General H. W. 
 Halleck with rank of colonel, accom- 
 panied that officer from New York to St. 
 Louis, and was promoted brigadier-gen- 
 eral of volunteers, November 12, 1861. 
 He was with Grant's army operating in 
 western Kentucky and Tennessee, and 
 suggested to General Pope the canal to 
 cut off the enemy's position at Island 
 No. 10, and in the assault on that island 
 and New Madrid he commanded a di- 
 vision. He was promoted to major-gen- 
 eral of volunteers September 17, 1862. for 
 meritorious services at New Madrid and 
 Island No. 10, and had accepted his pro- 
 motion in good faith, thus vacating his 
 commission of brigadier-general of volun- 
 teers, which had been confirmed by the 
 Senate, when he was seized with swamp 
 fever and incapacitated from active serv- 
 ice. He soon after received a letter from 
 General Halleck demanding his resigna- 
 tion, under the rule that no officer unable 
 to take the field should be named to the 
 Senate for confirmation, and, after con- 
 sulting with General Scott, he resigned in 
 February, 1863. He is credited with mak- 
 
 ing possible the capture of Island No. 10, 
 called by the Confederates the "Thermo- 
 pylae of America," and thus opening the 
 Mississippi ; with suggesting the name of 
 William T. Sherman to General Scott for 
 a place on the list of the regular army in 
 1861 ; and with prevailing upon General 
 Halleck to appoint General Grant to the 
 command of the army to operate against 
 Forts Donelson and Henry. He was an 
 executor of the last will and testament of 
 General Winfield Scott. In June, 1871, 
 he memorialized the Secretary of War 
 with a view to being restored on the army 
 list as lieutenant-colonel and colonel 
 United States Army, by virtue of his 
 commission as military secretary and ad- 
 ditional aide-de-camp with these ranks, 
 and he continued his petition December 
 11, 1886, to the Secretary of State and to 
 the Congress of the United States to have 
 his record as an army officer corrected, 
 but without avail. He was hydrographic 
 engineer for the Department of Docks, 
 New York City, 1871-75. He published: 
 "History of the American Flag" (1853); 
 and "Our National Flag the Stars and 
 Stripes, its History in a Century" (1877). 
 He died in 1903. 
 
 DWIGHT, Theodore William, 
 
 Educator, Author. 
 
 Theodore William Dwight, was born in 
 Catskill, New York. July 18, 1822, son of 
 Dr. Benjamin W T oolsey and Sophia Wood- 
 bridge (Strong) Dwight, and grandson of 
 President Timothy and Mary (Woolsey) 
 Dwight, and of the Rev. Joseph and 
 Sophia (Woodbridge) Strong. 
 
 He was graduated at Hamilton College 
 in 1840, studied law at Yale, 1841-42, 
 and received his master's degree in 1843. 
 He was a tutor at Hamilton College, 1842- 
 46; Professor of Jurisprudence, Civil and 
 Political Economy and History, 1846-58, 
 and trustee of the college, 1875-92. He 
 
G'licodotc SO. =-Uvs:iaut 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 removed to New York City in 1858, and 
 was Professor of Law in Columbia Col- 
 lege, 1858-78 ; Professor of the Law of 
 Contracts, Maritime and Admiralty Law, 
 1878-92; dean of the law faculty, 1864-91, 
 and member of the University council, 
 1890-91. As he was not willing to con- 
 form to the Harvard plan of study intro- 
 duced by Professor William A. Keener 
 and indorsed by President Low and the 
 trustees, he resigned in February, 1891, 
 as dean of the Law School, and was made 
 Professor Emeritus, Professor Keener 
 succeeding him as dean. He was a mem- 
 ber of the New York Constitutional Con- 
 vention of 1867 ; of the Commission of 
 Appeals formed in 1874 to share the 
 labors of the Court of Appeals of the 
 State of New York, and served until the 
 close of the commission in 1875. He was 
 vice-president of the State Charities Aid 
 Association, 1873 ; president of the Prison 
 Association, 1874; a member of the Ameri- 
 can Geographical Society ; and first vice- 
 president of the New York Bar Associa- 
 tion. In 1869-71 he lectured at Cornell 
 University, where he was elected non- 
 resident Professor of Constitutional Law, 
 and he lectured at Amherst College, 
 1870-72. He was associate editor of the 
 'American Law Register," and in 1886 
 was counsel for five Andover theological 
 seminary professors, charged with hetero- 
 doxy. He received the honorary degree 
 of LL.D. from Hamilton and Rutgers in 
 1859. from Columbia in i860, and from 
 Yale in 1892. He published : "Argument 
 on the Ross Will and Charity Case" (2 
 vols., 1863) ; "Trial by Impeachment" 
 (1867) and "Influence of the Writings of 
 James Harrington on American Political 
 Institutions" (1887). He prepared in 
 association with Dr. Enoch C. Wines 
 "Prisons and Reformatories in the United 
 States" and edited "Maine's Ancient Law" 
 (1864). He died in Clinton, New York, 
 June 28, 1892. 
 
 SICKLES, Daniel Edgar, 
 
 Distinguished Civil War Soldier. 
 
 General Daniel Edgar Sickles, soldier 
 and lawyer, was born in New York City, 
 October 20, 1825, son of George G. and 
 Susan (Marsh) Sickles. He was gradu- 
 ated at the University of the City of New 
 York in 1846, studied law, and was ad- 
 mitted to the bar in 1846. Three years 
 later he was elected a member of the New 
 York State Legislature, and in 1853 was 
 appointed corporation attorney for New 
 York City. In the same year he resigned 
 and went to London, England, as secre- 
 tary of the American Legation, James 
 Buchanan being minister at the time. 
 Upon his return he was chosen a member 
 of the New York Senate in 1856, and was 
 elected to Congress in 1857, where he 
 served on the committee on foreign 
 affairs, and at the expiration of his term 
 was reelected. 
 
 When the Civil War began, he raised 
 the Excelsior Brigade in New York City, 
 and was commissioned colonel of one of 
 its five regiments, later he was commis- 
 sioned brigadier-general of volunteers, 
 and commanded a brigade under General 
 Hooker. He fought at Williamsburg 
 May 5, 1862; Fair Oakes, May 31-June 1, 
 1862 ; and Malvern Hill, and saw severe 
 service in the Seven Days battle before 
 Richmond. He rose rapidly to division 
 and corps commander, and was promoted 
 to major-general of volunteers, Novem- 
 ber 29, 1862. He took part in the battles 
 of Antietam and Chancellorsville. and in 
 the battle of Gettysburg the brunt of the 
 Confederate attack on the second day was 
 borne by his corps, which held the ridge 
 between Round Top and the Peach Or- 
 chard on the Emmitsburg road. After 
 hours of terrific fighting and a most des- 
 perate resistance, in which he lost a large 
 portion of his command in killed and 
 wounded, and was himself so terribly 
 
 89 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 wounded in the leg that it had to be am- 
 putated, he was compelled to fall back. 
 General Longstreet, whom Grant has 
 ranked with Lee in ability, led the charge 
 against Sickles ; and Hood, more impetu- 
 ous than Jackson, moved beside Long- 
 street in the attack on Little Round Top. 
 Writing of Gettysburg, under date of 
 September 19, 1902, General Longstreet 
 said: 
 
 My Dear General Sickles: on that 
 
 field you made your mark that will place you 
 prominently before the world as one the lead- 
 ing figures of the most important battle of the 
 ( ivil War. As a northern veteran once re- 
 marked to me: "General Sickles can well afford 
 to leave a leg on that field." I believe that it is 
 now conceded that the advanced position at the 
 Peach orchard taken by your corps and under 
 your orders saved that battlefield to the Union 
 cause. It was the sorest and saddest reflection 
 of my life for many years, but to-day I can say 
 with sincerest emotion that it was and is the 
 best that could have come to us all. North and 
 South, and I hope that the nation reunited may 
 always enjoy the honor and glory brought to 
 it by that grand work. 
 
 Gettysburg won for him the Congres- 
 sional Medal of Honor. Notwithstanding 
 the loss of a leg. General Sickles con- 
 tinued in active service until 1865, when 
 he was sent on a special mission to South 
 America ; and he was not mustered out 
 of the volunteer service until January I, 
 1868, after having been colonel of the 
 Forty-second Infantry Regiment in the 
 regular army since July 28, 1866. In 1869 
 he was placed on the retired list by Presi- 
 dent Grant, with the full rank of a major- 
 general in the regular army. For gal- 
 lantry at Fredericksburg and Gettysburg 
 he was made brevet brigadier-general, 
 and brevet major-general on March 2, 
 1867. General Sickles was entrusted with 
 command of the Military District of the 
 Carolinas from 1865 to ^67 , and rendered 
 valuable service in the cause of recon- 
 struction. In 1869 President Grant ap- 
 
 pointed him United States Minister to 
 Spain, and upon his return from that 
 country in 1873 he devoted himself to re- 
 organizing the New York. Lake Erie & 
 Western Railroad Company, and took up 
 the practice of the law in New York City. 
 He was Emigration Commissioner in 
 1887 ; sheriff of New York county in 1890 ; 
 and was elected to the Fifty-third Con- 
 gress in 1892. He was married twice, and 
 had a son and a daughter. He died in 
 New York City, May 2, 1914. 
 
 BONNER, Robert, 
 
 Founder of New York Ledger. 
 
 Robert Bonner, for many years a promi- 
 nent story paper publisher, was born 
 near Londonderry, Ireland, April 28, 1824, 
 of Protestant ancestry. He began his 
 business career as a printer's apprentice 
 in the office of the "Hartford Courant," 
 and in 1844 became assistant foreman and 
 proofreader on the "New York Evening 
 Mirror." With his earnings he purchased 
 in 185 1 a small sheet called the "Mer- 
 chants' Ledger," and, converting it into 
 a family story paper, changed its name to 
 the "New York Ledger." 
 
 His methods of advertising were unique 
 and ingenious, and these, together with 
 the good taste displayed in the selection 
 of the literature with which he filled his 
 columns, soon won for the paper an un- 
 precedented popularity. Edward Everett, 
 Horace Greeley, Henry Ward Beecher, 
 Longfellow, Bryant, Charles Dickens, 
 James Parton, Fanny Fern, Alice and 
 Phoebe Cary, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, 
 were among his corps of contributors, and 
 the sums paid for articles were liberal in 
 the extreme. Dickens received $5,000 for 
 his "Hunted Down", a story which ran 
 through three numbers of the paper; Ed- 
 ward Everett received $24,000 for a series 
 of articles ; and Henry Ward Beecher 
 was paid $30,000 for his novel, "Nor- 
 
 00 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 wood." Mr. Bonner gave large sums of 
 money to the many charitable and edu- 
 cational institutions in which he was in- 
 terested, Princeton College being among 
 the beneficiaries. He gave to Rev. Dr. 
 John Hall's church $100,000, and to Henry 
 Ward Beecher, to liquidate the mortgage 
 on his home in 1859, $10,000. A connois- 
 seur in the matter of horses he purchased 
 many famous trotters, and withdrew them 
 from the race course at an expense to 
 himself of over $500,000. his purchases 
 including Dexter, Pocahontas, Edwin 
 Forrest, Rarus, Maud S. and others. He 
 died in New York City, July 6, 1899. 
 
 BARLOW, Francis C, 
 
 Civil War Soldier. 
 
 General Francis Channing Barlow, was 
 born in Brooklyn, New York, October 19, 
 1834, son of Rev. David Hatch and Almi- 
 ra (Penniman) Barlow, and a descendant 
 of James Penniman, a graduate of the 
 University of Cambridge, England, who 
 emigrated to Braintree, Massachusetts, 
 in 1631. His father was a Unitarian 
 minister. 
 
 He received liberal education, and was 
 graduated at Harvard College in 1855, the 
 first in his class, having become a student 
 there in 185 1. In the fall of 1855 he came 
 to New York City, where he resided con- 
 tinuously until his death, except during 
 his military service in the Civil War. He 
 studied law in New York City, meanwhile 
 becoming an editorial writer for the New 
 York "Tribune." When the war broke 
 out he enlisted, April 19, 1861, as a pri- 
 vate soldier in the Twelfth Regiment, 
 New York State Militia, a three months' 
 regiment, commanded by Colonel Daniel 
 Butterfield. His regiment went at once 
 to Washington for the defense of that 
 city, and on May 3, 1861, Barlow became 
 first lieutenant of its Company F. He 
 came home with it. and was duly muster- 
 
 ed out in August. 1861. In the succeed- 
 ing October he was commissioned lieu- 
 tenant-colonel of the Sixty-first Regiment 
 New York Volunteer Infantry, and left 
 with it for the front in November. He 
 was promoted to colonel of his regiment 
 in April, 1862; on September 19th of the 
 same year, two days after the battle of 
 Antietam, in which battle he was wound- 
 ed, he was promoted to brigadier-general 
 of United States Volunteers. At An- 
 tietam, he was wounded after his com- 
 mand had captured two sets of Confeder- 
 ate colors and three hundred prisoners. 
 He recovered from his wound in time to 
 take part in the battle of Chancellorsville, 
 May 2, 1803, where he commanded a bri- 
 gade in the Eleventh Army Corps. He 
 was wounded and taken prisoner on the 
 field of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863, his name 
 being among the first in the lists of the 
 leaders reported by the Confederates as 
 killed. He was left in the town when 
 the enemy retreated. Following Gettys- 
 burg came an exchange, a long waiting 
 for recovery, and participation in the 
 campaign of the Wilderness and the 
 movements "by the left flank" of the 
 Army of the Potomac, through Spottsyl- 
 vania. North Anna. Cold Harbor, and 
 across the James to Petersburg. In the 
 spring of 1864 General Barlow was made 
 commander of the First Division of the 
 Second Army Corps, and served through- 
 cut the campaign of that year, down to 
 the latter part of August, when illness 
 obliged him to take leave of absence. The 
 brevet of major-general of volunteers was 
 conferred upon him in August, 1864, and 
 early in 1865 he was assigned to the com- 
 mand of the Second Division of the Sec- 
 ond Corps, and retained it until the end 
 of the war. At Spottsylvania, General 
 Barlow stormed the Confederate works, 
 capturing three thousand prisoners, in- 
 cluding Generals Ed. Johnson and G. H. 
 Steuart. 
 9i 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 After the war he took up his residence 
 in New York City. In 1865-67 he was 
 Secretary of State of New York, and in 
 May-October, 1869, he was United States 
 Marshal for the Southern District of New 
 York, having been appointed by General 
 Grant. He was elected Attorney-General 
 of New York in 1872, and afterwards re- 
 sumed the practice of law in New York 
 City. He was one of the founders of the 
 Association of the Bar of the City of New 
 York in 1871, the first organization of its 
 kind. In the same year he began the 
 attack upon Fisk, Gould and David Dud- 
 ley Field, their counsel preferring formal 
 charges against the latter, which serious- 
 ly involved Judges Cardozo and Barnard, 
 and resulted in their impeachment. Dur- 
 ing his term as Attorney-General, 1872- 
 Ji„ he directed the prosecution of Tweed 
 and his associates, and for the successful 
 outcome of these proceedings the cause of 
 good government will ever be indebted to 
 General Barlow. He was, however, not 
 renominated to office ; indeed, his lofty 
 sense of duty and out-spoken denuncia- 
 tion of frauds of all kinds were considered 
 an indication of woeful lack of that "tact" 
 which the successful politician should 
 possess. He displayed the same spirit 
 when, in 1876, he was one of a committee 
 sent to investigate the question of alleged 
 election frauds in Florida, his political 
 popularity being then by no means in- 
 creased by his faithful statements of the 
 exact truth. But General Barlow held 
 even party success secondary to truth. 
 From that time he continued law prac- 
 tice in New York City, where he was 
 identified with all movements for political 
 reform. 
 
 General Barlow married (first) in 1861, 
 Arabella Griffith, of New York City ; mar- 
 ried (second) in 1867. Ellen, daughter of 
 Francis George Shaw, also of New York. 
 
 Two sons, Robert Shaw and Charles 
 Lowell, and one daughter, Mrs. Pierre 
 
 Jay, survived him. His first wife was 
 agent for the Sanitary Commission in the 
 field during the Civil War, and died from 
 disease contracted in the performance of 
 her self-imposed duties, July 27, 1864. A 
 window in Memorial Hall, Harvard Col- 
 lege, is dedicated to Phillips Brooks and 
 his class-mate, Francis Channing Barlow. 
 General Barlow died in New York City. 
 January n, 1896. 
 
 CORRIGAN, Rt. Rev. Michael A., 
 
 Roman Catholic Prelate, 
 
 Rt. Rev. Michael Augustine Corrigan, 
 third Archbishop of the Archdiocese of 
 New York, was born in Newark, New 
 Jersey, August 17, 1839. His parents, 
 Thomas and Mary (English) Corrigan, 
 were natives of Leinster, Ireland. His 
 father, being in possession of a compe- 
 tence, determined to give his son a liberal 
 education, a determination to which his 
 mother, a woman of fine intelligence and 
 rare energy and strength of character, 
 was largely accessory. She chose for his 
 preliminary instruction St. Mary's Col- 
 lege, Wilmington, Delaware, at the time 
 conducted by Vicar-General Reilly, and 
 in that institution the young student re- 
 mained for two years, when he was sent 
 to Mt. St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, 
 Maryland. From the beginning of his 
 collegiate instruction, young Corrigan 
 took the lead in his classes. While in his 
 junior year at St. Mary's he made a tour 
 of Europe with his sister, a young lady of 
 remarkable piety, who greatly influenced 
 his after career. He completed his course 
 of studies at Emmitsburg in 1859, and de- 
 cided to enter the priesthood. Having 
 come to this conclusion, he went to Rome 
 and became one of the twelve students 
 with whom the American College in that 
 city was opened. He made such rapid 
 progress in his studies that he won a 
 number of medals in the competitions, 
 
 92 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 which were not only for the American 
 College, but free to the students of the 
 Propaganda and the Irish and Greek 
 colleges. He was especially noted for 
 scrupulous obedience, for his industry and 
 close application, and for his personal 
 consideration for those about him. He 
 finished his course in 1864, passing a rig- 
 orous examination and obtaining the de- 
 gree of D.D., but on the 19th of Septem- 
 ber, 1863, a year before this, he was 
 ordained in the church of St. John Later- 
 an by Cardinal Patrici, thus becoming a 
 priest a year before the close of his theo- 
 logical studies, the privilege being grant- 
 ed to him as a reward for the excellence 
 of his conduct while in that institution. 
 
 In July, 1864, Father Corrigan sailed 
 for the United States, and on arriving in 
 New York was appointed by Archbishop 
 Bayley to the Professorship of Dogmatic 
 Theology and Sacred Scripture and the 
 directorship of the Ecclesiastical Semin- 
 ary of Seton Hall College, of which at 
 that time Bishop McOuaid was president. 
 Soon after, Father Corrigan was made 
 vice-president of the institution, and in 
 1868, upon the appointment of Bishop 
 McQuaid to the newly created see of 
 Rochester, Father Corrigan, although 
 then hardly twenty-eight years of age, 
 was appointed by the archbishop to be 
 president of the college, which was one 
 of the foremost of the Catholic educa- 
 tional institutions in the United States 
 During the absence of Archbishop Bayley 
 at the Vatican Council of 1870, Father 
 Corrigan occupied the offices of adminis- 
 trator and vicar-general of the diocese, 
 and when, in 1873, the Archbishop was 
 transferred to the see of Baltimore, thus 
 becoming primate of America, upon his 
 earnest recommendation Pius IX. ap- 
 pointed Father Corrigan Bishop of New- 
 ark, and he was consecrated on May 4 
 of that year in the old St. Patrick's Ca- 
 thedral by the late Cardinal (then Arch- 
 
 bishop) McCloskey. In his new office, 
 Bishop Corrigan exhibited powers which 
 speedily gained for him the admiration 
 and respect not only of the people of his 
 diocese but his ecclesiastical superiors. 
 Deeply interested in reformatory and in- 
 stitutional work, establishments of the 
 greatest importance to the welfare of the 
 people about him soon began to rise, 
 almost as if by magic. He dedicated 
 more than half a hundred new churches 
 and gave them pastors, and consecrated 
 the cathedral. He kept a watchful eye 
 over the welfare of Seton Hall College, 
 of which he continued to be president 
 until 1876; founded a number of religious 
 communities ; established a reformatory 
 for boys and refuge for misguided women, 
 and a general asylum for the orphans of 
 his diocese. Bishop Corrigan introduced 
 into New Jersey the Jesuits and the Do- 
 minicans, and founded the Convent of the 
 Dominican Nuns of the Perpetual Adora- 
 tion. On September 26, 1880, Bishop 
 Corrigan was made coadjutor, with the 
 right of succession, to Cardinal McClos- 
 key, Archbishop of New York, under the 
 title of Archbishop of Petra, and there- 
 after nearly all the practical work of the 
 archdiocese fell to his hands. By this 
 time the Catholic schools of New Jersey 
 had increased to one hundred and fifty, 
 having nearly thirty thousand pupils, 
 with one hundred and fifty churches and 
 one hundred and seventy-two priests. 
 Archbishop Corrigan was now the young- 
 est archbishop, as he had been the young- 
 est bishop, in the Catholic church in 
 America. From the beginning of his ec- 
 clesiastical career, honors had fallen to 
 him in a way that was most unusual, except 
 in the case of gray-haired and time-honor- 
 ed priests. None of these, however, had 
 changed his manner or course of conduct 
 from the modest and unassuming habit 
 he had adopted at the beginning. In 1884 
 Archbishop Corrigan was summoned to 
 
 93 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Rome, and represented New York in the 
 plenary council called to advise the Holy 
 Father. On October 10, 1885, the death 
 of Cardinal McCloskey made Archbishop 
 Corrigan metropolitan of the diocese of 
 New York, and by a special act of 
 courtesy he was permitted to perform the 
 acts of his office immediately on his ac- 
 cession thereto, instead of waiting, in ac- 
 cordance with the usual custom, for the 
 pallium, which he did not receive, in fact, 
 until early in 1886. 
 
 A profound scholar. Archbishop Corri- 
 gan, although not a great orator was a 
 most agreeable preacher, and never failed 
 to impress his hearers, while never re- 
 sorting to any of the customary rhetorical 
 means for gaining and holding their atten- 
 tion. Meanwhile his office was conducted 
 under conditions and circumstances the 
 reverse of peaceful, being not infrequently 
 disturbed by the most bitter and difficult 
 internal dissensions. Through all of these, 
 the archbishop, with remarkable tact and 
 judgment, managed to steer his course in 
 a way to gain the respect even of his 
 opponents, and those who disliked his 
 public attitude as a member of the Ca- 
 tholic hierarchy in America. On Septem- 
 ber 21, 1888, Archbishop Corrigan cele- 
 brated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his 
 ordination to the priesthood, in the cathe- 
 dral on Fifth avenue. New York. He died 
 in 1902. 
 
 LOSSING, Benson John, 
 
 Historian, Artist. 
 
 Benson John Lossing was born in 
 Beekman, New York, February 12, 1813, 
 a descendant of early Dutch settlers who 
 located in the Valley of the Lower Hud- 
 son. His father, who was a farmer, died 
 in 1814, when he was one year old, and his 
 mother, who was a farmer's daughter, 
 died when her son was in his twelfth 
 
 year. They were members of the Society 
 of Friends, and the boy w r as brought up 
 in that faith. 
 
 Young Lossing attended school for a 
 short time, but being early thrown upon 
 his own resources, owing to the death of 
 his parents, he engaged in farm work, and 
 so continued until he was about fourteen 
 years of age, when he was apprenticed to 
 a watchmaker and silversmith at Pough- 
 keepsie, New York. During the period 
 of his apprenticeship he omitted no oppor- 
 tunity for study, and thus became well 
 informed, and qualified to write articles 
 for a local newspaper, which were gladly 
 accepted. At the age of twenty he was 
 taken into partnership with his master, 
 being then an expert in his particular line, 
 but in 1835, less than two years after- 
 ward, he became the joint proprietor 
 and editor of the Poughkeepsie "Tele- 
 graph." the leading weekly newspaper in 
 Dutchess county, New York. The year 
 following he and his partner began the 
 publication of the Poughkeepsie "Casket," 
 a literary journal, and he maintained his 
 interest in both publications until 1841. 
 In order to illustrate the journal, Mr. 
 Lossing studied wood engraving in New 
 York City for a short time, and later be- 
 came a skillful and leading practitioner of 
 that art. In 1838 he became editor and 
 illustrator of "The Family Magazine," 
 the pioneer illustrated periodical in the 
 United States. In 1843 ne entered into 
 partnership with William Barritt, and 
 until 1868 they conducted the largest 
 wood-engraving business in New York 
 City. From 1845 to ^5° he conceived 
 and executed "The Pictorial Field Book 
 of the Revolution," published by Harper & 
 Brothers (30 parts. 1850-52), visiting the 
 historic localities, writing the text for the 
 work, making the drawings on the wood, 
 and doing considerable of the engraving. 
 In 1868 he retired to a farm in the vicinity 
 
 94 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 of Dover Plains, New York, and devoted 
 himself to historical research, and was a 
 member of seventeen societies, historical, 
 antiquarian and literary. He was made 
 an honorary life member of the Metro- 
 politan Museum of Art, New York City, 
 in 1844. He received the honorary degree 
 of Master of Arts from Hamilton College 
 in 1856 and from Columbia in 1869, and 
 that of Doctor of Laws from the Univer- 
 sity of Michigan in 1872. 
 
 Besides numerous illustrated contribu- 
 tions to American and foreign periodicals, 
 chiefly on the history and legends of the 
 Hudson river, he edited and annotated 
 "The Diaries of Washington" (1859); 
 "Recollections and Private Memoirs of 
 Washington" by G. W. P. Custis (i860) ; 
 and compiled, with Edwin Williams, "The 
 Statesman's Manual" (4 vols., 1868). He 
 was the author of a large number of 
 books, mostly of a biographical and his- 
 torical character, which acquired a wide- 
 spread popularity, among the more im- 
 portant of which are: "History of the 
 Fine Arts" (1840); "Lives of the Presi- 
 dents" (1847) ; "Seventeen Hundred and 
 Seventy-six" (1847) ! "Lives of Zachary 
 Taylor and Winfield Scott" (1847) ; "The 
 New World" (1847) > "Biographies of the 
 Signers of the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence" (1848); "History of the United 
 States" (1854) ; "Our Countrymen" 
 (1855); "Mount Vernon" (1859); "Life 
 of Philip Schuyler" (2 vols., i860) ; "His- 
 tory of the Civil War" (3 vols., 1866-69) ; 
 "Home of Washington" (1867) ; "Vassar 
 College and its Founder" (1867) ; "The 
 Hudson River" (1867) ; "Pictorial Field- 
 Book of the War of 1812" (1868) ; "Mary 
 and Martha Washington" (1868); "Two 
 Spies : Nathan Hale and John Andre" 
 (1886); "The Empire State" (1887). At 
 the time of his death, which occurred at 
 Dover Plains, New York, June 3, 1891, 
 he was still vigorously engaged in his 
 literary work. 
 
 BOSS, Lewis, 
 
 Astronomer. 
 
 Lewis Boss was born in Providence, 
 Rhode Island, October 26, 1846, son of 
 Samuel P. and Lucinda (Joslin) Boss, and 
 a descendant of Peter Boss, who settled 
 at Newport, Rhode Island, previous to 
 1650. He acquired his preliminary educa- 
 tion in the Lapham Institute of North 
 Scituate, Rhode Island, and at a school in 
 New Hampton, New Hampshire, and this 
 was supplemented by a course at Dart- 
 mouth College, from which institution he 
 was graduated in the year 1870. His first 
 employment was in the Department of 
 the Interior at Washington, D. C, where 
 he served for two years, and was then 
 appointed astronomer on the United 
 States northern boundary commission, in 
 which capacity he served' four years. In 
 1876 he was appointed director of the 
 Dudley Observatory at Albany, New 
 York, and in 1904 he was still holding the 
 same position a period of twenty-eight 
 years. He observed the total solar eclipse 
 in 1878 from a station at West Las Ani- 
 mas, Colorado, under the auspices of the 
 United States government. In 1882 tin- 
 government placed him in charge of a 
 part)- sent to Santiago de Chile to observe 
 the transit of Venus, and in the spring of 
 that year, in competition with one hun- 
 dred and twenty-five others, he won the 
 Warner prize for the best essay on 
 comets. This essay has been translated 
 into the principal European languages and 
 published in every popular journal of as- 
 tronomy in the world. In 1883 Professor 
 Boss was appointed superintendent of 
 weights and measures for New York State. 
 
 His most important undertaking at the 
 Dudley Observatory was the zone work 
 under the auspices of the International 
 Astronomical Society, in which thirteen 
 of the leading observatories of the world 
 cooperated, the object being to measure 
 
 95 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 and accurately record the positions and 
 motions of all stars down to the ninth 
 magnitude, that is, a magnitude sixteen 
 times fainter that the faintest star visible 
 to the naked eye. He also completed 
 observations for a catalogue of 10,000 
 stars in a portion of the sky not accessible 
 to European observers ; a catalogue of the 
 principal standard stars, and also the 
 speed and direction of 15,000 faint stars. 
 He was financially assisted by the Bache 
 fund of the National Academy of Sciences, 
 a liberal grant from the Carnegie Institu- 
 tion, and private contributions. He pub- 
 lished a number of astronomical papers, 
 in one of which (1899) he maintained that 
 the sun is one of the stars in a gigantic 
 cluster, one of the clusters composing the 
 milky way, and upon this subject he was 
 considered an authority. For many years 
 h e supplied the earliest information upon 
 the orbits of comets after their discovery. 
 In 1877 the degree of Master of Arts was 
 conferred upon him by Dartmouth Col- 
 lege, and Union University conferred 
 upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws 
 in 1902. Dr. Boss was a member of the 
 Fort Orange Club, the National Academy 
 of Sciences, the Astronomische Gesell- 
 schaft, Leipsic, a foreign associate of the 
 Royal Astronomical Society of London, 
 and corresponding member of the British 
 Association for the Advancement of 
 Science. 
 
 Dr. Boss was married in Washington, 
 D. C, December 30, 1871, to Helen M., 
 daughter of William Hutchinson, well- 
 known in the early history of Kansas. 
 They were the parents of four children : 
 Bertha, Benjamin, Helen and Gertrude. 
 Dr. Boss died in Albany, October 5, 1912. 
 
 SAGE, HENRY W., 
 
 Friend of Education, Philanthropist. 
 
 Henry Williams Sage, a liberal bene- 
 factor of Cornell University and other 
 educational institutions, was born in 
 
 Middletown, Connecticut, January 31, 
 1814, eldest child of Charles and Sally 
 (Williams) Sage, the latter a sister of 
 Hon. J. B. Williams, of Ithaca. His father 
 was shipwrecked on the Florida coast in 
 1838, and was murdered by Indians. He 
 was a descendant of David Sage, a native 
 of Wales, who settled in Connecticut as 
 early as 1652. 
 
 Henry W. Sage began his schooling in 
 Bristol, Connecticut, and continued it in 
 Ithaca, New York, to which place his par- 
 ents removed when he was thirteen years 
 old. He was disappointed in his expecta- 
 tion of entering Yale College, but in 
 Ithaca he began the study of medicine, 
 which he was obliged to abandon on ac- 
 count of ill health. He then entered the 
 employ of his uncles, Williams & 
 Brothers, prominent merchants and large 
 shipping agents, owners of transportation 
 lines on the Hudson river, Erie canal, 
 and New York lakes. In 1837, in his 
 twenty-third year, he became proprietor 
 of the business. In 1854 he purchased a 
 large tract of timber land in the neighbor- 
 hood of Lake Simcoe, Canada, where he 
 manufactured lumber on a large scale. 
 Soon afterward he also engaged in busi- 
 ness with John McGraw, and at Winona, 
 Michigan, erected a lumber manufactory 
 which was regarded as the largest in the 
 world. In 1847 ne was elected as a Whig 
 to the New York Legislature. In 1857 he 
 removed to Brooklyn, New York, where 
 he resided until 1880, and during which 
 time his marked force of character and 
 great ability brought him into prominence 
 among its leading citizens. He was a 
 close friend of Henry Ward Beecher, and 
 the great preacher, in all his difficulties, 
 rested upon no heart with more intimate 
 and tender affection and confidence than 
 upon that of his parishioner, Henry W. 
 Sage. In 18S0 he returned to Ithaca, 
 where he died, September 17, 1897. 
 
 Mr. Sage's immediate interest in Cor- 
 
 96 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 nell University began in 1870, when he 
 was elected to the board of trustees, and 
 in which his membership continued until 
 his death, he having been president of the 
 board since 1875. Recognizing in the new 
 institution an opportunity of realizing a 
 deeply cherished purpose, that of promot- 
 ing the higher education of woman, he 
 had previously, and when residing at 
 a distance, given the endowment which 
 formed the Sage foundation for the educa- 
 tion of women, and erected the Sage 
 Chapel, which was subsequently endowed 
 by his son, Dean Sage, constituting a per- 
 manent fund for the promotion of the 
 moral and religious life of the university. 
 During a quarter of a century his noble 
 personality made him the central figure 
 in the labors of maintaining the univer- 
 sity and extending the sphere of its useful- 
 ness. Mr. Cornell's great plan, conceived 
 in a spirit of unsparing self-sacrifice and 
 maintained with great resolution, had 
 not yet been realized, and the institution 
 was nearly on the point of failure when 
 the founder passed away. The necessities 
 of the university had almost compelled 
 the sacrificial relinquishment of large land 
 holdings in Wisconsin, when Mr. Sage's 
 masterly management averted the im- 
 pending disaster, and in eight years the 
 university's future was secure, and it was 
 enabled to greatly extend its advantages. 
 Mr. Sage's personal gifts evidenced a 
 wise purpose to aid the university when 
 aid was most needed, and would serve 
 it best. These included $266,000 to the 
 Sage College for Women ; $200,000 to the 
 Sage School of Philosophy, and $50,000 
 for the Susan Linn chair; to the Univer- 
 sity Library $260,000 and an endowment 
 of $300,000; to the Museum of Classical 
 Archaeology, $20,000; $11,000 for the 
 erection of a residence for the Sage Pro- 
 fessor of Philosophy ; and $30,000 toward 
 paying off a floating indebtedness. On 
 January 31, 1894, the university cele- 
 N Y-Vol 11 — 7 
 
 brated Mr. Sage's eightieth birthday, and 
 his last gift, that of the Museum of Classi- 
 cal Archaeology, was dedicated. The 
 faculty, trustees and other friends as- 
 sembled at the home of the munificent 
 donor, but the occasion was recognized 
 throughout the land, and among the 
 appreciative messages received were tele- 
 grams from President Cleveland, Govern- 
 or Roswell P. Flower, and many other 
 distinguished men. To Mr. Sage was pre- 
 sented a magnificent vase of solid silver, 
 the presentation address being made by 
 General Stewart L. Woodford. 
 
 Other benefactions of Mr. Sage in- 
 cluded the endowment of the Lyman 
 Beecher lectureship on preaching, at Yale 
 University ; the building and endowment 
 of several churches and schools, and a 
 public library at West Bay City, Michi- 
 gan. After his death, his residence, valued 
 at $80,000, together with an endowment 
 of $100,000, were given to Cornell Uni- 
 versity for a students' hospital, by his 
 sons, Dean and William H. Sage. 
 
 ANDERSON, Martin B., 
 
 Scholar, Orator, Educational Executive. 
 
 The University of Rochester, founded 
 in 1850, now a leading institution of 
 higher education in the State, was singu- 
 larly blessed in securing, at its inception, 
 and retaining for nearly forty years at its 
 head, Martin Brewer Anderson, a great 
 teacher and executive ; and Rochester was 
 equally fortunate in the possession, for 
 the same period, of a citizen who notably 
 stimulated its activities, enlightened its 
 thought and appreciated its morale. 
 Viewed from whatever angle, Anderson 
 was a great man — as versatile as pro- 
 found, as wise as energetic. 
 
 He was born of Scotch-Irish lineage, at 
 Brunswick, Maine, February 12, 1815. De- 
 termined upon obtaining a liberal educa- 
 tion, his progress therein was somewhat 
 
 97 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPH\ 
 
 interrupted by the demand of manual 
 labor upon his time ; for he was early 
 thrown upon his own resources for mak- 
 ing his way in life. He was not among 
 the precocities in letters. He did not, like 
 John Stuart Mill, read Creek and Latin 
 at four years old ; but with an intense 
 thirst for knowledge, he studied diligently 
 and systematically, mastering thoroughly 
 all preliminary courses, and, while a boy, 
 thought as a man. Among the impulses 
 of his intellectual pursuits, was his asso- 
 ciation with men of mature age in a so- 
 ciety for the discussion of questions re- 
 lating to politics and current topics of 
 interest, an influence not without effect 
 upon his trend as a teacher and his per- 
 suasion as a publicist. He had, even be- 
 fore entering college, become an omnivo- 
 rous reader and acquired a taste and talent 
 for public speaking. At the age of twenty- 
 one, he matriculated at Waterville Col- 
 lege (now Colby University) a Baptist 
 institution, of which church he was a 
 communicant. In college, he gained a 
 high reputation for sustained industry, 
 thoroughness of research and breadth of 
 knowledge, especially in philosophy and 
 the sciences. He was graduated with 
 honor in 1840. He spent the ensuing year 
 in the Theological Seminary at Newton. 
 Massachusetts, occasionally preaching. In 
 the fall of 1841, he was appointed tutor in 
 Latin, Greek and mathematics at his aima 
 mater, and, in 1843, assumed the chair 
 of rhetoric, also instructing in Latin and 
 history and delivering lectures on the 
 origin and growth of the English lan- 
 guage, said to be the first course on 
 that subject in an American college. 
 He married August 7, 1848, Elizabeth 
 Martin Gilbert, of Brooklyn — a wedded 
 union of forty years of mutual trust 
 and helpfulness, she of refined mien and 
 gentle courtesies. In 1850, he became 
 editor-in-chief of the New York "Re- 
 corder," a weekly Baptist organ. His 
 
 articles were distinguished for vast erudi- 
 tion, signal vigor of thought and felicity 
 of expression, and frequently by keen con- 
 troversial skill. He ever maintained a 
 lively interest in the journalistic profes- 
 sion, as writers on the Rochester press 
 testify affectionately to the constant coun- 
 sel and encouragement he bestowed upon 
 them. 
 
 In 1853 ne was called to the presidency 
 of the University of Rochester, thus far 
 without a head. Professor Asahel C. Ken- 
 drick, the accomplished Grecian, having 
 filled the position pro tempore. He came 
 to the place with rich credentials as an 
 educator and administrator, the unani- 
 mous choice of the trustees and with 
 much of popular acclaim. He was, how- 
 ever, confronted with the difficulties 
 always attendant upon the upbuilding of 
 a new institution of learning, under the 
 voluntary system, aggravated, in this in- 
 stance, by the friction in the Baptist de- 
 nomination as to whether Madison (now 
 Colgate) University should be abandoned 
 in favor of the new foundation — settled by 
 additional beneficences from the Colgate 
 family and the maintenance of the older, 
 while the newer institution was compelled 
 to "go it alone." Under these circum- 
 stances, President Anderson, with con- 
 secrated purpose, superb executive ca- 
 pacity, vigorous health and kingly, well- 
 nigh gigantic, presence, became the chief 
 architect of the University of Rochester, 
 building from the bottom. He demon- 
 strated himself immediately as a financier 
 of the first order, enlisting prominent 
 capitalists in its behalf. Among those 
 who tendered liberal subscriptions, the 
 names of Hiram Sibley (library and cabi- 
 nets), John B. Trevor (president's house 
 and general endowment), John H. Deane, 
 John F. Rathbone, John D. Rockefeller, 
 William Kelly, Rezin A. Wight, Jeremiah 
 Millbank, Charles Pratt and Mortimer F. 
 Reynolds are recorded ; and throughout, 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 its monetary affairs have been sedulously 
 and sagaciously promoted and supervised. 
 
 While the university was yet young, 
 and still under Baptist control, it became 
 distinctly non-sectarian in its administra- 
 tion, Jews, Catholics and Free-Thinkers 
 being as cordially welcomed to its privi- 
 leges as they who were immersed, the 
 general catologue bearing on its pages the 
 names of many men of these various 
 creeds who have become renowned in 
 business, the professions and public life. 
 Anderson stood, as Roger Williams so 
 stood, two centuries before, for the abso- 
 lute divorce of church and state — the 
 spiritual church and the secular state. He 
 even opposed the reading of the Bible in 
 the public schools as in violation of this 
 principle. He stood also for the integrity 
 of the American college against multiple 
 elective curriculums and the confusion of 
 degrees. He approved two parallel courses 
 — the humanities and the sciences — insist- 
 ing that the diploma of Bachelor of Arts 
 should crown the one and that of Bache- 
 lor of Science the other — that each should 
 mean what it said. He believed that the 
 college should have its distinctive place 
 in a rounded scheme of education. He 
 never viewed the appellation of "Univer- 
 sity'" to his institution with complaisance, 
 and would have preferred to have it called 
 a college simply, as it really was and is, 
 to-day ; but, during his tenure, cabinets 
 of geology and mineralogy, chemical labo- 
 ratories and an art gallery, were estab- 
 lished, and post-graduate scholarships in 
 the departments of political economy and 
 of constitutional law and the history of 
 politics awarded to successful compet- 
 itors. 
 
 As a teacher, he was an inspiration. 
 His own chair was that of intellectual and 
 moral philosophy, but he taught, as occa- 
 sion offered, along many lines and treated 
 many themes — history, constitutional law, 
 political economy, social science, jurispru- 
 
 dence and art. His talks to his students 
 on current events and topics were a 
 marked feature of his administration — 
 familiar conferences, which left them in- 
 formed on world affairs and tendencies of 
 thought and activities, interspersed with 
 ethical suggestions as to the direction 
 and conduct of their lives. His chief pur- 
 pose in this, as in all his teaching, was 
 "character-building," which, with the 
 "personal equation," immediate and con- 
 stant, it must be admitted, can be more 
 intelligently and successfully accomplish- 
 ed by the smaller, rather than by the 
 larger, institution, as it was so exempli- 
 fied by Dr. Anderson and the singularly 
 well-equipped and faithful faculty associ- 
 ated with him. As himself said in an im- 
 pressive farewell to one of the earlier 
 classes : "I have sacrificed my literary am- 
 bition ; I burnt my bridges behind me 
 when I came to Rochester and put my life 
 into the work of this college ; you are my 
 epistles of peace, to be known and read 
 of all men." And they, who sat at the 
 feet of the master, responded nobly to his 
 ministrations. It may well be doubted 
 that there has been a president of any 
 American college — "the small college" as 
 he was pleased to call it — who has been 
 more admired, revered and loved by his 
 pupils than Martin B. Anderson, or a body 
 of alumni who have shown more esprit de 
 corps within college walls or proven 
 themselves, in their subsequent careers, 
 more "worthy of their day and gener- 
 ation." The radiating influence of the 
 university has been of lustrous nature, 
 and peculiarly so upon the community 
 from which the larger proportion of its 
 students has been drawn, many of whom 
 have returned thereto to exalt its intel- 
 lectual and purify its moral tone. 
 
 And upon that community, and the State 
 as well, he has left an enduring impress. 
 He was a superb orator; of sinewy Eng- 
 lish phrase, of robust argument, of schol- 
 
 99 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 arly exposition, frank, earnest and clear, 
 not especially ornate, but, when thor- 
 oughly aroused, of intense emotion, even 
 passionate appeal. During the Civil War, 
 he was ardent and arduous for the 
 Union cause, writing editorials, delivering 
 speeches persuading enlistments, and ful- 
 filling humane offices. He devoted him- 
 self to the philanthropies of his period 
 and to efforts in behalf of good govern- 
 ment and the welfare of the common- 
 wealth. He was an efficient member of 
 the State Board of Charities from Decem- 
 ber 6, 1867, until May 11, 1880, contribut- 
 ing valuable reports to the Legislature, 
 among which were those upon "Out-Door 
 Relief" and "Alien Paupers;" and one of 
 the Commission of the State Reservation, 
 at Niagara, from May 2, 1883. until May 
 11, 1888. Of international repute as a 
 political economist, he was an honorary 
 member of the Cobden Club of England. 
 He was also the first president of the 
 board of trustees of the Reynolds Library. 
 He was laureated LL.D. and L.H.D. oy 
 several American universities. He was 
 ever ready to lend a helping hand to any 
 cause tending to increase the sum of 
 human happiness and the well-being of 
 society. In 1887 he resigned the presi- 
 dency of the University and soon went 
 South for the benefit of both his own and 
 his wife's health — in each case unavail- 
 ing. Mrs. Anderson died at Lake Helen, 
 Florida, February 22, 1890, and he follow- 
 ed her two days afterward. Their remains 
 were brought to Rochester, and a double 
 funeral, with much manifestation of the 
 public sorrow, was held at the Second 
 Baptist Church, Augustus H. Strong, D. 
 D., president of the Theological Semi- 
 nary, and David Jayne Hill, D. D., presi- 
 dent of the University Seminary, officiat- 
 ing. They are buried side by side in 
 Mount Hope Cemetery, on the lot owned 
 by the University. 
 
 BURDEN, Henry, 
 
 Inventive Genius. 
 
 The Burdens of Troy descend from 
 Scotch ancestors. While little more than 
 a century has elapsed since the first of 
 their line arrived in the United States, 
 the history of Troy would lose some of 
 its most interesting and valuable pages 
 should the achievements of the Burdens 
 be omitted or stricken out. Henry Bur- 
 den was a wonderful genius, and prob- 
 ably the industry he founded has added 
 more material wealth to the city than any 
 other that is confined to one family. His 
 sons, equally talented and enterprising, 
 carried along the work begun by the 
 father, to whose memory the huge mills 
 by the side of the Hudson stand as endur- 
 ing monuments. Among the hills stands 
 a beautiful stone church, and on a tablet 
 set in the interior is displayed the follow- 
 ing inscription : "Woodside Memorial 
 Church, dedicated to the service of the 
 Triune God, has been erected to the mem- 
 ory of Helen Burden by her husband, 
 Henry Burden, in accordance with her 
 long cherished and earnest desire, 1869." 
 After the death of Henry Burden, the 
 generous giver of the church, his surviv- 
 ing children erected to his memory the 
 attractive manse on the west side of the 
 church. They also built the stone chapel 
 on the east side, used by the Sunday 
 school, which bears a tablet inscribed: 
 "Woodside Chapel erected A. D. 1833 by 
 Margaret E. Proudfit, James A. Burden, 
 I. Townsend Burden, in memory of their 
 children." Thus the Burden memory is 
 enshrined amid the beautiful hills and 
 along the great river near Troy by blazing 
 furnace and smoking shaft, and by temple 
 of worship and hymn of praise. Silent 
 today and motionless hangs the great 
 "Burden wheel," but the wheels it caused 
 to revolve set in motion still other wheels, 
 00 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 and gave impetus to Troy industries that 
 will forever endure. 
 
 Henry Burden, son of Peter (2) and 
 Janet (Abercrombie) Burden, was born 
 near Dunblaine, Scotland, April 22, 1791. 
 He was reared on his father's farm, and 
 educated in a school of engineering. He 
 was of an inventive and mechanical 
 nature, and some of his earlier inven- 
 tions were for improved agricultural im- 
 plements, and were used on his father's 
 farm, also a water wheel. 
 
 He came to the United States in 1810, 
 with letters of introduction to Stephen 
 Van Rensselaer, John C. Calhoun, Wil- 
 liam C. Preston and Thomas H. Benton. 
 He settled in Albany, where he had a 
 foundry and built a flouring mill. In 1822 
 he became superintendent of the Troy 
 Iron and Nail Factory Company, and 
 henceforth Troy was his home and the 
 seat of his wonderful activity. He patent- 
 ed in 1825 a machine for making wrought 
 iron nails and spikes, and in 1836 a ma- 
 chine for making horse shoes. These in- 
 ventions largely increased the production 
 of his company. In 1834 he modified his 
 first patent, and secured another to make 
 countersunk spikes to fasten flat rails of 
 iron to wooden ones, these forming the 
 tracks for the first railroads of the United 
 States. In 1835 his wonderful machine 
 for making horseshoes was put in opera- 
 tion. By changing some of the parts of 
 the countersunk spike machine he secured 
 a machine for making hook-headed spikes 
 to fasten "T" and "H" rails together, then 
 beinning to supersede flat rails for rail- 
 road tracks. In 1839 he devised the 
 celebrated '"Burden's rotary concentric 
 squeezer" for the compression of balls 
 of puddled iron into blooms, which the 
 United States Commissioner of Patents 
 declared was the first truly original and 
 most important invention affecting the 
 manufacture of iron up to that time. This 
 machine came into general use in Europe 
 
 and America. In 1843 he constructed a 
 machine that in two movements shaped 
 into horseshoes bar iron delivered from 
 the rolls without heating. In 1835 he be- 
 came half owner of the company's stock, 
 and in 1848 became sole owner and pro- 
 prietor of the Troy Iron and Nail Factory 
 Company. In 185 1 he constructed the im- 
 mense overshot water wheel, figuratively 
 called the "Niagara of water wheels," 
 sixty feet in diameter and twenty-two feet 
 wide, which furnished the power of 
 twelve hundred horses to that part of his 
 plant called the "upper works." This 
 wheel is yet preserved at Troy, although 
 not in use, and is one of the points of in- 
 terest daily visited by tourists. In 1857 
 he so improved the horseshoe machine 
 that it cut, bent and forged each piece 
 into a perfectly shaped shoe in one move- 
 ment. During the Civil War the govern- 
 ment took possession of the Burden 
 Works, retaining Mr. Burden in the man- 
 agement. Although it taxed his every 
 resource he kept the horses of the United 
 States army supplied with shoes, and it 
 may be said that the Confederate cavalry 
 made frequent raids on the Union army 
 wagon trains, and secured vast quantities 
 of the Burden horseshoes. The right to 
 use these valuable machines was pur- 
 chased by the governments of England, 
 France, Germany and Russia, who thus 
 supplied their cavalry horses with shoes. 
 The firm of H. Burden & Sons was form- 
 ed in 1864, after the death of Henry Bur- 
 den, the two brothers, James Abercrom- 
 bie and I. Townsend, conducting it under 
 that name until June 30, 1881, when the 
 Burden Iron Company was incorporated. 
 These works are still in successful opera- 
 tion, and constitute one of Troy's most 
 important industries. 
 
 Henry Burden was greatly interested 
 in steam navigation, and at one time con- 
 templated the formation of a company to 
 navigate the Atlantic with vessels of a 
 101 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 tonnage and speed then unheard of, but 
 "Burden's Atlantic Steam Fury," as 
 named in the prospectus, did not material- 
 ize. He was interested in all worthy en- 
 terprises, gave freely to charity, and was 
 one of Troy's most valued citizens. 
 
 He died in Troy, January 19, 1871. He 
 married Helen McQuit, a most devoted 
 Christian woman to whose memory he 
 erected Woodside Memorial Presbyterian 
 Church. 
 
 JOHNSON, Benjamin P., 
 
 Lawyer, Man of Enterprise. 
 
 Benjamin Pierce Johnson, son of Dr. 
 William (2) and Dolly (Ainsworth) John- 
 son, was born at Canaan, Columbia 
 county, New York, October 30, 1793, died 
 at Albany, New York, April 12. 1869. 
 
 He prepared for college in a school at 
 Lenox, Massachusetts, and entered Union 
 College, Schenectady, New York, in 1810, 
 where he was graduated, class of 1813. 
 He prepared for the practice of law at 
 Hamilton and Hudson, New York, was 
 admitted to the bar in 1817, and became a 
 well-known and prominent lawyer and 
 public official of Rome, New York. He 
 received the degree of A. M. from Hamil- 
 ton College in 1820. He was elected to 
 the New York State Legislature from 
 Rome in 1827, and was reelected in 1828- 
 29. In Albany he found himself among 
 old friends. DeWitt Clinton, his warm 
 personal friend, was in the governor's 
 chair, Elisha Williams (regarded as the 
 most prominent jury lawyer in the State), 
 under whom he studied law a few years 
 before, was in the Assembly, Erastus 
 Root was speaker; Millard Filmore, Ben- 
 jamin F. Butler, John Van Buren, and 
 other gaints were also in the House; 
 while in the Senate were Silas Wright, 
 Peter R. Livingston, Ambrose L. Jordan, 
 John C. Spencer and others whose names 
 are not forgotten in New York history — 
 
 with such men, Colonel Johnson was per- 
 sonally popular, his genial manners, free- 
 dom from party rancor, accurate memory, 
 abundant anecdote and ready humor mak- 
 ing always a desirable associate whether 
 on legislative committees, or in the social 
 gatherings then so frequent in Albany 
 during legislative sessions. After the 
 close of his political career in 1829, he re- 
 turned to Rome and resumed his profes- 
 sional career. 
 
 He began to be interested in agricul- 
 ture, and purchased a farm, operating it 
 more for experimental than money-mak- 
 ing purposes. As he became more in- 
 terested in farming and farmers, he saw 
 that great good would come from an 
 active, progressive agricultural associa- 
 tion. In 1841 he was chosen vice-presi- 
 dent of the reorganized and rejuvenated 
 State Agricultural Society. He became 
 deeply interested, and during 1842 wrote 
 a great deal for the columns of the "Cen- 
 tral New York Farmer," also the "Albany 
 Cultivator." In 1844 he was correspond- 
 ing secretary, and in 1845 president of the 
 society. He was now a very busy man. 
 His legal practice in the various courts 
 was large, he did a large collecting busi- 
 ness, was school commissioner, receiving 
 and disbursing public money, was a 
 farmer and breeder of fine "short-horns," 
 editor and agricultural writer, and was 
 much in demand as a public speaker on 
 politics, temperance, and other topics of 
 the day. In 1846 he became involved in 
 financial difficulty. In 1847 ne was a P~ 
 pointed secretary of the State Agricul- 
 tural Society, and took up his residence in 
 Albany. He gave up all other business 
 and devoted himself solely to the develop- 
 ment of the agricultural interests of his 
 State, and became an oracle to the great 
 mass of farmers of the State with whom 
 he came in contact. The society's office 
 became the depository of every fact, sug- 
 gestion, product or invention, connected 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OE BIOGRAPHY 
 
 in any way with agriculture or the do- 
 mestic arts. He traveled and spoke con- 
 stantly. The management of State fairs 
 was reduced to a perfect system, becom- 
 ing a model for other States. He was an 
 organizer of the United States Agricul- 
 tural Society in 1852, and one of its vice- 
 presidents for many years. In 1850 he 
 was chosen secretary of the committee 
 appointed to represent the United States 
 at the Crystal Palace World's Exhibition 
 held in London, England, 1851. It was at 
 this exhibition that American agricultural 
 and harvesting machinery first came into 
 world notice and carried away all honors 
 in their class, and the Yankee yacht 
 "America" captured the "Blue Ribbon of 
 the Seas." Colonel Johnson, who had 
 been appointed by Governor Hunt "to 
 represent the interests and honor of the 
 State of New York," was on the ground 
 and rendered invaluable aid to American 
 exhibitors, returning home in September, 
 185 1, after a visit to France, where he was 
 presented with the medal of membership 
 in the French Agricultural Society. From 
 1851 to 1861 he was indefatigable in the 
 work of the society. In 1853 he took a 
 large share in the national exhibition at 
 the New York Crystal Palace. In the 
 same year he became a trustee of the 
 State Agricultural College. He was ap- 
 pointed by President Lincoln, in 1862, 
 commissioner from the United States to 
 the international exhibition again held in 
 London. The Civil War being in pro- 
 gress there were but ninety-five Ameri- 
 can exhibitors, eighty-three of them being 
 awarded prizes. 
 
 Colonel Johnson soon after his return 
 from abroad lost his wife, which with 
 other family bereavements and old age, 
 which was creeping on, broke down his 
 health, and he was gradually relieved 
 from the more arduous duties of secre- 
 tary. In 1868 he attended his last meet- 
 ing with the society, and on April 12, 
 
 1869, he passed quietly away. Says a 
 contemporary: "He was the States best 
 servant ; never a man served the people 
 to higher results of value and received so 
 little for it." When in his thirty-second 
 year, Colonel Johnson experienced a 
 change of heart on religious matters 
 under the preaching of the evangelist, 
 Charles G. Finney, and soon afterward 
 made a public profession of his faith and 
 joined the Presbyterian church in Rome. 
 He became a prominent speaker at re- 
 ligious gatherings, took an active part in 
 the establishment of Sunday schools and 
 temperance societies, and was licensed to 
 preach by the Presbytery of Oneida. For 
 some time he supplied the pulpit of the 
 Second Presbyterian Church of Rome 
 until a regular minister could be installed. 
 He never again regularly occupied a pul- 
 pit, but was always a most efficient lay- 
 man. He was a strong anti-slavery man, 
 and loyally supported the Union. He 
 gained his military title of colonel during 
 the War of 1812. but never saw active 
 service. lie was fond of telling his mili- 
 tary experiences, relating them with great 
 gusto and humor. He was a member 
 of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to 
 Rome Lodge. He married (first) Decem- 
 ber 11, 1820, Ann McKinstry, of Rome, 
 who died January 28, 1837. He married 
 (second) at Sherburne. New York. March 
 1. 1838. Mary, born February 15, 1808. 
 died December 1. 1X62, daughter of 
 Joseph and Mary (Foote) Adams. 
 
 HARTLEY, Robert M., 
 
 Philanthropist. 
 
 Robert Milham Hartley, son of Isaac 
 and Isabella (Johnson) Hartley, was born 
 in Cockermouth, England, February 17, 
 1796, and died in New York City, March 
 3, 1881. 
 
 He was but three years of age when he 
 was brought by his mother and uncle, 
 
 103 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Thomas Hartley, to join his father in New 
 York. His childhood was spent in Sara- 
 toga and Montgomery counties, New 
 York, where he received his early school- 
 ing. He grew up under the guidance of 
 a Godly mother whose gentle teachings 
 had their result in his later life. He was 
 taught the business of his father and was 
 well equipped for the duties of a woolen 
 manufacturer. He was not a natural busi- 
 ness man ; his nature was spiritual, and his 
 ambition was for the ministry. Guided by 
 his father's wishes, however, he remained 
 in business with and near him until he was 
 twenty-three years of age. At that time 
 he entered Fairfield Academy, intending 
 to prepare for the ministry, but his health 
 failing, was obliged to give up his dearest 
 wish and returned to business life. He 
 later located in New York City, in the dry 
 goods business, and that was his home 
 until death. His after life was devoted to 
 his Master's service, and, although in a 
 different way, it was work for humanity 
 that he could not have done had his min- 
 isterial ambition been gratified. He be- 
 came widely known as a Christian philan- 
 thropist and was untiring in his work for 
 the poor and afflicted. He was the col- 
 league and coadjutor of those wealthy 
 men who were always ready to supply the 
 funds needed to carry forward or consum- 
 mate his benevolences. He was vitally 
 associated with several institutions, but 
 his best service was given to the one that 
 lay nearest his heart, "The Association 
 for Improving the Condition of the Poor." 
 He was one of the founders and was the 
 most important officer of this association 
 from 1843 until 1876. He was the founder 
 of the New York City Temperance So- 
 ciety and its secretary for nine years. He 
 founded the Working Men's Home, the 
 De Milt Dispensary, the Juvenile Asylum. 
 the Society for the Ruptured and Crip- 
 pled, and the Presbyterian Hospital. He 
 published many articles and essays on re- 
 
 ligious, sanitary and scientific subjects. 
 He was ruling elder of the Broome Street 
 (afterward Madison Square) Presbyteri- 
 an Church. He was a man of the deepest 
 piety, and most gentle, loving and sympa- 
 thetic nature. He was most happy in his 
 married and home life. He married, Sep- 
 tember 12, 1824, in New York City, Cath- 
 erine, daughter of Reuben and Abigail 
 (Wilsev) Munson. 
 
 LOOMIS, Arphaxad, 
 
 Lawyer. Legislator, Author. 
 
 Arphaxad Loomis was born in Win- 
 chester, Connecticut, April 9, 1798, son of 
 Thaddeus and Lois (Griswold) Loomis, 
 grandson of Ichabod and Mindwell 
 (Lewis) Loomis, and of Phineas and Lois 
 (Hurlburt) Griswold, and a descendant of 
 Joseph Loomis, the immigrant. 
 
 When Arphaxad Loomis was four years 
 of age his parents removed to Salisbury, 
 New York, where his father was for many 
 years a justice of the peace, and assistant 
 justice of the Herkimer County Court. 
 During his early life Arphaxad Loomis 
 attended the district school, acquiring 
 thereby a practical knowledge of the rudi- 
 ments of education, in the meantime as- 
 sisting with the work of his father's farm, 
 in this manner building up a strong con- 
 stitution. In 1812, when only fourteen 
 years of age, he began to be self-support- 
 ing, accepting a position as teacher in the 
 district school for the winter months, and 
 so continued for a period of thirteen years 
 until 1825. and in the meantime for six 
 years from 1812 to 1818 attended Fair- 
 field Academy during the summer months, 
 thereby gaining a knowledge of the higher 
 branches of study. Having decided upon 
 the profession of law as his life work, he 
 pursued a course of study along that line, 
 and was admitted to the bar in 1825. He 
 then located in Sacket Harbor and en- 
 gaged in the active practice of his pro- 
 
 104 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 fession, remaining for two years, and then 
 removed to Little Falls where he was en- 
 gaged in a successful practice until 1885, 
 a period of almost sixty years. He was 
 also active in the politics of his adopted 
 State, being chosen for offices of trust and 
 responsibility. He was surrogate of Her- 
 kimer county, 1828-37; a member of a 
 commission to investigate the policy, 
 labor and discipline in State prisons, in 
 1834; a Democratic Representative in the 
 Twenty-fifth Congress, 1837-39; a mem- 
 ber of the Assembly from Herkimer 
 county, 1841-43; a member of the State 
 Constitutional Convention of 1846, and a 
 commissioner to revise the code of prac- 
 tice in 1847. His defective hearing alone 
 prevented his appointment to high judi- 
 cial stations. He was the author of: "His- 
 torical Sketch of the New York System 
 of Law Reform" (1879). 
 
 Mr. Loomis married, in 1832, Ann, 
 daughter of Dr. Stephen Todd, of Salis- 
 bury, New York. The death of Mr. 
 Loomis occurred in Little Falls, New 
 York, September 15, 1885, at the advanced 
 age of eighty-seven years, after an active 
 and useful career. 
 
 SAMMONS, Simeon, 
 
 Soldier, Government Official. 
 
 Colonel Simeon Sammons, son of Lieu- 
 tenant Thomas and Mary (Wood) Sam- 
 mons, was born on the Sammons home- 
 stead farm, near Johnstown. New York, 
 May 23. 181 1. 
 
 He was educated in the district school, 
 and for a year and a half attended Johns- 
 town Academy. ' After leaving school he 
 returned to the farm and was engaged the 
 remainder of his life in its management, 
 except when occupied in the public serv- 
 ice and when away during the Civil War. 
 He was not lacking in the military ardor 
 of his ancestors. At the age of eighteen 
 vears he enlisted in the Thirtv-seventh 
 
 Regiment, Eleventh Brigade, Fourteenth 
 Division, New York Infantry, as ensign, 
 appointed by Governor Throop, March 3, 
 1829, was promoted lieutenant, then cap- 
 tain, and Governor Marcy commissioned 
 him major, August 23, 1837, and the same 
 year lieutenant-colonel. Governor Sew- 
 ard appointed him colonel of the same 
 regiment. He was the means of effecting 
 several important reforms in the service. 
 In 1841 he resigned, but his wishes were 
 refused. He continued his farming opera- 
 tions uninterruptedly until July 9, 1862, 
 when he received a colonel's commission 
 from Governor Morgan, with orders to 
 establish a camp at Fonda, New York. 
 Before sunset thirty men were engaged in 
 the erection of barracks, and the next day 
 officers were enlisting and examining re- 
 cruits. August 29, 1S62, the One Hun- 
 dred and Fifteenth Regiment, with full 
 ranks, under command of Colonel Sam- 
 mons, was marching toward the seat of 
 war. They were at once brought face to 
 face with war's stern realities. Dr. Sut- 
 ton, the surgeon, wrote: "In thirty days 
 the 115th Regiment have slept on their 
 arms ten nights ; under the open Heaven 
 16: six nights in the cars and six in 
 tents." For three days our command of 
 one thousand and twenty-two men per- 
 formed picket duty on twenty-one miles 
 of railroad ; had four or five skirmishes 
 with rebel cavalry ; fought one day be- 
 hind breastworks ; endured a siege of four 
 days, and finally surrendered to Stone- 
 wall Jackson and were paroled. We 
 marched one thousand five hundred miles 
 in thirty days with the loss of but one 
 man. The regiment saved its flag, and a 
 year later vindicated their honor and 
 proved their worth at the battle of Olus- 
 tee, Florida, February 20, 1864. Colonel 
 Sammons' regiment was posted on the 
 right and bore the brunt of battle, suffer- 
 ing terribly in killed and wounded. Cap- 
 tain Vanderveer, whose body was return- 
 105 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ed to Fultonville, New York, was a vic- 
 tim. Captains Ballou, French and Smith 
 were wounded. First Lieutenant James 
 H. Clark was wounded, and on his return 
 from the war wrote the history of the 
 "Iron Hearted Regiment." Colonel Sam- 
 mons, mounted on a fine horse, recently 
 presented to him by the non-commissioned 
 officers and privates of the regiment, was 
 wounded in the ankle. General Seymour, 
 the Union commander, wrote : "Colonel 
 Sammons behaved like one of the heroes 
 of old and he has my respect forever." 
 His wound, not properly treated until 
 sixteen days later in New York, caused 
 his return to his home, where it soon 
 healed under proper care. He returned to 
 his regiment, which was with the Army 
 of the Potomac under General Grant, and 
 engaged in the siege of Petersburg. After 
 the explosion of Burnside's mine, the regi- 
 ment bore a prominent part in the battle 
 of Cemetery Hill, where he was shot 
 through the body. The wound was not 
 fatal, but ended his military career. He 
 retired to the old farm, where he died 
 March 19, 1881. 
 
 Colonel Sammons was a Democrat, and 
 frequently called to public office. He was 
 supervisor of the town several years. He 
 represented Montgomery county in the 
 Legislature in 1865 ; was chairman of the 
 Montgomery County Democratic Commit- 
 tee ; delegate to the National Union Con- 
 vention in Philadelphia, and to Democratic 
 National Convention in New York in 
 1868. In 1870 he was appointed harbor 
 master of the port of New York, serving 
 two years. While in the Legislature he 
 championed the bill making free the 
 bridge across the Mohawk river at Fonda. 
 He was frequently president of the Mont- 
 gomery County Agricultural Society, and 
 gave freely of his time and means to all 
 public enterprises. He married Barbara, 
 daughter of Henry and Magdalene 
 (Cline) Gross. 
 
 MUNSELL, Joel, 
 
 Journalist, Publisher, Author, 
 
 Joel Munsell, son of Joel and Cynthia 
 (Paine) Munsell, was born at Northfield, 
 Massachusetts, April 14, 1808. No one 
 ever has or can gain a greater height of 
 lespect in Albany than Joel Munsell 
 achieved by his own efforts and in his 
 own quiet, painstaking, laborious way, as 
 historian, genealogist and publisher. He 
 was unpretentious in his manner of living, 
 and retiring of nature ; withal his fellow 
 citizens considered him in their front 
 rank. 
 
 His parents had gone from Hartford, 
 Connecticut, to Northfield before his birth, 
 and it was at that place he spent the first 
 seventeen years of his life, attending the 
 local school of the town and also assist- 
 ing his father in his trade of wheelwright. 
 But it was in 1825 that his natural bent 
 was given free rein, when he became an 
 apprentice in the printing office of the 
 "Franklin Post and Christian Freeman," 
 published at Greenfield, nearby. In De- 
 cember of 1826 he had changed to another 
 office in the village ; but his next em- 
 ployer, John Denio, took him to Albany 
 in May, 1827, to be his clerk in a book 
 store. He preferred, at that time, to be 
 engaged in the making of books rather 
 than the selling of them, and secured em- 
 ployment on the "National Observer," 
 published by Solomon Southwick. Janu- 
 ary 1, 1828, found him a journeyman 
 printer two days of the week on the "Ma- 
 sionic Record" and also helping Mr. 
 Denio at spare moments. Meanwhile he 
 was printing, editing and distributing 
 from door to door his own news sheet, 
 "The Albany Minerva." of which he is- 
 sued eight numbers. He now devoted 
 much time to collecting papers and bind- 
 ing them, doing job work for various 
 newspapers, and was away some time 
 seeking journeymen in Northfield, Hart- 
 
 106 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ford and New Haven. With a little spare 
 time at the latter place, he attended lec- 
 tures and read useful works in science 
 and literature. 
 
 In 1834 he was associated with Henry D. 
 Stone in the publication of "The Micro- 
 scope," and this lasted three years, when 
 he had saved a sufficient sum to enable 
 him in October, 1836, to open for himself 
 a job printing office, at No. 58 State street. 
 He had at last found his true bearings, 
 where his skill and intelligence might ex- 
 pand as he desired they should, and as a 
 result "Joel Munsell, the printer," became 
 known all over the United States. It is 
 peculiar that in becoming, through his 
 printery, the friend of the historian, stu- 
 dent, genealogist and chronicler of events, 
 he was to reap so great a success that 
 everything put forth by his shop trebled 
 in value as time went on, and by 1900, or 
 hardly a score of years after his death, 
 such volumes as he had issued at a dollar 
 had increased in value to from three to 
 eight dollars. In the year 1900 his "Mem- 
 oirs of Madame Reidesel," printed in or 
 dinary fashion and bound plainly in cloth, 
 could not be secured to supply the de- 
 mand of the trade at eight dollars, and 
 one of the volumes of his "Collections" 
 was quoted locally at twenty-five dollars. 
 This shows with what perspicuity he 
 selected works for publication, which many 
 another would have deemed unimportant. 
 A list of the books and pamphlets issued 
 from his press would make a volume in 
 itself, and had he lived to reap the bene- 
 fits of his phenomenal advance in trade, 
 he would have bequeathed riches to his 
 family. 
 
 The first work compiled and published 
 by him was called "Outlines of the His- 
 tory of Printing," issued in 1839. But it 
 is as a historian of the city that Albanians 
 look up to him. He is remembered by 
 everyone as the greatest recorder of local 
 events, and were it not for his patient 
 
 efforts, but poorly remunerated, there 
 would be a dearth of printed material 
 about the past of Albany. At this day it 
 is an ambition of every household to pos- 
 sess a set of his ten little volumes inscrib- 
 ed "Annals of Albany," which he began 
 in 1849 an< i completed in 1859. The text 
 runs as a diary and carries the readers 
 back a hundred years by the compilations 
 therein under the caption, "Notes from 
 the Newspapers." His "Collections on the 
 History of Albany," four volumes, were 
 issued between 1865 and 1871, and every- 
 body wonders how he found the time to 
 prepare them in conjunction with the 
 work of his printery. They are exceed- 
 ingly valuable for reference and are fre- 
 cmently quoted. Another similar work 
 and monument to his industry is "The 
 Every Day Book of History and Chro- 
 nology," compiled by him, and published 
 in two i2mo. volumes in 1843. Beginning 
 with that year he prepared and issued an- 
 nually "Webster"s Annual Almanac," 
 started in 1784 by Charles R. Webster, 
 continued to the present, since his father's 
 death, by Charles Munsell. Many of his 
 publications were put forth at a pecuni- 
 ary loss to him ; but he never refused to 
 print what appeared to him to be a valu- 
 able manuscript because of a forecast "it 
 wouldn't pay," and this unselfish zeal has 
 led to the preservation of an abundance 
 of historic material now of rare value. 
 
 Mr. Munsell's endeavors in the field of 
 local journalism include "Albany Min- 
 erva," 1828; a daily campaign paper edited 
 by the Hon. Daniel D. Barnard, 1840; 
 "The Lady's Magazine" and "The North- 
 ern Star and Freeman's Advocate," in 
 1844: "The Spectator," edited by Rev. 
 Dr. William Buel Sprague, in 1845 ; "The 
 Guard." an Odd Fellows' paper, edited by 
 C. C. Burr and John Fanner; and at vari- 
 ous times, "The New York State Me- 
 chanic," "The Unionist," "The State Reg- 
 ister," "The Typographical Miscellany," 
 
 107 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 "The New York Teacher," "The Morning 
 Express" and "The Daily Statesman." 
 He also took great interest in and for 
 three years published "The New England 
 Historic-Genealogical Register," of Bos- 
 ton. He published ten volumes of valu- 
 able historical matter in limited editions 
 upon excelllent paper, quarto size, en- 
 titled "Munsell's Historical Series." 
 
 Mr. Munsell was a founder of The Al- 
 bany Institute, constant in attendance, 
 reading before that body a number of 
 papers of great concern, and was through 
 forty years its treasurer. During forty- 
 three years he was a faithful supporter of 
 the Lutheran church and its trustee for 
 over twenty years. He was affectionately 
 liked by all associating with him. In 
 stature he was slight, and in expression 
 decidedly cheerful, although possibly he 
 enjoyed no other pleasures than his ardu- 
 ous work. In conversation he frequently 
 was jocose and facetious. His manner 
 was always quiet and unobtrusive. He 
 was made an honorary member of many 
 societies, each of which bodies sent dele- 
 gates to attend his funeral, when worn 
 out by excessive and constant work he 
 ceased from his labors. He died January 
 15, 1880, at his residence, No. 59 Lodge 
 street, Albany, New York. 
 
 Joel Munsell married (first) at Albany, 
 New York, June 17, 1834, Jane Caroline 
 Bigelow, born in 1812, died in Albany, 
 June 17, 1854, by whom four children. 
 Married (second) at Albany, September 
 11. 1856, Mary A. Reid. born in 1822. 
 daughter of Alexander Reid, of Montreal, 
 Canada, bv whom six children. 
 
 WAKEMAN, Abram, 
 
 Lawyer, National Legislator, 
 
 Abram Wakeman, son of Jonathan and 
 Clara Wakeman, was born May 24, 1824, 
 in Greenfield, Connecticut. He was one 
 of the contemporaries of William H. Sew- 
 
 ard, Thurlow Weed, Horace Greeley, 
 Henry J. Raymond and Preston King, in 
 the organization of the Republican party. 
 Much of his early life was spent on a 
 farm. He attended the school founded by 
 Timothy Dwight at Fairfield, who later 
 became president of Yale University. At 
 fourteen he started out to make his own 
 living, teaching school at Rochelle and 
 Lockport, New York. He studied law 
 with Capron & Lake, at Little Falls, go- 
 ing to New York in 1846, where he was 
 admitted to the bar and became a partner 
 of Horace Holden, taking an active part 
 in politics and supporting the Whig party. 
 In 1850 he was elected from the fifth ward 
 a member of the Legislature and reelected 
 in 1851. He distinguished himself in his 
 successful efforts to secure a revision of 
 the public school laws. He also sup- 
 ported Hon. Hamilton Fish in his election 
 to the United States Senate. In 1854 he 
 was elected as alderman from the twelfth 
 ward on the Reform ticket. In 1856 he 
 was a member of the Republican National 
 Convention, and a member of the national 
 committee from his State during twelve 
 succeeding years. He was elected to Con- 
 gress in 1856. He was a candidate of 
 the Free Soil and American parties that 
 later merged into the Republican party. 
 He continued the practice of law, his firm 
 being Wakeman, Latting & Phelps, with 
 offices at 59 Fulton street. Mr. Phelps, 
 the junior partner, was minister of the 
 United States to the Court of St. James 
 during President Cleveland's first admin- 
 istration. Mr. Wakeman attracted the 
 favorable attention of Mr. Lincoln during 
 the campaign of i860. They became warm 
 personal friends and remained so until 
 the death of Mr. Lincoln. At the out- 
 break of the Civil War Mr. Wakeman 
 raised a regiment of volunteers, the 
 Eighty-first Pennsylvania, and was ap- 
 pointed its colonel, but at the request of 
 President Lincoln he resigned in favor of 
 
 108 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 his friend, Colonel Miller, who was killed 
 in a small skirmish on going to the front. 
 President Lincoln and Secretary Seward 
 wished him to accept the ministership to 
 the Court of St. James, but he found the 
 expenses connected with the honorable 
 office would not admit of it. 
 
 He became postmaster of New York 
 City. His outspoken Union ideas made 
 him a mark for many dangers. It was 
 through his efforts that a plot was dis- 
 covered to destroy the city. Suspecting 
 some correspondence that was passing 
 through the mails, he seized the same and 
 through the assistance of a cypher expert 
 the plot was revealed. During the draft 
 riots he remained at the post office, send- 
 ing to the navy yard and obtaining arms, 
 and garrisoned the building. Arrange- 
 ments were made with the "Evening 
 Post," who had offices opposite, that in 
 case of an attack, steam from the boilers 
 was to be thrown on the mob. In the 
 meantime his own residence in Eighty- 
 seventh street, situated on his property 
 which covered the entire block from Fifth 
 to Madison avenues, was destroyed by 
 the mob, including his private library, 
 then one of the largest in the city. For 
 several days he was unable to find trace 
 of his family, who had escaped to Astoria, 
 Long Island. As postmaster he reorgan- 
 ized the service and established the dis- 
 trict stations and letter collection boxes. 
 During President Lincoln's second term 
 he was made Surveyor of the Port. The 
 pride of his later life was that he had re- 
 tained the trusted friendship of Lincoln, 
 Seward and Reed. After his retirement 
 from politics he organized the Bay Ridge 
 and Manhattan Beach road, and was in- 
 terested in developing Coney Island. In 
 1864 he purchased the General Orville 
 Clark place at Sandy Hill, which has re- 
 mained in the family ever since. 
 
 He was married twice. His first wife 
 and daughter, Rosamond, were burned in 
 
 the Cambridge apartments, New York 
 City, March 7, 1883. The courage dis- 
 played by Rosamond YYakeman at this 
 fire was most heroic. After assisting the 
 old nurse (who had been in the family for 
 over thirty years) to escape, and believ- 
 ing her mother following, she discovered 
 her mistake when they had reached the 
 street, and she at once returned in the 
 face of certain death, and both were lost. 
 Abram Wakeman died at his residence, 
 46 East Twentieth street. New York. 
 June 29, 1889. 
 
 FRUYN, John V. L., 
 
 Lawyer, National Legislator. 
 
 John Van Schaick Lansing, LL.D., 
 (known as John V. L. Pruyn), youngest 
 child of David and Huybertie (Lansing) 
 Pruyn, was born in Albany, New York, 
 June 22, 181 1, died at Clifton Springs, 
 New York. November 21, 1877. He had 
 a most brilliant and useful career in both 
 public and professional life, being skilled 
 in the law. He was State Senator, a 
 member of Congress, and Chancellor of 
 the University of the State of New York. 
 He was of the best Dutch ancestry. His 
 maternal grandfather, Christopher Lan- 
 sing, was quartermaster of General 
 Schuyler's regiment in the Revolutionary 
 War, and a man of high character. On 
 the maternal side he descended from the 
 Van Schaicks. Yates, Bogarts, Van Slich- 
 tenhorsts, Verplancks and Schuylers. On 
 the paternal side he also descended from 
 the Bogarts, Verplancks and Schuylers, 
 as well as from the Groesbecks and Van 
 der Poels. His great-grandmother, Huy- 
 bertie Yates, mother of Christopher Lan- 
 sing, was a sister of Hon. Abraham Yates, 
 mayor of Albany from 1790 to 1796, whose 
 fidelity to the principles of Jefferson pro- 
 cured for him the name of "the Demo- 
 crat," and who wrote the famous political 
 articles signed the "Rough Hewer." A 
 109 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 direct though somewhat remote ancestor 
 was Brant Arentse Van Slichtenhorst, of 
 Nykerk, in Gelderland, who was appoint- 
 ed in 1646 during the minority of the 
 young patroon, director of the Colonie of 
 Rensselaerwyck, president of the court of 
 justice, and general superintendent, with 
 full power to manage the Van Rensselaer 
 estate. John V. L. Pruyn's character was 
 moulded by his most excellent mother, 
 and one of the beautiful features of his 
 life was his devotion to her. 
 
 John V. L. Pruyn received his early 
 education in private schools, and entered 
 the Albany Academy in 1824, where he 
 completed a full course of study. The 
 noted Theodoric Romeyn Beck, M.D., 
 LL.D., was principal of the academy dur- 
 ing the years he spent there. Immedi- 
 ately after leaving the academy he enter 
 the law office of James King, at that time 
 one of Albany's most prominent lawyers, 
 later a regent of the University of New 
 York, and who in 1839 became chancellor. 
 Mr. Pruyn became his private and con- 
 fidential clerk and remained as such 
 several months after being admitted to 
 the bar. He was admitted as attorney in 
 the Supreme Court of New York and a 
 solicitor in the Court of Chancery, Jan- 
 uary 13, 1822. This latter court admitted 
 him a counsellor, May 21, 1833, and the 
 Supreme Court on January 17, 1835. 
 While still a young lawyer he was counsel 
 for some of the parties to the famous 
 "James Will Case," which gave him both 
 reputation and experience. In 1833 he 
 formed a law partnership with Henry H. 
 Martin, who had been a fellow student in 
 the office of Mr. King. The firm name 
 was Pruyn & Martin. On May 27, 1833, 
 he was appointed by Governor Marcy an 
 examiner in chancery, and February 10, 
 1836, a master in chancery. Three days 
 later Chancellor Walworth designated 
 him as injunction master for the third 
 circuit, all highly responsible positions. 
 
 which showed how he had gained the con- 
 fidence and respect of those in authority. 
 February 21, 1848, he was admitted to 
 practice in the United States Supreme 
 Court at Washington, and April 9, 1856, 
 to practice before the United States Court 
 of Claims. In 1853 he had practically 
 withdrawn from the practice of his pro- 
 fession, politics and corporation service 
 taking his entire time. In 1851 he became 
 a director of the Albany City Bank and 
 subsequently vice-president. In 1851 he 
 formed a law partnership with John H. 
 Reynolds (Mr. Martin, his former part- 
 ner, having been appointed cashier of the 
 Albany City Bank), one of the most bril- 
 liant lawyers of the day. The partner- 
 ship continued until 1853, when Mr. 
 Pruyn's railroad relations became so im- 
 portant that he could not longer give the 
 law his personal attention. 
 
 In 1835 he was chosen counsel and a 
 director of the Mohawk & Hudson Rail- 
 way, the first railway successfully operat- 
 ed in America. In 1853 steps were taken 
 to amalgamate the various railway corpo- 
 rations (about ten in number) between 
 Albany and Buffalo into one corporate 
 body. Mr. Pruyn in person concluded 
 the proceedings and drew up the "consoli- 
 dation agreement," in some respects the 
 most important business document ever 
 drawn in the State. The new corporation 
 was the New York Central Railroad, and 
 he was chosen secretary, treasurer and 
 general counsel. He continued in this 
 capacity and also a director of the road 
 until 1866, when the Corning manage- 
 ment was voted out by the Vanderbilts. 
 He had now acquired a comfortable com- 
 petence and henceforth devoted himself 
 to other and more congenial pursuits. He 
 was deeply interested in political science, 
 though not in the vulgar sense a poli- 
 tician. 
 
 He was a Democrat of the "old school." 
 When the Civil War broke out, he at once 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 took sides with the government, and did 
 all a conscientious citizen should do to 
 honor and defend the constitution. At 
 the fall election of 1861 he was elected 
 State Senator. He accepted the nomina- 
 tion upon the express condition that 
 neither he or any of his friends should be 
 called upon to contribute a single dollar 
 to control the vote of any elector. At the 
 close of one of the sessions of the Legis- 
 lature, he gave the salary of a year to the 
 poor of Albany. At about this time a law 
 was passed at the instance of James A. 
 Bell, Mr. Pruyn and a few others, for the 
 building of the new state capitol. By the 
 laws of 1865 a commission was created 
 for this purpose, Mr. Pruyn being one of 
 the commissioners, and continuing as 
 such until 1870, when the board was re- 
 organized, largely, it is said, in the in- 
 terests of the friends of the New York 
 City political ring headed by "Boss 
 Tweed." Air. Pruyn, not being in har- 
 mony with this element of his party, was 
 dropped from the commission. A great 
 deal that was meritorious in the original 
 plans of the Capitol was due to the efforts 
 of Mr. Pruyn and the Hon. Hamilton 
 Harris, an associate member of the com- 
 mission. These two worked side by side, 
 and had their wishes been more closely 
 followed the defects in the building would 
 have been fewer and much money saved 
 the State. Mr. Pruyn was particularly 
 well informed on light and ventilation, and 
 to his energy is due the central court of 
 the building. This he had to fight for, 
 with the assistance of Mr. Harris, as well 
 as for other necessary features of the 
 building. From 1865 to 1870 these two 
 men worked to the best of their ability 
 for the interests of the State. The first 
 stone of the new building was laid on 
 July 7, 1869, by Mr. Pruyn in the presence 
 of Governor Hoffman, the State officials, 
 and a few friends. A feature of the deco- 
 
 ration of the "famous staircase" is a head 
 of Mr. Pruyn carved in stone. 
 
 He was a representative in Congress 
 from the Albany district twice; first in 
 the Thirty-eighth Congress (1863-65), 
 elected as successor to Erastus Corning, 
 resigned, and again in the Fortieth Con- 
 gress (1867-69). He served upon the im- 
 portant committees on ways and means, 
 claims, Pacific railroads, joint library and 
 foreign affairs. In the Thirty-eighth 
 Congress his most noted speeches were 
 made in opposition to the confiscation act, 
 against the currency bill, and upon the 
 abolition of slavery. In the Fortieth Con- 
 gress his principal speeches were on the 
 treaty-making power, under the Alaska 
 treaty with Russia, on construction, on 
 diplomatic appropriation, the resumption 
 of specie payments and against the im- 
 peachment of President Andrew Johnson. 
 In this Congress he was chosen a regent 
 of the Smithsonian Institution, in con- 
 junction with the Hon. Luke P. Poland 
 and James A. Garfield, then a member of 
 Congress from Ohio, later to die by the 
 assassin's bullet while President of the 
 United States. Mr. Pruyn was in many 
 respects the most efficient representative 
 that Albany has ever sent to Washington. 
 He was possessed of most remarkable ex- 
 ecutive ability, while his extensive knowl- 
 edge and elevated views of public affairs 
 gave him weight and position. Although 
 not rated an orator, he was an effective 
 speaker. "His style of language and 
 manner was simple, vigorous and correct, 
 while his reasoning was sound and just." 
 Although eminently fitted for public life, 
 he will be best remembered for his work 
 in the more congenial fields of philan- 
 thropy and education. In 1831 he was 
 elected a member of the Albany Institute, 
 which he served in all capacities includ- 
 ing the office of president, which he filled 
 capably from 1857 until his death. The 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Albany Institute, although not organized 
 until May, 1824, is in reality one of the 
 oldest literary and scientific societies in 
 the State, being the combination of the 
 '"Albany Lyceum of Natural History" 
 (founded in 1823) and the "Society for 
 the Promotion of Useful Arts," which 
 was founded in 1804 as the legitimate 
 successor of the "Society for the Promo- 
 tion of Agriculture, Arts and Manufac- 
 tures," organized in the city of New York 
 (then the State Capitol) in 1791. 
 
 In the cause of education, Mr. Pruyn 
 did a noble work. On May 4, 1844, at the 
 age of thirty-three, he was appointed by 
 the Legislature a regent of the Univer- 
 sity of the State of New York, and on 
 January 9, 1862, was elected chancellor to 
 succeed Hon. Gerrit Yates Lansing, 
 LL.D., deceased. He was a regent for 
 over thirty years, fifteen of which he was 
 chancellor, the highest educational office 
 in the State. The University of the State 
 of New York was established by the Leg- 
 islature first in 1784, but substantially as 
 it now exists in 1787. Alexander Hamil- 
 ton was one of the committee who drew 
 up the Act of 1787. The University, like 
 those of Oxford and Cambridge, is one of 
 supervision and visitation rather than one 
 of instruction. There are twenty-three 
 regents, the presiding officer of the board 
 being the chancellor, who is the head of 
 the unversity, which includes under the 
 visitation of the regents twenty-three lit- 
 erary colleges, twenty medical colleges, 
 schools of science, three law schools, and 
 about two hundred and forty academies 
 and academical departments of Union 
 schools. The regents also have the care 
 of the state library and the State Museum 
 of Natural History. When he became 
 chancellor Mr. Pruyn threw his whole 
 soul into the work. The cause of higner 
 education was not in its most flourishing 
 condition, hut he gave it a quickening 
 impulse. The University convocation 
 
 was organized, the system of preliminary 
 and higher academic examination was in- 
 stituted and a broad foundation laid for 
 greater usefulness. At Hamilton College 
 he founded the Pruyn medal for the best 
 oration in the senior class, relating to the 
 duties of the educated citizen to the State. 
 He was president of the board of trustees 
 of St. Stephen's College at Annandale, an 
 institution founded by Mr. and Mrs. John 
 Bard for training young men, chiefly for 
 the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal 
 church. As a member of the "Associa- 
 tion for the Codification of the Law of 
 Nations," he offered at the Hague meet- 
 ing in 1875 resolutions of thanks for 
 courtesies received, speaking in English, 
 French and finally in Dutch, the language 
 of his ancestors, for which he was loudly 
 applauded. In 1876 the board of commis- 
 sioners of state survey was organized and 
 he was chosen president. This was really 
 the last public position to which he was 
 called. In 1871 he was appointed by 
 President Grant a member of the centen- 
 nial commission, but resigned before 
 1876. 
 
 He was corresponding member of the 
 New York Historical Society, an honor- 
 ary member of the Wisconsin Historical 
 Society, a resident member of the Ameri- 
 can Geographical and Statistical Society, 
 a life member of the Young Men's Asso- 
 ciation of Albany, a member of the Liter- 
 ary Fund Society of London, of the 
 Union and Century clubs of New York, 
 and of other societies. He received the 
 degree of Master of Arts in 1835 from 
 Rutgers College and in 1845 from Union 
 College, and that of LL.D. in 1852 from 
 the University of Rochester. During the 
 latter years of his life he gave nearly all 
 his time to public service, and that too 
 without compensation, although entitled 
 by law to the reimbursement of his ex- 
 penses he steadily declined to take it. His 
 religious life was remarkably happy. 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Originally an officer of the Second Re- 
 formed Dutch Church, in which he had 
 been reared, the latter half of his religious 
 life was given almost wholly to the Prot- 
 estant Episcopal church, of which he be- 
 came a communicant. He was a vestry- 
 man of St. Peter's Church, Albany, early 
 known as "Queen Anne's Chapel in the 
 Wilderness." His views were essentially 
 broad. He was a warm admirer of Dean 
 Stanley, and a personal friend of Bishop 
 Doane, to whom he suggested the form 
 of prayer now in use in the diocese of 
 Albany for the government and State 
 Legislature, and for a collect for the new 
 year. Despite his love for the Episcopal 
 church, he never lost sight of his early 
 religious training, but made it his custom 
 to annually take part in the New Year 
 services of the Dutch church. He was a 
 man of cultivated taste, had traveled ex- 
 tensively, and had a large circle of friends 
 abroad as well as at home. His preemi- 
 nent characteristic was justice. He was 
 always gentle and never spoke ill of any- 
 one. "He had not an enemy in the world" 
 was true of him. He led a life of personal 
 purity and integrity, unsullied by even a 
 rumor to the contrary. After his death 
 on November 21, 1877, resolutions of 
 sympathy were passed by the bodies with 
 which he had been connected and by 
 many others upon which he had no claim. 
 His funeral took place on the afternoon 
 of Friday, November 23, 1877, from St. 
 Peter's Church, Albany, in the presence 
 of the Governor, the State officials, re- 
 gents of the University, and a large as- 
 semblage of friends. The flags upon the 
 public buildings were at half mast, and 
 many of the public offices closed during 
 the funeral services. He is buried in the 
 Albany Cemetery, beneath the shadow of 
 a simple granite cross, suitably inscribed. 
 Mr. Pruyn married (first) October 22, 
 1840, in Albany, Harriet Corning Turner, 
 born June 18, 1822, second daughter of 
 
 H Y-Vol H-8 ] 
 
 Thomas and Mary Ruggles (Weld) 
 Turner, of Troy, New York. She was a 
 lineal descendant of the Rev. Thomas 
 Weld, who emigrated from England in 
 1632 and became pastor of the First Con- 
 gregational Church in Roxbury, Massa- 
 chusetts. Mrs. Pruyn died March 22, 
 1859. In St. Peter's Church a beautiful 
 memorial window is dedicated to her 
 memory and that of an infant daughter. 
 Erastus Corning, eldest son of John V. L. 
 Pruyn, was born August 24, 1841 ; passed 
 several years under the tuition of the Rev. 
 Mr. Calthrop at Bridgeport, Connecticut, 
 and subsequently a student at Princeton 
 University and at Trinity College, Cam- 
 bridge, England ; he was appointed con- 
 sular agent of the United States at Cara- 
 cas by Hon. William H. Seward, Secre- 
 tary of State, and was the acting minister 
 of our government there during the Vene- 
 zuelan revolution of 1868. He received 
 special commendation from the State De- 
 partment for his services at that time. In 
 1871 he went to Teneriffe, one of the 
 Canary Islands, where he died at Orotava. 
 February, 1881. John V. L. Pruyn was 
 married (second) September 7, 1865, at St. 
 Peter's Church, Albany, by the Rt. Rev. 
 Horatio Potter, D.D., LL.D., D.C.I., 
 Oxon, Bishop of New York, to Anna Fenn 
 Parker, born at Delhi, New York, March 
 26, 1840, eldest daughter of Hon. Amasa 
 J. Parker and his wife, Harriet Langdon 
 (Roberts) Parker, of Albany (see Parker 
 VII). Two children were born of this 
 marriage. Mrs. John V. L. (Anna F. 
 Parker) Pruyn, spent the greater part of 
 her life in Albany. She was a woman of 
 vigorous mental powers, of broad culture 
 and of extended travel. She was deeply 
 interested in Albany affairs where her 
 house was a center of wide hospitality. 
 Generous by nature, she gave liberally of 
 her means both to public and private 
 charities. The Pruyn public library in 
 Albany was a gift from Mrs. Pruyn and 
 13 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 her family in memory of her husband. 
 She died at her summer home in Matta- 
 poisett, Massachusetts, October 7, 1909. 
 Two daughters, Mrs. William Gorham 
 Rice, of Albany, and Mrs. Charles S. 
 Hamlin, of Boston, survive her. 
 
 MORGAN, Lewis H., 
 
 Ethnologist, Archeologist. 
 
 Lewis Henry Morgan, esteemed by 
 scientists as among the great — perhaps, 
 the greatest — ethnologists of his time, was 
 born at Aurora, Cayuga county, Novem- 
 ber 21, 1818, the ninth child and seventh 
 son of the Hon. Jedediah Morgan, by 
 his second wife Harriet, daughter of 
 Samuel Steele, of Hartford, Connecticut. 
 He was of Puritan stock, pardonably 
 proud of his lineage, descended paternally 
 from James Morgan, who migrated from 
 Wales to Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 
 1636, and maternally from John Steele, 
 who came from England, in 1641, to what 
 is now Cambridge, the seat of Harvard 
 University. In the maternal line, the 
 blood of the "Mayflower" also coursed 
 his veins, his great-great-grandfather, 
 Samuel Steele, having married in 1680 
 Mercy, the granddaughter of Governor 
 William Bradford, of Plymouth. James 
 Morgan married in Roxbury, August 6, 
 1640, Margery Hill and, ten years later, 
 removed to Pequot, now New London, 
 Connecticut, and there the Morgan family 
 abode for five generations. Thomas Mor- 
 gan, the grandfather of Lewis, following 
 in the wake of the New England exodus 
 succeeding the close of the Revolution, 
 settled in Scipio, Cayuga county, in 1792, 
 at the age of fifty. Jedediah, his son, re- 
 sided mainly in Aurora, was of competent 
 estate, highly respected in the community 
 and represented the seventh district in 
 the State Senate, — 1824-26, — dying a year 
 before the expiration of his term, when 
 Lewis was in his eighth year. The house 
 
 in which Lewis was born is still standing 
 and is occupied by a professor at Wells 
 College. 
 
 Lewis, having received an excellent 
 preliminary training, entered Union Col- 
 lege, was a member of the Kappa Alpha 
 fraternity and was graduated, with honor, 
 in 1840. He studied law, was admitted 
 to practice, settled in Rochester, was for 
 a time a partner with George F. Dan- 
 forth, a college classmate, afterward a 
 judge of the Court of Appeals, and soon 
 secured a lucrative and honorable prac- 
 tice, continued for the ensuing decade. 
 At the end thereof, however, business en- 
 gagements and scientific studies caused 
 him to withdraw from the profession. In 
 1855 he became interested, first as legal 
 adviser and then as stockholder, in the 
 projected railway from Marquette, Michi- 
 gan, to the south shore of Lake Superior 
 and in the development of the iron mines 
 in the region, from which he derived a 
 considerable income. 
 
 But it is to his labors in anthropology 
 that Morgan owes his widespread fame. 
 Living near to the Cayuga and not re- 
 mote from the Onondaga and Seneca res- 
 ervations of the Iroquois, his attention 
 was turned early to the study of Indi- 
 an life ; and it is of interest to note the 
 probable cause of his interest therein. 
 "On his return (to Aurora) from college 
 he joined a secret society, known as the 
 'Gordian Knot,' composed of the young 
 men of the village. Chiefly by his in- 
 fluence this society was enlarged and re- 
 organized and became the "New Confed- 
 eracy of the Iroquois." It held its coun- 
 cils in the woods at night. It was found- 
 ed upon the ancient confederacy of the 
 Five Nations, and its symbolic council 
 fires were kindled upon the ancient terri- 
 tories of the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the 
 Onondagas, the Cayugas and the Sene- 
 cas. Its objects were to gather the frag- 
 ments of the history, institutions and 
 
 114 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 government of the Indians, and to en- 
 courage a kinder feeling toward them. A 
 friend writes that "many of its members 
 have since become distinguished in vari- 
 ous walks of life, but upon none of them 
 was its influence so persuasive and so 
 permanent as upon Mr. Morgan." It 
 gave direction to his thought and stimu- 
 lus to his energies. In order that it might 
 be in conformity with its models, he visit- 
 ed the tribes in New York and Canada, 
 even then remnants, but retaining, so far 
 as they were able, their ancient laws and 
 customs. These he investigated and soon 
 became deeply interested in them. On 
 his removal to Rochester his studies of 
 Indian institutions were continued and, 
 in 1845, he attended day after day a grand 
 council of the Indians at the Tonawanda 
 reservation ; and in April of the same year 
 went to Washington to plead in behalf 
 of the Indians against the great injustice 
 done them in taking away some of their 
 lands. While on this journey he attend- 
 ed a meeting of the New York Historical 
 Society, of which he had been elected a 
 member, and read his first public paper 
 on the subject, referred to in the Proceed- 
 ings of the Society as "An essay on the 
 constitutional government of the Six Na- 
 tions of Indians." 
 
 Thereafter the pursuit of knowledge of 
 the aboriginal habitat and history, tra- 
 ditions and institutions, beginning with 
 those of the Iroquois, the most intelligent 
 and powerful federation of Indians on the 
 continent, extending through the range 
 of American tribes and culminating in 
 the most important revelations and dis- 
 coveries. In 1847 he published fourteen 
 "Letters on the Iroquois," addressed to 
 Albert Gallatin, LL.D., in the "American 
 Review" under the nom dc plume of "Shen- 
 andoah." These were followed by several 
 reports to the regents of the university 
 upon Indian remains in this State, on the 
 "Fabrics of the Iroquois;" and in 1851 
 
 appeared his volume on the "League of 
 the Iroquois," which at once attracted 
 general attention and gave its author a 
 high place in the world of letters and 
 science. He had been, October 1, 1847, 
 adopted into the Hawk gens of the Sene- 
 cas and given the name Ta-ya-da-wah- 
 kugh (one lying across, or a friendly com- 
 municant between the white and red 
 races). Ten years later, at the Montreal 
 meeting of the "American Association for 
 the Advancement of Science" he read a 
 paper on "The Laws of Descent of the 
 Iroquois" which furnished the basis of 
 one of the most important generaliza- 
 tions in relation to American ethnology. 
 By further visitations and researches 
 among the Ojibways he found that their 
 system of kinship was substantially the 
 same as that of the Iroquois ; and his con- 
 clusions were embodied in a paper read 
 before the academy entitled "A Conjec- 
 tural Solution of the Classificatory Sys- 
 tem of Relationship," February 11, 1868. 
 In this year he also produced "The Ameri- 
 can Beaver and his Works," which was 
 without the range of his special studies, 
 but with a possible hint thereof in the 
 communal life of the beaver and his in- 
 genuity as an earth builder. It was re- 
 ceived by foreign scholars with high ad- 
 miration, was translated into various 
 languages, and gained for him honorary 
 membership in several scientific societies. 
 In 1870, he published, under the aus- 
 pices of the Smithsonian, his great vol- 
 ume on "Systems of Consanguinity and 
 Affinity of the Human Family" contain- 
 ing, as himself says, "the systems of re- 
 lationships of four-fifths numerically of 
 the entire human family." From 1869 to 
 1876, he contributed a number of papers 
 to the "North American Review," — the 
 "Seven Cities of Cibola," "Indian Migra- 
 tions" and the "Houses of the Mound 
 Builders" being among them. Probably 
 the paper of 1876, entitled "Montezuma's 
 15 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Dinner," is the most characteristic of what 
 has been called the "Morgan School" of 
 ethnology. In it he showed that the 
 commonly received statements relating 
 to the Aztec civilization were founded on 
 misconceptions and exaggerations, and 
 that the Mexican confederacy, reviewed 
 in the light of knowledge derived from a 
 study of the social and tribal institutions 
 of the Indians of America, would be found 
 to form no exception to the democratic, 
 military and priestly government found- 
 ed on the gentile system common to the 
 American tribes (Putnam). In 1877, he 
 issued his illustrious work, "Ancient So- 
 ciety," with the subordinate caption of 
 "or Researches in the Lines of Human 
 Progress from Savagery, through Bar- 
 barism to Civilization" — the leading 
 monument of his genius — the grand sum- 
 ming up of many years of industrious 
 labor and deep thought. In this, he 
 shows how all the blessings of morality, 
 liberty, society, industry and civilization 
 and even all free institutions, have been 
 developed through regular stages from a 
 few germs originally planted in the soil 
 of the human mind, far back in the pre- 
 historic ages; proves that, with occa- 
 sional retrogressions, there has been a 
 constant growth in these respects, so that 
 it is no longer an insoluble problem how 
 a people can pass out of savagery and 
 barbarism into civilization. 
 
 Yet I doubt not thro' the ages one increasing 
 
 purpose runs, 
 And the thoughts of men are widen'd with the 
 
 process of the suns. 
 
 As this is written (March, 1916) when 
 the world is lapped in the blood of the 
 innocents, and furious savagery, fed by 
 science, asserts its sway, one is tempted 
 to wonder if this supreme scientist would 
 consider the present time a retrogres- 
 sion. "Ancient Society" is Morgan's work 
 of superlative renown, investing its 
 
 116 
 
 author with fellowship in numerous 
 learned societies and the acclaim of the 
 scientists of two continents, which still 
 abides "opening up," as it does, in the 
 words of William Henry Holmes, curator 
 of the National Gallery of Art, "of a vast 
 new field of research of which the world 
 had no previous knowledge, and the appli- 
 cation of the remarkable insight into 
 human affairs thus gained in the classi- 
 fication and logical arrangement of the 
 whole subject-matter of anthropology." 
 The last work of Morgan was his "Houses 
 and House-life of the American Aborigi- 
 nes," which illustrates and verifies his 
 conception of the organization of primi- 
 tive society of the early and middle stages 
 of barbarism. 
 
 In 1873, Morgan received the degree of 
 Doctor of Laws from his alma mater. 
 In 1880, he was president of the "Ameri- 
 can Association for the Advancement of 
 Science." Politically a Republican, he 
 was an Assemblyman in 1861, and a Sen- 
 ator in 1867 an d '68. In both these ca- 
 pacities, he was distinguished as the foe 
 of all vicious measures, and his name was 
 unsullied even by the insinuation of cor- 
 rupt or undue partizan inclination. He 
 was the founder of the exclusive, local, 
 literary club, popularly known as the 
 "Pundit," including the best scholarly 
 and professional talent of the community, 
 and before it he read many of his papers 
 subsequently published. In 1851, he mar- 
 ried Mary E., his cousin, and daughter of 
 Lemuel Steele, of Albany. The loss of 
 two fair daughters, in 1862, turned his 
 thought to the cause of higher education 
 for women, and his will provided for the 
 erection of a Woman's College in Roches- 
 ter upon the decease of his wife and son. 
 His entire property, estimated at $70,000, 
 is now resolved into an endowment of the 
 co-educational department of the univer- 
 sity. The university also has in its keep- 
 ing his oil protrait, magnificent library, 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 curious relics, valuable papers and exten- 
 sive correspondence. His home was one 
 of genial but unaffected hospitality, 
 whither many of those eminent in letters 
 and science wended their way. Some- 
 what reserved in his bearing, he was, 
 from his stores of knowledge, an illumin- 
 ating and fascinating conversationist. He 
 was honorable in public, and virtuous and 
 beloved in private life. He died at his 
 home in Rochester, December 17, 1881, in 
 the sixty-fourth year of his age. His wife 
 survived him less than two years, also be- 
 queathing her separate estate to the 
 higher education of women. Both lie in 
 Mount Hope Cemetery. There is as yet 
 no full biography of Lewis H. Morgan, 
 but notable tributes to his memory are 
 the address at his funeral by the Rev. J. 
 H. Mcllvaine, D. D., his intimate friend 
 and pastor for many years ; the sketch by 
 Putnam, "Proceedings of the American 
 Association of Arts and Sciences," vol. 
 xvii, May, 1882, heretofore referred to; 
 and the memoir by Holmes before the 
 National Academy of Science, November 
 20, 1907. His bibliography will be found 
 in the "League of the Iroquois" edition of 
 1904. 
 
 MYER, Albert James, 
 
 Soldier, Author of Signal Service. 
 
 General Albert James Myer, whose 
 services in his particular field to the 
 United States army were of inestimable 
 value, was born in Newburgh, New York, 
 September 20, 1827, son of Henry Beek- 
 man and Elinor Pope (McClanahan) 
 Myer ; grandson of Simon Johnson and 
 Cornelia (Thorn) Myer, and of Robert 
 and Elinor (Baird) McClanahan, and a 
 descendant of Jan Dircksen and Tryntje 
 Andriesse (Grevenraet) Myer, who emi- 
 grated from Amsterdam to New Amster- 
 dam previous to 1652. 
 
 He was graduated from Hobart Col- 
 
 lege, Bachelor of Arts, 1847, Master of 
 Arts, 1850, and from Buffalo Medical Col- 
 lege in 1851. He entered the United 
 States army as an assistant surgeon in 
 1854, and served in Texas from that year 
 to 1857. During 1850-60 he was on spe- 
 cial signal service, and while so engaged 
 he devised a system for signalling mes- 
 sages with accuracy and rapidity for 
 many miles, by means of flags by day 
 and torches by night, this marking the 
 beginning of a service that was carried 
 to great efficiency during the Civil War. 
 He was made major and signal officer in 
 i860, and saw duty in New Mexico and 
 against the Indians. At the outbreak of 
 the rebellion, he was placed on duty at 
 Fortress Monroe, where he organized and 
 commanded the camp for signal service 
 instruction, and served on the staff of 
 General Benjamin F. Butler, later being 
 an aide to General McDowell, and taking 
 part in the first battle of Bull Run. As 
 chief signal officer on the staff of General 
 George B. McClellan, he established 
 camps of instruction for signalmen, or- 
 ganized signal parties, and introduced the 
 signal service at the Naval Academy at 
 Annapolis. He commanded the signal 
 service of the Army of the Potomac in 
 the Peninsula campaign of 1862, and in 
 that year was brevetted lieutenant-colo- 
 nel and colonel for gallant and meritori- 
 ous services at Hanover Court House and 
 Malvern Hill. He was promoted to full 
 colonel in March, 1863, and until Novem- 
 ber of that year was in charge of the main 
 signal system service office at Washing- 
 ton City, and introduced the signal sys- 
 tem in the Military Academy at West 
 Point, and was head of the central board 
 of examination for admission to the signal 
 corps of the army. He was on reconnois- 
 sance duty on the Mississippi river be- 
 tween the mouth of the Ohio and Mem- 
 phis, Tennessee, from December, 1863, to 
 May, 1864, and from that time until the 
 17 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 end of the war was chief signal officer of 
 the Military Division of the Mississippi. 
 As a member of General Canby's staff he 
 participated in the capture of Fort Gaines, 
 Alabama. On March 13, 1865, he wasbre- 
 vetted brigadier-general in the regular 
 army for distinguished services in organ- 
 izing, instructing and commanding the 
 signal service of the army, and for special 
 service in October, 1865, when the post of 
 Allatoona, Georgia, with General Sher- 
 man's vast supplies, was saved from cap- 
 ture through the aid of his flag signals — 
 the incident memorialized in the popular 
 evangelistic hymn, "Hold the Fort." Gen- 
 eral Myer was made chief signal officer of 
 the army on July 28, 1866. On Novem- 
 ber 1, 1870, in an experiment in tele- 
 graphing and signalling the approach 
 and force of storms, he made his first ob- 
 servations and which were received at 
 twenty-four widely separated stations at 
 8.25 o'clock a. m., and a week later he 
 telegraphed his first storm warning to the 
 stations which he had established on the 
 Great Lakes. He represented the United 
 States at the International Congress of 
 Meteorologists at Vienna in 1873, and at 
 the Meteorological Congress in Rome in 
 1879. Between these years, in 1875 he 
 had established a daily international bul- 
 letin and in 1878 a daily international 
 chart in connection with the Signal Serv- 
 ice Bureau ; and also a system of day and 
 night signals for navigation, and a sys- 
 tem of reports for the benefit of farmers 
 and of interior commerce. In recogni- 
 tion of his services, he was made a briga- 
 dier-general in the regular army in 1880. 
 In 1872 Hobart College conferred upon 
 him the degree of Doctor of Laws, and 
 Union University that of Doctor of Phi- 
 losophy in 1875. General Myer was the 
 author of "Manual of Signals for the 
 United States Army and Navy" (1868). 
 He died in Buffalo, New York, August 
 24, 1880. 
 
 MARSHALL, Elisha G., 
 
 Civil War Soldier. 
 
 Colonel Elisha Gaylord Marshall, a sol- 
 dier of the Civil War, and a principal 
 figure in one of the bloodiest affairs of 
 that period — that of "the crater," at 
 Petersburg, Virginia — was born at Se- 
 neca Falls, New York, January 26, 1829. 
 After graduating from the United States 
 Military Academy at West Point in 1850, 
 he was commissioned second lieutenant 
 and assigned to the Sixth Infantry, and 
 for eight years saw service in Utah, Cali- 
 fornia and New Mexico. On the out- 
 break of the Civil War in 1861, he was 
 promoted to captain, and placed on duty 
 at Rochester, New York, as mustering 
 and disbursing officer. In April, 1862, he 
 accepted the colonelcy of the Thirteenth 
 New York Regiment, was engaged in the 
 Peninsular campaign under McClelland, 
 and was brevetted major for conspicuous 
 gallantry at the battle of Gaines's Mill. 
 Later he was engaged in the battles of 
 Manassas and Antietam, and Fredericks- 
 burg, his conduct in the latter engage- 
 ment winning for him the brevet of lieu- 
 tenant-colonel. He left the volunteer 
 service in May, 1863, and was returned 
 to his former duties at Rochester. On 
 January 4, 1864, he was again commis- 
 sioned colonel of volunteers, assigned to 
 the Fourteenth Regiment New York 
 Heavy Artillery, and commanded a bri- 
 gade in the Fourth Division, Ninth Corps, 
 under General Grant, in the campaign 
 against Richmond, participating in the 
 battle of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, 
 Tolopotomy, and at Cold Harbor. He 
 commanded a brigade in the battle of the 
 Petersburg Crater, June 17-18, 1864, 
 where he greatly distinguished himself, 
 and was severely wounded. In July fol- 
 lowing, during the siege, he led the main 
 assault on the 30th, and after holding the 
 crater nearly all day was taken prisoner, 
 
 118 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 and held by the enemy until the close of 
 the war in April, 1865, when he was 
 placed on duty at Washington. For his 
 services at Petersburg he was brevetted 
 colonel, and brigadier-general for gallant 
 and meritorious services during the war. 
 On August 16, 1865, he was mustered out 
 of the volunteer service, and until March, 
 1866, was on recruiting duty. He was 
 promoted to major in the regular army in 
 1865, and in 1866-67 was commander at 
 Fort Union, New Mexico. He was re- 
 tired with the rank of colonel, September 
 11, 1867. The story of his conduct at 
 Petersburg is thrillingly told by Major 
 W. N. Powell, U. S. A., in volume IV of 
 "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War." 
 Colonel Marshall died in Canandaigua, 
 New York, August 3, 1883. 
 
 FRANCIS, Joseph, 
 
 Inventor of Life-Saving Apparatus. 
 
 Joseph Francis, whose inventions have 
 been of invaluable worth to life-savers on 
 the shores of the world, was born in 
 Boston, Massachusetts, March 12, 1801. 
 He developed a peculiar skill as a boat 
 builder, and when eleven years old ex- 
 hibited his handiwork. In 1819 he was 
 the prize winner for a fast row-boat ex- 
 hibited at the Mechanics' Institute Fair, 
 Boston. When he attained his majority 
 he established a boat-yard in New York 
 City. He built wooden life-boats for the 
 United States ships "Santee" and "Ala- 
 bama" at the Portsmouth navy yard, but 
 won his greatest reputation as designer of 
 life-boats, life-cars and surf life-boats 
 adopted by the Life-Saving Service and 
 constructed from iron. At that time, in 
 1842, only wooden boats were suppsed to 
 be practicable. His metallic life-car was 
 built at his own expense, and furnished to 
 the life-saving station at Squan Beach, 
 New Jersey, the crew saving two hundred 
 of the two hundred and one persons on 
 
 the "Ayrshire," which was wrecked on the 
 beach in January, 1850; and during the 
 first four years, 1850-53, of the use of his 
 life-boats, two thousand one hundred and 
 fifty lives were saved. His inventions 
 were adopted by the governments of every 
 civilized nation in constructing life-saving 
 apparatus, steamships, floating docks, har- 
 bor-buoys, pontoon bridges and wagons 
 and other marine devices, from corrugated 
 sheet-metal. The sovereigns of Europe 
 recognized his genius long before the 
 United States Congress honored him, and 
 in 1842 he was presented with medals 
 and diplomas by the life-saving societies 
 of France, of England, and of the Im- 
 perial Royal European Society. He re- 
 ceived a gold snuff box set in diamonds 
 valued at seventeen thousand five hun- 
 dred francs from Napoleon III. in 1856, 
 and was made a Knight of St. Stanislaus 
 in 1861. The Congress of the United 
 States recognized his "life-long services 
 to humanity and his country" in March, 
 1887, and in August, 1888, ordered a 
 special gold medal to be struck and pre- 
 sented to him as "the inventor and framer 
 of the means for life-saving service of the 
 country." President Harrison presented 
 the medal, which cost three thousand 
 dollars, April 12, 1890, when Mr. Francis 
 was in his ninetieth year. He published 
 "Life-Saving Appliances" (1885). He 
 died at Cooperstown, New York, May 10, 
 i893- 
 
 BEECHER, Edward, 
 
 Educator, Clergyman. 
 
 The Rev. Edward Beecher was born at 
 East Hampton, Long Island, New York, 
 August 2/, 1803, the second son of Rev. 
 Lyman and Roxana (Foote) Beecher. He 
 prepared for college under his father's 
 care, and was graduated from Yale Col- 
 lege in 1822, after which he pursued his 
 theological studies at Andover, Massachu- 
 
 119 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 setts, and at New Haven, Connecticut. In 
 1825 he was tutor in the Hartford High 
 School and at Yale College. All through 
 his life he was a practical advocate of 
 physical culture, and while at college he 
 wrote an article on "The Duty of an Equit- 
 able Culture of all the Powers," a strong 
 plea for healthy college sports, published 
 in the "Christian Spectator." 
 
 He began his career as minister at the 
 Park Street Congregational Church in 
 Boston, in 1826, and continued in that 
 pastorate until 1830, when he became first 
 president of the Illinois College at Jack- 
 sonville, Illinois. After fourteen years 
 service in that capacity he returned to 
 Boston in 1844 and entered upon the 
 charge of the Salem Street Church, which 
 he retained until 1855, when he accepted 
 a call from the Congregational church at 
 Galesburg, Illinois, where he remained 
 until 1870. He was a Professor of Bibli- 
 cal Exegesis for several years in the 
 Chicago Theological Seminary. In 1872 
 he went to Brooklyn, New York, to assist 
 his brother, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, 
 in the management of the "Christian 
 Union," and purposed to retire perma- 
 nently from the ministry. He had been 
 a contributor to periodicals for many 
 years, and editor-in-charge of the "Con- 
 gregationalist" for half a dozen years. 
 Throughout the Tilton scandal he stood 
 by his brother, watching the case with 
 the utmost vigilance, and by his very 
 presence sustaining the courage of the 
 defendant. In 1885 he assumed charge 
 of the Congregational church at Park- 
 ville, near Brooklyn, continuing his resi- 
 dence in the city and making daily visits 
 to his parish. He was run over by a rail- 
 road train while returning from a week- 
 day service, and one leg was so crushed 
 that it had to be amputated. He entirely 
 recovered from the shock and the opera- 
 tion, despite his advanced age, he being 
 at the time eighty-five. 
 
 The degree of D. D. was conferred upon 
 Mr. Beecher by Marietta College (Ohio) 
 in 1841. His best known works are: "The 
 Conflict of Ages," and "The Concord of 
 Ages," in which he announces the view 
 that man is in a progressive state — the 
 present life being an outcome of a former 
 one, and the preparation of another life 
 after death. Evil, however, will continue 
 in the future life, and the struggle be- 
 tween it and good will still go on until 
 some far-off future, when evil will be 
 finally subdued, and universal harmony 
 be forever established. The utterance of 
 such radical views in regard to the future 
 life necessarily made a profound impres- 
 sion upon the thought of the day, and 
 aroused much comment. His publications 
 include : "Address on the Kingdom of 
 God" (1827) ; "Six Sermons on the 
 Nature, Importance and Means of Emi- 
 nent Holiness throughout the Church" 
 (1835) ; "Statement of Anti-Slavery 
 Principles" (1837) ; "History of the Alton 
 Riots" (1838); "Baptism; Its Import 
 and Modes" (1850) ; "The Conflict of 
 Ages" (1853) ; "The Concord of Ages" 
 (i860) ; "History of Opinions on the 
 Scriptural Doctrines of Future Retribu- 
 tion" (1878); and "The Papal Conspir- 
 acy" (1885). He died at his home in 
 Brooklyn, New York, July 28, 1895. 
 
 ANDREWS, Stephen P., 
 
 Philosopher, Author. 
 
 Stephen Pearl Andrews was born at 
 Templeton, Massachusetts, March 22, 
 1812, son of Elisha Andrews, a clergy- 
 man. He was educated at Amherst Col- 
 lege, studied law with his brother at New 
 Orleans, Louisiana, and engaged in prac- 
 tice there, when he became first counsel 
 for Mrs. Myra Clark Gaines in her famous 
 suits. 
 
 He was an ardent advocate of abolition, 
 and in 1839 removed to Texas with the 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 avowed purpose of laboring for the over- 
 throw of slavery in that State. He con- 
 ceived the idea of raising sufficient money 
 to purchase all the slaves in Texas and 
 thus free them, and in 1845 visited Eng- 
 land in the hope of procuring financial 
 assistance. He was gifted with oratorical 
 powers of a superior order; and so ably 
 did he present the cause in which his 
 whole heart was enlisted that British 
 capitalists and statesmen looked upon the 
 project with favor, and would have sup- 
 ported it financially had not the fear of 
 difficulty with the United States deterred 
 them. Upon his return to America, Mr. 
 Andrews joined the Abolitionists at 
 Boston. While in England he had be- 
 come interested in phonography, and 
 came to be active in introducing the 
 system of phonographic reporting in 
 America. Removing to New York in 
 1847, ne published, in cooperation with A. 
 F. Boyle, a series of phonographic text- 
 books, and edited two journals, the 
 "Anglo-Saxon," and the "Propagandist," 
 which were printed in phonetic type, and 
 devoted to phonography and spelling re- 
 form. He was the originator of a system 
 of philosophy which he called "Integral- 
 ism," and of a universal language which 
 he called "Alwato." While still a young 
 man he claimed to have discovered a 
 unity of law in the universe, and on this 
 his system of philosophy and language 
 was based. The elements of his philoso- 
 phy were published in a work entitled 
 "Basic Outlines of Universology." Accord- 
 ing to his system, a radical adjustment of 
 all forms of belief, all ideas, all thought, 
 was possible. He was a pioneer in the 
 field of social science, and was regarded 
 as a leader of radical thought on social 
 questions. He instituted a series of con- 
 ferences known as the "Colloquium," for 
 the interchange of religious, philosophical 
 and political ideas between men of widely 
 diversified views, and he was for many 
 
 years a member and vice-president of the 
 Liberal Club, of New York, and a mem- 
 ber of the American Academy of Arts and 
 Sciences, and of the American Ethno- 
 logical Society. He was a thorough Greek 
 and Latin scholar, was master of Hebrew, 
 Sanskrit and Chinese, and had more or 
 less intimate knowledge of thirty-two 
 additional languages. He published "Dis- 
 coveries in Chinese ; or, the Symbolism of 
 the Primitive Characters of the Chinese 
 System of Writing as a Contribution to 
 Philology and Ethnology, and a Practical 
 Aid in the Acquisition of the Chinese 
 Language" (1854); and a new French 
 instructor, introducing a novel method of 
 teaching the French language; "Com- 
 parison of the Common Law with the 
 Roman, French or Spanish Civil Law on 
 Entails and other Limited Property in 
 Real Estate" (1839) ; "Cost, the Limit of 
 Price" ( 1 85 1 ) ; "The Constitution of 
 Government in the Sovereignty of the In- 
 dividual" (1851) ; "Love, Marriage and 
 Divorce, and the Sovereignty of the In- 
 dividual", a discussion by Henry James, 
 Horace Greeley and Stephen Pearl An- 
 drews, edited by S. P. Andrews (1853) ; 
 "Constitution, or Organic Basis of the 
 New Catholic Church" (i860) ; "The Great 
 American Crisis" ; "An Universal Lan- 
 guage" ; "The Primary System of Uni- 
 versology and Alwato" (1871) ; "Primary 
 Grammar of Alwato" (Boston, 1877) ; 
 "The Labor Dollar" (1881) ; "Elements 
 of Universology" (1881); "Ideological 
 Etymology" (1881) ; and "The Church 
 and Religion of the Future" (1885). He 
 died in New York City, May 21, 1886. 
 
 McALPINE, William Jarvis, 
 
 Civil Engineer. 
 
 William Jarvis McAlpine was born in 
 New York City, April 30, 181 2, son of 
 John and Elizabeth (Jarvis) McAlpine, 
 grandson of Captain Donald and Eliza- 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 beth (Storer) McAlpine, and a descend- 
 ant of Bishop Jarvis, of Connecticut, and 
 of the Scottish Kings of Clan Alpine. 
 
 He attended school at Newburgh, New 
 York, and at Rome, New York, and 
 studied civil engineering with John B. 
 Jarvis, on the Carbondale railway in 
 Pennsylvania, 1827-30. He was assistant 
 to Mr. Jarvis on the Mohawk & Hudson 
 River railroad and on the Schenectady & 
 Saratoga railroad, 1830-31 ; and resident 
 engineer on the Chenango canal, 1832-34. 
 He was in charge of surveys for the en- 
 largement of the Erie canal from Little 
 Falls to Albany, 1835-36; and chief engi- 
 neer of the eastern division, 1836-44. In 
 June, 1845, he left the employ of the State 
 to accept the position of chief engineer in 
 the construction of a dry dock at the 
 United States Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New 
 York, a work of great magnitude and ex- 
 traordinary difficulty, which he success- 
 fully accomplished. He designed and 
 superintended the construction of the 
 original water works at Albany, New 
 York, and at Chicago, Illinois, 1850-54. 
 He was State Engineer and Surveyor, 
 1852-54; State Railroad Commissioner, 
 1855-57; acting president and chief engi- 
 neer of the Erie railway, 1856-57, and 
 chief engineer and vice-president of the 
 Galena & Chicago railroad, 1857. He 
 was chief engineer of the Third Avenue 
 bridge across the Harlem river, 1860-61 ; 
 general superintendent of the eastern 
 division Ohio & Mississippi railroad, 
 1861-64; and chief engineer of the Pacific 
 railway, 1864-65. He visited Europe in 
 1866-67. He was consulting engineer for 
 the Clifton suspension bridge, Niagara 
 Falls, 1868, and of the water works of 
 various cities, including New Bedford, 
 Massachusetts, 1868-75. He superintended 
 the construction of the capitol at Albany, 
 New York, 1873, and constructed its foun- 
 dation. The Danube Navigation Com- 
 
 pany adopted his plans for the improve- 
 ment of the rapids of the Danube river, 
 Austria, at and about the "Iron Gate." 
 He was engineer of the Department of 
 Parks, New York City, 1879-80; chief and 
 consulting engineer of the Washington 
 Bridge, New York, 1885-88; and promi- 
 nently connected with the water supply 
 and rapid transit improvements in New 
 York City, 1888-90. 
 
 He was elected a member of the Ameri- 
 can Society of Civil Engineers, February 
 3, 1853, being the seventeenth on its list 
 of membership ; was its president, 1868- 
 69, and an honorary member, 1888-90. 
 He was the first American citizen to re- 
 ceive honorary membership in the Insti- 
 tution of Civil Engineers (London), in 
 1867, and he received from that institu- 
 tion the Telford medal in 1868. He was 
 a member of the Australian Society of 
 Engineers and Architects, of the promi- 
 nent scientific societies of the United 
 States, and of the New York Chamber 
 of Commerce. Among his forty-three 
 printed papers are reports of his various 
 works as mentioned above, and of: "Gal- 
 veston Harbor," "The Foundations of 
 Washington Monument," and "The Puri- 
 fication of the Basin of the Harbor of 
 Baltimore." His last work was "A Trea- 
 tise on Modern Engineering." He died 
 at New Brighton, Staten Island, New 
 York, February 16, 1890. 
 
 COCHRANE, John, 
 
 Lawyer, Soldier, Political Leader. 
 
 General John Cochrane was born in 
 Palatine, Montgomery county, New 
 York, August 27, 18 13, son of Walter D. 
 and Cornelia W. (Smith) Cochrane, 
 and grandson of John and Gertrude 
 (Schuyler) Cochrane, and of Peter and 
 Elizabeth (Livingston) Smith. His pa- 
 ternal grandfather was surgeon-general 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 and military director of hospitals during 
 the Revolution ; his paternal grandmother 
 was the sister of Major-General Philip 
 Schuyler ; his maternal grandfather was 
 a well-known judge, and the father of 
 Gerrit Smith, Abolitionist ; and his ma- 
 ternal grandmother was a daughter of 
 Colonel James Livingston, of Revolution- 
 ary fame. 
 
 John Cochrane was graduated from 
 Hamilton College in 1831, studied law, 
 was admitted to the bar, and practiced 
 his profession at Oswego, Schenectady, 
 and in New York City. In 1853 he was 
 appointed Surveyor of the Port of New 
 York by President Pierce. He was a 
 Representative in the Thirty-fifth and 
 Thirty-sixth Congresses, 1857-61, serving 
 in the latter as chairman of the committee 
 of commerce. In i860 he was appointed 
 by President Buchanan a member of the 
 board of visitors to West Point. On June 
 11, 1861, soon after the outbreak of the 
 rebellion he was commissioned by Secre- 
 tary of War, Cameron, to recruit and 
 command a regiment of volunteers to 
 serve during the war, and left New York 
 for Washington with the regiment 
 August 27, 1861. On November 21 he 
 was commissioned colonel of the First 
 United States Chasseurs, with rank from 
 June 11, and on July 19, 1862, was 
 made brigadier-general of volunteers. He 
 served in General Couch's division of the 
 Army of the Potomac in the battles of 
 Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill, Antietam, Wil- 
 liamsport and Fredericksburg, and on 
 February 25, 1863, resigned on account of 
 physical disability. In 1864 he was nomi- 
 nated at Cleveland, Ohio, by the Inde- 
 pendent Republican National Convention 
 as Vice-President of the United States, 
 with General John C. Fremont for Presi- 
 dent. He was Attorney-General of New 
 York, 1863-65 ; and president of the Com- 
 mon Council of New York City, 1872. 
 
 He was chairman of the New York 
 delegation to the Liberal Republican Na- 
 tional Convention, at Cincinnati, in May, 
 1872, where he was chiefly instrumental 
 in the nomination of Horace Greeley for 
 the presidency. He was chairman of the 
 New York City memorial committee of the 
 Grand Army of the Republic for Decora- 
 tion Day, 1875 ; and was grand marshal 
 of Decoration Day procession, 1879. He 
 was a member of the Common Council of 
 New York City in 1883, and chairman of 
 a committee of that body and of the New 
 York Chamber of Commerce and of the 
 New York Historical Society, to arrange 
 for the celebration of the centennial anni- 
 versary of the evacution of New York by 
 the British, November 25, 1783, and was 
 grand marshal of the day. In 1889 he 
 declined the United States mission to 
 Uruguay and Paraguay, tendered by 
 President Grant, and the same year was 
 second in command in the centennial cele- 
 bration of the inauguration of General 
 Washington as President. As an orator, 
 General Cochrane made many memorable 
 speeches in 1858, on transferring to the 
 custody of Virginia the remains of James 
 Monroe, fifth President of the United 
 States ; at the great mass meeting in 
 Union Square in 1861, at the Astor House, 
 New York, on the occasion of a serenade 
 to Secretary of War Cameron, November 
 4, 1861, in which he was the first to advo- 
 cate arming the slaves as a military neces- 
 sity ; and in camp near Washington, when 
 visited by Secretary of War Cameron, 
 November 13, 1861, in which he repeated 
 his demand for arming the slaves^ and 
 which called forth orders from the Con- 
 federate commanders not to take Colonel 
 Cochrane prisoner, but to shoot him in 
 battle. He was elected a member of the 
 Society of the Cincinnati in 1857, and in 
 1897 was made president of the New 
 York State Society. He was a member 
 
 123 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 of the New York Chamber of Commerce; 
 of the St. Nicholas Society ; of the New 
 York Historical Society ; a sachem of the 
 Tammany Society ; chairman of Tammany 
 Hall general committee ; a member of the 
 Military Order in the State of New York 
 of the Loyal Legion of the United States, 
 and president of the New York Com- 
 mandery ; a member of the Society of the 
 Army of the Potomac ; of the Sons of the 
 Revolution ; and of the Grand Army of 
 the Republic. He died in New York City, 
 February 7, 1898. 
 
 MATHER, Frederick, 
 
 Pisciculturist. 
 
 Frederick Mather was born in Green- 
 bush, New York, August 2, 1833, son °* 
 Joseph and Chianna (Brockway) Mather, 
 of Lyme, Connecticut, grandson of Joseph 
 and Zelinda (Goold) Mather and of Elijah 
 and Abigail (Hall) Brockway, and a de- 
 scendant of the Rev. Richard Mather, of 
 Toxteth Park, England, who settled in 
 Dorchester, Massachusetts, 1635, died 
 there in 1669, and was the father of the 
 Rev. Increase Mather and grandfather of 
 Cotton Mather. 
 
 He was educated at Albany, New York, 
 and in 1854 he went to Potosi, Wisconsin, 
 having become interested in the Potosi 
 lead mines. He hunted and trapped in 
 the Bad Axe country, in Wisconsin, for 
 several years, and was interpreter of the 
 Chippewa language to the government 
 survey in northern Minnesota. He served 
 under General James Henry Lane during 
 the Kansas disturbances in 1853-55, and 
 was one of Jennison's famous "Jay- 
 hawkers." At the outbreak of the Civil 
 War he enlisted in the Federal army as a 
 private in the One Hundred and Thir- 
 teenth New York Volunteer Regiment; 
 was promoted to first lieutenant in 1864, 
 and was commissioned captain in the 
 
 Seventh New York Artillery Regiment, 
 serving until the close of the war. He 
 was elected a member of the Military 
 Order of the Loyal Legion. In 1868 was 
 employed as a clerk in the livestock yards 
 near Albany, New York. Later he pur- 
 chased a farm at Honeoye Falls, New 
 York, and devoted most of his time to the 
 science of fish culture. Upon the found- 
 ing the United States Fish Commission 
 in 1872, he was engaged to hatch shad 
 for the Potomac river ; was appointed 
 assistant to the United States Fish Com- 
 mission in 1873 ; matched the first sea- 
 bass and graylings in 1874; established 
 hatcheries at Lexington and Blackburg 
 for the State of Virginia, in 1875, and 
 during the same year he succeeded in 
 transporting salmon eggs to Germany by 
 means of a refrigerator-box of his own 
 invention. He also invented a conical 
 apparatus which greatly facilitated the 
 hatching of shad and other spawn, and 
 hatched the adhesive eggs of the smelt 
 in 1884, although all previous attempts 
 had failed. He was fish editor of "The 
 Field," Chicago, Illinois, 1877-80, and of 
 "Forest and Stream," New York City, 
 1880-1900. In 1882 was sent to Roslyn, 
 Long Island, to hatch salmon for the 
 Hudson river. He was superintendent of 
 New York State commission station at 
 Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, 1883- 
 95 ; and inaugurated the hatching of cod- 
 fish, lobsters and other marine forms. He 
 had charge of the American exhibit at 
 the Fisheries Exhibition in Berlin, Ger- 
 many, in 1880. He received medals and 
 testimonials from many scientific so- 
 cieties of Europe, and a personal gift 
 from the Crown Prince of Germany 
 ("Unser Fritz"), of a gold medallion with 
 the royal portrait. He was widely known 
 by his lectures on "Fish and Fisheries," 
 and "The Army of the Potomac," and 
 was the author of "Ichthoyology of the 
 
 124 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Adirondacks" (1886) ; "Modern Fish Cul- 
 ture" (1900) ; "Men I have Fished With" 
 (1897) ; "In the Louisiana Lowlands" 
 (1900) ; "My Angling Friends" (1902). 
 
 He was married (first) in 1854, to Eliza- 
 beth MacDonald, who died December 20, 
 1861. He was married (second) in 1877, 
 to Adelaide Fairchild. His surviving 
 child, Sophia, became the wife of Bleecker 
 Sanders, of Albany, New York. He died 
 at Lake Nebagomain, Wisconsin, Febru- 
 ary 14, 1900. 
 
 GEORGE, Henry, 
 
 Political Economist. 
 
 Henry George was born in Philadel- 
 phia, Pennsylvania, September 2, 1839, 
 the eldest son of Richard Samuel Henry 
 and Catharine Pratt (Vallance) George, 
 and grandson of Captain Richard George, 
 who had been brought from England 
 when a child and was a sea captain from 
 Philadelphia and suffered imprisonment 
 by the British in the War of 1812. The 
 father of Henry George was a book pub- 
 lisher. 
 
 Henry George attended the Protestant 
 Episcopal Academy and also the Phila- 
 delphia High School, which he left in 
 1853 to go to work. In 1855 he shipped 
 as a boy on the ship "Hindoo" to Mel- 
 bourne and Calcutta and back to New 
 York, consuming fourteen months in the 
 voyage. He then learned the printer's 
 trade, and in 1858 he worked his way 
 around Cape Horn to California as ship's 
 steward on the United States light-house 
 tender "Shubrick," and there joined a 
 party for the Frazier river, British 
 Columbia, to dig gold. The excitement 
 subsided soon after he reached Victoria 
 and he did not attempt to go up the river 
 to the mines, but returned to San Fran- 
 cisco in the steerage. He worked as a 
 printer, and in a rice mill, and soon after 
 
 joined the Typographical Union. He 
 next started the "Evening Journal" in 
 partnership with five other printers, but 
 was forced out by adversity, the war open- 
 ing and the paper having no telegraphic 
 service. He was later a compositor 
 on the "Sacramento Union." In 1865, 
 Henry George, while still setting type 
 and at times suffering extreme proverty, 
 began to write for the public press, at 
 first under a pen name. When President 
 Lincoln was assassinated he wrote an 
 anonymous letter to the editor of the 
 "Alta-Californian," on which he was en- 
 gaged as a compositor, and was surprised 
 to see its appearance in the editorial 
 columns the following day. Soon after- 
 ward he was engaged as special reporter 
 on a newspaper, "The Times," and within 
 a few months was chief of staff. 
 
 He now began to study the tariff ques- 
 tion, and was converted to the theory of 
 absolute free trade. He went to New 
 York by the overland route in 1868 to 
 establish a press service for the San 
 Francisco "Herald," but failed on ac- 
 count of excessive telegraph charges, 
 which led him to draw up and give to the 
 press a vigorous protest against the tele- 
 graph monopoly. In 1869 he wrote an 
 article on the anti-Chinese question in 
 California for the New York "Tribune." 
 at the instance of John Russell Young, 
 its managing editor. This was probably 
 the first article upon that subject printed 
 on the Atlantic coast. John Stuart Mill 
 wrote him a congratulatory letter, and 
 the article otherwise attracted wide at- 
 tention, especially on the Pacific slope, 
 where his advocacy of Chinese exclusion 
 pointed out away to escape the threatened 
 competition. He returned to California 
 in 1869 with a commission to act as cor- 
 respondent of the "Tribune," which com- 
 mission Mr. Young's successor promptly 
 repealed. He then took charge of the 
 
 125 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 "Sacramento Reporter," and, on its for- 
 mation into a stock company, Mr. George 
 was given, besides a salary, one-quarter 
 of the shares. When the Central Pacific 
 railroad purchased the paper Mr. George 
 retired from its editorship, as he would 
 not edit a paper for a monopoly. How- 
 ever, though deprived of his paper, he 
 was not to be silenced, and he issued a 
 pamphlet supporting the candidature of 
 Governor Haight for reelection, and op- 
 posing the Central Pacific's efforts to get 
 another subsidy ; and, though Haight was 
 defeated, such was the influence of the 
 pamphlet that no subsidies were after- 
 ward granted to railroads in California. 
 
 The growth of poverty side by side 
 with the rapid strides in industrial prog- 
 ress, as witnessed by him in the east dur- 
 ing his visit there, attracted his attention, 
 and in 1871 he wrote a pamphlet, "Our 
 Land and Land Policy: National and 
 State," in which he first advocated the 
 raising of all revenue by placing the 
 whole burden of taxation upon the value 
 of land, including improvements; argu- 
 ing that this value, which the economists 
 call "economic rent," springs entirely from 
 the community at large, and should there- 
 fore go to the community for common 
 purposes. 
 
 In 1872, with two partners, he estab- 
 lished the San Francisco "Evening Post," 
 the first penny paper on the Pacific coast. 
 The venture proved a success, and 
 through money voluntarily loaned by 
 Senator John P. Jones, a perfecting press 
 was purchased in Philadelphia, the first 
 used in California. In August, 1875, the 
 partners established a morning paper, the 
 "Ledger," with an illustrated Sunday 
 edition, also a pioneer movement. The 
 failure of the Bank of California and a 
 local panic affected the prosperity of the 
 paper, and, Senator Jones' notes becom- 
 ing due, he took the paper, and Mr. 
 
 George and his partners retired. Mr. 
 George stumped the State for Tilden and 
 Hendricks in the campaign of 1876. 
 Governor Irvin appointed him inspector 
 of gas meters, which position he held 
 from 1875 to 1879, and while he was thus 
 employed he was enabled to write his 
 celebrated book, "Progress and Poverty." 
 In 1879 he sent the manuscript of this 
 book to New York, but it was refused by 
 every publishing house. He then accepted 
 the offer of his former partner, William 
 M. Hinton, to print an edition, Mr. 
 George assisting in its composition. The 
 author's edition, selling at three dollars 
 per copy, paid for the plates, and the 
 following year D. Appleton & Company, 
 of New York, printed an edition from the 
 plates, bringing it out in January, 1880. 
 It at first had little sale, but the news- 
 papers at length noticing it, the sales 
 began to increase, and in 1882, being put 
 in twenty-cent library form in New York 
 and in six-penny form in London, it had 
 a run in both countries that not only sur- 
 passed all other economic works ever 
 printed, but outstripped the popular 
 novels. This brought the author little 
 more than fame, however, as he had sacri- 
 ficed his copyright to the end of ensur- 
 ing for the book a wide reading. 
 
 In the New York mayoralty campaign 
 in 1886, Mr. George made a remarkable 
 although unsuccessful canvass, receiving 
 sixty-eight thousand votes, while Mr. 
 Roosevelt received sixty thousand four 
 hundred and thirty-six, and Mr. Hewitt 
 ninety thousand five hundred and fifty- 
 two. In 1881 Henry George went to 
 Great Britain as a special newspaper cor- 
 respondent, and took an active part in 
 the Land League agitation, being arrested 
 twice as a "suspect" while in Ireland. 
 He subsequently made several lecturing 
 tours through Great Britain. In 1887 he 
 started a weekly newspaper, the "Stand- 
 
 126 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ard," in New York, and in the fall of that 
 year was a candidate for Secretary of 
 State, but was defeated. He advocated 
 the adoption of the Australian ballot sys- 
 tem, and found a firm disciple of his 
 single tax theories in Father McGlynn, 
 of St Stephen's Roman Catholic Church, 
 whose friendship for the political re- 
 former cost Father McGlynn his parish 
 and a temporary excommunication by 
 Archbishop Corrigan, but he was restored 
 by the Pope, through the influence of 
 Monsignor Satolli. Mr. George sup- 
 ported Grover Cleveland each time he ran 
 for the presidency, and William J. Bryan 
 in 1896. In the political contest for 
 mayor of Greater New York, Mr. George 
 was again the candidate of the laboring 
 classes under the part)- name of Jeffer- 
 sonian Democrats. He carried on an 
 aggressive canvass which overtaxed his 
 strength, and a few days before the elec- 
 tion he died suddenly of apoplexy at his 
 hotel. His son, Henry George, Jr., was 
 placed upon the ticket in his stead, but 
 he could not command his father's prob- 
 able vote. Mr. George's funeral was one 
 of the largest ever accorded to a private 
 citizen and the laboring classes were his 
 conspicuous mourners. 
 
 In 1861 he was married to Annie C. 
 Fox, a native of Australia, who had come 
 with her parents to California. She was 
 a Roman Catholic, but as the season was 
 Advent, and it was a runaway match, 
 they were married by a Methodist min- 
 ister; the marriage was, however, sanc- 
 tioned at Sacramento soon after by the 
 Rev. Father Nathaniel Gallagher. Henry, 
 the eldest son of Mr. George, was born in 
 Sacramento, November 3, 1863. and Rich- 
 ard, the second son, who became a sculp- 
 tor, was born in San Francisco, January 
 27, 1865. After the death of Mr. George, 
 a public subscription for the widow, be- 
 ing opposed by her, a few friends and ad- 
 
 mirers of the dead man privately made up 
 and presented a small fund ; and a monu- 
 ment designed by his son, Richard, was 
 erected by the voluntary contributions of 
 other friends, through one of the New 
 York newspapers, over his grave on 
 Ocean Hill, in Greenwood Cemetery, 
 Brooklyn, New York, and was unveiled 
 on Decoration Day, May 30, 1898. 
 
 The published works of Henry George 
 include: "Progress and Proverty" (1879) ; 
 "The Irish Land Question" (1881) ; "So- 
 cial Problems" (1884) ; "Protection or 
 Free Trade" (1886) ; "The Conditions of 
 Labor: An Open Letter to Pope Leo 
 XIII" (1891) ; "A Perplexed Philosopher" 
 (1892) ; and "The Science of Political 
 Economy," which he had practically 
 finished at the time of his death, and 
 which was afterward published. Henry 
 George died in New York City, October 
 29, 1897. 
 
 VANDERBILT, Cornelius, 
 
 Man of Large Affairs. 
 
 Cornelius Vanderbilt, who displayed 
 masterly abilities in the establishment and 
 conduct of transportation lines both on 
 land and sea, was born in Port Richmond. 
 Staten Island, New York, May 27, 1794, 
 son of Cornelius and Phoebe (Hand) Van- 
 derbilt. His first ancestor in America, 
 Jan Aertsen Ven der Bilt, emigrated from 
 Holland, and settled on a farm near Flat- 
 bush, Long Island, New York, about 1650. 
 His father removed to Stapleton, Staten 
 Island, and Cornelius attended the com- 
 mon schools and worked on the farm until 
 181 1, when, with one hundred dollars bor- 
 rowed from his mother, he purchased a 
 boat and engaged in ferrying the laborers 
 at work on the government fortifications 
 between Staten Island and New York. In 
 1815 in partnership with his brother-in- 
 law, Captain John DeForest, he built the 
 
 *7 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 schooner "Charlotte," and in 1817 became 
 captain of a steamboat plying between 
 New York and Philadelphia on the canal. 
 He removed to Elizabethport, and later to 
 New Brunswick, where he conducted the 
 hotel in connection with the steamboat, 
 and in 1827 leased the Elizabethport and 
 New York ferry, which he successfully 
 managed. 
 
 He gradually extended his operations, 
 and came to be the foremost of his day in 
 water transportation. He established 
 steamboat lines on Long Island sound 
 and on the Hudson river, and in July, 
 185 1, established a route to San Francisco 
 via Nicaragua. In 1853 he sold his 
 steamers to the Nicaragua Transit Com- 
 pany, and in 1855 established a line of 
 steamers between New York and Havre. 
 In May, 1862, when the government was 
 in need of fast steamers for cruising the 
 Atlantic in search of Confederate com- 
 merce destroyers and blockade runners, 
 he offered to sell to it the "Vanderbilt," 
 the fastest steamer afloat, which had cost 
 him $800,000 and when the Navy Depart- 
 ment hesitated to make an offer for the 
 vessel, owing to the fact that the ma- 
 chinery was placed above deck, he sug- 
 gested in a letter to W. O. Bartlett dated 
 May 14, 1863, that Commodore Robert F. 
 Stockton, retired, and two active com- 
 manders in the United States navy, deter- 
 mine a valuation, adding: "If this will not 
 answer, will the government accept her as 
 a present from their humble servant?" 
 He received no reply to his communica- 
 tion, and subsequently, when long-range 
 cannon came into use, the government ac- 
 cepted "the gift." In 1864, when the State 
 Department, through J. C. Derby, dis- 
 patch agent to New York, delivered to 
 Mr. Vanderbilt a resolution which had 
 been passed "presenting the thanks of 
 Congress to Cornelius Vanderbilt for a 
 gift of the steamship 'Vanderbilt,' " ap- 
 
 proved, January 28, 1864, by President 
 Lincoln, Speaker Colfax and Vice-Presi- 
 dent Hamlin, Mr. Vanderbilt, after care- 
 fully reading the resolutions, is reported 
 
 to have said, "Congress be ! I never 
 
 gave that ship to Congress. When the 
 government was in great straits for a suit- 
 able vessel of war, I offered to give the 
 ship if they did not care to buy it; how- 
 ever. Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Welles think it 
 was a gift, and I suppose I shall have to 
 let her go." The gold medal ordered to 
 be struck to "fitly embody an attestation 
 of the nation's gratitude for the gift" was 
 delivered in 1865. 
 
 Mr. Vanderbilt sold all his steamboat 
 interests in 1859, when sixty-five years of 
 age, and engaged in speculation in Wall 
 street, purchasing shares in the New York 
 & Harlem and New York & New Haven 
 railroads at low prices. He successfully 
 operated a corner in Norwich & Wor- 
 cester railroad stock ; was elected presi- 
 dent of the New York & Harlem railroad 
 in 1863, and in 1864 managed a corner in 
 the stock of the Hudson River railroad, 
 uniting it with the Harlem railroad. In 
 1867 he became president of the New 
 York Central railroad, and in 1869 of the 
 consolidated New York Central & Hudson 
 River railroad. He placed one thousand 
 miles of track ; established new fast 
 trains ; built new stations ; adopted a four- 
 track system ; and made the railroads 
 under his control one of the great trunk 
 line systems of the country. He en- 
 deavored to corner the stock of the Erie 
 railway, and thus gain complete control 
 of the railroad system, in the State, but 
 failed, and the road passed into the hands 
 of Jay Gould and James Fisk, Jr. In 1868 
 he organized and consolidated his rail- 
 road interests between New York and 
 Chicago. He was also interested in the 
 Western Union Telegraph Company and 
 other valuable stocks, and at the time of 
 28 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 his death, his fortune was estimated vari- 
 ously at from $60,000,000 to $100,000,000. 
 He gave $50,000 for the property and 
 buildings of the Mercer Street Church, 
 which became the Church of the Strangers, 
 New York City, and presented the same 
 to the Rev. Dr. Charles F. Deems, in 
 trust, and soon after, probably through 
 the suggestion of Dr. Deems and Bishop 
 McTyeire, he founded the Vanderbilt 
 University at Nashville, Tennessee, at a 
 cost of $1,000,000, which gift was liberally 
 supplemented by gifts from his son and 
 grandsons. 
 
 Mr. Vanderbilt was married (first) in 
 1813, to Sophia Johnson, who died in 
 1868; he was married (second) in 1869, to 
 Frances Crawford, of Mobile, Alabama. 
 By his will he bequeathed to his eldest son, 
 William Henry Vanderbilt. nine-tenths of 
 his entire fortune, leaving $11,000,000 to 
 the latter's four sons, and $4,000,000 to his 
 own daughters. In selecting names for a 
 place in the Hall of Fame for Great 
 Americans, New York University, Octo- 
 ber, 1900, the name of Cornelius Vander- 
 bilt (1794-1877), was one of the six named 
 in "Class B, Business men," and re- 
 ceived twenty-nine votes, the largest num- 
 ber in the class. He died in New York 
 City, to which he removed in 1813, Janu- 
 ary 4, 1877. 
 
 CULLUM, George W., 
 
 Military Engineer, Author. 
 
 General George Washington Cullum 
 perhaps the most distinguished mili- 
 tary engineer of the Civil War period 
 was born in New York City, February 25, 
 1809, son of Arthur and Harriet (Sturges) 
 Cullum, and grandson of Arthur and Re- 
 becca Cullum. 
 
 He was graduated from the United 
 States Military Academy at West Point 
 in 1833, the third in his class, and was 
 N Y— Vol 11 — 9 1 29 
 
 assigned to the engineer corps by reason 
 of his high standing. He was successively 
 promoted, reaching the rank of captain 
 July 7, 1838. His first engineering service 
 was in the construction of government 
 works at New London, Connecticut, and 
 Boston, Massachusetts. He organized 
 pontoon trains for use in the Mexican 
 War, and was instructor of practical mili- 
 tary engineering at West Point from 1848 
 to 1855. He then superintended govern- 
 ment works at New York City, Charles- 
 ton, South Carolina ; New Bedford, Mass- 
 achusetts ; Newport, Rhode Island ; and 
 New London, Connecticut, 1S55-61. He 
 was ordered to Washington, April 9, 1861, 
 as aide-de-camp to General Winfield Scott, 
 then commander-in-chief of the army, and 
 was promoted to major of engineers, 
 August 6, 1861. Upon the resignation of 
 General Scott, October 31, 1861, Major 
 Cullum was made brigadier-general of 
 volunteers, and assigned to duty as chief 
 engineer of the Department of the Mis- 
 souri. On November 18, 1861, he was made 
 chief of staff to General H. W. Halleck, 
 commanding the Department of Missouri. 
 Here his chief found him invaluable in 
 directing engineering operations on the 
 western rivers, preparatory to offensive 
 operations into Kentucky and Tennessee, 
 in order to throw the Union forces be- 
 tween the eastern and western armies of 
 the Confederacy. He commanded at 
 Cairo, Illinois, at the junction of the Ohio 
 river with the Mississippi, and directed 
 the construction of the works in the siege 
 of Corinth, and accompanied General Hal- 
 leck to Washington, July 23, 1862, when 
 that officer was made general-in-chief of 
 the United States armies Here he was 
 employed in inspecting and studying for- 
 tifications, and examining engineering de- 
 vices, and served on various engineer 
 boards. He also served on the United 
 States Sanitary Commission, 1861-64. In 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 1864 when Nashville became a base of 
 operations for the western army in the 
 campaign against Atlanta, he projected 
 the necessary fortifications. On Septem- 
 ber 8, 1864, he was ordered to West Point 
 as superintendent of the Military Acade- 
 my. He received brevets, March 13, 1865, 
 as colonel, brigadier-general and major- 
 general in the regular army, for meritori- 
 ous services during the war, and was mus- 
 tered out of the volunteer service Septem- 
 ber 1, 1866. 
 
 He left West Point, August 28. 1S66, 
 and served on various boards for national 
 defence. 1867-74. On January 13, 1874, he 
 was retired from active service on account 
 of age, and thereafter devoted himself to 
 literary, scientific and military study. He 
 was vice-president of the American Geo- 
 graphical Association, 1874; president of 
 the Geographical Literary Society, 18S0- 
 92, and a member of various other organi- 
 zations including the Century Association 
 and the Union Club of New York City. 
 He prepared "A Memoir of Military 
 Bridge with Indian Rubber Pontoons" for 
 the United States army in 1847-48. He 
 published a translation of Duparcq's "Ele- 
 ments of Military Art and History" 
 (1863) ; "Systems of Military Bridges" 
 (1863); "Sketch of Major-General Rich- 
 ard Montgomery of the Continental 
 Army" (1876); "Campaigns and Engi- 
 neers of the War of I8i2-I5"(i879) ; "His- 
 torical Sketch of the Fortification De- 
 fences of Narragansett Bay since the 
 Founding in 1638 of the Colony of Rhode 
 Island" (1884) ; and "Biographical Regis- 
 ter of the Officers and Graduates of the 
 United States Military Academy at West 
 Point, New York, from its establishment, 
 March 16, 1802, to 1890, with an Early 
 History of the United States Military 
 Academy" (3rd edition, 3 vols., 1891). 
 
 He was married, September 23, 1875, to 
 Elizabeth, daughter of John C. Hamilton, 
 and widow of General Henry Wager Hal- 
 
 leck. In conjunction with his wife, Mr. 
 Cullum gave to the New York Cancer 
 Hospital, New York City, $200,000, and 
 made liberal benefactions to other chari- 
 ties. By his will he bequeathed over a 
 quarter of a million dollars to the United 
 States Military Academy, to build the fine 
 memorial hall, now known by his name. 
 He died in New York City, February 29, 
 1892. 
 
 DRAPER, John W., 
 
 Scientist, Antlior. 
 
 John William Draper, one of the fore- 
 most scientists of the day, was born at St. 
 Helen's, near Liverpool. England, May 5, 
 181 1, son of the Rev. John Christopher 
 and Sarah (Ripley) Draper. He attended 
 a Wesleyan academy at Woodhouse 
 Grove, and in 1829 studied chemistry at 
 the University of London. Before the 
 Revolutionary War, some of John W. 
 Draper's ancestors on his mother's side 
 had emigrated to America, and had 
 founded a small Wesleyan community in 
 Virginia. Subsequently others of the 
 family had joined them, and, after the 
 death of his father in 1829, John W. 
 Draper was urged by these relatives to 
 go to America. Accordingly, in 1832, he 
 settled in Christianville. Mecklenburg 
 county, Virginia. His sister. Catherine, 
 gave lessons in music and painting, and 
 thus enabled him to take the course of 
 lectures in the Medical school of the Uni- 
 versity of Pennsylvania, from which he 
 was graduated in 1836. Before the ter- 
 mination of his medical course, his ex- 
 periments resulted in the discovery that 
 gases pass more or less rapidly, in some 
 cases, instantaneously, through barriers 
 such as bubbles or membranes "having no 
 proper pores." This showed that what 
 had been known as "endosmosis" was a 
 process not confined to liquids, and eluci- 
 dated the method of the oxygenation of 
 30 
 

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 the blood. He made this discovery the 
 subject of his graduation thesis, which 
 was published by the faculty, and at once 
 attracted the attention of the scientific 
 world. He continued his experiments, 
 and contributed papers on their results 
 to the principal scientific journals of 
 America. He explained by practical dem- 
 onstration the circulation of the sap in 
 plants and of the blood in animals, as be- 
 ing- results of osmotic action. 
 
 In the year of his graduation he became 
 Professor of Chemistry and Physics at 
 Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia. He 
 resigned his chair in 1838 to accept that 
 of Chemistry^ and Physiology in the Uni- 
 versity of the City of New York, which 
 position he held until his death. In 1841 
 he was instrumental in founding the Uni- 
 versity Medical College, in which he was 
 Professor of Chemistry until 1881. and 
 chief executive officer, 1850-73. From the 
 time of his taking his chair he continued 
 his scientific investigations, and in 1844 
 published a volume entitled "ATreatise on 
 the Forces that Produce the Organization 
 of Plants," in which he combated the ex- 
 istence of the so-called "vital force" of 
 physiologists. 
 
 In 1839 Professor Draper made the first 
 daguerreotype of the moon, one inch in 
 diameter, and which led to his later greatly 
 enlarged lunar photographs, which at the 
 Centennial Exposition, in Philadelphia, 
 awoke the surprise and admiration of the 
 world. He associated himself with Pro- 
 fessor S. F. B. Morse, then a portrait 
 painter in the University building, in 
 carrying on the experiments which re- 
 sulted in the invention of the electric tele- 
 graph, aiding that inventor in the con- 
 struction of the batteries and other appa- 
 ratus. He daguerreotyped the prismatic 
 spectrum, in 1842, and the diffraction spec- 
 trum in 1843. In the latter year he also 
 invented a chlor-hydrogen photometer 
 and a ferric-oxalate photometer. Investi- 
 
 gating the phenomena of the solar spec- 
 trum, he doubled the number of dis- 
 covered lines. In 1847 he studied the 
 phenomena of incandescence, and ascer- 
 tained that it is only the spectrum of a 
 gaseous body that shows lines at all, thus 
 anticipating Kirchoff's conclusions by 
 thirteen years. In 1848 he made a spec- 
 trum analysis of various flames, proving 
 that of whatever origin, they yield all the 
 colors of the spectrum. The finest tele- 
 scopes failed to resolve many of the nebu- 
 la? into distinct points of light ; astrono- 
 mers had been puzzled as to the explana- 
 tion of this ; but Dr. Draper"s discoveries 
 in spectrum analysis showed that if the 
 spectrum of an irresolvable nebula con- 
 sists of bright lines, it is a gaseous body; 
 if on the other hand the spectrum is con- 
 tinuous, that body is an incandescent 
 solid ; thus affording means of inferring 
 the constitution of the remote heavenly 
 bodies. He was the first to make micro- 
 scopic photographs, in 1853. In 1872 he 
 experimented on the distribution of heat 
 and chemical force in the solar spectrum. 
 
 In 1875 for his "Researches in Radiant 
 Energy," Professor Draper was awarded 
 the Rumford gold medal by the American 
 Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was 
 a member of very many scientific societies, 
 including the National Academy of Sci- 
 ences, the American Philosophical So- 
 ciety, the American Academy of Arts and 
 Sciences, the Academia dei Lincei of 
 Rome, and the Physical Society of 
 London. The College of New Jersey con- 
 ferred upon him the degree of LL. D. in 
 i860. His bibliography, comprising books, 
 scientific memoirs, lectures and addresses, 
 includes ninety-two titles, as listed in Pro- 
 fessor Barker's memoir of Professor Dra- 
 per, read before the National Academy of 
 Sciences. Among them are : "Elements 
 of Chemistry," by Robert Kane ; Ameri- 
 can edition edited by J.W. Draper (1842) ; 
 "A Treatise on the Forces which Produce 
 31 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 the Organization of Plants" (1844) ; 
 "Text-Book on Chemistry" (1846) ; "Text- 
 Book on Natural Philosophy" (1847); 
 "Human Physiology — Statical and Dyna- 
 mical" (1856) ; "History of the Intel- 
 lectual Development of Europe" (1862) ; 
 "Thoughts on the Future Civil Policy of 
 America" (1865) ; "A Text-Book on Physi- 
 ology" (1866) ; "History of the American 
 Civil War" (3 vols., 1867-70) ; "History of 
 the Conflict Between Religion and Sci- 
 ence" (1874) ; and "Scientific Memoirs, 
 Being Experimental Contributions to a 
 Knowledge of Radiant Energy" (1878). 
 
 Dr. Draper married, in 1831, Antonia 
 Coetana de Paiva Pereira, daughter of 
 Dr. Gardner, of Rio Janeiro, attending 
 physician of Dom Pedro I., Emperor of 
 Brazil. Her mother was the daughter of 
 Senor de Paiva Pereira. of Portugal, 
 whose great-grandfather was captain of 
 Vasco de Gama's ship when he circumnavi- 
 gated Africa in 1497. Dr. Draper died in 
 South Boston, Massachusetts, August 5, 
 
 BELMONT, August, 
 
 Financier, Diplomat. 
 
 August Belmont was born in Alzey, in 
 the Palatinate Rhenish Prussia, Decem- 
 ber 6, 1816. His father was a wealthy 
 landed proprietor, and gave his son an ex- 
 cellent education. The boy, when he was 
 fourteen years old, went into the service 
 of the Rothschilds at Frankfort-on-the- 
 Main, beginning without a salary, and his 
 first duties being to sweep out the offices. 
 Under the tutelage of the princely bankers 
 he developed a remarkable aptitude for 
 financial affairs, and after three years he 
 was transferred to the branch house at 
 Naples, where he successfully carried on 
 important negotiations with the papal 
 government. He gave his leisure time to 
 studying paintings in the galleries and 
 palaces of Naples. After remaining in 
 
 Naples three years, he went to Havana to 
 look after the Rothschilds' interests in 
 Cuba, and from Havana he went on to 
 New York City to assume charge of the 
 interests of the Rothschilds in America, 
 and established himself in business as a 
 banker. 
 
 In 1837 Mr. Belmont rented a small 
 office in Wall street, and laid the founda- 
 tion of the banking house of August Bel- 
 mont & Company. He was then twenty- 
 one years old, with six years business ex- 
 perience, and a boundless ambition. He 
 met with rivalry and opposition, but as 
 his bills of exchange were on the Roths- 
 childs, he maintained his stand. He be- 
 came a naturalized citizen of the United 
 States, joined the Democratic party, and 
 voted for Polk and Dallas in 1844. In the 
 same year the Austrian government ap- 
 pointed him consul-general of that empire 
 for the United States, and he held this 
 post until 1850, when he resigned, owing 
 to his disapproval of the manner in which 
 Austria treated Kossuth and the Hunga- 
 rians. He was sent to Holland in 1853 
 as Charge d'Affairs, and the next year was 
 appointed resident minister by President 
 Pierce, and made for himself a reputation 
 as a diplomat by securing to the United 
 States the privilege of sending consuls to 
 the colonies of the Dutch East Indies. At 
 the close of President Pierce's administra- 
 tion Mr. Belmont returned to New York 
 City. 
 
 During the controversy that preceded 
 the Civil War, Mr. Belmont counselled 
 peace and compromise. He was a dele- 
 gate to the National Democratic Conven- 
 tion, at Charleston, in i860, and there sup- 
 ported Senator Stephen A. Douglas, for 
 the presidential nomination, later he was 
 elected chairman of the National Demo- 
 cratic Committee by the convention that 
 met at Baltimore and nominated Douglas 
 and Johnson. He declared that the elec- 
 tion of Lincoln was no excuse for dissolv- 
 32 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ing the Union, and he used all his in- 
 fluence with the moderate statesmen of 
 the Southern States, begging them not to 
 follow the example of South Carolina ; he 
 also proposed compromise measures to 
 the Republican leaders. When Fort Sum- 
 ter was fired upon, Mr. Belmont became 
 as strongly interested in prosecuting the 
 war as he had previously been in en- 
 deavoring to prevent it. He aided in re- 
 cruiting the first German regiment in 
 New York, and on May 15, 1861, pre- 
 sented it with a flag. In opening the 
 Democratic National Convention of 1864, 
 he spoke strongly in favor of a change 
 in the administration, but even more 
 strongly in favor of prosecuting the war 
 for the maintenance of the Union. Mr. 
 Belmont continued as chairman of the 
 Democratic National Committee after the 
 campaign of 1864, and opened the conven- 
 tion of 1868 which nominated Seymour 
 and Blair. In 1872, when Horace Greeley, 
 the nominee of the Liberal Republicans, 
 was accepted by the Democrats as their 
 candidate, Mr. Belmont resigned from the 
 committee and retired from active political 
 life, and thereafter gave his principal at- 
 tention to literature and art. In 1850 he 
 expended $200,000 for a collection of 
 paintings by old Dutch and Spanish 
 masters. 
 
 Early in his residence in New York, Mr. 
 Belmont was the challenged party in a 
 duel brought about by his championing a 
 lady, an entire stranger, in whose behalf 
 he resented a real or fancied insult. Duel- 
 ling was then in fashion, and Belmont ac- 
 cepted the challenge. He was wounded 
 in the left leg below the knee, and his op- 
 ponent was shot through the heart. The 
 young banker, in 1849, was married to the 
 innocent cause of the duel, Caroline Sli- 
 dell Perry, a daughter of Commodore 
 Matthew C. Perry, and niece of Commo- 
 dore Oliver H. Perry, the hero of Lake 
 Erie. They had four sons: Perry, August, 
 
 Oliver Hazard Perry, and Raymond ; and 
 one daughter, who married S. S. How- 
 land. He died in New York City, Novem- 
 ber 24. 1890. 
 
 DALY, Charles P., 
 
 Lawyer, Jurist. 
 
 Charles Patrick Daly was born in New 
 York City, October 31, 1816, the son of a 
 master carpenter who emigrated from 
 Omagh, in the county of Tyrone, Ireland, 
 in 1814, and settled in New York City. 
 
 He was educated in a parish school, and 
 upon the death of his father came to 
 the United States, settling in Savannah, 
 Georgia, where he served as a clerk. Be- 
 coming discontented by reason of ill treat- 
 ment, he shipped before the mast and fol- 
 lowed the sea for three years. Upon re- 
 turning to New York he became ap- 
 prenticed to a quill manufacturer, and 
 while serving his time devoted his even- 
 ings to study. His connection with a de- 
 bating society led him to form the ac- 
 quaintance of William Soule, a well- 
 known lawyer, who induced him to take 
 up the study of law, offering him a clerk- 
 ship in his office and a salary of $150 the 
 first year. Within three years he passed 
 a successful examination and, the seven- 
 year rule being suspended by the court, 
 he was admitted to practice in 1839 and 
 formed a partnership with Thomas L. Mc- 
 Elrath, afterward a partner with Horace 
 Greeley in the founding of the New York 
 "Tribune." 
 
 In 1843 Mr. Daly was elected to the 
 State Assembly, and he declined a nomi- 
 nation as representative in the Twenty- 
 ninth Congress, in the following year. 
 The same year he was appointed judge of 
 the Court of Common Pleas, and was suc- 
 cessively reappointed as his own successor 
 until 1846, when the position was made 
 elective and the voters continued him on 
 the bench. In 1857 he was elected first 
 133 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 judge, and in 1871, when the term was 
 lengthened to fourteen years, all parties 
 placed his name on their respective tickets 
 and he was unanimously elected, and 
 served until 1885, when he was obliged to 
 retire under the law of age limit. He 
 served as Chief Justice of the court dur- 
 ing the last twenty-eight years of his serv- 
 ice. The bench and bar of New York 
 made the occasion of his retirement a 
 public ovation, and presented him with 
 appropriate resolutions and the gavel he 
 had so long wielded, encased in gold and 
 duly inscribed. Upon retiring from the 
 bench he established himself in chambers 
 and had a large and lucrative practice. 
 
 He was a firm friend and judicious ad- 
 visor of the Lincoln administration during 
 the Civil War, and was consulted on im- 
 portant legal state matters, including the 
 rendition of Mason and Slidell, the Con- 
 federate Commissioners, who had been 
 taken from a British vessel by Commo- 
 dore Wilkes. He was lecturer on law in 
 Columbia College, 1860-75 ; president of 
 the American Geographical Society from 
 1866; an honorary member of the Royal 
 Geographical Society of London, England, 
 of the Berlin Geographical Society, and of 
 the Imperial Geographical Society of 
 Russia, and aided efficiently in promoting 
 exploration and polar research. He was 
 also a member of the New York State 
 Constitutional Convention of 1867; of the 
 New York Historical Society ; of the 
 Philosophical Society of Pennsylvania ; of 
 the Century Association, and of St. 
 Patrick's Society, of which he was presi- 
 dent for many years. In 1895 he was 
 chosen to respond on behalf of the dele- 
 gates to the address of welcome to them 
 by the president, the Duke of York, at the 
 opening of the World's Geographical Con- 
 gress at London, England. In i860 
 Columbia College conferred upon him the 
 honorary degree of LL. D. 
 
 He published "Historical Sketch of the 
 
 Judicial Tribunals of New York from 
 1623 to 1846" (1855) ; "History of Natu- 
 ralization and of Its Laws in Different 
 Countries" (i860) ; "Are Southern Priva- 
 teersmen Pirates?" (1862) ; "Original His- 
 tory of Institutions for the Promotion of 
 Useful Arts by Industrial Exhibitions" 
 (1864) ; "When was the Drama Intro- 
 duced in America" (1864) ; "Reports of 
 Cases in the Court of Common Pleas, City 
 and County of New York" (13 vols., 1868- 
 87); "First Settlement of the Jews in 
 North America" (1875, revised 1893); 
 "What We Know of Maps and Map Mak- 
 ing before the time of Mercator" (1879) ; 
 "The History of Physical Geography; and 
 The Common Law ; its Origin, Sources, 
 Nature and Development, and What the 
 State has done to Improve Upon It" 
 (1894). He died at Sag Harbor, New 
 York, August 19, 1899. 
 
 BERGH, Henry, 
 
 Philanthropist, 
 
 Henry Bergh, who built an enduring 
 monument to his name as founder of the 
 American Society for the Prevention of 
 Cruelty to Animals, was born in New 
 York City, in 1823. His father, Christian 
 Bergh, a native of Germany, was a ship- 
 builder, and for many years in the service 
 of the government. He died in 1843, leav- 
 ing three children, amply provided for. 
 
 Henry Bergh entered Columbia College, 
 but before his course was finished, deter- 
 mined on an extended foreign tour, and 
 spent five years in travel in Europe. In 
 1862 he became Secretary of Legation to 
 Russia, and afterward Acting Vice-Con- 
 sul. The severity of the climate obliged 
 him to resign his position, and he again 
 devoted his means and leisure to travel, 
 seeking more temperate regions both in 
 Europe and the East. Cruelties to ani- 
 mals, witnessed by him in his travels, and 
 especially during his residence at St. 
 
 134 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Petersburg, first suggested his philan- 
 thropic mission on behalf of the dumb 
 brute. During a visit to England, he 
 sought the acquaintance and assistance of 
 Lord Harrowby, who was then president 
 of the Royal Society for the Prevention of 
 Cruelty to Animals. On his return to the 
 United States he determined on devoting 
 the remainder of his life to the interests 
 of the dumb creation, and upon his labors 
 in behalf of that part of created life 
 obliged to yield to man's superior rule, 
 rests his honored reputation. He was 
 alone, but in the face of indifference, and 
 combated by opposition and ridicule, he 
 began the organization of the society 
 which came to be recognized as one of the 
 most beneficent movements of the age. 
 He not only devoted to the cause he had 
 espoused his talents as a speaker and a 
 lecturer but as a worker, whether in the 
 street, defending horses from inhuman 
 treatment ; in the court room, invoking 
 the aid of the law ; or before the legisla- 
 ture, seeking legal enactments ; he stood 
 without an equal. An act of incorpora- 
 tion for his society was secured April 10, 
 1866. in the Legislature of New York, and 
 Mr. Bergh became its first president. The 
 association began its work of develop- 
 ment, and in a few months was in a 
 flourishing condition financially, its first 
 valuable property being the gift of Mr. 
 and Mrs. Bergh. Branches of the society 
 were established and now exist in every 
 part of the United States and Canada. In 
 many cities its officers are constituted 
 special policemen, with authority to arrest 
 any person found practicing cruelty of 
 any kind toward any member of the brute 
 creation. Every moral agency — social, 
 legislative and personal — is employed; 
 points of vital concern to health as well as 
 to humanity are touched ; the transporta- 
 tion of cattle, the purity of milk, the times 
 and manner of slaughtering for the mar- 
 
 ket, the care of horses and other beasts of 
 burden, the abolition of live birds from 
 shooting matches, the breaking up of cock- 
 fights and dog-fights. By an ingenious 
 invention, Mr. Bergh substituted an arti- 
 ficial for a live pigeon as a mark for the 
 sportsman's gun, and it is in almost uni- 
 versal use by gunners — a thin, hollow disc 
 of clay, which is sprung from a trap and 
 in its passage through the air imitates the 
 flight of a bird. In 1871. a Parisian and 
 a typical miser, Louis Bonard, who occu- 
 pied, in squalor and wretchedness, an 
 obscure room, sent for Mr. Bergh. The 
 old man made his will, when it was re- 
 vealed that he had property to the value 
 of $150,000, all of which was devised to 
 Mr. Bergh's society. A shabby and dusty 
 trunk was filled with gold and silver 
 watches in alternate layers, together with 
 a large quantity of jewelry and diamonds. 
 This singular bequest enabled the society 
 to greatly enlarge its work. During 1873, 
 Mr. Bergh made a lecturing tour through 
 the west, spoke before the Evangelical 
 Alliance and Episcopal Convention, and 
 was the means of having a new canon 
 confirmed, giving authority to clergymen 
 of the Episcopal church to preach a ser- 
 mon at least once a year on cruelty and 
 mercy to animals. Mr. Bergh neither 
 sought nor received salary ; his private 
 income being ample for his needs ; he de- 
 voted his entire time and energies to the 
 work of "speaking for those who could 
 not speak for themselves." In 1886, 
 thirty-nine States of the American Union, 
 with Brazil and the Argentine Republic, 
 had enacted laws similar to those which 
 Mr. Bergh procured from the Legislature 
 of New York. His work did not stop in 
 caring for dumb beasts ; in 1874 he rescued 
 a little girl from inhuman treatment, and 
 the act led to the founding of a society for 
 the prevention of cruelty to children. 
 As an author, Mr. Bergh wrote several 
 
 135 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 plays, and published "The Streets of New 
 York," a volume of tales and sketches ; 
 "The Portentous Telegram," "The Ocean 
 Paragon," and "Married Off." He died in 
 New York City, March 12, 1888. 
 
 EMERY, Charles E., 
 
 Civil Engineer. 
 
 Charles Edward Emery was born at 
 Aurora, New York, March 29, 1838, son of 
 Moses Little and Minerva (Prentiss) 
 Emery, and a direct descendant of one of 
 the original proprietors of the plantation 
 of Contoocook, Massachusetts. His im- 
 mediate ancestor settled in Newbury, 
 Massachusetts, in 1775. 
 
 He was educated at the Canandaigua 
 Academy, New York, worked at mechani- 
 cal engineering in the local railroad shops, 
 and also studied law with a view to be- 
 coming a patent lawyer. In June, 1861, 
 he entered the United States navy as third 
 assistant engineer of the "Richmond," 
 and took part in blockading duty with the 
 Gulf Squadron, and in various engage- 
 ments at Pensacola with Forts St. Philip 
 and Jackson, and in the capture of New 
 Orleans, Vicksburg, and Port Hudson. He 
 was promoted in June, 1863. and took part 
 in the blockade off Charleston, South Caro- 
 lina, on the "Nipsic," and in 'June, 1864, 
 was ordered on duty to the Novelty Iron 
 Works, New York, on United States navy 
 steam expansion experiments. In 1869 he 
 retired from the navy and conducted a 
 series of experiments for the Novelty Iron 
 Works on stationary steam engines, the 
 results of which were subsequently pub- 
 lished in book form by Professor W. P. 
 Trowbridge, under the title "Condensing 
 and Non-Condensing Engines." He was 
 superintendent of the American Institute 
 Fair in New York in 1869, and was con- 
 sulting engineer and chairman of the ex- 
 amining board of the United States Coast 
 Survey and United States Revenue Ma- 
 
 rine, 1869-91. In 1874, as a member of a 
 joint board of engineers, — Charles H. Lor- 
 ing representing the navy, and Mr. Emery 
 the treasury, — he conducted a series of ex- 
 periments to determine the relative value 
 of compound and non-compound engines, 
 the results of which were at the time the 
 only reliable data extant and were pub- 
 lished in technical literature and text- 
 books throughout the scientific world. He 
 was one of the judges of the Centennial 
 Exposition at Philadelphia, in 1876, on 
 engines, pumps and mechanical appli- 
 ances, and associate to the committee on 
 musical instruments, electrical and other 
 scientific apparatus. The Centennial Com- 
 mission awarded him a medal, and in 1879 
 the University of the City of New York 
 conferred upon him the honorary degree 
 of Ph.D. In 1879 he became chief engineer 
 and manager of the New York Steam 
 Heating and Power Company. He was re- 
 tained by the Edison Electric Light Com- 
 pany, the Pneumatic Dynamite Gun Com- 
 pany, and the city of Fall River as consult- 
 ing engineer, and on his report the mill 
 owners of Fall River and the city entered 
 into a novel compromise whereby the city 
 received water from the Watuppa ponds 
 in consideration of the abatement of taxes 
 on water power. In 1886 he was ap- 
 pointed non-resident professor of engi- 
 neering at Sibley College, Cornell Uni- 
 versity. In 1887 he opened an office in 
 New York as a consulting engineer and 
 engineering expert, and became connected 
 with a large number of important patent 
 litigations as expert. In 1888 he became 
 consulting engineer for the New York 
 and Brooklyn Bridge. In 1889 the Insti- 
 tution of Civil Engineers of Great Britain 
 awarded him the Watt medal and Tilford 
 premium for an approved paper. In 1892 
 he was appointed one of the commis- 
 sioners in the matter of the purchase of 
 the Long Island Water Supply Company 
 by the city of Brooklyn, and of the Skane- 
 136 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ateles, New York, and of the Newark 
 (New Jersey) water condemnation cases. 
 
 He then took up the subject of elec- 
 tricity, and in 1893 was appointed one of 
 the judges of dynamos and motors at the 
 World's Fair at Chicago, Illinois. In 1895 
 he was elected chairman of the committee 
 to revise the code for steam boiler trials, 
 adopted in 1884 by a committee of which 
 he was also a member. At the time of his 
 death he was engaged upon the final re- 
 vision of the code, upon the Bound Brook 
 (New Jersey) flood cases, the Holyoke 
 (Massachusetts) water-power assessment 
 cases, and the city of Worcester (Massa- 
 chusetts) water condemnation cases. He 
 was a member of all the American engi- 
 neering societies, the British Institution, 
 fellow of the American Association for 
 the Advancement of Science, and of the 
 Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. 
 He was also a member of the Society of 
 the Sons of the Revolution and the Mili- 
 tary Order of the Loyal Legion of the 
 United States. 
 
 He was married, August 6, 1863, to 
 Susan S., daughter of the Hon. Essex Rid- 
 ley Livingston. He died in Brooklyn, 
 New York, June 1, 1898. 
 
 CHAPIN, Edwin H., 
 
 Leader for Social Betterment. 
 
 The Rev. Edwin Hubbell Chapin, whose 
 name is commemorated in that beautiful 
 charity, the Chapin Home for Aged and 
 Indigent Men and Women, was born in 
 Washington county, New York, Decem- 
 ber 29, 1814. During his boyhood his 
 parents removed to Burlington, Vermont, 
 and he obtained an excellent education in 
 the schools of that city. Later he re- 
 moved to Troy, New York, where he pur- 
 sued a course of study in law, after which 
 he took up his residence in Utica, New 
 York. 
 
 At Troy, having decided upon a minis- 
 
 terial instead of a legal career, he accepted 
 a position as editor of a periodical publi- 
 cation established in the interests of the 
 Universulists, in whose faith he had 
 become interested. During his leisure 
 periods he devoted his attention to the 
 study of theology and ecclesiastical his- 
 tory, and was ordained a Universalist 
 clergyman in the year 1837. His first 
 pastorate was in Richmond, Virginia, and 
 at the expiration of three years he was 
 called to a pastorate in Chaiiestown, 
 Massachusetts, which he served faithfully 
 for six years. In 1847 he was associated 
 with Hosea Ballou in ministering to the 
 congregation of a Universalist church in 
 Boston, but the following year was offered 
 the pastorate of the Fourth Universalist 
 Church of New York City, which he ac- 
 cepted, and which pulpit he filled until 
 the close of his life The church at that 
 time was in the neighborhood of the City 
 Hall, but this site not being perfectly sat- 
 isfactory to the parishioners, and not prov- 
 ing adequate to accommodate the increas- 
 ing number of people who came to hear 
 Mr. Chapin preach, they secured the 
 building known as the Dusseldorf Gallery, 
 on Broadway, near Bleecker street, where 
 Mr. Chapin preached to large audiences, 
 and proved a wonderful power for good. 
 A number of years later another removal 
 was necessary, owing to the fact that at 
 every service people were standing, un- 
 able to secure seats, and in 1866 the con- 
 gregation removed to the Church of the 
 Divine Paternity, at Forty-fifth street and 
 Fifth avenue, where Dr. Chapin continued 
 to preach until his death. 
 
 As an author, he possessed powers that 
 distinguished him from other preachers, 
 and his sermons evidenced intellectual 
 study and culture. He was eloquent, bril- 
 liant and forceful, possessed the magnet- 
 ism that drew men to him, and was an ac- 
 tive factor in the saving of many souls. As 
 a citizen, he was public-spirited and pro- 
 
 l 37 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 gressive, and was a keen and interested 
 worker in various undertakings of a be- 
 nevolent, patriotic or religious character. 
 He was a member of many important so- 
 cieties and public organizations, a trustee 
 of Bellevue Medical College and Hospital, 
 and for a long time editor of the "Christian 
 Leader." He published a number of works, 
 including the following: "Hours of Com- 
 munion" (New York, 1844) ; "Discourses 
 on the Lord's Prayer" (1850) ; "Char- 
 acters in the Gospels" (1852) ; "Moral 
 Aspects of City Life" (1853) ; "Discourses 
 on the Beatitudes" (1853) ; "True Manli- 
 ness" (New York, 1854) ; "Duties of 
 Young Men" (1855) ; "The Crown of 
 Thorns — A Token for the Suffering" 
 (i860) ; "Living Words" (Boston, 1861) ; 
 "The Gathering, "which was the memorial 
 of a meeting of the Chapin family (Spring- 
 field, Massachusetts, 1862). A most beauti- 
 ful charity, the Chapin Home for Aged 
 and Indigent Men and Women, reared in 
 his memory, became a monument to the 
 esteem and honor in which he was held. 
 His death occurred in New York City, 
 December 27, 1880, his health having been 
 feeble during the latter years of his life. 
 
 DURYEE, Abram, 
 
 Civil War Soldier, Municipal Official. 
 
 General Abram Duryee born in New York 
 City, April 29, 1815, came of soldierly stock. 
 His father and two uncles were officers in 
 the United States army in the war of 
 1812, and his grandfather was a soldier in 
 the war of the American Revolution, and 
 one of the prisoners confined for a time in 
 the old sugar house on Liberty street, 
 when New York was in possession of the 
 British. 
 
 Abram Duryee received a high school 
 education, engaged in business, and be- 
 came wealthy through dealing in ma- 
 hogany. When eighteen years old he 
 joined the One Hundred and Forty-sec- 
 
 ond Regiment New York State Militia, 
 and in 1838 transferred his membership to 
 the Twenty-seventh (afterward Seventh) 
 Regiment. In 1849 ne na< i risen from pri- 
 vate to the rank of colonel of the Seventh 
 Regiment, which position he held for 
 fourteen years, commanding the regiment 
 in five desperate riots. He was wounded 
 in the Astor Place riot, and his prompt 
 action suppressed a serious outbreak, but 
 not without the loss of some lives. 
 
 In 1861 he was among the first to re- 
 cruit volunteers for the suppression of the 
 rebellion and as early as April had 
 raised the Fifth Regiment New York 
 Volunteers ("Duryee's Zouaves") within a 
 week. He at once led his command to the 
 front, participating in the first important 
 battle of the war at Big Bethel, Virginia, 
 June 10, 1861. After the disastrous defeat, 
 he superseded General Pierce as com- 
 mander of the brigade. He was commis- 
 sioned brigadier-general of volunteers in 
 August, 1861, and was in command of his 
 brigade at Cedar Mountain, Thoroughfare 
 Gap, the second Bull Run, and Chantilly. 
 At South Mountain and Antietam he 
 commanded Ricketts's division, when 
 General Ricketts succeeded Hooker in 
 command of the corps. After this he was 
 absent for a time on furlough, and on re- 
 turning to the army he resigned in Janu- 
 ary, 1863, upon finding an officer of in- 
 ferior rank assigned to his command, and 
 his request for reinstatement not re- 
 garded. At the close of the war he was 
 brevetted major-general of volunteers for 
 distinguished services. He was aifter- 
 ward elected colonel of the Seventy-first 
 Regiment, National Guard State of New 
 York, and brigadier-general in command 
 of the Fourth Brigade, New York State 
 Militia, but declined both commissions. 
 
 He was appointed Police Commissioner 
 of New York in 1873, and commanded the 
 police force in its action against the as- 
 sembled communists in Tompkins Square 
 
 ,38 
 

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 in 1874, when they were driven from the 
 public streets and subsequently thor- 
 oughly quelled. 
 
 He was dock-master, 1884-87. His pen- 
 sion of thirty dollars per month granted 
 by the Federal government was increased 
 by act of Congress to one hundred dollars 
 per month in February, 1890. He was a 
 member of the New York Historical So- 
 ciety, and of the St. Nicholas Society. He 
 died in New York City. September 27, 
 
 WORDEN, John L„ 
 
 Hero of the Monitor-Merriniac Battle. 
 
 Admiral John LorimerWorden, of naval 
 fame during the Civil War, was born in 
 Mount Pleasant, Westchester county. 
 New York, March 12, 1817. At the age of 
 seventeen he was appointed midshipman 
 in the United States navy, and ordered to 
 the sloop-of-war "Erie," on the Brazilian 
 station ; in September, 1837, was trans- 
 ferred to the Mediterranean squadron ; 
 and in December, 1839, was sent to the 
 naval school at Philadelphia. July 16, 
 1840, he was promoted to passed midship- 
 man and sent to duty in the Pacific squad- 
 ron, and after two years passed a like 
 period on duty at the New York and 
 Washington navy yards. In August, 
 1846, he was promoted to master, and in 
 November following to lieutenant, and 
 served again on the Pacific coast until 
 1850. From that time until the breaking 
 out of the Civil War, he was on sea serv- 
 ice and on duty at the New York navy 
 yard. 
 
 On April 6, 1861, he reported to the 
 Navy Department and asked for active 
 sea service. He was at once sent over- 
 land with dispatches for Captain Adams, 
 in command of the fleet off Pensacola, 
 and on his return was captured by a party 
 of Confederates near Montgomery, Ala- 
 bama, and held prisoner until November 
 
 14, 1861, when he was paroled. He was 
 later exchanged at Norfolk, Virginia, and 
 as soon as his health would permit, his 
 confinement having left him very poorly, 
 he reported for duty. On January 13, 
 1862, he was assigned to Ericsson's 
 "Monitor" (sarcastically called a cheese- 
 box on a raft), just then completed. He 
 was allowed to select his crew from the 
 "North Carolina" and "Sabine;" and, 
 without taking time to drill the crew at 
 the guns or to become familiar with the 
 working of the turret, he put to sea, 
 March 6, 1862, and sailed to Hampton 
 Roads, in tow of a large tug. Arriving 
 at Hampton Roads as the "Congress" was 
 burning, he reported to Captain Marsten, 
 and, in spite of orders to sail to Washing- 
 ton went to the aid of the "Minnesota," 
 which was hard aground off Newport News. 
 At seven-thirty in the morning the Con- 
 federate iron-clad "Merrimac" and her 
 consorts started for Sewall's Point for 
 the "Minnesota." The "Monitor" got 
 under way, steered direct for the enemy 
 in order to hold him away from the 
 "Minnesota," and, making no attempt at 
 the wooden vessels, ran alongside of the 
 "Merrimac." The pilot-house from which 
 Worden commanded his vessel was a 
 square iron structure, so small as to ac- 
 commodate only three men ; the com- 
 mander, pilot and quartermaster. It was 
 on the deck, directly in front of the turret, 
 thus preventing firing ahead ; and was 
 connected with the turret by a speaking 
 tube, which was destroyed early in the 
 action, thus making communication be- 
 tween the commander and the executive 
 officer difficult. Worden fought at close 
 quarters, maneuvered his boat skillfully, 
 availed himself of all the advantages he 
 possessed, and at one time hauled off to 
 allow the turret to- replenish its supply 
 of shot. 
 
 Worden then renewed the engagement, 
 and fought his vessel until a large shell, 
 39 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 striking the pilot-house and exploding, 
 blinded him. He was cared for by the 
 physician on the "Monitor," and was sent 
 to Washington, D. C. Although the 
 "Merrimac" was not destroyed, she was 
 roughly used, and the ability of the 
 "Monitor'' to cope with her prevented 
 her prosecuting the campaign that had 
 been planned. Worden was received as 
 the popular hero; he was given a vote of 
 thanks by Congress on July n, 1862, and 
 the following day was promoted to com- 
 mander. 
 
 Captain Worden gradually recovered his 
 sight, and in January, 1863, was assigned 
 to the command of the "Montauk," a boat 
 of the "Monitor" type, but of improved 
 pattern, with which he joined the South 
 Atlantic squadron under DuPont, who 
 was planning an attack on Charleston. In 
 order to ascertain the ability of monitors 
 to withstand the fire of land batteries, 
 DuPont ordered Worden to attack Fort 
 McAllister, on the Great Ogeechee river, 
 below Savannah. On January 27, 1863, 
 Worden steamed up the river, anchored 
 and fired upon the fort four hours, until 
 his ammunition was exhausted. The trial 
 was successful as far as showing the in- 
 vulnerability of the boat, but the slight 
 amount of damage done to the fort was 
 disappointing. The Confederate steamer 
 "Nashville," designed as a commerce des- 
 troyer, was at this time hiding in the 
 Ogeechee river, awaiting an opportunity 
 to run the blockade. When the "Mon- 
 tauk" sailed up the river, she withdrew 
 out of range, but on February 27, Worden 
 discovered her to be aground, and the fol- 
 lowing morning, steaming up under the 
 guns of the fort, fired across a neck of 
 land, and although continually under fire 
 from the fort, he caused the explosion of 
 the magazine of the "Nashville" by his 
 shells, and withdrew uninjured, until 
 running into a torpedo, he blew a hole in 
 the bottom of the "Montauk." The boat 
 was later repaired, and took part in Du- 
 
 Pont's attack on Charleston, April 7, 1863. 
 On February 3, 1863, he received another 
 vote of thanks from Congress, and was 
 promoted to captain. Worden was on 
 duty at New York, 1S63-66; served on 
 the Pacific squadron, 1866-67 > was P ro_ 
 moted commodore, May 27, 1868; was 
 superintendent of the Naval Academy, 
 1870-74; was promoted rear-admiral, No- 
 vember 20, 1872 ; commanded the Euro- 
 pean squadron, 1875-77; 'and was retired, 
 with the highest sea pay of his grade, at 
 his own request, December 23, 1886. He 
 died in Washington, D. C, October 18, 
 
 BRACE, Charles L. 
 
 Philanthropist, Newsboys' Friend. 
 
 Charles Loring Brace, who was deeply 
 interested in all philanthropic movements, 
 but who believed that the most fruitful 
 field in which the reformer and philan- 
 thropist could labor was among the chil- 
 dren of the poor, and whose interest in 
 the problem to which he devoted the best 
 efforts of his life was awakened some- 
 what by chance, was born at Litchfield, 
 Connecticut, June 19, 1826, son of John 
 Pierce Brace, principal of the Hartford 
 Female Seminary, and afterward editor of 
 the Hartford "Courant," one of the oldest 
 and best of New England journals, which 
 reached its highest reputation under his 
 management. It was said of John P. 
 Brace that few men of the time exerted a 
 wider influence than he in all that was 
 best in the lives of American women. 
 
 Charles Loring Brace was graduated at 
 Yale College in 1846, at the age of twenty, 
 studied theology at the Yale Divinity 
 School and at the Union Theological 
 Seminary, and entered the ministry. Four 
 years after his graduation, when twenty- 
 four years old, he made a pedestrian tour 
 in the company of Frederick Law Olm- 
 sted, afterward the eminent landscape 
 architect, through Great Britain and Ire- 
 
 140 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 land, and visited Paris, Belgium, and the 
 Rhine, and under the title of "Walks and 
 Talks of an American Farmer in Eng- 
 land," an account of this journey was 
 published by Mr. Olmsted. Mr. Brace 
 spent a winter in study in Berlin, and 
 afterward visited Hungary. He was the 
 first American to pass through the in- 
 terior of that country, and he had an ex- 
 perience in the course of his visit which 
 proved embarrassing. Arrested on sus- 
 picion of being a secret agent of the 
 Hungarian revolutionists in America, he 
 was imprisoned, and it was only by acci- 
 dent that he was able to communicate 
 with the American charge d'affaires at 
 Vienna and procure his release. On a 
 journey which he afterward took through 
 Switzerland, Italy, England and Ireland, 
 he began a special study of the conditions 
 of the masses in European countries and 
 of the schools, prisons and reformatory 
 institutions. 
 
 Returning to the United States when 
 he was twenty-six years old, his attention 
 was called to the miserable condition of 
 the poorest classes in the city of New 
 York, especially the immigrants, and, in 
 cooperation with Mr. Pease, Mrs. Olin 
 and others, set out to aid them. Five 
 Points was then the most degraded dis- 
 trict of the city ,and good work was done 
 there by Mr. Brace and his associates. 
 He also labored among the prisons, hos- 
 pitals and almshouses, on Blackwell's 
 Island, where the criminal and unfortu- 
 nate were sent. It was not long, how- 
 ever, before he discovered that much of 
 the work among the adults was hopeless, 
 and that little could be accomplished of 
 permanent benefit to New York in any 
 labor which did not especially include the 
 children of the poor. Among the children 
 he believed the most effective work could 
 be done, and he joined with others in 
 forming the Children's Aid Society. This 
 was in 1853, when he was twenty-seven 
 
 years old, and he was made the secretary 
 and principal executive officer. A year 
 later he founded, outside of this society, 
 the first newsboys' lodging house in 
 America, which, in fitting memory of its 
 founder, is known as the '"Brace Memorial 
 Lodging-House." Through the means of 
 the Children's Aid Society up to the time 
 of his death, seventy-five thousand home- 
 less, friendless children had been trans- 
 planted from the streets of New York to 
 homes in the far west ; three hundred 
 thousand children had been trained in its 
 industrial schools ; and in its lodging 
 house for boys, and girls' temporary 
 homes, two hundred thousand boys and 
 girls found a refuge, and were helped to 
 employment and homes. In 1S56 Mr. 
 Brace attended the International Conven- 
 tion of Children's Charities in London, 
 and made a third visit to Europe in 1865, 
 to investigate the sanitary methods of the 
 great cities. His fourth visit was as a del- 
 egate to the International Prison Con- 
 gress, which met in London in 1872. 
 
 During all the subsequent years of his 
 life he maintained his interest in philan- 
 thropic endeavor, while traveling much 
 and writing many books, namely: "Hun- 
 gary in 1851" (1852); "Home Life in 
 Germany" (1853) ; "The Norse Folk" 
 (1857) ; "Short Sermons to Newsboys" 
 (1861) ; "Races of the Old World" (1863) ; 
 "The New West" (1868); "The Danger- 
 ous Classes of New York, and Twenty 
 Years' Work Among Them" (3d. ed., 
 1880) ; "Free Trade as Promoting Peace 
 and Good-will Among Men" (1879) ; 
 "Guesta Christa, or, a History of Humane 
 Progress under Christianity" (3d. ed., 
 1885), and "The Unknown God" (1889). 
 
 He died at Campfer, Switzerland, 
 August 11, 1890. Shortly after his death 
 an endowment fund, in connection with 
 the Children's Aid Society, was estab- 
 lished to his memory, known as the 
 "Brace Memorial Fund." 
 
 141 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 BLISS, George, Jr., 
 
 Lawyer, Litterateur. 
 
 George Bliss, Jr., was born in Spring- 
 field, Massachusetts, May 3, 1830, son of 
 George and Mary S. Bliss. His father 
 and grandfather were prominent lawyers 
 of western Massachusetts. 
 
 George Bliss, Jr., received his early edu- 
 cation at home and at Harvard College, 
 from which he was graduated in 1851. 
 During his college course he was associ- 
 ated with David A. Wells in the publica- 
 tion of the "Annual of Scientific Dis- 
 covery" and of "Things not Generally 
 Known." After his graduation he spent 
 two years in Europe, studying at the 
 University of Berlin and in Paris, and 
 traveling through Sweden, southern Ger- 
 many, Switzerland, northern Italy, Spain 
 and Portugal. Returning home, he studied 
 law in Springfield, Massachusetts, and at 
 the Harvard Law School, then entering 
 the office of William Curtis Noyes, in 
 New York, and in the following year was 
 admitted to the bar. During 1859 and 
 i860 he was private secretary to Governor 
 Morgan, of New York, and in April, 1861, 
 was made a member of his staff. In 1862 
 he was appointed Paymaster-General of 
 the State, with the rank of colonel. In 
 the same year, as captain in the Fourth 
 New York Heavy Artillery, he was de- 
 tailed to duty on the staff of Major-Gen- 
 eral Morgan, commanding the Depart- 
 ment of New York. In 1862 and 1863 he 
 organized, under authority of the Secre- 
 tary of War, the Twentieth. Twenty-sixth 
 and Thirty-first regiments of United 
 States Colored Troops, representing in 
 this service the Union League Club of New 
 York, which was primarily the instrumen- 
 tality through which they were recruited. 
 In 1866 he became the attorney of the 
 Metropolitan Board of Health and Metro- 
 politan Board of Excise, of New York, 
 and, with Dorman B. Eaton, as counsel, 
 
 carried to a successful issue the litigation 
 as to the constitutionality of the boards, 
 and to enforce the acts creating them, the 
 final decisions in both being reached only 
 in the Court of Appeals. Pending the 
 litigation in the excise cases, hundreds of 
 injunctions were granted in the Common 
 Pleas Court alone. On January 1, 1873, 
 he was appointed United States Attorney 
 for the Southern District of New York, 
 which position he held for more than four 
 years. Notable among the important 
 cases during this period were the Robert 
 Des Anges and Lawrence conspiracy 
 cases. In 1881 and 1882, under appoint- 
 ment of President Garfield, he was the 
 active counsel of the government in the 
 trial at Washington of the celebrated 
 "Star Route Cases," involving many 
 fraudulent mail transportation cases. His 
 associate counsel were Richard T. Mer- 
 rick, Benjamin Harris Brewster and Wil- 
 liam W. Ker. The cases were twice tried 
 in Washington before a jury, each trial 
 occupying from four to five months. In 
 the first, though some of the minor ac- 
 cused were convicted, the verdict was un- 
 satisfactory and was set aside by consent ; 
 the second trial resulted in an acquittal, 
 procured, in the opinion of the prosecu- 
 tion, by unprofessional means, and the 
 law upon which the prosecution was 
 based was subsequently affirmed by the 
 Supreme Court of the United States. The 
 trials put a final end to a system of frauds 
 by which the government was robbed of 
 many millions of dollars. 
 
 Mr. Bliss published three editions of 
 the "Law of Life Insurance," and four 
 editions of the "Annotated New York 
 Code of Civil Procedure," which has be- 
 come the standard authority on that sub- 
 ject. At one time he contributed to the 
 "North American Review," and was for 
 many years a newspaper writer, chiefly 
 on political subjects. He was brought up 
 a Presbyterian, but became a Unitarian, 
 142 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 and subsequently a Roman Catholic. In 
 1895 ne was decorated by Pope Leo XIII. 
 with the order of St. Gregory the Great 
 in recognition of his services in defending 
 the Roman Catholic charitable institu- 
 tions before the New York Constitutional 
 Convention of 1894. He died at Wake- 
 field, Rhode Island, September 21, 1897. 
 
 HACKETT, James Henry, 
 
 Actor. 
 
 James Henry Hackett was born in New 
 York City, March 15, 1S00. His father 
 was a native of Holland, who had been a 
 lieutenant in the life-guard of the Prince 
 of Orange, and his mother was a daughter 
 of the Rev. Abraham Keteltas, a New 
 York clergyman. 
 
 He fitted for college at a Long IsIanQ 
 academy, and in 1815 entered Columbia 
 College, where he remained but a year, 
 leaving to study with a New York lawyer. 
 In 1819 he was married to Katherine Duf- 
 field Lee-Sugg, an actress, and a daughter 
 of an English ventriloquist. Miss Lee- 
 Sugg at the time was playing at the Park 
 Theatre in New York City. After her 
 marriage she retired from the stage and 
 removed with her husband to Utica, New 
 York, where for several years he engaged 
 in business on a large scale, having a 
 branch in New York City, and finally 
 failed. This failure caused Mrs. Hackett 
 to return to her profession, and she re- 
 appeared at the New York Park Theatre 
 on February 27, 1826, as the countess in 
 "Love in a Village." Mr. Hackett, having 
 a fondness for the drama, applied to the 
 management for a trial as an actor, and 
 on March 1, 1826, he made his debut as 
 Justice Woodcock in "Love in a Village," 
 a benefit to Mrs. Hackett. His second 
 appearance, in which he made his first 
 great hit, was as one of the Dromios in 
 Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors" in 
 
 October, 1826, John Barnes playing the 
 twin brother, his imitation of Barnes' 
 voice and mannerisms being so nearly 
 perfect, that the audience were un- 
 able to tell them apart. He next appeared 
 in the title role "Sylvester Daggerwood," 
 and introduced in the part successful im- 
 personations of Charles Mathews, Ed- 
 mund Kean and other actors. In Novem- 
 ber, 1826, his success became assured by 
 his impersonation of a Yankee and a 
 Frenchman. In December he sailed for 
 England, and on April 6, 1827, appeared 
 at the Covent Garden Theatre, London, 
 as Sylvester Daggerwood, playing the 
 part as he had played it in New York. 
 His success was indifferent, though his 
 imitations were commented upon as good. 
 Before returning home he made his suc- 
 cess substantial by playing the whole 
 character of Richard III. in imitation of 
 Edmund Kean. In 1830 Hackett joined 
 for a short time with Thomas S. Hamblin 
 in the management of the Bowery Thea- 
 tre, and subsequently managed the Chat- 
 ham Street Theatre. In 1837 he managed 
 the National Theatre in New York, and 
 was lessee and manager of the Astor 
 Place Theatre at the time of the Mac- 
 ready riot. He introduced to the United 
 States the Italian singers Grisi and Mario 
 at Castle Garden in 1854. As a star actor 
 he toured season after season, and made 
 a number of visits to England. He was 
 married a second time, March 27, 1864, to 
 Clara C. Morgan. His last public engage- 
 ment was previous to 1871. His best 
 known characters were Falstaff, which he 
 first played May 13, 1828; Rip Van 
 Winkle, first played in April, 1830; Mor- 
 bleau in "Monsieur Tonson" ; Solomon 
 Swop in "Jonathan in England" ; Colonel 
 Nimrod Wildfire in "Colonel Wildfire" ; 
 Monsieur Mallett and Dromio. He died 
 at Jamaica, Long Island, New York, De- 
 cember 28, 1871. 
 
 143 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 DUYCKINCK, Evert A., 
 
 Editor, Author. 
 
 Evert Augustus Duyckinck was born in 
 New York City, November 23, 1816, son 
 of Evert Duyckinck, bookseller. He was 
 graduated at Columbia College in 1835, 
 studied law, and was admitted to the bar 
 in 1837. After a year spent in Europe, he 
 returned to New York determined to 
 adopt a literary profession, having already 
 been an acceptable contributor to the 
 "New York Review." In 1840, in com- 
 pany with Cornelius Mathews, he estab- 
 lished "Arcturus," a monthly periodical 
 which they continued for two years and 
 in which he published a series of articles 
 entitled "Authors at Home and Abroad." 
 From 1847 to 1853, m conjunction with 
 his brother, George Long Duyckinck, he 
 edited and conducted "The Literary 
 World," which they founded and devoted 
 to reviews of books, art and literature. 
 In 1854, with his brother, he began the 
 publication of "The Cyclopaedia of Ameri- 
 can Literature," completed in two vol- 
 umes, giving a comprehensive list of 
 American authors, with selections from 
 their writings, portraits, and fac simile 
 autographs. This was revised in 1865. 
 He was a trustee of Columbia College, 
 1874-78. As a member of the New York 
 Historical Society he read before that 
 body "Memorials of Francis L. Hawks, 
 D.D., LL.D." (1867-71); "Memorials of 
 Francis T. Tuckerman" (1872) ; and "Me- 
 morials of James W. Beekman" (1877). 
 He read before the American Ethnolog- 
 ical Society: "Memorial of Samuel G. 
 Drake" (1876) ; and prepared a "Memorial 
 of John Wolfe" (1872). He published: 
 "Wit and Wisdom of Sydney Smith, with 
 a Memoir" (1856) ; "Willmot's Poets of 
 the Nineteenth Century" (American edi- 
 tion, 1858) ; "Irvingiana" (1859) ; "His- 
 tory of the War for the Union" (1861- 
 65); "Memorial of John Allen" (1864); 
 
 "Poems Relating to the American Revolu- 
 tion, With Memoirs of the Authors" 
 (1865) ; "Poems of Philip Freneau" 
 (1865); "National Gallery of Eminent 
 Americans" (1866) ; "History of the 
 World," etc. (1870) ; "Biographies of 
 Eminent Men and Women of Europe and 
 America" (1873-74). 
 
 He died in New York City, August 13, 
 1878. William Allen Butler read a bio- 
 graphical sketch of Mr. Duyckinck before 
 the New York Historical Society (1879), 
 and the Rev. Dr. Samuel Osgood pub- 
 lished a memoir of him (1879). 
 
 SELDEN. Samuel L., 
 
 Jurist, 
 
 Samuel Lee Slden was born at Lyme, 
 Connecticut, October 12, 1800, son of 
 Joseph Selden. He studied law with his 
 brother-in-law, Joseph Spencer, at Roch- 
 esterville, New York, and was admitted 
 to the bar in 1825, entered into partner- 
 ship with Addison Gardiner, and soon 
 acquired a large practice. In 1830 he 
 served as justice of the peace, and in 
 1831 was elected first judge of the Court 
 of Common Pleas for Monroe county, 
 and, after leaving the bench, he held the 
 office of clerk of the Eighth Chancery 
 Circuit of the State for many years. 
 
 In 1847 he was elected to the bench of 
 the Supreme Court, being the first elec- 
 tion under the constitution of 1846. 
 Under his jurisdiction the construction 
 of the code was fixed, and a system of 
 judicial law molded which has penetrated 
 every part of the country where the New 
 York practice has been adopted. In other 
 States the opinions of Judge Selden are 
 quoted by counsel and judges with re- 
 spect. He and his brother were the 
 earliest to aid in the establishment of the 
 electric telegraph lines. Subsequently, 
 he acquired a large interest in the House 
 
 144 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 patent, and joined with others in estab- 
 lishing the New York and Mississippi 
 Valley Printing Telegraph Company in 
 185 1, which was afterwards consolidated 
 with the Erie and Michigan Telegraph 
 Company, under the title of the Western 
 Telegraph Company. In 1856 he was 
 elected a judge of the Court of Appeals, 
 in which he was at once received as an 
 acknowledged leader, and he served as 
 Chief Justice of the State in 1862. The 
 rapid and enormous growth of the State 
 during his life had brought about such 
 changed and changing conditions of the 
 complex civilization which was being 
 constructed, that the law questions in- 
 volved in litigation were frequently novel 
 and intricate. No man on the bench or 
 at the bar understood this better than 
 Judge Selden, if any did as well, and he 
 took a very prominent part in the deci- 
 sions of the Court of Appeals on the law 
 of corporations and other commercial 
 law, forming a body of jurisprudence 
 which is everywhere respected. 
 
 He was married, in July, 1831, to Susan 
 M. Ward, of Genesee county, and had two 
 sons, who died in infancy. The degree of 
 LL. D. was conferred upon Judge Selden 
 by the University of Rochester in 1856. 
 He died in Rochester, New York, Sep- 
 tember 20, 1876. 
 
 PRATT, Charles, 
 
 Philanthropist. 
 
 Charles Pratt was born at Watertown, 
 Massachusetts, October 2, 1830, son of 
 Asa and Eliza (Stone) Pratt, grandson 
 of Jacob Pratt, of Maiden, Massachusetts, 
 and a descendant of Richard Pratt, who 
 emigrated from Essex, England, to Amer- 
 ica and settled at Maiden, Massachusetts. 
 He attended the academy at Wilbraham, 
 Massachusetts, for one year; and in 1849, 
 at the age of nineteen, engaged as a clerk 
 M Y— Vol 11—10 
 
 in a paint and oil store in Boston. He 
 afterward became a member of the firm 
 of Raynolds, Devoe & Pratt, in New York 
 City. He purchased the oil department 
 of the business, and subsequently built a 
 petroleum refinery at Greenpoint, New 
 York, where he manufactured Pratt's 
 Astral Oil, under the firm name of Charles 
 Pratt & Company, which later became 
 the Pratt Manufacturing Company, and 
 was finally absorbed by the Standard Oil 
 Company, in which he was a director and 
 officer. He was an earnest advocate of 
 advanced and technical education. He 
 was a trustee of Adelphi Academy, in 
 Brooklyn, New York, from 1867 to 1891, 
 and president of its board of trustees for 
 twelve years; and in 1886 contributed to 
 the institution $160,000 for a new build- 
 ing. He founded the Pratt Institute at 
 Brooklyn in 1887, established as an indus- 
 trial, manual and training school; built 
 the tenement known as the "Astral," its 
 income to be used for the benefit of the 
 institute ; and left an endowment of $2,- 
 000,000 at his death. The administration 
 of the Institute was continued by his 
 sons, Charles Millard Pratt, George D. 
 Pratt, Herbert L. Pratt, John T. Pratt 
 and Frederic B. Pratt, who constituted a 
 board of trustees. In an address made 
 on Founder's Day, in 1891, he said: "The 
 giving that counts is the giving of one's 
 self." His many charities included the 
 establishment of the Asa Pratt fund for a 
 free reading room in Watertown, Massa- 
 chusetts, in memory of his father; and 
 his large contribution to the erection of 
 the Emmanuel Baptist Church of Brook- 
 lyn, New York, of which he was a mem- 
 ber. 
 
 Mr. Pratt was twice married ; first, in 
 1854, to Lydia Ann, daughter of Thomas 
 Richardson, of Belmont, Massachusetts, 
 by whom he had one son, Charles Mil- 
 lard, and one daughter, Lydia Richard- 
 
 45 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 son. Mrs. Pratt died in 1861, and Mr. 
 Pratt married (second) in 1863, her sis- 
 ter, Mary Helen Richardson, by whom he 
 had five sons and one daughter. Mr. 
 Pratt died in New York City, May 4, 
 
 CURTIS, George William, 
 
 Author, Lecturer, Politician, Reformer. 
 
 Eminent as a man of letters and emi- 
 nent as a politician, George William Cur- 
 tis is preeminent as the "scholar in poli- 
 tics" — each informing and exalting the 
 other. 
 
 He was born in Providence, Rhode 
 Island, February 24, 1824, the second son 
 of George and Mary Elizabeth (Burrill) 
 Curtis, his lineage not being of the usual 
 Puritan type, "but of the smaller gentry 
 of New England 'whose conformities to 
 the orders and discipline of the Church of 
 England' was duly acknowledged. The 
 men of this class had independence and 
 self-reliance in plenty ; were full of re- 
 source, quick of wit, eager to seize every 
 opportunity ; resolute, even daring ; faith- 
 ful to duty — good as friends, formidable 
 as foes. It was a good stock. In his life 
 some of these qualities reappear" ("Cary's 
 Life," page 4). Henry Curtis, his Amer- 
 ican paternal ancestor, came over in 1635, 
 and George Burrill, the maternal, a few 
 years later. His grandfather, James Bur- 
 rill, was Chief Justice of Rhode Island and 
 United States Senator, an opponent of 
 the Missouri Compromise, and a man of 
 marked ability and high character. His 
 father, removing to New York (1839) 
 and later becoming president of the Bank 
 of Commerce, was of excellent business 
 talents, of sound political and refined lit- 
 erary taste, kind to his children, but solic- 
 itous as to their manners and morals. He 
 made his residence in Washington Place, 
 then the most desirable residence quarter 
 
 in the city, still the abode of some of the 
 best "old families." His first wife died 
 when George was but two years old and, 
 in 1835, Mr. Curtis married a daughter of 
 Samuel W. Bridgman, of Providence, of 
 whom James Burrill Curtis, the elder 
 brother of George (our "Cousin the Cur- 
 ate," of "Prue and I"), thus writes: "She 
 was a woman of much good sense and 
 practical energy, of strong and generous 
 sympathies and of high public spirit and 
 piety ; and she added to these things lit- 
 erary cultivation decidedly above the 
 average. She wrote with ease, whether 
 in letters or other compositions, a full, 
 graceful, flowing, delightful English 
 style. She once wrote to us in high girl- 
 ish spirits that she believed she loved 
 her ready-made children the best." 
 
 Within such benign domestic environ- 
 ment Curtis was reared, and he inhaled 
 the air of freedom upon the ground where 
 Roger Williams, fleeing from the perse- 
 cution of the Puritan theocracy, founded 
 a commonwealth whose cornerstone was 
 the principle of the utter divorce of 
 Church and State. Curtis was not a col- 
 lege-bred man, but his education was cer- 
 tainly more than equivalent to that 
 which he could have obtained from the 
 curriculum of any American college of 
 the day. His early schooling, glimpses 
 of which are disclosed in "Trumps," was 
 at Jamaica Plain, near Boston ; and then, 
 after a year under a private tutor and 
 another in a mercantile house in New 
 York, he became, at the age of sixteen, 
 with his elder brother James, a pupil at 
 Brook Farm, where a bright body of 
 thinkers, in communal life, made a brave, 
 but vain, attempt to better the social and 
 elevate the intellectual order, by combin- 
 ing philosophy and the plow, poetry and 
 the wash tub. It had withal an admira- 
 ble teaching force, with George Ripley, 
 afterward the accomplished literary edi 
 
 146 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 tor of the New York "Tribune," at its 
 head, and liberal courses of study. Cur- 
 tis studied diligently, applying himself 
 especially to German, agricultural chem- 
 istry and music. There also he heard 
 the brilliant talk of Margaret Fuller, 
 and marveled at the weird conceits 
 of Hawthorne ; and thither came as vis- 
 itors and, in part, as instructors, "the sage 
 of Concord," with his pearls of wisdom, 
 and the gentle hermit of Walden Pond 
 unfolding the secrets of the woods and 
 fields; and there, doubtless, Curtis first 
 aspired to authorship, but as yet without 
 definite plans leading thereto. 
 
 Succeeding the Brook Farm experi- 
 ence, came an interval of pleasure and of 
 much reading at home. He was in the 
 heyday of youth and, with his brother, 
 both with superb gifts of face and form 
 and conversational grace, became a social 
 lion, feted and feasted in the most select 
 social and musical circles. "My days," 
 he writes, "I pass in my room, reading 
 Goethe's 'Wilhelm Meister' and Novalis. 
 With Burrill, I read 'Agricultural Chem- 
 istry' and 'Practical Agriculture.' Next 
 week, with mother, we shall begin the 
 Epistles and Gospels. Apart from these 
 more strictly studies, I am reading 
 Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, 
 Massinger, Ford, and smaller poets." In 
 August, 1845, ^ e started on a memorable 
 pilgrimage, entering the old world by the 
 Gibraltar gateway, landing at Marseilles, 
 and thence ranging historic ground, in 
 leisurely fashion, for four years, every- 
 where catching the local coloring; the 
 first winter being spent in Rome, where 
 he perfected himself in the Latin tongues ; 
 the second in Berlin, where he enrolled 
 in its university ; the third in Paris ; and 
 the fourth on the Nile and in Palestine, 
 meanwhile writing regularly to the 
 "Courier and Enquirer" and the "Tri- 
 bune" — observant reporting, without rhe- 
 
 torical embellishment. He made ac- 
 quaintance with the Brownings, Thack- 
 eray, and other literary lights, who con- 
 fessed their liking for the gifted and 
 genial young American ; and from things 
 new and old, grave and gay, his plastic 
 mind received impressions, revealed in 
 the reveries of the "Howadji" and the 
 reminiscences of the "Easy Chair." In 
 1850 he left Europe, which he never re- 
 visited, although two Presidents tendered 
 him high diplomatic missions. 
 
 He returned to New York to make 
 literature his profession, his first regular 
 employment being as the musical and 
 dramatic critic of the "Tribune;" for his 
 pen, as yet, ran mainly along esthetic 
 lines ; and he drew the pleasing sketches 
 of watering places that were subsequently 
 collected in book form as "Lotus Eating." 
 He also supplied airy fancies for the 
 "Knickerbocker." In 1851, "Nile Notes" 
 appeared, and was soon followed by the 
 "Howadji in Syria." The one has cer- 
 tain verbal redundancies and affectations, 
 from which the other is measurably free, 
 but each is fine in temper, delicate in sen- 
 timent, rich in scholarship, and limns 
 with photographic fidelity the languor of 
 the orient. He was, at the first, enticed 
 by the opulence of his vocabulary, but he 
 speedily gained poise, eliminated excesses 
 from his style, and resolved it into a dic- 
 tion as chaste as it is fascinating. In 
 1853, "Putnam's," the second of magazines 
 of the newer era, "Harper's" having pre- 
 ceded it by three years, was started, and 
 Curtis was enlisted in its service. Intel- 
 lectually, it was a credit to periodical 
 literature. Financially, it was unfortun- 
 ate. When a crisis in its affairs was 
 reached in 1857, Curtis was a special busi- 
 ness partner. His personal fortune was 
 swept away, and, in addition, there were 
 obligations, which, although not legally 
 bound, he assumed, to whose discharge 
 
 147 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 he devoted years of unremitting toil, 
 applying thereto nearly all the receipts 
 from his Lyceum lectures. When he step- 
 ped from the platform, in 1873, the bur- 
 den had been lifted. He rarely ascended 
 it again for pay. This is an interesting 
 episode in his career, the vindication of a 
 nice sense of honor, finding its counter- 
 part only in the settlement of Sir Walter 
 Scott with the creditors of Ballantyne 
 and Company. To "Putnam's," Curtis 
 gave some of his choicest work, including 
 "Homes of American Authors," the "Poti- 
 phar Papers," and "Prue and I." The 
 homes are those of Emerson, Longfellow, 
 Bancroft and Hawthorne, in all of which 
 he was a welcome guest. The "Potiphar 
 Papers" is a keen inspection of the frivol- 
 ities and pretensions of "our best society." 
 Too truthful for irony, it is too kindly 
 for contumely. It is the philosopher in 
 dress coat, who has the entree of the 
 circle, quizzing its foibles, and not the 
 cynic in hair cloth, railing at its exclusive- 
 ness. It is cleverly written and furnishes 
 in "the Rev. Cream Cheese," at least one 
 of the noted characters in fiction. "Prue 
 and I" is as lovely a bit of sentiment and 
 lambent humor as there is in the lan- 
 guage, justifying the encomium of Law- 
 rence Hutton, who says : "It is Addison 
 with a warmth and humanness that Addi- 
 son never knew. It is Lamb, with a grace 
 and delicacy that Lamb's time did not 
 bequeath to him. It is Sidney, with the 
 lightest modern touch and a new learned 
 simplicity. It is the sweetest, gentlest, 
 serenist, loftiest, most cultured of 
 scholars, who, in the homely guise of this 
 modest clerk, enchants the reader with 
 his airy fancy and rich imagination." 
 
 Mr. Curtis married, Thanksgiving Day, 
 1856, Anna, daughter of Francis G. Shaw, 
 of Staten Island — a happy union and a 
 delightful home on the island to the end. 
 Some years later, he made a summer 
 
 home in Ashfield, among the hills of 
 Western Massachusetts, drawn thither in 
 part by the prior going thereto of Charles 
 Eliot Norton, his dearest friend, for many 
 years. In October, 1853, Curtis began 
 to write for the "Easy Chair" in "Harper's 
 Monthly," and from April, 1854, until the 
 summer of 1892, it bore his individual 
 stamp. In 1863, he was installed as editor 
 of "Harper's Weekly" and continued 
 such for thirty-eight years. Curtis's 
 weekly articles, models of a perspicuous 
 style, were able, candid and dispassion- 
 ate in their treatment of public questions, 
 were widely quoted, and were cogent in 
 their influence upon public opinion, more 
 cogent than the utterances of any Amer- 
 ican journalist, with the exception of 
 Greeley. The "Easy Chair" is one of the 
 fairest products of modern literature. 
 How pure, how fresh, how exhilarating it 
 is! To how many hearts has it appealed 
 as "guide, philosopher and friend !" How 
 varied its themes, how catholic its vision, 
 how radiant its spirit. It is the consum- 
 mate flower of expression. It is already 
 a classic. 
 
 Curtis had a voice as well as a pen. It 
 was a voice of surpassing richness and 
 exquisite melody. In tone and compass 
 it was music's self, varying, to suit the 
 thought, from the strain of the flute 
 to the ring of the trumpet and the peal 
 of the organ. His very presence was in 
 itself a charm — of manly, yet graceful 
 form, with head of noble cast, features 
 finely chiseled, and eyes of bluish-gray at 
 once placid and piercing. His initial 
 theme was on "Contemporary Art in 
 Europe." Another was on "Gold and 
 Glitter in America," a sequel to the "Poti- 
 phar Papers ;" and still another, which 
 seems as introspective as descriptive, 
 obeying in its composition the injunc- 
 tion of Sidney's muse, "Look in thy heart 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 and write ;" for who can doubt the soul of 
 Curtis was as knightly as that of Sidney. 
 But soon his discourse ran in deeper 
 and broader channels. The gravest issues 
 of national honor and human freedom 
 were at stake. The Puritan spark in 
 Curtis was fanned into flame and glowed 
 and blazed and burned. In 1856, his plea 
 was on "The Duty of American Scholars 
 to Politics and the Times." In 1857, it was 
 on "Patriotism." In that year also it was 
 on "Fair Play for Women ;" in 1838 on 
 "Democracy and Education ;" in 1859, it 
 was on the "Present Aspect of the Slav- 
 ery Question," and this was delivered in 
 "the City of Brotherly Love," amid the 
 tumult of the mob and at imminent peril 
 of personal violence ; but it was delivered. 
 When the war was on — when the tre- 
 mendous issues of national integrity and 
 national dissolution, of human rights and 
 human bondage, were transferred from 
 the forum to the arbitrament of the sword, 
 the speech of Curtis had clearer vision 
 and more earnest purpose. It even thrill- 
 ed with the pathos of his own trials, 
 for his step-brother fell at Fredericks- 
 burg, and two of his kinsmen by marriage, 
 "curled darlings of Harvard," but pala- 
 dins of patriotism, had glorious death at 
 the front, one of whom still has honor 
 for the supreme beauty of his sacrifice. 
 Curtis talked of "National Honor," of the 
 "Good Fight," and, as the climax of his 
 deliverances, of the "Way of Peace" — of 
 "Peace with Honor," and as embracing 
 fullest guarantees of freedom. He was 
 also heard at patriotic anniversaries, at 
 the college commencements, and in polit- 
 ical assemblies. 
 
 He even indulged in practical politics. 
 He did not shrink from the caucus, and 
 the caucus honored "Honestus." For 
 twenty-five years he was chairman of the 
 Republican committee of his county, fre- 
 quently a delegate to State conventions. 
 
 several times the chairman thereof, and, 
 from i860 until 1884, was a delegate to 
 nearly every national convention of his 
 party. He made the "hit" of the conven- 
 tion at Chicago when, in a stupor of timid- 
 ity, it had defeated the proposal of Joshua 
 R. Giddings to incorporate in the plat- 
 form the preamble to the Declaration. He 
 rose, blazing with indignation, and with 
 clarion call renewed the motion, chal- 
 lenging the representatives of the party 
 of freedom, meeting on the borders of the 
 free prairies, in a hall dedicated to the ad- 
 vancement of liberty, to reject the doc- 
 trine of the Declaration of Independence 
 affirming the equality and defining the 
 rights of man. He swept the convention 
 upon a wave of enthusiasm, and his reso- 
 lution was adopted unanimously amid 
 deafening cheers. He favored the nomi- 
 nation of Seward as the "logical" stand- 
 ard bearer, but cordially supported Lin- 
 coln in the canvass, who trusted Curtis 
 implicitly throughout his tenure. Curtis 
 stoutly sustained the President's policies, 
 notably the prudent delay in the issue 
 of the Emancipation Proclamation, 
 against the pressure of the extreme radi- 
 cals ; and as delegate to the convention of 
 1864 he was a prominent advocate of Lin- 
 coln's renomination, doing splendid serv- 
 ice for his reelection, both on the stump 
 and in "Harper's," meanwhile running for 
 Congress in a district hopelessly Demo- 
 cratic. In 1865 his name was proposed 
 for United States Senator by many 
 friends, but upon a suggestion to him that 
 he should engage in a combination to de- 
 feat Conkling, the terms being that, upon 
 which, either himself or Judge Noah 
 Davis should prove the stronger candi- 
 date, their forces should unite, he declined 
 absolutely to enter the lists. In 1866 he 
 was chosen a delegate-at-large to the Con- 
 stitutional Convention and served faith- 
 fully in that body, his principal work 
 149 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 being as chairman of the education com- represented. To this Curtis acceded, in 
 
 mittee and his star speech on "Woman 
 Suffrage," already alluded to. In 1868 he 
 was nominated as a Presidential elector, 
 but as Seymour carried New York, he did 
 not have the privilege of casting a vote in 
 the college for Grant. Upon the death of 
 Henry J. Raymond, June 18, 1869, Curtis 
 was tendered the editorship of the New 
 York "Times," a flattering offer, which he 
 felt constrained to decline. The story of 
 this declination, as related by Curtis to 
 the writer, is exceedingly interesting, as 
 revealing the honorable relations existing 
 between the Harpers and himself. Upon 
 its receipt, he informed Mr. Fletcher Har- 
 per thereof. Mr. Harper, in brief, told 
 Curtis that the offer was a flattering one, 
 involving as it did a more instant, if not 
 more commanding, influence upon public 
 opinion, but also a very considerable in- 
 crease of salary above that he was receiv- 
 ing from the Harpers, but without the 
 slightest suggestion of an increase upon 
 their part, advised Curtis to take suffi- 
 cient time to think the matter over care- 
 fully before making his decision. This 
 Curtis did and, after mature considera- 
 tion, determined to decline, informing Mr. 
 Harper to that effect ; whereupon the lat- 
 ter expressed his gratification and said 
 that hereafter his salary would be the 
 same with the Harpers as that which the 
 "Times" had proffered. In September of 
 the same year, he was nominated by accla- 
 mation for Secretary of State, an honor 
 which he also appreciated, but declined 
 largely upon prudential considerations. 
 
 In 1870, he was chairman of the Re- 
 publican State Convention, and his speech 
 was received with exceeding favor, with 
 wild enthusiasm. Whereupon he was 
 approached by one of the party managers 
 who asked him if he would accept the 
 nomination for Governor, and pledging 
 him the support of the faction that he 
 
 good faith, although he did not desire the 
 distinction, premising that his name 
 should be presented fairly and honorably, 
 if at all. It was, however, presented per- 
 functorily, and that by a Manhattan dele- 
 gate, not of the best character, either 
 mentally or morally. The promised vote 
 was not accorded Curtis ; apparently the 
 proffer was made solely to shelve Greeley, 
 a formidable candidate; and General 
 Woodford, who had been Lieutenant- 
 Governor, and not without claims, by 
 reason of distinguished partisan and 
 patriotic service, was preferred. The 
 trick was a dirty one, and hurt Curtis 
 bitterly, possibly accentuating his inde- 
 pendence of party shackles, which later 
 became pronounced. In 1872, with some 
 misgivings, he refused to identify him- 
 self with the Liberal Republican move- 
 ment, and supported the reelection of 
 President Grant. In 1876, as a delegate 
 to the Cincinnati Convention, he favored 
 the selection of Bristow, but on the de- 
 cisive ballot voted for Hayes, and was a 
 firm upholder of his administration. In 
 May, 1877, the President, through Secre- 
 tary Evarts, offered him the choice of the 
 chief European missions, expecting that 
 he would take the English, but he felt 
 that his civic duty forbade his acceptance. 
 In 1879, he "bolted" the candidacy of 
 Cornell for Governor, identifying himself 
 with an organization of "Independent Re- 
 publicans," that polled some 20,000 votes. 
 In 1880, he was against a third term for 
 Grant, and cordially supported Garfield. 
 In 1882, he again asserted his independ- 
 ence by refusing to support Charles J. 
 Folger for Governor, whom he personally 
 esteemed highly, in that the Federal 
 administration had unduly interfered in 
 the canvass by the abuse of patronage, 
 and for certain other unseemly, if not 
 corrupt, methods employed in Folger's 
 
 150 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 behalf. In 1884, Curtis was a delegate to 
 the Republican National Convention, at 
 Chicago, his choice for President being 
 Senator Edmunds. He opposed the adop- 
 tion of a resolution to the effect that 
 every delegate was "bound in honor to 
 support the nominee," whoever it might 
 be, his voice ringing as it had twenty-four 
 years before, in the same place, for the 
 sanctity of the Declaration, as he affirmed, 
 "A Republican and a free man, I came to 
 this convention, and by the grace of God 
 a Republican and a free man will I go out 
 of it." The resolution was withdrawn. 
 He refused urgent appeals to second the 
 motion to make Blaine's nomination 
 unanimous and did not vote upon it. 
 "Harper's Weekly" promptly condemned 
 the action of the convention, and Curtis 
 was at once recognized as the leader of 
 the insurgents, popularly known as 
 "Mugwumps." They were sufficient in 
 number to turn the scale, especially in the 
 pivotal State of New York, and, succeed- 
 ing one of the bitterest campaigns in 
 our political annals, Cleveland, the Demo- 
 cratic candidate, was elected. The cam- 
 paign involved much impugnment of the 
 motives of Curtis, and of detraction and 
 scurrility by a partisan press, which either 
 misapprehended or malignantly abused 
 him ; and, though the issue was a pain- 
 ful one to him, he rose superior to ignor- 
 ance and insult, maintaining his high 
 ideals and intrinsic purity. He had re- 
 ferred the case for decision to the court of 
 conscience, and from that august tribunal 
 there was no appeal, and, it may be added, 
 he retained the respect and trust of en- 
 lightened Republicans who knew and 
 loved him; even of those who differed 
 from him and grieved sincerely at his 
 alienation from the party he had nobly 
 served, who would not believe that it had 
 been prompted by mean or mercenary 
 considerations. Thenceforth he was an 
 Independent in name, as well as in fact. 
 
 He supported Cleveland for reelection in 
 1888, mainly upon the economic issue, 
 and partly for what the President had 
 done for civil service reform. 
 
 Of reform in civil service, Curtis was 
 the most conspicuous and serviceable 
 champion. Early enlisting in the move- 
 ment for the abolition of the spoils sys- 
 tem, he was chairman of the commission, 
 appointed in 1871, to rectify the rules for 
 admission to the public service, and did 
 searching and heroic work as such, the 
 regulations, fundamentally that of com- 
 petitive examinations, it adopted, being 
 formally promulgated a year later. His 
 labors to advance the reform, both by 
 pen and voice, were prodigious and inces- 
 sant, and to him must be largely credited 
 all that has been accomplished in its be- 
 half. In August, 1881, the National Civil 
 Service Reform League was formed at 
 Newport, of which he was made president 
 and so continued until his death, his last 
 public utterance being his annual address 
 before that body. 
 
 In the ripeness of his years and the 
 fullness of his fame he was — January 30, 
 1890 — elected chancellor of the Univer- 
 sity of the State of New York. It was 
 the fitting crown of his lettered life. He 
 was at the time the senior regent and 
 had acted four years as vice-chancel- 
 lor. In the line of chancellors, which 
 George Clinton heads and which includes 
 the names of Jay and Tompkins, Stephen 
 Van Rensselaer and Pruyn, Upson and 
 Reid, none were worthier of the place 
 than he, as none had more discriminating 
 perception of its importance, nor did it 
 finer service than he during the brief 
 period he was permitted to grace it. The 
 stately oration, at the centennial of the 
 university, in 1884, and his address at the 
 convention in 1890, are luminous reviews 
 of the history and presentation of the 
 objects and jurisdiction of the institution. 
 He was one of the earliest members of 
 
 151 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 the Century Association, and used to say 
 playfully that the only office he really 
 aspired to was as president of that club. 
 Early in May, 1892, he was taken serious- 
 ly ill and, after long and acute suffering, 
 he died at his home on Staten Island, Au- 
 gust 31, 1892. 
 
 When one, who has been esteemed 
 great, in art, or letters, or statesmanship, 
 dies, speculation busies itself as to the 
 durability of his fame. Will he be for- 
 gotten, or will his be 
 
 One of the few, the immortal ones 
 That were not born to die. 
 
 Nothing can be more misleading than 
 contemporary verdicts upon literary pro- 
 ductions. One age rejects what a preced- 
 ing age cherishes, and one rescues from 
 neglect that which the other condemns. 
 Shakespeare and Milton had new birth, 
 and the dust of the dark ages was thick 
 upon Horace and Virgil. The lesser 
 dramatists of the Elizabethan era ex- 
 pected to live, and the wits of Grub street 
 thought to destroy Pope. We still expect 
 that George William Curtis will live in 
 the lines he has written, that the "Easy 
 Chair" will be a delight to the coming 
 generations, that "Prue and I" will be 
 perused at the firesides of the newer time, 
 and that his addresses — his splendid 
 tributes to the memory of Burns and 
 Bryant and Sumner and Phillips and 
 Lowell — will be read hereafter with the 
 appreciation with which we scan those of 
 Sheridan and Burke, of Henry and Web- 
 ster; but we know he will be immortal 
 in the principles he advocated, in the 
 reforms he vindicated, in the work he 
 did for good government and education, 
 in his gentle life, an ensample to follow, 
 virtues to emulate. C. E. F. 
 
 It is proper to say that much of the foregoing 
 sketch consists of excerpts from the commemo- 
 rative address delivered by the writer before the 
 Regents of the University, December 14, 1892. 
 
 HUNTINGTON, Frederic Dan, 
 
 Scholar, Author, Prelate. 
 
 In sketching a life, brilliant in intellec- 
 tual gifts and beautified by spiritual 
 graces, we linger, at the outset, in con- 
 templation of the virtues and the estate 
 that were its inheritance. 
 
 The story is one of Puritan stock, un- 
 mixed with alien blood ; of forbears of 
 the "Mayflower", in 1620, and of the 
 "Mary and John", which landed at Dor- 
 chester, ten years later; of liberty loving 
 folk with Hooker, at Hartford ; of the 
 founders of Norwich and Hadley towns ; 
 of stout arms which felled the woods and 
 pious souls who kept the faith ; of patriot 
 guns in King Philip's War, in French in- 
 vasion of the Champlain, in Revolution 
 against the British crown; of soldiers of 
 the Cross as well ; of intermarriages with 
 the landed gentry of New England — Wol- 
 cotts, Trumbulls, Throops, Metcalfs, 
 Whitings, Pitkinses, Porters, Phelpses ; 
 of hearthstones and homesteads ; of 
 goodly acres and seemly hospitalities; of 
 manly work and womanly worth ; of all 
 that was best of Puritan muscle, mind and 
 breeding. 
 
 In 1752, Moses Porter, having married 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Nathaniel and 
 granddaughter of William Pitkin, of 
 Hartford, the progenitor of the family in 
 this country, fashioned a landed estate 
 which President Dwight. in his "Travels," 
 describes as the most desirable posses- 
 sion of the same kind and extent within 
 his knowledge. It is situated two miles 
 north of "Old Hadley" in that fair and 
 fruitful valley, through which the Con- 
 necticut curves in broad and placid 
 stream before it narrows between the 
 hills at the south. Through a century's 
 growth, Hadley had become a model New 
 England village, with its one wide street, 
 elm embowered, its central slip of green 
 
 152 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 where cattle grazed, its spacious door- 
 yards, its comely dwellings, its "meeting 
 house", of strict "Covenant" keeping, its 
 town hall for freemen. There were abid- 
 ing memories of hardships and heroisms 
 — of pioneer toil and adventure, of con- 
 flicts with beasts of the forest, of Indian 
 atrocities and brave defense against them, 
 and most vivid of all, of the savage as- 
 sault upon a worshipping congregation 
 and the sudden coming to their relief and 
 rallying of the regicide, Goffe, who, for 
 years, with his companion general, Whal- 
 ley, of Cromwell's army, had been secret- 
 ly harbored in Parson Russell's house, 
 and who, when the murderous band was 
 routed, vanished as mysteriously as he 
 had appeared. 
 
 For a full century, the Porters had been 
 earnest Christians and public spirited 
 citizens of Hadley. John Porter was an 
 early colonist. His son, Samuel, the first 
 male child born in Hadley, was a justice 
 of the peace — then an honorable distinc- 
 tion — and his son, a second Samuel, accu- 
 mulated a fortune of £10,000 as a trader. 
 Their residence had all been on the village 
 street; but, in 1752, when the security of 
 the region had seemingly been assured, 
 Moses, fourth in the line of descent, 
 built a mansion and laid out his land in 
 a sheltered intervale, two miles north of 
 Hadley, and there, with the enlargements 
 of the house and increase of acres, the 
 generations that succeeded him passed 
 their days righteously and prosperously. 
 Thence, in 1755, Moses Porter, yet in the 
 flush of young manhood, marched as cap- 
 tain of a company of militia and, in Sep- 
 tember, fell at its head gallantly at Crown 
 Point, leaving his wife to manage the 
 estate for forty-three years, and a daugh- 
 ter, Elizabeth, who was married, June 14, 
 1770, to Charles Phelps. He was a de- 
 scendant, in the sixth generation, of Wil- 
 liam Phelps, immigrant in the "Mary and 
 
 John," a representative from Dorchester 
 in the General Court of Massachusetts 
 Bay, a resident of Windsor and one of 
 eight who had charge of Hartford colony, 
 before legislative government was estab- 
 lished, and later assistant to the governor 
 in the general assembly ; and in the fourth 
 generation of Nathaniel, a founder of 
 Northampton. Charles studied law and 
 began its practice in Northampton, but, 
 upon his marriage, settled in "Elm Val- 
 ley," as the Porter estate was known. Dur- 
 ing his administration its boundaries were 
 enlarged, its buildings improved, its re- 
 sources wisely developed and its commer- 
 cial value materially appreciated ; and 
 there, January 1, 1801, his daughter, Eliz- 
 abeth Whiting, was married to the Rev. 
 Dan Huntington, of pure Puritan lineage, 
 a graduate, with first honors, from Yale, 
 in 1794; tutor both at Williams and Yale, 
 pastor of the Congregational church in 
 Litchfield; a teacher in Middletown, and 
 latterly, having identified himself with 
 the Unitarian departure, was without 
 pastoral charge, contenting himself, as 
 occasion offered, with preaching to scat- 
 tered congregations of the "Liberal Chris- 
 tian" order. Upon the death of Mr. 
 Phelps, in 1816, he settled in "Elm Val- 
 ley" of which his wife was possessed ; 
 and there, May 28, 1819, Frederic Dan 
 Huntington, their seventh son and the 
 youngest of their eleven children, was 
 born. 
 
 Reared in a region where the aspect of 
 nature is peculiarly inspiring, and which 
 became his life-long delight ; in a home 
 of close family affection, with choicest 
 literature spread, and of high intellectual 
 ideals, where Puritan principle, purged 
 of Puritan bigotry, prevailed, and love of 
 God, unvexed by fear, abode ; with the 
 gracious presence of the mother, of whose 
 piety, despite her proscription by Ortho- 
 dox edict, he says, in later years, that 
 
 53 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 "in depth, consistency, vigor, fervor and 
 practical force, it surpassed any piety I 
 have ever known ; it was too pure, heaven- 
 ly, to be associated with any sectarian 
 name or persuasion." 
 
 Apt in study and early appreciating its 
 responsibility, his education in the ele- 
 mentary branches was at home, under the 
 competent instruction of his parents ; his 
 secondary courses were had in the Hop- 
 kins Academy, at Hadley, <ind at the 
 age of sixteen, he matriculated at Am- 
 herst, chosen, although three of his elder 
 brothers were Harvard men, because of 
 the reluctance of both his mother and 
 himself to be apart further than the dis- 
 tance between Elm Valley and the col- 
 lege town, permitting him frequent visits 
 to the homestead. Amherst, at the time, 
 although founded but fifteen years pre- 
 viously was notably prosperous, excelling 
 all New England colleges except Harvard 
 and Yale, in number of students and 
 strength of faculty and famous for the 
 large proportion of her sons given to the 
 gospel ministry. Huntington's thought 
 already inclined to that profession. He 
 had, before entering college, united with 
 the Church of Christ, Northampton, in 
 charge of Dr. E. B. Hall, an honored 
 clergyman of Unitarian leading, and, 
 for many years, the family pastor. 
 Throughout his college course, Hunting- 
 ton easily held rank as the first scholar 
 in a remarkably bright class, with several 
 members of which he contracted lasting 
 friendships, Richard Salter Storrs, the 
 eminent Congregational divine, and Na- 
 thaniel Augustus Hewitt, of the Paulist 
 Fathers, being among them. Huntington 
 was graduated in 1839, with the valedic- 
 tory oration, the highest commencement 
 honor, his theme being "The Brotherhood 
 of Scholars ;" and with distinct repute as 
 writer and debater. 
 
 After an interval of serious illness and 
 
 some weeks of teaching in Warwick, 
 Massachusetts, he enrolled in the Har- 
 vard Divinity School, Unitarian doctrine, 
 at the time, seeming to him full of beauty 
 and simplicity; but it is significant that, 
 in his request for admission, he stated 
 frankly that "his mind would be kept open 
 toward all new light and all new truth 
 that might enter it." Theologically, he 
 was already a truth-seeker, an attitude 
 that he ever maintained. The period, in 
 which his lot was cast, was one of earnest 
 truth-seeking, as most of the periods of 
 the Christian era have been ; but in Amer- 
 ica the first half of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury was certainly such, one in which 
 many ingenuous souls sought the light, 
 with varying revelation, as diligently as, 
 in Miltonic phrase, Isis made search for 
 the mangled body of Osiris. Thus, Orestes 
 Brownson, testing Presbyterian, Univer- 
 salist, Owenian, Unitarian and Rationalis- 
 tic teachings, discovered, as he thought, 
 the truth in Papal rites and encyclicals ; 
 thus Orville Dewey, trained at Williams 
 and Andover — evangelical strongholds — 
 became a champion of Unitarianism ; and 
 thus Frederic Dan Huntington, at the 
 first, a disciple of Liberal Christianity, 
 ended as a prelate of the Protestant Epis- 
 copal church. 
 
 The years in the Divinity School were 
 passed happily, if laboriously, amid the 
 enchantments of nature and the society of 
 his fellows. An ardent student and a 
 constant attendant upon the seminary 
 lectures he sustained the same high 
 scholastic standard as in college. He 
 read widely in the classics and the litera- 
 ture of the Victorian age, especially 
 attracted to Coleridge, DeQuincey and 
 Carlyle. He was fond of the American 
 poets, Longfellow and Bryant, then at the 
 meridian of their fame, preferring them to 
 their English contemporaries. He investi- 
 gated Transcendentalism, without being 
 
 154 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 affected by it and was curious concerning, 
 but in no wise sympathetic with, the 
 Brook Farm experiment. He heard fre- 
 quently the foremost preachers of Boston 
 and its vicinage — Channing, Emerson, 
 Ware, Gannett, Pierpont, Theodore 
 Parker and other knights of free thought ; 
 and Kirk, the mighty protagonist of Cal- 
 vinism. He perfected a diction, its crys- 
 talline purity unexcelled by any Ameri- 
 can author of the day ; and compassed 
 a delivery rivalling in its rhythmical 
 cadence the melody of Curtis. He also 
 did much missionary service as superin- 
 tendent of the Church Green Sunday 
 School, occasional chaplain in Boston and 
 Cambridge prisons ; preacher to a small 
 congregation in Leverett ; sometime 
 reader of the service in King's Chapel, his 
 earliest acquaintance with liturgical wor- 
 ship; and, for a single term, he resumed 
 charge of the Warwick school. At the 
 annual visitation of the Divinity School, 
 he received his certificate and read a dis- 
 sertation on "The Comparative Prospects 
 of Romanism and Protestanism," sub- 
 sequently printed by request in the 
 "Monthly Miscellany of Religion and 
 Letters." The young licentiate was at 
 once tendered several flattering calls, but 
 accepted that of the South Congregational 
 (Unitarian) Society in Washington street, 
 Boston, then reduced in numbers, but 
 with opportunity for growth, and was 
 installed as its pastor October 19, 1842. 
 
 He married, September 4, 1843, Han- 
 nah Dane, daughter of Epes Sargent, a 
 leading Boston merchant in the foreign 
 trade, sister of John O. and Epes Sar- 
 gent, well known journalists and littera- 
 teurs, and a great-granddaughter of Gen- 
 eral Benjamin Lincoln of Revolutionary 
 renown — herself a woman of fine culture. 
 The newly wedded pair, making their 
 first home in Harrison avenue, and later 
 in Roxbury, were to enjoy a long and 
 
 blessed union, permitted to commemorate 
 both the fiftieth and sixtieth anniversaries 
 of their nuptials under the Elm Valley 
 roof-tree, which became the husband's 
 property, in 1864, partly by purchase from 
 the other heirs and partly by gift from 
 the parishioners of Emmanuel Church 
 when he was its priest and which was 
 ever his summer home. His original 
 ministry of thirteen years was eminently 
 successful in both the material and spir- 
 itual view — the crowded pews ; the ardent 
 affection of his people ; his increasing 
 unction in the pulpit ; many invitations 
 to wider fields and more lucrative posi- 
 tions declined ; the institutions, finances 
 and charities of the church graciously and 
 effectively administered. He also did 
 much outside work in advancing reforms, 
 notably the anti-slavery cause, contrib- 
 uting to magazines, editing the "Ameri- 
 can Christian Register" and the "Monthly 
 Religious Magazine" and starring, mainly 
 in the New England firmament, in the 
 "Golden Age of the Lyceum." Some of 
 the subjects he treated were "Alfred the 
 Great," "St. Chrysostom," "Intellectual 
 Sincerity," "Complete Manhood," and 
 "Independence of Character." 
 
 In April, 1855, he was appointed 
 Preacher and Plummer Professor of 
 Christian Morals in Harvard University, 
 upon the distinct understanding of his 
 independency of denominational lines 
 and, September 5, was inducted in office, 
 saying in reply to President Walker's 
 inaugural sermon, "I wish to remember 
 and I beg you, sir, never to suffer me to 
 forget, that my special and elect business 
 here is to be a minister of Christ ; not of 
 nature-worship, which is idolatry, not of 
 pantheism, which is self-contradiction, 
 not of an ethical philosophy, which has 
 no Jesus for the embodiment and no cross 
 for its symbol." In August, Amherst 
 College, his alma mater, conferred upon 
 
 155 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 him the degree of Doctor of Sacred The- 
 ology. He received the same degree from 
 Columbia in 1887 and that of Doctor of 
 Letters from Syracuse University in 
 1889. Professor Huntington's incumbency 
 lasted for five years, with a charming 
 home and in intimate communion with his 
 colleagues whose names are illustrious in 
 science and letters — Agassiz, Peirce, Fel- 
 ton, Wyman, Child, Eliot (then a tutor) 
 and others, and with Longfellow, who had 
 resigned his chair, but was still living in 
 Cambridge. The period was one for him 
 of intense scholarly research and fruitful 
 yielding, his works having wide circula- 
 tion and warm appreciation, both at home 
 and abroad. Among his publications 
 mention may be made of "Unconscious 
 Tuition" — a text book for teachers ; "Di- 
 vine Aspects of Human Society" — the 
 Graham lectures in Brooklyn ; "Sermons 
 for the People" — mainly delivered before 
 his South Congregational charge ; and 
 "Christian Believing and Living" — the 
 revelation of his then (1859) evangelical 
 views. It was a period also of earnest 
 devotion to the ethical and spiritual weal 
 of the students — their character building 
 — and, in return of their love for him ; of 
 many addresses on ceremonial occasions, 
 before literary associations, at college 
 commencements and in lyceum courses, 
 his circuit now extending to the Middle 
 and Western States ; and of prominent 
 advocacy of Anti-Slavery principle with 
 special admiration for Charles Sumner and 
 pious indignation at the deadly assault 
 made upon him in the Senate chamber. 
 Throughout, he was a consistent seeker 
 of the truth, as already indicated, finding 
 it at last, to use his own words : 
 
 In the service of the Catholic Apostolic Church 
 — with her strength and stability, her beautiful 
 "Christian Year," her wonderful variety and 
 impressive adaptations, her fixed order, true 
 liberty and free conditions of Communion, her 
 
 gracious ordinances, constant appeal to Scrip- 
 ture and tasteful worship, her superior culture 
 of the spirit of reverence — the inmost spirit of 
 religion — the constant celebration of Christ, the 
 living Head of the Body, and His cross, her true 
 theory of the training up of the young in rela- 
 tions with the Church and looking to confirma- 
 tion as their own act, and her large, active, 
 zealous spirit of Missions reaching out among 
 the ignorant and poor. 
 
 Professor Huntington presented his 
 resignation to the Harvard Corporation, 
 January 19, i860, upon the ground of the 
 growth and extent of his differences in 
 religious opinion and faith from a major- 
 ity of those addressed by his preaching. 
 It was reluctantly accepted. Succeeding 
 his resignation, several tentative calls 
 from Episcopal parishes were tendered 
 him, but he heeded that of Emmanuel, 
 newly organized in the "Back Bay" region 
 of Boston, in view of his compliance ; and 
 took charge thereof, while yet in the 
 diaconate to which he was ordered Sep- 
 tember 12, being advanced to the priest- 
 hood, March 12, 1861. Follow, eight years 
 of a church prosperous materially and 
 spiritually, liberal in tone, seemly in wor- 
 ship, crowded in attendance, active in its 
 guilds, abundant in good works, authori- 
 tative in denominational affairs ; and of 
 a rector magnetic in his pulpit utterances, 
 revered by his flock, entrusted with im- 
 portant offices in the diocese, publishing 
 much in both the religious and secular 
 press — tracts and sermons and reflections 
 on current topics — editing hymnals and 
 the "Church Monthly," and modestly, yet 
 persuasively, inspiring and guiding pub- 
 lic sentiment in the supreme crisis of the 
 life of the nation. 
 
 His summons to the episcopate was 
 assured and not long delayed. Upon 
 the death of Bishop Burgess, of Maine, 
 Dr. Huntington was elected his successor 
 but declined, in that he held his field of 
 labor at the time of wider significance and 
 
 56 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 larger usefulness than that proffered him; 
 but upon the erection of the Diocese of 
 Central New York, he was preferred 
 therefor, and was consecrated its bishop 
 in Emmanuel Church, April 8, 1869, se- 
 lecting Syracuse as his See City, thus be- 
 coming a citizen of the Empire State. 
 
 The field was inviting, with its diversi- 
 fied scenery, its lakes, uplands and valleys, 
 suggesting Berkshire in the comparison, 
 its thriving cities and smiling villages, 
 its rich agricultural resources and busy 
 manufactories, its intelligence and enter- 
 prise, its splendid educational institutions 
 and charitable foundations, with the 
 church, of which he was to be a prelate 
 for thirty-five years already firmly estab- 
 lished under the superintendence of De- 
 Lancey and Coxe. Bishop Huntington 
 came to his diocese, at the age of fifty, 
 at the prime of his intellectual greatness 
 and spiritual power to freely give of them 
 as freely as they had been given him, for 
 the progress of the church and the weal of 
 the community. His dedication was as 
 complete as his labors were manifold and 
 exacting. They cannot here be fully de- 
 tailed. Generalization must suffice. In 
 business matters he was clear and me- 
 thodical ; in disposition, gentle and toler- 
 ant, but bold and unflinching when duty 
 constrained ; scrupulously attentive to 
 the needs of his charge, yet more solicit- 
 ous for its weaker than its stronger mem- 
 bers — the tenderer help responsive to the 
 harder straits. Not unmindful of the dig- 
 nity of his office, he was democratic in 
 bearing, restive of personal adulation ; 
 e. g., to a young clergyman who sought to 
 force him into an eminence that he re- 
 fused he said, "Your bishop, sir, is neither 
 a sage, nor a hero, but only an old servant 
 of the Master who, amid many humbling 
 limitations and many humiliating failures, 
 is doing what he can." His sermons in- 
 formed with characteristic grace and 
 
 finish also sustained a tone of fervor and 
 authority befitting his sacred office. His 
 pen throughout was engaged industri- 
 ously. He edited the "Gospel Messen- 
 ger," prepared a new hymnal, issued 
 many devotional tracts and even vol- 
 umes, was prolific in behalf of "Christian 
 Socialism," in contributions to news- 
 papers and magazines, editorials, and in 
 platform addresses that assumed book 
 form. He founded, under church au- 
 spices, the "House of the Good Shepherd," 
 which has become one of the best op- 
 pointed hospitals in Central New York; 
 and furthered the "Shelter" for neglected 
 girls, initiated by his son, the Rev. James. 
 He was largely instrumental in abolish- 
 ing the foul conditions at the Oneida 
 community and resolving it into an 
 honest and orderly industrial settlement. 
 Always anxious to rectify the wrongs 
 done to the Indians and to better their 
 social state, and prominent in the Mo- 
 hawk conferences, he bestowed great at- 
 tention upon the mission at the Onon- 
 daga Reservation, as, indeed, to all mis- 
 sions in his diocese. He cared affection- 
 ately for select schools within his juris- 
 diction — notably St. John's for Boys, in 
 Manlius, and Keble for Girls, in Syracuse, 
 both institutions of a high order; and 
 established and instructed in St. An- 
 drew's Divinity School. 
 
 And so, with labors unbroken, benefi- 
 cences unstinted and faculties unimpaired, 
 the years passed to the peaceful end. The 
 twenty-fifth anniversary of the consecra- 
 tion of Bishop Huntington was com- 
 memorated, April 8, 1894, by sermons ap- 
 propriate to the occasion in nearly all the 
 churches, and by most impressive exer- 
 cises in connection with the diocesan 
 convention in June, at Syracuse, in St. 
 Paul's, Bishop Coxe and Porter and Presi- 
 dent Potter, of Hobart, participating there- 
 in, and by an elaborate reception. In May, 
 
 157 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 1902, physical infirmities constrained him 
 to consent to the induction of an assis- 
 tant, and the Rev. Charles Tyler Olm- 
 sted, now the bishop, was consecrated as 
 coadjutor in October. In June, 1904, he 
 went as usual to Hadley, for the sum- 
 mer, in distinctly failing health and was 
 soon confined to his bed, following a sud- 
 den chill. He died as he would have 
 wished to die in the fragrant summer 
 days, in the homestead which his great- 
 grandfather had fashioned over one hun- 
 dred and fifty years previously. As related 
 in the affectionate and appreciative tribute 
 of his daughter ("Memoir and Letters of 
 Frederic Dan Huntington" by Arria S. 
 Huntington) on the morning of July II, 
 "when the commendatory prayers were 
 read in the quiet sick-room by the rector 
 of St. John's Church, the soul was very 
 near its release. All that day the sweet 
 breath from the new-mown hay was 
 wafted in at the open windows and the 
 sounds of homely toil in the fields could 
 be heard, but he, who had loved it all so 
 well, lay unconscious, as the tide of life 
 ebbed peacefully away. Before the sun 
 sank low in the west, that hour so often 
 dwelt upon by him with pathetic longing, 
 the light eternal shone upon his vision. 
 He was laid to rest beside his father and 
 mother, brothers and sisters, in the old 
 cemetery where ancestors for generations 
 had slept. There was no opportunity for 
 pomp and ceremonial in the simple coun- 
 try funeral, and it was what he would 
 have liked best." 
 
 His wife, born November 21, 1822, died 
 February 22, 1910. The children of their 
 union were: 1. George Putnam, born July 
 3, 1844, died July 11, 1904 — the same day 
 as his father; rector in Maiden and Ash- 
 field, Massachusetts, and Hanover, New 
 Hampshire ; also professor in Dartmouth. 
 2. Arria Sargent, born June 22, 1848; com- 
 missioner of education, Syracuse, 1898- 
 
 1904; author of "Under a Colonial Roof- 
 Tree," "Memoir and Letters of Frederic 
 Dan Huntington." 3. James Otis Sar- 
 gent, born July 23, 1854; Superior Order 
 of Holy Cross. 4. Ruth Greyson, born 
 November 5, 1859; married Archibald L. 
 Sessions. 5. Mary Lincoln, born Novem- 
 ber 21, 1861. 
 
 SEYMOUR, Horatio, 
 
 Statesman, GoTernor. 
 
 Horatio Seymour was born May 31, 
 1810, in Pompey Hill, Onondaga county, 
 and died in Utica, February 12, 1886, at 
 the residence of Senator Conkling, Mrs. 
 Conkling being the Governor's youngest 
 sister. His father was Henry Seymour, 
 canal commissioner, who removed from 
 Onondaga county to Utica in 1819. The 
 son received his primary education at 
 Oxford Academy, which by its merits 
 attracted pupils from the families of 
 prominence and wealth from many of the 
 central counties. He was prepared at Ox- 
 ford Academy for entrance into Hobart 
 College. There he studied two years. 
 He was next a student at the Military 
 Academy at Middletown, Connecticut, 
 where he had as fellow pupils relatives 
 and future associates of his public life. 
 In Utica he was a law student with 
 Greene C. Bronson and Samuel Beards- 
 ley, both prominent as publicists as well 
 as lawyers. Young Seymour became 
 military secretary to Governor Marcy, 
 thus taking his first step in Democratic 
 politics. He was elected to the Assembly 
 in 1841, and mayor of Utica in 1842, and 
 again to the Assembly in 1843 and 1844, 
 being made speaker in the latter year. 
 His notable career was as Governor of 
 the State, first chosen to that office in 
 1852, when he designated for private sec- 
 retary his brother, John F. Seymour, four 
 years younger than he, a graduate of 
 
 158 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Yale. The title of Governor clung to Mr. 
 Seymour from his first term even after 
 another was chosen over him for that 
 position. After he became a candidate 
 for President, he was still Governor in 
 common speech. 
 
 The Anti-Renters, it was charged, gave 
 the election to Washington Hunt in 1850 
 by three hundred and sixty plurality. The 
 tenants claimed to hold deeds from the 
 Van Rensselaer estate, and organized the 
 Heidelberg war to obtain their freedom 
 from charges for rent. In 1852 the courts 
 gave final judgment in favor of the 
 tenants. He was again elected Governor 
 in 1862, but the war for the Union came 
 on and his party went into minority. He 
 did not become a "War Democrat," 
 although he was loyal, while not approv- 
 ing of all the acts of the Lincoln adminis- 
 tration. In 1863 riots occurred, and in 
 New York City one thousand persons 
 were killed and the Colored Orphan 
 Asylum was destroyed. Governor Sey- 
 mour held that the number of soldiers 
 called for from this State was in excess of 
 its fair quota. He went to New York 
 City with intent to secure order and 
 peace, and addressed the mob for that 
 purpose. As his custom was, he began 
 his speech by the words, "My Friends," 
 and was bitterly assailed for doing so. 
 His supporters, familiar with his courtesy 
 of manner, repelled the criticism, but he 
 felt that a taint of odium was cast upon 
 him from a technical lapse. To meet the 
 call for troops and to avoid or mitigate 
 the draft locally, in Oneida county as 
 elsewhere, county bonds were issued to 
 raise funds. Governor Seymour was 
 made chairman of the citizens' commit- 
 tee in charge, and these bonds were made 
 payable to his order, and thus they had 
 to be endorsed by him ; but nobody 
 thought it conceivable that demand would 
 be made on him for payment. Yet as a 
 
 matter of law he was liable. With justi- 
 fiable precaution he affixed to his endorse- 
 ment the limitation "without recourse," 
 thus guarding against any crank prosecu- 
 tion. The result has proved that the pre- 
 caution was insurance superabundant. 
 
 Moses Seymour, grandfather of Horatio, 
 was a soldier in the Revolution, and was 
 active at Saratoga, where Burgoyne sur- 
 rendered ; he also served two terms in 
 the United States Senate, representing 
 Vermont. Cousins served in Congress 
 and as Justices of the Supreme Court. 
 One cousin was Governor of Connecticut 
 and United States Minister to Russia in 
 1854, when Andrew D. White, then re- 
 cently graduated from Yale, began on the 
 staff of the Embassy his long and honor- 
 able diplomatic career. 
 
 When Henry Seymour removed to 
 Utica, he made his home on the north- 
 west corner of Whitesboro and Seneca 
 streets, then the center of a residential 
 district of old-time inhabitants. The 
 house was of brick, two stories, well built 
 of approved architecture. A broad hall 
 ran from south to north, leading to a well 
 cultivated garden which extended to the 
 line of Water street. Hither came Horatio, 
 a lad in his tenth year, and here he and 
 his family lived during his active career 
 as Governor. Hither he brought as his 
 bride, Mary Bleecker, daughter of John 
 H. Bleecker, of Albany, and here they 
 entertained liberally and most gracefully 
 friends and strangers, all sorts and condi- 
 tions of people, while life left them op- 
 portunity. The house remains as a land- 
 mark in the twentieth century. 
 
 Hither Henry Seymour brought his 
 wife, who was Mary Ledyard Forman, 
 the mother of six children — two sons: 
 Horatio and John F. ; and four daugh- 
 ters: Mrs. Rutgers B. Miller; Mrs. Shon- 
 nard, of Yonkers ; Mrs. Ledyard Linck- 
 laen, of Cazenovia, and Mrs. Roscoe 
 
 159 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Conkling. The mother's influence was, 
 if not an object for sight or measure, 
 vitalizing, pervading, controlling, outlast- 
 ing time and the vicissitudes of fortune. 
 
 Governor Seymour, like Washington, 
 had no children, but here he lived with 
 his rural domicile in Marcy from his 
 tenth year until his final summons. 
 Horatio was not a robust lad. Pulmonary 
 weakness was detected when he was 
 about twenty years old ; he met it bravely 
 with a treatment a generation or more in 
 advance of medical theories and practice. 
 His keen observation of nature and the 
 effects of winter led him, with a single 
 guide, to camp in the extreme north of 
 Oneida county, on the edge of the Adi- 
 rondacks. The balsamic perfume of the 
 woods, under the pressure of frost below 
 zero, proved better than all the drugs of 
 the pharmacopoeia. He gained vigorous 
 health, and his body was for half a cen- 
 tury a model of symmetry and masculine 
 strength. In his maturity his stature 
 was an inch or two over six feet, his 
 weight one hundred and eighty-five 
 pounds, his brow broad as well as high, 
 his hair glossy black and abundant, his 
 nose well formed, his chin formed square 
 with corners rounded to express a mel- 
 lowness of generous culture and sincere 
 compassion. His lips appeared ready to 
 speak to any person he met, with eyes 
 rather gripping than piercing. In every 
 circle of men or women, by any artistic 
 test, he was classed as a handsome man. 
 
 By inheritance, Horatio Seymour was 
 the devoted champion of the canals. The 
 waterways of his own State stood first 
 in his mind. With his brother, John F., 
 he gave earnest attention to the canal 
 Sault Ste. Marie, which, with far fore- 
 thought, he counted on as a rich tributary 
 to the New York system. His grand- 
 father was a member of the board of 
 canal commissioners in the formative 
 
 period, and he never forgot that his father 
 had been an active and efficient member 
 of this board under Governor DeWitt 
 Clinton, while his mother held all the 
 Forman traditions about New York's 
 waterways. 
 
 In his first term, Governor Seymour 
 favored military training in drill and tac- 
 tics in the high schools and the agricul- 
 tural schools, with other methods now 
 called in Washington diction by the awk- 
 ward word "preparedness." His aim was 
 to bring out select young men to help the 
 State to get ready for national defense 
 and thus for enduring peace. 
 
 While Governor Seymour was kept in 
 Albany by official business, he was con- 
 spicuous in the social life of the capital, 
 and was welcomed as an esteemed guest 
 in the homes of the leading families, in- 
 cluding the Dutch descendants and the 
 landholders. 
 
 In 1820 the State had a population of 
 only 1,372,812, while the United States 
 numbered 9,632,722 ; yet New York then 
 and ever since has been styled the Em- 
 pire State. Now New York approaches 
 10,000,000, while the Union exceeds 100,- 
 000,000. From his porch on the Marcy 
 hills, Seymour with modest self-gratula- 
 tion might well look down on the abun- 
 dant activities of the Mohawk Valley 
 with its share of the world's transporta- 
 tions, the proof of expanded agriculture, 
 industry, education, wealth and all human 
 development, and turning back to the 
 Indian trails, which, as a boy he studied 
 wondetingly, now reflect, "My study, 
 thought, labor have served New York 
 and the Republic, all my fellow citizens 
 with blessings which the future will re- 
 count and enjoy." 
 
 The impetus of the Erie canal struck 
 more than the territory through which 
 waters were to flow from the lakes to the 
 Hudson. Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wis- 
 
 160 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 consin moved forward anew. The canal 
 Sault Ste. Marie, the "Soo Canal" to 
 which Governor Seymour and his brother 
 gave attention and energy, became a rich 
 tributary to the New York system, and 
 astonished shippers by floating more ves- 
 sels and carrying more tons of freight 
 than the famous Suez canal, linking 
 Europe with the Orient. 
 
 Rural life was a joy and delight to him. 
 The open air, the sky with the changing 
 cloud, were constant subjects of study 
 and reflection. He took pleasure as a 
 hunter, and was familiar with the Adiron- 
 dacks and the wilderness of the far north- 
 west, where he was not a stranger. 
 
 His study of the geography and topog- 
 raphy of the State opened his eyes to the 
 rare natural attractions of this section. 
 On the heights south of Utica, where as 
 a boy and young man he had tramped, so 
 well known to him as Steele's Hill, now 
 the crown of the much valued park, his 
 classical studies and skill as a surveyor 
 taught him that the lay of the land copied 
 the Grecian scene where the Parthenon 
 and the charming Temple of Winged Vic- 
 tory look down in the Athens of Peri- 
 cles and Socrates and their associates. 
 Why could not a modern Athens grow 
 up here for a renewal of poetry and 
 philosophy? But he was not a dreamer! 
 He was a practical American patriot of 
 his own time. Governor Seymour had 
 love and pride for Utica as the Gem City 
 of central counties. 
 
 He acted for many years as warden of 
 Old Trinity Church, the original church 
 of that denomination, and often was 
 chosen delegate to the diocesan and gen- 
 eral conventions, and was regarded by 
 clergy and laity as a pillar and ornament 
 of the Episcopal church for the long 
 decades he remained on the earth. As 
 trustee of Hamilton College for several 
 decades, he promoted the solidity and ad- 
 N Y_Vol u— u 
 
 vance of higher education in all this 
 region. 
 
 The election of Myron H. Clark over 
 Seymour in 1854 by a plurality of four 
 hundred and nine, was the direct result 
 of the veto by Seymour of a drastic pro- 
 hibition statute. His objections were that 
 its provisions impaired personal liberty 
 and confiscated property without due 
 process of law. The Court of Appeals in 
 1872 sustained those contentions so that 
 the advocates of prohibition devised new 
 lines of action. The Governor was grieved 
 because the churches, as well as the 
 "Drys," were arrayed against him,, while 
 the breweries, the saloons and the "Wets" 
 were loud in his favor. 
 
 Governor Seymour was intensely inter- 
 ested in the dairy production. To pro- 
 mote the welfare of the millions of people 
 maintaining it, he advised the govern- 
 ment at Washington to include cheese in 
 the army rations. He urged the measure 
 on the ground that the food for the sol- 
 diers would cost less while their health 
 would be improved. 
 
 Official records in Washington prove 
 that in 1862 Simon Cameron, high in the 
 councils of the Lincoln administration, 
 was impressed by a plot, conceived in 
 rebel brains, to bring about the seizure 
 and removal of President Lincoln from 
 the White House. For security the Gov- 
 ernors of the loyal States, including Gov- 
 ernor Seymour of New York, were called 
 to confer in Washington. Governor Sey- 
 mour believed such a conspiracy existed, 
 but it proved to be without explosive 
 power. 
 
 Much bitter feeling had been aroused 
 by charges that the street railways in 
 New York City had been and still were 
 manipulated in the interest of the Seward 
 faction, and scandal grew out of the con- 
 ditions. The commission proposed, it 
 was alleged, was to run on the same 
 161 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 tracks, and on that basis the hostility to 
 the project was active and intense, and 
 struck at Judge Denio as a candidate for 
 renomination. 
 
 Governor Seymour did not accept such 
 belief, and had full faith in the worth and 
 judgment of Judge Denio and urged his 
 renomination as an independent, trust- 
 worthy magistrate. The Governor's brief 
 speech mastered the convention and beat 
 down the opposition. 
 
 The census of 1870 records, 4,381,759 
 people in New York and 38,856,511 in the 
 Union. That was the nation for which 
 Seymour, against his will, was made by 
 the Democratic Convention for the presi- 
 dency candidate, while he was advocating 
 the nomination of Salmon P. Chase to win 
 over radical support. Democrats there 
 are still who charge that Seymour was 
 acting the part of Caesar who, on the 
 Lupercal, pushed away the Roman Em- 
 pire for which he was plotting. The bet- 
 ter spinion is that Tilden intrigued to 
 prevent the nomination of anyone else in 
 the hope that he himself might grasp it. 
 Seymour deemed that his acceptance of 
 the nomination was the grievous mistake 
 of his life. 
 
 His eulogist recites many offers to high 
 positions which Governor Seymour de- 
 clined, but they do not affect his char- 
 acter or his reputation, and the record 
 may pass them by as the shadows of 
 what might have been. Governor Sey- 
 mour was no Caesar ; he was a plain citi- 
 zen. The campaign of McClellan in 1864, 
 the Greeley fiasco in 1872, do not prove 
 the lack of wisdom of the unwilling Dem- 
 ocratic candidate in 1868. 
 
 Governor Seymour was blessed in his 
 marriage, in the social connections which 
 were part of the joys of his life, in the 
 handsome share of the world's goods, 
 added to his fortune, and more than all, in 
 the precious companionship, which for a 
 
 round half-century, illuminated his home, 
 and his career of service and good will to 
 the community. His wife was a brilliant 
 hostess, greeting and entertaining all 
 classes with native grace and hospitality, 
 and rendering the Seymour homestead 
 complete and admirable for the New 
 Yorker of first rank and merit. 
 
 Death gave Governor Seymour long 
 warning of his approach. An effusion of 
 blood on the brain, due to sunstroke, had 
 an effect which the sharp eyes of affec- 
 tion detected. He went to the home of 
 his youngest sister, Mrs. Conkling, and 
 was ready for the final summons in Feb- 
 ruary, 1886, and his wife followed four- 
 teen days later. They were buried from 
 the same church in the same grave, and 
 gave their bodies to the soil of the Em- 
 pire State, and their souls to its chronicles 
 and its glory. Ellis Henry Roberts. 
 
 MORGAN, Edwin D., 
 
 Capitalist, Philanthropist, Statesman. 
 
 Edwin Dennison Morgan, the twenty- 
 first chief executive of the State of New 
 York, and supremely distinguished for his 
 patriotic service as "war governor," was 
 born at Washington, in the mountain 
 region of western Massachusetts, Febru- 
 ary 8, 181 1. He was the son of Jasper 
 and Catherine (Copp-Avery) Morgan, 
 grandson of William Avery and Lydia 
 (Smith) Morgan, and a descendant of 
 James and Marjory (Hill) Morgan — New 
 London, 1650. He removed with his par- 
 ents, in childhood, to Windsor, Connecti- 
 cut, where he worked on the farm and 
 attended the Free Academy ; and, in 1826, 
 pursued his studies in Bacon Academy, 
 Colchester. He became a clerk in the 
 wholesale grocery store of his uncle, Na- 
 than Morgan, in Hartford, in 1828, and 
 was admitted into partnership, in 1831. 
 Early interested in local affairs, he was a 
 
 162 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 member of the Hartford common council 
 in 1832. He married, August 19, 1833, 
 Eliza Matilda, daughter of Captain Henry 
 and Lydia (Morgan) Waterman, of Hart- 
 ford ; and, three years later, established 
 himself in New York City on a larger 
 scale, in the same line of business that he 
 had conducted in Connecticut. Sagacious 
 and enterprising in his undertakings and 
 honorable in his dealings, he was notably 
 successful, from the start, accumulated a 
 fortune and, in a few years, was 
 accounted "a merchant prince" in the 
 land. 
 
 He was of princely port as well — stately 
 in stature, stalwart of frame, with a coun- 
 tenance every lineament of which was 
 stamped with power. He was an impres- 
 sive figure in whatever movement he was 
 associated — commercial, social or politi- 
 cal — to whom his fellow-citizens looked 
 for leadership and upon whom they natu- 
 rally bestowed preferment. To the vindi- 
 cation of the political principles he pro- 
 fessed, he gave freely of his time, energies 
 and means. He was at the first a Whig 
 and, as such served as an alderman in 
 1849, and as a state senator, 1850-54. He 
 was in no sense an orator — even in con- 
 versation a man of few words, sententious 
 and weighty. He was, however, of such 
 clear judgment, business ability and 
 strong character as to make him especi- 
 ally efficient and influential as a legisla- 
 tor. Incidentally, he was Commissioner 
 of Emigration, 1855-59. As slavery or 
 freedom in the territories became the 
 burning issue between the North and 
 South, involving the dissolution of the 
 Whig, the rupture of the Democratic and 
 the constitution of the Republican par- 
 ties, Morgan promptly identified himself 
 with the last-named, was distinctly one of 
 its founders and an earnest promoter of its 
 vital principle. He was vice-president of 
 the Republican National Convention of 
 
 1856 and chairman of the Republican Na- 
 tional Committee from 1856 until 1864, 
 prominent and persuasive, therefore, in 
 the management of three memorable na- 
 tional political campaigns. 
 
 In 1858, Morgan was the Republican 
 nominee for governor, receiving at the 
 polls 247,953 votes, Amasa J. Parker 
 (Democrat) 230,513, and Lorenzo Bur- 
 rows (American) 60,880. He was re- 
 elected by an overwhelming majority, in 
 i860, with 358,272 in his favor to 294,812 
 for William Kelly (Douglas Democrat) 
 and 19,841 for James T. Brady (Breckin- 
 ridge). 
 
 Governor Morgan made an admirable 
 record as a financial administrator, guard- 
 ing the departments from extravagance, 
 reducing the public debt, increasing the 
 canal revenues and conserving the credit 
 of the State, despite the extraordinary 
 war expenditures during his second term. 
 History writes with glowing pen of the 
 heroic services to the Union cause of four 
 northern executives — Andrew, Curtin, 
 Morton and Morgan — and certainly not 
 the least of these were those of Morgan 
 as chief magistrate of the richest and 
 most populous State. In inspiring Union 
 sentiment; in the enlistment, quartering 
 and provisioning of troops, in furthering 
 liberal appropriations for their benefit by 
 the legislature, in placing the metropolis 
 in a state of defence, and in meeting all 
 requisitions of the President for the na- 
 tional defence, he bore a conspicuously 
 helpful part ; and to the equipment of 
 New York soldiers of whom 223,000 went 
 to the front during his incumbency, and 
 the relief of their families, he personally 
 contributed large sums. He was appointed 
 a major-general of volunteers, assigned to 
 the command of the Federal Military De- 
 partment of the State, refusing pay for his 
 services in this regard. He was elected 
 to the United States Senate, February 5, 
 
 63 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 1863, for the term ending March 4, 1869, 
 and served the country honorably and 
 efficiently throughout. He was temporary 
 chairman of the Republican National Con- 
 vention at Baltimore, in 1864, which re- 
 nominated Lincoln. In 1865, he declined 
 the portfolio of the treasury tendered him 
 by the President. He was a delegate to 
 the Loyalists Convention in 1866 at Phil- 
 adelphia. He was a candidate for reelec- 
 tion to the Senate in 1869; but, after a 
 spirited canvass, ominous of the factional 
 strife in the Republican party, soon to 
 become virulent, he was defeated by Gov- 
 ernor Fenton who secured the Republican 
 caucus nomination, by a slight majority, 
 and consequently the election. An earn- 
 est supporter of President Grant, he was 
 chairman of the Republican National Con- 
 vention in 1872, and was active in the 
 campaign that resulted in Grant's reelec- 
 tion. In 1876, he was once more the Re- 
 publican candidate for Governor ; but Til- 
 den's reform administration and his nomi- 
 nation carried the day for the Democracy 
 in New York and Morgan with the entire 
 Republican ticket was beaten. He de- 
 clined the secretaryship of the treasury 
 in President Arthur's cabinet in 1881, the 
 second offer of that portfolio being re- 
 newed evidence of the high esteem in 
 which his financial ability was held. 
 
 The last two years of his life were 
 passed quietly, in declining health, and he 
 died in his home in New York City, Feb- 
 ruary 14, 1883, having just completed his 
 seventy-second year. He gave more than 
 $200,000 to the LTnion Theological Semin- 
 ary and to Williams College library build- 
 ings and to the latter institution $100,000 
 for a dormitory. His philanthropic be- 
 quests totalled $795,000; and his estate 
 was estimated at millions. He received 
 the degree of Doctor of Laws from Wil- 
 liams in 1887, and was a trustee of Cornell 
 University from 1865 until 1869. 
 
 JEWETT, Freeborn G., 
 
 Jurist. 
 
 Freeborn G. Jewett, eminent as a jur- 
 ist and honorable in all the relations of 
 life, was born in Sharon, Connecticut, in 
 1 791, and received such advantages of 
 education as the common schools of New 
 England, already of a high order of effi- 
 ciency, afforded. He began the study of 
 lawwith Henry Swift, of Dutchess county, 
 and completed it with Colonel Samuel 
 Young, of Ballston, than whom there was 
 no abler preceptor. He was admitted as 
 an attorney in 1814 and as a counselor-at- 
 law in 1817. The former year saw him 
 settled in the fair village of Skaneateles. 
 There in due time he married, reared 
 children, and erected on its principal 
 street a stately mansion, still one of the 
 "show places" of the town, the home since 
 the death of Judge Marvin (q. v. Marvin 
 sketch) of Major-General Marshall I. 
 Ludington, quartermaster-general of the 
 United States Army, now retired, who 
 married a daughter of Judge Marvin. 
 Judge Jewett practiced at first in partner- 
 ship with the Hon. James Porter, repre- 
 sentative in the Fifteenth Congress, and 
 subsequently alone. His recognition was 
 immediate, and success in his profession 
 assured. Politically he was a Republican 
 and in succession a Democrat, to which 
 party he steadfastly adhered. 
 
 In 1815, he was appointed Master in 
 Chancery by Governor Tompkins ; and, 
 in 1817, was elected a justice of the peace 
 for the then town of Marcellus, which 
 office he held for about six years. It was 
 then a position of considerable political 
 influence and not without import as a 
 stepping stone to judicial promotion, 
 which young lawyers, who afterward at- 
 tained distinction, did not disdain to util- 
 ize. Judge Jewett was appointed an Ex- 
 aminer in Chancery in 1822 by Governor 
 
 64 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 DeWitt Clinton and was retained as such 
 by Governors Yates and Throop. In 1824, 
 he was appointed Surrogate of Onondaga 
 county by Governor Clinton and again in 
 1827 to the same office by Governor 
 Yates. In 1825 he was elected to the 
 Assembly, leading his ticket in the 
 county; and in 1828 was chosen a presi- 
 dential elector, casting his vote in the 
 college for Andrew Jackson. He was 
 elected in 1830 a representative in the 
 Twenty-second Congress, serving but a 
 single term, the brief tenure not sufficing 
 for a prominent legislative reputation ; 
 and he declined a renomination, in 1832, 
 preferring to devote himself exclusively 
 to the pursuit of his profession. In 1832, 
 he was admitted as an attorney and coun- 
 selor in the Supreme Court of the United 
 States. In 1836 he was appointed by 
 Governor Marcy a Supreme Court Com- 
 missioner for the County of Onondaga 
 and again in 1838; and also one of the 
 Inspectors of the State Prison at Auburn. 
 He was appointed March 5, 1845, by 
 Governor Wright, an Associate Justice of 
 the Supreme Court and so held until the 
 creation of an elective State judiciary by 
 the Constitution of 1846, when he was 
 elected June 2, 1847, an Associate Judge 
 for a term of two years and reelected for 
 a full term, November 6, 1849, serving as 
 Chief Judge from July, 1847, until Janu- 
 ary, 1850. In consequence of the inroads 
 of the disease, which terminated his life, 
 some five years later, he resigned his seat 
 upon the bench, June 23, 1853. 
 
 The few years remaining to him were 
 spent as an invalid in his beautiful home, 
 attended by the respect and affection of 
 his neighbors, who were justly proud of 
 their fellow citizen, who had withal been 
 proud of the village and had devoted 
 much of his thought and time to its 
 progress and embellishment. By his own 
 energies and merit he had risen, if not to 
 
 the highest political station, to the most 
 dignified and commanding preferment in 
 the Empire State. In every place he had 
 been equal to its most exacting require- 
 ments and as a jurist had held an exalted 
 rank. In his opinions, he had exhibited 
 signal capacity in learning, soundness and 
 discretion, and was the master of a pure 
 and vigorous diction ; as a man he had 
 been honorable ; as a citizen sagacious 
 and enterprising; as a politician patriotic 
 and honest ; as a friend helpful and trust- 
 worthy ; and had accumulated a more 
 than competent estate. He died January 
 27, 1858, aged sixty-seven years. 
 
 JENKINS, John S., 
 
 Journalist, Historian. 
 
 John Stillwell Jenkins, although no 
 longer of extended popular repute as an 
 author, was in his day a valuable and 
 trustworthy chronicler of State and na- 
 tional history. Dying in early manhood, 
 before he had secured enduring recogni- 
 tion, he yet gave promise of rich fruition, 
 is still authoritative as a historian and 
 biographer and deserves an honorable, if 
 not an exalted, place among the literati 
 of the State. He was born in Albany, 
 February 15, 1818, and entered Hamilton 
 College, from Clyde, in the class of 1838. 
 In college, which he left about the middle 
 of the course, he attracted attention as 
 a writer and speaker, winning the prize 
 for declamation in his sophomore year, 
 and was highly regarded by both the fac- 
 ulty and his fellow-students. He studied 
 law, was admitted to the bar in 1842 and 
 began practice in Weedsport, where, and 
 in Auburn, he made his home until his 
 death. He was soon, however, diverted 
 from the profession by the call of jour- 
 nalism, for which he was abundantly 
 equipped — far better than the majority 
 of the rural editors of his day ; and he 
 
 165 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 conducted the Cayuga "Times," for 
 several years, making it an influential 
 organ of public opinion. 
 
 But his studies led him into the field 
 of historical composition at a time 
 when few competent laborers engaged in, 
 and fewer still adorned, it. Assiduous 
 and discriminating in the gathering of 
 data, facile with his pen, and generally 
 judicious in his estimates, volume after 
 volume appeared in rapid succession. 
 His bibliography is as follows: "Generals 
 of the Last War with Great Britain" 
 (1841) ; Abridgment of Hammond's "Po- 
 litical History of New York" (1846); 
 "History of Political Parties of New 
 York" (1846) ; "Life of Silas Wright" 
 (1846); "History of the Mexican War" 
 (1848) ; "Narrative of the Exploring Ex- 
 pedition commanded by Captain Charles 
 Wilkes" (1850) ; "Lives of the Governors 
 of the State of New York" — from George 
 Clinton to Hamilton Fish (1851) ; "Life 
 and Public Services of Andrew Jackson" 
 (1851) ; "James K. Polk and History of 
 his Administration" (1851) ; "Heroines 
 of History" (1853) ; "Life of Calhoun" 
 (1855) ; "Daring Deeds of American 
 Generals" (1858) ; the last three named 
 published posthumously. 
 
 All of Jenkins's works, although their 
 style is somewhat florid, with a redun- 
 dancy of classical quotations and compari- 
 sons, which doubtless had he been spared 
 for further intellectual labors, the after 
 years would have chastened, still stand 
 as diligent and informing studies, correct 
 in facts and judicious in estimates of 
 characters and careers, with an inclina- 
 tion to exalt the Democatic leaders of 
 his day — perhaps, not unduly — without, 
 however, unfair reflections upon their 
 Federalist and Whig opponents, whose 
 merits and services he also brought into 
 bold relief. They are still, although not 
 of popular vogue, valuable reference vol- 
 
 umes, are on the shelves of the best libra- 
 ries, and are regarded as authoritative by 
 historical students. The one most widely 
 known, to-day, is the "Lives of the Gov- 
 ernors." An appreciative sketch of the 
 author is included in Appleton's "Cyclo- 
 pedia of American Biography." His life 
 was ended when his faculties were at 
 their brightest. What he might further 
 have achieved, had opportunity permitted, 
 is, of course, conjectural. He died at 
 Weedsport, September 20, 1852, at the 
 age of thirty-four. 
 
 MARVIN, William, 
 
 Jurist, Senator. 
 
 William Marvin was born at Fairfield, 
 Herkimer county, April 14, 1808. His 
 father was Selden Marvin and his mother 
 Charlotte Pratt, of Saybrook, Connecti- 
 cut. He was a lineal descendant of Rein- 
 old Marvin, who came from England to 
 Lyme, Connecticut, in 1633. When he 
 was an infant, his parents moved to Dry- 
 den, Tompkins county, and there he grew 
 to manhood. His preliminary education 
 was obtained in the district school of the 
 place, and at the age of fifteen years he 
 became the teacher of the same. After 
 some three years in this capacity he went 
 hunting for a school, with a few dollars 
 in his purse and a new suit of clothes on 
 his person, bringing up, after some stage 
 conveyance and much tramping, at Blan- 
 denburgh, near Washington, D. C, where 
 he procured a school and succeeded fairly 
 well, obtaining some thirty pupils, seeing 
 meanwhile something of the national 
 capital, and shaking hands with Presi- 
 dent John Quincy Adams, General Scott 
 and other notables. 
 
 Returning to the North, after some 
 three years experience in and liking for 
 southern life, he studied law and was ad- 
 mitted to the bar of this State in 1833. 
 
 166 
 

 **5* 
 
 Scml £>.nillj 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Two years subsequently, he settled in the 
 far south, for the practice of his profes- 
 sion, at Key West, Florida, which was 
 his home for twenty-six years thereafter; 
 and was soon appointed, by President 
 Jackson, United States district-attorney 
 for the South District of Florida. A few 
 years later, President Van Buren com- 
 missioned him as United States District 
 Judge (territorial) ; and when Florida 
 was admitted into the Union (1845) 
 President Polk made him United States 
 Judge of the State, which position he held 
 until 1863, when ill health caused him to 
 resign. His judicial record was an ex- 
 cellent one and through all the trials of 
 the first part of the Civil War, Judge 
 Marvin maintained a Union Court in the 
 midst of a rebellious people. The State 
 had seceded, but the flag of the republic 
 floated over his temple of justice. In 
 1863, he came north, but in 1865 was sent 
 back to Florida by President Johnson as 
 provisional governor, and, during the six 
 months of his incumbency he materially 
 aided in the reconstruction of the State 
 government. Then followed the carpet- 
 bag regime, during which he resolutely 
 opposed the ballot for the colored race. 
 He was elected United States Senator by 
 the whites, but, because the blacks had 
 not been permitted to vote, another elec- 
 tion was ordered, the Judge declining to 
 be a candidate. 
 
 In 1846, he had married Harriet N. 
 Foote, of Cooperstown, who died within 
 a few years. In 1867, he married Mrs. 
 Eliza Riddle Jewett, the widow of a son 
 of Judge Freeborn G. Jewett (q. v. Jewett 
 sketch) and shortly after moved to Skane- 
 ateles, occupying the Jewett homestead 
 until his death. For thirty-five years he 
 was honored and revered by the citizens 
 of the village, the "best loved man in 
 Skaneateles" says his biographer (Les- 
 lie's "Skaneateles") "a jurist of distinc- 
 
 tion, a churchman of devout faith, a stu- 
 dent of history and theology, interested 
 in public affairs, a good citizen, a party 
 man, yet one who put his sense of duty 
 so far above party that after voting for 
 every Democratic candidate for president 
 from Jackson to Cleveland, he disavowed 
 Bryan," voting twice for McKinley. Even 
 as a nonogenarian, his mind was uncloud- 
 ed to the last, and his reminiscences of the 
 great men with whom he had associated 
 were singularly vivid and entertaining. 
 His wife died in 1901 ; but he remained a 
 year longer physically, as well as intellec- 
 tually, vigorous, until an attack of pneu- 
 monia, ended his valuable life July 9, 1902, 
 some three months succeeding his ninety- 
 fourth birthday. 
 
 SMITH, Gerrit, 
 
 Orator, Reformer, Philanthropist. 
 
 The ancestors of Gerrit Smith, great 
 reformer and philanthropist, were Hol- 
 landers, the American branch of the fam- 
 ily settling in Greenbush, Rockland coun- 
 ty, where his father, Peter Smith, was 
 born, November 15, 1768. After a mer- 
 cantile clerkship, a partnership with John 
 Jacob Astor, in New York City, and the 
 acquirement of a considerable fortune in 
 the fur trade, he made immense invest- 
 ments in real estate, mainly in Central 
 New York, becoming the largest land- 
 owner in the State, his holdings being 
 estimated at over a half million acres. 
 Succeeding residences at Utica and else- 
 where, he laid out and named the village 
 of Peterboro and the town of Smithfield, 
 where he erected his mansion, became 
 the magnate of the section, and served 
 as county judge from 1807 until 1823. 
 He married, February 5, 1792, Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Colonel James Livingston, of 
 Montgomery county, and a second cousin 
 of the chancellor. Their second son, Ger- 
 rit, was born in Utica, March 6, 1797. 
 
 167 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Gerrit's education was pursued in the 
 academy and at Hamilton College in Clin- 
 ton. He was graduated from the college 
 with the valedictory oration in 1818. "As 
 a youth," says Frothingham, "he was re- 
 markably handsome in person. His man- 
 ners were open, his bearing was cordial, 
 his action graceful and winning. His 
 popularity was universal and the social 
 turn of his disposition carried him into 
 the games, entertainments, collegiate and 
 extra-collegiate amusements of his com- 
 panions. He was gay and sportive, but 
 never vicious, or in the vulgar sense 
 'wild.' He was an innocent, joyous youth, 
 not averse to noisy but harmless pranks, 
 having no prejudices against a game of 
 cards, but rather a passion for them. He 
 himself records, 'it was my unhappiness 
 and wickedness to belong to a club of 
 card players ;' his nickname was 'Old 
 Mariner, and that he played cards for 
 stakes on Sunday.' * * * The son of a 
 rich man, he dressed carefully, lived well, 
 and was becomingly free in expense ; but 
 it is not in the memory of his mates that 
 he spent money in harmful dissipation of 
 any kind." While in college he wore the 
 "broad Byron collar," turned over the col- 
 lar of his coat, and he did so to the end of 
 his life — a peculiarity that few men could 
 have carried through all the changes of 
 fashions in men's dress, without exciting 
 derision or caricature, but which seemed 
 fitting to the grandeur of his form and 
 bearing and the nobility of his face and 
 head. He was twice married, first, in Jan- 
 uary, 1819, to Wealthy Ann, only daugh- 
 ter of Dr. Azel Backus, first president 
 of Hamilton College, who died seven 
 months thereafter ; and, second, in Janu- 
 ary, 1829, to Ann Carroll, daughter of 
 Colonel William Fitzhugh, then of Liv- 
 ingston county, with whom he lived con- 
 genially and happily to the end. 
 
 He designed to enter the legal profes- 
 
 sion, but domestic events changed his 
 career. His mother died the day after 
 his graduation, and that loss and sorrow 
 broke the spirit and heart of his father. 
 The following year, when Gerrit was 
 twenty-two years of age, his father turned 
 over to him, the favorite, trusted son, his 
 whole estate, real and personal, amount- 
 ing to about $400,000 — a princely fortune 
 for the day — a portion of it in trust to be 
 applied by him as directed. That de- 
 termined the career of this brave, ac- 
 complished, genial, handsome, ambitious 
 young man. He was thenceforth to be 
 a man of business, bound to the cares of 
 a great estate and the management of 
 vast and important affairs. And right 
 royally did he justify his father's faith in 
 his integrity — for every trust was faith- 
 fully, even generously, executed — and the 
 faith, as well, in his business ability, for 
 he became one of the most sagacious and 
 ablest business men in the country ; and 
 he never was guilty of making and en- 
 forcing a hard bargain upon the plea, 
 "this is business." He made large sums 
 of money and, as the world knows, gave 
 magnificently, not in ways to gain per- 
 sonal honor, but to help the needy and 
 suffering, white and black, the hungry of 
 all lands, to charities of all sorts, to edu- 
 cational institutions, to temperance re- 
 form, to the ballot for women, but, above 
 all, to the cause of freedom for the slave. 
 Such an example of business ability and 
 benevolence combined was in his day un- 
 paralleled. Possibly that example has 
 been one of the most productive results 
 of his life, wrought out in lives influ- 
 enced by him. 
 
 Gerrit Smith, at an early period, was 
 not without political ambition. The high- 
 est honors were within his reasonable 
 hope. His great wealth, his splendid 
 talents, his grand presence, made him 
 prominent at the outset. He was viewed 
 168 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 as a "bright, particular star" in the politi- 
 cal firmament. In 1824 he first partici- 
 pated in general politics, attending the 
 State convention which nominated De- 
 Witt Clinton for his third term as Gov- 
 ernor. In 1828 he was a member of the 
 convention to nominate presidential elec- 
 tors favorable to the reelection of Adams 
 and wrote its address. In 1831 he was an 
 unsuccessful candidate for the State Sen- 
 ate. Had he remained in politics, affili- 
 ated with the Whigs, there was no prefer- 
 ment that would not been bestowed upon 
 him gladly, but he relinquished political 
 ambition to devote himself to the emanci- 
 pation of the slave — a cause then in its 
 incipiency, only a small band of earnest 
 agitators — "fanatics," as they were called 
 — being enlisted in its behalf. He had, 
 for a time, been associated with the 
 American Colonization Society and con- 
 tributed largely to its support, but with- 
 drew from it, November 24, 1835, declar- 
 ing that he was brought to this determi- 
 nation, earlier than he expected, by the 
 recent increase of his interest in the 
 American Anti-Slavery Society, this step 
 being materially induced by certain dra- 
 matic incidents preceding it. 
 
 In the fall of 1831 a meeting of the 
 friends of the slave in the Baptist church 
 in Syracuse, at which Gerrit Smith was 
 present, was violently assailed by a mob 
 and obliged to repair to Fayetteville to 
 finish its business. An anti-slavery con- 
 vention to form a State society was held 
 at Utica, October 31, 1835. A mob in- 
 vaded the assembly and demanded that 
 it should disperse. Mr. Smith, a specta- 
 tor, but not a member, made an impas- 
 sioned plea for the freedom of discussion, 
 but declared that he was "no Abolition- 
 ist." The convention was broken up vio- 
 lently and its members assaulted shame- 
 fully. These acts and the malignant 
 spirit of slavery, even in the North, then 
 
 made manifest, fired the soul of Gerrit 
 Smith with irrepressible indignation and 
 filled him with horror. He invited the 
 convention to adjourn to Peterboro, his 
 own village home, where it assembled the 
 next day, and where he spoke words 
 which thundered and echoed throughout 
 the land, portending the doom of slavery 
 — words, too, of consecration to the cause 
 of the black man which were never to be 
 retracted, receded from or forgotten to 
 the day of his death. From that day for- 
 ward he was an "Abolitionist," with all 
 his might and mind and with all the effi- 
 ciency which his great wealth and abil- 
 ities gave him. He believed in moral 
 power, in the ultimate victory of true 
 principles, if only they can be brought 
 home to the minds and conscience of 
 men. His attack upon slavery, there- 
 fore, was through intelligence and con- 
 science. He cared little or nothing for 
 political action or agencies at this period. 
 Agitation, discussion, presentation of the 
 vile sin of slavery — the moving of the 
 conscience — this was what he trusted 
 would bring about a public sentiment that 
 in the end, somehow — he did not try to 
 say how — would overthrow slavery ; but 
 when the end came it was, as he for many 
 years had predicted, "through blood." 
 
 As to methods, he was at one with the 
 Abolitionists of the Garrison and Phillips 
 school. They, however, believed and 
 taught that the federal constitution was a 
 pro-slavery instrument, "a covenant with 
 death and an agreement with hell" — re- 
 fusing to vote or take office under it, or 
 resort in any manner to political action ; 
 and they denounced bitterly all Abolition- 
 ists who disagreed with them on these 
 points. They were also pronounced dis- 
 unionists. Gerrit Smith, on the other 
 hand, contended vigorously that "the 
 constitution is an anti-slavery instru- 
 ment and needs but to be administered 
 69 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 in consistency with its principles to 
 effectuate the speedy overthrow of the 
 whole system of American slavery ;" and 
 he opposed dismemberment of the Union, 
 clinging to the South to save it from self- 
 destruction. He was the founder of the 
 "Liberty" party, at a convention of anti- 
 slavery men in Arcade, Wyoming county, 
 in January, 1840, its motto, formed by 
 him, being "vote for no slaveholder for 
 civil office — nor for any one who thinks 
 a slaveholder fit for it;" and he was its 
 candidate for Governor that year. In 
 1S44 the party polled a sufficient vote in 
 the State to tip the scales in favor of 
 Polk, a result seemingly as illogical on 
 its part as it was fateful in the history of 
 the Republic. In 1S47 there was a split 
 in the political abolition forces, and the 
 "Liberty League," with Gerrit Smith as 
 its leader, came into being, and, eking out 
 an existence, from time to time nomi- 
 nated Smith for President. In 1858 a 
 "State Mass Convention" gave him his 
 second nomination for Governor, and, 
 notwithstanding that he led "a forlorn 
 hope," he made a spirited canvass, travel- 
 ling some four thousand miles and con- 
 tributing liberally to a campaign fund, 
 but received but about four thousand 
 votes. His only public preferment oc- 
 curred in 1852, when as an "Independent" 
 he was elected to the Thirty-third Con- 
 gress by an overwhelming plurality — a 
 striking testimony of the esteem in which 
 he was held by his immediate constitu- 
 ency, accompanied with something of 
 curiosity as to what he would accomplish. 
 In Congress, while entertaining and con- 
 tracting personal friendships even with 
 slaveholders, he enunciated fearlessly and 
 freely the views he had uniformly pro- 
 claimed, but the routine and the late 
 hours, to which he was subjected, bore 
 severely upon him, and he resigned his 
 seat, August 7, 1854. It is not probable 
 
 that his course and influence had any 
 marked effect upon the progress of the 
 anti-slavery movement. 
 
 He had already done splendid service 
 in quickening the conscience of the Na- 
 tion upon the platform, where he had 
 been a new and grander Apollo, earnest 
 to his very lips and finger tips, profoundly 
 wrapped up in his argument and his de- 
 sire to convince and to win men to the 
 standard of righteousness — conscious, no 
 doubt, of his superb strength. As an 
 orator he had the signal advantage of a 
 magnificent personal presence, a large 
 form, a notable head, a face to win favor, 
 a dark eye with an eagle's piercing glance, 
 but lighted up with the mellow, loving 
 look of a great soul, a majesty impres- 
 sive without words, as of a born king of 
 men. His voice was deep, full and strong, 
 with an indescribable melody and rich- 
 ness and under perfect control. He never 
 attempted flights of rhetoric as such. He 
 talked ; but his talk was oratory, some- 
 times persuasive and argumentative, and 
 sometimes like the mighty rush of a tor- 
 rent in its denunciation. His manner was 
 always dignified. His gestures were 
 graceful, large, and free like himself. 
 Rarely was there ornament in his ad- 
 dress ; never wit nor humor, but always 
 the clear, close statement, the thought 
 carrying everything before it. He hewed 
 to the line and his hearers always knew 
 where the line was. 
 
 His home in Peterboro was a large 
 square, frame house, with columns in front, 
 a broad central hall from front to rear, the 
 library in front on the left and the draw- 
 ing-room to the right. The grounds 
 (some thirty acres) surrounding it were 
 well kept, with gardens and lawns and 
 many trees, and in the rear ran a pebbled 
 stream. The spacious mansion was in 
 fact as well as in name, "Liberty Hall," 
 wherein an abounding hospitality was 
 
 170 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 dispensed. Thither came the representa- 
 tives of, or at least sympathizers with, the 
 reforms he advocated, some notable in 
 talent and conspicuous in position, many 
 truly great men and noble women ; also 
 came the hair-brained cranks who clutch 
 the margin of a movement for reform and 
 tend to make it ridiculous — came with 
 their carpet bags and camped in this com- 
 fortable home, never turned away, never 
 treated with discourtesy, however erratic 
 or beggarly in sense or brazen in impor- 
 tunity. This invasion was a weighty 
 burden upon Mr. Smith's hospitality and 
 a serious disturbance of his family life ; 
 but this grand gentleman, this courtly 
 knight, bore it all serenely. Righteous 
 indignation, pardonable rudeness, another 
 as good a man as he might have shown — 
 not he. Once, indeed, patience ceased to 
 be a virtue, even with him. A particu- 
 larly persistent, long-haired, wild-eyed 
 visitor had stayed on from week to week, 
 with no signs of going away before the 
 proper time for his burial. One morning 
 at family prayers, this long-time and un- 
 invited guest being present, Mr. Smith 
 gently invoked in his prayer the petition : 
 "Lord, bless our friend, who is to leave 
 us this day." He departed, carpet bag 
 and all, before evening. Gerrit Smith's 
 home was also a station of the under- 
 ground railroad. 
 
 When the South seceded and the Civil 
 War was on, Gerrit Smith — uncompro- 
 mising Abolitionist as he was — saw 
 where the duty of the hour lay, and sup- 
 ported the government by every means 
 in his power, spending money, making 
 speeches and appeals to suppress the in- 
 surrection. He thought Lincoln "too 
 slow," but a great, good man, and was 
 patient with him in solving the vital 
 problems imposed upon him. At a war 
 meeting in Peterboro, April 27, 1861, he 
 said : "The end of American slavery is 
 
 at hand. That it is to end in blood does 
 not surprise me. For fifteen years I have 
 been constantly predicting that it would 
 be. The first gun fired at Fort Sumter 
 announced the fact that the last fugitive 
 slave had been returned." He uttered 
 also these words, significant of his spirit : 
 "A word in respect to the armed men 
 who go South. Slavery, which has in- 
 fatuated her, is the crime of the North, 
 as well as the South." To Chief Justice 
 Chase he wrote in 1864: "We must deal 
 with the South in the spirit of impartial 
 justice. We must also deal with her in 
 a spirit of great generosity and love." 
 And it is to be remembered to his lasting 
 honor, that when Jefferson Davis, the 
 arch rebel whom the North hated most, 
 had been lying in prison for fifteen 
 months, without trial or attempt at trial, 
 this great-souled philanthropist went 
 upon the bond to release him, insisting 
 that he should have a speedy trial or be 
 admitted to bail. Gerrit Smith spoke and 
 voted for Lincoln at his second election 
 and for Grant at each of his — the second 
 time to the intense displeasure of his old 
 friend and co-laborer, Charles Sumner, 
 with whom he had an unhappy corres- 
 pondence on the subject. 
 
 Gerrit Smith was an earnest Christian. 
 A Presbyterian by training and public 
 profession, he broke from his own church 
 and all denominational churches, because, 
 as he believed, they were untrue to the 
 cause of the slave ; but still he held to 
 the Sermon on the Mount and whatever 
 changes of theological belief he experi- 
 enced — and it is difficult to determine 
 what his theology really was — he was 
 always a devout Christian in heart and 
 life. He held that sectarianism was un- 
 christian, that the Christians of a locality 
 constitute the church of that community, 
 and he built a church edifice in his vil- 
 lage, gathered about him those who be- 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 lieved with him, and called the little com- 
 pany "the Church of Peterboro," wherein 
 he often officiated. He believed that 
 "politics," meaning thereby the promo- 
 tion of anti-slavery, temperance, and 
 other reforms fundamentally affecting 
 human welfare, and dealing with sin, pub- 
 lic and private, was a part of the religious 
 life and he "preached politics" on Sunday. 
 He cut loose from so many traditional 
 ideas and beliefs that it is no wonder that 
 in the judgment of thoughtful men he 
 sometimes wandered into the visionary 
 and impractical. In the last analysis, he 
 was a Jeffersonian Republican, holding 
 that the State should not do for the in- 
 dividual that which he could or should 
 do for himself. Thus he was against 
 governmental ownership of public util- 
 ities, even of the post office. His philos- 
 ophy, if it should be called such, was 
 simple enough, after all, and many men 
 acknowledged its justice and soundness 
 in the abstract, who refused to agree with 
 him in its application. To those who 
 knew him or shall truly know what man- 
 ner of man he was, it is his childlike sim- 
 plicity of faith and trust in the divine 
 goodness and righteousness and his en- 
 tire consecration to its commands ; his 
 life of devotion to his fellow men ; his 
 character in all its completeness and 
 sweetness ; his unminded goodness in 
 every phase of his life; the inherent 
 grandeur of his manhood — the man him- 
 self — these it is, which will keep his 
 memory green ; and the greatness of his 
 goodness, if not his teachings, will be an 
 inspiration: to a more conscientious citi- 
 zenship and more worthy living while 
 that memory survives. 
 
 Gerrit Smith died December 26, 1874, 
 leaving his wife, who died in 1875. They 
 had five children, of whom only two sur- 
 vived them — Elizabeth, widely known as 
 a philanthropist and reformer, the wife of 
 
 Colonel Charles D. Miller, of Geneva; 
 and Greene, exceptionally bright, but 
 whose career was not commensurate 
 with his talents. Both have now passed 
 away. 
 
 NOTE. — Abridged from address delivered by 
 Hon. A. Judd Northrup before Onondaga His- 
 torical Society, May 9. 1902. 
 
 KING, John A., 
 
 Agriculturist, Legislator, Executive. 
 
 John Alsop King, twentieth Governor 
 of New York, was born in the city of 
 New York, January 3, 1788, the eldest son 
 of Rufus King, the great statesman and 
 diplomat (q. v. sketch of Rufus King). 
 To his children, of whom there were 
 many, Rufus King bequeathed fair 
 estates, but, what is better, high talents — 
 rivalling in this regard the Adams line — 
 of which John A. inherited a goodly share. 
 
 John A. received his elementary edu- 
 cation at select schools in the city, but 
 accompanied his father to England, when 
 the latter was first commissioned as 
 Minister to the Court of St. James, and 
 was, with his brother Charles, afterward 
 president of Columbia College, enrolled 
 as a student in the famous training 
 school at Harrow. There he maintained 
 an excellent standing in the classics, but 
 also became a leader in all the physical 
 exercises of the institution and was, 
 therefore, very popular with his compan- 
 ions, forming friendships with Lord 
 Byron, Sir Robert Peel, the Duke of 
 Devonshire and others of like standing. 
 The effects of his physical culture lasted 
 through his life. John Stanton Gould 
 in his eulogium before the New York 
 State Agricultural Society relates that 
 "after he had passed his seventieth birth- 
 day, in presence of many of his brethren 
 of the executive committee, he put his 
 hand on the top of a fence and vaulted 
 over it with the agility of a boy, playfully 
 
 172 
 
^^k a. «&. 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 reproaching his companions for their 
 laziness in climbing over it." After he 
 had passed the grades at Harrow, he 
 transferred himself to a finishing school 
 in Paris, where he perfected himself in 
 French and the physical sciences, then 
 much neglected in the great schools of 
 England, and, with the prestige of his 
 parent and his own attractiveness, had 
 ready access to the polished society of the 
 Napoleonic empire, then at the summit 
 of its power and glory ; and he also gave 
 much attention to governmental history 
 and political questions, confirming prin- 
 ciples to which he had already inclined, 
 at home. 
 
 Returning to his native country, he 
 studied law assiduously, was admitted to 
 the bar in 1809 and, for a time, engaged 
 in successful practice. In 1810, he mar- 
 ried a daughter of Cornelius Ray, a 
 wealthy gentleman of the city, and the 
 union thus formed blessed his life. — 
 Opposed, like the majority of Federalists, 
 to declaring war against Great Britain in 
 1812, when it was actually on, he sought 
 and obtained a commission as lieutenant 
 in a company of Hussars, which served 
 as the body-guard of Governor Tomp- 
 kins, and faithfully served in the field until 
 the end, when he returned to civil life. 
 His professional career had been serious- 
 ly disturbed by his military duties and, 
 with a decided liking for rural pursuits, 
 he purchased a farm in the vicinity of that 
 of his father at Jamaica and cultivated 
 it for a livelihood. He was a real laborer 
 in his fields, not a "gentleman farmer" 
 merely. There was no agricultural work 
 that he was not skilled in. He plowed 
 and sowed and reaped, rose early and 
 labored late, led the mowers in the har- 
 vest field, mended his fences, put up his 
 outbuildings : and, at the time, being of 
 moderate means, made his farm pay. He 
 was also a noted fox-hunter, an intelligent 
 
 breeder of horses and, for many years, 
 president of the local jockey club. And 
 thus passed — 1815-1825 — what he was 
 wont to call the happiest years of his life. 
 Predicated on his heredity, he became 
 interested early in politics and was in the 
 habit of addressing his fellow citizens, at 
 their primaries and conventions, upon 
 topics of public interest and political duty, 
 and developed a style of speaking earnest, 
 eloquent and impressive ; but he spoke in 
 the decadent era of his party and within 
 an environment adverse to the principles 
 he enunciated. Nevertheless, he was sent 
 to the Assembly in 1818 and reelected in 
 1819 and 1820; and, in 1823, was elected 
 to the Senate, from the first district, serv- 
 ing a single year. This period of his legis- 
 lative service was distinguished by a 
 sturdy advocacy of the system of internal 
 improvements, making some of his finest 
 forensic efforts in its behalf, and in the 
 main promoting the political preferment 
 of DeWitt Clinton as the foremost cham- 
 pion of the policy indicated. In 1825, 
 upon the designation of his father as 
 Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Pleni- 
 potentiary to Great Britain, John A. King 
 accepted the office of secretary of legation 
 under him, principally out of filial devo- 
 tion for the aged diplomat, whose health 
 was then declining. After a year spent in 
 this capacity, he was appointed Charge 
 d'Affaires pending the arrival of Envoy 
 Barbour. 
 
 Rufus King died in the spring of 1827. 
 His eldest son, desiring to perpetuate the 
 homestead, purchased it from the other 
 heirs and settled thereon, where he con- 
 tinued to reside until his death. For 
 forty years, he cultivated the land, but 
 having more ample means at his com- 
 mand, did not engage so exclusively 
 in manual work, as he had done earlier, 
 although he carefully superintended and 
 made the fine estate a paying proposition 
 
 73 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 as well as the hospitable home of a cul- 
 tured gentleman. He bred fine herds of 
 cattle and catered to the daily needs of 
 the metropolis by vending fruits and 
 vegetables. He connected himself with 
 agricultural societies and was active in 
 promoting their interests. He was presi- 
 dent of the Queens county and State 
 societies, and vice-president of the United 
 States Agricultural Society, at different 
 periods, especially prominent and useful 
 in the State body. 
 
 Meanwhile, he did not lose his interest 
 in politics. He was returned to the As- 
 sembly in 1831, 1837 and 1839. He iden- 
 tified himself with the Whig party in its 
 incipiency. He was a member of the 
 National Convention that nominated 
 General Harrison and, although originally 
 preferring Clay, to whom he was warmly 
 attached, voted for Harrison, apprehen- 
 sive that Clay could not be elected. In 
 1848, he was elected to the Thirty-first 
 Congress, and, therein gave evidence of 
 his sincere anti-slavery convictions. His 
 speeches were frequent and impact with 
 force and eloquence. During his term 
 the compromise measures of 1850 were 
 passed, King being conspicuous in his 
 opposition thereto, especially to the Fugi- 
 tive Slave bill, which he deprecated and 
 fought with all his might. He was a 
 member of the National Convention that 
 assembled in Baltimore in 1852 and 
 nominated General Scott for the presi- 
 dency. As a "conscience Whig," in the 
 consultation relative to the platform, he 
 advocated taking the highest ground on 
 the slavery issue, and resolutely contend- 
 ed against the incorporation therein of an 
 approval of the fugitive slave law — the 
 declaration which sounded the death knell 
 of the Whig party. On the roll call, there 
 were sixty-six votes in the negative, all 
 from the north, one-third of them being 
 from New York, King, of course, includ- 
 
 ed. In the fusion of the Republican and 
 Whig parties at Syracuse, in 1855, King 
 was president of the Whig Convention 
 and labored effectively to promote the 
 union. He was a delegate to the Repub- 
 lican National Convention, at Philadel- 
 phia, a vice-president and, with Chief- 
 Justice Hornblower, of New Jersey, the 
 committee to escort General Lane, of 
 Indiana, to the chair. He was the favor- 
 ite candidate of the New York delegation 
 for the vice-presidency, but promptly 
 insisted that his name should be dropped 
 in favor of Dayton, who was nominated. 
 His bearing on the occasion smoothed the 
 way for his own nomination for Governor 
 in the fall of the same year. 
 
 He took his seat as chief magistrate of 
 the Empire State, January 1, 1857. the 
 duties of which he discharged with firm- 
 ness, wisdom, sagacity and utter integ- 
 rity, no grave questions of State policy 
 being raised during his administration. 
 To the causes of popular education and 
 internal improvements he was supremely 
 devoted. The trend of his thought upon 
 national issues is well set forth in these 
 characteristic words toward the close of 
 his annual message : 
 
 The great principle at issue in the last elec- 
 tion, and which it so triumphantly vindicates, lies 
 at the root of our free institutions and is alike 
 the concern, and should be equally the share, of 
 all citizens who rightly estimate these institu- 
 tions. No mere party questions could call forth 
 so deep an interest and so significant and deci- 
 sive a vote throughout the length and breadth 
 of the State; and I venture to believe that I do 
 not mistake its importance, nor your convictions 
 respecting it, when I assume as its deliberate 
 and irreversible decree that so far as the State 
 of New York is concerned, that there shall be 
 henceforth no extension of slavery in the terri- 
 tories of the United States. This conclusion I 
 most unreservedly adopt, and am prepared to 
 abide by it, at all times, under all circumstances 
 and in every emergency. 
 
 74 
 
DANIEL BUTTERH ELD M AJ 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 He retired from the chief magistracy 
 bearing with him the cordial esteem of 
 the people for the urbanity of his manner 
 — courteous alike to the lofty and the 
 lowly — his fidelity to principle, and his 
 enlightened and upright administration. 
 He was privileged as president of the 
 New York Electoral College, in i860, to 
 cast his ballot for Abraham Lincoln. He 
 was a delegate to the Peace Convention 
 of 1861, wherein he did all that he could do 
 honorably to avert the appeal to arms ; 
 and throughout the war his loyalty to the 
 Union, as evidenced by word and work 
 and purse, was of the marked character 
 consistent with his lifelong record as a 
 patriot. He was an early member of the 
 New York Union League Club, and its 
 tribute to his worth, at his death, is singu- 
 larly affectionate and appreciative, as is 
 also the address of the Hon. John Stan- 
 ton Gould before the State Agricultural 
 Society, already alluded to. His death 
 was sudden. On the Fourth of July, 
 1867, he attended the celebration of the 
 Jamaica Literary Union, apparently in his 
 usual good health, was much interested 
 in the exercises, and toward the close was 
 invited to speak. While addressing the 
 audience, he was observed to give evi- 
 dence of illness, and was unable to con- 
 tinue his remarks. He was stricken with 
 apoplexy. He was borne from the stand 
 insensible, and though he recovered his 
 consciousness, he gradually sank until the 
 afternoon of the seventh, and then passed 
 peacefully away. It was the first attack 
 of sickness he ever experienced. 
 
 BUTTERFIELD, Daniel, 
 
 Soldier, Scholar, Orator. 
 
 Daniel Butterfield was a born soldier, 
 and at this time, when "preparedness" is 
 the slogan of the Republic, it is to be 
 emphasized that he was semper paratus 
 whenever duty bade him. Militant blood 
 
 ran in the Butterfield lineage for many 
 generations. The family line is traced to 
 its arrival in England from Normandy in 
 the twelfth century. In 1316 John de 
 Buteville was the possessor of the lord- 
 ship of Cheddington in Bucks. The name 
 Botevyle occurs in the Battle Abbey roll ; 
 and its succeeding gentry, with various 
 spelling, has honorable record in civil and 
 military life for centuries. Benjamin 
 Butterfield, the ancestor of the American 
 branch, settled at Charlestown in Massa- 
 chusetts Bay, in 1638, removed to Wo- 
 burn, and in 1643 was made a freeman. 
 Two years later he was listed as a tax- 
 payer. In 1654 he purchased a large tract 
 of land in the town, subsequently incor- 
 porated as Chelmsford, and remained 
 there, a leading citizen of the colony. 
 General Butterfield's great-grandfather, 
 Timothy, saw service in the Revolu- 
 tion ; his kinsmen James, Jonas and 
 Thomas were lieutenants in New Hamp- 
 shire and Vermont regiments, and his ma- 
 ternal grandfather, Gamaliel Olmstead, 
 enlisted in the Connecticut Continental 
 Infantry for three years, with honorable 
 discharge at the end of the period. John 
 Butterfield, the father of the general, was 
 a great "captain of industry." Born in 
 Berne, Albany county, on the Van Rens- 
 selaer Manor, November 18. 1S01, he 
 early established himself in Utica, where 
 he acquired a large fortune, and was 
 identified conspicuously, both as founder 
 and executive, with the Overland Stage 
 and the American Express companies and 
 the various magnetic telegraph lines ulti- 
 mately consolidated in the Western 
 Union. He was active in furthering the 
 progress of the city, and, although uni- 
 formly declining political preferment, ac- 
 cepted, as a Republican, a term as mayor 
 in 1865. He possessed indomitable will 
 and foresight in encouraging enter- 
 prises of ever increasing scope and mag- 
 nitude. He married, in February, 1822, 
 
 '75 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Malinda Harriet Baker, by whom he had 
 nine children. He died November 14, 
 1869. 
 
 Daniel (Adams) Butterfield, the third 
 son, was born in Utica, October 31, 1831. 
 His father, recognizing his promise, 
 cheerfully furnished him the means for 
 acquiring a liberal education. He was 
 prepared for college at private schools 
 and the Utica Academy, and was gradu- 
 ated from Union College in 1849, at the 
 age of eighteen, having maintained an ex- 
 cellent standing, especially devoting him- 
 self to studies and outside reading pro- 
 ductive of a generous culture. His genial 
 bearing and gracious offices endeared him 
 to his mates, and he had a certain dash and 
 audacity in sports, presaging his future 
 career. He ever held his college associa- 
 tions in tender memory and did much to 
 enhance the interests of his alma mater. 
 In 1892 he was honorary chancellor of the 
 university and delivered a memorable ad- 
 dress at the commencement, when he re- 
 ceived the degree of Doctor of Laws. In 
 1892 he established a three years' course 
 of thirty lectures, ministered to by men 
 eminent in letters, science, the arts, pro- 
 fessions and politics, each with his special 
 theme, but all with the fundamental 
 thought of the value of a close relation 
 between the scholastic and the practical 
 world by which both profit. In 1895 tn ' r " 
 teen of these addresses were published in 
 a handsome octavo volume, with the title 
 of "The Union College Lectures — Butter- 
 field Course." In 1895 he was elected 
 president of the General Alumni Associa- 
 tion and in 1899 became an alumni trus- 
 tee. After his graduation he pursued, for 
 a time, the study of the law. but being too 
 young to be admitted to practice, made 
 an extensive tour of the West and South, 
 its first portion being through the great 
 lakes and the then almost unbroken forest 
 of Minnesota territory, trying to the cour- 
 age and strength of a youth of nineteen 
 
 years ; and the latter, down the Mississippi 
 to New Orleans, fortifying his anti-slavery 
 convictions, analyzing social and political 
 conditions, there obtaining and clearly 
 foresaw the irresistible conflict between 
 the sections, returning to his home, as he 
 afterward declared, to perfect himself in 
 military art so that when the emergency 
 arose he would be ready to meet it — at 
 once the prophet and the patriot. 
 
 Not long after the completion of his 
 journeyings, he removed to New York 
 and, relinquishing the law, upon the con- 
 straint of business, he became the general 
 superintendent of the eastern division of 
 the American Express Company and was 
 thus principally engaged until the out- 
 break of the war ; but, true to his purpose, 
 he entered, after having been a private 
 in the Utica Citizens' Corps, the Seventy- 
 first Regiment, in the metropolis, as a 
 captain on staff duty ; was soon elected 
 major, and subsequently promoted to 
 lieutenant-colonel. From that regiment, 
 he was chosen, without the least solicita- 
 tion on his part, colonel of the Twelfth 
 militia. A close student of tactics, an 
 accomplished drill master, a courteous 
 commander, although a strict disciplin- 
 arian, he signally commended himself to 
 the officers and men under him, and to 
 the State military authorities. When 
 Sumter was fired upon, he was ready, al- 
 though the regiment had been reduced in 
 numbers. In a single day, he enlisted 800 
 men, filling the complement, and on April 
 21, 1 86 1, was in Washington with his 
 command. Within two months, it was 
 fully uniformed and equipped and thor- 
 oughly drilled, General Scott then at the 
 head of the army, much impressed by its 
 splendid appearance, speaking of it 
 as "closely resembling a regiment of 
 regulars." Thenceforth, Butterfield ap- 
 pears as one of the bravest, most useful 
 and brilliant officers of the Union forces. 
 His promotion was as rapid as his service 
 176 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 was great. He was commissioned briga- 
 dier-general of volunteers September 7, 
 1861 ; major-general, November 29, 1862; 
 colonel Fifth Infantry, U. S. A., July I, 
 1863; brevet brigadier-general, March 13, 
 1865, "for gallant and meritorious service 
 in the field during the war" ; and brevet 
 major-general the same day "for gallant 
 and meritorious service in the field, dur- 
 ing the war." The Congressional "Medal 
 of Honor" was awarded General Butter- 
 field, September 26, 1892, on account of 
 special gallantry in action at the battle of 
 Gaines Mills, "where he seized the colors 
 of the Eighty-third Pennsylvania Infan- 
 try Volunteers, at a critical moment and, 
 under a galling fire of the enemy, led the 
 command," and where he was wounded. 
 General Butterfield participated in all 
 the campaigns and nearly all the engage- 
 ments of the Army of the Potomac. He 
 commanded the first division of the Fifth 
 Army Corps in November, 1862, and, on 
 the sixteenth of the same month, assumed 
 command of the corps, until December 24 
 when he was assigned as chief-of-staff 
 to General Hooker, in which capacity he 
 remained until General Hooker, after 
 Chancellorsville, was relieved by General 
 Meade June 28, 1863, who requested Gen- 
 eral Butterfield to remain with him, which 
 he did until he was severely wounded at 
 Gettysburg. Receiving a furlough, July 
 6, he recovered from his wound suffi- 
 ciently to report for duty August 22, and 
 was temporarily assigned to help General 
 Hooker in making up the reports of the 
 Rappahannock operations, and later was 
 again designated as chief-of-staff to 
 Hooker, commanding the Eleventh and 
 Twelfth Corps, and was with him during 
 the movements at Wauhatchie, Lookout 
 Mountain, Mission Ridge and Ringgold. 
 Early in April, 1864, General Butterfield 
 became commander of the Third Division 
 of the Twentieth Corps, Army of the 
 Cumberland. During Sherman's Atlanta 
 N Y-Vol 11-12 
 
 campaign, Hooker received orders to at- 
 tack Johnston's right flank at Resaca, and 
 he detailed Butterfield to make the 
 charge, a brilliant exploit, the Confeder- 
 ates being routed and the division cap- 
 turing the first colors and guns lost by 
 Johnston in that memorable campaign. 
 Butterfield continued to engage in skir- 
 mishes and battles from Dallas to Kene- 
 saw, but was obliged, June 29, 1864, some 
 weeks before Atlanta was taken, to obtain 
 a leave of absence upon the surgeon's cer- 
 tificate of disability. Upon recovery, he 
 was assigned to court-martial and special 
 duties, aided General Butler in taking all 
 necessary precautions to prevent riots in 
 New York, pending the presidential cam- 
 paign, and was not again in active war 
 command. He was mustered out of the 
 service as major-general of volunteers, 
 August 24, 1865, returning to his rank as 
 colonel in the regular army. 
 
 He remained in the army, with routine 
 peace duty, until the death of his father 
 devolved upon him the care of a large 
 estate, and he resigned his commission 
 April 26, 1869. He, however, accepted at 
 the hands of President Grant the head- 
 ship of the United States Sub-Treasury, 
 June 23, and occupied it until November 
 — the only civil office he ever held. 
 
 The remainder of General Butterfield's 
 life was passed in association with exten- 
 sive business enterprises, in the enjoy- 
 ment of a fine fortune, liberally dispensed 
 for philanthropic and patriotic objects, in 
 elegant homes in New York City and at 
 "Cragside," his country estate at Cold 
 Spring, on the Hudson, where treasures 
 of art and letters were accumulated, and 
 refined hospitalities were extended, in 
 travels abroad both for research and 
 pleasure in timely essays in the press, and 
 frequent addresses, political, military and 
 historical, and with much of public recog- 
 nition due to his merits both as a soldier 
 and scholar. In the summer of 1870 he 
 177 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 visited Europe, and while there he made 
 an exhaustive investigation of the Lon- 
 don and Paris postal systems, resulting in 
 an elaborate report to Postmaster-General 
 Creswell and in the adoption of certain 
 reforms therein suggested. General But- 
 terfield lost his wife June 4, 1877, whom 
 he had married twenty years previously, 
 his only son, a charming boy of four years, 
 having died in 1861. In 1886 the general 
 made a second voyage to the Old World, 
 and while there married, in St. Margaret's 
 Church, London, September 21, Mrs. 
 Julia Lorillard Jones, of New York and 
 Cold Spring who, for the ensuing fifteen 
 years, was his loving and helpful consort, 
 a charming hostess, sympathetic with his 
 cultured tastes and pursuits. They were 
 the recipients of many attentions in the 
 higher social circles of the countries trav- 
 ersed, the General having a flattering 
 audience with Napoleon III. at a review 
 of imperial troops, and renewing his 
 acquaintance with the Orleans princes, 
 formed while they were officers in the 
 Army of the Potomac; the Compte de 
 Paris, in turn, being treated with marked 
 civilities by General Butterfield on his 
 visit to the United States in 1890, being 
 entertained in the New York and "Crag- 
 side" residences, and being honored at a 
 magnificent banquet at the Plaza, Octo- 
 ber 20, tendered by his comrades in the 
 Union army, including Gnerals Sher- 
 man, Schofield, Sickles, Slocum, Keys, 
 Howard and Franklin, all of whom made 
 speeches, the Prince, with an especially 
 feeling address, in response to his intro- 
 duction by General Butterfield, who pre- 
 sided. Among other notable entertain- 
 ments at "Cragside" were those to Prince 
 Tharak Sahib of India, and to the Grand 
 Duke Michailovitch, a cousin of the Czar 
 of Russia, Admiral Kusnakoff and other 
 Russia naval officers. 
 
 General Butterfield was grand marshal 
 of the Centennial Celebration in New 
 
 York in May, 1889, and at the dedication 
 of the New York State Monument at 
 Gettysburg, July 2, 1893. He was instru- 
 mental in raising several regiments for 
 the Spanish-American war, and in distrib- 
 uting flags and patriotic literature to the 
 schools of Porto Rico, and personally pre- 
 pared a brochure, compiled in English 
 and Spanish, entitled "Constitution of the 
 United States (abbreviated) with some 
 information as to the National and State 
 Governments, Schools," etc. At his resi- 
 dence, 616 Fifth Avenue, a handsome 
 sword, the gift of many admirers, was 
 presented by Governor Roosevelt to the 
 late Commodore Philip. General Butter- 
 field presided at the convention of the 
 National Guard, held at Tampa, Florida, 
 in February, 1899, and, at his instance, a 
 plan was formulated and presented for 
 the enrollment of the National Guard of 
 the various States as a national reserve — 
 his thought of "preparedness" again. He 
 presented and had placed in the cemetery 
 of the battlefield at Fredericksburg a 
 stately monument, in memorial of the 
 Fifth Army Corps, appropriate ceremo- 
 nies being had at its corner-stone laying 
 and dedication. These incidents, out of 
 many, are instanced as indicative of the 
 patriotic sentiments and associations of 
 the General in peace, as they had so strik- 
 ingly been illustrated in his military 
 career. 
 
 As previously mentioned, General But- 
 terfield was an orator of high attainments 
 and was frequently in request during his 
 later years. His speech was scholarly, of 
 fine rhetorical quality, eloquent without 
 undue ornateness, and singularly perti- 
 nent to the occasions at which it was 
 employed. The following may be cited 
 as particularly noteworthy: Oration at 
 Cold Spring, July 4, 1885 ; lecture on St. 
 Brendin's Voyage, before the New York 
 Gaelic Society, April, 1892; oration on 
 "Character and Duty" (the honorary 
 
 178 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 chancellor's oration already instanced) 
 at Union College, June 22, 1892; address 
 to the Third Brigade Association, Wash- 
 ington, September 21, 1892; "Russia As 
 It Is," before the Sigma Phi Society, New 
 York, April 9, 1894; oration at Ogdens- 
 burg, July 4, 1894; address at the dedica- 
 tion of the Herkimer Monument, Novem- 
 ber 12, 1896; address at the reunion at 
 Chattanooga, September 18, 1895 ; address 
 at the Fishkill Monument Dedication, 
 October 14, 1897; address at Cornell Uni- 
 versity, Founder's Day, January 11, 1898; 
 address at Presentation of Flag to Colum- 
 bia University, May 7, 1898; "What Shall 
 Our Colonial Policy Be?" — address to the 
 Society of Colonial Wars, New York, 
 November 30, 1898; remarks on his pre- 
 sentation to the Cullum Memorial Hall at 
 West Point of the portrait of General 
 George Washington, May 30, 1900. 
 
 Early in April, 1901, General Butter- 
 field sustained a stroke of paralysis on his 
 right side, in New York. Two months 
 later he was taken from his city home to 
 "Cragside" and there, after a gradual de- 
 cline, he died July 17. The funeral serv- 
 ices were held at West Point, the proces- 
 sion being formed in front of the chapel, 
 the General's old regiment, the New York 
 Twelfth, having the right of line. Other 
 organizations parading were Lafayette 
 Post, Grand Army of the Republic, (of 
 which he had been commander); mem- 
 bers of the military order of the Loyal 
 Legion and of the Army of the Potomac, 
 Academy Cadets, etc. He is buried at 
 West Point, an especially chaste and 
 stately monument of marble marking his 
 resting place. 
 
 FISKE, Willard, 
 
 Librarian, Linguist, Benefactor. 
 
 There is a current postulate, practically 
 tantamount to a proven proposition, that 
 to be a finished scholar is to be confined 
 
 to a specialty — that, with many lines of 
 research attempted, superficiality in each 
 must ensue. Be this as it may, every rule 
 has its exceptions ; and the career of Wil- 
 lard Fiske is cited as a notable one in this 
 regard ; for, accomplished as librarian, lin- 
 guist and bibliophile, he was also compe- 
 tent to meet specialists in many depart- 
 ments of knowledge on their own ground. 
 Willard Fiske, christened Daniel Wil- 
 lard (Daniel being dropped in later years) 
 the son of Daniel H., was born in Ellis- 
 burgh, Jefferson county, November II, 
 1831. With early signs of precocity, his 
 preliminary schooling was pursued in the 
 schools of his native town, and at the age 
 of fifteen he entered Hamilton College 
 and for the ensuing two years was recog- 
 nized as an especially bright scholar, with 
 a decided inclination toward modern lan- 
 guages. He was a member of the Psi 
 Upsilon fraternity, and was ever devoted 
 to its interests, writing a number of its 
 songs — its poet laureate, so to speak. He 
 left college largely because of straitened 
 means, at the close of the sophomore year, 
 and went to Syracuse, whither his par- 
 ents had removed. For a time he was 
 employed in clerical capacities. The way 
 being provided, he entered the Univer- 
 sity of Upsala, near Stockholm, Sweden, 
 where he became imbued with a lifelong 
 devotion to Norse literature and began 
 the collection of Icelandic books. Re- 
 turning to America, in November, 1852, 
 he was employed from 1853 until 1859, as 
 assistant librarian of the Astor Library 
 under the great librarian, Joseph G. 
 Cogswell, its first superintendent. It was 
 a fine training for the young bibliophile 
 and he as finely utilized it. Taking up 
 chess as a recreation, he became in due 
 time an expert, historian and authority of 
 the game, founding the "Chess Monthly," 
 which he edited from 1857 until i860, lat- 
 terly in conjunction with Paul Murphy. 
 In 1859, succeeding two years after the 
 79 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 establishment of the American Chess 
 Congress, he published the first volume of 
 its transactions, including an American 
 chess bibliography. In i860, he was sec- 
 retary of the American Geographical So- 
 ciety and the next year secretary to Min- 
 ister Motley at the Austrian court. Re- 
 turning again to America, he spent a few 
 years in journalistic work upon the Hart- 
 ford "Courant," of which Joseph R. Haw- 
 ley was editor, and the Syracuse "Jour- 
 nal," then under the control of Carroll E. 
 Smith. In 1868, he made a tour of 
 Europe, as companion and tutor of Bar- 
 rett R. White, a young gentleman of 
 Syracuse, and cousin of Dr. Andrew D. 
 White, a lifelong friend of Professor 
 Fiske. 
 
 While thus engaged he was called, at 
 the instance of President White, who was 
 thoroughly acquainted with his qualifica- 
 tions, to the chair of North European lan- 
 guages, and librarian of the newly found- 
 ed Cornell University. 
 
 As a teacher, he was eminently success- 
 ful, imbuing the students with enthu- 
 siasm in his courses — German, Swedish 
 and Icelandic — and conspicuously win- 
 ning their affection as a man. As a libra- 
 rian he ranked with the foremost in the 
 land, and may fairly be regarded as the 
 creator of the Cornell library, now among 
 the largest and richest of its kind, but five 
 institutions of its order excelling it in 
 number of volumes, and none in their 
 choice character. His ideal of a univer- 
 sity, was that of a reference library. That 
 policy was steadily pursued by him, some- 
 times under trying conditions, resulting 
 in the acquisition of many libraries from 
 the shelves of distinguished scholars or 
 bestowed by princely donors — his own 
 gifts being among the most unique and 
 costliest. In 1874, incited by his interest 
 in Iceland's millenial celebration, he 
 organized a movement, which resulted in 
 a large gift of books to the Icelandic 
 
 libraries, but it was not until 1879 that he 
 made his first visit to that far northern 
 island. His personal attention was given, 
 not alone to the selection of books, but 
 also to the care of the library through 
 competent assistants, and to the needs of 
 readers, indicating sources of culture and 
 methods of research to its patrons. He 
 popularized as well as created the library 
 by his initiative, his incentive and his 
 courtesies. He was throughout respected 
 by his associates in the faculty and loved 
 by the students, living contentedly on a 
 somewhat slender salary, although Cor- 
 nell was more liberal in this regard than 
 many of her sister universities. His pri- 
 vate rooms were much visited, and his 
 personality was charming in its inform- 
 atory quality, yet modest bearing. In the 
 government of the university he did not 
 favor severe discipline, believed in placing 
 students wholly upon their own honor, 
 leaving serious infractions of the law to 
 be dealt with by the civil rather than the 
 scholastic authorities. 
 
 Until 1880, he had lived in bachelor 
 state ; but, July 1 of that year he married 
 at the American legation in Berlin, Presi- 
 dent White, at the time, being Minister 
 Plenipotentiary, Jennie, daughter of John 
 McGraw, a wealthy capitalist of Ithaca 
 and an almoner of the University, then 
 recently deceased. They made an ex- 
 tended tour of Europe, but Mrs. Fiske's 
 health was in decline and, after a winter 
 in Egypt, they returned to Ithaca, where 
 she died September 30, 1881. By her 
 will, after providing generously for her 
 husband and relatives, she bequeathed 
 the residue of her estate to the University 
 library. Unfortunate misunderstandings 
 in regard to this disposition arose be- 
 tween the executors and Professor Fiske, 
 coupled with criticism on their part of his 
 conduct of the library. He resigned as 
 librarian, in 1883, and acting upon the 
 advice of legal friends, who pointed out 
 
 180 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 that the charter of the University forbade 
 its receipt of the bequest, a suit was 
 begun in his name for annulment thereof. 
 It inspired a great deal of excitement in 
 University circles and in articles pro and 
 con in the press. The decision was in his 
 favor and the residuary estate was divided 
 among the heirs, Professor Fiske receiv- 
 ing a large portion. En passim, the legis- 
 lature repealed the restrictive clause in 
 the charter. If his was a moral mistake, 
 he made ample amends in his own will, 
 the bulk of his estate being bequeathed to 
 the library, his inclination and his wife's 
 wishes being fulfilled. 
 
 Meanwhile, he had taken up his resi- 
 dence in Florence, and eventually pur- 
 chased the Villa Lander, teeming with 
 memories of the English essayist. And 
 there he passed most of the remainder 
 of his days, beneath the sunny skies, 
 within the exuberant foliage, near the re- 
 nowned galleries and the splendid libra- 
 ries stored with classic and medieval lore, 
 amid congenial circles of artists and lit- 
 terateurs and gentle folk — the ideal life of 
 the scholar with abundant means to grat- 
 ify his tastes. There he studied and wrote 
 in many tongues (he is said to have read 
 at least a score of languages and to have 
 spoken fluently at least half that number, 
 recalling the legendary equipment of 
 Mezzofanti); there he entertained Amer- 
 ican friends and continental savants ; 
 thence he made numerous trips in search 
 of rare editions and curios; and there he 
 stored, for the time being, his rare edi- 
 tions and precious relics. In 1891, a visit 
 to the Engadine region yielded a boun- 
 teous gathering of quaint Rhaeto-Ro- 
 manic literature — over a thousand vol- 
 umes — which he presented to Cornell 
 University. Two years later, he gave it 
 some of his wonderful gleanings in the 
 Dante field, and by his will the whole, 
 totalling 7,000 volumes. He accompanied 
 this with a scholarly treatise on the 
 
 "Dante Catalogue," (compiled by Theo- 
 dore Woolsey Koch) from which we can- 
 not avoid quoting a passage illustrative of 
 the facility of Fiske's English style and, 
 mildly humorous, testifying to the pas- 
 sion of the collector : 
 
 In April, 1892, while searching for Petrarch 
 books in the shop of an Italian dealer, I came 
 across a time-worn copy of the third and last 
 edition of the Divina Commedia, which bears the 
 date of 1536, and which is by no means of over- 
 frequent occurrence. It turned out to have an 
 interest all its own, for on its arrival at Ithaca 
 it was found to contain several living and labor- 
 ing specimens of that destructive little animal, 
 the book-worm, traces of whose active hostility 
 to letters are so often visible in old books, but 
 which is seldom caught at its toil. * * * Sev- 
 eral months, however, elapsed before I decided 
 to add, in a systematic way, some works on 
 Dante to the library of which I had been the 
 earliest keeper. Perhaps this determination was 
 the outcome of a sudden remembrance of the 
 limited literature relating to the great poet (of 
 whose greatness by reason of my residence in 
 Italy, I was daily reminded) heretofore accessi- 
 ble to the professors and students of Cornell. So 
 in February, 1893, being at Naples, I began by 
 sending home a few volumes — less than a dozen, 
 I think, my intention limiting itself, at that time, 
 to the acquisition of some three or four hundred 
 of the most useful texts, volumes of comment 
 and biographical works. The accomplishment of 
 even this restricted scheme was delayed by an 
 attack of pneumonia, a little while after, at 
 Palermo, and it was not until May that I began 
 to give much attention to my new task. I then 
 wrote from Florence to my friend and successor 
 as librarian, Mr. Harris: I am sending the 
 Library some packages of Dante books — partly 
 the spoils of my own shelves, partly taken from 
 the antiquarians here and elsewhere. I don't 
 stop to bind them — which can be done hereafter 
 — because of the lack of time and strength. 
 There will, of course, be some duplicates, partic- 
 ularly as I don't know exactly what you at 
 present possess. My idea is, if it seems good to 
 you, that the Dante books you already have, and 
 those now sent you, should be entered in one 
 of your early bulletins so as to form a basis on 
 which to build. At any rate, this will give you a 
 start in the way of a Dante collection. But my 
 ambition shortly took a broader range; the 
 charm of the chase took possession of me and it 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 was impossible to escape from its grasp. For 
 the book collector, like the gambler and the 
 miser, is the slave of his passion. With the 
 former he feels that, at any moment, luck may- 
 place in his hands a great prize; why should his 
 search slacken until that happy moment arrives? 
 When it does come he is quite as eager for 
 another stroke of good fortune, and quite as 
 willing to wait and work for it. And again, as 
 with the miser, it gratifies him to see his treas- 
 ures accumulating — to know that to-day he is 
 richer by a score of volumes than yesterday; 
 and in my case the books I was looking for 
 turned up with a readiness which surprised me, 
 and, in general, at prices which made hesitation 
 unnecessary. Why should I withdraw too hastily 
 from a sport so full of zest? My gift of such a 
 considerable collection to Cornell University 
 was thus really the result of my unwillingness to 
 refrain from a delectable self-indulgence, or, in 
 other words, of my inability to avoid temptation 
 and free myself from the enthralling spell of 
 bibliomania. This robs the giver of any special 
 credit and renders gratitude unmeet. One might 
 as well laud — or thank — the prodigal spendthrift 
 for the sums he expends on his rounds of dissi- 
 pation. 
 
 For man)- years, even before he went to 
 Italy permanently, he was engaged in 
 collecting Petrarchcana, the mass of which 
 — 4,000 volumes — he also gave to the Cor- 
 nell library. It is said to be the finest of 
 its kind. His Icelandic collection, num- 
 bering 10,000 volumes, also went to the 
 same beneficiary. His repeated visits to 
 Egvpt revealed to him another field of 
 activity, and for a number of years he 
 devoted much time and money to the task 
 of perfecting and popularizing what he 
 termed "An Egyptian alphabet for the 
 Egyptian people" based upon Spitta's sys- 
 tem of transcription, in the course of 
 which he made a very complete collection 
 of the literature of transcription. His old 
 interest in chess also revived, and he 
 busied himself in preparing a work enti- 
 tled "Chess in Iceland and Icelandic Lit- 
 erature," with historical notes on other 
 table games. In July, 1904, he attended 
 the celebration at Arezzo of the sixth cen- 
 
 tenary of the birth of Petrarch. Thence 
 he proceeded leisurely westward into 
 Germany, meeting there a friend who was 
 returning with him to Florence, when 
 death overtook him at Frankfort, Septem- 
 ber 17. His body was brought to Ithaca, 
 where the funeral rites were had, the 
 authorities and students of the University 
 uniting in the sad services, and many 
 tributes were paid to his memory. He 
 rests in Sage Chapel. The bulk of his 
 fortune — some $500,000 — was bequeathed 
 to the library in which he lived so long 
 and which he loved so dearly. 
 
 BLATCHFORD, Samuel, 
 
 Jurist. 
 
 Samuel Blatchford, eminent for nearly 
 thirty years as a judge in the Federal 
 Courts, was born in the City of New 
 York, March 8, 1820, the son of Richard 
 M. Blatchford, a distinguished lawyer of 
 the metropolis and minister to Italy, and 
 of Julia Ann (Mumford), an exceptionally 
 gifted and charming woman, a famous 
 belle of New York. Marked talents and 
 social graces were his by inheritance ; and 
 his father, a man of large wealth, as well 
 as of political influence, afforded him all 
 the advantages requisite for the acquire- 
 ment of a high education and social 
 attraction. Intellectually he was a hard 
 worker from the start. After the requisite 
 preliminary training, he entered Columbia 
 College and was graduated therefrom in 
 1837, with honor. He immediately began 
 the study of the law, of which he was in 
 after years to become an authoritative 
 interpreter ; but, in 1839, he was for a 
 time diverted from it by being made the 
 private secretary of Governor Seward, to 
 whom he had commended himself. In this 
 office he served ably and discreetly during 
 the administration of his chief. 
 
 Such time as he could command, con- 
 sistently with his official duties, was 
 
 182 
 
WILLIAM A. WHEELER, MALONE 
 
 Vice-President U. S.. 1877-1881. 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 given to his chosen profession, and he was 
 admitted to the bar in New York City 
 in 1842, and in 1845 became a counselor 
 of the Supreme Court and was invited by 
 Governor Seward, then in extensive prac- 
 tice, to partnership with him. Accord- 
 ingly, he removed to Auburn and the part- 
 nership was consummated, Christopher 
 Morgan being also a member of the firm, 
 Blatchford soon taking high rank as a 
 lawyer in Central New York. So highly 
 was he esteemed that he was nominated 
 for justice of the Supreme Court in 1851, 
 by the Whigs, but the factional disturb- 
 ances in that party, consequent upon 
 President Fillmore's attitude on the com- 
 promise measures, caused its rout in the 
 State, and Blatchford, with the -est of his 
 ticket, suffered defeat ; but the compli- 
 ment of the nomination of a young law- 
 yer, but thirty-one years of age, is signifi- 
 cant of his standing at the bar and his 
 qualification for the bench. Doubtless, 
 had he remained in Auburn, judicial or 
 political preferment would soon have been 
 bestowed upon him, under more favor- 
 able auspices. 
 
 Desirous, however, of extending his 
 professional activities, Blatchford re- 
 turned to New York City in 1854, and 
 established the firm of Blatchford, Seward 
 (Clarence A. Seward, a nephew of the 
 Governor) and Griswold, with which the 
 elder Blatchford was also associated as 
 counsel. The firm soon became promi- 
 nent in commercial and legal circles, 
 securing a large and lucrative clientage, 
 and particularly distinguishing itself in 
 practice before the United States District 
 and Circuit courts. Blatchford's success 
 in this respect led to his investment with 
 judicial functions which, for many years, 
 he admirably discharged. He was com- 
 missioned. May 3, 1867, by President 
 Johnson, judge of the United States Court 
 for the Southern District of New York, 
 from the District Court he was promoted, 
 
 March 4, 1878, to the Circuit Court. In 
 both these judicatures, involving, as they 
 do, intricate issues of marine law, marine 
 insurance, patent law, admiralty and in- 
 terstate law, he evinced profound knowl- 
 edge and discrimination of these ; and his 
 decisions are regarded as authoritative, 
 rarely reversed by the ultimate tribunal. 
 He was exalted to a seat in the Supreme 
 Court of the United States by President 
 Arthur, March 22, 1882. 
 
 Judge Blatchford's career on the local Federal 
 Bench won for him an enduring reputation as 
 one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of Amer- 
 ican admiralty judges. Among the celebrated 
 arguments heard by him were those on the let- 
 ters patent for insulating telegraph and cable 
 wires with gutta-percha, and as to whether a 
 common carrier knowingly carrying an infring- 
 ing patent article for purposes of ultimate sale 
 could be made liable as a wrong-doer. He set- 
 tled the legal status of the proposed Brooklyn 
 bridge as a structure to be built over navigable 
 waters. On the Supreme Court bench, perhaps, 
 the most elaborate opinion rendered by him was 
 that in the case of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
 Company vs. Miller, holding that the company 
 was bound by a new provision of a new State 
 constitution that imposed fresh burdens, not 
 contemplated by its charter, and that a com- 
 pany's right of exemption from future legisla- 
 tion, in order to hold good, must be expressed in 
 the original charter. 
 
 Judge Blatchford, during his long service on 
 the bench in New York, enjoyed the highest 
 respect and, indeed, the affection of the entire 
 profession. He was sometimes called Chester- 
 field of the bench, because of the exceeding 
 grace and courtesy of his judicial bearing and 
 his scrupulous observance of all the amenities. 
 — (McAdam "History of the Bench and Bar of 
 New York," Vol. I, page 264). 
 
 He died at Newport, Rhode Island, July 
 7. 1893. 
 
 WHEELER, William A., 
 
 Parliamentarian, Statesman. 
 
 William Almon Wheeler was born in 
 Malone, New York, June 30, 1819, the son 
 of Almon Wheeler, a pioneer of Northern 
 
 183 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 New York and a lawyer of distinction, 
 who, however, left no estate except a 
 mortgaged homestead. The story of Mr. 
 Wheeler's youth would be but a repeti- 
 tion of that of so many other eminent 
 Americans — arduous labor at a tender 
 age to discharge his heritage of debt, to 
 contribute to the support of the widowed 
 mother and orphaned sisters, and to earn 
 an education. Having worked his way 
 through Franklin Academy, Mr. Wheeler 
 entered the University of Vermont, but 
 eye trouble compelled him to withdraw 
 without having been graduated. Return- 
 ing from Burlington to Malone, he en- 
 tered upon study of the law, was duly ad- 
 mitted an attorney and counselor, and 
 practiced successfully for a dozen years 
 or more. Even after business affairs and 
 politics commanded his attention almost 
 exclusively, he was often consulted on 
 intricate questions by other attorneys and 
 close friends, and was deemed one of the 
 soundest and safest counselors in North- 
 ern New York. 
 
 Mr. Wheeler became town clerk almost 
 at once upon attaining his majority, then 
 town superintendent of schools, and in 
 1846, by appointment, district attorney. 
 In 1847 he was elected to the latter office 
 on a union ticket headed by a Democrat 
 for county judge. When he became the 
 Whig nominee for the Assembly in 1849 
 that association led to the unfounded 
 charge that he had changed his politics. 
 He was, however, elected, and reelected 
 the year following. In his first term he 
 evinced so great legislative aptitude, and 
 came to be so respected for wise and 
 prudent judgment and for alert grasp of 
 public questions, that admirers proposed 
 him for the speakership the next year, 
 but he had early pledged his support to 
 Henry J. Raymond, and refused to be 
 himself a candidate. Though the prefer- 
 ment was not sought by him, he was 
 
 nevertheless singled out for the floor 
 leadership, and for a merely second-term 
 member received the very unusual honor 
 of assignment to the chairmanship of the 
 committee on ways and means, the duties 
 of which he met with signal ability, and 
 to the pronounced satisfaction of hi> 
 party colleagues. More than any other 
 member, he brought about the election in 
 1851 of Hamilton Fish as United States 
 Senator. 
 
 Refusing a third term, Mr. Wheeler 
 entered the business of banking as cashier 
 of the old State Bank of Malone, a con- 
 nection which was continued for twelve 
 years. In 1853 he became trustee for the 
 mortgage bondholders of the Northern 
 railroad, which made him virtual man- 
 ager of the road for thirteen years, when, 
 upon the order of the Supreme Court in a 
 proceeding which he did not contest, he 
 retired, and by judicial approval and 
 direction turned over the property to in- 
 terests which had acquired a majority of 
 the stock, and which had sought vainly 
 for years to force him out. When he did 
 retire, it was upon his own terms, ap- 
 proved by the court, one of which was 
 that he receive his salary to the end of 
 the term for which he had been appointed 
 trustee, and another that a passenger sta- 
 tion to cost forty thousand dollars be 
 erected at Malone. 
 
 In 1857 Mr. Wheeler was elected to the 
 State Senate as a Republican. He had 
 been active in organizing the Republican 
 party in Franklin county in 1855, and was 
 the first candidate of that organization to 
 receive a majority in the county. The 
 majority was only twelve, but all of the 
 rest of the ticket was beaten. His memo- 
 rable service in the Assembly six years 
 earlier, and the reputation which he had 
 won in the meantime as a lawyer, a keen 
 business manager and a sagacious and 
 trustworthy politician, caused him to be 
 
 184 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 chosen president pro tempore of the Sen- 
 ate, a distinction almost or quite un- 
 paralleled considering that he had never 
 had previous service in the body. A re- 
 nomination for the Senate was declined, 
 and in i860 he was elected to Congress 
 from the Essex-Clinton-Franklin district, 
 serving with usefulness though not con- 
 spicuously, and giving an unswerving 
 support to all war measures and to the 
 general policies of President Lincoln. 
 From the capital, when Congress was in 
 session, he was watchful of all of the vol- 
 unteer organizations in the field from 
 Northern New York, relieving the priva- 
 tions of the men, and obtaining promo- 
 tions where they were deserved, and 
 when at home between sessions, and after 
 his term had expired, for the remaining 
 years of the war, was unceasingly active 
 in forwarding the business of recruiting 
 and stimulating popular support of the 
 L'nion cause. 
 
 In 1867 Mr. Wheeler was elected a dele- 
 gate-at-large to the constitutional conven- 
 tion of that year, and became its presi- 
 dent, materially adding to his reputation 
 as a parliamentarian. The next year and 
 then successively until 1876, he was re- 
 turned to Congress by the St. Lawrence- 
 Franklin district, serving with statesmen 
 and intellectual giants who included 
 James G. Blaine, George F. Hoar, Henry 
 G. Dawes, Benjamin F. Butler, Clarkson 
 N. Potter, James B. Beck, Samuel J. Ran- 
 dall, and Alexander H. Stephens — a nota- 
 ble body. While Mr. Wheeler's part was 
 less manifest to the general public than 
 that of some others, it was not less formu- 
 lative and controlling. His work was 
 largely in the quiet of committees and 
 conferences, respect for his judgment and 
 disinterested sincerity, together with the 
 personal liking entertained for him by his 
 colleagues, both Democrats and Repub- 
 licans, giving him an influence second to 
 
 none. Nearly everybody called him 
 "Father" Wheeler, and sought his advice 
 upon most important measures. Often 
 when a vote was about to be taken there 
 would be a group of members gathered 
 at his desk, and it is not to be doubted 
 that the quiet talks there had determined 
 more votes than all preceding debate 
 combined. He seldom spoke except upon 
 bills under his immediate charge that had 
 been reported from his committees, and 
 then his statement and argument were 
 always lucid and cogent, and commanded 
 close attention. As a parliamentarian he 
 ranked with the best that Congress has 
 ever known. As chairman of Pacific rail- 
 roads in 1S69-72, Mr. Wheeler accom- 
 plished a great work along lines where 
 suspicion was apt to be provoked and 
 where opportunities were present for en- 
 richment, and did it without a breath of 
 scandal attaching to him. 
 
 In 1874, when dual legislatures in 
 Louisiana disputed regularity and legit- 
 imacy, Mr. Wheeler initiated as a mem- 
 ber of a Congressional investigating com- 
 mittee the so-called Wheeler compromise, 
 by which order was restored in the State. 
 Before unfolding his plan to Louisiana 
 parties, he outlined it to President Grant, 
 who listened, but vouchsafed neither in- 
 terest nor approval. After waiting 
 patiently for some expression of opinion 
 by the President, and none being offered, 
 Mr. Wheeler withdrew in anger, and with 
 the determination that his shadow should 
 never again darken the doors of the 
 White House while General Grant occu- 
 pied it. But the next morning the Presi- 
 dent sent for him, and stated that after 
 having taken time to think the matter 
 over he was convinced of the feasibility 
 and justness of the plan, and that the 
 whole power of the government should 
 be employed to carry it through. It suc- 
 ceeded. Mr. Wheeler did not know until 
 
 185 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 months afterward that when he started 
 for New Orleans to unfold his proposition 
 there and urge its adoption, President 
 Grant had given General Sheridan direc- 
 tions that no effort was to be omitted to 
 protect him against every possible dan- 
 ger, and that federal soldiers were to be 
 continually near to interpose between 
 him and rough characters who the Presi- 
 dent thought would not hesitate to take 
 his life if they could do it secretly. 
 
 In 1876 Mr. Wheeler was regarded by 
 many as a possible nominee for the presi- 
 dency, and his selection was urged in 
 some quarters. But he himself never took 
 the matter seriously, and, though not 
 actually in favor of Senator Conkling, ad- 
 vised that he be given the New York 
 delegation without opposition. When 
 Mr. Hayes was named for first place, 
 New York was looked to as the natural 
 and advisable State to furnish the candi- 
 date for the vice-presidency, and Mr. 
 Wheeler was the State's choice. There is 
 no occasion here to argue the merits of 
 the disputed result of the election, but it 
 would be improper not to say that Mr. 
 Wheeler fully believed that his title to 
 the office was unquestionable, and that 
 the decision which gave it to him was "as 
 righteous as an edict of God." Besides 
 the public offices held by Mr. Wheeler, 
 the governorship of New York was in 
 effect declined by him in 1872 because he 
 thought his means insufficient to meet the 
 expense attendant upon incumbency of 
 the office, and in 1879, when Senator 
 Conkling urged him to give countenance 
 prior to the State convention to the move- 
 ment for the nomination of Alonzo B. 
 Cornell, with significant suggestion that 
 if he would take such course it must 
 surely make him United States Senator 
 in 1881 — the suggestion amounting in the 
 circumstances to a promise of suppor f — 
 he rejected the overture because he re- 
 
 garded Mr. Cornell's nomination as un- 
 wise, and also because the proposition 
 carried the appearance of bartering a pub- 
 lic trust. The same proposition came to 
 him again in 1880 as an inducement to 
 him to favor the nomination of General 
 Grant for President for a third term, and 
 was declined by telegraph, with his de- 
 cision based not upon hostility to the 
 nomination, but upon aversion to bar- 
 gaining in such a matter. 
 
 In 1881, when Senators Conkling and 
 Piatt resigned in anger as a protest 
 against the appointment of William H. 
 Robertson over their remonstrance to be 
 collector of the port of New York, and 
 then sought reelection, in the weeks of 
 deadlock that followed, Mr. Wheeler was 
 the leading candidate against Senator 
 Conkling, but refused to go to Albany 
 in his own interest or to do anything for 
 himself, until towards the end he ac- 
 cepted an invitation to visit the capital 
 for a conference with Governor Cornell, 
 the conrlusion of which was that at the 
 opening of the then ensuing week the 
 Governor should announce himself a can- 
 didate against Senator Piatt, with in- 
 dorsement of Mr. Wheeler for the other 
 place. It was believed that this combina- 
 tion would assure success, but before it 
 could be announced, President Garfield 
 was shot, and Governor Cornell withdrew 
 from the arrangement. Even then many 
 of those who were on the inside in the 
 contest had no doubt that Mr. Wheeler 
 might still have been elected if he had 
 consented to certain conditions. Refus- 
 ing to tie himself in any way, he was 
 beaten. Thereafter he had no active par- 
 ticipation in politics except quietly in 
 home matters. Mrs. Wheeler, who was 
 the daughter of William King, and whom 
 he had married in 1845, had died in 1876. 
 Their union was childless, and Mr. 
 Wheeler had no close relative in the 
 186 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 world. He died June 4, 1887, after years 
 of suffering from neuralgia and other 
 painful ailments, the immediate cause of 
 death having been softening of the brain. 
 
 Generosity was as natural to Mr. 
 Wheeler as breathing, and was regularly 
 and frequently exercised. No subscrip- 
 tion paper was ever presented to him for 
 a cause that he thought worthy, that he 
 did not sign in so large an amount as 
 almost shamed the solicitor to accept. 
 Nearly every church in Malone was the 
 recipient of gifts from him, ranging from 
 hve hundred dollars each to ten thousand 
 dollars. For a long time he gave also a 
 thousand dollars annually to missions. 
 Auburn Theological Seminary received 
 three thousand dollars from him, and a 
 gentleman whom he employed shortly be- 
 fore his death to arrange and classify his 
 cancelled checks informed me that for 
 many years it had been his practice to 
 send twenty-five dollars to every church 
 from which any sort of appeal for aid 
 reached him, regardless of denominat : on 
 or location. There were scores of such 
 checks, and as many to societies in the 
 middle or far West as in New York. His 
 benefactions to individuals, and particu- 
 larly to young men seeking education, 
 were innumerable, and must have aggre- 
 gated a great sum. His estate amounted 
 to only about eighty thousand dollars, 
 and with the exception of a few personal 
 bequests, totaling less than ten thousand 
 dollars, all went to home and foreign mis- 
 sions. 
 
 Mr. Wheeler had great magnetism; the 
 clasp of his hand was warm and winning, 
 and even his casual greeting a pleasure to 
 be sought and remembered. As a public 
 speaker he lacked the rhythm and finish 
 of expression, as well as the spontaneous 
 outpouring of thought, that we associate 
 with real oratory, and yet he was one of 
 the most popular, persuasive and force- 
 
 ful men on the stump that it was ever my 
 fortune to hear, while in conference he 
 was emphatic and dominating to a degree. 
 Concerning any serious question, he was 
 always tremendously in earnest, which 
 was one of his elements of strength. 
 Nevertheless, when a plan of action was 
 under consideration, though he was a 
 radical in principle, he was usually con- 
 servative (or ought we to say timid?) in 
 counsel. He himself would have said that 
 he was merely cautious. In all affairs of 
 State and national politics, at least, he ex- 
 emplified an unbending conscientiousness 
 and fidelity to the very highest stand- 
 ards and ideals, and so squared his con- 
 duct. 
 
 If I were to pronounce an opinion con- 
 cerning him as a politician in the broader 
 field, it would be that he lacked aggres- 
 siveness and courage — which, perhaps, is 
 explicable in part by his morbid and per- 
 sistent belief during the last twenty years 
 of his life that his health was precarious, 
 and would break utterly if he were to 
 engage strenuously in any undertaking. 
 To such a degree did this feeling abide 
 that more than once he would have re- 
 signed his seat in Congress, and, as he 
 believed, returned to Malone to die, had 
 it not been for the influence of his wife 
 and the pressure of friends. Possibly it 
 was this element of apprehension that 
 caused him to be passive in the fight 
 against the nomination of Mr. Cornell for 
 Governor in 1879, which he might easily 
 have prevented. But he would not even 
 request the St. Lawrence delegates to 
 vote against Mr. Cornell, though they 
 offered to do so if he should ask it. Bit- 
 terly inimical to Senator Conkling's polit- 
 ical leadership, he nevertheless chose to 
 content himself with sneering at it, and 
 refrained from openly challenging it. As 
 a legislator, there must be great respect 
 for his aptitude, abilities and high pur- 
 
 187 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 poses. To command the leadership of his 
 party in the Assembly while yet a young 
 man, and serving only his second term ; 
 to be chosen president pro tempore of the 
 Senate in his first term ; and to win in 
 Congress a leading place among such 
 men as composed that body in his time, 
 admits of no conclusion but that he had 
 more than ordinary talent and force of 
 character. Greatness in the degree or of 
 the kind that distinguished Seward, Sum- 
 ner, Thaddeus Stevens and others of the 
 giants who were in public life during and 
 immediately after our Civil War, he may 
 have lacked, but his usefulness and influ- 
 ence within his sphere was hardly less 
 than their, while, as regards the cleanli- 
 ness and incorruptibility of his service, no 
 one surpassed him. 
 
 Frederick J. Seaver. 
 
 WHITE, Horace, 
 
 Journalist, Author. 
 
 Horace White, formerly editor-in-chief 
 of "The Evening Post," and vice-presi- 
 dent and president of the New York Even- 
 ing Post Company, was for many years 
 one of the leading journalist of this coun- 
 try, and an authority on financial subjects. 
 Other editors of less genuine worth have 
 attained greater fame than Mr. White, 
 and, by reason of more striking personal- 
 ity or larger fields of activity, have left a 
 deeper immediate impress on their gener- 
 ation. But among those who knew him, 
 probably no other editor was so steady 
 and powerful an influence for sound, 
 honorable journalism. Mr. White was 
 one of the last of the famous group of 
 New York journalists which included 
 Charles A. Dana, Whitelaw Reid, and 
 several others, and was a personal friend 
 of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Mr. White was reared under the teach- 
 ings and example of sturdy ancestors of 
 New England blood, and he exemplified in 
 
 marked degree those qualities which led 
 people to cross a wide ocean and locate 
 in a wilderness because of their princi- 
 ples. The earliest ancestor of the branch 
 of the family here under consideration of 
 whom there is definite information was 
 Thomas White, who came to this country 
 from England in 1642. Benjamin White, 
 youngest son of Joseph and Lucy White, 
 great-great-great-grandson of Thomas, 
 was born in Templeton, Massachusetts, 
 July 3, 1783, baptized July 27, 1783, in 
 Templeton, and shortly after attaining 
 manhood settled in Bethlehem, New 
 Hampshire, where his death occurred 
 August 31, 1820. He married Betsey 
 Wilder, born in 1791, in Massachusetts, 
 daughter of Willis and Relief (Wheelock) 
 Wilder. Willis Wilder was baptized De- 
 cember 5, 1756, in Leominster, son of Jo- 
 seph and Elizabeth (Hayward) Wilder, 
 of Lunenburg, a descendant of Thomas 
 (2) Wilder, the American immigrant. He 
 married, December 20, 1778, in Lancaster, 
 Relief Wheelock, and four of their chil- 
 dren were baptized in that town, Septem- 
 ber 25, 1785. Subsequently he resided in 
 Templeton, whence he removed in 1796 
 to Bethlehem, New Hampshire, and there 
 passed the remainder of his days. 
 
 Dr. Horace White, son of Benjamin 
 and Betsey (Wilder) White, was born in 
 Bethlehem, New Hampshire, in 1810. 
 After attendance at the schools of his 
 native town, he pursued a course of study 
 in medicine, received his degree of Doctor 
 of Medicine from Dartmouth College, and 
 practiced his profession successfully, first 
 in Colebrook, New Hampshire, where he 
 resided until 1837, then in Beloit, Wiscon- 
 sin, whither he removed, and where his 
 death occurred in the year 1843, at the 
 early age of thirty-three years, in the 
 very prime of manhood. He was well 
 and favorably known among his profes- 
 sional brethren, and was an active, public- 
 spirited citizen. In 1833 he married Eliz- 
 188 
 
/V^r^c.^ fJ^ltX*- 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 abeth McClary Moore, born in Bedford, 
 New Hampshire, in 1808, daughter of 
 William Moore, a soldier in the War of 
 the Revolution. 
 
 Horace (2) White, son of Dr. Horace 
 and Elizabeth McClary (Moore) White, 
 was born in Colebrook, New Hampshire, 
 August 10, 1834. He was reared in Be- 
 loit, Wisconsin, whither his parents re- 
 moved when he was three years of age. 
 He prepared for college in S. T. Merrill's 
 school at Beloit, and graduated from Be- 
 loit College in 1853, receiving the degree 
 of Bachelor of Arts, and in 1906 Brown 
 University conferred upon him the honor- 
 ary degree of Doctor of Laws. His first 
 newspaper experience was with "The Chi- 
 cago Evening Journal," of which he soon 
 became city editor. In 1857 he joined the 
 staff of "The Chicago Tribune," of which 
 he was editor, 1864-1874, and one of the 
 principal owners when he severed his con- 
 nection with the paper in the latter year. 
 He early made his influence felt in the 
 city of Chicago, and he brought to New 
 York City the continental view of affairs, 
 not always found on the Atlantic sea- 
 board. The interest of the entire coun- 
 try, rather than that of any particular 
 community or section, was ever upper- 
 most in his mind. In 1883 Mr. White 
 came to New York City and joined the 
 staff of "The Evening Post" as an edi- 
 torial writer. Later he became editor-in- 
 chief and head of the company, retiring 
 on January 1, 1903, and from that time 
 until his death he resided quietly at his 
 home, No. 18 West Sixty-ninth street. 
 During these years his writings on finan- 
 cial subjects had brought him prominence 
 and he was regarded as a leading author- 
 ity on such matters. And while what he 
 wrote about finance was best known as 
 his own, the sturdy common sense and 
 fairness which he brought to bear on most 
 problems of his day were the outstanding 
 characteristics of the man that made him 
 
 a vital factor in newspaper making. Car- 
 ing little or not at all for the great-editor 
 journalism of his active days, he strove 
 with unflagging earnestness and courage 
 to get at the truth, regardless of tempo- 
 rary consequences. A free trader by in- 
 stinct and training, he was not afraid to 
 face and acknowledge the facts, notably 
 those brought out in the infancy of the 
 American tin-plate industry, that served 
 the cause of protection. A man of power- 
 ful convictions, he was able to see and 
 appreciate merits in the personal objects 
 of his criticism. Mr. White's specialty 
 was political economy, and he was an 
 expert writer on the money question and 
 on banking. He used his forceful pen to 
 combat all financial delusions, notably the 
 greenback movement and the free-silver 
 movement. The effectiveness of his writ- 
 ings was due largely to the clearness and 
 simplicity of his style, and to a remark- 
 able facility in homely illustration which 
 made his point clear even to the most un- 
 informed reader. 
 
 Joseph C. Hendrix, a representative 
 banker, bore testimony to Mr. White's 
 accomplishments in these words : 
 
 There has never been such turbulent economic 
 thinking in the course of the world's history 
 as that which we have known in the past two 
 generations. * * * First, the question of the 
 greenbacks; then, in all its collateral issues, the 
 depreciated silver dollar, then international 
 bimetallism, and various suggestions of ratios, 
 until finally the victory was won in behalf of the 
 gold standard, bringing us into relation with all 
 of the civilization of the earth; and throughout 
 all these days we had the patient schoolmaster, 
 who, without harangue, without any attempted 
 eloquence, sat upon his editorial tripod, and 
 attacked one fallacy after another as it made its 
 appearance in public debate and public discus- 
 sion and saw the full effulgence of the victory, 
 and did not once say "Throw a rose at me." 
 
 It has been my fortune to know of the value 
 of this gentleman's work, and to be able to 
 measure it. It is my privilege and my honor to 
 be able here, in behalf not only of the bankers 
 of New York, but in behalf of the bankers of 
 
 i8y 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 the United States, to testify (turning to Mr. 
 White) to your splendid services in the final 
 establishment of the gold standard in this coun- 
 try. 
 
 Mr. White was the author of various 
 standard works, including "Money and 
 Banking, Illustrated by American His- 
 tory," first published by Ginn & Company, 
 Boston, Massachusetts, 1895, and which 
 reached its fifth edition in 1912 ; a transla- 
 tion from the Greek in two volumes of 
 "The Roman History of Appian of Alex- 
 andria," published by the Macmillan Com- 
 pany, 1899, and republished in the Loeb 
 Classical Library, and "The Life of Lyman 
 Trumbull," published by Houghton-Mif- 
 flin Company, 1913. In addition, Mr. 
 White was the editor of Bastiat's "Sophis- 
 tries Economiques," published in 1876, and 
 Luigi Cossa's "Scienza delle Finanze," 
 published in 1889. In 1909 Governor 
 Hughes appointed Mr. White chairman 
 of the New York State Commission on 
 Speculation and Commodities, and he 
 served with distinction during the life of 
 the commission. Mr. White was a mem- 
 ber of the Century, Republican, Univer- 
 sity and City clubs, and of the Sons of the 
 American Revolution. 
 
 Mr. White married (first) April 19, 
 1859, at New Haven, Connecticut, Mar- 
 tha Hale Root, daughter of David and 
 Mary (Gordon) Root. He married (sec- 
 ond) February 4, 1875, at Chicago, Illi- 
 nois, Amelia J. MacDougall, daughter of 
 James T. and Abby (McGinnis) Mac- 
 Dougall. Children, born of second mar- 
 riage: Amelia Elizabeth, August 28, 1878; 
 Abby MacDougall, March 10, 1880; Mar- 
 tha Root, March 10, 1881. 
 
 Mr. White died September 16, 1916, at 
 his home in New York City, mourned not 
 only by his immediate family, but by all 
 with whom he was brought in contact, 
 whether in public or private life. The 
 funeral services were conducted in the 
 
 Cathedral of St. John the Divine by the 
 Rev. Robert Ellis Jones, canon of the 
 Cathedral, and the interment took place 
 in Graceland Cemetery, Chicago. 
 
 LOW, Seth, 
 
 Louder in Civio and Educational Affairs. 
 
 Seth Low, formerly mayor of New 
 York City, died at his country home, 
 Broad Brook Farm, near Bedford Hills, 
 New York, September 17, 1916. Twice 
 mayor of the city of Brooklyn, to which 
 office he was elected on the Independent 
 and Republican tickets, mayor of New 
 York, 1901-03, being elected on the Fu- 
 sion ticket, and for eleven years presi- 
 dent of Columbia University, Mr. Low 
 was prominently identified with New 
 York affairs for more than thirty years. 
 In addition, he was nationally prominent 
 as an educator and in offices to which he 
 was appointed by various presidents. 
 
 Mr. Low was born January 18, 1850, 
 in Brooklyn, New York, son of Abiel 
 Abbot and Ellen Almira (Dow) Low. 
 His ancestors were among the earliest 
 settlers of Massachusetts, his grandfather, 
 a Harvard student, coming to New York 
 City in 1828. His father, who was presi- 
 dent of the Chamber of Commerce, 1863- 
 66, founded a great business here in tea 
 and silk, and at one time had more than 
 a dozen clipper ships engaged in the 
 China trade. 
 
 Seth Low attended the Brooklyn Poly- 
 technic Institute, and in his sixteenth 
 year entered Columbia College, from 
 which he was graduated four years later, 
 at the head of his class, with the degree 
 of Bachelor of Arts. During his last year 
 in college he attended lectures in the Co- 
 lumbia Law School, but did not complete 
 the course. Immediately after gradua- 
 tion, Mr. Low made an extended trip 
 abroad, from which he returned to be- 
 
 190 
 
■ r /A^ir 
 
 \ 
 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 come a clerk for his father's firm, A. A. 
 Low & Brothers. He was admitted to 
 partnership in the firm in 1875, and upon 
 the retirement of his father in 1S79, he 
 was among the partners who succeeded 
 to the business, which was finally liqui- 
 dated in 1887. Meanwhile he had become 
 a member of the Chamber of Commerce, 
 in which he soon became useful, fre- 
 quently serving upon important commit- 
 tees, and at times delivering addresses 
 which commanded attention. At the age 
 of thirty he began to take an active inter- 
 est in Brooklyn politics, organizing in 
 1880 the Young Republican Club, which 
 supported the candidacy of Garfield and 
 Arthur, and materially reduced the usual 
 Democratic majorities of Brooklyn. Mr. 
 Low won more than a local celebrity as a 
 public speaker during this campaign, and 
 from the first identified himself with re- 
 form movements, becoming a . stalwart 
 opponent of machine methods and politi- 
 cal corruption. Despite his youth, there- 
 fore, it was a natural selection when one 
 year later he was taken up as the reform 
 candidate for mayor of Brooklyn. He 
 was triumphantly elected, and, as the re- 
 sult of a highly successful administra- 
 tion, marked by various salutary reform 
 measures, among which was that of com- 
 petitive examination for appointment to 
 municipal positions, he was reelected in 
 1883, leaving the office in 1886 with a 
 national reputation as a practical reformer 
 and exponent of honest municipal admin- 
 istration. 
 
 After his retirement from his second 
 term as mayor, in 1887, Mr. Low again 
 visited Europe, where he spent several 
 years in travel. In 1890 he was called to 
 the presidency of Columbia College (of 
 which he had been a trustee), in succes- 
 sion to Dr. F. A. P. Barnard, and which 
 position he occupied with distinguished 
 usefulness until 1901, when he left it to 
 
 become mayor of the City of Greater New 
 York. Immediately upon taking up his 
 duties as president of Columbia College, 
 he began to infuse new life into that ven- 
 erable institution, and his entire manage- 
 ment was marked by most wise judg- 
 ment. The several instructional depart- 
 ments which had been maintained inde- 
 pendently of each other were organically 
 united and brought under the control of 
 a university council created for that spe- 
 cific purpose. In the following year the 
 old historic College of Physicians and 
 Surgeons was brought within the univer- 
 sity corporation, and the School of Mines 
 was broadened into the Schools of Ap- 
 plied Science. The university had been 
 so expanded by the year 1S92 that the 
 old buildings had become inadequate, and 
 a change of location was determined 
 upon. A committee recommended the 
 site of the old Bloomingdale Asylum for 
 the Insane, on the Morningside Park 
 Heights, valued at more than two million 
 dollars, which amount was paid by the 
 year 1894 — a result in large measure due 
 to the persistent interest of President 
 Low — and seven and a half million dol- 
 lars were expended in the erection of the 
 new buildings. The efficiency of the uni- 
 versity was further enhanced by the 
 establishment of the Columbia Union 
 Press, for the publication of historic and 
 scientific documents, after the manner of 
 the Oxford Clarendon Press of England. 
 President Low's benefactions during this 
 period were most princely. He gave to 
 the university, in 1894, the sum of ten 
 thousand dollars for the endowment of a 
 classical chair in honor of his former 
 teacher, Professor Henry Drisler ; in 1895 
 he gave a million dollars for the erection 
 of the new university library ; and in 
 recognition of his munificence the trus- 
 tees established twelve university scholar- 
 ships for Brooklyn boys, and twelve in 
 191 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Barnard College for Brooklyn girls, be- 
 sides establishing eight annual university 
 scholarships. In 1896 President Low 
 gave ten thousand dollars to Barnard Col- 
 lege, and five thousand dollars to the New 
 York Kindergarten Association. 
 
 In the meantime he was busy with 
 varied benevolent and charitable labors. 
 In 1893, during the cholera epidemic, he 
 rendered useful service as chairman of a 
 committee appointed by the New York 
 Chamber of Commerce to aid the authori- 
 ties in precautionary measures, and the 
 quarantine camp established at Sandy 
 Hook by the national government was 
 named Camp Low in his honor. In 1894, 
 in association with his brother, Abbot 
 Augustus Low, he built and presented to 
 the mission station of the Protestant 
 Episcopal church in Wu Chang, China, a 
 completely equipped hospital for the use 
 of the mission, and named in memory of 
 their father. 
 
 In 1901 Mr. Low resigned from the 
 presidency of Columbia University, but 
 continued as a trustee until July, 1914, 
 when he ended his connection with the 
 board, after serving for thirty-two years. 
 
 In 1897 Mr. Low entered politics in 
 New York City, at which time he was 
 selected by the leaders of the reform 
 movement to head the municipal ticket 
 for mayor. The Republicans, however, 
 placed a ticket in the field, and the reform 
 party was defeated by Tammany. In 
 spite of his defeat, he continued his work 
 for reform,, and then, in 1899, President 
 McKinley appointed him one of the dele- 
 gates from this country to the Peace Con- 
 ference at The Hague. He took a promi- 
 nent part in the deliberations of this body, 
 and his services were highly commended 
 by its president. In 1901 Mr. Low again 
 ran for mayor in the reform movement, 
 and was elected by a large majority, 
 which position he held for two years, 
 
 fully sustaining his reputation as an 
 executive, governed by the highest possi- 
 ble standards. After his retirement from 
 that high office, he busied himself with 
 personal affairs, giving a large share of 
 his attention to benevolent and charitable 
 causes, which always commanded his 
 interest. Mr. Low was prominent as an 
 arbitrator in labor questions, and held a 
 number of quasi-public offices. In No- 
 vember, 1914, President Wilson appointed 
 him one of the commission of three to 
 investigate the coal strike in Colorado. 
 In the same year he was elected president 
 of the Chamber of Commerce, in which he 
 was especially active after the outbreak 
 of the European war. He was chairman 
 of the board of trustees of Tuskegee In- 
 stitute, and identified with several other 
 institutions. 
 
 Mr. Low was interested in several cor- 
 porations. He was president and a direc- 
 tor of the Bedford Farmers' Cooperative 
 Association, and a trustee of the Carne- 
 gie Institution of Washington. In addi- 
 tion he was president of the Archaeologi- 
 cal Institute of America ; the Geographi- 
 cal Society of New York, having suc- 
 ceeded Charles P. Daly in 1900; a mem- 
 ber of the New York Academy of Politi- 
 cal Science ; president of the American 
 Asiatic Society, and of the National Civic 
 Federation. He was a member of the 
 New England Society and the Society of 
 Mayflower Descendants, and belonged to 
 the Century, City, Republican, Down 
 Town, Authors', Barnard and Columbia 
 University clubs of New York, and the 
 Hamilton Club of Brooklyn. He received 
 the degree of Doctor of Laws from Am- 
 herst College in 1889; from the Univer- 
 sity of the State of New York, from Har- 
 vard University, from the University of 
 Pennsylvania, and from Trinity College, 
 in 1890; from Princeton University in 
 1896; from Yale University in 1901 ; and 
 192 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 from the University of Edinburgh, Scot- 
 land, in 1910. 
 
 Mr. Low married, December 9, 1880, 
 Annie Wroe Scollay Curtis, of Boston, 
 daughter of Justice Benjamin Robbins 
 Curtis, of the United States Supreme 
 Court. 
 
 At the time of his death, public ex- 
 pressions of sorrow were many and fer- 
 vent, and the press of the city gave an 
 unusual amount of space to editorial 
 notices of this sad event. At a joint meet- 
 ing of the Board of Aldermen and of the 
 Board of Estimate and Apportionment 
 the following preamble and resolution, 
 presented by the president of the Board 
 of Aldermen, was adopted: 
 
 Seth Low, ex-Mayor of the City of New York, 
 is no more. Divine Providence has called him 
 from his earthly career, leaving behind a record 
 of integrity, devotion to duty and faithfulness to 
 all the claims which public life made upon him. 
 
 A foremost citizen, great public character and 
 in the public life of the city of New York a lead- 
 ing force, he will be missed. During his ex- 
 tended period of service he took a most useful 
 and active part in the affairs of the city, State 
 and nation, to each of which he gave uninter- 
 ruptedly and unstintingly of the talent and 
 genius with which nature had freely endowed 
 him. 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of the Honorable 
 Seth Low, the city of New York, the State and 
 the nation have suffered an especial and very 
 great loss. In him was recognized one of the 
 country's greatest and most conscientious public 
 servants. 
 
 In commenting on the death of Mr. 
 Low, Mayor Mitchel said : 
 
 Seth Low was an exceptionally useful citizen. 
 He was always ready to give his effective help 
 to any movement which affected the welfare 
 of this city. During his term as Mayor he 
 accomplished things upon which his successors 
 in the city government have been building ever 
 since. This administration especially is grateful 
 to him for his cooperation with it. To me per- 
 sonally his death is a very great loss, for I 
 always found him a strong and courageous 
 friend and a valued counsellor. 
 
 Through his death the cause of non-partisan- 
 ship in city government loses its most distin- 
 guished advocate. Not alone is this city indebted 
 to him for his work as a pioneer non-partisan 
 Mayor, but the movement for non-partisan 
 municipal administration throughout the country 
 has been profoundly influenced by his efforts. 
 
 At this time of labor unrest it is especially fit- 
 ting that attention be called to Mr. Low's con- 
 tribution to the cause of industrial peace through 
 the method of arbitration. Labor and capital 
 found in him a just judge and the public interest 
 a devoted champion. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt expressed sorrow 
 concerning the death of Mr. Low as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Seth Low was a man of high attainments, a 
 man who rendered distinguished service to his 
 fellow men. He was a most potent factor in the 
 fight for good government. I deeply mourn his 
 death. 
 
 WERNER, William E., 
 
 Jurist. 
 
 Throughout the wide range of Judge 
 Werner's professional fame, his memory 
 will be revered because of his learning in 
 the law, his wise discretion as a magis- 
 trate and his courage and independence 
 in the performance of the highest judicial 
 duties — the interpretation of the State's 
 fundamental law. These aspects of his 
 remarkable career are a cherished testi- 
 monial to the opportunities of American 
 democracy, and to the realization of a 
 series of such opportunities by a youth 
 who was poor in all else but heart and 
 mind. In them Rochester has its share 
 of pleasure and pride, for it was there that 
 the foundations of the career of Judge 
 Werner were laid, and from there that 
 he was preferred to his last and highest 
 judicial distinction. 
 
 But when all is said of the eminence 
 and fame of William E. Werner as a 
 lawyer and judge, when full account is 
 taken of his unique and inspiring advance, 
 
 N Y— Vol II— 13 
 
 193 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 through patience, industry and self-denial, 
 from humble to lofty estate in his pro- 
 fession, there still remains something un- 
 said, for Judge Werner enjoyed in rare 
 measure the respect, the esteem and the 
 admiration of the citizens of Rochester. 
 The fact is even more patent and im- 
 pressive that he was held there in a deep 
 and enduring affection that owed nothing 
 to his professional talents or achieve- 
 ments. He was loved for himself, as a 
 friend, a companion, a welcome partner 
 in happiness and a comforting sharer in 
 sorrow. Men of great gifts and accom- 
 plishments found pleasure in his society, 
 and among his friends there were many 
 of these. But it was his fortunate en- 
 dowment to be happy and to be able to 
 share happiness alike with those who had 
 much in intellectual treasure to give, and 
 with those who had little or none. Mod- 
 est, simple, genuine, always and alto- 
 gether true, he "sat an equal guest at 
 every board," and in the rich glow of his 
 companionship every other guest became 
 a friend. 
 
 William E. Werner was born in Buf- 
 falo, New York, April 19, 1855, died in 
 Rochester, New York, March 1, 1916, son 
 of William and Magdalina Werner. He 
 was early left an orphan and although he 
 attended public schools in Buffalo until 
 fourteen years of age, he at the same time 
 was obliged to earn and provide his own 
 means of living. He was not a strong 
 boy, and after an attempt at learning the 
 molder's trade, sought employment on a 
 farm near Buffalo, hoping to build up 
 a stronger physique in the purer and 
 healthier surroundings of a farm. He 
 worked for board, clothing and the privi- 
 lege of attending district school during 
 the winter term for one year, and did 
 improve greatly in health and strength, 
 also developing during the school term 
 an intense purpose to in some way secure 
 a eood education. He returned to Buffalo 
 
 and began contriving ways and means by 
 which he might support himself and ad- 
 vance in mental acquirement at the same 
 time. For several years he worked in the 
 tin-stamping mill of the Sidney Shepard 
 Company, taking evening courses at the 
 Bryant & Stratton Business College in 
 bookkeeping and commercial law, admis- 
 sion to the Mechanics' Institute giving 
 him access to the library of that institu- 
 tion, a privilege freely used. He next 
 secured a position as clerk and book- 
 keeper with L. Holzburn & C. Laney, 
 wholesale grocers, continuing self-educa- 
 tion during the years till 1877, when he 
 located in Rochester for the purpose of 
 reading law. In June, of that year, he 
 became a student in the law office of Wil- 
 liam H. Bowman, studied under him one 
 year, then transferred to the office of D. 
 C. Feely. 
 
 In the summer of 1879 ne was appointed 
 clerk of the Municipal Court, there win- 
 ning a host of friends among the lawyers 
 and business men who appreciated his 
 efficiency. In 1880 he reached the goal of 
 his boyish ambition and was admitted to 
 the bar, being then twenty-five years of 
 age. He had financed his own education, 
 earned his own living, and if ever a man 
 had risen from lowly position through his 
 own unaided efforts, it was he. He had 
 won all the preliminary skirmishes in the 
 battle of life, and immediately upon his 
 admission to the Monroe county bar in 
 1880 he resigned his clerkship in the Mu- 
 nicipal Court and threw himself into the 
 competitive struggle for position at that 
 bar. He joined forces with Henry J. Het- 
 zel, and as Hetzel & Werner the firm 
 quickly sprang into prominence, a fact 
 largely due to Mr. Werner's eloquent and 
 forcible presentation of their cases to 
 juries. He had taken an active part in 
 local politics as a Republican and already 
 established a reputation county-wide as 
 an eloquent speaker. 
 
 94 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 The next four years, 1880-84, were spent 
 in successful practice and a brilliant career 
 rit the bar was foreshadowed, when he 
 was named for the office of special county 
 judge by the Republican county conven- 
 tion. At the November election, 1884, he 
 was chosen county judge by a majority 
 of seven thousand over an opponent who 
 the previous year had been defeated for 
 district attorney of Monroe county by but 
 one hundred votes. He took his seat, one 
 of the youngest judges in New York 
 State, but soon established a reputation 
 for sound judgment, legal learning, fair- 
 ness and strict devotion to duty which 
 won, not only professional, but public 
 confidence. In 1887 he was reelected 
 without opposition, his opponent with- 
 drawing from the contest a few days 
 prior to the election. In 1889, having 
 served five years as special county judge, 
 he was elected county judge, nominated 
 by the Republican and endorsed by the 
 Democratic conventions, a tribute to his 
 worth and popularity seldom bestowed. 
 His administration of the office was popu- 
 lar and satisfactory. He possessed in a 
 high degree the quality that is known 
 among lawyers as "the judicial mind." 
 While upon the county court bench, Judge 
 Werner was dignified, without affecta- 
 tion ; accommodating, yet impartial ; pa- 
 tient, yet firm. Out of the court room he 
 was one of the most approachable of men. 
 Always courteous as presiding judge in 
 the court of sessions, Judge Werner was 
 brought into close contact with many 
 whose lives had been embittered and sad- 
 dened by the criminal tendencies of rela- 
 tives and friends. These poor unfortu- 
 nates always found a friend in Judge 
 Werner, who was always ready to assist 
 and advise them as far as he could con- 
 sistently with the performance of his ju- 
 dicial duties. 
 
 To those who followed Judge Werner 
 
 and his record during the preceding ten 
 years, it was not strange therefore that 
 when by the death of Justice Macomber 
 a vacancy was created upon the Supreme 
 Court bench Judge Werner became the 
 recognized candidate of many lawyers 
 and a large majority of the people for 
 judicial prominence. Almost immediately 
 following the appointment of Judge Yeo- 
 man to fill the vacancy for the year, the 
 canvass of the county was commenced by 
 the friends of the two judges. The con- 
 test promised to be spirited, but after a 
 few of the primaries were held in June, it 
 was predicted that Judge Werner would 
 easily carry the county. This prophecy 
 was more than fulfilled, for after the votes 
 were counted, it was found that he had 
 succeeded in carrying every one of the 
 thirty-nine towns and wards in Monroe 
 county. As a natural consequence the 
 other counties, which conceded the right 
 of Monroe county to name the candidate, 
 followed her example, and the result was 
 shown in the unanimous nomination of 
 Judge Werner in the convention of 1894. 
 
 Judge Werner took his seat on the 
 bench of the Supreme Court, January 1, 
 1895, holding court in the eight counties 
 of the judicial district. In the higher 
 courts he showed the same characteris- 
 tics, combining judicial knowledge with 
 courtesy, until he became as popular in 
 the seven rural counties as he was in the 
 towns of Monroe county. He made hun- 
 dreds of warm friends in the districts who 
 then felt a personal interest in his still 
 higher promotion to the Court of Appeals. 
 Judge Werner was assigned frequently 
 to work in New York City, which enabled 
 him to widen his acquaintance and made 
 him as well known to the bar of the 
 metropolis as to the local bar. 
 
 In 1900 Governor Roosevelt designated 
 Judge Werner as an Associate Judge of 
 the Court of Appeals, stating that it was 
 
 195 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 a well-earned recognition of the services 
 he rendered as presiding justice at the 
 sessions of the special grand jury which 
 indicted violators of the election law of 
 New York City in the election of 1899. 
 In November, 1904, Judge Werner was 
 nominated for the office of Associate 
 Judge of the Court of Appeals on the Re- 
 publican ticket, and endorsed by the 
 Democrats. He was elected for the full 
 term of fourteen years. He was the Re- 
 publican candidate for Chief Judge of 
 the Court of Appeals in the election of 
 November, 1913. He was defeated by a 
 plurality of little over one thousand votes 
 by Judge Willard Bartlett, of Brooklyn, 
 who was the Democratic and Independ- 
 ence League candidate. 
 
 During the last year of his life Judge 
 Werner spent but little time on the bench, 
 owing to a weakened physical condition. 
 The winter of 1914 he partly spent in 
 Florida, returning to again sit upon the 
 bench of the Court of Appeals on his 
 birthday, April 19. During the summer 
 of 191 5 he spent a month in Canada, but 
 in October he had become so weakened 
 that his physicians resorted to blood 
 transfusion, his brother and daughters 
 volunteering for that service and later 
 students from Rochester Theological Sem- 
 inary. But the fiat had gone forth and a 
 few months later the just and upright 
 Judge, the loving husband, father and 
 friend, closed his earthly career. 
 
 Judge Werner held life memberships in 
 Rochester Lodge, No. 660, Free and Ac- 
 cepted Masons ; Hamilton Chapter, No. 
 62, Royal Arch Masons ; Monroe Com- 
 mandery, No. 12, Knights Templar; was 
 a member of Aurora Lodge, Independent 
 Order of Odd Fellows, the National Geo- 
 graphic Society, the Fort Orange Club 'of 
 Albany, the Society of the Genesee, the 
 Genesee Valley and Rochester Country 
 clubs, and was an elder of the Third Pres- 
 
 byterian Church. He was also secretary 
 and a director of the Stecher Lithographic 
 Company, director of the German-Ameri- 
 can Insurance Company and the Reynolds 
 Library, and a trustee of the Security 
 Trust Company. 
 
 Judge Werner married in Buffalo, 
 March 7, 1889, Lillie Boiler, who survives 
 him with three daughters— Clara Louise, 
 Marie and Caroline — residing at 399 Ox- 
 ford street, Rochester. 
 
 Judge Werner's career at the bar and 
 on the bench of the various county and 
 State courts was long and highly honor- 
 able. He came to his judicial work when 
 comparatively a young man, but was 
 versed in the intricacies of the law, as he 
 had been taught at the feet of the most 
 eminent disciples of Blackstone and Coke 
 that the State has ever produced. In addi- 
 tion to profound knowledge of the law, 
 he brought to his judicial work an endow- 
 ment of sterling integrity the lack of 
 which in the judicial office cannot be 
 compensated by even the highest tech- 
 nical knowledge. 
 
 As a man and a citizen Judge Werner 
 was singularly approachable, and he had 
 hosts of warm personal friends. He had 
 an old-fashioned but courtly manner, 
 which made him a delightful companion, 
 and endeared him to all with whom he 
 came in contact, and there are no men in 
 any community who have stronger or 
 more constant personal friends. As a 
 law-giver he ever maintained the dignity 
 of the judicial office ; and throughout his 
 career upheld unfailingly its best tradi- 
 tions. More than that, by his example 
 and his precepts he did much to inspire 
 in the minds of the people that respect for 
 courts of justice, and that popular confi- 
 dence in the righteous administration of 
 the laws, which form, the cornerstone of 
 the institutions of a free people. His 
 opinions are distinguished not alone for 
 96 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 their learning, but also for the lucidity of 
 their expression. He was the master of 
 an English style, pure, graceful and tell- 
 ing. He had the literary touch, and was 
 the orator par excellence on many lettered 
 and patriotic occasions ; and the honored 
 guest at many banquets at which he 
 shone "a bright, particular star." 
 
 As a man, Judge Werner's personality 
 was portrayed by the Monroe county 
 delegate who put him in nomination for 
 Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals : 
 
 The candidate for chief judge I have the honor 
 to name represents my ideal of a judge. He is 
 not an intellectual prodigy, but just a harmo- 
 nious blending of the human and the intellectual, 
 a union of discretion and firmness, a combina- 
 tion of strength, moderation, learning and indus- 
 try. That is a fair picture of William E. 
 Werner. 
 
 Tempered by the fires of early adversity, de- 
 prived in childhood of his parents, and tried in 
 the school of experience, he has stood that test 
 in one judicial office after another. He comes 
 from the heart of the people. His early strug- 
 gles against poverty have been to him a finer 
 inheritance than wealth. He knows the value 
 of character and friendship and has proved his 
 right to both. 
 
 Among the public tributes paid the de- 
 parted jurist, the following display the 
 general feeling toward him at the time of 
 his death. At the opening of the Court 
 of Appeals, Chief Judge Willard Bart- 
 lett, speaking of the death of Associate 
 Judge William E. Werner, said : 
 
 We meet to-day in deep sorrow. Our beloved 
 and admired senior associate, Judge William E. 
 Werner, of Rochester, died in that city this 
 morning. He had endured a long illness bravely 
 and patiently. 
 
 The loss which his death inflicts upon the pub- 
 lic service of the State at this time is great, 
 indeed. It will always be a source of satisfac- 
 tion to me, that, nothwithstanding our rivalry 
 for promotion in 1913, no shade or shadow ever 
 came between us; and that no one has assisted 
 me more warmly or heartily or unselfishly than 
 
 William E. Werner in bearing the burdens and 
 discharging the responsibilities of my present 
 office. 
 
 In accordance with precedent, the court will 
 adjourn over the day of the funeral to enable his 
 associates to attend the services. 
 
 His associates in the Court of Appeals 
 were too overcome with emotion to dis- 
 cuss the death of their colleague, but 
 resolutions of respect were adopted. In 
 the Assembly, Majority Leader Adler and 
 Minority Leader Callahan spoke feelingly 
 of the merits of Judge Werner. The As- 
 sembly then adjourned in his honor. Sen- 
 ator Argetsinger and Majority Leader 
 Brown, of the Senate, also expressed re- 
 grets in feeling terms and the Senate also 
 adjourned. In Supreme Court, Justice 
 Benton responded to a suggestion of At- 
 torney Eugene J. Dwyer, and ordered 
 that a memorial to Judge Werner be 
 spread on the court records. He said in 
 part : "He achieved much for the cause 
 of justice. His life was filled with honors 
 justly earned." 
 
 In county court, Judge Stephens paid 
 tribute: "His career furnishes an illus- 
 tration of what may be accomplished by 
 industry and fidelity to a purpose ; these 
 brought to him the high place of honor 
 that he held, and his kindly personality 
 won for him a warm place in the hearts 
 of all with whom he came in contact." 
 Former Court of Appeals Judge Vann 
 said: "In the death of Judge Werner the 
 bench has lost an able and accomplished 
 jurist, the State a public-spirited and use- 
 ful citizen. Judge Werner was a clear 
 and original thinker, an indefatigable 
 worker and a careful student. He had 
 an unusual facility of expression and his 
 opinions rank among the best, both for 
 their soundness of reasoning and their 
 literary style. Ease in writing sometimes 
 leads to careless thinking, but he always 
 considered what he wrote so carefully 
 
 197 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 that neither he nor the court had to re- 
 tract obiter statements made by him. At 
 such a time one thinks more of the quali- 
 ties of the heart than of the head. He 
 was a delightful companion, an agreeable 
 associate, a lovable friend, a manly man." 
 Nathan L. Miller, also a former judge of 
 the Court of Appeals said : "His opinions 
 will be read and studied by the bar for 
 generations. His warm heart and noble 
 nature endeared him to all who had the 
 privilege of association with him." Jus- 
 tice William S. Andrews, of Onondaga 
 county, said : "He was an able and effi- 
 cient judge and one of the strongest mem- 
 bers of the Court of Appeals. His death 
 is a great loss to it and to the bar of the 
 State." Justice Leonard C. Crouch, of 
 Syracuse, said: "Judge Werner's death 
 deprives the State of one of its ablest 
 jurists. His opinions, particularly in 
 more recent years, have been models of 
 legal reasoning and pure, concise Eng- 
 lish." Rev. Charles C. Albertson said: 
 "We grieve with you the loss of a noble, 
 Christian gentleman." 
 
 From hundreds of men, eminent in the 
 professions, in business and in public life 
 came similar expressions, a general and 
 genuine wave of appreciation and regret. 
 
 PECKHAM, Rufus W., 
 
 Congressman, Lawyer, Jurist. 
 
 Rufus Wheeler Peckham was born at 
 Rensselaerville, Albany county. New 
 York, December 20, 1809, fifth son of 
 Peleg and Desire (Watson) Peckham. 
 The first American ancestor, John Peck- 
 ham (died 1681), was married to Mary 
 Clarke ; their son John (born 1645, died 
 1712), was married to Sarah Newport; 
 their son Benjamin (born 1684. died 
 1761), was married to Mary Carr, Sep- 
 tember 23, 1708, and their son Benjamin 
 (born 1715, died 1792), was married to 
 
 Mary Hazard, March 2, 1737, who be- 
 came the grandmother of the subject of 
 this sketch. Peleg Peckham, a farmer and 
 a man of great integrity, removed to 
 Otsego county, near Cooperstown, New 
 York, early in the nineteenth century. 
 Rufus W. Peckham attended Hartwick 
 Seminary and Union College, where he 
 was graduated in 1827. He then removed 
 to Utica and read law in the office of G. 
 C. Bronson and Samuel Beardsley, sub- 
 sequently Chief Justices of the Supreme 
 Court of New York. Mr. Peckham was 
 admitted to the bar in 1830, and entered 
 into partnership with his brother George, 
 in Albany, New York. In 1839 he was 
 appointed by Governor Marcy district 
 attorney of the county of Albany, in 
 which capacity he served until 1841. He 
 was elected to the Thirty-third Congress 
 in 1852. On the expiration of his term he 
 resumed practice in Albany, taking into 
 partnership Lyman Tremain, his brother 
 George having removed to Milwaukee in 
 the interim. In 1859 he spent a few 
 months in European travel, and upon his 
 return was elected a Justice of the Su- 
 preme Court. At the close of his judicial 
 term of eight years, Judge Peckham was 
 reelected, no opposing candidate being 
 named. In 1870, before the expiration of 
 his second term, he was elected to the 
 bench of the Court of Appeals. On No- 
 vember 15, 1873, accompanied by his 
 wife, he sailed for Europe on the steamer 
 "Ville du Havre," for the benefit of his 
 health, intending to spend the winter in 
 Southern France. He was destined, how- 
 ever, never to reach that destination, as 
 the English iron ship "Loch Earn" col- 
 lided with the "Ville du Havre" on No- 
 vember 22, which sank within twelve 
 minutes after she was struck, Judge and 
 Mrs. Peckham being carried down in the 
 vortex. Just before the ship disappeared 
 he said to his wife, "If we must go down, 
 Q8 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 let us die bravely" — probably his last 
 words. 
 
 His first wife, Isabella Adaline, daugh- 
 ter of the Rev. Dr. William B. Lacey, 
 rector of St. Peter's Church, Albany, New 
 York, to whom he was married in 1832, 
 died in 1848. In February, 1862, he mar- 
 ried (second) Mary Elizabeth, daughter 
 of Israel Foote. He had three sons. 
 
 PATTON, Rev. William, D. D., 
 
 Author, Prominent in Religious Organiza- 
 tions. 
 
 The name of Patton is written in old 
 deeds Patten, and the family, originally 
 from the south of England, is of con- 
 siderable antiquity. An old parchment 
 deed in the possession of an English fam- 
 ily of the town states that "in the six-and- 
 twentieth year of Henry VI., William 
 Patten (alias Waynflete. from a town in 
 Lancashire where he was born), was son 
 and heir of Richard Patten and eldest 
 brother of John, Dean of Chichester." 
 He was consecrated Bishop of Winches- 
 ter, made Lord Chancellor of England, 
 and was the sole founder of Magdalen 
 College, Oxford. 
 
 Colonel Robert Patton, who was born 
 in Westport, Ireland, in 1755, and died in 
 New York City, January 3, 1814, was 
 brought to America at the age of seven 
 years, and resided in Philadelphia. In 
 October, 1776, he enlisted as a private in 
 the Revolutionary army, was taken pris- 
 oner by the British, and confined for 
 some time in New York City. After his 
 liberation he rose to the rank of major, 
 and served under Washington and Lafay- 
 ette ; he was later promoted to a colo- 
 nelcy. He was an original member of 
 the Society of the Cincinnati. In 1789 he 
 was appointed by Washington, postmas- 
 ter of Philadelphia, that office then being 
 the most important in the country, and 
 served continuously for nearly twenty 
 
 years, when he resigned and went to New 
 York City. He was intimate with Presi- 
 dent Madison, who offered him the post- 
 master-generalship, which Patton de- 
 clined, being unwilling to remove his 
 family from a Free State to a slave-hold- 
 ing community. One of his chief char- 
 acteristics was his strict integrity. When 
 postmaster he would not appoint any of 
 his sons to a clerkship, and on his resig- 
 nation he strictly enjoined them not to 
 apply to be his successor, saying that the 
 office had been long enough in his family, 
 and should now go to another. When war 
 was declared in 1812, and a government 
 loan, which everyone prophesied would 
 prove a failure, was placed on the market, 
 he went at an early hour on the first day 
 and subscribed $60,000, asserting that if 
 his country should be ruined his property 
 would then be valueless. Colonel Patton 
 married Cornelia, daughter of Robert and 
 Jemima (Shepard) Bridges. The latter 
 was a son of Edward Bridges and Corne- 
 lia Culpeper, and through this line Mrs. 
 Patton was connected with Lord Thomas 
 Culpeper. second colonial governor of 
 Virginia. Through the same line the de- 
 scent is also traced from Oliver Crom- 
 well. 
 
 Rev. William Patton, D. D., son of 
 Colonel Robert Patton. was born in Phil- 
 adelphia, August 23, 1798. He was gradu- 
 ated at the Middlebury (Vermont) Col- 
 lege, in 1818. and at Princeton (New Jer- 
 sey") Theological Seminary two years 
 later. He began his labors as city mis- 
 sionary in New York, and organized the 
 Broome Street (known as the Central) 
 Presbyterian Church, with four members 
 and which under his pastorate grew to be 
 one of the largest and most influential 
 churches in New York. He was ordained 
 as pastor by the New York Presbytery in 
 1822. He solicited and personally con- 
 tributed the money for building the 
 church edifice. The Madison Avenue 
 
 199 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Presbyterian (Dr. Parkhurst's) Church, 
 and the Fifty-seventh Street Presbyterian 
 Church are the outgrowth of the Broome 
 Street Church. He was one of the organ- 
 izers of the American Home Missionary 
 Society, in 1826, and assisted in organiz- 
 ing the Third Presbytery of New York in 
 1831. He resigned his charge of the 
 Broome Street Church in 1834 to accept 
 the secretaryship of the American Educa- 
 tion Society. In 1836 he received the 
 honorary degree of D. D. from the Uni- 
 versity of the City of New York, in the 
 founding of which he took an active part. 
 He severed his connection with the Amer- 
 ican Education Society in 1837 and in 
 October of that year was installed as 
 pastor of the Spring Street Presbyterian 
 Church. He was the founder of the 
 World's Evangelical Alliance, and at- 
 tended the organizing convention. He 
 was the founder of the New York Union 
 Theological Seminary, having first pro- 
 posed its establishment, and raised three- 
 fourths of the $75,000 first contributed for 
 its support. He acted for many years as 
 one of its directors, contributing liberally 
 to its funds, and serving without pay as 
 Professor Extraordinary of Homiletics, 
 Pastoral Theology and kindred studies. 
 He made fourteen visits to Europe be- 
 tween 1825 and 1879. He was an earnest 
 opponent of slavery, and was for forty 
 years a member of the executive com- 
 mittee of the American Home Missionary 
 Society. His views on the subject of 
 temperance were equally radical. In the 
 pulpit he was characterized by his strong 
 grasp upon his subject, his simplicity, di- 
 rectness and freshness. 
 
 Dr. Patton was a man of great individu- 
 ality and power. Anecdotes are abun- 
 dant to-day of his strength as a preacher 
 and his rare gift of humor and geniality 
 in conversation. He had a commanding 
 presence, and an original way of enforc- 
 ing the truth which gave his sermons a 
 
 staying quality. He remained with the 
 Spring Street Church until October 29, 
 1847, and then accepted the pastorate of 
 the Hammond Street Congregational 
 Church, which had been gathered and 
 organized by his personal friends. He 
 remained until 1852, then retiring from 
 pastoral work, and removed soon after- 
 ward to New Haven, Connecticut, where 
 he devoted his time to literary and occa- 
 sional ministerial work. Besides editing 
 President Jonathan Edwards' work on re- 
 vivals, and Charles G. Fenney's "Lec- 
 tures on Revivals" (London, 1839), and 
 "The Village Testament" (New York, 
 1835), and assisting in editing "The 
 Christian Psalmist" (1836), he published 
 "The Laws of Fermentation and the 
 Wines of the Ancients" (1871), "The 
 Judgment of Jerusalem Predicted in 
 Scriptures, Fulfilled in History" (Lon- 
 don, 1879), "Jesus of Nazareth" (1878), 
 and "Bible Principles and Bible Char- 
 acters" (Hartford, 1879), besides writing 
 many pamphlets on various subjects. In 
 1833 he took an English commentary 
 called "The Cottage Bible," and so recast, 
 changed, enlarged and improved it as to 
 make it substantially a new work, and 
 issued it in two royal octavo volumes. 
 Over 170,000 copies of this most useful 
 family commentary have been sold in this 
 country. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Patton died in New Haven, 
 September 9, 1879. His wife, Mary 
 Weston, born in Waltham, Massachu- 
 setts, March 6, 1793, was the daughter of 
 Zachariah Weston, born in Lincoln, Mas- 
 sachusetts, March 8, 1751, a descendant 
 of John Weston, of Salem, Massachu- 
 setts, born 1631, died 1723. Dr. Patton 
 was largely indebted for his success in 
 his great life work to the prudent coun- 
 sels and hearty sympathy of his wife, 
 whom he married soon after reaching his 
 majority, and to whom his accomplished 
 son, Rev. William Patton, D. D., Presi- 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 dent of Howard University, Washington 
 City, owes no little of his eminence as a 
 man and a minister. A brother of Dr. 
 Patton was the late Robert B. Patton, 
 Professor of Greek in the New York Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 CHURCH, Sanford E., 
 
 Lawyer, Jurist. 
 
 Sanford Elias Church was born at Mil- 
 ford, Otsego county, New York, April 18, 
 1815, son of Ozias and Permelia (San- 
 ford) Church. His father removed to 
 Munroe county in 1817. where the son 
 grew to manhood. 
 
 His early education was received at the 
 Henrietta Academy, and during the winter 
 months he taught school, pursuing the 
 study of law in the office of Josiah A. 
 Eastman, at Scottsville, New York. In 
 [S34. removing to South Barre, he en- 
 tered the employ of the county clerk, a 
 physician, under whom he studied medi- 
 cine for a time, but turned again to the 
 profession of law. About a year later he 
 was admitted to practice in the Court of 
 Common Pleas, and, entering the office of 
 Judge Bessac, he still further prosecuted 
 his legal studies, and was admitted to the 
 bar of the Supreme Court in 1841, and 
 became the partner of his former instruc- 
 tor. In 1844 he allied himself with Noah 
 Davis, and when Mr. Davis was ap- 
 pointed judge of the Supreme Court in 
 1858, a partnership was formed with John 
 G. Sawyer. In 1865 he formed the firm 
 of Church, Munger & Cook, of Rochester, 
 New York. He was active in politics 
 during the early part of his career, being 
 elected to the Assembly in 1841, and re- 
 ceiving the appointment of district attor- 
 ney in 1846, to which office he was elected 
 under the new constitution for a term of 
 three years, in the fall of the same year. 
 He was elected Lieutenant-Governor in 
 1850, and served until 1855. Two years 
 
 later he was elected comptroller of the 
 State, and in 1867 was sent as a member 
 at large to the Constitutional Convention 
 of that year. Upon the organization of 
 the new Court of Appeals, in 1870, he be- 
 came the Democratic candidate for Chief 
 Justice, and in the following election re- 
 ceived a majority of 87,000 votes over 
 his opponent, Judge Selden, thus eclips- 
 ing all previous records in New York 
 State. Politically he was of the same 
 school as William L. Marcy and Silas 
 Wright, and judicially his opinions, 
 though not brilliant, were distinguished 
 for their solidity. His manner towards 
 attorneys was alike courteous to humble 
 and eminent. 
 
 He was married, at Barre Center, New 
 York, 1840, to Ann, daughter of David 
 and Abigail Wild, and had two children. 
 He died at Albion, New York, May 14, 
 1880, four years from the end of his term 
 as Chief Justice. 
 
 WOOD, Fernando, 
 
 Political Leader. 
 
 Fernando Wood, born in Philadelphia, 
 Pennsylvania, June 14, 1S12, came of 
 Quaker origin. Having received a good 
 practical education he settled in New 
 York City while yet a boy, and began to 
 study business in a shipping merchant's 
 office. Before he was twenty-one years 
 of age he had already gained quite a repu- 
 tation as a writer and speaker. In 1839 
 he was made chairman of a young men's 
 political club, and in 1840 was elected a 
 member of Congress on the Democratic 
 ticket, and served two years. During the 
 next seven years, until 1850, he was en- 
 gaged in business and with such success 
 that he was able to retire with a compe- 
 tence. 
 
 In 1850 he was nominated for the may- 
 oralty of New York, but was defeated by 
 a combination of Whigs and Know-Noth- 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ings, but was elected in 1854, and re- 
 elected in 1856. It was in the latter year 
 that an attempt was made in the Legisla- 
 ture to place the New York City police 
 under State control. This effort was an- 
 tagonized by Mayor Wood, with the re- 
 sult of a serious riot. At the next elec- 
 tion Mr. Wood was defeated, but he was 
 reelected in 1859. After this Mr. Wood 
 served twelve years in Congress. His 
 relation to Tammany was most peculiar. 
 He received his first election as mayor of 
 New York as its nominee, but after his 
 reelection he was thrown over by Tam- 
 many, chiefly through the machinations 
 of the "Hardshells," who had been 
 brought into it by the consolidation of 
 1856. Wood now organized Mozart Hall 
 as an opposition society, and with its as- 
 sistance succeeded in inflicting upon 
 Tammany in 1859 a disastrous defeat, 
 and once more putting himself at the 
 head of the city government. So fierce 
 had been the Wood and anti-Wood fight 
 in Tammany, that the Democratic voters 
 had elected two general committees, each 
 claiming to be the regular Tammany Hall 
 committee. Mozart Hall passed away in 
 a few years, after Wood had lost his in- 
 terest in it, but was followed by the Mc- 
 Keon Democracy, Irving Hall, Apollo 
 Hall, the Citizens' Association, and other 
 societies, all of which fought Tammany. 
 At this time Tammany contained such 
 men as Lorenzo B. Shepard (grand sa- 
 chem in 1855), Robert J. Dillon, Augustus 
 Schell, Charles P. Daly (afterward Chief 
 Justice of the Court of Common Pleas), 
 Smith Ely, Jr. (afterward mayor of New 
 York), C. Godfrey Gunther (afterward 
 mayor of New York), John J. Cisco, and 
 many others of the most respected and 
 wealthiest citizens. In the mayoralty 
 contest of 1859. Fernando Wood, as the 
 candidate of Mozart Hall, polled 29,950 
 votes ; Havemeyer, the Tammany candi- 
 date, polled 26,918; and Opdyke, the Re- 
 
 publican candidate, 21,417, this showing 
 that the Democrats held five-sevenths of 
 the vote in New York. In 1861 the vote 
 between Tammany and Mozart Hall, the 
 former nominating Gunther and the latter 
 Wood, was so close as to give the mayor- 
 alty to Opdyke, Republican, by a small 
 plurality. It was not until 1865, when 
 John T. Hoffman was nominated by Tam- 
 many and elected, that the organization 
 once more united all the offices under its 
 control, including the mayoralty, the 
 common council, the board of supervi- 
 sors, the street, health, market, police, and 
 educational departments. The vote by 
 which Hoffman was first elected was, 
 Tammany (Hoffman) 32,820; Republi- 
 can (Marshall O. Roberts) 31,657; Mo- 
 zart Hall (Hecker) 10,390; McKeon De- 
 mocracy (Gunther) 6,758. 
 
 After Fernando Wood left Tammany 
 and set up for himself, the old organiza- 
 tion was broken up into rings, which 
 worked through the factions above 
 named, to the injury of the political 
 system of the Democratic party in New 
 York. Among their leaders was Isaac V. 
 Fowler, who exercised great power about 
 1857, and who was grand sachem of Tam- 
 many in 1859-60. He was appointed post- 
 master of New York, and while holding 
 that official position was discovered to 
 have committed a defalcation, and fled 
 the country, this being almost the first 
 instance of this character in the official 
 history of New York. It is said of Fer- 
 nando Wood that, while holding the posi- 
 tion of mayor, he inspired the Democracy 
 of the city with a spirit of activity it had 
 never before known. His power and in- 
 fluence over men was extraordinary, and 
 few dared openly to oppose him, yet 
 eventually the opposition which gathered 
 around his political pathway was of a 
 character to daunt the most courageous. 
 He died in Washington City, February 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 WARREN, Gen. Gouverneur K., 
 
 Distinguished Soldier. 
 
 General Gouverneur Kemble Warren 
 was born at Cold Spring, Putnam coun- 
 ty, New York, January 8, 1830. Enter- 
 ing the United States Military Academy 
 in 1846, he was graduated in 1850, was 
 assigned to the topographical engineers, 
 and was employed in surveys on the 
 lower Mississippi in 1850-54; and in 1855- 
 59 in the west, as chief topographical en- 
 gineer on General William S. Harney's 
 staff, and in the preparation of railroad 
 maps in Dakota and Nebraska. He was 
 the first explorer of the Black Hills. His 
 account of previous "Explorations in the 
 Dakota Country'' appeared in two vol- 
 umes, 1855-56, and that of his own work 
 in reports published in 1858 and later. In 
 1859 ne became Assistant Professor of 
 Mathematics at West Point and was serv- 
 ing in that capacity at the outbreak of 
 the Civil War. 
 
 In May, 1861, he accepted the lieuten- 
 ant-coloncy of the Fifth New York Vol- 
 unteers (Zouaves), and in August was 
 commissioned colonel. At the battle of 
 Big Bethel, June 10th. he remained on the 
 field to bring off the body of Lieutenant 
 Greble. After serving before Yorktown, 
 he was given command of a brigade in 
 Sykes's division of Porter's corps, on the 
 right of the Army of the Potomac. In 
 that campaign he took part in various 
 battles, was slightly wounded at Gaines's 
 Mills, lost half his regiment at Antietam, 
 and was made brigadier-general of volun- 
 teers on September 26, 1862. He was en- 
 gaged under General Pope at Manassas, 
 and under General Burnside at Fred- 
 ericksburg. On February 2. 1863, he was 
 placed on Hooker's staff as chief of topo- 
 graphical engineers, and June 8th was 
 appointed chief engineer of the Army of 
 the Potomac. At Gettysburg, on July 2, 
 1863, he occupied and defended Little 
 
 Round Top, the key to the Union posi- 
 tion. In August he was commissioned 
 major-general, dating from Chancellors- 
 ville, May 3d. On October 14th he re- 
 pulsed General A. P. Hill at Bristoe's 
 Station, and was highly praised by Gen- 
 eral Meade for "skill and promptitude." 
 At Mine Run, November 30th, he used 
 his discretion in not carrying out a move- 
 ment ordered by Meade, and was ap- 
 proved for so doing. From the reorgan- 
 ization of the army in March, 1864, he 
 had command of the Fifth Corps, and led 
 it in the bloody actions of the Wilder- 
 ness, Cold Harbor, etc. He had the con- 
 fidence and affection of his men, and his 
 courage and ability were beyond cavil ; 
 but Sheridan, who disliked his habit of 
 thinking for himself, obtained from Grant 
 authority to remove him on occasion, and 
 exercised it (alleging delay or failure to 
 cooperate) at Five Forks, April 1, 1865. 
 He was sent to Grant, who placed him in 
 command at Petersburg. He gave up his 
 volunteer commission May 27th, having 
 been made captain in the regular army in 
 September, 1861, and major in June, 1864, 
 and having received in succession all the 
 brevets up to major-general, but he never 
 forgot the disgrace of his displacement. 
 A painful controversy ensued ; he de- 
 fended his conduct in a pamphlet printed 
 in 1866, and asked for a court of inquiry, 
 which in 1879 acquitted him of most of 
 Sheridan's charges. He never left the 
 army, conducted various surveys, and 
 reached the grade of lieutenant-colonel in 
 1879. He was a member of the A. A. A. 
 S. from 1858, of the National Academy of 
 Sciences from 1876, and of other learned 
 bodies. He died at Newport, Rhode 
 Island, August 8, 1882. Six years later his 
 statue was unveiled on the scene of his 
 exploit near Gettysburg, and a replica 
 was placed near the entrance to Prospect 
 Park, Brooklyn, New York. 
 
EXCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 FENTON, Reuben E., 
 
 Governor, Statesman. 
 
 Reuben Eaton Fenton was born at Car- 
 roll, Chautauqua county, New York, July 
 i, 1S19, son of George W. Fenton. 
 
 He was educated in the district school 
 and Fredonia Academy and studied law 
 in Jamestown, New York. In 1839 he 
 established himself as a country mer- 
 chant, and proved very successful, after- 
 wards adding to his business that of a 
 dealer in lumber. His lumber operations 
 proved very profitable, he personally con- 
 ducted his first raft of timber, which cost 
 him his first thousand dollars, down the 
 Ohio to Maysville, Kentucky, where he 
 sold it at a large profit. Fie soon had the 
 reputation of being one of the most 
 successful operators in lumber in his 
 region, and attained the rank of a finan- 
 cial leader among the business men of his 
 community. He was popular as a citi- 
 zen, and held among other offices that of 
 supervisor of the town of Carroll, 1846- 
 52. and was colonel of the One Hundred 
 and Sixty-Second Regiment, New York 
 State Militia. In 1859 he was elected to 
 the State Assembly as a Democrat. He 
 was a representative in the Thirty-third 
 Congress, 1853-55, and being bitterly 
 opposed to slaver)', he voted against his 
 party on the Kansas-Nebraska bill. This 
 action cost his reelection in 1854, but in 
 1856 he was elected to the Thirty-fifth 
 Congress by the new Republican party, 
 and he was reelected to successive Con- 
 gresses, including the Thirty-eighth, serv- 
 ing until 1865. While in Congress he 
 espoused the cause of the veterans of the 
 War of 1812, and carried through the 
 house a bill for their relief. He advocated 
 the cheap postage system, the regulation 
 of emigration, the extension of invalid 
 pensions, and the repeal of the fugitive 
 slave law; and he opposed the invasion 
 of Kansas, the bounty bills, and the pay- 
 
 ment of Confederate losses during the 
 Civil War. On committee work he was 
 noted for his exceptional industry and 
 judgment. During the rebellion he sup- 
 ported the government with voice and 
 vote. In 1862 he was proposed for the 
 Republican nomination for Governor, but 
 declined ; however, he accepted the honor 
 two years later, and was elected, defeat- 
 ing Governor Seymour and running far 
 ahead of his ticket. At the end of his 
 term he was reelected by an increased 
 majority. He was recognized as a politi- 
 cal power throughout the country as well 
 as in his own State ; and his name was 
 mentioned in connection with the presi- 
 dency, and the Republican State Con- 
 vention which met at Syracuse in that 
 year unanimously declared him to be the 
 choice of the Union party in New York 
 for Vice-President. In 1869 Governor 
 Fenton was chosen by the Legislature to 
 be Senator of the United States for the 
 term of six years ending March 3, 1875, 
 succeeding Edwin D. Morgan, and on en- 
 tering the Senate he was almost instantly 
 recognized as one of its most prominent 
 members. Giving his principal attention 
 to matters of finance, his speeches on tax- 
 ation, the currency, the public revenue, 
 the public debt and cognate subjects, 
 gave evidence of his superior statesman- 
 ship, and attracted national attention. He 
 was active in his censure of the "moiety 
 system" which prevailed in the customs 
 department, making comparison between 
 that and the corrupt and oppressive 
 periods which existed under the French 
 monarchy. 
 
 After his retirement from the Senate in 
 1875, M r - Fenton held no public office, 
 except in 1878 when he was appointed 
 chairman of the commission to take part 
 in the International Monetary Conference 
 at Paris, on returning from which, in 
 1879, he resumed his residence at James- 
 town, New York. He was president of 
 
 204 
 

 f J 
 
 I K 
 
 & 7/ 
 
 /icff/f'ji (). ./'rj</(/f 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 the First National Bank of that city, and 
 was chiefly instrumental in the establish- 
 ment of the Swedish Orphanage there. 
 His last public appearance was on the 
 occasion of a memorial service held at the 
 time of General Grant's death. He mar- 
 ried (first) in 1838, Jane, daughter of 
 John Frew. She died in 1840, and in 1844 
 he was married (second) to Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Joel Scudder, of Victor, New 
 York. He was the father of three chil- 
 dren, two daughters, and a son, Reuben 
 E. Fenton, Jr., who succeeded to the busi- 
 ness of his father. Governor Fenton died 
 suddenly, in the directors' room of the 
 First National Bank, Jamestown, on Au- 
 gust 25, 1885. 
 
 ERICSSON, John, 
 
 Distinguished Engineer 
 
 John Ericsson, whose "Monitor" of the 
 Civil War revolutionized naval warfare 
 the world over, was born in Sweden, July 
 31, 1803, son of Olaf Ericsson, a mine 
 owner, and a direct descendant of Lief 
 Ericsson, son of Eric the Red, the Norse 
 discoverer of America. 
 
 Pie was educated at home, first by a 
 governess, and afterward by a German 
 engineer. From his infancy he was an 
 interested observer of the machinery in 
 his father's coal mines. Before 1814 he 
 had invented and built a miniature saw 
 mill, and soon after a novel pumping en- 
 gine which when shown to Platen, the 
 noted mechanical engineer, secured for 
 young Ericsson an appointment as cadet 
 of mechanical engineers. After six 
 months' study he was employed in the 
 construction of the Gotha ship canal, in 
 which he laid out the work of a section, 
 employing six hundred soldiers and spent 
 his leisure in making drawings of the 
 various tools and engines used in the 
 work. He entered the Swedish army in 
 1820 as an ensign, and his skill in map 
 
 drawing won for him a lieutenant's com- 
 mission. He entered a competitive ex- 
 amination for appointment on a govern- 
 ment survey, gained the appointment, and 
 served in Northern Sweden for some 
 years. His time when off duty was em- 
 ployed in preparing the manuscript and 
 maps for a work on canals. He invented 
 a machine to engrave the plates, with 
 which he completed eighteen large copper 
 plates in one year, and the work was pro- 
 nounced by experts superior to hand en- 
 graving. In 1825 he constructed a coal- 
 burning, condensing-flame engine, and the 
 next year sought unsuccessfully to intro- 
 duce it into England. He resigned from 
 the army in 1827, having meanwhile 
 reached the rank of captain. He com- 
 peted with George Stephenson for the 
 prize offered in 1829 by the Liverpool & 
 Manchester railway for a steam locomo- 
 tive engine, and his steam carriage "Nov- 
 elty" was planned and completed in seven 
 weeks, and in the field trial was pro- 
 nounced to excel in several important 
 points, the speed reaching thirty miles 
 per hour, but the English Stephenson's 
 "Rocket' won the prize, being built of 
 heavy material which afforded it superior 
 traction. The "Novelty," however, in- 
 troduced new principles, which came to 
 be used in all successful locomotives in 
 Europe and America. In 1829 he also 
 built a practical steam fire engine which 
 he exhibited in London that year and in 
 New York City in 1840. In 1833 he per- 
 fected the caloric engine with which in 
 1853 the caloric ship "Ericsson." of two 
 thousand tons, was propelled. More than 
 seven thousand of these engines were in 
 use at the time of his death. For this in- 
 vention he received the gold and silver 
 Rumford medals from the American 
 Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1862, 
 the second person in the United States 
 to be so honored. He invented and 
 patented the screw propeller in 1836, and 
 205 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 in 1837 successfully used twin screw pro- 
 pellers in a boat operated on the River 
 Thames. In 1838 he constructed the iron 
 screw steamer "Robert E. Stockton," 
 which, after crossing the Atlantic under 
 sail, was used on the Delaware river for 
 twenty-five years as a tow boat. In 1840 
 he was induced by Robert F. Stockton, 
 U. S. N., to continue his experiments in 
 the United States, and in November of 
 that year he reached America. In 1841 
 he designed and superintended in Phila- 
 delphia the construction for the United 
 States navy of the screw steamer "Prince- 
 ton" with its machinery below the water 
 line, with direct acting semi-cylindrical 
 engine, telescope smoke stack, independ- 
 ent centrifugal blowers, wrought iron 
 gun carriages with mechanism for dis- 
 pensing with breeching and taking up the 
 recoil, a selfacting gunlock by which the 
 guns of the decks could be discharged at 
 any elevation, even in a rolling sea, a 
 telescope to determine the distance of the 
 enemy's ships, and numerous other novel 
 applications to facilitate the handling of 
 ordnance and the ship. His inventions 
 and improvements as introduced on the 
 "Princeton" made that ship the model 
 for the world, and the beginning of a new 
 era in the steam marine. During his first 
 three years' residence in the United 
 States he had placed engines and screw 
 propellers in numerous vessels used for 
 river and inland water navigation, and 
 in 185 1 he exhibited at the World's Fair 
 in London his numerous appliances for 
 use in steam navigation and was awarded 
 the prize medal. In 1854 he presented to 
 Napoleon III. plans for a partially sub- 
 merged armored warship with a revolv- 
 ing shotproof cupola, which the emperor 
 put to practical use. 
 
 In 1861, through private enterprise and 
 within the space of one hundred days, he 
 planned, built, launched and equipped the 
 "Monitor" at a cost of $275,000, which 
 
 was to be paid by the government only 
 after the boat had proved effective in 
 actual battle with the "Merrimac," then 
 undergoing reconstruction at Norfolk, 
 Virginia, and which the United States 
 navy had no vessel afloat able to with- 
 stand. This little nondescript, however, 
 was ready on time, and turned the for- 
 tunes of war at Hampton Roads, Vir- 
 ginia, March 9, 1862. The result of the 
 fight between the "Monitor" and the 
 "Merrimac" led to the construction of 
 similar vessels on a scale that surprised 
 the naval engineers of the world, and de- 
 termined the universal use of the type by 
 the European maritime powers. In 1869 
 he constructed for the Spanish govern- 
 ment thirty steam iron-clad gunboats, 
 and in 1881 devised and constructed the 
 "Destroyer," carrying a submarine gun of 
 sixteen-inch calibre capable of discharg- 
 ing three hundred pounds of gun cotton, 
 encased in a one thousand five hundred- 
 pound projectile, below the water line. 
 This gun was designed to destroy an 
 iron-clad. He experimented in 1883 with 
 an appliance by which he obtained a 
 supply of mechanical energy from the 
 sun, and called his invention the "Sun 
 Motor" which he had described in "Con- 
 tributions to the Centennial Exhibition" 
 (1876). He received royal favors from 
 Sweden ; was made knight commander, 
 first-class, Danish Order of Dannebrog; 
 received the Grand Cross of Naval Merit 
 from King Alphonso of Spain; was ap- 
 pointed knight commander of the Royal 
 Order of Isabella the Catholic ; and re- 
 ceived a special gold medal from the 
 Emperor of Austria, and the thanks of 
 the United States Congress, and of the 
 Legislature of the State of New York. 
 He was made a fellow and member of 
 the Royal Academy of Serena, Stock- 
 holm ; of the American Philosophical So- 
 ciety, and of various other scientific so- 
 cieties of both continents. He received 
 
 206 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 from Wesleyan University the honorary 
 degree of LL. D. in 1862, and from the 
 University of Sweden that of Ph. D. in 
 1869. After his death the United States 
 Government, on August 23, 1890, con- 
 veyed his body to his birthplace for final 
 sepulture, on board the cruiser "Balti- 
 more," which vessel was escorted out of 
 New York by the entire "White Squad- 
 ron" then in the harbor, and under the 
 especial convoy of the "Nantucket," the 
 second monitor built by Ericsson. Both 
 in New York and at Stockholm where 
 the "Baltimore" arrived September 12, 
 1890, there were public manifestations of 
 profound grief. See "Life of John Erics- 
 son," by William Conant Church (2 vols., 
 1891). In April, 1893, a bronze statue of 
 the inventor was unveiled on the New 
 York Battery, overlooking the harbor. 
 Captain Ericsson died in New York City, 
 March 8, 1889. 
 
 PLATT, Thomas Collier, 
 
 Statesman. 
 
 Thomas Collier Piatt, former United 
 States Senator, was born at Owego, 
 Tioga county, New York, July 15. 1833. 
 son of William and Lesbia (Hinchman) 
 Piatt. His earliest American ancestor, 
 Richard Piatt, came from England to 
 America in 1638, landing at New Haven, 
 Connecticut, was one of the first settlers 
 of Milford in 1639, and became a con- 
 siderable landowner. Another ancestor, 
 Jonathan Piatt, was a member of the 
 Provincial Congress of 1775, and with his 
 son, Jonathan, served in General Sulli- 
 van's army, which expelled the Indians 
 from the Wyoming Valley in 1779. Wil- 
 liam Piatt, father of Thomas Collier 
 Piatt, was for many years a prosperous 
 lawyer and real estate agent in Owego. 
 
 Thomas Collier Piatt received his early 
 education at a local academy, and at the 
 age of sixteen entered Yale College, but 
 
 on account of ill health was obliged to 
 abandon his studies and return home in his 
 sophomore year. Finding it desirable to 
 lead an active life, he engaged in business 
 in his native town as senior partner in the 
 firm of Piatt & Hall, druggists, in 1856. 
 He also acquired extensive lumber in- 
 terests in Michigan. While still a com- 
 paratively young man was made presi- 
 dent of the Tioga National Bank in 
 Owego at its organization in January, 
 1865. 
 
 His public career began in 1858, when 
 he was elected clerk of Tioga county, and 
 during the two years he held this office he 
 was instrumental, with his friend, Alonzo 
 B. Cornell (afterward Governor of New 
 York), in advancing the political interests 
 of Roscoe Conkling through the influence 
 of the congressional district comprising 
 the counties of Tioga and Tompkins. 
 Mr. Piatt's position in the councils of 
 the Republican party rapidly increased 
 in power, and in 1870 a deadlock occur- 
 ring between two candidates, to one of 
 whom he was pledged, he was nominated 
 as congressman, but declined. In 1872 
 he was elected to Congress, and was re- 
 elected in 1874. In the latter year he 
 represented his State in the Republican 
 National Convention, and he was a dele- 
 gate to every national convention of his 
 party from that time until the end of 
 his life. Upon the election of President 
 Hayes he was an unsuccessful candidate 
 for the position of Postmaster-General. 
 In 1879 he became secretary and general 
 manager of the United States Express 
 Company, and the following year was ad- 
 vanced to the presidency, which position 
 he held for some time. In 1880 he was 
 appointed Commissioner of Quarantine 
 for New York City, and in 1S84 was made 
 president of the board, remaining in that 
 position until 1888, when he was removed 
 on account of not being a resident of that 
 city. 
 
 207 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 On January i, 1881, Mr. Piatt was 
 elected United States Senator, to succeed 
 Francis Kernan. With his fellow Sena- 
 tor, Roscoe Conkling, he resigned on May 
 16th, in consequence of a disagreement 
 with the executive regarding New York 
 appointments — an event of far-reaching 
 political importance throughout the whole 
 nation. The President had on March 23d, 
 sent to the Senate the name of William 
 H. Robertson for Collector of the Port of 
 New York. Judge Robertson had been a 
 delegate to the Republican National Con- 
 vention of 1880, where he led the revolt 
 against the unit rule in the New York 
 delegation, which had been instructed for 
 General Grant, and this effected the de- 
 feat of Grant, and contributed materially 
 to General Garfield's nomination. Conk- 
 ling and Piatt strenuously opposed Robert- 
 son's confirmation, and finally the Presi- 
 dent was driven by their determined op- 
 position to withdraw from the Senate the 
 other New York nominations which had 
 been made with a view to conciliating the 
 Republican managers of that State. Find- 
 ing themselves engaged in what had de- 
 veloped into a hopeless struggle with the 
 administration, Senators Conkling and 
 Piatt sent in their resignations through 
 Governor Cornell, together with a letter 
 in vindication of their course. Going to 
 Albany, they made a struggle for reelec- 
 tion, and an exciting contest followed, 
 but before it was decided Mr. Piatt with- 
 drew from the candidacy. 
 
 Thereafter Mr. Piatt took no active 
 part in politics until 1884, when as an 
 opponent of the "machine" element of his 
 party he went to the Chicago National 
 Convention as a Blaine delegate. In 1888 
 he was influential in swinging the New 
 York delegation over to the support of 
 Benjamin Harrison for President. In 
 1896 Mr. Piatt and the majority of the 
 New York delegation at first supported 
 Levi P. Morton as the Republican nomi- 
 
 nee for President, in opposition to Wil- 
 liam McKinley, but afterward voted to 
 make McKinley's nomination unanimous. 
 In 1896 Mr. Piatt was chosen United 
 States Senator for the term ending in 
 1903 ; the other Republican candidate was 
 Joseph H. Choate, and the voting was 142 
 to 7 in favor of Mr. Piatt. As the ac- 
 knowledged leader of his party in New 
 York State, he was one of the most influ- 
 ential though least obtrusive political 
 managers in the country. Mr. Blaine said 
 of him in "Twenty Years in Congress" : 
 "He is a business man of great personal 
 popularity. He has an aptitude for public 
 affairs, and is a man of influence in his 
 state. He is no debater, but has strong 
 common sense and a quick judgment of 
 men." 
 
 In 1871 Mr. Piatt became president of 
 the Southern Central Railroad Company, 
 and in 1885 president of the Addison & 
 Northern Pennsylvania Railroad Com- 
 pany ; neither of these are now in ex- 
 istence. He was also a director of the 
 Chesapeake, Ohio & Southwestern and 
 the Florida Central & Western railroad 
 companies. In 1876 Yale College con- 
 ferred upon him the honorary degree of 
 A. M. 
 
 He was married, in 1852, to Ellen Lucy, 
 daughter of Hon. Charles Barstow, of 
 Owego, New York, and had three sons: 
 Edward Truax, of Washington, D. C. ; 
 Frank H., who engaged in business with 
 his father, and followed in his footsteps 
 politically; and Henry B. Piatt. Mrs. 
 Piatt died February 13, 1901-. Mr. Piatt 
 died March 6, 1910. 
 
 COMSTOCK, George F., 
 
 Financier, Jurist. 
 
 George Franklin Comstock was born 
 at Williamstown, Oswego county, New 
 York, August 24, 1811. He graduated 
 from Union College in 1834, and while 
 
 208 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 teaching in a classical school in Utica, 
 New York, studied law. He then entered 
 the office of Noxon & Leavenworth, at 
 Syracuse, and was admitted to the bar in 
 1837. In 1847 he had reached so high a 
 position and reputation for legal knowl- 
 edge and research that he was appointed 
 reporter of the Court of Appeals. In 1849 
 Mr. Comstock was one of the organizers 
 of the Syracuse Savings Bank. 
 
 In 1852 President Fillmore appointed 
 him Solicitor of the Treasury of the 
 United States, and he served during the 
 remainder of that presidential term. In 
 1855 he was elected, by a combination of 
 the "Silver Grays" with the native Ameri- 
 can party, one of the judges of the Court 
 of Appeals, and sat upon that bench for 
 six years, during two of which (1860-61) 
 he was Chief Justice. At the solicitation 
 of the heirs of Chancellor Kent, Judge 
 Comstock edited a new edition of the 
 latter's celebrated commentaries. He 
 was employed in several important cases 
 which enjoyed peculiar publicity, as, for 
 instance, when William M. Tweed was 
 sentenced to the penitentiary for a year 
 on each of twelve counts of an indictment 
 against him, he secured a reduction in the 
 length of his imprisonment. He was also 
 retained by William H. Vanderbilt, in 
 pursuance of his father's wishes in the 
 contest of the latter's will. In 1869 he 
 aided in establishing Syracuse Univer- 
 sity, donating $50,000 to the cause, and 
 he may be considered as founder of the 
 St. John's School for Boys at Manlius, 
 to which he gave $60,000. He was the 
 originator and president of the American 
 Dairy Salt Company, and treasurer of 
 the Union and Western coarse salt com- 
 panies ; a director also of the Syracuse 
 Gas Company, and of the Water Com- 
 pany, and numerous other manufacturing 
 and commercial corporations. A man of 
 dignified presence, possessing the charm 
 of simple and engaging manners, a pro- 
 
 fessionally learned and able jurist and a 
 true gentleman, he enjoyed a wide and 
 notable popularity. 
 
 He was married, in 1839, to Cornelia, 
 daughter of B. Davis Noxon, his former 
 preceptor at Syracuse. He died in Syra- 
 cuse, New York, September 27, 1892. 
 
 SHEPARD, Elliott F., 
 
 Journalist, Publicist. 
 
 Elliott Pitch Shepard was born at 
 Jamestown, New York, July 25, 1833, son 
 of Fitch Shepard, who was president of 
 the National Bank Note Company. City 
 of New York. Elliott Fitch Shepard was 
 graduated from the University of the City 
 of New York in 1855, studied law, and 
 was admitted to the bar in 1858, and prac- 
 ticed his profession in the metropolis for 
 more than a quarter of a century. Dur- 
 ing the Civil War, 1861-65, he served as 
 aide-de-camp on the staff of Governor E. 
 D. Morgan, of the State of New York. 
 In September, 1861, he presented its 
 colors to the Fifty-first Regiment New 
 York Volunteer Infantry, which he had 
 been instrumental in recruiting, and 
 which was named the Shepard Rifles in 
 compliment to him. He commanded the 
 depot of State volunteers at Elmira, New 
 York, and was instrumental in organiz- 
 ing, equipping and forwarding to the 
 field nearly fifty thousand men. In his 
 profession, he was counsel for the New 
 York Central and other railroads and 
 financial corporations. He was instru- 
 mental in securing the enactment of the 
 law creating the court of arbitration for 
 the Chamber of Commerce of the State 
 of New York. He established the Bank 
 of the Metropolis, the Columbia Bank, 
 and the American Savings Bank. In 1876 
 he founded the New York State Bar As- 
 sociation, of which he was subsequently 
 made president, and which became the 
 model for the organization of similar associ- 
 
 209 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ations in other States. In 1884 Mr. Shep- 
 ard relinquished his law business and 
 traveled abroad, visiting Europe, Asia 
 and Africa, three years later going to 
 Alaska ; and his observations during 
 these travels he made the theme of pub- 
 lic lectures which commanded attention 
 as both instructive and entertaining. In 
 1888 he published as a pamphlet, "Labor 
 and Capital Are One," which had an enor- 
 mous circulation, in which he declared 
 the modern corporation to be one of the 
 greatest benefits of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury and a distinguishing mark of its 
 civilization. He upheld railroads, in par- 
 ticular ; deprecated strikes ; and advo- 
 cated arbitration in all disputes between 
 employees and employers. He was an 
 ardent and active promoter of the scrip- 
 tural observance of the Christian Sabbath, 
 as president of the American Sabbath 
 Union, and spared no pains, outlay of 
 personal effort, or liberal use of money to 
 aid in this and other religious and social 
 reforms in which he was interested. One 
 aspect which his regard for Sabbath ob- 
 servance assumed was the purchase of 
 the control of the Fifth avenue (New 
 York City) stage line and equipments, in 
 order to put an end to its Sunday traffic. 
 
 In March, 1888, Colonel Shepard en- 
 tered the field of journalism by purchase 
 of the New York "Mail and Express," 
 the prosperity and influence of which 
 were greatly advantaged by his admin- 
 istration of its business affairs and his 
 control over its columns. His new de- 
 parture was a genuine surprise to his per- 
 sonal friends as well as to the public, his 
 ample wealth precluding the assumption 
 that he had engaged in journalism merely 
 out of business considerations. On sev- 
 eral occasions his name was mentioned 
 in connection with important diplomatic 
 positions, but he preferred a journalistic 
 to an official career, as affording him a 
 more effective and congenial field for 
 
 public service. The "Mail and Express" 
 was a Republican paper when he took it 
 in charge, and in some quarters it was 
 believed that he intended to use it as a 
 factor for the enhancement of the popu- 
 larity and presidential prospects of an 
 already popular citizen of New York. 
 The policy of the paper was but little 
 changed, however, and it proved a stead- 
 fast supporter of Republican principles 
 and administration policies. Upon as- 
 suming its control Colonel Shepard ex- 
 pressed his intention of making it a 
 strictly clean, respectable journal, in the 
 conviction that an editor should carefully 
 exclude from its columns anything that 
 a gentleman might hesitate to read aloud 
 before his family. He had an unaffected 
 dislike for the morbid stuff that too often 
 mars the press product under the guise 
 of "news," and which he held to be a 
 pabulum serving the gratification of an 
 unhealthy appetite, and ever sowing the 
 seeds of vice and criminality among its 
 readers. In adhering to this conviction, 
 and steadfastly eschewing sensational- 
 ism, Colonel Shepard achieved a decided 
 success. A peculiarity of his journal, 
 since Colonel Shepard's purchase, was its 
 fresh daily reprint of a verse from the 
 Holy Scriptures, at the head of its 
 columns. 
 
 In 1868, Colonel Shepard married Mar- 
 garet Louisa, eldest daughter of William 
 H. Vanderbilt. He died in New York 
 City, March 25. 1893. 
 
 FLOWER, Roswell P., 
 
 Governor. 
 
 Roswell Pettibone Flower was born in 
 Theresa, New York, August 7, 1835, 
 fourth son of Nathan M. and Mary Ann 
 (Boyle) Flower. His father was a native 
 of Greene county, New York, and his 
 mother of Cherry Valley, Otsego county. 
 His paternal ancestors were from Eng- 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 land, and settled in Hartford, Connecti- 
 cut, in 1696, while on his mother's side 
 he was descended from Scotch-Irish an- 
 cestors. His father was a wool-carder 
 and cloth-dresser, and when he died in 
 1843 his wife and sons continued the busi- 
 ness. 
 
 Roswell P. Flower paid his own way at 
 school by working on a farm, in a brick- 
 yard, and at odd jobs about the village 
 store. He was graduated at the Theresa 
 High School in 1851, and then taught a 
 country school. In 1853 he became a 
 clerk in a store at Theresa, and then went 
 to Philadelphia, New York, where he was 
 a clerk for a short time. The firm failed, 
 and he returned to Theresa. He was ap- 
 pointed assistant postmaster of Water- 
 town, New York, in 1854, remaining in 
 the office for six years, and out of a salary 
 of six hundred dollars per year saving the 
 capital with which he purchased a half in- 
 terest in a jewelry store. In two years 
 he bought out his partner. In 1859 his 
 brother-in-law, Henry Keep, president of 
 the Chicago & Northwestern railroad, 
 then in failing health, entrusted to young 
 Flower the care of his vast property, and 
 he removed to New York City. His man- 
 agement of this trust kept the property 
 together and increased its value. Mr. 
 Flower soon after formed the banking 
 firm of Benedict, Flower & Company, and 
 afterward admitted two of his brothers as 
 partners. In 1881 he was nominated by 
 the Democratic party, with which he had 
 always acted, representative in Congress 
 from the Eleventh District of New York, 
 his opponent on the Republican ticket be- 
 ing William Waldorf Astor. The elec- 
 tion was a special one to fill a vacancy in 
 the Forty-seventh Congress, caused by 
 the resignation of Levi P. Morton, ap- 
 pointed United States Minister to France 
 by President Garfield. He was elected by 
 a majority of 3,100 votes, a change of 
 7,100 votes, and he served throughout the 
 
 Forty-seventh Congress. He declined re- 
 nomination in 1882, and was a candidate 
 before the Democratic State Convention 
 for Governor of the State, receiving on 
 the first ballot 134 votes to 134 for Gen- 
 eral H. W. Slocum, and 61 for Grover 
 Cleveland, who was finally nominated. 
 In 1885 he was nominated as Lieutenant- 
 Governor, with David B. Hill for Govern- 
 or, but declined to run. He was president 
 of the New York electric subway com- 
 mission, 1886. In the Democratic Na- 
 tional Convention of 1888 his name was 
 mentioned as an available presidential 
 nominee, and he had a large following, 
 including one-half the delegation from 
 New York State, but the inevitable 
 happened in the renomination of Grover 
 Cleveland. He was a representative from 
 the Twelfth District in the Fifty-first 
 Congress, 1889-91, where he served on 
 the committee on ways and means and on 
 the committee on the Columbian Expo- 
 sition of 1893. He was reelected to the 
 Fifty-second Congress in 1890, and Gov- 
 ernor of New York in 1891 by a plurality 
 of 47,937 votes, resigning his seat in Con- 
 gress on the dav he was nominated at 
 Saratoga. He served as Governor until 
 January 1, 1895. His action in suppress- 
 ing a panic resulting from the appearance 
 of a few cases of cholera in New York 
 harbor, and in suppressing the railroad 
 riots at Buffalo, New York, were note- 
 worthy incidents in his gubernatorial ad- 
 ministration. He was elected president of 
 the Columbia Trust Company, 1895-97, 
 and was honorary vice-president, 1897-99. 
 He was married, in 1859, to Sarah M., 
 daughter of Norris M. Woodruff, of 
 Watertown. He gave $50,000 in 1881 for 
 the construction of St. Thomas' Home in 
 connection with St. Thomas' Church, of 
 which he was a vestryman, a memorial 
 to his son. He also built a hospital for 
 the use of the students of the Homoeo- 
 pathic College, Trinity Church, Water- 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 town, New York, and St. James Church, 
 Theresa, New York, in memory of his 
 mother. He died at Eastport, Long 
 Island, New York, May 12, 1899. 
 
 SAMPSON, William T., 
 
 Distinguished Naval Officer. 
 
 Admiral William Thomas Sampson 
 was born in Palmyra, New York, Febru- 
 ary 9, 1840, son of James and Hannah 
 (Walker) Sampson, who emigrated from 
 the North of Ireland and settled in Pal- 
 myra, where his father was a laborer. 
 
 William T. Sampson attended the pub- 
 lic schools and studied at home, and in 
 1857 was appointed to the United States 
 Naval Academy, where he was graduated 
 in 1861. He served on the frigate "Poto- 
 mac ;" and was promoted to master in 
 
 1861, and to second lieutenant, July 16, 
 
 1862. He served on the United States 
 practice ship "John Adams," 1862-63 ; 
 was an instructor at the United States 
 Naval Academy in 1864; served on the 
 "Patapsco," of the South Atlantic block- 
 ading squadron off Charleston, as execu- 
 tive officer, and on January 16, 1865, he 
 was ordered to enter Charleston harbor, 
 and remove and destroy all submarine 
 mines and torpedoes protecting the city. 
 Under a heavy fire, the "Patapsco" suc- 
 ceeded in entering the harbor, but was 
 blown up by a sunken mine. Sampson 
 was rescued about one hundred feet from 
 the wreck, but seventy of his crew were 
 drowned. He was promoted to lieuten- 
 ant-commander, July 25, 1866; served on 
 the steam frigate "Colorado." flagship of 
 the European squadron, 1865-67; was 
 stationed at the United States Naval 
 Academy as instructor, 1868-71 ; com- 
 manded the "Congress" on the European 
 station, 1872-73 ; was promoted to com- 
 mander, August 9. 1874; assigned to the 
 "Alert," and was again instructor at the 
 naval academy, 1876-78. He commanded 
 
 the "Swatara" in Chinese waters, 1879-82. 
 He was proficient in science, being espe- 
 cially interested in physics, chemistry, 
 metallurgy and astronomy. He was sent 
 in 1878 to Creston, Iowa, to report a total 
 eclipse of the sun ; was assigned to duty 
 as assistant superintendent of the United 
 States Naval Observatory, 1882-85 '• was 
 on duty at the torpedo station, Newport, 
 Rhode Island; a member of the inter- 
 national prime meridian council in 1884; 
 a member of the board of fortifications 
 and other defences, 1885-86, and a dele- 
 gate to the international maritime con- 
 ference in 1889. He was promoted to 
 captain in March, 1889, and commanded 
 the cruiser "San Francisco" during a tour 
 of duty on the Pacific coast, 1890-93. He 
 was chief of the Bureau of Ordnance, 
 1893-97, an d on June 16, 1897, was given 
 command of the battleship "Iowa," at 
 that time the most formidable vessel in 
 the United States navy. 
 
 He was presiding officer of the board 
 of inquiry to ascertain the cause of the 
 destruction of the battleship "Maine" in 
 Havana harbor, in February, 1898, and 
 on the outbreak of the war with Spain 
 he commanded the North Atlantic squad- 
 ron, with the rank of acting rear admiral. 
 He was commander-in-chief of the United 
 States naval forces operating in the North 
 Atlantic off the coast of Cuba, and 
 planned the blockade of the harbor of 
 Santiago that effectually prevented the 
 escape of the Spanish fleet under Cer- 
 vera. The blockading fleet was arranged 
 in a semi-circle six miles from the en- 
 trance of the harbor by day, and four by 
 night. The fleet cooperated with the land 
 forces under General Shafter, who had 
 his headquarters at Sebony, and on the 
 morning of July 3, Sampson, in his flag- 
 ship "New York," left the squadron in 
 order to confer with Shafter at that place. 
 During his absence the Spanish fleet was 
 discovered coming out of the harbor, and 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 by a concerted action of the captains in 
 command of the respective blockading 
 vessels they immediately closed in and 
 engaged the enemy. A running fight was 
 kept up for about four hours, when the 
 Spanish fleet was entirely destroyed. The 
 "New York" returned in time to witness 
 the close of the great naval battle, but 
 was unable to get within range. The 
 fleet then cooperated with Shatter in the 
 bombardment of Santiago, July io-ii, 
 1898; and after the surrender of the 
 Spanish land forces Sampson was ap- 
 pointed a member of the commission to 
 arrange for the evacuation of Cuba. He 
 was promoted commodore July 6, 1898; 
 made an extended cruise in West Indian 
 waters in 1899, and returned to the 
 United States in the spring of 1899. A 
 difference of opinion between the respec- 
 tive admirers of Sampson and Schley, as 
 to the relative part taken by each in the 
 destruction of the Spanish fleet, carried 
 on by the press, prevented the prompt 
 advance in rank of any of the participants 
 in the Santiago campaign, and in answer 
 to a letter from Sampson addressed to the 
 President, March 9, 1899, in which he 
 offered to waive all personal interests, if 
 the other officers could receive advance- 
 ment as recommended by him, President 
 McKinley, on March 13, 1899, commended 
 his disinterested action, assured him of 
 the highest appreciation of his services as 
 commander-in-chief of the Atlantic naval 
 forces in blockading Cuba, cooperating 
 with the army and directing the move- 
 ments that after the most effective pre- 
 paration consummated in the destruction 
 of the Spanish fleet, and reminded him 
 that it was in recognition of such serv- 
 ices that he had recommended him to the 
 Senate for the advancement he had 
 earned. In 1899 a jewelled sword was 
 presented to him by the State of New 
 Jersey. He was promoted rear-admiral, 
 March 3, 1899; commanded the Charles- 
 
 town navy yard, Massachusetts, 1899- 
 1902, and was retired January 1, 1902. 
 The honorary degree of LL. D. was con- 
 ferred upon him by Yale in 1901. He 
 was twice married, (first) in 1863, to 
 Margaret Seton Aldrich, of Palmyra, 
 New York, and (second) in 1882, to 
 Elizabeth Susan Burling, of Rochester, 
 New York. He died in Washington, D. 
 C, May 6, 1902. 
 
 TOWNSEND, Martin I., 
 
 Lawyer, Congressman. 
 
 Martin Ingham Townsend born at 
 Hancock, Massachusetts, February 6, 
 1810, was descended from Henry Adams, 
 of Braintree, and Miles Standish, of 
 Plymouth, Massachusetts, on his mother's 
 side ; and from John Train, of Massachu- 
 setts, and Samuel Ingham, of Connecti- 
 cut, on the paternal side. His parents, 
 Nathaniel and Cynthia (Marsh) Town- 
 send, removed in 1816 to Williamstown, 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 Martin Ingham Townsend graduated 
 second in his class from Williams College 
 in 1833, studied law and was admitted to 
 practice by the Supreme Court of the 
 State of New York, May 13, 1836. He 
 resided and practiced his profession at 
 Troy, New York. He was district attor- 
 ney of Rensselaer county from 1842 to 
 1845, and during that time procured the 
 conviction of the perpetrators of two dif- 
 ferent murders. He was an ardent Demo- 
 crat until 1848, when he became disgusted 
 with the action of the National Democratic 
 Convention in its resolutions upon the sub- 
 ject of slavery at Baltimore that year; at 
 Troy he took an active part in the first 
 meeting held in the United States to pro- 
 test against the doings of that conven- 
 tion. Mr. Townsend, although not a pro- 
 fessional agitator, was one of the most 
 earnest and aggressive opponents of 
 slavery extension and of the encroach- 
 
 13 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 merits of its advocates. He was ardent in 
 the advocacy of his political opinions. In 
 1866 Williams College conferred upon 
 him the degree of LL. D. In 1867 ne was 
 a member of the Constitutional Conven- 
 tion of the State of New York for the 
 State-at-large, by State election. In 1873 
 he was elected by the Legislature a re- 
 gent of the University of the State of 
 New York, and was a very active member 
 of that board. He was a member of Con- 
 gress for two terms, ending March 4, 
 1879, taking part in all the discussions of 
 that period. He was United States dis- 
 trict attorney for the Northern district of 
 New York from March 4, 1879, to Octo- 
 ber 27, 1887, when he was removed by 
 President Cleveland for his pronounced 
 republicanism. In 1890 he was a member 
 of the constitutional commission created 
 by act of the Legislature by appointment 
 of Governor Hill, with the advice and 
 consent of the Senate. In that conven- 
 tion he was a strong opponent of the 
 attempt to circumscribe the right of ap- 
 peal to the Court of Appeals. On July 
 15, 1863, an anti-draft mob raided his 
 mansion on Second street, Troy, destroy- 
 ing everything within reach, but when he 
 was nominated for Congress in 1874, he 
 ran about eight hundred ahead of his 
 ticket in that city. Mr. Townsend was 
 counsel for the United States in the cele- 
 brated Whitaker case at West Point, and 
 had conducted a very large and success- 
 ful law business. He died in 1903. 
 
 BISSELL, Wilson S., 
 
 Lawyer. 
 
 Wilson Shannon Bissell was born in 
 New London, Oneida county, New York, 
 December 31, 1847, son of John and 
 Isabella Bissell. In 1851 his parents 
 removed to Buffalo, and there he at- 
 tended the public schools until 1863, when 
 he was sent to the Hopkins Grammar 
 
 School, New Haven, Connecticut. He 
 was graduated at Yale College in 1869, 
 and immediately began the study of law 
 in the office of Messrs. Laning, Cleveland 
 & Folsom, being admitted to the bar in 
 1 871. In 1872 he entered into partnership 
 with Hon. Lyman K. Bass, and three 
 years later was joined by Grover Cleve- 
 land, the firm name becoming Cleveland 
 & Bissell, after Mr. Bass's retirement. In 
 1881, upon Grover Cleveland's election to 
 the mayoralty, George J. Sicard entered 
 the firm, and the name was Cleveland, 
 Bissell & Sicard, which continued until 
 Grover Cleveland retired on his election 
 to the governorship ; and with Charles W. 
 Goodyear the name was changed to Bis- 
 sell, Sicard & Goodyear. Mr. Goodyear 
 retired in 1887, and a new firm was 
 formed by the admission of ex-Judge 
 Frank Brundage and Herbert P. Bissell, 
 with the title of Bissell, Sicard, Brundage 
 & Bissell. Judge Brundage retiring in 
 1894, the firm of Bissell, Sicard, Bissell & 
 Carey was organized, which was changed 
 in 1896 to the present firm of Bissell, 
 Carey & Cooke. In the nomination of 
 Grover Cleveland for Governor in 1882 
 and for President in 1884 and 1892, Mr. 
 Bissell took a prominent part, and on 
 March 6, 1893, he was appointed post- 
 master-general in Cleveland's second cabi- 
 net. During his incumbency of this office, 
 a number of important improvements 
 were consummated, notably : The shorten- 
 ing of time on transcontinental mail trans- 
 mission by fourteen hours; the elimina- 
 tion of steamship subsidies on slow ships, 
 amounting to $10,000,000; the transfer of 
 contracts for printing postage stamps 
 from private parties to the bureau of 
 engraving and printing at Washington. 
 Having resigned from the cabinet, April 
 4, 1895, ne resumed his legal practice in 
 Buffalo. He was counsel for large and 
 important corporations, particularly rail- 
 roads, but he was more especially a con- 
 
 214 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 suiting lawyer. In the affairs of the Buf- 
 falo library he had been most active, 
 having served it diligently in the capac- 
 ities of president, trustee, and real estate 
 commissioner. In 1888 he was president 
 of the Buffalo Club, and was chancellor 
 of the Buffalo University. In May, 1888, 
 he was elected a delegate to the national 
 convention, at the State convention held 
 in New York City, but resigned to accept 
 the nomination for presidential elector- 
 at-large. In 1893 the degree of LL. D. 
 was conferred upon him by Yale Univer- 
 sitv. Mr. Bissell was an acknowledged 
 leader of the Buffalo bar. and ranked 
 among the foremost lawyers of the State. 
 He died in 1903. 
 
 HEWITT, Abram S., 
 
 Statesman. 
 
 Abram Stevens Hewitt was born at 
 Haverstraw, New York, July 31, 1822. 
 His mother's family, the Garniers, of old 
 Huguenot stock, originally settled in 
 Rockland county, New York, and the 
 land has been held by the family for five 
 generations ; the log-house on this Gar- 
 nier tract (a portion of which was owned 
 by Mr. Hewitt), in which he was born, 
 stood for some time near Pomona sta- 
 tion, not far from Haverstraw. The elder 
 Hewitt was a machinist, who came to 
 America in the latter part of the eight- 
 eenth century and assisted in putting 
 up the first steam engine works here, and 
 also in the construction of the first steam 
 engine wholly built in this country, and 
 was a leading member of the old Me- 
 chanics' and Tradesmen's Society. He 
 was successful in business, but was 
 burned out, and retired to his farm in 
 Rockland county, which accounted for 
 Abram's being born in the old log-house 
 before mentioned. Here the boy grew 
 up, passing part of his time on the farm, 
 and part in the City of New York, where 
 
 his father was reinstating himself in busi- 
 ness. 
 
 Abram S. Hewitt obtained a prize 
 scholarship in Columbia College, after 
 a special examination of public school 
 scholars, and was thus able to obtain an 
 education, in the meantime he earned 
 his own living by private teaching. He 
 graduated at the head of his class, but his 
 health was seriously impaired, and also 
 his eyesight, which was never afterward 
 perfect. After a period of rest, he began 
 the study of law, at the same time being 
 a tutor in the college. In 1843 ne was 
 Acting Professor of Mathematics, and 
 while holding the position saved up about 
 one thousand dollars. In 1844, taking this 
 money, and accompanied by Edward 
 Cooper, son of Peter Cooper, and a mem- 
 ber of his class at college, he visited 
 Europe. Returning on board a Mobile 
 packet, it was wrecked, and he and his 
 companion drifted about in an open boat 
 for twelve hours before they were picked 
 up by a passing vessel which brought 
 them to New York. In 1844 Mr. Hewitt 
 was admitted to the bar, but he soon 
 found that his eyesight was so defective 
 it would be impossible for him to practice 
 that profession with success ; in the mean- 
 time his intimate friendship with the 
 Coopers had continued, and it was deter- 
 mined that the two young men should 
 form a business partnership, whereupon 
 Peter Cooper gave over to them the iron 
 branch of his own business. The success 
 of this undertaking in the hands of 
 Messrs. Cooper & Hewitt was marked. 
 The firm was a pioneer in successfully 
 manufacturing iron in the United States, 
 theirs being the first to make iron girders 
 and supports to be used in fireproof build- 
 ings and bridges, and at their works were 
 also made the iron girders used in the 
 construction of the Cooper Union Build- 
 ing. At one time there were upwards of 
 three thousand men on their pay-rolls. 
 
 *5 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 In 1878 Mr. Hewitt stated at one of the 
 meetings of the congressional committee 
 on the grievances of labor, of which he 
 was chairman, that from 1873 to l8 79 the 
 business of his firm was conducted at a 
 loss of $100,000 a year; the deficit caused 
 partly in keeping up the plant, but in 
 large measure to avoid the distress con- 
 sequent upon throwing out of employ- 
 ment a large number of laborers. It is 
 a remarkable incident in the economic 
 history of the country that the profits of 
 this great industry during forty years 
 were only sufficient to pay the men and 
 the regular operating expenses ; and the 
 enterprise was sustained simply by the 
 judicious use of their capital outside of 
 their immediate business, and by antici- 
 pating the future by prudent advance 
 purchases of materials. The works were 
 never shut down, but sometimes worked 
 on half-time when business was slack. 
 The policy of the firm toward their work- 
 men was always to take them into their 
 confidence, and always to be on the best 
 of terms with trades unions and special 
 labor organizations. The firm of Cooper 
 & Hewitt finally owned and controlled 
 the Trenton, Ringwood, Pequest and 
 Durham iron works in New Jersey, the 
 development and management of which 
 was largely the result of Mr. Hewitt's per- 
 sonal efforts. In 1862 he visited England 
 in order to learn the process of making 
 gun barrel iron, and was enabled to sup- 
 ply the gun barrel material needed by the 
 United States government during the 
 continuance of the Civil War. To Mr. 
 Hewitt also was due the introduction of 
 the Martins-Siemens, or open-hearth pro- 
 cess for the manufacture of steel in this 
 country. 
 
 The plan of the Cooper Union, founded 
 by Peter Cooper as a benefaction to the 
 City of New York, was devised by the 
 trustees of that institution, with Mr. 
 Hewitt as chairman. Afterward, as sec- 
 
 retary of the board of trustees, he man- 
 aged its financial, and, to a very large ex- 
 tent its educational affairs. 
 
 The public career of Mr. Hewitt, as a 
 man of affairs and statesman, began in 
 1867, when he was appointed by Presi- 
 dent Johnson one of ten United States 
 commissioners to visit the Paris Expo- 
 sition held that year, and to report on the 
 subjects of iron and steel; the volume 
 which resulted from his labors was trans- 
 lated into nearly all European languages. 
 In 1874 Mr. Hewitt was elected to Con- 
 gress, and, one term excepted, served un- 
 til 1886. In Congress he speedily became 
 noted for his practical ideas and common- 
 sense views. Having a strong tendency 
 toward the study of political economy, he 
 was frequently a speaker on subjects con- 
 nected with finance, labor, and the de- 
 velopment of the national resources. He 
 was an advocate of honest legislation 
 without regard to party service. He was 
 independent, but never radical. His 
 honesty of political purpose was always 
 conceded. In regard to the great tariff 
 question, he believed in and sustained 
 measures for a limited reform, being 
 neither a free-trader nor a protectionist. 
 In 1S78 Mr. Hewitt was the leader of 
 the twenty-seven Democrats in Congress 
 who voted against the attempt to repeal 
 the specie resumption act. He was op- 
 posed to the system of coinage of the sil- 
 ver dollar, and predicted the results which 
 afterwards followed. He was chairman 
 of the Democratic National Committee in 
 1876. The claim of the Democrats after 
 the election, to the effect that they had 
 carried the country and elected Mr. Til- 
 den to the presidency was written by 
 Abram S. Hewitt, and the manuscript of 
 it is still in existence, with marginal notes 
 in the handwriting of Mr. Tilden. Dur- 
 ing that crisis, Mr. Hewitt encouraged 
 the boldest action in regard to the situ- 
 ation. Mr. Tilden. however, was timid, 
 16 
 
ENCYCLOrEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 and of three methods of settlement which 
 were placed before him, — a contest, a sur- 
 render, or arbitration — he chose the latter, 
 and this controlled Mr. Hewitt as his in- 
 strument in Congress and in the party, 
 the result being the establishment of the 
 electoral commission, and the seating of 
 Rutherford B. Hayes in the presidential 
 chair. In October, 1886, a strong move- 
 ment was made on the part of the labor 
 organizations of New York to gain pos- 
 session of the city government, resulting 
 in the nomination of Henry George for 
 mayor. A union was effected and a party 
 formed of Democrats and Independents, 
 by which Abram S. Hewitt was nomi- 
 nated for mayor, while the Republicans 
 set up the name of Theodore Roosevelt 
 as their candidate. Theodore Roosevelt 
 received 60,435 votes ; Henry George, 68,- 
 110, and Abram S. Hewitt, 90,552. Mr. 
 Hewitt performed his new duties with 
 his customary vigor and energy. He was 
 a thorough-going reformer, and kept close 
 watch of the acts of his subordinates. He 
 aroused the ire of the Irish by refusing 
 to raise the Irish flag over the city hall on 
 St. Patrick's day, his conviction being that 
 the flag of no other people should be 
 raised, except as a matter of especial com- 
 pliment, upon any municipal or national 
 building in the country, while as to the 
 flag of a nation which had no political 
 existence, he thought there ought to be 
 no difference of opinion or even discus- 
 sion. From the close of his term as 
 mayor of New York, Mr. Hewitt re- 
 mained practically out of politics. 
 
 Mr. Hewitt married, in 1855, the daugh- 
 ter of Peter Cooper, and sister of his busi- 
 ness partner, Edward Cooper. He died 
 January 18, 1903. 
 
 CORNELL, Alonzo B., 
 
 Governor. 
 
 Alonzo B. Cornell was born at Ithaca, 
 New York, January 22, 1832. He received 
 
 an academic education, and at an early 
 age engaged in the telegraph business. 
 His first employment was at Troy, New 
 York ; and from his first connection with 
 that office, Mr. Cornell was continuously 
 occupied either as operator, manager, 
 superintendent, director, vice-president, 
 or acting president, of the Western Union 
 Telegraph Company or its predecessor 
 companies. His father, the late Ezra Cor- 
 nell, founder of Cornell University, was 
 associated with Professor Morse in the 
 early developments of the electric tele- 
 graph, and in 1843 was appointed by the 
 Secretary of the Treasury as the superin- 
 tendent of construction of the first line of 
 telegraph in America, between Baltimore 
 and Washington. The Western Union 
 Telegraph Company was organized in 
 1854 by the union of several of the origi- 
 nal telegraph companies, located chiefly 
 in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. Ezra 
 Cornell, Hiram Sibley, of Rochester, and 
 Jephtha H. Wade, of Cleveland, Ohio, 
 were the practical founders of the com- 
 pany. 
 
 On his accession to the presidency, in 
 1869, General Grant appointed Mr. Cor- 
 nell as Surveyor of Customs for the Port 
 of New York. He performed the duties 
 of that office with such satisfaction that 
 in 1870 President Grant nominated him 
 Assistant Treasurer of the United States 
 at New York, to succeed Charles J. Fol- 
 ger, who had been elected to the Court of 
 Appeals. Mr. Cornell preferred the cus- 
 toms service and declined to accept the 
 treasurership, whereupon Thomas Hill- 
 house was appointed to that office. In 
 performance of duty as Surveyor of Cus- 
 toms, Mr. Cornell was associated with 
 Moses H. Grinnell, Thomas Murphy and 
 Chester A. Arthur, collectors, successive- 
 ly, of the port of New York. Mr. Cornell 
 resigned in 1872 to accept an election to 
 the Legislative Assembly of the State of 
 New York ; and although it was his first 
 parliamentary service, he was chosen 
 
 17 
 
ENCYCLOFEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 speaker of that body by the unanimous 
 action of the Republican caucus. The As- 
 sembly contained a large number of 
 prominent men of great legislative experi- 
 ence, and the choice of Mr. Cornell as 
 speaker, without even the pretense of a 
 canvass for the position, was an unusual 
 compliment. As a presiding officer he 
 was remarkably successful, but declined 
 a proffered renomination to the Assem- 
 bly, although his district was overwhelm- 
 ingly Republican. He preferred to re- 
 sume his position as vice-president of the 
 Western Union Telegraph Company, in 
 which he continued until the close of 
 1876, when he accepted from President 
 Grant the appointment as Naval Officer 
 for the Port of New York. In 1875 Mr. 
 Cornell was acting president of the West- 
 ern Union Telegraph Company during 
 the prolonged absence in Europe of the 
 late William Orton, then president of the 
 company. Factional strife induced Presi- 
 dent Hayes to suspend Collector Arthur 
 and Naval Officer Cornell from their posi- 
 tions in July, 1878, an action founded 
 wholly on political motives. At the suc- 
 ceeding election, Mr. Cornell was elected 
 Governor of New York, and General 
 Arthur Vice-President of the United 
 States, which was generally recognized 
 as a vindication of their side of the con- 
 troversy. Governor Cornell was inaugu- 
 rated January 1, 1880, and served three 
 years. His administration was marked 
 by its economical results, freedom from 
 official scandal, and the general excellence 
 of his official appointments. He exercised 
 the veto power with firmness and to the 
 great satisfaction of the people. Among 
 the prominent measures vetoed by Gov- 
 ernor Cornell were the code of criminal 
 procedure of 1880, the Croton aqueduct 
 bill, and the new capitol appropriation 
 bill of 1881, the genera! street railway bill 
 of 1882, the bill providing a public restau- 
 rant in Central Park, and many others. 
 
 His vetoes of the supply bills were un- 
 precedented in their magnitude, and were 
 cordially approved by the masses. No 
 Governor since then has deemed it neces- 
 sary to apply such radical remedies to 
 the correction of scandalous legislation. 
 Many meritorious measures tending to 
 genuine reformation in the public service 
 were enacted during Governor Cornell's 
 term. The act making women eligible as 
 school electors and school officers was 
 recommended in his first annual message 
 and approved by him. The amendment 
 of the usury laws enacted in 1882, as 
 recommended in his annual message of 
 that year, has proved to be the most im- 
 portant financial measure adopted by the 
 State since the close of the war for the 
 restoration of the Union. It has accom- 
 plished more to equalize New York and 
 London as the chief financial centers of 
 the world than any other act of State 
 legislation. Governor Cornell strongly 
 urged the creation of the State railway 
 commission which was provided for dur- 
 ing his term, but a Democratic Legisla- 
 ture factiously denied him the satisfac- 
 tion of appointing the commissioners. 
 The Women's Reformatory of Hudson 
 was the only new State institution he 
 permitted to be projected by legislative 
 enactment. Under commissioners ap- 
 pointed by him, that admirable institu- 
 tion was completed and put into successful 
 operation at a cost of less than $125,000 
 It has capacity for two hundred and fifty 
 inmates, and is by far the best and 
 cheapest public institution erected by the 
 State since the completion of the Erie 
 canal enlargement. The corporation State 
 tax law was enacted under Governor Cor- 
 nell's administration, and was designed 
 to relieve overburdened landowners from 
 onerous taxation ; but although it has 
 already produced more than ten millions 
 of revenue for the State treasury, it has 
 failed to accomplish its intended purpose, 
 
 218 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 owing to the continuous enactmer. I 
 travagant tax levies. Governor Cornell's 
 last annual message was an admirable 
 statement of the conditions and neces- 
 sities of the State. He confined his mes- 
 sages to subjects of State jurisdiction and 
 : rest He was a candidate for re- 
 nomination in 1882, but he was set aside 
 and Grover Cleveland, the Democratic 
 nominee, was elected by nearly two hun- 
 dred thousand ma; - tj Mi 
 retired from poli:: I " - •: n] his 
 
 residence in New He died in 
 
 1904. 
 
 ROSS. Peter, 
 
 Historian.. Litterateur. 
 
 Of the late Peter Ross, LL. D.. the dis- 
 tinguished Scotch scholar, John Muir, 
 F. S. A., author of "Carlyle on Burns," 
 said in the Dundee (Scotland* "People's 
 Friend,'" in 1898: 
 
 "Few Scotsmen on the other - 
 
 tlantic are better known or more 
 highly esteemed than Dr. Peter Ross I 
 New York, who during the las: twc 
 decades has done so much in the United 
 States and Canada in the interests 
 Scotland — her -: r her literature, and 
 her sons. As a journalist of long stand- 
 ing his pen has ever been ready to defend 
 or further his native land and her hardy 
 sons and comely daughters. As a Cale- 
 donian, his organizing and managerial 
 
 rs have been of the utmos: - 
 to the causes which had the good fortune 
 to secure his cooperation, and his secre- 
 tarial and committee work has been enor- 
 mous. As a Sect he has ever held out the 
 hand of good fellowship and benevolence 
 to those in need of his advice or aid, and 
 many a struggling countryman and 
 woman owe to his kindness a bright spot 
 in their lives. Such men are the salt of 
 the earth." 
 
 Mr. Ross was born at Inverness 
 land, in 1847. He was educated in Edin- 
 burgh, and afterv. rard av.ended the c";l 
 of Pr hllman and Balfour Stew- 
 
 and closed with a course at the 
 School of Arts. The teacher; 
 famous Edinburgh institution he remem- 
 bered with much veneration, notably Pro- 
 
 rs Macadam, Lees, and Dr. Da 
 Pryde. The latter was a most brilliant 
 lecturer, and not a s stn itnts 
 
 were imbued with the literary - r 
 under the spell of his genius. After com- 
 pleting his education, so far at least as 
 the schools are concerned, Mr. I 
 took to journalism, his first r 
 work being done for the old "Caledonian 
 Mercury." 
 
 In 1874 he cr - .tlantic and 
 
 settled in New V ark, -.here he engaged 
 in newspaper and literary work, his 
 tributions both to American and Br. 
 journals and magazines being many, and 
 all : value. His first work was the 
 Poel rks of Sii William Alexan- 
 
 der. Earl of Stirling -arge vol- 
 
 rk showing unusual research 
 and keen critical judgment. In the Wr- 
 ing year he edited a still — . :re re- 
 markable and vastly more important col- 
 lection of the poet— : his native land, 
 "The Song! f S : and. Chronologically 
 Arranged," which had a very exten 
 circulation, rea: ng fourth edition. It 
 is a standard work, and is to be found in 
 most public and private libraries. Be- 
 rief memoirs of the authors, it con- 
 tains a consi :erable amount of hist 
 and antiquarian information of great 
 interest to students of this class ::' litera- 
 ture; but its most valuable fea:urr after 
 the songs thmeseh 
 
 verv best, is the introduction, which 
 gives a summary of the history of Scot- 
 tish minstrelsy from the earliest times 
 down to date. 
 
 219 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 In 1886 he published his first book in 
 America, "The Life of Saint Andrew," 
 the patron saint of Scotland and Russia, 
 treating of St. Andrew from his earliest 
 years, describing his missionary work in 
 detail, and telling of his closing years, 
 and how he became the Scottish national 
 patron saint, altogether a most interest- 
 ing and instructive book ; but the chapter 
 on "Saint Andrew Among the Poets," 
 is one which is specially interesting for 
 the number of really excellent poems it 
 contains. Dr. Ross's next contribution to 
 Scottish-American literature was "Scot- 
 land and the Scots," giving an account of 
 what contributions Scotch blood and 
 Scotch genius have made to the world's 
 fund of enterprise and intelligence ; where 
 the minor Scotlands, so to speak, of to- 
 day are to be found ; what communities 
 apart from the parent land are still mark- 
 edly Scotch ; and what form Scottish in- 
 stitutions have taken in other lands to 
 which they have been carried. The book 
 abounds in curious and interesting infor- 
 mation on all those and many more 
 topics, including Scottish characteristics, 
 anniversaries, holidays, sports and super- 
 stitions. Another book, "The Scot in 
 America," issued in 1896, is undoubtedly 
 the standard work on the subject, and 
 worthy of a place alongside of Burton's 
 "Scot Abroad." It is full of curious infor- 
 mation, most of it collected from original 
 sources, and even the compilation of the 
 material must have occupied many years. 
 Of particular interest are the narratives 
 concerning Scots who distinguished them- 
 selves by voluntary service in the Revo- 
 lutionary and Civil wars. The next book 
 by Dr. Ross, like its predecessors, deals 
 with Scottish historical and literary sub- 
 jects, and was published during 1898, in 
 Paisley, Scotland, "Kingcraft in Scot- 
 land." This work has been favorably 
 noticed by the critics on both sides of the 
 
 Atlantic, although the writer's democratic 
 notions proved unacceptable to not a few. 
 
 Dr. Ross next engaged himself in a 
 great literary task, which he completed in 
 1901 — "A History of Freemasonry in 
 New York," in two large quarto volumes. 
 During the same period he engaged in 
 revising for the press a series of articles 
 on "The Contemporaries of Burns," for a 
 weekly newspaper. This work is actually 
 a history of Scottish literature during the 
 eighteenth century. Dr. Ross soon after- 
 ward wrote an excellent narrative "His- 
 tory of Long Island," published by the 
 Lewis Publishing Company of New York. 
 
 Dr. Ross came of a literary family. His 
 brother, John D. Ross, LL. D., was well 
 known on both sides of the Atlantic as 
 an author and editor of works relating to 
 Robert Burns. Mr. Peter Ross was made 
 an LL. D. about 1900, and the distinction 
 was no less merited than appreciated. He 
 was a most enthusiastic Mason. He was 
 initiated in Thistle and Rose Lodge, No. 
 73, Glasgow, Scotland, and after settling 
 in New York affiliated with Scotia Lodge, 
 No. 634, of which he was twice master, 
 and served it as treasurer for ten years. 
 He was also a member of Zetland Chap- 
 ter, No. 141, Royal Arch Masons, a chap- 
 ter named after a well-known Scottish 
 nobleman whose services to the craft are 
 thus affectionately remembered and com- 
 memorated. In the Ancient and Accepted 
 Scottish Rite he was a member of the 
 New York Lodge of Perfection, Council 
 of Princes of Jerusalem, Chapter of Rose 
 Croix, and the Consistory of New York, 
 holding the rank which accompanies the 
 possession of the thirty-second degree. 
 In the New York Grand Lodge he held 
 the appropriate office of historian, and 
 was representative of the Grand Lodge 
 of Maryland near the Grand Lodge of 
 New York. In the formation of the Ma- 
 sonic Historical Society of New York he 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 took an active part, and held the office 
 of secretary, and was a member of the 
 correspondence circle of Lodge Ouatuor 
 Coronati, No. 2076, London. Possibly 
 among his many Masonic honors he held 
 none in higher esteem than that of hon- 
 orary membership in Canongate Kilwin- 
 ning Lodge, No. 2, Edinburgh, of which 
 lodge Robert Burns was a member. 
 
 Dr. Ross died June 2, 1902. Funeral 
 services were held in the Grand Lodge 
 room of Masonic Hall, New York City, 
 and the remains were interred in Good 
 Hope Cemetery, where a monument, sub- 
 scribed for by his Masonic brethren and 
 friends, among them many literary work- 
 ers, marks his last resting place. 
 
 LINDSLEY, Smith M., 
 
 Lawyer, Jurist. 
 
 Those who approach the dignified sub- 
 ject of the law or its practice from the in- 
 side, as it were, not as the litigant but as 
 the attorney, or even more as the student, 
 are well acquainted with the extremely 
 characteristic and vivid atmosphere that 
 adheres to it, made up of the multitude of 
 associations from its great past, which 
 gives it a tone peculiar to itself, intangible 
 but none the less definite, and exercising 
 a most potent charm upon all who come 
 within its influence. They recognize this, 
 they feel the influence of its great tra- 
 dition as descending upon it from the wit 
 and wisdom of the great men of preced- 
 ing ages, but they are also aware, if they 
 stop to consider the matter, that very little 
 is being added to that tradition to-day, 
 that there are very few men who are 
 making associations for a future age in 
 the present. Occasionally, however, we 
 have our attention attracted to a man, 
 often a man in none of the situations of 
 the bench or bar, who we feel instinctive- 
 ly is adding to that already mighty current 
 
 of tradition. Their names are somewhat 
 more frequent of occurrence in the gener- 
 ation that is just past, men whose devo- 
 tion to the law was greater than their de- 
 votion to themselves, men who practiced 
 their profession as one should practice his 
 religion with an eye to impersonal con- 
 siderations, the priests of the law who 
 dedicated themselves to the law's ends, 
 not the law unto their own. Such a de- 
 scription would very appositely apply to 
 Smith M. Lindsley, late of Utica, New 
 York, the distinguished gentleman whose 
 name heads this brief appreciation, and 
 whose death removes from the commu- 
 nity a gentleman and a lawyer of the old 
 school when ideals were placed before 
 expediency. 
 
 Smith M. Lindsley was a native of 
 Monticello, Sullivan county, New York, 
 born April 11, 1847, a son °f Rufus and 
 Jane (Weed) Lindsley, and a grandson of 
 
 Eliud Lindsley and Smith, of the 
 
 family of Garrett Smith, the former one of 
 the pioneers of that region, and a man of 
 unusually strong character and will. On 
 the maternal side, too, he came of fine old 
 pioneer stock, his mother being a relative 
 of Smith M. Weed, celebrated in the an- 
 nals of Clinton county. Another branch 
 of the Lindsley family made their way to 
 the South and settled in Tennessee where 
 they gave several noted educators to the 
 region, including college presidents and 
 professors, authorities on their various 
 subjects. Mr. Lindsley, Sr., was a farmer 
 and the son enjoyed the advantages of 
 that splendid training on the farm which 
 seems to have been the cradle of so many 
 of our strongest and finest men. His edu- 
 cation was begun at the Monticello 
 Academy, where he gave, even at an early 
 age, indications of that strong taste for 
 the life of study that so strongly marked 
 him in after years. He graduated from 
 this institution as the valedictorian of his 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 class. He then attended the Wyoming 
 Seminary and College at Wyoming, Penn- 
 sylvania, where he continued his brilliant 
 career as a student and was actually a 
 member of the faculty for a year. It was 
 while here that Mr. Lindsley's attention 
 began to be powerfully attracted to the 
 law, and before he had completed his 
 course there he had begun the study of 
 this subject with the determination of 
 devoting his life to it. Upon leaving 
 Wyoming he went to Wilkes-Barre, 
 Pennsylvania, and there continued his 
 study of the law and finally in 1869 came 
 to Utica where he gave a last year to his 
 legal studies in the law office of the Hon. 
 Francis Kernan, being admitted to the 
 bar in 1870. 
 
 He began at once to practice his pro- 
 fession and almost from the outset was 
 successful. It was but two years after 
 this beginning had been made when he 
 was offered the Democratic nomination 
 for the office of city attorney, which was 
 at that time an elective office. It is a 
 most striking tribute to the young man 
 that, in the short time he had been in 
 their midst, Mr. Lindsley had made such 
 a reputation for integrity and ability with 
 his fellow citizens that they elected him 
 against a normal Republican majority, 
 only one other candidate on the Demo- 
 cratic ticket being successful. He was re- 
 elected the following year by a greatly 
 increased majority and during both terms 
 rendered the most effective service to his 
 fellow citizens. A third nomination in 
 1874 was declined by Mr. Lindsley and he 
 at once returned to private practice and 
 did not leave it again until his death. 
 Several notable honors were done him by 
 his fellow citizens, who offered him the 
 highest offices in their gift, but nothing 
 could tempt him. In the year 1884 a 
 citizen's convention composed of both 
 parties unanimously nominated him for 
 mayor of Utica, but he graciously but 
 
 firmly declined it, and it was the same in 
 1895 when the Democrats of the Fifth 
 Judicial District nominated him as a jus- 
 tice of the Supreme Court of New York. 
 He did accept the appointment to the joint 
 offices of fire and police commissioner, 
 which would not interfere entirely with 
 his private practice, and served for one 
 year from 1900, proving a most effective 
 and capable officer. For a great part of 
 his career Mr. Lindsley practiced by him- 
 self, but twice he admitted partners into 
 the business, in 1875, the Hon. Watson T. 
 Dunmore, the resulting firm being known 
 as Lindsley & Dunmore, which was dis- 
 solved again in 1883, and later in 1901, 
 Mr. William S. Mackie, who had been in 
 his employ for a number of years. Mr. 
 Lindsley's experience with the charter of 
 Utica and the laws applicable to the re- 
 sponsibilities of cities, gained during his 
 two years as city attorney, was very use- 
 ful to him after his return to private prac- 
 tice. He made a point of taking cases 
 brought against the city by individuals 
 for negligence and won so many that the 
 corporation of the city went to the lengths 
 of having its charter amended in such a 
 manner as to shift responsibility from it- 
 self to the negligent property owner. As 
 time went on Mr. Lindsley became a rec- 
 ognized leader of the bar in Oneida coun- 
 ty with one of the largest practices in 
 that part of the State. As time went on 
 so much litigation was brought to him 
 that he was obliged to discriminate and 
 eventually he rarely accepted anything 
 but the larger and more important cases. 
 One of the more important matters in 
 which he took part, and in which the pub- 
 lic interests were involved rather more 
 directly than usual, was connected with 
 the erection of the new Utica Court 
 House. For the proper carrying out of 
 this project the Oneida county building 
 commission was instituted, but when it 
 attempted to perform its functions and go 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 on with the work, it found itself opposed 
 by the supervisors, who took the matter 
 to the courts. Mr. Lindsley had been one 
 of the Democratic lawyers appointed to 
 serve on the commission, and he at once 
 took up the cudgels for his colleagues with 
 great energy and effect. More than any- 
 one else he shaped the course of the sub- 
 sequent litigation, and it was doubtless 
 due in a large measure to his work that 
 it was finally brought to a successful con- 
 clusion and the buildings proceeded with. 
 In this matter as in many others he gave 
 his best efforts to his fellow citizens with- 
 out stint, though he received no remuner- 
 ation whatever for them, and indeed, the 
 only thing for which he was ever paid by 
 the community was his work as city at- 
 torney at the beginning of his career. 
 Never afterwards did he accept anything 
 and his whole work as police and fire 
 commissioner was given to it. Another 
 matter in which he made himself useful 
 to his fellow citizens was the investiga- 
 tion in 1891 into the causes of high tax- 
 ation in Oneida county, he being ap- 
 pointed by the board of supervisors to 
 conduct the same, which he did with 
 great success, making many revelations 
 of corruption and extortion which were 
 afterwards removed. Mr. Lindsley was 
 a very prominent member of the Bar As- 
 sociation of Oneida County and for a 
 time served as its president. Mr. Linds- 
 ley allowed himself to become associated 
 with very few business interests outside 
 his own immediate legal practice, but a 
 few such associations he found it impos- 
 sible to avoid and among these the most 
 important was that with the First Na- 
 tional Bank of Chittenango, of which he 
 was elected the president in 1885, holding 
 that office for upwards of twenty years. 
 
 Mr. Lindsley was. however, prominent 
 in fraternal circles and was a member of 
 a number of important orders. He was 
 particularly identified with the Royal Ar- 
 
 canum, which was founded in 1878, one 
 of the earliest of its lodges being the 
 Imperial Lodge, No. 70, of Utica, of 
 which Mr. Lindsley was a charter mem- 
 ber. Rapidly Mr. Lindsley rose in rank 
 holding practically every important office 
 in the State and finally was elected su- 
 preme regent, the highest office in the 
 order. He was also a member of the local 
 lodges of the Free and Accepted Masons 
 and of the Independent Order of Odd 
 Fellows. 
 
 On April 23, 1873, Mr. Lindsley was 
 united in marriage with Dorlissa Johns- 
 ton, daughter of John W. Johnston, a 
 prominent lawyer of Sullivan county, New 
 York. To Mr. and Mrs. Lindsley were 
 born two children, a son who died when 
 but five years of age and a daughter who 
 died while attending college. Mrs. Linds- 
 ley survives her husband and makes her 
 home in Utica. Both she and Mr. Linds- 
 ley were great travelers and have been 
 in many parts of the world, Mrs. Linds- 
 ley having been in Munich at the time of 
 the declaration of war in 1914. 
 
 The devotion of Mr. Lindsley to the 
 law was of a different type from that of 
 most of the men who follow it. The ma- 
 jority of lawyers are doubtless interested 
 in the law, but very few are they who will 
 not put it aside for the sake of large op- 
 portunities in the business world, and still 
 fewer who will not do so if it lead to 
 great political preferment. To many it is 
 but as a stepping stone to politics, which 
 they take merely because it leads most 
 directly there. It was far otherwise 
 with Mr. Lindsley, who put behind him 
 both these temptations, if indeed they 
 were temptations for him at all. His 
 heart was single in its devotion and 
 he would seem to have cared more to 
 succeed in his chosen calling than for any 
 fortune or honor that the world might 
 offer. In another sense, too, this devotion 
 was of an unusual kind. Mr. Lindsley 
 
 223 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 was as jealous of the fair renown of his 
 mistress as of his own. He would never 
 consent to bend her powers to any pur- 
 pose but the noblest, and even went to 
 the lengths of examining every case that 
 was brought to him and accepting it only 
 if he was convinced of its essential worth. 
 He was possessed unquestionably of re- 
 markable qualifications for success in the 
 work he had designed for himself, and 
 added to a naturally clear and compre- 
 hensive mind the habit of taking pains, 
 which we have heard on good authority 
 to be a synonym for genius. His powers 
 of analysis were notable and he carried 
 them to their limit in working out a case 
 in detr.il. It was the opinion, even, of 
 some of his colleagues that he was too 
 insistent upon the details of his case, but 
 his success seemed to discount the criti- 
 cism and justify his method. As a matter 
 of fact he possessed another ability which 
 robbed his insistence upon detail of any 
 weakness it might otherwise have had, 
 and that was the power of arranging his 
 matter with such skill that it presented to 
 the minds of jurors a consecutive account 
 of the most convincing kind. He was 
 deeply learned in his subject and few 
 indeed were the legal points or distinc- 
 tions that could escape his keen faculty. 
 So well known were his methods and his 
 conscientious scruples that his very ap- 
 pearance in a case gave to his client a 
 position of dignity not lost upon the 
 court. His forensic powers were also 
 great, though not showy, his eloquence 
 being of that most effective kind which 
 springs from positive and strong convic- 
 tions rather than art. Personally he was 
 a man of very powerful character, a man 
 of whom it was said that he knew no fear. 
 A little brusque, perhaps, in manner, but 
 with the warmest of hearts within, a 
 heart that would refuse a fellow creature 
 nothing consistent with his principles. 
 His home life was a very ideal one and, 
 
 it may be said that in all the relations of 
 his life he was beyond reproach, and 
 might well serve as an example to the 
 youth of his community, and to those 
 young men who would follow the law in 
 particular. 
 
 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 ap- 
 plication, 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 inhabited the 
 shores of the Baltic Sea, in Northern Ger- 
 many. In high German the form of the 
 name is Brauning. The Brunings are sup- 
 posed 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 language means a meadow 
 or low pastureland, 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 prob- 
 ably the cause which led Nathaniel 
 Browning to embark for America soon 
 after he came of age, in the year 1640. 
 
 224 
 
t^-^u-T^t^t^fc 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Landing at Boston, he proceeded to Ports- 
 mouth, 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 Kingston, 
 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 Ports- 
 mouth. 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- 
 ton, 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 Kingston, where he had large 
 landed possessions. He married, April 21, 
 1721, Ann. daughter of Jeremiah and 
 Sarah (Smith) Hazard, granddaughter of 
 Thomas Hazard, the immigrant progeni- 
 tor of a notable American family. 
 
 Thomas Browning, the eldest son of 
 the above marriage, born in 1722, in 
 Kingston, died there, in 1770. During his 
 active 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 
 Mary (Wilkinson) Browning, and they 
 were the parents of William Thomas 
 
 N Y-2-15 2 
 
 Browning, born May II, 1765, in South 
 Kingston. He was a farmer in Preston, 
 Connecticut, where he built a farm house, 
 standing half in Preston and half in 
 North Stonington, which is still standing 
 in good preservation. He married Cath- 
 erine, daughter of Robert and Catherine 
 (Guinedeau) Morey, of Newport, 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 
 Milltown, Connecticut, and later in New 
 London. 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 married, September 21, 1829, 
 Eliza Smith Hull, of Stonington, daugh- 
 ter of Colonel John W. and Elizabeth 
 (Smith) Hull, and they were the parents 
 of four sons and a daughter. 
 
 The Hull family is also of ancient ori- 
 gin, and springs from Rev. Joseph Hull, 
 who was born in Somersetshire, England, 
 about 1594, and was rector of Northleigh, 
 Devonshire, England, about fourteen 
 years. With his wife, Agnes, he em- 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 barked for America in 1635, and shortly 
 became pastor of the church at Wey- 
 mouth, Massachusetts. He was promi- 
 nent in local affairs, and presided over 
 several churches in Massachusetts, and 
 subsequently, for nine years, at York, 
 Maine. After ten years in Europe he be- 
 came pastor at Dover, New Hampshire, 
 where he died. He was the father of 
 Captain Tristram Hull, born in England, 
 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 so- 
 ciety he became a minister. His son, 
 Tristram Hull, lived in Westerly, Rhode 
 Island, and was the father of Stephen 
 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, 
 September 21, 1829, to John Hazard 
 Browning, and became the mother of 
 John Hull Browning, of further mention 
 below. 
 
 John Hull Browning, youngest child of 
 John Hazard and Eliza Smith (Hull) 
 Browning, was born December 25, 1841, 
 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 Hull 
 Browning ultimately became interested 
 in various financial and business enter- 
 prises. Soon after 1883 he succeeded the 
 late 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 chari- 
 table 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 recre- 
 ation, and devoted much thought and care 
 to benevolent work in the interest of 
 mankind in general. He died suddenly in 
 the Erie ferryhouse at the foot of Cham- 
 bers street, New York, October 26, 1914. 
 He married, October 19, 1871, Eva B. Sis- 
 son, daughter of Charles Grandison and 
 Mary Elizabeth (Garrabrant) Sisson. Mr. 
 Sisson was a projector, contractor and 
 railroad 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 
 Soissons, in Normandy, France, all of 
 whom settled in Rhode Island, a majority 
 of them participating in the American 
 Revolution. One, Nathan Sisson, endured 
 terrible hardships on board British prison 
 ships in New York harbor. Major Gilbert 
 Sisson, son of William, 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 
 26 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 French descent. They were the parents 
 of Charles G. Sisson. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. John Hull Browning were 
 the parents of a son, John Hull Brown- 
 ing, born October 6, 1874. 
 
 LASSCELL, William Brown, 
 
 Mechanical Genius, Writer. 
 
 In many ways the late William Brown 
 Lasscell was typical of much that is best 
 in America, of what we like to think of 
 as "the American," combining in his 
 single person an extraordinary number of 
 traits and qualities, a certain talent or, 
 in the homely phrase, knack of adapting 
 himself to all conditions, a versatility 
 scarcely to be found elsewhere in the 
 world, the children of this land having 
 been trained in this faculty by that most 
 exacting of teachers, Necessity. To an 
 unusual degree of mechanical genius, he 
 added a very compelling personality, a 
 persuasive tongue and a mind quick to 
 take advantage of every slightest oppor- 
 tunity as it arose — all of these, separately 
 and in union, American characteristics. 
 There was yet another characteristic pos- 
 sessed by Mr. Lasscell which we love to 
 think of as American but which is, per- 
 haps, somewhat dying out in this over 
 hurried age of ours, something that re- 
 quires repose and ease of mind for its full 
 expression, what we might call gentility, 
 the grace, the courtesy, the tact, the 
 courtliness of the old-school gentleman. 
 The many different strains of blood that 
 entered into the ancestry of the Lasscell 
 family is another thing distinctively 
 American, for Mr. Lasscell could trace 
 besides the original French, an English, 
 Irish and in all probability a Welsh line 
 of descent. 
 
 Of the Lasscell family there is only 
 meagre records and these extend but a 
 few generations back. Even traditions 
 are scarce, but one at least exists that 
 
 claims that they were originally of the 
 great French house of DeLasalle and re- 
 lated to Robert of that name. According 
 to this account some of them migrated 
 to England and it was while there that 
 the name became corrupted in its spell- 
 ing. This it seems was about the time of 
 Cromwell. The first tradition in which 
 any element of the personal appears 
 known to the American branch of the 
 family is that which has to do with the 
 great-grandparents of William Brown 
 Lasscell, and this, handed down by word 
 of mouth, has not even preserved their 
 names. He it seems was of foreign birth 
 and she a "Dutch Lady," of whose ac- 
 complishments it is stated that she was 
 a "Bible student" and "politician." Of 
 Mr. Lasscell's grandparents the accounts 
 are a little more certain and much more 
 full. His grandfather was Ralph Lass- 
 cell and he seems to have been born in 
 Rhode Island, in 1745. He married Cath- 
 erine Diedrick, a native of the Northern 
 part of the Netherlands where she was 
 born in 1749. They lived respectively to 
 the ages of ninety-six and ninety-three 
 years. The Lasscells at this early period 
 in American history seem to have had 
 their share of the spirit of enterprise 
 which possessed men in that wonderful 
 period and urged them forth over the 
 whole face of the earth to seek new land 
 and new experiences. We hear of them 
 in a number of different places widely 
 separated from one another in the course 
 of a few generations. 
 
 Accordingly, we learn that the father 
 of William Brown Lasscell, a second 
 Ralph Lasscell, was born at Whitesbor- 
 ough, in the Mohawk Valley in Eastern 
 New York State, July 5. 1791. He seems 
 to have traveled to many parts of the 
 country, his death finally taking place in 
 Van Buren county, Michigan. His occu- 
 pations were as various as his residences. 
 He learned the trade of hatter and studied 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 medicine, though he never practiced the 
 latter, he was a school teacher, a hotel 
 keeper and finally a farmer, a man of in- 
 telligence and talent, who could turn his 
 hand capably to whatever it was neces- 
 sary to .do, and who uniformly succeeded 
 in his projects and ventures. He saw 
 much of the world in that age when the 
 "New World" at least was but half re- 
 claimed from the wilderness, and experi- 
 enced many stirring adventures. One 
 tale is told of him while he was a hotel 
 keeper in the little village of French 
 Creek (now Clayton), in Canada on the 
 St. Lawrence river. It was in 1837, the 
 year in which the disturbances known as 
 the "Patriot War" broke out. It seems 
 that one night a number of unexpected 
 strangers began to arrive. They came 
 singly and held no communication with 
 one another, and yet Mr. Lasscell by a 
 sort of instinct knew that they were col- 
 leagues in some enterprise. He gave no 
 sign of curiosity and for three days the 
 strain of their disturbing and mysterious 
 presence continued. Then, just before 
 the coming of the third night, they began 
 to disperse as quietly as they had ap- 
 peared until not one was left. That same 
 night the "Sir Robert Peel," a Canadian 
 steamer, was burned a short distance 
 down the river by the insurgents and it 
 later developed that Mr. Lasscell's vis- 
 itors were the perpetrators of the deed. 
 The peaceful people of the neighborhood, 
 among whom was Mr. Lasscell, fearing 
 that battle might be fought there, placed 
 their wives and children in two large 
 stone houses over night for safe keeping 
 and the next day took them inland a num- 
 ber of miles. However, the crisis blew 
 over and they were able to return in 
 safety a little later. Such were those 
 times, especially to those who ventured 
 into new and half-tamed regions. Ralph 
 Lasscell was twice married, the first time 
 to Dolly Brown, a daughter of William 
 
 Brown, of Cheshire, Massachusetts. She 
 died October 6, 1824, leaving four chil- 
 dren, the youngest of whom, then less 
 than four months old, was William Brown 
 Lasscell, the subject of this brief sketch. 
 After some two years, Ralph Lasscell 
 married, February 27, 1826, Wealthy K. 
 Hine, who bore him three children. Two 
 very curious coincidences occurred in 
 connection with, Mr. Lasscell's two mar- 
 riages, they were both celebrated on the 
 twenty-seventh of February, nine years 
 apart, and the birthdays of his two wives 
 were both the thirteenth of November, 
 with a difference of thirteen years be- 
 tween them. 
 
 Born September 11, 1824, in the little 
 village of Oxbow, Jefferson county, New 
 York, William Brown Lasscell passed the 
 early years of his life in that and other 
 little towns in the Northern part of New 
 York. The schools of that region during 
 the early part of the nineteenth century 
 were not much to boast of and the lad's 
 educational advantages were meagre in 
 the extreme. However, he was one of 
 those natures blessed with acute powers 
 of observation while all through life his 
 memory was famous, and this combina- 
 tion can, as a rule, compensate for any 
 lack of formal schooling. As soon as he 
 came of an age to observe thing accurate- 
 ly he began to pick up knowledge on the 
 greatest imaginable number of things, 
 especially in the direction of mechanics, 
 and made himself far better, rather than 
 worse, educated than the average young 
 man. About 1840, or when he was six- 
 teen years of age, he began to learn the 
 trade of printing in the city of Water- 
 town, New York, whither he had gone 
 seeking employment. For a time he 
 worked as a type setter in the office of 
 a journal published at Utica, New York, 
 and then went to Albany where he 
 secured a similar position. He thus 
 learned a great deal about newspaper 
 
 228 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 work generally, and although he aban- 
 doned the business for the time being it 
 served him well when he returned to it 
 later. 
 
 It was about 1848 that he took up the 
 study of telegraphy, then an entirely new 
 subject, and thus became identified with 
 the beginnings in this country of one of 
 the greatest of the mechanical factors in 
 the shaping of modern society ; and he 
 was prominently identified and left the 
 impress of his personality upon its early 
 development. It was under excellent 
 auspices that he became acquainted with 
 telegraphy, for his studies were carried 
 on under the direction of no less a man 
 than its inventor, Professor Morse him- 
 self. He was one of the first, if not quite 
 the first, of the sound operators and in 
 1850 was placed in charge of the newly 
 opened office in Ogdensburg, New York. 
 It was while situated here that he was 
 instrumental in causing to be adopted the 
 word telegram as a name for the tele- 
 graphic message. This event it seems 
 occurred quite casually in the following 
 manner. Mr. Lasscell, it appears, was 
 about to send off a message to Mr. 
 Owens, the telegrapher at Oswego, in 
 which it was necessary for him to refer 
 to a telegraphic message. At once the 
 question arose as to what single word 
 would convey the proper meaning and 
 the message was temporarily held up. 
 At length a lawyer, who was one of a 
 group of men in the office, remarked that 
 telegram would be correct, whereupon 
 Mr. Lasscell with quick intuition that 
 the perfect term had been found, dis- 
 patched the first telegram in which the 
 word occurred. It obtained instant rec- 
 ognition on all sides and rapidly came 
 into universal use. He remained in the 
 telegraph office until 1853, in which year 
 he received the appointment to the post 
 of revenue collector of the port of Ogdens- 
 burg. He remained in the city and held 
 
 this office until 1855 and then went to 
 Chicago, a city then but twenty-one years 
 old, but which had already entered upon 
 the period of its phenomenal growth and 
 was boasting noisily of a population of 
 eighty-three thousand. From there he 
 continued his travels into Central and 
 Southern Illinois, and it is interesting to 
 note that in his letters of that period he 
 prophesied the wonderful possibilities of 
 the then far Western State. This portion 
 of Mr. Lasscell's life was marked with an 
 immense amount of traveling about dur- 
 ing which he saw almost every part of 
 the country as "it was then known and 
 gained much useful knowledge and ex- 
 perience in life. We next hear of him, 
 after his Illinois trip, as holding a posi- 
 tion as telegrapher at Greensboro, Mary- 
 land, where he remained about a year, 
 and then went to Cleveland, Ohio, and 
 there received his first introduction to the 
 business that he afterwards became per- 
 manently connected with. It was an ag« 
 of great inventions and the taste for sci- 
 entific and mechanical matters which had 
 already brought Mr. Lasscell into con- 
 tact with the telegraph now did him the 
 same service in the case of the sewing 
 machine. He was greatly interested in 
 this new device which was destined to 
 have so great an effect on the develop- 
 ment of many industries, and secured a 
 position with the Elias Howe Sewing Ma- 
 chine Company. He did not remain a 
 great while in this position, however, nor 
 in his next, which was with the Davis 
 Sewing Machine Company in Watertown, 
 New York, but came to New York City 
 and in 1875 began his association with 
 the Wilcox and Gibbs Sewing Machine 
 Company here ; and from that time as 
 long as he was able to reach the office 
 on Broadway, he was actively connected 
 with this great concern and became one 
 of its most important and valued officers. 
 It was due to his inventive genius in no 
 
 229 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 small measure that the various devices 
 which made that a single thread ma- 
 chine, so widely celebrated, were brought 
 into existence and placed on the market, 
 and his services as agent in introducing 
 the machine itself to the market all over 
 the United States were invaluable. Nor 
 did he stop with the boundaries of this 
 country, but traveled all over the South 
 American countries and in Europe intro- 
 ducing the machines there and with such 
 good success that for a long period it 
 quite eclipsed all its rivals in the world 
 trade. He also exercised a sort of super- 
 vision over the machines he sold to make 
 sure that all was well and that they were 
 properly used, so that he came to be a 
 familiar figure in many countries. Some 
 idea may be had of the traveling that this 
 involved from the fact that during this 
 period his itinerary aggregated about two 
 hundred and forty thousand miles, or 
 about ten times around the world. His 
 work was highly appreciated by the com- 
 pany which, after his withdrawal from 
 business on account of his advancing age, 
 paid him a liberal pension to the time of 
 his death. It is said of him that so great 
 was the love felt for him by his associates 
 in the business and, indeed, the whole 
 office force, that on the rare occasions 
 that he visited the office after his retire- 
 ment his welcome amounted to an ova- 
 tion. In the years 1910 and 191 1, Mr. 
 Lasscell traveled in the Bermudas and 
 the enjoyment that he took in this trip 
 illustrates well how wonderfully his facul- 
 ties were preserved in spite of his ad- 
 vanced age. His death, which occurred 
 November 6, 1914, in his ninety-first year, 
 ended a life still vivid and alert, one which 
 could still take pleasure and could cer- 
 tainly give it to those about him, and 
 that despite the affliction of blindness and 
 partial deafness. 
 
 Mr. Lasscell was twice married ; the 
 first time in 1852 to Elizabeth Thatcher, 
 
 a daughter of George Thatcher, of Troy, 
 New York. Mrs. Lasscell died in 1880, 
 leaving him three children as follows : 
 William Thatcher, a real estate owner 
 and man of business who resides at Spar- 
 kill, New York ; Lilly, who became the 
 wife of Dr. Jacques W. Redway, of Mount 
 Vernon, New York, lecturer, author and 
 fellow of the Royal Geographical Society 
 of London ; Adele, who became the wife 
 of Professor C. Herschel Koyle, a con- 
 sulting engineer and the originator of 
 several valuable inventions. Mr. Lass- 
 cell's second marriage was in 1882 to 
 Marcia Alexander, a daughter of Lucius 
 Alexander, of Cohoes, New York, where 
 he carried on a successful business as con- 
 tractor and also engaged in farming for 
 many years. Mrs. Lasscell survives her 
 husband and is a resident of Mount Ver- 
 non, New York. She is a lineal descend- 
 ant of John Rogers, the Smithfield martyr, 
 and is eligible to membership in the 
 Daughters of the American Revolution 
 through the services of another ancestor. 
 The following extracts from the pen 
 picture of Mr. Lasscell by a member of 
 his family give a most vivid and delight- 
 ful impression of his personality and will 
 serve most appropriately to close this 
 sketch : 
 
 A very large share of his success in his (Mr. 
 Lasscell's) chosen work was due to a most re- 
 markable command of language and a charm of 
 manner which attracted all with whom he came 
 in contact, assisted by a voice of peculiar sweet- 
 ness, melody and scope. He had a fine and dis- 
 tinguished bearing, his looks and appearance 
 plainly indicating his French descent. He was 
 always thoroughly self possessed and could 
 address the servant at the door or Royalty in 
 the audience chamber with equal propriety, leav- 
 ing on both the impression of a master mind. 
 The gift of language was by no means confined 
 to the use of conversation, but he was a writer 
 of much fluency, and with early advantages for 
 an education which in these days is at the com- 
 mand of almost all he would, no doubt, have 
 made a high mark in literature. Even with the 
 
 230 
 
MuA/Uyuy 
 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 slender opportunities that were his, he did write 
 much for publication, while to be his corre- 
 spondent was an assurance of delightful enter- 
 tainment as often as his letters arrived. Many 
 of his articles were printed in the "Telegraph 
 Age," one being a vivid description of an ascent 
 he had recently made of Mount Vesuvius, in 
 which it seems that he carries the reader with 
 him. There was also an account of Jennie 
 Lind's first concert at Castle Garden, written 
 from memory after fifty or perhaps sixty years, 
 including the story of P. T. Barnum's connection 
 and the incident of John N. Genin paying two 
 hundred and fifty dollars for a ticket. 
 
 Like Silas VVegg, Mr. Lasscell readily "drop- 
 ped into poetry;" and was possessed of a never 
 failing fund of humor, always seeing and seizing 
 upon the whimsical side of any episode, though 
 by no means lacking in sympathy and pathos 
 when any incident touched his sensibilities. 
 
 Anecdotes of his quaint sayings at a very early 
 age have come down through the years, and 
 the ability to write entertainingly or wisely, con- 
 tinued beyond his ninetieth birthday * * * 
 Even in extreme age his memory continued to 
 be phenomenal, so that within two weeks of his 
 deatli he would recite lengthy poems, recalling 
 every word, giving every inflection correctly; 
 though in those last days, more frequently than 
 any other, he repeated Tennyson's "Twilight and 
 Evening Star." 
 
 CURREY, John, 
 
 lawyer. Jurist. 
 
 Prominence in the profession of the law 
 has never been attained through mediocre 
 ability. The law and its just administra- 
 tion are the most serious of the issues 
 which face any nation. On these two 
 depend the entire national life. They de- 
 termine its place among other nations, its 
 greatness, or its unimportance in the 
 scheme of international relations. No 
 nation can thrive whose laws are unjust, 
 and where class legislation, and corrup- 
 tion of courts and lawyers is practiced. 
 And it follows naturally that where an 
 institution assumes a place of importance, 
 all connected with it is valued proportion- 
 ally as it is great. The United States 
 owes its greatness to the just and impar- 
 
 tial administration of the laws which up- 
 hold in their very essence the principles 
 upon which our Republic is founded, 
 namely, liberty and equality. Our coun- 
 try has had, within the comparatively 
 short history of official life, a number of 
 jurists whose fame has reached far be- 
 yond its own borders, and it has had a 
 larger number of men whose prominence 
 within the States in which they served 
 in official capacity was very great. Of 
 this last number, John Currey, Chief Jus- 
 tice of the Supreme Court of the State of 
 California, was a figure well-known and 
 influential. 
 
 Judge John Currey was born in York- 
 town, New York, October 4, 1814, the 
 son of Thomas Currey, a native of that 
 place. He was prepared for the profession 
 of the law at private academies, and after 
 preliminary studies at these he entered 
 Wesleyan University where he studied 
 law. After graduation from there he en- 
 tered the office of William Nelson, a noted 
 judge and lawyer of Peekskill, New York. 
 Completing his training under him, Judge 
 Currey started the practice of law inde- 
 pendently in Peekskill and later at Kings- 
 ton, New York. However, when the gold 
 rush struck the country in 1849, carry- 
 ing the most conservative and staid of 
 judgment before it in its westward cur- 
 rent, he yielded to the universal fever, 
 and was one of that number of noted men, 
 "the forty-niners," who went to the West 
 in search of gold. Shortly afterward, 
 when the glamour and illusion was torn 
 from the face of the whole situation and 
 conditions were exposed in all the grim 
 reality, he abandoned the idea which had 
 sent him West and settled in San Fran- 
 cisco, where he again took up the profes- 
 sion of law. As is the case in every great 
 agitation or boom, those who are in the 
 van of the advance reap the profits. But 
 there were thousands who went to Cali- 
 fornia in 1849 wno reaped nothing but 
 
 231 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 the most terrible of hardships, the bitter- 
 est of disillusionment — thousands who 
 were never again heard of. 
 
 In San Francisco, where he continued 
 to practice, Judge Currey became associ- 
 ated with some of the most famous legal 
 lights of California, at one time being con- 
 nected with Judge Evans. In 1851, when 
 fire destroyed San Francisco, Judge Cur- 
 rey removed to Benecia and Sacramento, 
 where he practiced for a period of five 
 years. About the year i860, his practice 
 by that time having brought him con- 
 siderably and favorably into the public 
 eye, he was elected to the Supreme Court 
 of California, and shortly after his ap- 
 pointment became chief justice. His as- 
 sumption of office came during the most 
 trying period of the nation's history, the 
 Civil War. Isolation from the actual 
 scene of the great controversy, and the 
 impracticality of slavery within its borders 
 did not prevent California from taking an 
 active and heated interest in the issues 
 which were agitating the Nation. Fac- 
 tional enmity was rife, and secession, 
 already threatened, was avoided only 
 through the concerted efforts of such men 
 of strength as Judge Currey. After re- 
 tiring from the Supreme Court, he entered 
 again into private practice with Judge 
 Evans and later with Judge Hastings 
 Up to this time leisure had been unknown 
 in the active life of Judge Currey. It is 
 a penalty all men who enter public affairs 
 pay for the honor which comes to them 
 in their official capacities. Private prac- 
 tice, however, gave him a greater chance 
 to follow out plans which he had matured 
 years before. He received as a fee a ranch 
 of three thousand acres in the Sacra- 
 mento Valley about sixty miles out from 
 San Francisco, and in 1880 retired from 
 active practice, thereafter spending much 
 of his time on the ranch. It is well-nigh 
 impossible for a man who has been for 
 years identified with the large enterprises 
 
 and issues of the region in which he re- 
 sides to suddenly and totally sever all 
 connection with them. Judge Currey 
 was actively interested in the business 
 and professional world of San Francisco, 
 and despite the fact that he spent a large 
 portion of his time on his ranch, his 
 official residence continued to be in that 
 city. His entire life was wrapped up in 
 and so inseparable from the upbuilding 
 and development of the city that it was 
 impossible for him to leave it for more 
 than a very short period of time. 
 
 Judge Currey was a keen student, a 
 learned judge, and an able and clever 
 lawyer. As a tribute to his administra- 
 tion of the office of chief justice of the 
 Supreme Court of California, it may be 
 said that none of the decisions which he 
 rendered were ever reversed by the higher 
 courts. Judge Currey was essentially a 
 man among men, and enjoyed the friend- 
 ship of hosts of friends. He was a mem- 
 ber of the following institutions : The 
 Academy of Sciences, the Geographical 
 Society, the Society of Pioneers, the 
 American Bar Association, and the Cali- 
 fornia Bar Association. He was always 
 a large land owner. Judge Currey was 
 active in the affairs of the Republican 
 party from its very inception. 
 
 Judge Currey married (first) Cornelia 
 Scott, of Chazy, New York. Their chil- 
 dren are: Montgomery Scott, deceased; 
 Robert John, now residing on the ranch 
 in Dixon, California ; Julia, deceased. He 
 married (second) Cornelia Nelson Ferris, 
 of Peekskill, New York, the daughter of 
 Jonathan Henry and Sarah A. (Nelson) 
 Ferris. Mrs. Currey is the granddaughter 
 of Judge William Nelson, for many years 
 a noted judge and member of Congress, 
 and under whose instruction Judge Cur- 
 rey first prepared for the legal profession. 
 
 The death of Judge Currey occurred in 
 December. ic)i2,on his ranch at Dixon, Cal- 
 ifornia. Mrs. Currev survives her husband. 
 
 27,2 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 NEWMAN, John Ludlow, 
 
 Civil War Veteran, Manufacturer, Finan- 
 cier. 
 
 The death of Major John Ludlow New- 
 man, of Albany, New York, on Septem- 
 ber 7, 1913, removed from that commu- 
 nity one of its most influential members 
 as well as a most picturesque figure whose 
 place it is impossible to fill. It was Major 
 Newman's distinction to have served his 
 fellows with equal merit and success in 
 peace and war, having in the one case 
 built up through skill and intelligence a 
 large business that has occupied an im- 
 portant place in the industrial life of the 
 region, and in the other rendered dis- 
 tinguished service to his country at the 
 time of its greatest need, for among all 
 the veterans of the Civil War whose 
 names will go down in history, none in 
 that locality stands higher than his. 
 
 John Ludlow Newman was born Feb- 
 ruary 2i, 1836, in the city of Albany, New 
 York, which, equally with the city of 
 Cohoes in the same State, shares the hon- 
 or of having been the scene of his com- 
 mercial and business activities. He was 
 the son of Henry and Mary A. (Lyman) 
 Newman, of Albany, and all his childhood 
 and early youth were spent in the place 
 of his birth. He received his education 
 in the excellent schools of the city and 
 was finally graduated from the Albany 
 Boys' Academy at the age of eighteen. 
 He at once entered upon the business 
 career in which he was destined to be so 
 successful and was associated with his 
 father in the latter's wool and leather 
 establishment. This business was one of 
 the oldest in Albany even in that day, it 
 having been founded about seventy-five 
 years previously by his grandfather, 
 Charles Newman. 1770 was the date of 
 its founding, and it was one of the few 
 concerns that had maintained a successful 
 existence from pre-Revolutionary times 
 
 and survived that crisis and the difficult 
 times that immediately followed. From 
 the outset Mr. Newman displayed marked 
 talents in business and was enjoying a 
 rapid promotion when his peaceful career 
 was cut short, as was that of so many in 
 that day, by the outbreak of the Civil 
 War. His first activity in that struggle 
 was the recruiting of a company of volun- 
 teers which upon its successful organiza- 
 tion, was attached to the Forty-third 
 Regiment, New York Volunteers, with 
 himself as captain. The regiment was in 
 turn attached to the Third Brigade, Sec- 
 ond Division of the Sixth Army Corps 
 under the command of General Sedgwick. 
 Captain Newman served under General 
 McClellan in the Army of the Potomac. 
 He saw much active service and took part 
 in many of the greatest engagements of 
 the war and some of the most difficult 
 and sanguinary campaigns. Among these 
 should be mentioned Fredericksburg, De- 
 cember 13 to 15, 1862, where he fought 
 under General Burnside, and the battle of 
 Chancellorsville, May 2 to 4, 1863, under 
 General Hooker. In this engagement he 
 behaved himself with distinguished cour- 
 age and was wounded in the great charge 
 made by his regiment at Marye's Heights, 
 where it was the first to set the Union 
 colors on the enemy's works. Here his 
 action met with its merited reward and 
 he was recommended in general orders 
 for honorable mention for bravery and 
 gallantrv. He also participated in the 
 fight at Salem Church, and in the battles 
 of banks' Ford and the second Fred- 
 ericksburg on June 9, 1863. At Gettys- 
 burg the Forty-third Regiment held an 
 important position on the right of the 
 great Union line, and later Major New- 
 man received a Gettysburg medal from 
 the State of New York. He also took 
 part in the engagements at Rappahannock 
 Station and Locust Grove and in the 
 Mine Run campaign. In June, 1864, he 
 
 233 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 was promoted major of the Forty-third, 
 and later in the year honorably dis- 
 charged from the service. 
 
 Returning to Albany, he once more en- 
 tered the family business, this time as a 
 partner, the firm bearing from 1866 to 
 1880 the name of Charles and John L. 
 Newman. In the latter year Major New- 
 man withdrew from this business, and as- 
 sociated himself in business with William 
 P. Adams, in Cohoes, New York, under 
 the style of Newman & Adams. The new 
 firm was engaged in the manufacture of 
 woolen goods, and continued with great 
 success until the year 1891, Major New- 
 man proving himself a capable business 
 man, and acquiring an enviable reputa- 
 tion in commercial and industrial circles. 
 As time went on his interests broadened 
 until he became one of the most influ- 
 ential figures in Cohoes. In 1S78 he be- 
 came a direector of the National Bank of 
 Cohoes, and in 1893 was elected its vice- 
 president, continuing in this office for 
 about two years when, in January, 1895, 
 he was advanced to the presidency. He 
 continued to serve in this capacity until 
 the time of his death, establishing an 
 enviable reputation as an able financier 
 whose shrewd and far-seeing conserva- 
 tism was so nicely tempered with the 
 spirit of enterprise as to make him at once 
 a banker of the safest and yet most pro- 
 gressive type. 
 
 After the close of the Civil War, Major 
 Newman was elected, first, vice-president, 
 and then president of the Old Guard of 
 Company A, an organization formed of 
 men and officers of the Albany Zouave 
 Cadets. He belonged to most of the im- 
 portant military organizations, and was 
 a member of the Military Order of the 
 Loyal Legion of the United States ; the 
 Society of the Army of the Potomac ; the 
 Society of the Sixth Army Corps, of 
 which he was vice-president ; and a char- 
 ter member of the George C. Dawson 
 
 Post, No. 63, Grand Army of the Repub- 
 lic. He was also a member of the Society 
 of the Sons of the American Revolution, 
 holding the right to that membership 
 through his maternal great-grandfather, 
 Colonel James Lyman, of the Continental 
 army. Besides these great organizations. 
 Major Newman was a member of many 
 prominent clubs, among which should be 
 mentioned the Army and Navy Club of 
 New York City; the Fort Orange Club 
 of Albany, and was at one time treasurer 
 of the old Albany Club. He was also a 
 member of the National Geographic So- 
 ciety, and of the Albany Chamber of 
 Commerce, and was trustee and vice- 
 president of the Young Men's Associ- 
 ation of Albany, and trustee of the Albany 
 Institute and Historical and Art Society. 
 A year previous to his death he took a 
 prominent part in the dedication of the 
 Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Al- 
 bany, having been a member of the me- 
 morial commission, and chairman of the 
 plan and scope committee which obtained 
 the necessary appropriation. Major New- 
 man was a man of deep religious convic- 
 tions. For a number of years he was a 
 trustee of the First Dutch Reformed 
 Church of Albany, but later became a 
 member of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 
 and was made a vestryman. In church 
 work he was active and helpful, giving 
 liberally of his time and means in support 
 of all good works. 
 
 On October 8, 1872, Major Newman 
 was united in marriage with Evelina 
 Egberts Steele, a daughter of Oliver and 
 Anna (Egberts) Steele, of Albany, her 
 family having been pioneers in the knit- 
 ting industry in the United States. To 
 Major and Mrs. Newman three children 
 were born : Clarence Egberts, Evelyn, 
 and Anna Lyman, who died in infancy. 
 
 The mere enumeration of the various 
 organizations with which Major Newman 
 was associated is enough to show that he 
 
 234 
 
V " 
 
 £^r- 
 
EXCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 was extremely active in the general life 
 of the community, yet no such list, how- 
 ever long and impressive, can give an 
 adequate idea of the intimate way in 
 which his own career was bound up in 
 the affairs of the two cities. In all things 
 which made for the welfare of either place 
 he was most earnestly interested, and was 
 always more than ready to assist to the ex- 
 tent of his power in carrying out all 
 projects for the public good. 
 
 COOPER, Daniel McCallum, 
 
 Engineer, Inventor, Manufacturer. 
 
 A pioneer in his special line of en- 
 deavor, Daniel M. Cooper accomplished 
 much in raising the standards of business 
 and in bringing about improved con- 
 ditions by the use of special machinery. 
 He was born November 19. 1856, in 
 Owego, New York, and died in Roches- 
 ter. New York, March 4, 1914. He was 
 the son of Charles and Mary (Harrison) 
 Cooper and was descended from John 
 Cooper who emigrated from Olney, Buck- 
 inghamshire county. England, in the 
 year 1635, and settled in Southampton, 
 Long Island. 
 
 His father was master mechanic in rail- 
 road shops in different cities of New York 
 and Pennsylvania, and when Daniel Mc- 
 Callum Cooper, who was named for Gen- 
 eral D. C. McCallum, a friend of his 
 father's was a lad of about eleven years, 
 the family moved to Rochester, New 
 York. It was there he gained his school 
 education, and after serving his appren- 
 ticeship as a carpenter he started his life 
 work. His naturally mechanical mind, 
 inherited from a long line of mechanics 
 and fostered by his father's teaching and 
 his experience as a carpenter, which trade 
 he followed until 1878, led him to secure 
 a position as railroad fireman on the New 
 York Central railroad. In 1880 he removed 
 to Chicago and established a hand laundry, 
 
 in whose operation he continued three 
 years, after which he returned to Roches- 
 ter and again entered the railroad service, 
 with what is now known as the Buffalo, 
 Rochester & Pittsburgh railroad. Here 
 he soon earned promotion to the position 
 of engineer, in which he continued five 
 years, the greater part of which was spent 
 in construction work, at which time a 
 great deal of new mileage was being 
 added to the road. In 1888 he left the 
 throttle of the engine for good, and en- 
 tered what was really his life work. He 
 became associated with Arthur T. Hagen, 
 his brother-in-law, in the Star Steam 
 Laundry of Rochester, which later ab- 
 sorbed the Palace Laundry and under 
 the name of the Star Palace Laundry, 
 and with the active management of Mr. 
 Cooper, became one of the largest plants 
 of its kind in the United States. 
 
 It was there that his inventive genius 
 found its field for development, and dur- 
 ing the quarter of a century which he 
 spent in that connection he planned 
 systems and invented machines which 
 revolutionized a trade. Foreseeing the 
 importance "of the sale of laundry ma- 
 chinery to the trade, he threw heart and 
 soul into the development of the A. T. 
 Hagen Laundry Machinery Company, a 
 separate firm from the laundry company, 
 which had been organized for that pur- 
 pose, and many are the patents recorded 
 in his name which are now standard the 
 world over for laundry machines and 
 methods. Not only in laundry machinery 
 but in at least two other lines did he 
 turn his inventive mind with success. 
 Realizing in his own business the need of 
 an employees' automatic time recorder, he 
 devised and patented the Rochester Time 
 Recorder, the first card lift time record 
 machine on the market. It has been sub- 
 sequently manufactured by the Willard 
 & Frick Company, and is now the basic 
 patent used in all card lift machines 
 
 235 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 manufactured by the International Time 
 Recorder of Endicott, New York, which 
 is a company made up of the consolida- 
 tion of several of the most important time 
 recorder companies. And again in an- 
 other line of special machinery he in- 
 vented and perfected an automatic paraf- 
 fine extractor which is used in the bottling 
 business in removing surplus paramne 
 from corks. It is loaded by the use of 
 compressed air, and by the use of this 
 machine the output in this field has been 
 enormously increased. He continued as 
 vice-president and manager of the Star 
 Palace Laundry until October, 1906, at 
 the same time devoting more and more of 
 his attention to the machinery business, 
 and on his retirement from active laundry 
 business he remained active in the A. T. 
 Hagen Company until June, 1907, when 
 that company was consolidated, largely 
 through his efforts, with five other com- 
 peting concerns under the name of the 
 American Laundry Machinery Company, 
 of which Mr. Cooper became the vice- 
 president. In October, 1910, he was 
 elected president, and continued in that 
 office until March, 1913, when he retired 
 from active business, though he still re- 
 mained a director of the company. For 
 a quarter of a century he had been one of 
 the most active and strong factors in the 
 industry, persistently working to elevate 
 the business to higher standards in every 
 part. Blessed with a well-ordered mind 
 and great pertinacity he was a thorough 
 systematizer, and worked out methods of 
 increasing efficiency, before the impor- 
 tance of efficient methods in the modern 
 definition of that term was generally 
 understood. His fine business acumen 
 marked his incumbency in office, with an 
 extreme degree of revolution and prog- 
 ress. He traveled extensively in connec- 
 tion with his private interests and official 
 duty, and covered the United States a 
 number of times. On many of these trips 
 
 he was accompanied by Mrs. Cooper, who 
 was his companion and helpmeet through 
 all his early struggles. With keen obser- 
 vation, Mr. Cooper made practical appli- 
 cation of what he saw, and was mucn 
 broadened by travel and business experi- 
 ence. While his opportunities in early 
 life were quite limited, he became a self- 
 educated man, and he made himself a 
 great influence in the world and the com- 
 plete master of his trade. In 1893 he 
 made his first trip to Europe, and the last 
 trip was made a year before his death. 
 He covered Great Britain and the Conti- 
 nent, and also visited the West Indies. 
 With an excellent memory, he was a very 
 interesting conversationalist, and related 
 many amusing and interesting anecdotes 
 of things he had seen and heard and read 
 about. In recognition of his efforts and 
 success in improving the conditions of 
 operating laundries throughout the coun- 
 try, he was elected president of the Laun- 
 drymen's National Association of Amer- 
 ica. It is in no way derogatory to those 
 who preceded him in the presidency of 
 the association to say that under his 
 leadership it took its greatest step for- 
 ward toward a constructive policy. 
 
 In 1912, Mr. Cooper occupied his beau- 
 tiful residence at No. 11 50 East avenue, 
 corner of Oliver street, Rochester, which 
 had been planned by himself and wife. 
 The land was part of the old Culver 
 homestead, and the location permitted of 
 generous grounds, which were tastefully 
 arranged and beautified. The building is 
 fireproof, finished in solid oak and ma- 
 hogany. It is to be regretted that he was 
 not permitted longer to enjoy the beauties 
 of this splendid residence. In 1881 he 
 married Miss Delia Chapman, daughter of 
 Robert M. Chapman, of Rochester. She 
 was always his companion, working with 
 him and encouraging him during his early 
 struggles, and sympathizing in all efforts 
 for the promotion of the general welfare. 
 
 236 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 In speaking of Mr. Cooper, one of his 
 friends said : "There are few men who 
 lived in the records of the pioneer days 
 of power laundering who can equal the 
 achievements of D. M. Cooper, or to 
 whom can be credited so many great en- 
 deavors for educative influence and better- 
 ment. A comparatively new industry and 
 business suggestive of tremendous de- 
 velopments, but with no tools and with 
 crude methods, confronted the men of 
 those early days. Daniel M. Cooper, by 
 a marvelous adaptability, will take front 
 rank as one of the greater of our pioneers, 
 and his genius will always be remembered 
 for the solution of the earlier problems 
 and for blazing the trail for scientific 
 management. His early experience in 
 carpentry, his rigid and exacting railroad 
 training, the natural bent of his mind for 
 mechanical science, coupled with an in- 
 domitable patience and intense persever- 
 ance, constituted a splendid equipment 
 for the development of laundry machinery 
 and processes. He loved the work, and 
 was content when intricate problems de- 
 manded analysis and solution. No ques- 
 tion of the beginner, no matter how futile 
 or unnecessary, wc Vt unanswered. He 
 revelled and delighted in the position of 
 tutor, and in those early days, when in- 
 vention was just beginning, he instructed 
 and explained and demonstrated to scores 
 of men who have since met success and 
 have themselves become masters in the 
 science of laundering. The Star Palace 
 Laundry was the school of laundry train- 
 ing, and the pupils knew that the master 
 had grasped the fundamentals and that 
 the concrete explanations were reliable. 
 Mr. Cooper was of the stuff of which 
 good men are made, and his earlier sharp 
 struggles molded a character of strength, 
 virility and efficiency. When he mastered 
 a problem ; when, after every logical de- 
 duction, he conclusively decided his was 
 
 the true solution, he was as adamant to 
 pleas or sentiment or persuasion ; again, 
 he stood in the locomotive cab, his hand 
 grasped the throttle, and the mental en- 
 gine, the self-constructed duplicate, must 
 irresistibly and undeviatingly press to 
 achievement, just as when his trained eye 
 followed the glint of parallel lines of steel 
 and the steam engine thundered to its 
 destination. It was not egotism, nor yet 
 the dominating assurance of power, it 
 was rather the masterfulness and forceful 
 spirit of leadership and unshakable con- 
 viction that his plan was the one to pro- 
 duce the desired result. He never re- 
 pelled criticism. He courteously listened 
 to adverse opinion, but with fixed single- 
 ness he maintained his purpose, serene 
 in belief that in his plans he had antici- 
 pated every possible barrier. In the de- 
 velopment of laundry processes he deter- 
 mined on radical innovations, and in the 
 light of subsequent events it is evident 
 that a vacillating policy would have 
 halted progress. This fixity of purpose, 
 this adherence to a well defined plan, was 
 apparent in his management of the laun- 
 dry ; in his participation in the machinery 
 business, and in lesser degree in his ad- 
 ministration of the Laundrymen's Na- 
 tional Association of America. What a 
 memory of delightful excitement is re- 
 called by the first session of the silver 
 anniversary convention in Cincinnati in 
 1908. When the session was about to 
 close, the band played 'America.' As the 
 standing audience joined in the glorious 
 anthem, President Cooper stood on his 
 chair and enthused every one by vehem- 
 ently waving a flag in each hand, while 
 an electric devise of his own construction 
 blazoned the association initials. In 
 every phase of effort or endeavor, he 
 showed great strength of character, and 
 yet was moved by sentiment. He num- 
 bered loyal and steadfast and affectionate 
 
 237 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 friends by the score. In his pathway 
 came great success, a splendid result of 
 incessant effort in a great cause." 
 
 A close friend said : "He commanded 
 the respect and confidence of strangers 
 and his thoughtfulness for elderly people 
 put a new light in their eyes when they 
 saw him. He loved antiques, and the old 
 homes and ancient sites on Eastern Long 
 Island were of great interest to him. He 
 went there in an effort to trace his gene- 
 alogy, in which he was to some extent 
 successful. He had no peer for ability or 
 originality, and many will acknowledge 
 that a measure of their success has di- 
 rectly or indirectly been brought about 
 by his tireless efforts to help and his big 
 hearted desire to see all successful. His 
 dominant characteristic was his desire to 
 serve and he went about doing good. He 
 was a man with an ideal — or more strictly 
 speaking, of many ideals. None could 
 hold a conversation with him, whether 
 along business lines or association lines, 
 without instinctively feeling that they 
 were talking to one whose aims were high 
 above those of the average man in the 
 business. A man of exceptional intellec- 
 tual vigor, of sturdy strength, of com- 
 pelling purpose, of fine moral courage 
 and stern honesty, he stood head and 
 shoulders above the rest of us as a great 
 example of civic and commercial virtue. 
 He lent dignity to the industry, and in his 
 intense convictions and readiness to en- 
 gage in fight, no matter whom, over what 
 he believed to be right, I have found both 
 solace and inspiration during the many 
 conflicts in which I have been involved 
 * * * Daniel Cooper's influence upon 
 our industry will be felt for many years 
 to come. The absence of his familiar 
 figure at our national conventions will be 
 a matter of deepest regret." 
 
 Another associate said : "The complete 
 biography of Daniel M. Cooper would be 
 the history of the laundry business for the 
 
 past twenty-five years. His participation in 
 the enterprise spelled inspiration for exact- 
 ness. His will, intelligence and foresight 
 vitalized and brought more than ordinary 
 success to the national association while 
 he served it as president. His election was 
 a tribute no less to his own personality 
 than to what he represented. Being 
 sturdy, broad-minded, liberal and pro- 
 gressive, it is scarcely too much to say 
 that it was due to his signal genius that 
 the plan of the reorganization of the 
 Laundrymen's National Association of 
 America was consummated. When you 
 had gained his confidence and friendship 
 he was loyal and true to the last, and his 
 friendship was to be highly valued." 
 After Mr. Cooper retired from active 
 business in 1903, he spent the following 
 year in travel and study. He died March 
 4, 1914, at his residence in Rochester, 
 New York, leaving the record of having 
 taken his place in the front rank in a 
 trade which had passed through its tran- 
 sition period during his time. 
 
 BALLOU, Theodore Perry, 
 
 Man of Enterprise. 
 
 Ever since the year 1793, when Joseph 
 Ballou came to New York State, the name 
 Ballou has been intimately associated 
 with the development and upbuilding of 
 the village, borough and city of Utica, 
 New York. The tract upon which Joseph 
 Ballou settled is now a thickly populated 
 part of the city, and the house in which 
 he lived is now the site of the Ballou 
 block. Another house in which he lived 
 stood on the corner of First and Main 
 streets, the site now being occupied by 
 the large brick building of Hurd & Fitz- 
 gerald, shoe merchants. The sons of 
 Joseph Ballou became merchants, their 
 original store adjoining the farm house 
 on the west. There in 1802, Jerathmel 
 Ballou advertised to "sell dry goods and 
 
 238 
 
&#£& * *e^ c ^ ;^g^L^ 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 groceries" and that he would "pay the 
 highest prices for shipping furs." 
 
 Joseph Ballou and his three sons were 
 important factors in the business life of 
 that early day and took an active part in 
 civic affairs. Theodore Perry Ballou, of 
 the third generation, son of Jerathmel 
 Ballou, son of Joseph Ballou, abandoned 
 trade and became one of the foremost 
 lumber manufacturers and dealers of 
 Central New York, as well as an exten- 
 sive owner of Utica real estate. He was 
 preeminently a business man and enter- 
 prising, adding largely to the wealth of 
 the city, and a willing, ready assistant in 
 any legitimate undertaking that promised 
 to advance the material or moral stand- 
 ing of the community. He lived in Utica 
 nearly eighty years, his entire span of 
 life, and he saw the many vital changes 
 which swept away the forests and re- 
 placed them with cultivated fields and 
 thriving communities; saw the Indians, 
 with whom as a boy he was on friendly 
 terms, and with whom he traded at his 
 father's store, give way to white settlers ; 
 saw the stage coach and the canal boats 
 yield to the iron horse and the gleaming 
 rails over which they ran intrench almost 
 upon the door yard of his boyhood home. 
 And he himself had a large share in this 
 work of transformation and on the site 
 of his early home raised the handsome 
 Ballou Block. Many years have passed 
 since Theodore P. Ballou lived and 
 wrought, but his work endures and his 
 memory is green and descendants carry 
 forward the work of their sires. 
 
 Joseph Ballou was of the prominent 
 Ballou family of Rhode Island, and in 
 1792 left his native Exeter, Rhode Island, 
 with his wife and two sons, going by 
 sailing vessel to Providence, thence 
 through Long Island Sound to New York, 
 and up the Hudson river to Albany, New 
 York. From Albany they went overland 
 to Schenectady, then by the Mohawk 
 
 river, finally reaching Utica, landing a 
 short distance below the ford. In July, 
 1793, he made the first payment on a 
 lease for two hundred and seventy-three 
 acres, made to George Damuth by Rut- 
 ger Bleecker. He had probably obtained 
 an interest in this lease from the widow 
 of George Damuth in partnership with 
 Mr. Post, as the payments until 1797 were 
 made jointly. He then probably bought 
 Mr. Post's interest as from 1802 until 1807 
 he made all payments. He at once began 
 the cultivation of his farm and seems to 
 have prospered, as in August, 1800, he 
 and his sons were deeded land on Main 
 street, Utica, by the executors of Rutger 
 Bleecker. Upon these lots they erected 
 a house and store, the house standing 
 where John street opens out of the square. 
 Later this house became a tavern known 
 as Union Hall and was run under various 
 names until 1870 when the Ballou Block 
 was erected upon the site by Theodore P. 
 Ballou, a grandson of Joseph Ballou. The 
 second house in which Joseph Ballou and 
 his family lived was situated on the corner 
 of First and Main streets and there he 
 continued his farming operations until 
 his death in 1810 at the age of sixty- 
 seven. 
 
 Jerathmel Ballou, son of Joseph Ballou, 
 was a merchant of Utica, coming with his 
 father in 1792. He began mercantile busi- 
 ness at the corner of John and Main 
 streets in 1800, and dealt in all that per- 
 tained to general merchandising at that 
 early period. Besides the trade of the 
 village he dealt largely with the hunters 
 and with the Indians, they exchanging 
 skins and furs for dry goods, groceries 
 and ammunition. At the first town meet- 
 ing held under the charter of 1805 he was 
 elected one of the board of village trus- 
 tees and was annually reelected for four 
 successive terms. He continued a suc- 
 cessful merchant and prominent in village 
 affairs until his death, June 29, 1817. He 
 =39 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 married Anna Perry, who bore him three 
 sons and a daughter. 
 
 Theodore Perry Ballou, son of Jerath- 
 mel and Anna (Perry) Ballou, was born 
 in Utica, New York, March 18, 1808, died 
 in his native city at his home, No. 42 
 Broad street, February 28, 1887. He at- 
 tended city schools and after completing 
 his studies entered business life After 
 the death of Jerathmel Ballou he was suc- 
 ceeded in business by his brother-in-law, 
 Ebenezer B. Shearman, who continued 
 the dry goods and grocery business at 
 No. 33 Genesee street. Theodore P. Bal- 
 lou became associated with his uncle and 
 continued his partner until about 1840, 
 when he withdrew to give his whole at- 
 tention to the lumber business, becoming 
 one of the leading men in that line of 
 activity. He was junior member of the 
 firm of Hinckley & Ballou, operating 
 Gang's Mills at Prospect, but later be- 
 came the sole owner. He was the owner 
 of large tracts of timber lands in Lewis, 
 Herkimer and Hamilton counties, and at 
 one time was interested with Lyman R. 
 Lyons in a tract of 200,000 acres, known 
 as the John Brown tract. He converted 
 timber from his own lands into lumber 
 at his own mills, and dealt largely both 
 at wholesale and retail. He prospered 
 abundantly, and having a deep and abid- 
 ing faith in the future greatness of his 
 native city invested largely in L T tica real 
 estate. In 1870 he built the Ballou Block, 
 and owned other valuable business prop- 
 erty. He was the owner of nearly all the 
 land on both sides of Meadow street, and 
 had choice realty in all parts of the city. 
 
 After the organization of the Republi- 
 can party, Mr. Ballou affiliated with that 
 political body but never allowed his name 
 to be used as a candidate for any office. 
 He was essentially a business man and 
 as such was widely known throughout 
 the State. He was a member of the old 
 volunteer fire department and of the 
 
 Dutch Reformed church, his interest in 
 both being deep and abiding. He was 
 not only a business man of ability and 
 integrity, but a force for good in his com- 
 munity, aiding all good causes by his 
 means and influence and by a lite of jus 
 tice and uprightness. He was a quiet, un- 
 assuming man, but of most friendly, kind- 
 ly nature, rather stern and dignified in 
 appearance, but warm-hearted and quick 
 to respond to any call of friendship or 
 benevolence. 
 
 Mr. Ballou married, in Utica, Charlotte 
 Wells, daughter of Palmer Wells, of 
 Westerly, Rhode Island. They were the. 
 parents of seven children, only one of 
 whom is living, Henry C. Ballou. Char- 
 lotte L. Ballou, another child, died Sep- 
 tember 23, 1913. 
 
 GERLING, Jacob, 
 
 Man of Enterprise. 
 
 To offer in a work of this character an 
 adequate resume of the strenuous and use- 
 ful life of the late Jacob Gerling, of 
 Rochester, New York, would be impos- 
 sible, but, with others of those who have 
 conserved the civic and commercial prog- 
 ress of Rochester, he may well find con- 
 sideration in the noting of the more sali- 
 ent points that marked his life and labors. 
 He was long an important factor in the 
 varied business interests of this city, 
 achieving a position as one of the sub- 
 stantial capitalists of his section of the 
 State, gaining his success through normal 
 and worthy means, and he stood as a 
 singularly admirable type of the progres- 
 sive, honorable and broad-minded man of 
 affairs. His record is too familiar to his 
 fellow citizens to require any fulsome 
 encomium here, his life speaking for itself 
 in stronger terms than the biographer 
 could employ in polished periods. It left 
 its impress on those who came in contact 
 with him, and the youth, hesitating at the 
 
 240 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 parting of the ways, could do no better 
 than to follow the example he set. He 
 was even-tempered, patient, scrupulously 
 honest in all the relations of life, hospit- 
 able and charitable, and his many kindly 
 deeds were actuated solely by his large- 
 ness of heart rather than by any desire 
 to gain the approval or plaudits of his 
 fellow men. The cause of humanity 
 never had a truer friend than this valued 
 gentleman who passed to the higher life. 
 Jacob Gerling was born in Alsace, Ger- 
 many, April 15, 1840, and died at his 
 home, at No. 276 Brown street, Rochester, 
 New York. January 27, 1913. The foun- 
 dation of his education was laid in vari- 
 ous schools of his native land, and when 
 he came to this country at the age of 
 fifteen years it was completed here. 
 Shortly after the completion of his edu- 
 cation, Mr. Gerling became interested in 
 agricultural pursuits, with which calling 
 he was identified until he had attained his 
 majority, in this manner acquiring a prac- 
 tical knowledge which proved invaluable 
 to him in his later business career. At 
 the age of twenty-one years he associated 
 himself in business with his brother at 
 Nos. 5 and 7 North Water street, becom- 
 ing one of the most important and pros- 
 perous in the flour, feed and milling in- 
 dustry in Rochester, when that city was 
 one of the milling centers of the entire 
 country. In connection with this busi- 
 ness, Mr. Gerling became widely known 
 among the farmers of Western New 
 York, and his reputation was established 
 as a man whose dealings were always 
 "on the square," and who was impartial 
 in his treatment of his customers, whether 
 their purchases ran into the hundreds or 
 the thousands. The old mill which he 
 established was in full operation until 
 recent years. The site was transferred to 
 the Knickerbocker Theatre Company in 
 1906. Long before this time, however, 
 Mr. Gerling had extended his activities to 
 
 various other fields. Mr. Gerling was 
 still in the early stages of his business 
 career when he associated himself with 
 the late Frederick Cook, and other men of 
 German birth or descent, and they be- 
 came leaders in financial enterprises in 
 that section. He was one of the leaders 
 in the organization of the German Insur- 
 ance Company, which later established 
 the German-American Bank, the nucleus 
 of the Lincoln National Bank of Roches- 
 ter, one of the most important financial 
 institutions in the Western part of New 
 York State. For many years Mr. Gerling 
 was a member of the board of directors 
 of the German Insurance Company and 
 of the Lincoln National Bank, greatly to 
 the benefit of both establishments. In 
 fact, there is scarcely a line of industry 
 with which Mr. Gerling was not con- 
 nected at one time or another in official 
 capacity. He held much stock in the 
 Rochester Railway Company, and it is 
 largely due to his instrumentality that 
 the suburban line to Sea Breeze was con- 
 structed. When the so-called Clark Syn- 
 dicate of Philadelphia took over the 
 greater part of the other local interests, 
 Mr. Gerling sold most of his railroad in- 
 terests, although he continued as a small 
 stockholder for some years after this. 
 Real estate operations also engaged a 
 goodly share of the time and attention 
 of Mr. Gerling. He was one of the chief 
 owners of the Cook Opera House on 
 South avenue for some years, and a large 
 number of buildings were erected at his 
 direction, and he assumed the manage- 
 ment of these personally. His energy and 
 progressiveness in business affairs was 
 tempered with a certain amount of con- 
 servatism, so that he was reasonably pro- 
 tected from large losses. He was the 
 most active spirit in the establishment 
 of the Rochester Telephone Company, for 
 many years one of the most flourishing of 
 the local industries, and he opposed with 
 
 241 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 all the resources at his command the 
 merger with the larger corporations under 
 the title of the United States Independent 
 Telephone Company, yielding only to 
 majority control. The ill success of this 
 combination proved the wisdom of Mr. 
 Gerling's opinion. 
 
 In the public life of the community 
 Mr. Gerling attained an eminence only 
 equalled by the success attendant upon 
 his business enterprises. From the time 
 of attaining his majority he had been an 
 active and consistent supporter of Demo- 
 cratic principles, and furthered the in- 
 terests of that party in every manner that 
 lay in, his power. His political activity 
 extended over a period of forty years, dur- 
 ing which his counsels were of inestima- 
 ble benefit to the party with which he 
 was connected. He represented the 
 eleventh ward of the city in the Common 
 Council from 1869 to 1873, and was a 
 member of the board of supervisors of 
 the same ward from 1875 to 1876. Gov- 
 ernor Samuel J. Tilden appointed him 
 weight master on the canals in 1874. 
 From 1880 to 1883 he was a member of 
 the old executive board, and was honored 
 by being chosen chairman of this body ; 
 before the adoption of the White charter 
 this board was the controlling force in 
 the municipal government, the depart- 
 ment of public works and the fire depart- 
 ment coming under its control, and each 
 member of the board had more authority 
 and real power than the mayor of the 
 city could boast of. In 1887 Mr. Gerling 
 was elected a member of the board of city 
 assessors, this board consisting of three 
 members at that time, and served until 
 1894. In 1900 he was chosen a member 
 of the Democratic State committee and 
 continued to serve in this body until 1910. 
 In 1907 and 1908 he was a member of the 
 State board of appraisers, but retired in 
 1909, when the Republican party gained 
 control. Innumerable were the city, 
 
 county and State conventions to which 
 he was sent as a delegate, and his name 
 was a prominent one among the political 
 leaders of the State. 
 
 Mr. Gerling was a member of Ger- 
 mania Lodge, Free and Accepted Ma- 
 sons ; Cyrene Commandery, Knights 
 Templar ; Humboldt Lodge, Independent 
 Order of Odd Fellows ; Americus Lodge, 
 Ancient Order of United Workmen; 
 Rochester Liederkranz ; and various 
 other organizations. During the entire 
 period of his residence in Rochester he 
 was a member of the German Trinity 
 Church. He was one of the founders of 
 the Rochester German Home for the 
 Aged and took a deep interest in its work 
 until the time of his death. 
 
 Mr. Gerling married, in 1863, Louisa 
 Kline, of Rochester, who survives him, 
 as do their four sons and five daughters : 
 Jacob, Jr., George, William V., Frederick, 
 Louisa, Margaret, Rosa, Mrs. Robert 
 Chapin, and Mrs. Robert C. Clifford. Mr. 
 Gerling was essentially a home man, and 
 though his time was always busily oc- 
 cupied, he never permitted other things 
 to detract his attention from his home, 
 where he found his greatest enjoyment. 
 At the time of his death it was repeatedly 
 said: "Rochester has lost a man whom 
 she could ill afford to lose," and among 
 those with whom he had been associated 
 there came a deep sense of personal be- 
 reavement, 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 inspiration to others, and 
 his influence on those with whom he came 
 in contact was always uplifting. He held 
 to a high standard of business ethics and 
 had no use for trickery or anything savor- 
 ing of dishonesty. Painstaking and thor- 
 ough in everything he did, he demanded 
 of others that their work should be well 
 
 242 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 done, and from this high standard for 
 himself and others he never deviated. 
 This fundamental element of his char- 
 acter probably had as much to do with 
 his success as anything else, for it com- 
 manded the respect and confidence of all. 
 Personally he was genial and unassum- 
 ing, and he enjoyed a wide circle of 
 friends throughout the city of his resi- 
 dence. 
 
 BRIDGE, Charles, 
 
 Man of Business. 
 
 The setting down of the personal rec- 
 ords of the men who, by dint of worthy 
 effort, have raised themselves to high 
 positions upon the ladder of success and 
 secured for themselves the regard and 
 admiration of their fellows must always 
 be a work of value. Self-made men, who 
 have accomplished much by reason of 
 their personal qualities and left the im- 
 press of their individualities upon the 
 business and general life of the commu- 
 nities where they lived and worked, men 
 who have influenced for good such cus- 
 toms and institutions as have come with- 
 in the sphere of their activities, have, un- 
 wittingly perhaps, but none the less truly, 
 reared for themselves monuments more 
 enduring than those of stone or brass. 
 Such distinction may well be claimed for 
 Charles Bridge, whose career forms the 
 subject matter of this brief sketch, and 
 whose death June 27, 1902, at Albany, 
 New York, deprived that city of one of 
 its most substantial men of business and 
 a citizen of the highest type. 
 
 Charles Bridge was a member of a very 
 old and prominent Vermont family which 
 had maintained its position for many gen- 
 erations in the regard of the community, 
 his grandfather being that Colonel Bridge 
 who won such fame as a commander of 
 Massachusetts troops in the Revolution. 
 His birth took place at Elmore, Vermont, 
 
 January 14, 1824, and it was in that little 
 town that he was reared by his parents 
 and there that he received his education 
 at the district schools. The rural environ- 
 ment, the healthy, wholesome life of out- 
 doors which the lad enjoyed in common 
 with all country boys, gave to him a 
 foundation of good health which never 
 deserted him throughout his life and was 
 of the utmost advantage to him as well 
 as the greatest blessing in itself. Upon 
 completing his education he went as a 
 young man to Boston and there engaged 
 in business, continuing for a short time. 
 He did not remain there, however, having 
 made up his mind to take the advice of 
 Horace Greeley to young men of that 
 time and "go West." Accordingly he 
 started for Chicago, about 1854, and there 
 once more engaged in business. Mri 
 Bridge was one of the self-confident type 
 of men whose method of altering what is 
 unsatisfactory is the most direct one pos- 
 sible carried out with the least delay and 
 without any nervous dwelling upon pos- 
 sible risks. When, therefore, he found 
 that something offered in Albany, New 
 York, that he believed promising he left 
 Chicago and his business there and came 
 to the more eastern city and there estab- 
 lished himself in the enterprise in which 
 he continued until final retirement there- 
 from. His coming to Albany occurred in 
 i860 and the latter event in 1884 so that it 
 was for nearly a quarter of a century that 
 he continued in business in that city. 
 From the outset he was highly successful 
 and he eventually won a reputation for 
 capability and straightforward dealing 
 and integrity second to none. 
 
 The business world and practically 
 every aspect of the community's life 
 which was of any importance, Mr. Bridge 
 took a leading part in and was especially 
 active in all movements undertaken for 
 the city's welfare. Mr. Bridge was a man 
 of strong religious beliefs and deep re- 
 
 243 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ligious feelings, and he was constantly en- 
 gaged in work which would advance the 
 cause of religion generally and of the 
 church in particular. He was a member 
 of the Second Presbyterian Church and 
 was one of the most influential members 
 thereof, serving on many of the church 
 boards and liberally supporting the phil- 
 anthropic and charitable activities con- 
 nected with the work. 
 
 On January 22, 1862, Mr. Bridge was 
 united in marriage with Lucy M. Tinker, 
 a native of Morrisville, Vermont, and a 
 daughter of Dr. Almerin and Caroline 
 (Vilas) Tinker, old and respected resi- 
 dents of Morrisville, Vermont. They had 
 one child, Charles Francis Bridge, a well- 
 known lawyer of Albany. 
 
 The character of Mr. Bridge was a most 
 admirable one and was based upon those 
 fundamental virtues of honor and courage 
 without which no character of real worth 
 can exist, nor any success be stable. An 
 attractive personality, affable and free- 
 handed, he easily won the liking of his fel- 
 lows, but it was these fine traits at the 
 root of his character that kept such friend- 
 ship intact and bound his acquaintances 
 to him with the bonds of real affection. 
 He was devoted to his home and loved 
 nothing so greatly as the intimate inter- 
 course to be found there, by his own 
 hearthstone. It would be difficult to find 
 any point in all his manifold relations 
 with his fellows which might bear criti- 
 cism and it is certain that but few have 
 been more sincerely mourned among a 
 larger or more faithful circle of friends. 
 
 EVANS, David Ellicot, 
 
 State and National Legislator. 
 
 In every growing community it be- 
 comes the privilege of some more gifted 
 mind to shine as leader, and to uphold the 
 high standards of citizenship and public 
 
 responsibility in such a way as to truly 
 promote the tradition's of the great Re- 
 public which has been made possible by 
 the patriotism of its sons. Among the 
 leaders of opinion in this county during 
 the first half of the nineteenth century the 
 name of David E. Evans is conspicuous, 
 and the services which he rendered to the 
 village of Batavia, where he made his resi- 
 dence in June, 1803, and where he lived 
 for the remainder of his long and useful 
 life, will never be erased from its records. 
 One of the oldest and always one of the 
 most prominent of its inhabitants, he was 
 first associated in business in the village 
 with his uncle, Mr. Joseph Ellicot, who 
 was local agent, in 1803, of the great Hol- 
 land Land Company which accomplished 
 so much in the development and improve- 
 ment of this section of the country. Mr. 
 Evans continued his association with his 
 uncle as clerk and cashier in his office un- 
 til the retirement of the latter in 1822; 
 and remained for some length of time in 
 the same capacity with Mr. Jacob S. Otto, 
 who had been appointed successor in the 
 agency. In this way Mr. Evans acquired 
 a vast familiarity with all of the details of 
 the land company, and was thoroughly 
 posted in regard to all of its concerns ; so 
 that in the month of May, 1827, he was 
 himself elevated to the responsible post 
 of agent. He continued to direct the busi- 
 ness for ten serviceable and progressive 
 years, and finally, in 1837, he resigned the 
 duties and responsibilities of the office in 
 order to devote himself more thoroughly 
 to the management of his own personal 
 affairs and the concerns with which he 
 had become individually connected. He 
 had first, however, closed up the affairs of 
 the Holland Company in this region and 
 completed all of its final arrangements. 
 
 As a citizen Mr. Evans had attained 
 great popularity, and in the year 1826 he 
 was elected to Congress from his district. 
 
 244 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 He remained in Congress, however, for 
 the year only resigning his membership in 
 order to confine himself to the duties of 
 the agency of the great land company 
 whose interests he so promoted. He had 
 been elected to the State Senate in 1818, 
 where he served for the four succeeding 
 years, and well represented the opinions 
 of his community; and in 1823 he was 
 appointed one of the town officers, serv- 
 ing as trustee, and assisting in the selec- 
 tion of able men to administer the affairs 
 of the village. 
 
 Mr. Evans died in Batavia, May 21, 
 1850, leaving a widow and five sons to 
 mourn his loss, as well as an aged mother 
 and many near relatives. Among these 
 sons was George Evans, a sketch of whom 
 follows in this volume. 
 
 Not only was David E. Evans a most 
 public-spirited and generous-hearted citi- 
 zen, but he was a man of rare culture and 
 refinement. He had collected one of the 
 most valuable private libraries in the State 
 and was intimately familiar with the con- 
 tents of the volumes which he loved and 
 cherished with the enthusiasm of the 
 scholar. He was probably the best in- 
 formed man in this part of the country on 
 affairs of general interest, and his reading 
 was extensive in almost every direction. 
 Liberal-minded, and possessing broad 
 views upon all the subjects which en- 
 gaged his attention, his society was 
 sought by all for the benefit which his ex- 
 perience bestowed, and his name con- 
 tinues to be revered by the community in 
 which he so long resided. 
 
 EVANS, George, 
 
 Public-Spirited Citizen. 
 
 It has been given to few to establish so 
 charming a household and so wide a circle 
 of friends as George Evans gathered about 
 him, in his beautiful Albany home, in 
 
 which he dispensed a hospitality which 
 has made his name remembered and re- 
 vered with a peculiar tenderness by the 
 many friends, young and old, who had the 
 rare privilege of his acquaintance. 
 
 Though passing the later and more 
 fruitful years of his life in this city, Mr. 
 Evans was not a native of Albany, but 
 was born in Batavia, where he received 
 his education and where his early life was 
 passed. He was the son of David Ellicot 
 Evans, of Batavia, a sketch of whom pre- 
 cedes this. George Evans, one of a large 
 family of brothers and sisters, remained 
 in his native village until about the year 
 1852 ; when, twelve years after his father's 
 demise, he came to Albany where his 
 father had been so well and widely known. 
 Here he had many family connections, 
 among whom were his aunts, Mrs. Har- 
 mon Pumpelly and Mrs. Dudley, and Mrs. 
 Brinkhoff, his grandmother. 
 
 Inheriting the sterling qualities and so- 
 cial graces of his father, though for many 
 years a great sufferer from gout which 
 rendered him a cripple during the latter 
 part of his life, he became one of the best 
 known and respected citizens of Albany. 
 He was elected alderman of the city, and 
 with the patriotism and integrity for 
 which he was so well known he exerted 
 his influence to the untmost of his ca- 
 pacity in the interests of good govern- 
 ment. His household in his beautiful 
 home in Englewood Place was a centre 
 from which radiated wide influences for 
 good, and his broad sympathies and gen- 
 erous charities endeared him to the com- 
 munity, especially to the young people 
 whom he had encouraged and advised in 
 the battle of life, and who held him ten- 
 derly in their affections. 
 
 Mr. Evans was married to the daughter 
 of the Hon. H. J. Redfield, of Batavia, 
 who survived him. His death occurred at 
 Albany, the city of his adoption, on March 
 
 245 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 3, 1886, at the age of fifty-four years; his 
 old enemy, gout, overcoming him in the 
 end after a brief final illness. Mr. Evans 
 was buried at Batavia, the place of his 
 birth. Bishop Doane, who officiated at 
 the impressive funeral ceremony at All 
 Saints' Cathedral, in Albany, where the 
 pall bearers and mourners were among 
 the leading people of the community, 
 wrote the following touching tribute to 
 the memory of one to whom he applied 
 the high scriptural commendation, "Thou 
 hast kept the Word of My Patience" : 
 
 There must have been great power in a life 
 which, from the absolute retirement of the pri- 
 vacy of a Christian gentleman, and from the nar- 
 rowed sphere which lameness and crippling set 
 to such a life, extended itself to such wide 
 reaches of influence, as did the life of Mr. George 
 Evans. And it is a tribute to the value and mean- 
 ing of God's distribution of influence between do- 
 ing and suffering that this life-long sufferer has 
 accomplished more in his gentle ways of influ- 
 ence than many another busier than he and fuller 
 of action and evident result. And his chief charm 
 was not to people who reasoned out the wonder 
 of his character, but to young people, who yielded 
 instinctively to its charm. I have always felt that 
 this came largely from the way in which, first 
 to his venerable mother, and then to the surviving 
 sister who took her place, he kept the relation of 
 his boyhood fresh in all its tenderness and 
 thoughtfulness of true chivalry. Careful in all 
 details of duty; faithful to his various trusts; 
 given to the most generous and genial hospitality; 
 and thinking last of himself, he, perhaps, attracted 
 to himself and to his beautiful home in Albany a 
 larger and more loving circle of young men, 
 especially, than any man in Albany. Indeed, no 
 house here was such a centre of attraction to 
 young and old as his. 
 
 His patience was a marvel. It was patience 
 in an active sense that never seemed the mere 
 endurance of pain ; but the brave, sweet, Chris- 
 tian, hopeful acceptance of discipline; the patience 
 that had its perfect work in bringing out all the 
 manly and tender graces of a nature lovely and 
 pure and true, by the characteristics of his birth, 
 and strong and noble and unselfish by the gifts 
 of grace. He taught his teachers, and blessed 
 those who brought a blessing to him. And, in his 
 helplessness, he has helped many a one to spiritual 
 courage and strength. 
 
 Tied by old ties of early friendship, and drawn 
 more closely in later years in the loving relation- 
 ship of the pastoral office, and in the common in- 
 terests of Christian work in the Cathedral and 
 its kindred institutions, the writer of this notice 
 owns with gratitude, through all the grief of his 
 loss, how much he owes to the gallant and cheer- 
 ful spirit of his dear friend. He died as he had 
 lived, in peace and love with God and man, calmly 
 accepting the announcement of his approaching 
 death, receiving the Holy Communion, and turn- 
 ing with loving thoughts to the two who were 
 nearest and dearest to him. And he has left a 
 memory and an influence fragrant and full of 
 beauty to the one true heart which mourns him 
 most sorely, steeped in the calmness of a courage 
 like his own ; and to the "young men and 
 maidens", who, with all their brightness, got more 
 cheer even than they gave, when they were in 
 his beloved presence. The one emphasized fact 
 is the religious strength of such a life. Physical 
 courage can bear a sudden pain, or dare a single 
 deed of heroism; but only the spiritual strength 
 of a soul made one with Christ, and strong in 
 more than human grace, can nerve to the com- 
 posure of constant steadiness to do and bear. 
 
 Mr. Evans' last communion in the Cathedral 
 was on the Feast of St. Stephen, the martyr of 
 many stones, and his own prototype in that they 
 suffered in innumerable points of pain, and with 
 the gentle sweetness of the patience which thinks 
 of others and trusts in the Lord. Many a time 
 we have looked upon his face, serene and smiling 
 through the sublimity of controlled and con- 
 quered agony, and it has been "as the face of an 
 angel." 
 
 There used to hang upon the mantel shelf of 
 Mr. Evans' library — "The Squire", the young 
 men called him for his whole hearted hospitality 
 — a fire screen with the figure of a tobacco plant, 
 and the legend, "My clouds all other clouds dis- 
 pel." The hand that wrote, and the fingers that 
 wrought these words, dreamed little of the lesson 
 they speak to us as we recall that bright room, 
 basking in sunlight from outside and in a sunnier 
 light within. He had so thoroughly absorbed into 
 his nature the "sweet uses of adversity," and so 
 accepted and used for his training into manliness, 
 the discipline of his pain, that his very sufferings 
 were the chief instruments with which he min- 
 istered to the happiness of others. "His clouds 
 dispelled all other clouds." And the achieved 
 and heroic mastery of his suffering self — rather 
 his utter forgetfulness of his sufferings and of 
 himself — won him, first sympathy; and then such 
 admiration and affection as made his life a bright- 
 
 246 
 
 
Sbz^-z^oo^^ 
 
 ^6^ 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ness and a blessing to all who came within his 
 reach. He has filled the measure of that service 
 to his Master which men do in this life, and in 
 this life only, by suffering; and the service into 
 which he has passed now is the doing rather than 
 the bearing of His will. 
 
 TAYLOR, Charles Walter, 
 
 Manager, Superintendent. 
 
 Possessing more than ordinary man- 
 agerial ability, with tact and a pleasing 
 personality, Mr. Taylor, from the time he 
 wps twenty-two years of age, was in 
 charge of large manufacturing plants, em- 
 ploying many men. He was never at vari- 
 ance with his men but met them in a 
 friendly spirit of fairness and all who 
 came in contact with him held him, in 
 respect. 
 
 Charles Walter Taylor was born in 
 Rochester, June 21, 1870. died in his na- 
 tive city at his home, No. 195 Kenwood 
 avenue, March 4, 1912. He was a son of 
 George Taylor, founder of the Taylor 
 Thermometer Company, the forerunner 
 of the Taylor Instrument Companies, one 
 of Rochester's large enterprises. Charles 
 W. Taylor attended the public schools 
 and after finishing the course at No. 3 
 Grammar School, attended the old Free 
 Academy. He continued study at Genesee 
 Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, and after 
 graduation there he entered business life 
 with his brothers and henceforth until his 
 death was associated with the Taylor In- 
 strument Companies, serving as superin- 
 tendent and on the board of directors. 
 After becoming familiar with the business 
 he was placed in charge of a branch plant 
 in London, England, remaining for two 
 years, then went to Watertown, New 
 York, there remaining until 1910. In that 
 year the branch was brought to Rochester 
 and incorporated into the main plant, Mr. 
 Taylor also returning to the city. Here 
 he was superintendent of manufacture of 
 
 the Taylor products until his death which 
 occurred at the early age of forty-two 
 years. In younger years he was an active 
 member of the Rochester Athletic Club, 
 and had a host of friends among the 
 younger business men of the city. He 
 was a member of Overlook Lodge (New 
 Jersey), Free and Accepted Masons; Mrs. 
 Taylor is a member of Eastern Star, Paul 
 Chapter, of Rochester, and is matron of 
 this chapter. He was a member of West- 
 minster Presbyterian Church, in which 
 his wife also holds membership. 
 
 He married Nellie Smith, daughter of 
 John C. and Mary (Parsonson) Smith, 
 who survives him, with three sons : George 
 Smith, now with Taylor Instrument Com- 
 panies ; Walter and Merton, students in 
 the higfi school. 
 
 WOLCOTT, James E., 
 
 Business Man, Financier. 
 
 Of 
 
 Among the representative citizens 
 Rochester who attained prominence in 
 business, financial and fraternal circles, 
 must be mentioned the late James E. Wol- 
 cott, a native of Rochester, born in the 
 year 1850, a son of George P. and Caroline 
 (Moore) Wolcott. 
 
 James E. Wolcott supplemented the 
 knowledge obtained in the public schools 
 of Rochester by a course in Professor Sat- 
 terlee's School, and thus became well 
 qualified for an active and useful career. 
 At the age of twenty-one years he en- 
 gaged in the distilling business and was 
 active in the management of the James E. 
 Wolcott & Company Distillery at the cor- 
 ner of Clarissa and Wolcott streets. He 
 continued in that until 1901, when he dis- 
 posed of his interests to the New York & 
 Kentucky Company. For a number of 
 years he was connected with the financial 
 interests of the city and was a director of 
 the Genesee Valley Trust Company and 
 
 247 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 of the Traders' National Bank. He was 
 a man of keen perception and executive 
 ability, enterprising and alert, and his 
 opinion and judgment were considered 
 and followed in many cases, each time 
 proving to be for the best. He was equally 
 prominent in Masonic circles, affiliating 
 with Rochester Lodge, No. 660, Free and 
 Accepted Masons ; Monroe Commandery, 
 Knights Templar, and the Consistory, in 
 which he attained the thirty-second de- 
 gree of the Scottish Rite. He followed the 
 teachings of that great order, lived in ac- 
 cord with its beliefs, and won and retained 
 the friendship and esteem of a wide circle 
 of friends. He was a great lover of horse- 
 flesh, was the owner of one or two thor- 
 oughbred horses, and was connected with 
 the Gentlemen Drivers Association. One 
 of his chief pleasures was in a brush on 
 the Rochester Speedway, in which he was 
 interested ; he was a well-known figure 
 there and the statement that any horse 
 belonged to James E. Wolcott was suf- 
 ficient guarantee of its worth and high- 
 bred qualities. 
 
 Mr. Wolcott married, in Rochester, in 
 1874, Ida J. Chase, and they were the par- 
 ents of three children: C. J. and George 
 P., both of Rochester,, and Mrs. F. E. 
 Clawson, of Ridgway, Pennsylvania. Mr. 
 Wolcott died suddenly at Norfolk, Vir- 
 ginia, November 24, 1906, aged fifty-six 
 years. His death deprived his native city, 
 Rochester, of one of its successful men of 
 affairs, who bore a reputation for public 
 and private integrity second to none. 
 
 COOLEY, George Frederick, 
 
 Enterprising Citizen. 
 
 To leap into popular notice by some 
 spectacular deed which appeals to the 
 public fancy is a feat easy of accomplish- 
 ment and of an order not unusual. It is 
 in fact, an everyday occurrence. But to 
 
 build up and into the favorable light of 
 public criticism a life which is devoid of 
 extraordinary achievement is a colossal 
 task. When a man becomes, as it were, a 
 popular figure or idol over night, it is be- 
 cause of an action on his part which 
 strikes the interest of the crowd — and his 
 position is necessarily ephemeral and in- 
 secure. Whether or not he keeps his post 
 of honor is the true test of the mettle of 
 the man. But the daily, constant con- 
 structing of a reputation worthy of the 
 highest praise and commendation, with 
 the tools of honesty, labor, integrity, high 
 character, dignity, human sympathy, force 
 of personality and magnanimity, is a far 
 more difficult task, though on the surface 
 it would appear to be a negative accom- 
 plishment. The late George Frederick 
 Cooley, of Peekskill, New York, one of 
 the substantially successful business men 
 of Peekskill, and a man of prominence 
 there, held a position in the community 
 which was equally the result of his talents 
 in the lines of endeavor in which he en- 
 gaged, and of the influence of his char- 
 acter and daily life. He was a leader 
 among men, whose influence was for the 
 general good and of a most potent order 
 in the interests of the city. 
 
 George Frederick Cooley, son of Charles 
 E. and Margaret Ann (Esterly) Cooley, 
 farmers of Ulster county, New York, was 
 born in Medina, Ulster county, New York, 
 August 26, 1841. He attended school at 
 Medina and later at the Claverick Acade- 
 my, where he received an excellent edu- 
 cation and rigid military training. After 
 being graduated from the academy he 
 spent a few years on his father's farm. He 
 then went to Vails Gate, Orange county, 
 New York, and engaged independently in 
 the coal, lumber and feed business, con- 
 tinuing this for a year, and in connection 
 with this he conducted a grist mill at Sal- 
 isbury at the same time. He next went 
 
 248 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 to New Paltz and engaged in a similar 
 enterprise in partnership with A. V. N. 
 Kiting. He then went to Ossining and 
 entered into partnership with his brother, 
 carrying on a dry goods business for the 
 next two years. In 1879 Mr. Cooley went 
 to Peekskill, where he resided for the re- 
 mainder of his life. Here he went into 
 business again, this time alone, and open- 
 ed a flour and feed establishment, doing 
 business on a wholesale and retail scale. 
 In this venture he was highly successful 
 and continued until 1906, when he sold 
 out and retired from active participation 
 in the affairs of the business world. His 
 interests in affairs, current topics, and 
 civic questions still continued to be as 
 keen as when he had been an active 
 worker. 
 
 Mr. Cooley had for a number of years 
 been a director in the Grand Forks Na- 
 tional Bank. He was a member of the 
 First Presbyterian Church of Peekskill, 
 and for several years served as superin- 
 tendent of the mission and the Sunday 
 school. Mr. Cooley was throughout his 
 life a deep student, not only of books, but 
 of life itself. He was a keen judge of men, 
 and had scores of friends in all walks of 
 life. 
 
 In 1873 Mr. Cooley married, at Corn- 
 wall, New York, Kate Theresa Sutherland, 
 daughter of Judge Ebenezer and Cather- 
 ine L. (Moores) Sutherland, an old and 
 prominent family of Cornwall. The chil- 
 dren of Mr. and Mrs. Cooley are: 1. Her- 
 bert Sutherland, who resides in Keyport, 
 New Jersey ; he married Elizabeth Avery, 
 of Peekskill, and by this union there are 
 two children : Kathrine and Carold ; Mrs. 
 (Avery) Cooley died in 1912, in Keyport. 
 2. Florence Josephine, deceased. 3. Clif- 
 ford Eugene, deceased. 4. Jennie, de- 
 ceased. 5. George Frederick. Jr., now liv- 
 ing in Schenectady. 
 
 Mr. Cooley died in Peekskill, New York, 
 
 May 5, 1914, and his death came as a loss 
 to the community in which he had been so 
 prominent, and with whose upbuilding 
 and advance he had for so many years 
 been identified. 
 
 BROWER, William Henry, 
 
 Manufacturer. 
 
 The West shore of the Hudson river is 
 the seat of many of the large industries of 
 the United States. The city of Glovers- 
 ville in Fulton county, in the State of 
 New York, is the centre of the industry 
 of glove making in the country. This 
 city which owes its growth to the up- 
 building of the manufacture of gloves 
 within its boundaries, produces two-thirds 
 of the kid and buckskin gloves that are 
 made in America. Heading this industry 
 and responsible for its growth and great- 
 ness to-day, are men of power, and execu- 
 tive and creative ability, who foresaw its 
 possibilities while it was yet in its in- 
 fancy. 
 
 It amounts to almost a law of life and 
 nature that the man whose vision is re- 
 stricted to only that which others can see 
 never achieves a signal success in life. Nor 
 does the man who can see the great things, 
 but who lacks the power to grasp them 
 and make them real, succeed in life. But 
 the man with the imagination and power 
 of vision to discern possibilities combined 
 with the executive ability to put them into 
 working order, is the type found leading 
 and managing the world's great enter- 
 prises and business ventures. Such was 
 the late William Henry Brower, con- 
 nected with the glove industry in execu- 
 tive capacity since the time of the Civil 
 War, and one of its leaders in Glovers- 
 ville, and in the whole country. 
 
 William Henry Brower, son of David 
 and Elizabeth (Perkins) Brower, was born 
 in Broadalbin, Fulton county, New York 
 
 249 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 State, in 1838. He remained on his 
 father's farm here until he reached the 
 age of eighteen. During this time he had 
 acquired all the advantages of education 
 which the local schools afforded, and in 
 1856 removed to Gloversville. Here he 
 attended the Gloversville Academy under 
 Professor Wells. He realized the inesti- 
 mable value of a good education in any 
 line of endeavor which he might choose 
 in later life and made every effort to fur- 
 ther his. Six years later, desiring to en- 
 ter business for himself, he entered upon 
 the manufacture of gloves in 1862 in Glo- 
 versville. The first factory which he 
 erected stood in the rear of what is now 
 the \Y. H. & F. G. Brower Company, the 
 name by which the present firm is known. 
 The organization was first known under 
 the firm name of Syke & Brower. The 
 business, which is one of importance in 
 Gloversville is still conducted by Mr. 
 Brower's sons. 
 
 Though he never held office, Mr. Brow- 
 er was always intensely interested and 
 active in public affairs. His forces were 
 always allied on the side of the good of 
 the community, and he made every effort 
 within his power for the advancement of 
 Gloversville for he believed in its future. 
 He was active throughout his life in 
 movements instituted for the benefit of 
 his fellow men, and gave his time and 
 services unrestrainedly to such purposes. 
 Mr. Brower was deeply interested and 
 took an active part in the campaign waged 
 for Lincoln by William Seward. He was 
 a supporter of the "Higher Law" theories 
 of Seward in regard to slavery, and an 
 ardent admirer of Lincoln, in whom he 
 recognized the qualities needed in the 
 dangers and terrors of a civil war. 
 
 Mr. Brower was preeminently and in 
 every sense of the word a Christian gen- 
 tleman. He was particularly active in 
 the work of the First Baptist Church, 
 with which church he became affiliated 
 
 immediately upon his arrival in Glovers- 
 ville in 1856, retaining active membership 
 in it until the time of his death. Mr. 
 Brower believed in putting the principles 
 of his religion into practice, and was a 
 constant worker in the church in one ca- 
 pacity or another. For eighteen years he 
 was organist, and he was continuously 
 connected with the choir from the year 
 1856 until 1890. He was superintendent 
 of the Sunday school for a number of 
 years, and also served on church boards. 
 He was an efficient worker and did an 
 inestimable amount of good in the serv- 
 ice of his fellow men. 
 
 Mr. Brower was a member of Glovers- 
 ville Lodge, No. 429, Free and Accepted 
 Masons, and took an active part in Ma- 
 sonic affairs. He was very well-known in 
 Masonic circles, and his death was no 
 more deeply mourned here than in the 
 other circles of his friends. 
 
 An adequate understanding of the 
 esteem in which Mr. Brower was held in 
 the minds and hearts of his fellows, can 
 be gathered from the following tribute 
 paid him by one of his fellow church 
 members. This opinion was universal : 
 "He has sung the blessed Gospel into the 
 hearts and lives of hundreds of people. 
 At the organ in the old Church he was an 
 inspiration. He was a good musician and 
 a noble Christian gentleman." 
 
 HOOKER, Horace and Horace B., 
 
 Father and Son. 
 
 Horace Hooker was descended from 
 that redoubtable Puritan, the Rev. Thom- 
 as Hooker, who led sixty families from 
 Boston through the wilderness and found- 
 ed the city of Hartford. Through his 
 constructive influence on the Connecticut 
 constitution, Thomas Hooker became in- 
 directly an important factor in outlining 
 our Federal Constitution. Horace Hook- 
 er's wife traced her ancestry from Henry 
 
 250 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Wolcott whose descendants as New Eng- 
 land Governors and public men, have 
 borne such a prominent part in our na- 
 tional life. Both grandfathers of Horace 
 Hooker were officers in the Revolution- 
 ary army. 
 
 With the pioneer spirit of his progeni- 
 tor, hearing glowing accounts of the 
 Genesee country, Horace Hooker, the 
 father, came to Western New York, 
 where the Wadsworths and many other 
 Hartford and Windsor families had set- 
 tled. With his brother-in-law, Judge 
 Strong, he developed the thousand-acre 
 tract in Carthage, now Rochester. Mr. 
 Hooker, with great enterprise, built mills 
 and warehouses, and later initiated and 
 leased the horse railroad to Carthage 
 Landing, a growing port with extensive 
 trade in Canada. The building of the 
 New York Central Railroad and the Erie 
 canal marked the downfall of Carthage as 
 a commercial center, and the panic of '57 
 brought Mr. Hooker's extensive projects 
 to an end. Like Cincinnatus, he turned 
 to the plough, growing nursery stock on 
 the town lots of Carthage. It was here 
 that he brought his bride, Helen Wolcott. 
 of Windsor, in 1821 and here his eight 
 children were born. 
 
 Among the great army of men who in 
 a quiet way have been the backbone and 
 support of the State, Horace B. Hooker, 
 his youngest son, moved and bore his 
 part. A native son of Rochester, he there 
 lived the full number of years allotted to 
 man, was numbered among her sons who 
 offered their lives in defence of the Union, 
 and from the close of the war was en- 
 gaged in various business enterprises in 
 the city. 
 
 He was born at the family home in 
 Carthage, December 7, 1837, attended 
 various private schools, and afterwards 
 studying engineering under Colonel Jo- 
 siah W. Bissell, with whom he worked on 
 the then famous Carthage bridge. Later 
 
 he entered the nursery business with 
 Hooker, Farley & Co., who had moved to 
 Brighton, where they planted a large fruit 
 farm. 
 
 The firing of the first gun on Fort 
 Sumter so stirred his patriotic zeal that, 
 sacrificing a promising business, he re- 
 sponded at once to his country's call. 
 His father, seventy years old, said "That's 
 right, Horace ; if I were a little younger, 
 I would go myself." With his brother 
 James he raised a company for the Eighth 
 New York Cavalry Regiment. Before 
 they were ordered to the front, he re- 
 ceived an urgent call from Colonel Bis- 
 sell, in St. Louis, to join his engineering 
 regiment, as he needed officers upon 
 whom he could depend. He reluctantly 
 resigned his commission with his Roches- 
 ter comrades to enter the strenuous and 
 arduous campaign of the "Engineer Regi- 
 ment of the West," famous for their ac- 
 tivities at Island No. 10, Corinth and New 
 Madrid ; and so closely associated with 
 General Grant in the tedious siege of 
 Vicksburg, both in the overland approach 
 through Mississippi and on the river work 
 at Young's Point. Upon the surrender of 
 Vicksburg, July 4, 1863, they were en- 
 gaged in repairing the forts, until ordered 
 to Nashville to take part in the Atlanta 
 campaign and Sherman's march to the 
 sea. Never selfseeking, he was through 
 his entire service either in command of a 
 company or acting adjutant in charge of 
 a detachment, doing special duty in 
 bridge building, canal or railroad work. 
 
 After the war, declining important posi- 
 tions offered him in the West, he returned 
 East. The oil fever being at its height, 
 he opened an engineer's office in Marietta, 
 Ohio, where he was actively engaged un- 
 til a lapse in the yield in that locality 
 brought him back to Rochester. Here he 
 gathered together the tangled skeins of an 
 interrupted business career and began life 
 afresh. He turned for a number of years 
 
 251 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 to the nursery business, with his father- 
 in-law, Elon Huntington. 
 
 With a marked faculty for invention, 
 he devised valuable improvements in 
 guns, pistols, cartridges and skates, which 
 are in use at the present time. For a short 
 time he was in the shoe business, and 
 then became a general contractor, for 
 which he was well adapted. His son 
 Harry was afterwards associated with 
 him, and under the firm name of H. B. 
 Hooker & Son they did a large business. 
 At the age of seventy he was stricken 
 with paralysis, and became a semi-invalid 
 until his death, August 25, 1914. 
 
 Horace B. Hooker was a man who 
 through many vicissitudes of business 
 showed the sterling uprightness of his 
 character in his fair dealing with his as- 
 sociates and his consideration for the men 
 who worked under him. He was a man 
 of strict integrity and faithfully executed 
 every trust confided to him. His private 
 life was marked by devotion to his family 
 and a scrupulous regard for the rights of 
 others. He met all life's responsibilities 
 bravely and played well his part in the 
 great drama of life. An ardent sports- 
 man, he bore off many trophies for marks- 
 manship for Rochester in the National 
 and State associations. He was a valued 
 member of the Columbia Rifle Club, a 
 member of the Loyal Legion and the 
 Grand Army of the Republic. He mar- 
 ried, during the Civil War, Susan Hunt- 
 ington, who survives him, the mother of 
 five sons and two daughters. 
 
 MILLER, James, 
 
 Pioneer Builder of Peekskill. 
 
 There is, of course, no royal road to 
 success. The progress which those who 
 travel this way make is dependent on 
 themselves, not on the path they tread. 
 If we look over the records of the suc- 
 
 cessful men of New York whose names 
 indeed are legion, we shall find that 
 whether they traveled rough paths or 
 smooth, it was rather the qualities in- 
 herent in themselves which enabled them 
 to overcome all difficulties and arrive so 
 successfully at their goal. For the smooth 
 way has its own difficulties quite as much 
 as the rough. Indeed, for some natures 
 they are even greater with the tempta- 
 tions that they hold for relaxation of the 
 necessary effort towards success. It is 
 not even the opportunities which a man 
 finds ready to hand which help him on his 
 way so much as it is that prompt character 
 which impels him to grasp such fleeting 
 occasions as they arise, for he is a rare 
 man who has no opportunities and almost 
 as rare as he is the man who seizes those 
 he has. James Miller is an excellent ex- 
 ample of this kind of man, who takes ad- 
 vantage of the opportunities which des- 
 tiny places in his way. In his long life 
 at Peekskill, New York, his record was 
 one of success and progress, and still 
 better of success earned without the sac- 
 rifice of the rights and interests of any of 
 his fellow men. His death, which oc- 
 curred there on May 25, 1909, deprived 
 the community of one of its most public- 
 spirited and prominent citizens. 
 
 He was the son of Cornite and Harriett 
 (Lancaster) Miller, both natives of Cort- 
 land, Westchester county, New York, and 
 typical of the best type of the life of that 
 region. Cornite Miller was a wealthy 
 farmer in Westchester county, a man 
 thrifty and religious, whose home under 
 the superintendence of his good wife was 
 a center for hospitality and good cheer. 
 It was at the home established in Peeks- 
 kill, New York, by Cornite Miller and 
 his wife that their son, James Miller, was 
 born January 23, 1834. 
 
 He passed his entire life in his native 
 town and became most closely identified 
 
 252 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 with all its affairs. For his education he 
 attended, at first, the local public school 
 and later the Peekskill Military Academy, 
 from which institution he was a graduate. 
 Even in childhood Mr. Miller's mind had 
 a very emphatically mechanical bent, and 
 he decided, as he grew into manhood, 
 upon following some line of work which 
 would bring his undoubted talents into 
 play. His taste led him to the practical 
 and mechanical side of contruction and 
 he entered into a construction and con- 
 tracting business in which he was emi- 
 nently successful, his unusual talent be- 
 ing of value to him in the solution of the 
 many difficult problems brought up by 
 his occupation. Mr. Miller was regarded 
 as one of the pioneers in the development 
 of a number of Peekskill's most attractive 
 residential quarters and was the builder of 
 a great number of the handsome residences 
 of that city, among them one for Henry 
 Ward Beecher. He also built many of 
 the important buildings, including the 
 Peekskill Savings Bank Building and that 
 for St. Joseph's Franciscan School for 
 Girls. 
 
 Upon the opening of the Civil War, 
 Mr. Miller volunteered his services in the 
 cause of the Union and enlisted in the 
 local body known as the Jefferson Guard 
 of Peekskill. His regiment was sent al- 
 most immediately to the front, and from 
 that time onward to the end of hostilities 
 he saw active service and took part in 
 many of the important engagements of 
 the war. He served until the year 1866. 
 at the end of which time he was mustered 
 out of the service and returned to civil 
 life. 
 
 James Miller was not a man to follow 
 the not very wholesome methods of 
 modern business men of confining them- 
 selves wholly to their business interests. 
 His mind was of a character which neces- 
 sitated his taking part in many sides of 
 
 life, in order that it should be fully satis- 
 fied, and however great his success in 
 business he would have deemed himself a 
 self-willed prisoner had he not taken part 
 in the more public affairs of the commu- 
 nity. This does not mean that he sought 
 public office, or anything of that nature. 
 His business made great demands upon his 
 time and it was impossible for him to 
 serve in any such capacity, but his in- 
 terests were given to these affairs and he 
 exerted no little influence upon the com- 
 munity, purely as a personal force. His 
 views on political subjects generally were 
 extremely independent, and while he was 
 a member of the Democratic party and 
 supported its principles and policies in a 
 general way, he was entirely independent 
 as a voter, casting his ballot for the man 
 he thought best deserved the office. He 
 was a prominent member of the Masonic 
 order. He was not, however, active in 
 club life, his instincts being rather domes- 
 tic, so that he found his greatest happi- 
 ness by his own hearthstone, in the inti- 
 mate association of the household. His 
 tastes still further emphasized his fond- 
 ness for this aspect of life, for he was a 
 great lover of music and of books and 
 spent much of his leisure time in listen- 
 ing to the one and reading the other. He 
 erected a fine house for himself at No. 218 
 North James street, Peekskill, and it was 
 here that his family life was held. Here 
 his children was born and here eventually 
 his death occurred. One other taste pos- 
 sessed by Mr. Miller, which should not be 
 overlooked, was that for hunting, which 
 he indulged to as great an extent as his 
 time and opportunity permitted. Besides 
 the property upon which his house stood, 
 he also owned a large amount of valuable 
 real estate in Peekskill, which he had ac- 
 quired from time to time as the opportu- 
 nity offered during his long and success- 
 ful career in that city. 
 
 253 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 James Miller was married on May 25, 
 1870, to Camilla Lane, a daughter of Wil- 
 liam Shelton and Adaline (Hyett) Lane, 
 of Peekskill. To Mr. and Mrs. Miller 
 seven children were born as follows: 1. 
 Charles Avery, born April 7, 1871 ; was 
 educated in the grammar and high schools 
 of Peekskill and the Peekskill Military 
 Academy ; has succeeded his father in the 
 construction business ; takes a very con- 
 spicuous part in the public life of the 
 municipality ; married Jane Jordan Yo- 
 com, of Peekskill, by whom he has had 
 two children : Camilla and Jane. 2. 
 Henry, born March 23, 1873, died in early 
 youth. 3. Ella, born January 15, 1875, 
 died in early youth. 4. Charlotte, born 
 February 29, 1876, died in early youth. 5. 
 Jane, born March 28, 1878, died in early 
 youth. 6. Camilla, born September 15, 
 1886; was educated in the public and high 
 schools of Peekskill ; was married to 
 James Wyly Silleck, of Peekskill, to 
 whom she has borne one daughter, Elea- 
 nor. 7. Ritchie C, born March 6, 1889; 
 educated in the grammar and high schools 
 of Peekskill and later at Columbia Uni- 
 versity from which he graduated with the 
 degrees of M. E. and E. E. ; he is now 
 connected with the New York Central 
 Line, in connection with the technical de- 
 partment, his work being of such a nature 
 that he travels most of his time upon the 
 road ; he is unmarried and makes his 
 home with his mother in the old Miller 
 mansion at Peekskill. 
 
 O'CONNOR, Francis, 
 
 Contracting Builder. 
 
 In Mr. O'Connor's personality extremes 
 met to a degree worthy of special study. 
 He was a scholar and a hard working 
 mechanic; a builder of college buildings 
 and a student therein after their comple- 
 tion ; a lover of the classics and of classi- 
 
 cal study yet a practical clear brained 
 contractor. He erected great buildings, 
 yet, gathered about him half a dozen 
 choice spirits called the "Hexagonal 
 Club" who, together, studied the classics. 
 He was a good business man, his cultured 
 tastes not interfering in any way with his 
 daily pursuits. He did not parade his 
 attainments but loved scholarship for 
 scholarship's sake alone. His life was a 
 busy, useful, simple one and he was loved 
 and honored by all who came within the 
 sphere of his influence. During the last 
 quarter of a century of his life he was 
 chief clerk at the canal weigh lock, and 
 although administrations came and faded 
 into the past, in regular succession, he 
 was not disturbed in his position, only 
 surrendering it with his life. 
 
 He was especially fond of his younger 
 brother, Joseph O'Connor (who is of ex- 
 tended mention in this work), over whose 
 education he watched, whose studies he 
 directed and in whose attainments he 
 gloried. Joseph O'Connor died a few 
 months before his brother, and although 
 prior to that much lamented event Fran- 
 cis O'Connor appeared as a man in his 
 prime, yet he seemed afterward to be 
 stricken with sudden old age, all his 
 health, vigor, activity, and interest in life 
 departing with the loved brother. In 
 those few months he became as old in 
 looks and in action as he really was in 
 years and never rallied. 
 
 He had another extremely gifted 
 brother, Michael O'Connor, a poet who 
 gave up his life at Potomac Station dur- 
 ing the Civil War, sergeant of the One 
 Hundred and Fortieth Regiment. New 
 York Volunteers. He was the author of 
 "The Reveille," a poem, concededly one 
 of the finest literary productions inspired 
 by the Civil War. Joseph and Michael 
 O'Connor were both members of the 
 "Hexagonal Club," and in an edition of 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OE BIOGRAPHY 
 
 "'Little Classics" edited by Rossiter John- 
 son, another of the coterie, are to be 
 found poems and short stories by Michael 
 O'Connor. Other members were Jacob 
 Hockstra and Thomas J. Neville, they 
 with the three O'Connor brothers and 
 Rossiter Johnson constituting the six 
 members. 
 
 Francis O'Connor was born in County 
 Queens, Ireland, May 13, 1833, died at 
 his home, No. t> 2 Jefferson avenue, 
 Rochester, New York, May 9, 1909, lack- 
 ing but four days of completing his 
 seventy-sixth year. He was brought to 
 this country when a child, obtained a 
 good common school education and learn- 
 ed the stone cutters' trade. In youthful 
 manhood he lived in Ithaca, New York, 
 and there made a close friend of Ezra 
 Cornell, founder of Cornell University, 
 who greatly admired the intelligent, 
 warm-hearted young man. Mr. O'Con- 
 nor v/as then engaged in quarry contract- 
 ing work, and also being a skilled me- 
 chanic he was of great assistance to Mr. 
 Cornell when he began the erection of the 
 university buildings. Mr. O'Connor also 
 did a great deal of the stone work on the 
 original buildings and some of them yet 
 stand as monuments to his skill and thor- 
 oughness as a builder. After the first 
 buildings were completed and ready for 
 use, Mr. O'Connor enrolled as a student 
 and completed a two years' course. After 
 leaving college he returned to his quarry 
 and contract work as though he had never 
 left it. During his residence in Ithaca he 
 was school commissioner and council- 
 man. In 1878 Mr. O'Connor responded 
 to a call from Waterloo, New York, to 
 associate with Rev. Louis A. Lambert in 
 editing the "Catholic Union and Times." 
 A few years later the office of publication 
 was moved to Rochester and Mr. O'Con- 
 nor came with the paper as managing 
 editor. 
 
 He practically built St. Patrick's Cathe- 
 
 dral in Rochester. The original contrac- 
 tor, after finishing the foundations, left 
 the city and Mr. O'Connor completed the 
 building. It was during this period and 
 later that the "Hexagonal Club" flour- 
 ished. About 1884 he was appointed chief 
 clerk at the weigh lock and in that quiet 
 position lived a contented, happy life with 
 his work, his beloved books and congenial 
 companions. At one time he was Demo- 
 cratic candidate for State Senator, his 
 opponent being Senator Cornelius R. Par- 
 sons. He was a communicant of the 
 Roman Catholic church and a member of 
 the Cathedral parish from the time the 
 Cathedral was erected. When he was 
 borne to his last resting place, it was 
 from the Cathedral doors, the building 
 whose erection he supervised. 
 
 Mr. O'Connor married, September 4, 
 1875, Adelia Lewis, of Syracuse, who sur- 
 vives him, with four children : Mrs. Cath- 
 erine Church, Elizabeth, Agnes, and 
 Joseph Lewis O'Connor, who has been 
 engaged for some years in the promotion 
 and management of theatrical (road) 
 companies ; he was a graduate of the 
 University of Rochester, class of 1908; 
 member of Theta Delta Kappa, member 
 of White Rats of America, a theatrical 
 social order ; has written numerous plays 
 and poems and inherits his father's gift 
 of letters; married, in 1913, Gertrude 
 Kirksmith, of Kansas City, Missouri. 
 
 RITTER, Frank J., 
 
 Business Man. 
 
 Germany has furnished to this country 
 many men who rank among our best citi- 
 zens, men who would be willing to sacri- 
 fice their lives, if necessary, in the preser- 
 vation of American principles, who have 
 proven themselves worthy of citizenship, 
 and among this class was the late Frank 
 J. Ritter, president of the Ritter Dental 
 Manufacturing Company, one of the lead- 
 
 255 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ing industries of Rochester. He was born 
 in Astheim, Germany, December 19, 1844, 
 died at the General Hospital, Rochester, 
 New York, April 21, 1915, following an 
 operation for appendicitis, and his remains 
 were interred in Mount Hope Cemetery, 
 Rochester, New York. He was a son of 
 Joseph Ritter, who was a very prominent 
 man in Germany, who served as burgomas- 
 ter for many years in the city of Astheim. 
 Frank J. Ritter was reared and edu- 
 cated in his native land, remaining there 
 until he attained early manhood, when he 
 came to the United States, arriving in 
 New York City, where he secured em- 
 ployment, remaining there a few years. 
 From New York he removed to Amster- 
 dam, New York, and finally settled in 
 Rochester, where he spent the remainder 
 of his days, becoming widely known in 
 business circles. He there began the 
 manufacture of parlor furniture in a 
 factory on North Water street, this prov- 
 ing a successful undertaking, he being a 
 man of business acumen, keen discern- 
 ment and practical ideas. In 1887 he 
 devoted his attention to another line of 
 business, establishing the Ritter Dental 
 Manufacturing Company, making dental 
 chairs and other appliances used by den- 
 tists, and was equally successful in this 
 enterprise, in due course of time Ritter 
 dental products being shipped to every 
 part of the world, they having a reputa- 
 tion for a high standard of excellence and 
 durability. The first factory was situated 
 on the river flats below the Smith Street 
 Bridge, and in 1908 the modern factory 
 on West avenue was erected to meet the 
 requirements of the rapidly increasing 
 business. The company gave employment 
 to a number of skilled operatives, and 
 thus was the means of adding to the 
 population of the city, and under the wise 
 guidance of Mr. Ritter, who was an ideal 
 employer in every respect, the business 
 expanded from year to year. His promi- 
 
 nence as a business man was proven by 
 the fact that he was chosen on the direc- 
 torate of the Lincoln National Bank, in 
 which capacity he served for many years. 
 The only public office he ever held was 
 that of park commissioner, to which he 
 was appointed in 1905 and which he held 
 until the board recently was legislated 
 out of existence. He possessed many ex- 
 cellent characteristics, among which were 
 a ready sympathy with those in distress, 
 a whole-hearted interest in mankind in 
 general and a mind filled with practical 
 thoughts, and by the exercise of these 
 was helpful to man}', and he was also 
 esteemed and honored by all with whom 
 he was brought in contact, whether in 
 business or social life. 
 
 Mr. Ritter married (first) in 1874, Eliza- 
 beth Fertig, of Rochester, New York. 
 She died in 1897. They were the parents 
 of two daughters: Adelina, (Mrs. Shum- 
 way), of Rochester, who is the mother of 
 two children, Helen Elizabeth and Frank 
 Ritter Shumway ; Laura A. Ritter. Mr. 
 Ritter married (second) in 1907, Sophia 
 E. Schuknecht. Mrs. Ritter, in memory 
 of her husband, has founded and endowed 
 a home for the aged and an orphan 
 asylum. 
 
 At a special meeting of the Board of 
 Directors of the Lincoln National Bank, 
 held in April, 191 5, the following tribute 
 to the memory of the late Mr. Frank J. 
 Ritter was adopted: 
 
 The Board of Directors of the Lincoln National 
 Bank has heard the sorrowful news of the death 
 of Frank J. Ritter. Associated with us as friend 
 and fellow member for many years, we have 
 highly appreciated his loyalty, broad vision and 
 sound judgment which had ripened in the course 
 of a long, eventfrd and successful business career. 
 Modest and quiet in his demeanor he was a 
 strong character, precise in his obligations and 
 faithful in his friendships. It is with deep sorrow 
 that we must record his death and we will sadly 
 miss him from among our midst. Let this minute 
 be entered on our records and a copy sent to the 
 stricken family. 
 
 256 
 
<-"H. 
 
 <M 
 
 r\ 
 
 (W-y 
 
 J 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 VAN VOORHIS, John, 
 
 Lawyer, Congressman. 
 
 If those who knew the Hon. John Van 
 Voorhis were called upon to name the 
 strongest characteristic of his useful and 
 honorable career, by the consensus of 
 public opinion, fidelity would be the re- 
 sponse. His loyalty to his home, his 
 friends, his city and his country, to his 
 beliefs and his convictions made him 
 trusted wherever known and gained for 
 him the unqualified confidence of the 
 lowly and those high in the councils of 
 the nation, of the distinguished members 
 of the profession in which he figured so 
 prominently and of those with whom he 
 came in contact through the ties of friend- 
 ship. His strong intellectual endow- 
 ments, well directed, made him a leader 
 at the bar and in Republican ranks in the 
 State of New York and never was he 
 known to waver in his allegiance to a 
 cause he espoused, for his championship 
 was ever based upon a belief in its right- 
 eousness. 
 
 John Van Voorhis, a native son of New 
 York, born in Decatur, Otsego county, 
 October 22, 1826. was of Holland lineage, 
 descended from Stevens Coerte Van Voor- 
 hees, who was a son of Coert Alberts of 
 Voor Hees (so called because he lived 
 before the village of Hees, in Holland, 
 hence the origin of the surname). In 
 April, 1660, Stevens Coerte Van Voorhees 
 was a passenger on the ship "Boutekoe" 
 (spotted cow) which sailed for the new 
 world. He was accompanied by his wife 
 and seven children and settled at Flat- 
 lands, Long Island, where he purchased 
 from Cornelius Dirksen Hoogland nine 
 morgens of corn land, seven of woodland, 
 ten of plain land and five morgens of salt 
 meadow for three thousand gilders ; also 
 the house and house-plot in the village of 
 'Amesfoort en Bergen" (Flatlands) with 
 N Y-Vol 11 — 17 2 
 
 the brewery and all the brewing appara- 
 tus. He died at Flatlands in 1702. 
 
 One of his grandsons, Johannes Coerte 
 Van Voorhis, removed to Fishkill, Dutch- 
 ess county, in 1730, and purchased a 
 farm of twenty-seven hundred acres, for 
 six hundred and seventy pounds sterling. 
 Before his death in 1757 he changed the 
 spelling of the name to its present form, 
 which has since been retained by his de- 
 scendants. 
 
 John Van Voorhis, of this review, was 
 the great-grandson of Johannes Coerte 
 Van Voorhis and the son of John Van 
 Voorhis, who was a farmer and a local 
 preacher of the Methodist church. He 
 was reared upon the old homestead farm 
 and acquired such education as he could 
 obtain in the common schools, through 
 the school library and a few terms spent 
 at Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima. 
 He was seven years of age at the time of 
 the father's removal from Otsego county 
 and after residing for a few years in the 
 town of Scott, Cortland county, and in 
 the town of Spafford, Onondaga county, 
 he became a resident of Mendon, Monroe 
 county, New York, in March, 1843. He 
 took up his abode upon a farm at Mendon 
 Center and in the summer months aided 
 in the work of the fields, while in the 
 winter seasons he taught in the district 
 schools of Victor until 1850. In the 
 summer of that year he became a law 
 student in the office of John W. Stebbins, 
 of Rochester, and in the succeeding 
 winter taught Latin and mathematics in 
 the East Bloomfield Academy. He was 
 connected with that institution until the 
 spring of 1852, and in the meantime con- 
 tinued his law reading as opportunity 
 offered until December. 1851, he success- 
 fully passed the examination that secured 
 him admission to the bar. Mr. Van Voor- 
 his began in law practice in Elmira in 
 1853 as a partner of Hon. Gilbert O. 
 
 57 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Hulse. but in 1854 became identified with 
 the Rochester bar. Here he soon won 
 recognition as a lawyer of wide learning, 
 of thorough familiarity with the princi- 
 ples of jurisprudence and of notable force 
 in argument and in the presentation of 
 his cause. For a long period the law firm 
 consisted of his brother, Quincy Van 
 Yoorhis, and himself, while later he ad- 
 mitted his two sons, Eugene and Charles, 
 under the firm name of John Van Yoor- 
 his & Sons. 
 
 In 1858, Mr. Van Voorhis was married 
 to Frances Aristine Galusha, a daughter 
 of Martin Galusha, and a granddaughter 
 of Jonas Galusha, who was for nine suc- 
 cessive terms governor of Vermont. Soon 
 after his marriage he purchased a house 
 on East avenue, where he lived for many 
 years. 
 
 From the beginning of his connection 
 with the bar, Mr. Van Voorhis maintained 
 a prominent place in the ranks of the 
 legal fraternity and as an attorney for the 
 plaintiff or defense he was connected with 
 almost every important litigated interest 
 tried in the courts. His ability, too, well 
 qualified him for official service, he was 
 from the beginning of his residence here 
 a prominent factor in public life, being 
 first elected a member of the Board of 
 Education from the old Fifth Ward in 
 1857. In 1859 he was appointed city at- 
 torney, and in 1863 received appointment 
 as collector of internal revenue from 
 President Lincoln. He was a delegate to 
 the Republican National Convention 
 which renominated Lincoln in 1864, and 
 was ever a staunch supporter of the mar- 
 tyred president. In 1878 and again in 
 1880 he was elected to Congress but was 
 defeated in 1882, when there was a Demo- 
 cratic landslide. In 1892 he was once 
 more chosen to represent his district in 
 the national law making body and upon 
 the close of that term he retired from ac- 
 
 tive political life. He was one of the most 
 earnest workers on the floor of the house, 
 connected with much of the constructive 
 legislation which finds its inception in 
 the committee rooms. An indefatigable 
 worker for his constituents, Rochester 
 owes to him its public building at the 
 corner of Church and Fitzhugh streets. 
 He made a desperate fight for this, one of 
 his first public acts, in the Forty-Sixth 
 Congress being the presentation of a bill 
 for a public building at Rochester. The 
 bill was reported favorably by the com- 
 mittee on public buildings, but the house 
 was Democratic and he was unable to 
 pass it. Elbridge G. Lapham, of Canan- 
 daigua, who was one of the house leaders, 
 opposed the bill vigorously on the ground 
 that Canandaigua was less than thirty 
 miles from Rochester and had a United 
 States court house. When the Forty- 
 seventh Congress met in December, 1881, 
 Mr. Van Voorhis again presented his bill 
 and secured its passage in the house after 
 a long and strenuous contest. In the inter- 
 im Mr. Lapham had been elected United 
 States senator and in the Upper House 
 he again opposed the measure even more 
 vigorously than he had before. He was 
 supported in his opposition by the late 
 Charles J. Folger, secretary of the treas- 
 ury, who lived at Geneva and was in- 
 terested in Canandaigua's efforts to pre- 
 vent Rochester from obtaining sessions of 
 the United States court. Congressman 
 Van Voorhis enlisted the support of Sena- 
 tor Warner Miller and the late Senator 
 John J. Ingalls, of Kansas, until finally, 
 after the bill had brought about a frac- 
 tional line-up in the Senate, it was passed 
 over the heads of Senator Lapham and 
 Secretary Folger. Every member of 
 Congress for twenty-five years before that 
 time had fought in vain for a public build- 
 ing for Rochester and the success of Mr. 
 Van Voorhis was notable. 
 
EXCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 During his congressional career and as 
 an attorney he was a champion of the 
 rights of the Seneca Indians and it was 
 largely due to his opposition that the 
 claim of three hundred thousand dollars 
 of the Ogden Land Company against the 
 lands of the Indians was defeated. In 
 1895 a council of the Seneca nation was 
 held on the Allegany reservation and 
 resolutions of thanks to Mr. Van Voorhis 
 were adopted. The resolution was en- 
 grossed and framed. The parchment on 
 which it is written is decorated with a 
 tomahawk and a pipe of peace and bears 
 the nation's seal. It was always regarded 
 by Mr. Van Voorhis as one of his most 
 valuable possessions. 
 
 For half a century Mr. Van Voorhis 
 remained an active practitioner at the 
 Rochester bar and attained marked dis- 
 tinction. He was thoroughly informed 
 concerning all branches of the law and 
 his practice extended beyond the borders 
 of New York. He was particularly strong 
 in argument and in the presentation of 
 his cause, which he ever contested with 
 the qualities of a warrior. His ready 
 sympathy was easily enlisted in the 
 cause of the weak and oppressed and 
 when he once espoused a cause it re- 
 ceived his untiring efforts to the end, re- 
 gardless of the fees accorded him. He 
 was deeply interested in young men who 
 were starting out in the profession, was 
 always ready to assist and encourage 
 them and they entertained for him the 
 greatest admiration and sincerest affec- 
 tion, feeling that they had lost a stalwart 
 champion and friend when he passed from 
 this life. 
 
 Too broad-minded to confine his atten- 
 tion and interest to his home locality or 
 even to his State, he was concerned in all 
 matters of national importance and in 
 those events which were framing the his- 
 tory of other nations. He firmly believed 
 
 in the cause of the Boers in South Africa, 
 gave to them his ready sympathy and 
 addressed many public meetings in their 
 behalf, being one of the speakers at the 
 great Boer meeting held in the city of 
 New York. He was equally ardent in 
 his championship of Cuban independence 
 and thrilled an audience with his presen- 
 tation of the question at a large mass 
 meeting in Rochester. He continued one 
 of the world's workers until called to his 
 final rest, October 22, 1905. Perhaps no 
 better proof of the initial statement of this 
 review that one of his strong character- 
 istics was his unfaltering fidelity, may be 
 best shown in quoting freely from the 
 statement of many of the public expres- 
 sions that were made at the time of his 
 demise. 
 
 The Monroe County Bar Association 
 adopted a memorial, extracts from which 
 are as follows : 
 
 Hon. Tohn Van Voorhis died at his home on 
 East avenue, in the city of Rochester, on the 
 20th day of October, 1905. His life had been 
 active, strenuous and full. He had no advan- 
 tageous aids in making his career. What he 
 has achieved he has achieved by his own labor 
 and efforts. As a lawyer his practice was 
 largely in the courts and he has been engaged 
 in many important and hard fought cases which 
 reached their final decision in the court of last 
 resort. His practice was large, at times reach- 
 ing into other states. His clients were for the 
 most part individuals: corporate interest he 
 seldom represented and he may with justice be 
 described as the people's lawyer. He possessed 
 ample knowledge of the law and had large ex- 
 perience and great ability in the trial of causes. 
 His fearlessness in asserting his client's cause 
 and his persistence in pressing it to a final con- 
 clusion were marked characteristics of the man. 
 To his clients he gave his best efforts, the 
 benefit of his large knowledge and large experi- 
 ence, with untiring diligence worked for their 
 interest. 
 
 Mr. Van Voorhis possessed a strong person- 
 ality in keeping with his massive form and 
 powerful and striking features that made him 
 the most picturesque member of our bar. He 
 
 259 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 thought vigorously and expressed himself with 
 vigor In the heat of conflict, somewhat brusque 
 in manner, he was at heart kindly. He will be 
 remembered by the members of the bar as a 
 strong man and an able lawyer, and in social 
 intercourse as a genial and pleasant companion 
 Full of years the last of his own generation of 
 lawyers, he rests from his labors. 
 
 The -'Rochester Democrat and Chron- 
 icle" said editorially : 
 
 Mr Van Voorhis was a born fighter, a fighter 
 who never took an unfair advantage of an ad- 
 versary, but who never gave up a battle until 
 the issue was finally adjudicated. When he was 
 assured that his cause was just, he would never 
 admit the possibility of ultimate and final de- 
 feat It has been often said of him that he was 
 a loyal friend; he was at the same time a stal- 
 wart and vigorous adversary. In common with 
 all truly strong men, he was positive in his 
 likes and in his dislikes; but at the same time 
 he was generous towards all with whom he came 
 into professional conflict. But he always stood 
 for that which he regarded as right, and stood 
 steadfast to the end, and his friendship was 
 abiding. He was trained in the school of integ- 
 rity and he had no patience with departures 
 from the path of uprightness in which his 
 course unswervingly lay, through the world that 
 now is to that world which is to come. 
 
 It was perhaps in his home life and in his 
 library where Mr. Van Voorhis shone the 
 brightest. He never gave up his early friend- 
 ship for that which was noblest and best in 
 literature. Fortunate in his early studies of the 
 classics, he could always retire from the strife 
 of the bar and the political arena to communion 
 with his favorite authors; a communion which he 
 loved to share with his friends. Although, as 
 has been said, he never relinquished the active 
 duties of his profession, with the later years of 
 a more than usually successful life came leisure 
 and opportunities for travel and purely literary 
 enjoyment, which were more infrequent in the 
 earlier portions of a long and strenuous career. 
 As a friend and counsellor of the younger 
 members of his profession, and indeed of other 
 professions, Mr. Van Voorhis will be long and 
 gratefully remembered. When sought, his ad- 
 vice and assistance were always lavishly be- 
 stowed, and many men largely owe their success 
 in life to his wise and timely advice. 
 
 It was vouchsafed to John Van Voorhis to 
 come down to the close of a long and well 
 
 spent life in the full possession of all his mental 
 faculties. With him there was no fireside period, 
 in the common acceptation of the term. His 
 sun set suddenly. To him came not the partial 
 mental eclipse which sometimes clouds the clos- 
 ing days of men who were physical and mental 
 giants among their fellows. The end found him 
 in the buckler and armor which his friends and 
 his antagonists knew so well. 
 
 The "Rochester Evening Times" said 
 editorially : 
 
 \t the ripe age of seventy-nine, in full pos- 
 session of his remarkable mental faculties, Hon. 
 John Van Voorhis, one of Rochester's foremost 
 lawyers, characterized by his virility of thought 
 his forcefulness and his sturdy independence, 
 passed suddenly away yesterday, leaving a 
 vacancy in the city's public life that cannot be 
 easily repaired. 
 
 Mr Van Voorhis was a giant mentally and 
 physically. When he was once convinced, the 
 cause which attracted his support was fought 
 for earnestly but fairly until the conclusion o 
 the issue was reached. His wonderful mental 
 courage, his disregard of influence, his unwaver- 
 ing devotion to the interests of the people 
 rather than special interests or classes were 
 logical products of his Dutch ancestry. 
 
 In public life Mr. Van Voorhis was the stal- 
 wart champion of his adopted city. He left his 
 imprint in the halls of congress, where he is 
 remembered as the best legislator Monroe ever 
 sent to the national capital. In the practice of 
 his profession he achieved a country-wide dis- 
 tinction. As a scholar and student, m his own 
 library, he showed a side of his character that 
 was particularly attractive to his intimates. As 
 an advisor of young men, and as their steadfast 
 friend, if they deserved his friendship, Mr. Van 
 Voorhis will be sincerely mourned and his loss 
 as a counsellor will be keenly felt. 
 
 Strong in his loves, undying in his hatreds, 
 but fair in both, Mr. Van Voorhis made count- 
 less friends and some enemies. All, at his 
 death, will pay the tribute that all truly great 
 citizens strive for-HE WAS SINCERE. 
 
 The "Post Express," of Rochester, said 
 editorially : 
 
 Mr. Van Voorhis was a man of great intensity 
 and made both friends and enemies with remark- 
 able ease. He was bold and vigorous m speech, 
 
 260 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 defied parliamentary usages and restraints, drove 
 straight at his mark, affected to care nothing for 
 the feelings of antagonists, made no objections 
 whatever to savage thrusts in return, and de- 
 lighted in intellectual conflict. It was inevitable 
 that he should fall into difficulties occasionally 
 in the heat of public debate, and that enemies 
 should rise up against him, in congress and out 
 of it. It is very doubtful, however, if these 
 enemies long cherished their resentment, and 
 probably all enmities created amid political strife 
 were forgotten long ago. It is certain that Mr. 
 Van Voorhis was always ready to forget and 
 forgive, and his last years were those of peace 
 and content. While he was active in public 
 affairs he made many friends, and these he 
 clung to with hooks of steel, was fond of their 
 companionship, and loved to serve them. 
 
 He was a successful lawyer, who permitted 
 nothing to sway him from the interests of his 
 clients. He believed in knock-down blows and 
 delighted to give and take. If he lacked diplo- 
 macy and suavity, he excelled in directness and 
 loyalty. During the later years of his life he 
 participated but rarely in legal battles, being con- 
 tent to watch them from afar; but to his last days 
 he was conspicuous as a friend of the Indians of 
 Western New York, appeared frequently in court 
 in their defense, joined heartily in the efforts to 
 protect them from the avaricious whites, visited 
 Washington in their interest, made arguments be- 
 fore the senate and house committees, kept his 
 old friends informed as to what was going on — 
 men like Allison, Teller, Hale, Hoar and Piatt of 
 Connecticut in the senate — and strove earnestly, 
 without thought of compensation or reward, to 
 protect the innocent from outrage and wrong. 
 His ceaseless effort in their behalf was character- 
 istic, for he loved justice, hated wrong, and 
 never dodged a fight. One of the fine features 
 of his character was that he never dealt a blow 
 in malice or harbored the slightest animosity 
 toward his opponents, either at the bar or in 
 politics. He was rugged and leonine in appear- 
 ance, but within beat a warm and loving heart. 
 
 Of him Charles E. Fitch, State Regent, 
 and for a long time editor of the "Demo- 
 crat and Chronicle," of Rochester, wrote 
 as follows: 
 
 A stalwart form is smitten. A strong heart 
 has ceased to beat. For fifty years he was a 
 leader at the bar; from the birth of the Repub- 
 lican party he was prominent in its councils, 
 
 honored by and honoring it; throughout he was 
 associated with the activities of this community. 
 If he may not be called great, he had the quali- 
 ties that inhere in greatness; he was direct in 
 purpose, candid in speech, resourceful and reso- 
 lute in act, unflinching in courage and generous 
 in success. If, in the heat of conflict in his 
 profession or in politics, he, who hated mean- 
 ness and abhorred hypocrisy was severe in ad- 
 dress, there lurked no malice in his thought, and 
 he cherished few resentments. He caused no 
 wound that he would not gladly heal. If he 
 made foes, he would resolve them into friends, 
 where no issue of principle was involved; and 
 he attached friends to him as by hooks of steel. 
 As he was self-reliant, he was also helpful. He 
 was one upon whom others leaned. Many are 
 they who will to-day note the kindly offices he 
 rendered them. 
 
 As a lawyer he was learned, skillful, assidu- 
 ous and absolutely devoted to the interest of 
 his clients. Confident in his case and assured 
 of its justice, apt in the trial and specially gifted 
 in the cross-examination of perverse or reluct- 
 ant witnesses, he gained many triumphs at nisi 
 prius, but it was in the appellate courts that 
 he chiefly excelled, for he knew the law and its 
 application, and seldom failed to turn victory 
 into defeat in the last review. 
 
 As a politician he believed in his party, be- 
 cause he believed in its principles. From devo- 
 tion to its creed he never swerved, as loyal to 
 it in its reverses as in its prosperities. For 
 years he labored for it zealously and indefatiga- 
 bly and without reward. In the maturity of his 
 years and the fullness of his power, he was 
 commissioned to represent his district in the 
 national congress, and no man ever represented 
 it more ably or faithfully than did he. In 
 speech never elaborate, in debate he was potent 
 and often crushing to his adversary. He exalted 
 his political faith and knew no compromise with 
 wrong. He made a national reputation for terse- 
 ness and vigor of utterance, and for integrity 
 in civil administration in accordance with the 
 leading of the party which redeemed the repub- 
 lic and accomplished its weal. And not less did 
 he serve his immediate constituency than the 
 country. Pensions for the veterans of the war, 
 needed appropriations for public improvements, 
 and the varied interests of his district testify to 
 his diligence. 
 
 In his retirement from public life, and in a 
 measure from the arduous duties of his profes- 
 sion, as the advancing years admonished him to 
 rest, he ripened into charming companionship 
 
 261 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 with all who came within the circle of his 
 acquaintance. In conversation he was fascinat- 
 ing drawing not only upon reminiscence, but 
 upon stores of literature with a knowledge of 
 which he was not generally credited. All aspen- 
 ties had ceased and all contests had ended. His 
 closing years were serene. He dies full of years 
 and of honors and it will be long before he will 
 be forgotten by the profession he adorned, the 
 country he served and the city in which he lived 
 so long. 
 
 Rev. S. Banks Nelson, D. D., paid a 
 beautiful tribute at the funeral exercises. 
 It was in part reported by the press as 
 follows : 
 
 John Van Voorhis is dead, but we need not 
 place a broken column on his grave. He was a 
 man who put the cap on his own column, and 
 then stepped off the superstructure into the 
 glorious hereafter. His life is some senses was 
 not even a broken arc. To him we may not 
 apply that old simile of a ship wrecked on the 
 shoals of time, a decrepit body and a mind ap- 
 proaching senility. For he raised anchor, hoist- 
 ed his pennant, and waving us adieu, sailed away 
 with his hand in that of his pilot. 
 
 Speaking of Mr. Van Voorhis's men- 
 tality, Mr. Nelson said : 
 
 He was keen and he was witty, but his wit 
 was so keen and polished that his blade never 
 bore away a heart sting and his bonmots sent 
 a ripple over the faces of his hearers. His very 
 dumbness as he lies here is eloquent and be- 
 speaks strength. No one ever thought of John 
 Van Voorhis without associating him with 
 strength. 
 
 When Mahomet died one of his followers 
 rushed out of the tent and drawing his sword 
 threatened to run it through any one who should 
 declare that Mahomet was dead. The Jews 
 could not believe that Elijah was dead; they 
 thought it impossible that any one so brave and 
 great could die. When Moses died they re- 
 fused to believe that he had passed away, not 
 deeming it possible that he could be dead for 
 more than a day. This is a thought that runs 
 throughout sacred history and a thought that 
 runs through profane history from the begin- 
 ning to the present day, and it is natural thought 
 that it is impossible for the great and good to 
 
 26 
 
 die. This universal instinct itself declares man's 
 immortality. 
 
 Leave John Van Voorhis out of the affairs of 
 the city of Rochester and what a different com- 
 plexion they would have. We are thankful 
 that he was sent as a representative of this dis- 
 trict to the federal government at Washington, 
 for we know that our affairs were looked after 
 by a man of character and principle. In the 
 church, too, his influence was felt. He believed 
 in the necessity of the Christian pulpit and was 
 an ardent friend of every faithful preacher of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 Dr. David J. Hill, United States Min- 
 ister to the Netherlands, on learning of 
 his death, paid a beautiful tribute to his 
 memory which reads in part as follows : 
 
 Once a friend always a friend, was his motto 
 so long as a man deserved his friendship. No 
 lawyer ever more unreservedly committed his 
 whole soul to the cause of his client, and it was 
 one of the secrets of his success. In the unre- 
 munerated good offices of private friendship it 
 was the same way. He believed in his cause, 
 he believed in his friends, he believed in the 
 triumph of right, and did all in his power to 
 promote it. In return, his friends believed in 
 him, and they never misplaced their faith. Sin- 
 cerity, loyalty, straightforwardness, unselfish- 
 ness —these are the qualities that shone in the 
 character of John Van Voorhis and made him 
 seem noble as well as true to those who really 
 knew him. This is the tribute I would lay upon 
 his grave,— Here sleeps the soul of loyalty. 
 
 SHAW, James Boylan, 
 
 Clergyman of Commanding Influence. 
 
 James Boylan Shaw was born August 
 25, 1808, in New York City. The Gaelic 
 significance of the name Shaw is sprightly, 
 proud or spirited. His father, James Scott 
 Shaw, was of Scotch-Irish birth, and was 
 a merchant in New York City, and for 
 some time high sheriff. The mother, 
 Margaret (Boylan) Shaw, was a woman 
 of great intelligence and deep piety, and 
 under her teachings the son was reared 
 to noble aspirations. He was of very 
 lively nature, the life of the circles of 
 
%».:®*. £n»r± 88. M 
 
 r/ffc 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 young people with whom he moved in 
 the city of his time, which then embraced 
 less than one hundred thousand popula- 
 iton. Through his father's position in the 
 community he enjoyed great social ad- 
 vantages, and his education was well 
 grounded. He was fitted for the sopho- 
 more class at Yale, but instead of enter- 
 ing college he began the study of medi- 
 cine, in which he spent one and one-half 
 years. This became distasteful to him, 
 and he took up the study of law, which 
 he pursued for more than two years, in 
 the office of the distinguished Irish pa- 
 triot, Thomas Addis Emmet, a brother of 
 the eloquent martyr to Irish liberty, 
 Robert Emmet. With brilliant prospects 
 as a lawyer, he abandoned all this when 
 he felt called to the Christian ministry. 
 At this time he was twenty years of age, 
 and at once began study to fit himself, 
 and was graduated from Auburn Theo- 
 logical Seminary in 1832. In February of 
 that year he was licensed to preach, and 
 for some time supplied the church at 
 Pompey Hill, Onondaga county, New 
 York. He was ordained by the Presby- 
 tery of Genesee in 1834, and for the suc- 
 ceeding five years was pastor of the Pres- 
 byterian church in Attica, New York. 
 For a short time he preached at Dunkirk, 
 and while attending a religious conven- 
 tion in Rochester, gave a sermon in the 
 Second Presbyterian Church of that city, 
 which afterwards came to be known as 
 the Brick Church. Within a few days he 
 received a call to be pastor of this church, 
 and began his work there December 1, 
 1840. On the 16th of February following, 
 he was formally installed as pastor, and 
 thus continued for nearly fifty years. In 
 early life he was not strong, and was 
 twice compelled to abandon his labors by 
 physical weakness. On the second of 
 these occasions he spent two years on the 
 shore of Lake Erie in recruiting. When 
 
 he went to Rochester the city had some 
 twenty thousand inhabitiants, and the 
 Second Church four hundred and forty- 
 five members. After an active pastorate 
 of forty-eight years he resigned his 
 charge, during which period the church 
 had grown to a membership of 1,510, and 
 the city attained a population of 135,000 
 people. During his pastorate the church 
 received 1,320 members on certificate, and 
 more than two thousand on confession. 
 On two or three occasions he was assisted 
 by noted revival preachers, and it was 
 remarkable that he was able to hold so 
 many of those who united with the 
 church under this influence. The con- 
 gregation soon became so large that it 
 was necessary to built a new home for it, 
 and the cornerstone of the new church 
 was laid July 3, i860. This was com- 
 pleted in June of the following year, at a 
 cost of $61,881.73. Of this sum, owing to 
 the financial conditions caused by the 
 Civil War, twenty-four thousand were 
 secured by loan. Through the efforts of 
 Dr. Shaw but little more than three years 
 were required to pay off this debt, and in 
 1887, through his personal efforts, $10,000 
 were collected to pay for an organ. Dur- 
 ing his pastorate the church contributed 
 for benevolent and charitable purposes 
 nearly $300,000. His influence and power 
 over not only his congregation, but the 
 people of the community, were of steady 
 growth. His kindly nature seemed to 
 draw all to him, and one biographer said 
 of him : "The 'sermon that he was' had 
 such a Gospel sweetness and inspiration 
 in it, that it drew out from those whom 
 he met, however rough and worldly, some 
 response of goodness. His heart was 
 stored, like a bee-hive, with this sweet- 
 ness of the good and kind deeds, which 
 had disclosed themselves to his eyes in 
 men accounted hardened and irreligious." 
 Early in life he received from the col- 
 
 263 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 lege of the Western Reserve the honorary- 
 degree of A. M., and in 1852 the Univer- 
 sity of Rochester gave him the degree of 
 D. D. He became a great influence in the 
 councils of the Presbyterian church, both 
 at home and abroad, and in 1873 was a 
 delegate to the General Assembly of the 
 Established Church of Scotland, where he 
 made an address, which was published in 
 Europe and America. This drew from 
 an Episcopalian clergyman of the same 
 name in Scotland, the following note : "I 
 liked your speech not only as the utterance 
 of a Presbyterian Doctor of Divinity, but 
 as that of a true man, and, if I mistake 
 not, a thorough Celt. The ring of the 
 sentences is much more Celtic than 
 Saxon. After this preface, may I beg 
 your acceptance of the accompanying 
 Memorials of the Clan to which I have 
 every reason to believe you belong." Dr. 
 Shaw was a member of the General As- 
 sembly which met in Philadelphia in 1837, 
 and which resulted in a division of the 
 Presbyterian church. This caused him 
 great sorrow, and he was indefatigable in 
 his labors to bring about a reunion of the 
 two factions. He was a member of the 
 joint committee of fifteen on reunion, 
 which, in 1869, after thirty years of sepa- 
 ration, brought the two assemblies to- 
 gether again. Before the reunion Dr. 
 Shaw had been elected by acclamation 
 moderator of the New-School Assembly 
 which met in Brooklyn in 1865. In 1880 
 he was made a representative of the 
 Presbyterian church in Pan-Presbyterian 
 Council held in Philadelphia, and was 
 elected a commissioner to the centennial 
 session of the General Assembly at Phila- 
 delphia in 1888, but was obliged to decline 
 on account of ill health. By advice of his 
 physician, Dr. Shaw resigned his pastor- 
 ate, April 17, 1887, and preached his clos- 
 ing sermon as active pastor December 4th 
 of that year. He was elected pastor emeri- 
 
 tus, and delivered the charge to the 
 people on the installation of his successor, 
 Rev. William R. Taylor, April 10, 1888. 
 He passed away at his home in Rochester, 
 May 8, 1890. 
 
 During the years between his resigna- 
 tion and his death, he continued, insofar 
 as his strength would permit, his works 
 of visitation among the sick and sorrow- 
 ing, took part in the services of his own 
 church, and was often called upon for 
 service in other churches of the city. To 
 the last he kept up his habit of early 
 rising, and when he was over eighty years 
 old he was still found at his study, nearly 
 a mile from his house, before eight o'clock 
 in the morning. At the close of the last 
 week when he was able to be out, nearly 
 two months preceding his death, he said 
 to his family, "Well, if I am sick, I have 
 just finished a new sermon, but it is the 
 last sermon I shall ever write." In his 
 "Reminiscences" before the Presbytery, 
 at St. Peter's Church, he said, in answer 
 to questions about his sermonizing habits, 
 "My family tell me that I am a 'regular 
 Irish stew.' As soon as I finish preach- 
 ing Sunday I commence casting about for 
 a subject for the next week, and I keep 
 on till I get hold of a subject or a subject 
 gets hold of me. By Tuesday or Wed- 
 nesday I generally get to writing, and I 
 generally work with the impression that 
 somebody or something is likely to inter- 
 rupt me at any moment. I feel like a 
 man trying to do something with the 
 sheriff looking over his shoulder. Still, 
 during all these years, I have never al- 
 lowed anything to interfere with my 
 preparation for the pulpit. I would not 
 neglect this if it became necessary to lock 
 myself in my room. I have expended 
 more labour on my sermons than on any- 
 things else, writing them all twice, first 
 with a pencil. An old sermon I have very 
 little use for. Men who preach old ser- 
 
 264 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 mons are generally shelved. I never took 
 as much pains with my sermons as now. 
 If the dictionary contains a shorter word 
 than the one I have written I want to 
 substitute it. My aim is to make the ser- 
 mons idiomatic. This is the reason the 
 children are able to go away and say, 
 'Why, I can understand Dr. Shaw's ser- 
 mons.' This I regard as the greatest com- 
 pliment a minister can receive." He said 
 once on coming home from his summer 
 vacation, that his two warmest welcomes 
 had been from the Jewish Rabbi and from 
 the Roman Catholic Bishop. 
 
 At the reception which was given him, 
 after his resignation, in Powers Hall, and 
 which was attended by representatives of 
 nearly every religious denomination in 
 the city, Bishop McQuaid said: "I think 
 of no other city in the United States 
 where we Catholics are so well treated 
 by the pulpit and the press. The fair 
 treatment which we have received in the 
 pulpits of the city is due largely to the 
 counsel and the word of Dr. Shaw. He 
 never felt that in proclaiming his own 
 views and religious doctrines, he was 
 obliged to send out bitter words against 
 any class in the community. He never 
 felt that he must use contemptuous epi- 
 thets in speaking of anyone. He always 
 felt that any man working for God and 
 Christ was a blessing to the community. 
 Sometimes the Celtic blood has stirred 
 within him, for like myself, the doctor is 
 an Irishman, but he has held these pas- 
 sions down and restrained himself from 
 flinging out harsh words at anyone." Dr. 
 Landsberg, too, of the St. Paul Street 
 Synagogue, said: "One of the first men 
 to welcome me in this city was the Rev. 
 Dr. Shaw. He has gained the admiration 
 and esteem of all with whom I am con- 
 nected. He has exercised a beautiful 
 liberalizing influence. It makes us all 
 happy when we meet him on the street." 
 
 On another occasion the Rev. Dr. Saxe, 
 the Universalist minister, himself one of 
 the oldest pastors in the city, spoke of 
 Dr. Shaw as "a man who mellows with 
 age and who is as preeminent for a sweet 
 and Christian-like spirit, as for the ex- 
 ceptional length and success of his pas- 
 torate, and whose sunset promises to be 
 more resplendent than his noon, truly 
 'the old man eloquent'." In his fortieth 
 anniversary sermon, preached in 1880 Dr. 
 Shaw said : "I am a younger man to-day 
 than I was forty years ago. True, I may 
 not be able to walk as far, or lift as much 
 as I once could, but if I can not walk as 
 far, with the wing which faith has lent 
 me I can soar higher ; and if I cannot lift 
 as much, I can trust more and my heart 
 can hold out longer. My heart does not 
 tire half as easily as it did forty years 
 ago." In his forty-sixth anniversary ser- 
 mon, he said, "I live in a wider world than 
 I did. I belong to a broader church than 
 I did. Now I can fellowship those who, 
 in my darker days, I wanted to keep on 
 their own side of the wall. I have the 
 free use of all the powers of my soul, and, 
 instead of living inside of a shell, the 
 Lord hath brought me into a 'large and 
 wealthy place'." 
 
 Dr. Shaw married (first) Miss Emily 
 Chase, of Auburn, and five of their chil- 
 dren survived him at his death, namely: 
 James Shaw, of Rochester ; William G. 
 Shaw, of New York ; Augustus C. Shaw, 
 pastor of the Presbyterian church of 
 Wellsboro, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Orlando 
 Merrill, of Louisiana; and Caroline, 
 widow of John West. He married 
 (second) Laura Rumsey, of Silver Creek, 
 New York, who preceded him in death, in 
 1885, leaving a daughter, Mary R. 
 
 A few of Dr. Shaw's expressions, found 
 in sermons, or remembered from associa- 
 ation with him, may be repeated here : 
 
 265 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 There is no dog so surly as a church dog. 
 The crookedness of the crooked stick is what 
 commends it to me. It is so crooked that it 
 cannot lie still. So after a while it takes itself 
 up and goes to some other place. We Presby- 
 terians have made ourselves think that the 
 Christian world, by and by, will open its mouth 
 wide and swallow the shorter and longer cate- 
 chisms and the confession of faith, swallow them 
 and keep them down. 
 
 The following is extracted from the 
 sermon delivered at Dr. Shaw's funeral 
 by the Rev. Herman C. Riggs, D. D. 
 
 The white-haired noble figure in which dwelt 
 the stately soul of this man of God has been 
 familiar in this church, and upon the streets and 
 in the homes of this city, for many years. Even 
 outwardly he was a marked man, to look into 
 whose face was a benediction, to feel the grasp 
 of whose hand was an inspiration. All his phy- 
 sical form and fashion bespoke the man of clean 
 and dignified thought, in whose character manly 
 beauty and strength had sweetest combination. 
 
 He was so human; whether strong or weak, 
 Far from his kind he neither sank nor soared, 
 But sate an equal guest at every board. 
 No beggar ever felt him condescend, 
 No prince presume; for still himself he bare 
 At manhood's simple level, and where'er 
 He met a stranger there he left a friend. 
 
 His mental qualities and gifts, too, were of 
 rare excellence. His intellectual power was not 
 of that brilliant sort which is so likely also to 
 be fictitious, but of that quiet and genuine sort 
 which most safely impresses men. He was char- 
 acterized by great variety and range of abilities, 
 reinforced by wide reading and careful cultiva- 
 tion. A lively imagination, a fine poetic sense, 
 a bubbling humour, a gentle good will, held 
 continual interplay with his logic in all the fer- 
 tile speech of his conversation and his preach- 
 ing. He was a writer of simple, vigorous, lumin- 
 ous English, with enough of the power of 
 thought in it to stimulate and feed the most 
 active mind, with so much of the power of sym- 
 pathy and truth in it that the dullest heart could 
 not but feel. He was a preacher, earnest, im- 
 pressive, eloquent; a safe teacher and guide of 
 men ; an ardent lover of truth, and as ardent a 
 despiser of sham; many sided, quick of thought, 
 ready in resources, alive to all the interests and 
 
 questions of the day, broad and liberal, while 
 staunchly loyal to the true and the right, one 
 who both hated all sin and loved every sinner 
 with all the power of his great nature. 
 
 And the underlying secret of this power in 
 preaching and in prayer, so permanently char- 
 acteristic of his ministry, was his own rich faith 
 as a Christian. He was the man of sincere piety 
 in all that this word can be made to mean. No 
 member of this congregation ever doubted this. 
 The most cynical critic in this community has 
 never been ably to doubt it. He who was most 
 ready to doubt others has been compelled to 
 confess that here, at least, was a genuine Chris- 
 tian man. Religion was the one great concern 
 with him. Heart and lips and life were full of it. 
 As perfectly as any man I ever knew he entered 
 into sympathy with Paul in his wonderful words, 
 "For me to live is Christ." It was thoroughly 
 and consciously a truth in his experience that 
 Christ was living in him, the animating prin- 
 ciple of a hidden, spiritual life made possible 
 and real to him through his own close personal 
 union with Christ. Of necessity, therefore, by 
 the constraints of the sweetest compulsion, he 
 was an active Christian. He loved to serve his 
 Master, and his fellow-men for the Master's 
 sake. 
 
 The esteem in which Dr. Shaw was 
 held by his contemporaries is shown by 
 the following extracts : 
 
 "Dr. Shaw belonged to all of us," said a prom- 
 inent Roman Catholic of the city. "God grant 
 you health and strength," said a priest who 
 wrote to him not long before his death, "to be 
 in the future as in the past a ray of sunlight and 
 happiness to us all." 
 
 From the "Rochester Union and Advertiser:" 
 For nearly half a century he was pastor of the 
 Brick Church in Rochester, and during that 
 long period he so bore himself within his own 
 communion, and toward those of whom he was 
 not, as to command the universal and most pro- 
 found respect and veneration of all. Entirely 
 free from guile, child-like in his simplicity, 
 charitable in the broadest sense of the term, 
 profound in thought, forcible though mild in 
 expression, always preaching and doing well — 
 Rev. Dr. Shaw was a lovable character who 
 challenged the admiration of every creed and 
 class, and whose departure from life is a loss not 
 merely to his own church, but to every other 
 
 266 
 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 church, and to the community without any refer- 
 ence to any church. With sincere sorrow the 
 "Union" mourns his death and marks it as an 
 event in the history of Rochester worthy of 
 commemoration. 
 
 From the "Rochester Democrat and Chron- 
 icle:" Full of years and crowned with the 
 honors that are accorded to deeds of beneficence, 
 the good pastor has gone to his reward. For 
 nearly fifty years he has been a part of the life 
 of this city, intimately associated with its ma- 
 terial progress, as well as its spiritual vitality. 
 His voice has been heard in favor of all goodly 
 enterprises. To one religious communion he has 
 been guide, friend and father. To its membership 
 he has broken the bread of life. He has baptized 
 their children, he has married their young men 
 and maidens, he has buried their dead. By them 
 he was loved, as it has been the privilege of few 
 men to be loved. Coming to them, in the flower 
 of his youth, they have seen his form begin to 
 totter and his locks to whiten, but each added 
 year increased the reverence with which he was 
 regarded and the sanctity in which he was held. 
 No closer earthly tie can be established than 
 those which unite a pastor to the people with 
 whom he has long been associated. Advancing 
 times does not corrode the links of such intimate 
 communion. It but brightens and strengthens 
 them. Under his leadership the Brick Presby- 
 terian Church became one of the largest and best 
 known of the churches in the denomination, dis- 
 tinguished for its harmony, the beauty and the 
 vigor of its life, and its constant and generous 
 charities. When, some two years ago, he resigned 
 his pastorate, one universal expression of regret 
 and sympathy accompanied him to his retirement, 
 and the prayer was most earnestly uttered that he 
 might be spared yet many years to commune with 
 his people if he could no longer serve as their 
 pastor. 
 
 But not alone was he cherished by those whom 
 he especially served. He was known and honored 
 and loved by this entire community. He was a 
 good citizen and an earnest patriot. Naturally 
 conservative, his mind still yielded to the persua- 
 sion of new truth, in the realms of philosophy, of 
 science and of theology. A firm champion of his 
 own faith, he could see the truth that was in 
 other creeds, and, above all divisions of sects, he 
 trusted in the wisdom and mercy of the All 
 Father. In our streets and in our houses his 
 presence was as sunshine, and his greeting was 
 benediction. He identified himself with our in- 
 terests, and no good cause suffered from his 
 
 apostasy. He believed that religion was made for 
 everyday use, and not for conventional occasions 
 — that it was serviceable for time, as well as for 
 eternity. He labored for his country and for his 
 God. There have been greater men than he — 
 and, in his modesty, he never assumed superiority 
 — but there have been few purer, or better, or 
 nobler men. His memory will long abide here, 
 as that of one who, through goodness, became 
 great, and left behind him an abiding influence. 
 Rochester will long mourn as she has long es- 
 teemed, James Boylan Shaw. 
 
 From the "Rochester Post-Express" : There 
 was no man in this community more loved, and 
 the grief will be general; but it will be tempered 
 by the thought that he who has gone wrought 
 faithfully and fruitfully during the span of his 
 lengthened years and left behind him not only the 
 far-reaching results of his labors as a clergyman, 
 but the example of a noble life and the memory 
 of a beautiful character. Dr. Shaw was success- 
 ful as a pastor in a material way. He so com- 
 manded the love and confidence of his people as 
 to build up one of the strongest churches in his 
 denomination. It was under his guidance ever 
 active, liberal, and harmonious. He had the tact 
 requisite for the control of so great a congrega- 
 tion; but he never had to compromise his dignity, 
 his purity, or his integrity to preserve his popu- 
 larity. He was clearly a strong, determined man, 
 as nature made him; but either a softer touch of 
 nature or a Divine grace put into him a strange 
 power of love and sympathy ; and it was probably 
 that that gave him his wonderful influence. He 
 was a man loyal to his own creed, but tolerant of 
 the creeds of others ; and his weight was cast for 
 cooperation in Christian endeavor, not for con- 
 troversy. He was not perhaps a great preacher, 
 but he was a sincere and interesting one, with a 
 fine manner, a winning voice, and a quaint tone. 
 He seldom missed making a point with an audi- 
 ence and making it simply and easily. Above all 
 he was one of that small class of speakers — the 
 men who know when to stop. He had the dis- 
 cretion not to spoil an effect when he had attained 
 it, and surprised his hearers by ceasing, not by 
 proceeding with a discourse. The power to make 
 himself regretted in this way is the last given to 
 an orator; and many even among great orators 
 never receive it 
 
 The Methodist Ministers of the Rochester Dis- 
 trict : Whereas, the Rev. James B. Shaw, D. D., 
 for forty-seven years active pastor and for the 
 last two years emeritus pastor of the Brick Pres- 
 byterian Church of this city, has been removed 
 
 267 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 from our midst by death, we deem it our duty 
 and privilege to give formal expression to our 
 sentiments and feelings on the occasion ; there- 
 fore, 
 
 Resolved, That in the decease of Dr. Shaw we 
 realize that a prince and a great man has fallen 
 in Israel. We submit to the inevitable, and offer 
 sincere thanks to God for the gift of such a man 
 and Christian minister to our city and to the 
 Christian world — a man so distinguished for 
 board catholicity of spirit, for sweet gentleness 
 and beneficence of temper, for genial social ameni- 
 ties, for wonderful genius and success as a pas- 
 tor, for distinguished talents as a preacher of 
 the gospel, for lofty patriotism as an American 
 citizen ; and we are thankful that he was spared 
 to fill to completeness the orb of a life so perfect 
 as an example to others, so replete with devoted 
 Christian service to the world. 
 
 Resolved, That while we approvingly and ad- 
 miringly have found in Dr. Shaw a loyal son of 
 the Presbyterian church, heartily and zealously 
 devoted to the building up of his own denomina- 
 tion as the most effective means of advancing the 
 kingdom of Christ amongst man, yet we claim 
 him as a brother beloved, whose generous catho- 
 licity of faith transcended all denominational 
 boundaries and distinctions, and made him a 
 glorious witness for the Christ "who is head over 
 all things to the church, which is his body, the 
 fulness of him that filleth all things." 
 
 The Genesee Baptist Ministerial Association : 
 Resolved, That we express our deep appreciation 
 of his long and loving labors in the church of his 
 faith and fathers, that we testify to his Christ- 
 like life, that we acknowledge his personal worth 
 and work and that we extend to his church and 
 family our sincere sympathy in this hour of their 
 sorrow. 
 
 MILES, William Emmert, 
 
 Leading Contractor and Manufacturer. 
 
 Everywhere in our land men have been 
 found who have worked their way from 
 humble beginnings to places of high 
 esteem in the material, civic and social 
 world, and it has ever been one of the 
 proudest boasts of our fair country that 
 such men are accounted of thousandfold 
 more worth and value to the common- 
 wealth than the aristocrat with his in- 
 
 herited wealth, position and distinguished 
 name. Thus it was with the late William 
 Emmert Miles, of Rochester, New York, 
 for years one of the best known and most 
 progressive business men of Monroe 
 county, New York. He is remembered as 
 a man of great energy and rare judgment, 
 qualities he carried into all affairs in 
 which he was interested. He possessed 
 a high degree of intelligence, few of his 
 compeers excelling him in the possession 
 of a fund of general information, which, 
 coupled with his amiable disposition and 
 companionable manner, made him one of 
 the most successful and popular men in 
 the city. He was indeed a manly man, 
 and the honor and esteem in which he was 
 held by all who came in contact with him, 
 whether in a business, public or social 
 way, was but the just tribute to his worth. 
 His parents were William and Catherine 
 (Emmert) Miles, who settled at Victor, 
 Ontario county, New York, being among 
 the pioneer settlers in that region. Sub- 
 sequently they removed to Maryland, 
 making that their home. 
 
 William Emmert Miles was born in 
 Rochester, Monroe county, New York, 
 April 6, 1830, and died at his home in 
 Rochester, New York, August 2, 1899. 
 Until the age of sixteen years he attended 
 schools in the vicinity of his home, then, 
 feeling himself well equipped for the 
 battle of life, entered upon his business 
 career in the employ of his brother, who 
 was a contractor. He continued with him 
 for some time but, while he was still a 
 minor, the "gold fever" of 1849 broke out, 
 and young Miles, who was ambitious and 
 energetic far beyond his years, embraced 
 this opportunity of seeing something of 
 the world, and sailing around Cape Horn, 
 made his way to California in that year. 
 He lost no time in accepting various 
 positions which gave the opportunity to 
 work at the trade in which he was pro- 
 
 268 
 

 G^ 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ficient, and after he had followed this for 
 a short time, he established himself in 
 business independently, and so successful 
 were his methods, and so favorably was 
 his reliable work commented upon, that 
 he became one of the leading contractors 
 in that section of the country, and ex- 
 ecuted some of the most important con- 
 tracts of the period, among them being 
 the State House in Olympia, Washing- 
 ton, which is still standing. Gold mining 
 also occupied a considerable portion of 
 his time, and between this and contract 
 work, the sixteen years he passed in the 
 Far West were not alone busy ones, but 
 they were also attended by a marked de- 
 gree of pecuniary success. 
 
 At last a desire to return to the home 
 of his earlier days seized Mr. Miles, and 
 disposing of his business interests in the 
 west, he set his face eastward and re- 
 turned to Rochester, the scene of his for- 
 mer activities. Naturally he found con- 
 ditions had changed in the east as well as 
 in the west, but it did not take him long 
 to become accustomed to changed con- 
 ditions, and he established a large factory 
 for the manufacture of sash, doors and 
 blinds, the capital he had accumulated in 
 the west enabling him to carry on his 
 operations in the east on an extensive 
 scale. His plant was located on Aque- 
 duct street for a number of years, and 
 when it was destroyed by fire, Mr. Miles, 
 in association with his brother, purchased 
 land on Water street, and there built a 
 large factory. This was equipped in the 
 most modern manner for that period, and 
 their output was of the highest standard 
 of its class. In consequence, their busi- 
 ness reached extensive proportions, and 
 Mr. Miles was actively identified with it 
 until a few months prior to his death in 
 1899. Business advertising was an almost 
 unknown factor in those days, but in any 
 case it would have been unnecessary for 
 
 these wares to be advertised, as their ex- 
 cellent quality was their best and suffi- 
 cient advertisement. In political matters 
 Mr. Miles gave his ardent support to the 
 Democratic party, but was never desirous 
 of holding public office. 
 
 Mr. Miles married. May 29, 1873, Cora 
 Booth, born November 16, 1847, a daugh- 
 ter of Ezra B. and Hannah L. (Alworth) 
 Booth, the former born in Vermont, the 
 latter's parents coming to Rochester at 
 an early day from their home in Dutchess 
 county, New York. Of the six children 
 of Mr. and Mrs. Miles three died in in- 
 fancy, the others being: Edward B., who 
 was graduated from the Dental College in 
 Baltimore, is now practicing his profes- 
 sion in Rochester ; Catherine L., now Mrs. 
 Chauncy C. Clark, of Rochester and Mrs. 
 Ruth H. Witherspoon, also of Rochester. 
 The life of Mr. Miles was filled with 
 good deeds and kindly thoughts, and all 
 who knew him entertained for him the 
 highest regard by reason of his upright, 
 honorable career. Those who were per- 
 mitted to be closely associated with him 
 felt it was a privilege, for they felt the 
 power of his strong personality, the un- 
 failing strength of his well balanced 
 nature and the stimulus of his example in 
 many ways. He was a great man in the 
 well rounded and sterling qualities of 
 his character, as well as in the more 
 concrete sphere of business activities, and 
 in his death the community suffered an 
 irreparable loss. 
 
 CRAIG, Oscar, 
 
 Lawyer, Public Official. 
 
 Among the men who achieved promi- 
 nence in the legal profession, residents of 
 New York State, must be mentioned the 
 late Oscar Craig, who was born in Me- 
 dina, Orleans county, New York, Novem- 
 ber 14, 1836, son of Joseph and Elizabeth 
 
 269 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 (Herring) Craig, both deceased. Joseph 
 Craig was one of the general merchants 
 of Medina for a number of years, later 
 removing to Monroe county, New York, 
 settling on a farm in the vicinity of 
 Brockport, which he cultivated and im- 
 proved. His closing years were spent in 
 Brockpoi t, where he died, honored and 
 respected by all with whom he was 
 brought in contact. 
 
 Oscar Craig attended the public schools 
 of his native town, completing his studies 
 at the age of seventeen years, and then, 
 having decided upon the profession of 
 law for his lifework, went to Schenectady, 
 New York, and matriculated in Union 
 College, graduating therefrom in 1856, 
 after two years of study, whereupon he 
 returned to Medina and placed himself 
 under the preceptorship of a Mr. Ser- 
 vous, of Medina, with whom he remained 
 for a short time, and then entered the 
 office of a Mr. Parker in Buffalo as a law 
 student, remaining there for three years, 
 and in 1859 changed his place of resi- 
 dence to Rochester, and there concluded 
 his course with Judge Strong. For a 
 short period of time he practiced with 
 Judge Strong, and later opened an office 
 in the Powers Building, where he was 
 engaged in a general practice for several 
 years. Accepting the position of attorney 
 for the Monroe County Savings Bank, he 
 moved his office to that building and was 
 the local representative of that institu- 
 tion for several years. His private prac- 
 tice steadily increased year by year, he 
 being entrusted with cases of the great- 
 est importance, which he handled in a 
 masterly manner, thus displaying the 
 thorough mastery he had of legal knowl- 
 edge and his familiarity with the prin- 
 ciples of jurisprudence in various depart- 
 ments. He was ever the student, keeping 
 abreast with the modern thought along 
 the line of his work, and his client's in- 
 
 terests were ever uppermost in his 
 thoughts and actions, he never neglecting 
 any duty in the preparation of a case or 
 in its presentation in the court room. He 
 was highly regarded by his professional 
 brethren, and ranked as one of the lead- 
 ing lawyers of Rochester. He was the 
 attorney who drew up the bill for the 
 transfer of the inmates of the Poor House 
 to the State Hospital. 
 
 Mr. Craig was a man of charitable and 
 philanthropic ideas, always interested in 
 every project that had for its object the 
 betterment of mankind, and was actively 
 connected with the State Board of Chari- 
 ties, serving as president of the same for 
 fourteen years, up to the time of his death, 
 the appointment being made by Gov- 
 ernor Cornell. In politics he acted inde- 
 pendently, casting his ballot for the can- 
 didate whom he considered best qualified 
 for office, irrespective of party affiliation. 
 He was an active and consistent member 
 of the First Presbyterian Church, of 
 Rochester, in which he served as elder, 
 also assisting in the work of the various 
 societies connected therewith, and of 
 which his wife was also a faithful member. 
 
 Mr. Craig married, in 1861, Helen M. 
 Chatfield, of New York City, a daughter 
 of Levi S. Chatfield, who was also a 
 prominent attorney and resided for sev- 
 eral years in Otsego county, New York, 
 after which he removed to New York 
 City. Prior to that time he was made 
 Attorney-General for the State and acted 
 in that capacity for four years. He resided 
 in New York City several years, after 
 which he retired from active practice, 
 making his home in Elizabeth, New Jer- 
 sey, where his death occurred in 1884. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Craig resided at No. 33 
 South Washington street, Rochester, the 
 house, erected in 1816, being one of the 
 oldest residences of the city, a landmark 
 which for almost a century has been a 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 silent witness of the growth of Rochester 
 and the changes which have brought 
 about its present conditions. There Mr. 
 Craig died, January 2, 1894, and there his 
 widow still resides. This brief resume 
 of Mr. Craig's career proves conclusively 
 that his name is entitled to mention in 
 the list of the prominent men, now de- 
 ceased, of Rochester. 
 
 Memorial adopted by the Rochester 
 bar, January 6, A. D. 1894: 
 
 The members of the Rochester Bar who are 
 now assembled, desire to make public expression 
 of their common feeling of sorrow that the 
 useful, stainless and honored life of Oscar Craig 
 has been closed by a too early death. 
 
 Absolutely without selfishness, he devoted the 
 last and best years of that life to the painful and 
 unrewarded service of the State and its unfortu- 
 nate and degraded classes, and sacrificing it thus 
 upon the altar of humanity he hastened by many 
 years the event which now has removed from us 
 the noble and gentle character that none could 
 know without admiration and affection. 
 
 WILDER, George, 
 
 Financier, Ideal Citizen. 
 
 Versatile in his talents, a man of cul- 
 ture and refinement, strong business 
 ability, and of sympathetic and chari- 
 table nature, George Wilder lived a life 
 that was a blessing to all with whom he 
 came in contact and an honor to the city 
 in which his entire life was spent. For 
 twenty-three years he was connected 
 with the banking interests of Rochester, 
 twenty-one of these years being spent 
 with the Central Bank as cashier and 
 vice-president. He was a financier of rare 
 ability and was recognized as one in 
 whose integrity it was safe to confide, 
 whose advice was grounded on knowl- 
 edge and experience. It is unusual to 
 find qualities that make the able financier 
 combined with an artistic temperament, 
 but Mr. Wilder was an enthusiastic 
 
 patron of musical art and a cultured 
 musician as well, freely joining with his 
 dramatic ability in the presentation of 
 light operas and musical entertainments 
 given by the Festival Chorus. He was 
 generous in his giving, no worthy cause 
 failing to secure his support. He was 
 identified closely with the church and 
 socially was very popular. Few men 
 whose tastes and activities were so diver- 
 sified ever attained more favored stand- 
 ing in their community, and none left a 
 record of a more useful, successful life. 
 
 George Wilder was born in Rochester, 
 January 24, 1863, died at his home in 
 Brighton, a suburb four miles distant, 
 October 13, 1909, son of Samuel Wilder, 
 a pioneer dry goods merchant of Roches- 
 ter and owner of the Wilder Building. 
 George Wilder after thorough courses 
 in preparatory schools, entered the Uni- 
 versity of Rochester, whence he was 
 graduated A. B., class of 1885. 
 
 In 1886 he entered the employ of 
 the Traders' Bank and from that date 
 until his death was identified with finan- 
 cial institutions in Rochester. He spent 
 two years as clerk in the Traders' Bank, 
 leaving that institution to become 
 cashier of the newly organized Central 
 Bank. From 1888 until 1899 he continued 
 as cashier, then was elected vice-presi- 
 dent, remaining in that office until re- 
 moved by death. He was also a director 
 of the Rochester Trust & Safe Deposit 
 Company, director of the Aristo Com- 
 pany, of New York, and of the Pfaudler 
 Company. Able and conservative, yet 
 progressive in spirit, he was the ideal 
 banker, avoiding all pitfalls that often 
 entrap the unwary financier, yet strong 
 and ready to lend his support to those 
 legitimate enterprises that look to banks 
 and bankers for financial aid. He was a 
 recognized force in financial circles and 
 was held in high esteem among the men 
 
 271 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 who have made Rochester famous for its life, after securing a full technical educa- 
 
 sound financial and manufacturing 
 houses. 
 
 Far removed from the world of finance 
 is musical art, yet Mr. Wilder was closely 
 connected with Rochester's musical life. 
 He was generous in his contributions and 
 with the best artists of the city took 
 personal part in the programs rendered 
 by the Festival Chorus and aided largely 
 in the success of that organization. Him- 
 self a vocal musician of ability, he sang 
 with the chorus in a series of light operas 
 given in aid of city charities. He was a 
 lifelong member of Christ Protestant 
 Episcopal Church and took a deep inter- 
 est in the many activities sustained by 
 that church. He was fond of open air 
 recreation and was an active member of 
 the Genesee Valley and Country clubs. 
 He aided in the work performed by the 
 Rochester Chamber of Commerce and in 
 every way that seemed to him good 
 worked for the upbuilding of the com- 
 mercial interests of his native city. His 
 generous nature responded to every call 
 of charity and in a private way he aided 
 many men to better things. Death came 
 to him suddenly, and on October 15, 1909, 
 he was laid at rest in Mount Hope 
 Cemetery. 
 
 Mr. Wilder married, February 14, 
 1900, Lillian, daughter of Alexander 
 Lafayette and Sarah Augusta (Prouty) 
 Chew, the former named born in New 
 Orleans, but an early resident of Geneva, 
 New York. Their children are : George, 
 Helen Beverly, and Alexander Lafayette 
 Chew. 
 
 BREWSTER, Harry Langdon, 
 
 Enterprising Business Man. 
 
 A descendant of "Elder" Brewster, the 
 Puritan, of New England parentage, but 
 born in New York, Mr. Brewster in early 
 
 tion, located in the city of Rochester, 
 there achieving remarkable success and 
 contributing largely to the commercial 
 importance of his adopted city. In this 
 day of blazing thoroughfares and bril- 
 liantly lighted buildings it is difficult to 
 conceive that the tallow dip and kerosene 
 burning lamp have only been displaced 
 during the lifetime of even the present 
 middle-aged, but such is the fact, and to 
 Mr. Brewster Rochester owes the intro- 
 duction of the first incandescent globes 
 made by Thomas A. Edison for electric 
 lighting purposes. Furthermore, he 
 organized and successfully managed the 
 first electric light company in the city. 
 With the merging of the city's lighting 
 interests he passed out of prominence in 
 that department of the city's utilities, to 
 achieve equal success in other fields of 
 activity along electric lines. 
 
 A man of remarkably excellent judg- 
 ment in business matters his advice was 
 sought and followed by his many friends. 
 He was prompt and energetic in business 
 and conscientiously performed not only 
 the letter but the spirit of his obligations. 
 Kindly and generous in nature he was the 
 center of a very large circle of friends 
 but it was in the family circle that he 
 found his greatest pleasure. During his 
 later years he traveled extensively in this 
 country and abroad, accompanied by his 
 wife and daughter. 
 
 Harry Langdon Brewster was born in 
 New York City and died at his home, No. 
 408 East avenue, Rochester, New York, 
 November 1, 1910. He was the second 
 son of William W. and Julia (Noyes) 
 Brewster, and grandson of Elisha and 
 Eunice (Hull) Brewster, a descendant in 
 direct male line from Elder William 
 Brewster, the Pilgrim and Puritan. He 
 attended city schools, completing his 
 studies at the Polytechnic School of New 
 
 272 
 
I ■. 
 
 S ft /' r/r/'' // ■ /j/'rf/ .>//■ /• 
 
 r 1/ s r/ / / r/ 
 

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 York City, whence he was graduated at 
 the age of twenty years. He at once 
 located in Rochester and until his death 
 was prominent in the business life of that 
 city. Early in his business career he made 
 the acquaintance of Thomas A. Edison 
 and through him became interested in 
 Mr. Edison's new discovery of incandes- 
 cent globes for lighting by electricity. 
 He became deeply interested and with 
 clear foresight at once realized the vast 
 field the invention opened to capital. He 
 organized the Edison Electric Light 
 Company, the first company of its kind 
 in Rochester, secured franchises, and as 
 director, secretary and manager success- 
 fully controlled the company until its 
 merger with the present lighting and 
 railway interests. These incandescent 
 globes introduced by Mr. Brewster were 
 the first used in the city. He was active 
 in the affairs of the Niagara Gas & Elec- 
 tric Company, and for eight years was 
 the efficient president of the company, 
 but in 1903 disposed of his interests. 
 For several years he was director of the 
 Federal Telegraph & Telephone Company 
 of Buffalo, and was closely identified 
 with other important Rochester enter- 
 prises including the Vogt Manufactur- 
 ing Company, the Judson Pin Company, 
 and the Judson Power Company. In all 
 these his strong administrative power and 
 business strength were amply demon- 
 strated and no enterprise with which he 
 was connected but profited through his 
 ability. 
 
 He was a long time member of the 
 First Baptist Church, and was a member 
 of its board of trustees for many years. 
 While in no sense a "club man" Mr. 
 Brewster was a member of the Genesee 
 Valley and Rochester Country clubs and 
 of the Republican Club of New York 
 City. Social and genial in nature he made 
 many friends and thoroughly enjoyed 
 
 the society of his fellow-men, but his 
 country home in North Carolina and his 
 city home in Rochester were chosen 
 resorts in which he spent his hours "off 
 duty." Death came to him after a brief 
 illness and now after life's "fitful fever," 
 he sleeps in Mount Hope Cemetery. 
 
 Mr. Brewster married Harriet J., 
 youngest daughter of Junius and Lavenda 
 (Bushnell) Judson, whose splendid lives 
 are recorded elsewhere in this work. 
 Mrs. Brewster inherits the womanly 
 charms and graces of her sainted mother, 
 with the strong characteristics of her 
 honored father. She is a social leader 
 and in church and charity bears the part 
 the Judsons have ever borne. At her 
 beautiful home in Rochester with her 
 only daughter, Gwendolen J. Brewster, 
 she dispenses a charming hospitality. 
 The culture that comes from education 
 and travel in many lands is hers and in 
 the daughter's personality the sterling 
 Judson traits are perpetuated. 
 
 HARRIS, Edward, 
 
 Lawyer, Man of Affairs. 
 
 The profession of the law, when clothed 
 with its true dignity and purity and 
 strength, must rank first among the call- 
 ings of men, for law rules the universe. 
 The work of the legal profession is to 
 formulate, to harmonize, to regulate, to 
 adjust, to administer those rules and prin- 
 ciples that underlie and permeate all 
 government and society and control the 
 varied relations of men. As thus viewed 
 there attaches to the legal profession a 
 nobleness that cannot but be reflected in 
 the life of the true lawyer who, conscious 
 of the greatness of his profession and 
 honest in the pursuit of his purpose, 
 embraces the richness of learning, the 
 profoundness of wisdom, the firmness of 
 integrity and the purity of morals, to- 
 
 N Y— Vol 11—18 
 
 273 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 gether with the graces of modesty, cour- 
 tesy and the general amenities of life. 
 The late Edward Harris, a veteran lawyer 
 of Rochester, New York, was certainly a 
 type of this class of lawyers, and as such 
 he stood among the most eminent mem- 
 bers of the bar in the State. His was a 
 noble character, one that subordinated 
 personal ambition to public good, and 
 sought rather the benefit of others than 
 the aggrandizement of self. Endowed by 
 nature with high intellectual qualities, his 
 was a most attractive personality. With- 
 out the advantages which arise from high 
 educational training in early youth, and 
 the still further benefits of a college 
 course, Mr. Harris rose through his per- 
 sonal ability which lifted him above all 
 disadvantages. 
 
 Edward Harris was born in Morton 
 Corbit, Shawbury, Shropshire, England, 
 March 24, 1835, an ^ died after an illness 
 of a few hours' duration at the home of 
 his daughter, Mrs. William E. Sloan, No. 
 125 East avenue, Rochester, New York, 
 September 16, 191 1. His parents, Henry 
 and Ann (Webb) Harris, were English 
 tenant farmers, descended from that 
 sturdy English yeomanry which has been 
 noted in the history of that country. His 
 early life did not differ from that of other 
 boys in his class, but he early showed his 
 determination to make his way in the 
 world by his earnest desire to acquire an 
 education, which he accomplished by 
 walking each day to Grinshill, a small 
 village three miles away from his home, 
 and there attended the public school, a 
 course he pursued diligently until he was 
 fifteen years of age, when the oppressive 
 Corn Laws of England, combined with 
 other circumstances, made it necessary 
 for the family to retrench in various ways. 
 In family council it was decided that it 
 would be worth while to investigate 
 conditions in the New World, and accord- 
 
 ingly, in 1849, Joseph Harris, an elder 
 brother of Edward Harris, and James 
 Harris, a cousin, were sent to America 
 to make personal investigation. Upon 
 their arrival in New York they heard 
 much in favor of the agricultural advan- 
 tages offered by the western section of 
 the State, and at once took the packet up 
 to Albany, and thence traveled by rail- 
 road to Rochester, where they found 
 conditions even better than had been 
 represented to them. The eloquent 
 reports they despatched to their home 
 decided Henry Harris to come to America 
 with his family, which he did in 1850, 
 bringing eight of his ten children, his son 
 Joseph having preceded him as above 
 stated, and one son remaining in England. 
 They sailed from Liverpool in the 
 schooner "London," making the voyage 
 to New York in exactly one month, which 
 was an excellent record for that period. 
 In a letter written by Edward Harris, 
 and which is still one of the prized pos- 
 sessions of the family, he recounts some 
 of the incidents of this voyage, among 
 these being the fact that they were 
 obliged to act as their own commissary 
 department, the ships of that day sup- 
 plying bare transportation and nothing 
 else. They spent no time in the city of 
 New York, where they were landed at 
 the old Castle Garden, later the scene 
 of the triumphs of the celebrated Jenny 
 Lind, and now converted into use as the 
 New York Aquarium, but made the jour- 
 ney to Rochester as quickly as the travel- 
 ing facilities of those days would permit. 
 Upon their arrival at Rochester they were 
 met by the son and nephew, and they and 
 their baggage were loaded on hay racks 
 and driven to a point near the location of 
 the present Snow estate, near Gates, and 
 there Henry Harris bought a small farm. 
 Edward Harris worked on the farm for 
 one year, then commenced to work inde- 
 
 274 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 pendently to make his fortune, being well 
 equipped for this undertaking by having 
 a sound mind in a sound body. It is but 
 nautral that he should seek his fortune in 
 the nearest town of importance, Roches- 
 ter, and his subsequent career amply 
 proved the wisdom of this decision. After 
 considerable search he found employment 
 in the office of Henry Ives, an attorney 
 of growing reputation. The duties of 
 Edward Harris were to sweep out the 
 office, and keep it in proper order, and to 
 run errands for which he received the 
 magnificent compensation of one dollar 
 per week and the privilege of spending 
 his spare time in reading law. That he 
 wasted no moment in idleness is shown 
 by the fact that at the end of six years 
 the ambitious office boy had become a 
 practicing attorney, while he still retained 
 his connection with his first employer. 
 The very difficulties with which he had 
 been obliged to contend had developed 
 in him a power of concentration which 
 enabled him to accomplish apparent 
 wonders, and this was soon recognized 
 throughout the city. He was elected 
 counsel for the Rochester Savings Bank 
 in 1870, and in 1879 was elected attorney 
 of the bank to succeed Isaac Hill. Each 
 year brought additional success and 
 achievements of more note and greater 
 importance, so that his fame as an attor- 
 ney became a widespread one, no longer 
 confined to local matters. He was made 
 attorney for the New York Central Rail- 
 road Company, of which one of his sons, 
 Albert H. Harris, is now general counsel 
 and vice-president. Mr. Harris formed 
 a partnership with his son, Albert H., 
 in 1882 under the style of Harris & 
 Harris. Daniel M. Beach and Edward 
 Harris, Jr , were admitted to membership 
 in the firm on the first day of January, 
 1905, and in the spring of that year Albert 
 H. Harris became general attorney of 
 
 the New York Central Railroad and 
 removed to New York City. On the 
 first day of March, 1907, James S. Havens 
 was admitted to partnership and the firm 
 name changed to Harris, Havens, Beach 
 & Harris. Willis A. Matson and Samuel 
 M. Havens became members of the firm 
 on the first day of April, 191 1, and the 
 partnership thus constituted continued to 
 Mr. Harris' death. Mr. Harris was 
 honored and respected by his associates 
 in all classes of society, and many were 
 the tokens of varied character presented 
 to him. At the annual dinner of the 
 board of trustees of the Rochester Sav- 
 ings Bank, held at the Genesee Valley 
 Club, January 16, 1910, a magnificent 
 silver loving cup was presented to Mr. 
 Harris in commemoration of his election 
 as a member of the board forty years 
 previously. Until within a few hours of 
 his death Mr. Harris attended to his 
 business affairs as usual, his death being 
 caused by paralysis of the throat. 
 
 Mr. Harris married, in i860, Emma 
 Louise Hall, who died November 27, 
 1905, a daughter of the Rev. Albert Gal- 
 latin Hall, at that time pastor of the 
 Third Presbyterian Church. He is sur- 
 vived by two daughters, Elizabeth H. 
 Brewster and Emily H. Sloan, of Roches- 
 ter; and three sons, Albert H., of New 
 York ; Francis J., of Canandaigua ; and 
 Edward, Jr., of Rochester; two sisters, 
 Mrs. Sarah Ives and Mrs. Harriet Turner, 
 'of Rochester; and many grandchildren. 
 Many were the resolutions tendered and 
 the editorials printed in memory of Mr. 
 Harris, but the limits of this article will 
 not permit the reproduction of all. Those 
 submitted will, however, show the con- 
 sensus of public opinion. 
 
 At a meeting of the Rochester Bar As- 
 sociation, held to take action on the death 
 of Mr. Harris, Justice Nathaniel Foote 
 said in part : 
 
 275 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Mr. Harris has been for some years the Nestor 
 of our bar. A premonition of his physical 
 trouble which caused his death led him some 
 three or four years ago to withdraw from the 
 more active duties of his profession, and to limit 
 his work to consultation with his partners and 
 clients, and to the supervision of a part of the 
 work of his office. He gave up almost entirely 
 the trial of cases and the argument of appeals in 
 which he had been so active and successful 
 throughout his long and distinguished career. 
 This was by advice of his physician, and the wish 
 of his family and associates. He retained, how- 
 ever, to the last his mental vigor unimpaired. 
 
 His death is especially sad and impressive to 
 me, not only because I esteemed him as a friend 
 and greatly admired his unique and unusual 
 ability as a lawyer, but he was almost the last 
 survivor of those in active practice at the time I 
 became a member of this bar in 1874. Mr. 
 Harris' eminently successful career at the bar 
 affords a striking example of what may be ac- 
 complished in our profession by industry and in- 
 tegrity, without the aid of a superior education, 
 or the help or influence of relatives or friends. 
 Mr. Harris had the advantage of physical health, 
 and a mind adapted to grasp and apply readily 
 legal principles and rules, otherwise his success 
 was due entirely to his unaided efforts, and to the 
 high character which he had and which he de- 
 veloped in his daily life. 
 
 Mr. Harris was greatly trusted by his clients, 
 so much so, that I presume it may be said that 
 the importance and value of the interests en- 
 trusted to him by his clients to safeguard and 
 defend, were perhaps greater in the aggregate 
 than to any one of his contemporaries at this bar. 
 He had peculiar and unusual ability to put what 
 he had to say or write into the smallest number 
 of necessary words, and thus his pleadings, con- 
 tracts and briefs were models of clear, accurate 
 and concise statements. This but reflected the 
 clearness in his own mind of the essentials of the 
 matter he was to deal with, obtained by long 
 study and investigation. 
 
 He was also a great authority and expert upon 
 real estate titles in this region, and his work in 
 detecting and correcting defects in the records of 
 titles, has been of the highest importance and 
 value to the present as well as future owners. 
 Our County Clerk's office contains, and will pre- 
 serve a record of so much of the work of his long 
 years of practice at this bar. The validity of a 
 great number of real estate titles depends upon 
 
 the accuracy and intelligence with which that 
 work has been done. I think all will agree that 
 none has surpassed, and few have equalled, the 
 high grade of his work of this kind. It was a 
 work of great importance and value to his clients 
 for whom it was done, but it does not stop there. 
 It will be of value to all future owners of the 
 property. 
 
 The bar and this community have suffered a 
 very real and distinct loss in the death of Edward 
 Harris. Few are competent to fill his place and 
 do his work as well as he did it 
 
 At the meeting of the trustees of the 
 Security Trust Company, held Monday, 
 September 18, 191 1, the following resolu- 
 tions were unanimously adopted : 
 
 In the death of Edward Harris the State and 
 this community have sustained a great loss. 
 Among the strong and progressive men of this 
 city he was a tower of strength. In the legal 
 profession which he so signally adorned, he en- 
 joyed a State-wide reputation for preeminent 
 ability, and high ideals which earned for him the 
 admiration, respect and love of his associates at 
 the bar and of the judges of our courts. As a 
 modest and tolerant Christian gentleman he was 
 a fine type of all that is best in the church to 
 which he gave his unwavering faith and steadfast 
 service. In common with our fellow-citizens, we 
 shall sorely miss him in all the manifold and in- 
 fluential relations which he bore to this commu- 
 nity. 
 
 To this institution, and to us, his associates in 
 the conduct of its affairs, his death is an im- 
 measurable loss which can be but feebly expressed 
 in words. 
 
 As one of the founders of the Security Trust 
 Company, as member of the Board of Directors 
 from the day of its organization, and as its presi- 
 dent since 1895, he was a constant and leading 
 factor in its growth and development His fine 
 sense of honor, his genius for practical affairs, 
 his unflagging zeal and untiring energy, his wise 
 counsel and uniform courtesy, were to us a never 
 failing inspiration. He was our guide, counsellor, 
 and friend. His vacant chair will be filled, but 
 the place which he found in our hearts will ever 
 be sacred to his memory. He is gone but not 
 dead, for to live in hearts we leave behind, is not 
 to die. 
 '6 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 LINN, Samuel H., 
 
 Successful Physician. 
 
 The career of Dr. Samuel H. Linn, of 
 Rochester, New York, was one of honor- 
 able achievement and stirring interest. 
 A graduate of both dental and medical 
 colleges, he was a veteran of the Civil War 
 which for four years raged in the United 
 States, and a member of the Masonic 
 order, holding the highest attainable 
 degree. One of Rochester's most emi- 
 nent physicians, Dr. Linn passes into 
 history as one of the most able men of his 
 day and generation. Length of years in 
 which to labor for humanity's cause were 
 vouchsafed him and until the very end of 
 his years, seventy-three, he remained at 
 his post. Eighteen of those years were 
 spent in Russia in professional work and 
 in the clinics of St. Petersburg (Petro- 
 grad), Vienna and other cities he acquired 
 a wonderfully comprehensive knowledge 
 of medicine. The high honors he acquired 
 in Free Masonry were capped by the 
 thirty-third degree, Ancient Accepted 
 Scottish Rite, which was conferred upon 
 him while abroad, the American Con- 
 sistory at that time not having the 
 authority to confer the highest of all 
 Masonic degrees. That honor came to 
 him unsolicited as it does to all its 
 holders, being conferred solely in recog- 
 nition of "distinguished services rendered 
 the order." 
 
 Dr. Linn was a son of Hugh Linn, who 
 was born in County Clare, Ireland, in 
 1818, married in Manchester, England, 
 Mary Chadwick, of Dublin, Ireland, later 
 coming with her to the United States 
 and settling in Philadelphia, Pennsyl- 
 vania, where he died at the age of eighty- 
 two years He was a prominent member 
 of the Masonic order for half a century, 
 and was also a well known member of the 
 Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 
 
 Hugh and Mary (Chadwick) Linn were 
 the parents of six sons and two daugh- 
 ters : William, now a resident of Phil- 
 adelphia ; Samuel H., of further mention; 
 Thomas, now a physician of Nice, France ; 
 Hugh J., now a physician of San Fran- 
 cisco, California; Benjamin F., deceased; 
 Matthew, deceased; Jennie, deceased; 
 Mary A., now Mrs. Adams, of Philadel- 
 phia. 
 
 Samuel H. Linn was born at Philadel- 
 phia, Pennsylvania, September 26, 1843, 
 died at his home, No. 243 Alexander 
 street, Rochester, New York, February 
 26, 1916. He was educated in Philadel- 
 phia schools and began the study of 
 dentistry, but the outbreak of the Civil 
 War changed his plans for a time, he 
 enlisting in the United States navy. He 
 saw severe service in regular and special 
 lines, being at different times assigned to 
 the United States war vessels, "Hartford," 
 Admiral Farragut's flag ship, the war tug 
 "J. E. Bagley," the "Aries" and the 
 "Mackinaw," on duty in Albemarle 
 Sound, Mobile Bay, in the North 
 Atlantic, the South Atlantic and West 
 Indian waters. He was one of the party 
 of volunteers to accompany Lieutenant 
 Cushing in his daring and successful raid 
 to destroy the Confederate ram, "Alber- 
 marle." He was honorably discharged 
 and mustered out of the service, June 1, 
 1865. 
 
 After his return from the war he 
 entered the School of Dentistry, Univer- 
 sity of Pennsylvania, whence he was 
 graduated D. D. S., class of 1866. He 
 then went abroad, locating in St. Peters- 
 burg, the capital of Russia, where he 
 practiced his profession for eight years 
 very successfully, being court surgeon- 
 dentist to the court of Alexander III. 
 He spent three years in medical study 
 and in hospital work in Vienna, Paris 
 and London, returning to the United 
 
 277 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 States in 1877. He then entered the med- 
 ical department of the University of 
 Pennsylvania, and in 1878, received from 
 that institution his degree, M. D. The 
 same year he returned to St. Petersburg, 
 where he continued in medical practice 
 for ten years. He was very highly 
 regarded in the Russian capital, both as 
 dentist, during his first eight years, and 
 as a physician during his last sojourn of 
 ten years. In 1888 he returned to the 
 United States and located in Rochester, 
 New York, where he continued in medical 
 practice until his death in 1916. He con- 
 ducted a general practice and was subject 
 to call at any hour until about 1906, when 
 he notified all his patients that henceforth 
 he would only treat patients at his office. 
 He was highly regarded as a skillful 
 physician, and was an honor to his pro- 
 fession, both as practitioner and as a con- 
 tributor to its literature through the 
 medical journals and published works. 
 He was the translator of De. E. Doyen's 
 work, "Technique Chirurgicale," a 
 volume of six hundred pages, a most 
 valuable addition to medical literature, its 
 author, an eminent French physician. He 
 was a member of the Monroe County 
 Medical Society, the New York State 
 Medical Society, the American Medical 
 Association, and the Philadelphia Acad- 
 emy of Medicine. During his eighteen 
 years residence in Russia, he visited the 
 United States every year, making a record 
 of having crossed the Atlantic forty times. 
 He had a large acquaintance, both Amer- 
 ican and European, numbering among his 
 friends men of highest eminence, both in 
 the professions and in official life in both 
 continents. He ever held his comrades 
 of the army and navy in the highest 
 esteem and was associated with them in 
 membership in C. J. Powers Post, Grand 
 Army of the Republic, and William T. 
 Sherman Command, Union Veterans 
 
 Union. He was made a Mason in early 
 manhood, holding all degrees of both the 
 York and Scottish Rites and was a mem- 
 ber of all the various bodies of the order, 
 lodge, chapter, council, commandery, 
 shrine and consistory. The thirty-third 
 and final degree in the Scottish Rite was, 
 as previously stated, conferred upon him 
 during his residence abroad. He was also 
 for a long time affiliated with the Inde- 
 pendent Order of Odd Fellows. 
 
 Dr. Linn married, in 1886, Edith 
 Lenore Willis, only child of the late 
 distinguished Dr. Frederick Llewellyn 
 Hovey and Love M. (Whitcomb) Willis, 
 mention of whom is made elsewhere in 
 this work, who survives him with two 
 sons : Dr. Willis Linn, of Rochester, and 
 B. F. Linn, of Corning, New York. Mrs. 
 Linn is a talented writer of verses and has 
 contributed a great deal to current liter- 
 ature. Her poem, "Restless Heart, Don't 
 Worry So," has been translated into 
 French, Russian and German, and is 
 widely circulated in England and the 
 United States and is set to music by three 
 different composers. She has also pub- 
 lished several books of verse. 
 
 BAKER, Charles Simeon, 
 Civil War Veteran, Lawyer, Legislator, 
 
 In the death of Charles Simeon Baker, 
 which occurred in Washington, D. C, 
 April 21, 1902, the city of Rochester and 
 the State of New York lost a man of 
 the highest integrity, of lofty ideals, of 
 unassailable character, whose aim and 
 purpose was the uplifting of humanity 
 and the betterment of mankind, especially 
 in the community in which he resided. 
 
 Charles Simeon Baker was born in 
 Churchville, Monroe county, New York, 
 February 18, 1839, the youngest son of 
 James and Catherine (Gaul) Baker, his 
 father a carriage manufacturer, who came 
 
 278 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 from England at an early date. Charles 
 S. Baker attended the school in the vicin- 
 ity of his home, in 1854 continued his 
 studies by becoming a student in the 
 Caryville Collegiate Seminary, and the 
 following year became a student in the 
 Genesee Wesleyan Seminary in Lima, 
 New York. During the winter of 1S57- 
 58 he served in the capacity of school 
 teacher in Leroy, New York, and in the 
 spring of 1858 removed to Rochester, New 
 York, and having determined to follow 
 the profession of law as his lifework, he 
 placed himself under the preceptorship of 
 Messrs. Danforth and Terry, with which 
 firm he remained until his admission to 
 the bar in December, i860. He opened 
 an office in Rochester for the active prac- 
 tice of his profession, later having as his 
 partner, John H. Jeffries, and sub- 
 sequently entered into partnership with 
 his son, William J. Baker, his office at 
 the time of his death being in the Powers 
 Block. He was a man of ability and tire- 
 less energy, which, coupled with his high 
 character, won for him merited distinc- 
 tion in his chosen profession. He pre- 
 pared his cases with great thoroughness 
 and care, and his legal knowledge was 
 manifest in the strong presentation of 
 his cause before the courts. 
 
 At the beginning of hostilities between 
 the North and South, at the first call for 
 volunteers by President Lincoln, Charles 
 S. Baker offered his services to the gov- 
 ernment, enlisting in April, 1861, as a 
 member of Company E, Twenty-seventh 
 Regiment New York Infantry, and he 
 served for one year. He was appointed 
 to the rank of first lieutenant and the 
 first battle in which he participated was 
 the first battle of Bull Run, in which he 
 was so disabled as to necessitate his 
 return home. He then resumed the prac- 
 tice of law, which line of work he fol- 
 lowed until the time of his death. 
 
 In due course of time Mr. Baker be- 
 came recognized as one of the distin- 
 guished members of the Republican party 
 of New York. In youth, as in maturer 
 manhood, his broad and sympathetic 
 nature led to his cordial identification 
 with the party in its struggles to prevent 
 the further extension of slavery and 
 enlarge the area of freedom. He gave 
 careful and deliberate study to the ques- 
 tions and issues of the day, and was an 
 active factor in the councils of his party. 
 He served in various capacities, namely : 
 As president of the Board of Education, 
 placing the Bible in the schools ; as 
 school commissioner for two terms ; as a 
 member of the New York State Assembly 
 during the years 1879, 1880 and 1882; 
 member of the State Senate during the 
 years 1884 and 1885 ; as member of the 
 Forty-ninth, Fiftieth and Fifty-first Con- 
 gresses in Washington, being elected by 
 large majorities. He served upon some of 
 the most important committees in the 
 House of Representatives, especially dis- 
 tinguishing himself as chairman of the 
 committee on commerce when six new 
 States asked for and gained admission to 
 the Union. He performed effective work 
 in securing pensions for worthy veterans 
 or the widows and orphans of soldiers, 
 and in this labor of love no politics, creed 
 or race entered, the preference being 
 given to the poor and needy. He pos- 
 sessed in large degree the gift of initia- 
 tive, hence was largely instrumental in 
 pushing forward the legislation which 
 established the State railroad commission 
 at Albany, and in Washington, as in 
 Albany, was deeply interested in the 
 transportation question and was the 
 author of a bill creating the interstate 
 commerce commission. The States of 
 North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, 
 Idaho, Washington and Wyoming gave 
 public acknowledgement of their indebt- 
 
 279 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 edness to him for their admission into the 
 Union when in 1890 he traveled through 
 the West, being everywhere enthusias- 
 tically received and entertained. 
 
 Mr. Baker was a prominent member of 
 the Free and Accepted Masons, having 
 been one of the organizers of Corinthian 
 Lodge of Rochester, which he served as 
 worshipful master for two years, and 
 equally prominent in the Independent 
 Order of Odd Fellows, Loyal Legion, and 
 George H. Thomas Post, Grand Army of 
 the Republic, in this connection keeping 
 in touch with his old army comrades, 
 many of whom he assisted in material 
 ways. He was an active and consistent 
 member of the Central Presbyterian 
 Church in Rochester, and at the time of 
 his death was serving in the capacity of 
 elder. He was an earnest Christian, 
 whose life was actuated by high and 
 honorable principles and who at all times 
 lived in conformity with his professions. 
 
 Mr. Baker married, June 22, 1861, Jane 
 E. Yerkes, a native of Rochester, New 
 York, daughter of Silas A. Yerkes, who 
 removed from Philadelphia, Pennsyl- 
 vania, to Rochester, New York, in 1820. 
 Children : Charles A., a resident of 
 Washington, D. C. ; Leigh Yerkes, a prac- 
 ticing eye specialist of Washington, D. 
 C. ; Cornelius B., engaged in the banking 
 business in Kansas City, married a daugh- 
 ter of ex-Governor Morrill, of Kansas ; 
 William J., an attorney with offices at 
 No. 31 North Fitzhugh street, Rochester; 
 Harold H., a practicing physician of 
 Rochester ; a daughter, died in infancy. 
 Leigh Y. and Harold H. are graduates 
 of the University of Michigan. Mr. Baker 
 was a faithful and loving husband, a kind 
 and affectionate father, deriving his 
 greatest pleasure at his own fireside. 
 
 At the time of his death resolutions of 
 sympathy and respect were passed by the 
 different lodges with which he was con- 
 
 nected ; the Alumni Association of Liv- 
 ingston Park Seminary, which his wife 
 attended in girlhood ; the Infants' Sum- 
 mer Hospital, to which he had been a 
 generous contributor ; the Board of 
 Supervisors and the Board of Education, 
 while hundreds of letters were received 
 by the family. All contained an expres- 
 sion of appreciation for the rare beauty 
 and strength of his character and the 
 great usefulness of his life. 
 
 At a meeting of the members of the 
 Monroe County Bar held to take action 
 on the death of Mr. Baker it was said: 
 
 As a lawyer he was well read, skillful and 
 adroit. His office was a model of method, order 
 and neatness. It was as an office lawyer that he 
 excelled. The antagonisms, the contentions, the 
 contradictions, the disputes, the personalities, the 
 ill temper and the friction which sometimes ac- 
 company a litigated practice had no charms for 
 him. His superiority was seen in his office when 
 in personal contact with his clients and his asso- 
 ciates at the bar. The courtesy with which he 
 treated everyone was one of his marked char- 
 acteristics. He did not encourage needless litiga- 
 tion. He sought to harmonize differences, to 
 bring men together and took the broadest view 
 of his duty toward his clients. No one who came 
 into connection with him as a lawyer failed to 
 honor him for his broad spirit, for his firm in- 
 tegrity and for his elevated conception of the 
 trust reposed in him as an attorney and counselor. 
 As a friend he knew no faltering. Those who 
 knew him well, who were admitted into the inner 
 circle of his life, came to see in him noble quali- 
 ties of mind and heart, which will always cause 
 them to remember the man, Charles S. Baker, 
 with affectionate regard. 
 
 The "Rochester Democrat and Chron- 
 icle" said of him : 
 
 Mr. Baker was of notable and impressive phy- 
 sique. Large and commanding in stature, with a 
 face in which sagacity, benevolence and kindli- 
 ness were singularly blended, with a manner at 
 once both dignified and genial, he was sure to 
 attract attention in any company. He not only 
 made friends, but held them to him by the com- 
 pelling power of genuine sympathy and helpful- 
 
 280 
 
} a , fj-^j^jL 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ness. It is doubtful if, when he was at the height a man to his fellows and bind him to them 
 
 of his congressional career, any man in Washing- 
 ton had more personal friends, of all parties 
 throughout the country, than he. Stanch as the 
 stanchest in his republican principles, he never 
 permitted his partisanship to interfere with his 
 personal relations, and when the democracy was 
 in control of the executive and legislative 
 branches of the government Mr. Baker could, 
 without compromising his republicanism, secure 
 as many favors at Washington as if he had been 
 a democrat. He enjoyed the confidence and re- 
 spect of President Harrison and had an intimate 
 personal as well as political friendship with Presi- 
 dent McKinley. 
 
 One who knew him well wrote : 
 
 In all the multiplied activities of his fruitful 
 life his energies, means and influence were 
 always thrown upon the side of justice, mercy, 
 truth and righteousness. The wealth of his great 
 nature and the genial companionship of his warm, 
 generous heart drew to him the rare and sweet 
 friendship of many who took high rank in the 
 various departments of church, state and litera- 
 ture, as well as others closely identified with the 
 financial growth and prosperity of our great 
 country. He allowed no differences of creed or 
 party to mar these friendships but took the best 
 of each life that touched his own. Conspicuously 
 useful as he was in public affairs, it was as hus- 
 band, father, brother and friend, within the 
 cheery and sacred precincts of his own home, that 
 the rare sweetness and all embracing love of his 
 large and noble nature were most richly bestowed. 
 
 One who knew him well said : 
 
 His parents bequeathed to him the riches of 
 virtuous training and example, a happy tempera- 
 ment, high aspirations, untiring energy and a love 
 of righteousness for its own sake. The fruitage 
 of these qualities during all his years brightened, 
 stimulated and blessed not only his own life but 
 the lives of a great multitude of his fellows, 
 brought into close or even casual relationship 
 with him. 
 
 SCHOEFFEL, Francis Anthony, 
 
 Civil War Veteran, County Official. 
 
 The long years of the life of Colonel 
 Francis A. Schoeffel were filled with 
 activity and usefulness such as endear 
 
 with no common ties. All men respect 
 and honor a man who gives of his all in 
 defence or support of a principle, and 
 such sacrifice was Mr. Schoeffel's when 
 he went to the front in the Union army. 
 Likewise is homage paid one who 
 administers a public office with courage 
 and fidelity, lofty ideals, and such admin- 
 istration was a part of Colonel Schoeffel's 
 record as sheriff of Monroe county. But 
 to define the causes that made Colonel 
 Schoeffel a man loved and admired 
 wherever known is a task that could 
 never be accomplished. Others have 
 possessed sterling characters, have lived 
 uprightly, and wrought usefully, and still 
 have been denied the measure of public 
 esteem that was accorded him. His qual- 
 ities were those of the heart, and from a 
 heart filled with fraternal love and good 
 will went forth the appeal of personality 
 and character that men could not resist. 
 Colonel Schoeffel was a resident of 
 Rochester at the time of his death, that 
 locality also having been his birthplace, 
 Greece, Monroe county, where he was 
 born, being later incorporated within the 
 city of Rochester. He was born July 20, 
 1834, and after a general education 
 specializing in mechanical study and pur- 
 suits, and for many years was employed 
 as master mechanic in the great locomo- 
 tive manufacturing works in Schenectady, 
 New York. The outbreak of the Civil 
 War found him, a young man of twenty- 
 five years, among the first to offer his 
 services to the Federal government, and 
 he was commissioned captain of Company 
 E, Thirteenth Regiment New York 
 Volunteer Infantry. He enlisted in 
 April, 1861, and with his regiment went 
 at once to southern battle fields, his first 
 promotion coming the following year, 
 when he was raised to the rank of major. 
 In numerous of the important engage- 
 
 281 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ments of the first two years of the war he 
 bore an able part, and after the battle of 
 Gaines' Mill, in which he was wounded 
 in the leg, he received his second promo- 
 tion within the twelve month, becoming 
 lieutenant-colonel of the Thirteenth. 
 When his regiment was mustered out of 
 service in 1863 Colonel Schoeffel returned 
 to his duties and responsibilities at home, 
 bearing with him an honorable name and 
 record as soldier and pafriot. Upon the 
 restoration of peace he was active in the 
 organization of the Grand Army of the 
 Republic, State and National, and until 
 his death found many of his pleasantest 
 associations and comradeships among his 
 companions-in-arms of other days. He 
 was a member of Peisner Post, partici- 
 pated as a leader in its activities, and 
 when death claimed him it was his fel- 
 low-members of this organization who 
 performed the ceremonial rites over his 
 remains, bestowing upon him the honors 
 and tributes that only one soldier can 
 render another. 
 
 In all the life of his city Colonel Schoef- 
 fel had the interest of the loyal, progres- 
 sive citizen, and it was this alert citizen- 
 ship that caused the leaders of the Demo- 
 cratic party in Monroe county to name 
 him as the party candidate for sheriff. 
 The lot of former Democratic candidates 
 in the district had usually been ignomin- 
 ious defeat, and it is worthy testimony of 
 the esteem in which he was held that he 
 carried a decisive victory for his party in 
 1881. In office he fulfilled the high expec- 
 tations entertained by all, and his 
 administration was clean, business-like, 
 and above-board. Upon retiring from the 
 sheriff's office Colonel Schoeffel accepted 
 the commission as assistant superintend- 
 ent of streets of Rochester, and in his new 
 post showed the same zeal and ability 
 that made his former service conspicuous, 
 giving to highway problems his thought, 
 
 time and energy. Until his death he was 
 connected with the highway department 
 as assistant superintendent, serving his 
 city faithfully and well. 
 
 While perhaps the strongest asso- 
 ciations of fraternity and fellowship that 
 bound Colonel Schoeffel to his fellows 
 were those he enjoyed as a member of the 
 Grand Army, the Masonic and Odd 
 Fellows orders also received his loyal 
 support, and in the former he held the 
 Knights Templar degree. In religious 
 belief he was a Universalist. His death 
 occurred August 13, 1908, and his com- 
 rades of the "Old Thirteenth" drew up 
 and placed upon the minutes of the Peis- 
 ner Post this resolution : 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of our late com- 
 mander, Colonel F. A. Schoeffel, this organiza- 
 tion has lost its most generous, efficient, and brave 
 commander. In the trying hours of battle he 
 stood bravely at his post, never faltering under 
 the most trying circumstances and performing his 
 every duty nobly. We sincerely regret his de- 
 parture from our midst, never to return. To his 
 family we extend our earnest sympathy in the 
 hour of their deep affliction. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be 
 placed in the archives of this organization and 
 that a copy be engrossed and sent to the family. 
 
 He married, August 15, i860, Sarah 
 Cawthra, and had seven children, of 
 whom five are now living: George B., 
 Major Francis H., Captain John B., 
 Susan Blanche (Mrs. Frederick A. 
 Frost, of Rochester, one son, Donald 
 Schoeffel Frost) ; and Margaret Eliza- 
 beth. Two of his sons have served under 
 the flag he fought to save and in the 
 United States army have added to the 
 militarv fame of the name of Schoeffel. 
 
 LODER, George Franklin, 
 
 Valued Citizen of Rochester. 
 
 With the passing away of George 
 Franklin Loder, August 8, 191 5, Roches- 
 
 282 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ter loses a valued citizen and the Masonic 
 order mourns a well beloved brother, 
 who, for half a century, in lodge, chapter, 
 commandery, and shrine, subordinate and 
 grand, had been a bright and shining 
 light. It was his pride to relate that for 
 forty years he had not missed attendance 
 at a regular conclave of Monroe Com- 
 mandery until the winter of 1914-15, when 
 confined in the hospital undergoing treat- 
 ment for the disease that caused his death. 
 To "Shriners" he is known as one of 
 the fathers of their order, and to the 
 members of Damascus Temple, Roches- 
 ter, as the founder of that temple and 
 for many years its potentate. To the 
 Masonic order at large he was known as 
 a manufacturer of regalia and uniforms, 
 and as a loyal brother. Other orders 
 claimed his interest, but to Masonry he 
 was particularly devoted, belonging to all 
 bodies of both York and Scottish Rites. 
 The military spirit was strong within 
 him and prior to the Civil War he was an 
 officer of Rochester's noted military 
 organization, the City Light Guards. He 
 was a veteran of the Civil War and the 
 military branches of the fraternal orders 
 had for him a strong attraction. For 
 many years he directed the drills of 
 Damascus Temple Patrol and designed 
 uniforms for many organizations. The 
 uniformed political clubs, a feature of 
 olden time campaigns, also attracted 
 him, and in 1880 he was commander of 
 Rochester's campaign clubs; in 1884 was 
 brigadier-general of the two regiments of 
 plumed knights ; and from 1888 captained 
 Company A, Boys in Blue. He always 
 retained a warm interest in his comrades 
 in arms, and in Grand Army circles was 
 well known. He is remembered by the 
 older citizens of Rochester as the efficient 
 superintendent of the carriers and city 
 delivery at the post office, 1874 to 1884, 
 and as a leading worker in the ranks of 
 
 independent voters. But it was as a 
 fraternity man that he was best known, 
 and when his body lay in state in Gothic 
 Hall at the Masonic Temple, guarded by 
 Templars from Monroe Commandery, 
 many hundreds of his brethren from the 
 local Masonic bodies and from other 
 orders paid their last mark of respect to 
 their honored brother. He was borne to 
 the grave by the first six line officers of 
 Monroe Commandery marching to the 
 dolorous strains of the "Dead March," 
 played by the Knights Templar band, 
 and in the funeral procession were his 
 comrades of Rochester commanderies, 
 representatives of the Grand Command- 
 ery of the State of New York, Nobles of 
 the Mystic Shrine headed by their poten- 
 tates, members and officers of Genesee 
 Falls Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, 
 in full regalia, and members and officers 
 of the other Masonic bodies of the city. 
 At Gothic Hall and at the grave the 
 services were in charge of Monroe Com- 
 mandery, and the beautiful Knights 
 Templar burial service was never more 
 impressively given. Highest Masonic 
 honors were accorded the dead brother, 
 so long and so prominently connected 
 with the order. It had been his dying 
 wish that Rev. Arthur W. Grosse, pastor 
 of the First Universalist Church, of 
 Rochester, officiate at the funeral service, 
 and although absent from the city Dr. 
 Grosse returned in response to a telegram 
 and fulfilled his comrade's wish. He sleeps 
 in Mount Hope Cemetery. 
 
 George Franklin Loder was born in 
 Irondequoit, New York, September 21, 
 1842, died in the Homoeopathic Hospital, 
 Rochester, August 8, 1915, son of Daniel 
 P. and Eliza (Cross) Loder. When a 
 child he was brought to Rochester by his 
 parents and there he obtained his education 
 in public school No. 14 and in Satterlee's 
 Institute. His first work as a wage earner 
 
 283 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 was as newsboy for the Rochester Demo- 
 crat and Chronicle companies, and he later 
 learned the roofer's trade under John 
 Siddons. He worked at his trade until 
 1862, then enlisted, leaving for the front, 
 August 29, 1862, as first lieutenant of 
 Company F, One Hundred and Eighth 
 Regiment New York Volunteer Infantry. 
 He served until January, 1863, then was 
 stricken with an illness that sent him to 
 the hospital. Later he was "invalided" 
 home and for the following fifteen months 
 was under the constant care of a physi- 
 cian. He was variously employed until 
 1874, then was appointed by Postmaster 
 Daniel T. Hunt superintendent of mail 
 carriers and city delivery. He held this 
 position ten years, retiring to engage in 
 the manufacture of regalia and equipment 
 for fraternal and uniformed organizations, 
 and continuing in this business, with 
 offices in the Reynolds Arcade until his 
 death. He was peculiarly fitted for his 
 business and became well known all over 
 the United States. He not only made but 
 designed many society uniforms, the 
 badges, emblem, and regalia of the Nobles 
 of the Mystic Shrine being of his design. 
 The official emblem worn by every 
 "Shriner" was designed by Mr. Loder, 
 the only change being in substituting a 
 scimitar above the tiger claws instead of 
 a golden bar. 
 
 He was "made a Mason" in Genesee 
 Falls Lodge, April 14, 1866. He was 
 greatly impressed with the beauty of the 
 Masonic ritual, took an early and deep 
 interest in the work, and beginning at 
 the bottom held in succession every office 
 in the lodge, serving as master in 1871, 
 1888, 18S9, 1890, and 1893. He saw his 
 lodge grow, in part through his influence, 
 until it became the largest in the world, 
 and in the nearly half a century of his 
 Masonic life he never sundered the mem- 
 bership, being at death a trustee. By 
 
 virtue of his office as master he became a 
 member of the Grand Lodge of the State 
 of New York in 1871, and in 1873 an( * 
 1874 was district deputy grand master. 
 
 From "Blue Lodge" Masonry Mr. Loder 
 passed to capitular Masonry, becoming 
 a Royal Arch Mason of Hamilton Chap- 
 ter, December 16, 1869, serving that chap- 
 ter as trustee for thirty-seven years. He 
 then had conferred upon him the degrees 
 of Cryptic Masonry by Doric Council, 
 Royal and Select Masters, and in 1869 
 applied for and received the degrees of 
 Templar Masonry in Monroe Command- 
 ery. He was an enthusiastic Knights 
 Templar and took a leading part in com- 
 mandery work. In 1875 he was elected 
 eminent commander, and for many years 
 was captain-general, also serving as 
 recorder. For a score of years he trained 
 Monroe Commandery Drill Corps and led 
 them through the intricately fascinating 
 manoeuvers that made them famous at 
 State and Triennial Encampments of the 
 order. In later years he presided at the 
 reunions of the old drill corps, and in the 
 funeral procession, directly in front of the 
 body of their dead leader, marched mem- 
 bers of the original drill corps, those who 
 served under him during the years 1877 to 
 1880. The new drill corps of the com- 
 mandery, as a mark of respect to the old 
 veteran, conferred upon him the honorary 
 title of inspector-general, and gladly 
 sought his advice and counsel. On be- 
 coming eminent commander in 1875 he 
 became by right a member of the Grand 
 Commandery of the State of New York, 
 where he quickly began his upward march 
 to the highest honor. Each year he was 
 advanced in rank until in 1892 he was 
 elected grand commander of Knights 
 Templar in the State of New York, having 
 held every subordinate office. He never 
 lost his interest in Templar Masonry and 
 in June of his last summer on earth he 
 
 284 
 
<4. 
 
 /r<j'f/e / ( h/j 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 attended the Conclave held in Buffalo, 
 taking active part in the deliberations of 
 the Grand Commandery, although just re- 
 covered from a long illness. 
 
 From the York Rite Mr. Loder passed 
 to the Scottish Rite and held the thirty- 
 two degrees conferred by the Consistory, 
 Valley of Rochester. In its early years he 
 took active part in the Benevolent and 
 Protective Order of Elks, and was exalted 
 ruler of Rochester Lodge. He was also 
 a member of the Veiled Prophets, at one 
 time supreme monarch of the United 
 States and monarch of Lalla Rookh 
 Grotto. 
 
 In 1872 Mr. Loder met William J. 
 Florence, who had obtained a ritual in 
 Egypt, upon which he founded the An- 
 cient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic 
 Shrine, an order which, while not 
 Masonic in character, but purely social 
 in nature, cannot be gained save by 
 Knights Templar Masons or by thirty- 
 second degree Masons of the Scottish Rite. 
 Mr. Loder became at once deeply interest- 
 ed, received the degree, and became one 
 of the founders of Mecca Temple, New 
 York, known as "Mother Temple," Sep- 
 tember 26, 1872. Invested with full 
 authority, "Noble" Loder returned to 
 Rochester, formed a class among his 
 Templar and Scottish Rite friends, and 
 in the same year the officials of Mecca 
 came to Rochester, conferred the degrees, 
 and instituted Damascus Temple, the sec- 
 ond temple formed in the United States. 
 Of the charter members of Damascus but 
 two survive, William H. Whiting and 
 Henry M. Plant. As a "father" of the 
 order and by virtue of his own person- 
 ality, Noble Loder was very popular and 
 for many years it was the annual custom 
 to select him potentate. He was well 
 known to the "Shrine" leaders and not 
 long prior to his death the Imperial 
 Council made him imperial potentate 
 
 emeritus. He took his usual interest in 
 the military division and ever maintained 
 a warm feeling for the "Arab Patrol" of 
 Damascus Temple. Other orders and 
 organizations to which he belonged were 
 the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
 C. J. Powers Post, Grand Army of the 
 Republic, and W. T. Sherman Command, 
 Union Veterans' Association, the Knights 
 of Pythias, Royal Arcanum, the Masonic, 
 and other clubs. 
 
 He took a keen interest in public affairs 
 and was a Republican in politics. He 
 served the Seventh Ward of Rochester 
 as supervisor many years ago, was the 
 candidate of the Citizens' party in 1896 
 for mayor, and in 1912 was the candidate 
 of the Democratic-Progressive ticket for 
 president of Common Council. He ran 
 far ahead of his ticket, but was defeated 
 by a plurality of eight hundred and thirty. 
 
 Mr. Loder married Mary U. Deming, 
 daughter of George M. and Mary 
 (Wright) Deming, who survives him 
 with an only daughter, Nina. 
 
 OAKS, George J., 
 
 Major and Business Man. 
 
 Although five years have elapsed since 
 "taps" was sounded over all that was 
 mortal of Major Oaks, his memory is yet 
 green and he lives in the recollection of 
 his many friends as a high type of Amer- 
 ican citizenship and the loyal Christian 
 gentleman. He rose from the ranks in 
 both military and business life, his record 
 being unfaltering performance of duty, 
 the faithful execution of every trust re- 
 posed in him, and the observance of the 
 strictest ethics of business integrity. 
 That his fellows esteemed him was but 
 the natural result of a life lived in accord 
 with the laws of God and man. He bore 
 the scars of mortal combat, but his soul 
 was as clean as the Masonic apron he 
 
 285 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 wore as an emblem of that purity of life Thirteenth Regiment New York Volun- 
 
 and rectitude of conduct so essential to 
 the gaining of admission to that "house 
 not made with hands, eternal in the 
 Heavens." 
 
 He was of foreign ancestry, his father 
 a German, his mother of French parent- 
 age. George Oaks, his father, came from 
 Germany in 1839 and located in Roches- 
 ter, New York, where he engaged in 
 building operations for several years. 
 Later he became a car builder, remaining 
 in Rochester until after the death of his 
 wife, Mary Ann (Pronguey) Oaks, in 
 1878, aged sixty-two years, then resided 
 in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his son, Francis, 
 until his death, July 21, 1895, at the age 
 of eighty-three years. Mrs. Oaks was the 
 daughter of Jean Pierre Pronguey, who 
 came from France in May, 1823, settling 
 on a tract of land at Irondequoit, near 
 Rochester, then a small town. He had 
 served in the French army under the 
 Great Napoleon and went down in defeat 
 with his loved commander at the battle 
 of Waterloo, June 16, 181 5. After com- 
 ing to Rochester he engaged in farming 
 as a market gardener and so continued 
 until his death at the age of seventy-nine 
 years. 
 
 Major George J. Oaks, son of George 
 and Mary Ann (Pronguey) Oaks, was 
 born in Rochester, February 9, 1842, died 
 in the city of his birth, July 11, 1910. He 
 was educated in public and parochial 
 schools in Rochester and at St. Charles 
 College, near Baltimore, Maryland. He 
 was a mercantile clerk in Rochester at 
 the outbreak of the Civil War and a 
 member of the Fifty-fourth Regiment, 
 New York State Militia. When a call for 
 men was made in 1861 the warrior blood 
 of his French grandsire asserted itself 
 and although but nineteen years of age 
 he offered his services, enlisting on April 
 30, 1861, as a private in Company G, 
 
 teer Infantry. He went to the front with 
 that company, serving until August I, 
 1861, when Company G was transferred 
 to the Third Regiment, New York 
 Cavalry, as Company K. After faithful 
 service until September 1, 1861, he was 
 honorably discharged through special 
 order of the War Department and 
 returned home. In July, 1862, he assisted 
 in organizing a company of which he was 
 commissioned second lieutenant, his com- 
 mission dating September 9, 1862, his 
 Company E, of the One Hundred and 
 Fifty-first Regiment, New York Volun- 
 teer Infantry. He served with distinction 
 until the close of the war, receiving hon- 
 orable discharge, July 1, 1865. He saw 
 war intimately and in all its horrors, 
 suffered wounds and privations, saw his 
 colors bow in defeat and wave in victory, 
 saw the net draw tighter and tighter 
 around the Confederate leader, General 
 Lee, and in the last battle of the war at 
 Sailor's Creek on April 6, 1865, he aided 
 in the capture of the Confederate general's 
 rear guard. When the curtain finally 
 rang down on the saddest drama in Amer- 
 ican history, the private of 1861 was 
 Major George J. Oaks, with a proud 
 record of "gallant and meritorious 
 service on the field of battle." His rise 
 in rank was as follows : Second lieuten- 
 ant, Company E, One Hundred and Fifty- 
 first Regiment, New York Volunteer 
 Infantry, September 9, 1862; first lieu- 
 tenant, January 7, 1863, commission dat- 
 ing from December 13, 1862; captain, 
 June 20, 1863, commission dating from 
 June 3, 1863 ; brevet major, April 2, 1865, 
 for "gallant and meritorious service in 
 front of Petersburg." He was aide-de- 
 camp on the staff of Brigadier-General 
 William H. Morris, First Brigade, Third 
 Division, Sixth Army Corps, from Feb- 
 ruary until July, 1864, and as aide to 
 
 286 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Major-General James B. Ricketts, com- 
 manding, he was appointed ordnance 
 officer of the Third Division, on October 
 22, 1864, saving the ordnance train of the 
 Sixth Army Corps from capture when the 
 Union troops were surprised at dawn by 
 Early's army. He gained his major's 
 commission at the storming of Fort 
 Fisher, when, at the head of volunteers, 
 he executed a movement that cut off a 
 body of Confederate troops. He was in 
 the battle of first Bull Run and subse- 
 quently was under fire in thirty-three 
 engagements, including Spottsylvania, 
 Cold Harbor, Wilderness, Petersburg, 
 Winchester, Cedar Creek, and the last 
 battle of all, Sailor's Creek. On March 
 27, 1865, he was granted leave of absence 
 for twenty days and was in Washington 
 on March 31. He visited the war depart- 
 ment in search of information and was 
 there told that if he rejoined his regiment 
 at once he would be in time to take part 
 in the final scenes of the great war drama. 
 He reached his regiment about six p. m. 
 on April 1, and that night, at the head of 
 his company, marched with the regiment 
 to support the picket line. They lay on 
 their arms all night until three a. m., when 
 the entire corps was massed in columns 
 for the assault on Fort Fisher, in front of 
 Petersburg. The fort fell at the first at- 
 tack, its fall dividing Lee's army. It was 
 at this point that Captain Oaks executed 
 the movement that resulted in the cap- 
 ture of a large body of Confederates, a 
 splendid military action that brought him 
 his brevet major's commission. He was 
 with his regiment during the final days 
 until the last battle, April 6, 1865, fol- 
 lowed by Lee's surrender on April 9th at 
 Appomattox Court House, a village in 
 Virginia twenty miles east of Lynchburg. 
 From his baptism of fire at Bull Run the 
 record of private, lieutenant, captain, and 
 major was a proud and inspiring one, a 
 
 fine example of lofty patriotism, unflinch- 
 ing courage, and bravery that never 
 bordered on the foolhardy but that took 
 him straight along the path of duty with 
 unfaltering footstep. At Bull Run he was 
 wounded in the head by a buckshot. At 
 Monocacy he was hit in the head, left 
 wrist, thigh, and left side, but with all 
 spent but one week in Newton Univer- 
 sity Hospital at Baltimore. 
 
 When the war closed he returned with 
 his battle-scarred but triumphant com- 
 rades to the "arts of peace," securing a 
 position in Rochester with the millinery 
 and fancy goods house, S. Rosenblatt & 
 Company. He seemed peculiarly adapted 
 to the business and so firmly did he en- 
 trench himself in the confidence and 
 esteem of the house that he was admitted 
 a member of the firm by the purchase of 
 an interest. In 1877 Mr. Rosenblatt died, 
 and in partnership with another old em- 
 ployee of S. Rosenblatt & Company, A. 
 C. Calhoun, he founded a new firm, Oaks 
 & Calhoun. The partners conducted a 
 most successful business until May 27, 
 1907, when their place of business was 
 destroyed by fire. Major Oaks then 
 retired from active business and until his 
 death enjoyed the fruits of his nearly half 
 a century of active business life. He had 
 numerous affiliations outside of the world 
 of business. He held all degrees in York 
 and Scottish Rite Masonry up to and 
 including the thirty-second, belonging to 
 Genesee Lodge, Free and Accepted 
 Masons, Royal Arch Masons, Monroe 
 Commandery, Knights Templar, Roches- 
 ter Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scot- 
 tish Rite, and Damascus Temple, Ancient 
 Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic 
 Shrine. His military orders were George 
 H. Thomas Post, Grand Army of the 
 Republic, the Military Order of the Loyal 
 Legion of the United States, New York 
 Commandery, and the United States 
 
 287 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Military Institute, associate member. He 
 was a past commander of his local Grand 
 Army post, past department commander 
 of New York Grand Army of the 
 Republic, and past commander-in-chief of 
 the Union Veterans Association, ranking 
 as general. He was a member of the 
 Rochester Chamber of Commerce, a body 
 he served officially. He took little active 
 part in politics yet was ever alive to 
 his duties as a citizen, manifesting deep 
 interest in those problems that affect the 
 body politic. His opinions were strong 
 concerning men and measures and his 
 support was constant in behalf of all 
 movements tending to elevate moral and 
 educational standards. He was gifted 
 vocally and for half a century was a 
 member of the Rochester Maennerchor, 
 singing in various church and Masonic 
 choirs. Such is the record of Major 
 George J. Oaks as soldier and citizen, the 
 record of a man unselfish, retiring, and 
 modest, yet one who failed in no duty, 
 met every issue squarely, and at the age 
 of sixty-eight years went to his long 
 home, full of honors and bearing the 
 respect of every man who ever knew him. 
 Major Oaks married, February 28, 
 1878, M. Louise E. Colvin, daughter of 
 Darwin Colvin, M. D., a prominent phy- 
 sician of Clyde, New York. Mrs. Oaks 
 is a member of the Protestant Episcopal 
 church, deeply interested in benevolent 
 and charitable work, but in a most quiet, 
 unostentatious, practical way displaying 
 her sympathy and concern. She continues 
 her residence in the city to which she 
 came as a bride nearly forty years ago. 
 
 COPELAND, David, 
 
 Business Man. 
 
 Copelands came to New England from 
 England at an early date and to New 
 York about the time of the Revolution. 
 Jonathan C. Copeland was a Revolution- 
 
 288 
 
 ary soldier, and his son, David (1) Cope- 
 land, was a commission merchant of 
 Rochester, where his son, David (2) 
 Copeland, was born, lived and died. This 
 branch of the family came to Western 
 New York from Connecticut. David (1) 
 Copeland settled in Rochester about 1825. 
 He married Martha Shepard and among 
 their children was a son, David (2) 
 Copeland, to whose memory this sketch 
 is dedicated. He was born in Rochester 
 and in that city won his business suc- 
 cesses, worked for the good of the com- 
 munity in church, fraternal order and in 
 public position, and finally passed away 
 after a life of usefulness and honor. 
 
 David (2) Copeland was born in 
 Rochester, New York, August 16, 1832, 
 and there died September 17, 1890. He 
 was educated in Rochester schools, and 
 early in life became a building contractor, 
 erecting during the ten years he was so 
 engaged several of Rochester's promi- 
 nent buildings including the old Presby- 
 terian church built in 1859 an< i the 
 Church of the Immaculate Conception. 
 He was also associated for a time with 
 his brother, Gerry Copeland, in contract- 
 ing in the State of Michigan and while 
 there built the Court House at Lansing. 
 He was one of the leading contractors of 
 Rochester in his day and bore a high 
 reputation as master builder. Later he 
 became interested in the manufacture of 
 fine furniture, a business in which he 
 continued until his death. In 1882 he 
 bought the business of H. O. Hall & 
 Company and organized the firm of Cope- 
 land, Durgin & Company, manufacturers 
 of sideboards, tables and all kinds of high- 
 grade furniture. As senior member of 
 the firm David Copeland was its active 
 head until his death, in 1890. He was an 
 excellent business man, prosecuting his 
 business with energy and adhering 
 strictly to the highest principles of honor 
 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 and upright dealing. He was an earnest 
 Christian and in his life exemplified the 
 teachings of the Master he served. He 
 gave freely of his substance to benevolent 
 enterprises of church and city, and was 
 ever ready to respond to the necessities 
 of the poor and needy. For many years 
 he was a member and an elder of the 
 Third Presbyterian Church of Rochester, 
 and very active in the various activities 
 of the church, and as it grew in strength 
 and power was a potent factor in the 
 extension of its influence and in its 
 change of location to East avenue. He 
 was president of The Humane Society of 
 Rochester ; trustee of the Orphan Asy- 
 lum ; supervisor of the Homoeopathic 
 Hospital, and for seventeen years was 
 president of the Rochester Philharmonic 
 Society. He was a member of the 
 Masonic order and was an influential 
 member of the city government, serving 
 as alderman from the fourth ward and as 
 member of the Board of Education for 
 many years. 
 
 David Copeland married, February 8, 
 1858, Emily Sabey, born in London, 
 England, daughter' of James Sabey, who 
 came to the United States in 1838. After 
 a year spent in Michigan James Sabey 
 with his iamily located in Rochester, New 
 York, where in 1849 ne established a hat 
 business on Main street, there continu- 
 ing for many years. He was an active 
 churchman, serving as vestryman of 
 Christ Episcopal Church for many years. 
 After his death his widow, Mrs. James 
 Sabey, gave to Christ Church a beautiful 
 marble pulpit as a memorial to her hus- 
 band. Mr. and Mrs. Copeland were 
 among the first to erect cottages at Lake 
 Summerville. She survives her husband, 
 resident at No. 185 Rutgers street. She 
 has a brother, George Sabey, and a sister, 
 Mrs. Winn, residing in Rochester. Four 
 children were born to David and Emily 
 
 N Y-Vol 11-19 2f 
 
 (Sabey) Copeland: Clara May, who 
 resides with her mother ; Jennie Isadore, 
 married W. A. Naramore, of Rochester; 
 Albert Edward, who succeeded his father 
 in business and continued it until 1906 
 when he sold it and is now engaged as 
 a real estate dealer; Esther Chapman, 
 married H. E. Swezey, of Buffalo. 
 
 MILLER, James T., 
 
 Prominent Business Man. 
 
 Although in the prime of life, in point 
 of years, at the time of his decease, James 
 T. Miller accomplished a vast amount in 
 the time allotted him. To say of him that 
 he rose from comparative obscurity to 
 rank among the prominent business men 
 of Rochester is a statement that seems 
 trite to those familiar with his life, yet 
 it is but just to say in a history that will 
 descend to future generations that his 
 business record was one that any man 
 would be proud to possess. Beginning at 
 the very bottom round of the ladder, he 
 advanced steadily step by step until at the 
 time of his death he was occupying a 
 position of prominence attained by but 
 few men. Through his entire business 
 career he was looked upon as a model 
 of integrity and honor, never making an 
 engagement that he did not fulfill, and he 
 stood as an example of what determina- 
 tion and force, combined with the highest 
 degree of business acumen, can accom- 
 plish for a man of natural ability and 
 strength of character. He was respected 
 by the community-at-large and honored 
 by his business associates. 
 
 James T. Miller, who was one of a 
 family of ten children, was born on a 
 small farm, consisting of twenty acres, at 
 Lamson, Onondaga county, New York, 
 October 25, 1864. After graduating from 
 the public school, he completed his 
 studies at the Phoenix High School. 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 When seventeen years of age he took up 
 his residence in Rochester, and there 
 spent the remainder of his days. He 
 entered the service of one of the retail 
 establishments in the capacity of a clerk, 
 where his business ability was readily 
 recognized and appreciated, and shortly 
 afterward he was admitted to member- 
 ship in the firm. In the meantime he 
 devoted his attention during his leisure 
 time to the real estate business, which 
 proved a highly profitable enterprise, and 
 later he relinquished his former line of 
 work in order to devote his entire time to 
 real estate transactions and building oper- 
 ations. Noting the possibilities for 
 greater advancement in the manufactur- 
 ing business, he became associated with 
 Winfield P. Pembroke and Charles J. 
 Pembroke, who were possessors of 
 patents, processes and formulae by 
 which typewriter ribbons and carbon 
 paper could be profitably manufactured, 
 and they together formed the Kee Lox 
 Manufacturing Company, a firm of large 
 magnitude and an international reputa- 
 tion at the present time, representing one 
 of the prominent industries of Rochester, 
 of which Mr. Miller was the secretary and 
 treasurer from its organization to the 
 time of his decease. In these capacities 
 he exercised the executive management 
 of the company, and under his wise man- 
 agement, and with the very excellent 
 product that his associates were able to 
 produce, the concern became very pros- 
 perous, their financial standing and repu- 
 tation for honorable dealing ranking with 
 the highest in the business world. Mr. 
 Miller possessed untiring energy, was 
 quick of perception, formed his plans 
 readily and was determined in their 
 execution, and his close application to 
 business and his executive ability proved 
 a valuable asset to the company of whose 
 finances he was in charge. 
 
 Mr. Miller was one of the public- 
 spirited men of Rochester, ever taking a 
 keen interest in the growth and welfare 
 of his adopted city, and during his career 
 manifested those sterling qualities that 
 ever commanded respect and are at all 
 times worthy of emulation. He was a 
 member of the Rochester Chamber of 
 Commerce and could always be depended 
 upon to support the efforts of that body 
 to create new enterprises and to strength- 
 en the old ones. He was particularly 
 interested in the Young Men's Christian 
 Association and the Mechanics' Institute, 
 and in other institutions that tended to 
 benefit the city along material, moral, 
 social and intellectual lines. For many 
 years he was a student of Spiritualism, 
 and was an active and helpful member of 
 the American Societies for Physical 
 Research, contributing freely of his time 
 and means to the advancement of their 
 work. 
 
 Mr. Miller married, June 17, I9°3> 
 Carrie E. Reeder, of Rochester, New 
 York, who survives him. Mr. Miller died 
 at his late residence, No. 325 Oxford 
 street, Rochester, August 19, I9 J 3- 
 During his residence in Rochester he 
 contributed to the strength of its citizen- 
 ship, abounded in good works, and his 
 untimely death, at the age of forty-nine 
 years, was deeply regretted by all with 
 whom he was brought in contact, either 
 in business or social life. He was an 
 excellent business man and left to pos- 
 terity, in the form of the Kee Lox Manu- 
 facturing Company, an enterprise of great 
 merit that stands as a monument to his 
 memory. 
 
 AVERELL, William Holt, 
 
 long Time Resident of Rochester. 
 
 Liberally educated and a man of 
 broad culture, strong and forceful in 
 character, true to every trust reposed in 
 
 290 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 him, loyal to his friends and steadfast in 
 his fidelity to any cause he championed 
 or to any principle he espoused, William 
 Holt Averell during the thirty years of 
 his residence in Rochester, New York, 
 won the highest respect of that com- 
 munity and left the impress of his dis- 
 tinctive personality upon his time. By 
 birth and descent he inherited a legacy 
 of good blood, and to the virtues of his 
 sires he added the personal traits that so 
 blended with those of inheritance as to 
 form a perfect character. 
 
 William H. Averell was born in Mor- 
 ristown, New Jersey, August I, 1849, died 
 in Rochester, New York, October 13, 
 1904, son of William John Averell, born 
 in Ogdensburg, New York, and Mary 
 Lawrence Williamson, his wife. William 
 John Averell, a banker and gentleman 
 farmer of Ogdensburg, New York, hav- 
 ing extensive landed interests largely in 
 Lawrence county, New York, was a 
 descendant of an old Colonial family early 
 seated at Cooperstown, New York. Mary 
 Lawrence Williamson was a descendant 
 of an influential early New Jersey family, 
 granddaughter of Matthias Williams, a 
 graduate of Princeton College and a lead- 
 ing lawyer of his day. Her father, Jona- 
 than Dayton Williamson, was a graduate 
 of the United States Naval Academy at 
 Annapolis, an officer of the navy, and 
 died at Havana, Cuba, where he was 
 buried. 
 
 William H. Averell obtained his early 
 education in Ogdensburg schools, passed 
 to Northampton Preparatory School, 
 thence to Yale University, whence he was 
 graduated with honors, class of 1872. 
 After graduation he joined his father in 
 Ogdensburg and aided in the conduct of 
 the latter's bank for two years. In 1874 
 he located in Rochester, organized the 
 Furnaceville Iron Company, and was 
 connected with that company for several 
 
 years in official capacity. He later be- 
 came a partner in the wholesale grocery 
 firm, George C. Buell & Company, a con- 
 nection that existed until his death. He 
 had other important business interests 
 and was a director of the Genesee Valley 
 Trust Company. He was one of the 
 progressive men of his day, yet conserv- 
 ative, well balanced, and sane in all his 
 business operations. He won public 
 esteem and by sheer force of character 
 became a leader in the mercantile world. 
 
 At Yale he was a member of the noted 
 senior society, Scroll and Keys, and in 
 Rochester was an honored, active member 
 of the Genesee Valley and Country clubs. 
 He was fond of open air sports and 
 recreation, thoroughly enjoying the 
 opportunities afforded by these clubs, as 
 well as of others to which he belonged in 
 Northern New York. He was a member 
 of the Sons of the Revolution. He had 
 little taste for public life, but was deeply 
 interested in all that concerned the public 
 welfare and exercised all the rights per- 
 taining to American citizenship. He was 
 an Independent in politics, and in relig- 
 ious conviction a vestryman of St. John's 
 Church, later of St. Paul's. 
 
 Mr. Averell married, June 13, 1878, at 
 Rochester, Mary Bloss Buell, daughter 
 of George C. Buell and Elizabeth Bloss, 
 his wife. Children : William Holt (2), 
 born in Ogdensburg, May 13, 1879, gradu- 
 ate of Yale University, class of 1900, two 
 years with the Great Northern railroad, 
 eight years with the Southern Pacific 
 railroad, and for the past five years 
 general superintendent of the Baltimore 
 & Ohio railroad ; Elizabeth Buell, asso- 
 ciated with Mrs. John W. Anderson, of 
 the Arden Studios, New York City; 
 Ruth, married Dwight R. Meigs, head 
 master of the Hill School, Pottstown, 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 291 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 CURTIS, Eugene Thomas, 
 
 Man of Affairs, Philanthropist. 
 
 One of Rochester's native sons, Eugene 
 Thomas Curtis, in his useful life, his 
 business connections, and his philan- 
 thropic work, was an honor to the city of 
 his birth. A veteran of the Civil War, 
 it was not until after his return from the 
 army that his active connection with the 
 "Union and Advertiser" began, but from 
 1865 until his death in 1910 he held close 
 relations with that newspaper, for several 
 years and until his death being president 
 of the corporation owning and publishing 
 it. Kindly-hearted and benevolent, he 
 engaged in many forms of philanthropy, 
 but his especial interest was young men. 
 He was one of the organizers of the Boys' 
 Evening Home maintained by the Unitar- 
 ian church, and from its foundation in 
 1889 until his death was its efficient 
 president. He acquired large business 
 interests in his native city and left an 
 honored name in the commercial world. 
 
 Eugene Thomas Curtis was born in 
 Rochester, October 25, 1844, died at his 
 home, No. 95 South Fitzhugh street, May 
 7, 1910, son of Joseph and Elizabeth 
 (Gurney) Curtis. He obtained his early 
 and preparatory education in the public 
 schools of Rochester, and after graduation 
 from the high school entered Williams 
 College in 1861. He continued in the 
 college throughout his freshman and 
 sophomore years, but in his junior year 
 he left college and enlisted in the Union 
 army. He served until the close of the 
 war, then returned to Rochester, which 
 city was ever his home. Some years later 
 Mr. Curtis and several other students 
 who had left the college to enter the 
 army were awarded their degrees by the 
 college authorities. 
 
 In 1865 he entered the office of the 
 "Union and Advertiser" and for several 
 
 years was engaged with that company 
 exclusively. He then became a member 
 of the shoe manufacturing firm, Curtis & 
 Wheeler, continuing for many years head 
 of that firm. When the Union and 
 Advertiser Company became a corpora- 
 tion Mr. Curtis was elected president and 
 held that office until his death. The paper 
 prospered under his business guidance 
 and is now the leading afternoon daily 
 paper of the city. Mr. Curtis was a direc- 
 tor of the Rochester Trust & Safe Deposit 
 Company, director of the Monroe County 
 Savings Bank, and had other important 
 business interests. He was an active 
 member of the Unitarian church and for 
 fifteen years served as president of the 
 board of trustees. He was deeply inter- 
 ested in the Boys' Evening Home of the 
 church, which he served for twenty-one 
 years as president. His prominence as 
 manufacturer and publisher was officially 
 recognized by the Chamber of Commerce 
 in 189 1 by his election as president of that 
 body. He was also deeply interested in 
 the work of the Mechanics' Institute of 
 Rochester, and held active membership 
 in the G. H. Thomas Post, Grand Army 
 of the Republic. 
 
 Mr. Curtis married, October 4, 1866, 
 Sarah L. Thompson, daughter of Na- 
 thaniel and Julia (Harvey) Thompson, 
 natives of Rochester, who survives him 
 (a resident of Rochester) with her two 
 sons, Gurney T., a resident of Rochester, 
 married Alice Peck, two children, Helen 
 Gurney, and Edward Peck; and Joseph, 
 a resident of Rochester, married Grace 
 Hastings, of Rochester, one child, Kath- 
 leen Hastings. 
 
 MILES, Franklin, 
 
 Retired Business Man. 
 
 Many years have come and gone since 
 the advent of the Miles family, of which 
 Franklin Miles, of Rochester, New York, 
 
 292 
 
3\. 
 
 ^ 
 
^_^v>«v. /hn 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 was a worthy representative, in this sec- 
 tion of the country, and the earlier 
 members of the family were among those 
 brave and sturdy pioneers to whose un- 
 daunted zeal and energy the earlier pros- 
 perity of this country is due. The parents 
 of Franklin Miles, William and Catherine 
 (Emmert) Miles, lived in Victor, Ontario 
 county, New York, for a time, then in 
 Maryland, Otsego county, New York, 
 which had been the birthplace of the 
 father. 
 
 Franklin Miles was born in Bloomfield, 
 New York, February 12, 1832, and died in 
 Rochester, New York, August 2, 1907. 
 He acquired what was considered a good, 
 practical education in those days, in the 
 common schools in the vicinity of his 
 home, and lived with his parents until he 
 had attained the age of eighteen years. 
 He then determined to branch out for 
 himself, and for the purpose of carrying 
 out this idea, took up his residence in 
 Rochester, with which city he was iden- 
 tified from that time forth. His business 
 for a long time was that of a contractor 
 and builder, and he was thus practically 
 engaged in the growth and development 
 of the city. Subsequently he became 
 associated with his brother in the manu- 
 facture of sashes, doors and blinds, the 
 style of the firm being W. E. & F. Miles, 
 and this industry was successfully car- 
 ried on until 1899, when Mr. Miles dis- 
 posed of his interest in the enterprise, and 
 retired to the comfort and ease of private 
 life, undisturbed by business trials and 
 responsibilities. While the firm had the 
 usual amount of business competition to 
 contend with, they had no difficulty in 
 holding their own, owing to the reliability 
 of their methods of doing business and 
 the excellent quality of the materials they 
 used. Early in their affairs they made it 
 a rule never to sacrifice quality of material 
 or workmanship in order to gain addi- 
 
 tional profit, and the wisdom of this 
 method soon became apparent in increas- 
 ed orders and the steady continuance of 
 their trade even when others were strug- 
 gling from the effects of panicky years. 
 The men in his employ regarded Mr. 
 Miles in the light of a fatherly friend 
 rather than as an employer, and they were 
 ever given the maximum wages, a consid- 
 eration which is so frequently lacking. Not 
 long after the outbreak of the Civil War, 
 Mr. Miles enlisted in the Thirty-third Regi- 
 ment, New York Volunteer Infantry, and 
 when his term of service expired in this, 
 he at once reenlisted, becoming a member 
 of the Forty-ninth Regiment, New York 
 Volunteer Infantry, and remained in 
 service until the close of the war. In 
 political matters, as in every other field, 
 Mr. Miles was a man who preferred to 
 form his own opinions rather than have 
 them formed for him, consequently he 
 was an Independent, and thinking he was 
 best serving the interests of the com- 
 munity by devoting his time and atten- 
 tion to furthering its commercial and 
 industrial prosperity, he never evinced 
 any desire to hold public office. 
 
 Mr. Miles married (first) in 1854, Sarah 
 Fay, whose death occurred in 1871 ; he 
 married (second) in 1876, Agnes E. 
 Crowner. While prominent and influen- 
 tial in the business world, Mr. Miles was 
 of a quiet and retiring disposition socially, 
 and found his greatest pleasure within the 
 home circle. He ever believed that integ- 
 rity and straightforward dealing ought to 
 go hand in hand with success, and his 
 own life record is ample verification of 
 this belief 
 
 LUDINGTON, Ira Millard, 
 
 Prominent Railroad Contractor. 
 
 Among the representative citizens of 
 Rochester, New York, who, by their 
 honorable exertions and moral attributes 
 
 2 93 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 have carved out for themselves friends, 
 affluence and position, and by the 
 strength and force of their own characters 
 overcame obstacles which, to others less 
 hopeful and courageous, were apparently 
 insurmountable, the name of Ira M. 
 Ludington, who died January 27, 1910, 
 must ever appear as a synonym for all 
 that is enterprising and progressive in 
 citizenship. Endowed with a many- 
 sided mental equipment, combined with 
 an energy and an enthusiasm which made 
 him a tireless and effective worker, he 
 gained a success in life which cannot be 
 measured by financial prosperity only. 
 He is a descendant of English ancestors. 
 The name of Ludington is of English 
 origin, derived from a parish at one time 
 called Lydington, in Northamptonshire, 
 as first mentioned in Domesday Book, 
 when it was a part of the Bishopric of 
 Lincoln. It has since been set off to the 
 county of Rutland. The chief seat of the 
 family seems to have been in the Eastern 
 Midlands, though families of the same 
 name appear in the counties of Lincoln, 
 Rutland, Leicester, Huntingdon, North- 
 ampton, Warwick and Worcester. There 
 is a credible tradition that in the Third 
 Crusade a Ludington was among the fol- 
 lowers of Richard, Coeur de Lion, and 
 that afterward, when that adventurous 
 monarch was a prisoner in Austria, he 
 sought to visit him in the guise of a pal- 
 mer, in order to devise with him some 
 plan of escape. Because of such loyal 
 exploits he was invested with a patent 
 of nobility, and with the coat-of-arms of 
 the family : Pale of six argent and azure 
 on a chief gules a lion passant and gar- 
 dant. Crest : A palmer's staff erect. 
 Motto: Probum non pcnitet. Robert Lud- 
 ington, gentleman, was a merchant in the 
 Levantine trade, and also made a pil- 
 grimage to Palestine. He died at Worces- 
 ter, England, in 1625, at the age of sev- 
 
 enty-six vears. The exact degree of rela- 
 tionship between him and the American 
 immigrant is not known, but there is rea- 
 son to believe they were of the same 
 family. 
 
 Ira M. Ludington was born in Sulli- 
 van county, New York, April 3, 1849, 
 and died suddenly at his home, No. 237 
 Rutgers street, Rochester, New York, 
 January 27, 1910. For many years he 
 was prominently identified with railroad 
 enterprises, his first work in this field 
 being the construction of the New York 
 & Oswego railroad in 1867, and he sub- 
 sequently became roadmaster of this line. 
 The construction firm of D. C. Jackson 
 & Company offered him the position of 
 superintendent, and he entered upon the 
 duties of this office in 1877. The third 
 and fourth tracks of the New York Cen- 
 tral, from Lyons west, were laid under 
 his personal supervision, and in 1878 he 
 superintended the construction of the 
 Rochester & State Line railroad, now 
 known as the Buffalo, Rochester & Pitts- 
 burg railroad. From 1890 to 1893 he 
 superintended the construction of the On- 
 tario, Carbondale & Scranton railway, 
 now the New York, Ontario & Western, 
 from Hancock, New York, to Scranton, 
 Pennsylvania ; from 1893 to 1898 he held 
 the office of general manager of the 
 Rochester & Irondequoit railway, build- 
 ing the Summerville Electric Line and 
 also the East Boulevard during this time. 
 He established himself in the railroad 
 contracting business independently in 
 1898, and constructed the Rochester & 
 Sodus Bay Trolley Line complete; he 
 also constructed that part of the Green- 
 wich & Johnsonville railroad from Green- 
 wich to Schuylerville, New York ; forty 
 miles of double track work of the New 
 York, Ontario & Western railroad, in 
 Sullivan, Delaware and Chenango coun- 
 ties ; built State highways in Orange 
 
 294 
 
(< Zvoct&cm 
 
 A 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 county ; had State contracts at Medina 
 and Lockport ; constructed an electric 
 railroad from near Syracuse to Skanea- 
 teles ; and during the four years prior to 
 his death built the Rochester, Syracuse 
 & Eastern Electric Line from Lyons to 
 Auburn and from Port Byron to Peru. 
 Those competent to judge always gave 
 his work highest praise. 
 
 Mr. Ludington married, February 7, 
 1871, Mary R. Weed, daughter of Samuel 
 B. Weed, of Ulster county, New York, 
 who survives him, as do his sons, Claude 
 and Ira, who are president and treasurer 
 and vice-president of the I. M. Luding- 
 ton's Sons, Inc., respectively, carrying on 
 the business founded by their father, and 
 now engaged in many large contracts. 
 Also a granddaughter, Norma Ludington 
 Wynan, a grandson, Charles Ira Luding- 
 ton, and a sister, Mrs. Jennie Weed. His 
 religious affiliation was with the Church 
 of the Epiphany. Mr. Ludington was a 
 member of the Masonic fraternity, in 
 which he had risen to the rank of a 
 Shriner. In any and every relation of 
 life he was a most independent and de- 
 pendable man, strong in his convictions, 
 looking to no man to outline for him any 
 course of reason or action, and failing in 
 no trust or responsibility that fell upon 
 his shoulders. He was a man to be 
 trusted and looked up to , adhering un- 
 falteringly to whatever he believed to be 
 right, so fearless in defense of his honest 
 convictions that he awakened the respect 
 of even those who opposed him. 
 
 JUDSON, J. Lee, 
 
 Extensive Manufacturer. 
 
 J. Lee Judson was born in Cincinnati, 
 Ohio, July 14, 1847, son OI Junius and 
 Lavenda (Bushnell) Judson, mentioned 
 in this work. When four years of age, 
 his father located in Rochester, New 
 
 York, and there his entire life was spent. 
 He was educated in public and private 
 schools, and in early life he became his 
 father's assistant in his manufacturing 
 business. He gained a thorough train- 
 ing in the business methods of the day, 
 and this combined with inherited ability 
 and energy amply equipped him for his 
 life work. He became a power in the 
 manufacturing field, and in 1896, when 
 his father passed away, the son became 
 head of the Judson Companies, the Jud- 
 son Governor Company, the Judson Pin 
 Manufacturing Company and the Judson 
 Power Company, of all of which he was 
 the executive head until his death. 
 
 He formed his first connection with the 
 Rochester public utilities upon the organ- 
 ization of the Edison Electric Company, 
 and he was a member of the first board 
 of directors, and became its president. 
 In 1892 a merger was effected of the 
 Brush Electric Light Company, the 
 Rochester Electric Light Company, the 
 Edison Electric Company, the Rochester 
 Gas Company and the Citizens' Gas Com- 
 pany, the resultant combination being 
 known as the Rochester Gas and Electric 
 Company. Mr. Judson was chosen presi- 
 dent of this corporation, which position he 
 held until his death, October 5. 1901. 
 While closely identified with many great 
 Rochester interests, his connection with 
 that company during the first nine years 
 of its existence was most valuable and far- 
 reaching in its results to Rochester. One 
 result which he sought in that connection 
 was the utilizing of the great power of the 
 Genesee river with its three falls within 
 the city limits. Although this power in 
 New York State is second only to that at 
 Niagara Falls, it was then little used. His 
 well thought out theory was that this 
 great flow of water could be conserved, 
 regulated and tempered by a series of low 
 dams in the river from Rochester to a 
 
 295 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 point south of Mt. Morris, thus securing 
 a steady flow during the periods of low 
 stages of water in the river. With this in 
 mind, he gradually acquired for the 
 Rochester Gas and Electric Company 
 nearly ninety per cent, of the water rights 
 in the Genesee river within the city, also 
 dams and water powers in the Genesee 
 river and its tributaries, which gave that 
 company eighty per cent, of the rights in 
 the river and on the watershed north of 
 Mount Morris, including the outlet at 
 Silver Lake. He did not live to see the 
 completion of his great plans, but he did 
 accomplish so much that only a few days 
 before his death he confided to a friend 
 with satisfaction that thus far the success 
 of his plans had entirely met his expecta- 
 tions. 
 
 He was closely identified with the 
 Rochester banking corporations, and was 
 influential in their management. He was 
 vice-president of the Fidelity Trust Com- 
 pany, trustee of the Security Trust Com- 
 pany, trustee of the Rochester Trust 
 Company, and a director of the German 
 American Bank. The foregoing were the 
 chief business interests of a strong man 
 fortified with an inflexible will and an 
 integrity of purpose that gave him an 
 unusual power. There was no subter- 
 fuge possible in dealing with him, for his 
 sturdy honesty courted and required fair- 
 ness. He was courageous ; he could not 
 be frightened or coerced into any course 
 which varied a hair's breadth from his 
 standards of right. As a result of such 
 methods, he left the interests he repre- 
 sented and so successfully conducted 
 until his death upon a sure foundation. 
 
 In a most unostentatious way, Mr. Jud- 
 son gave largely to institutions of charity 
 and philanthropy. He was a member of 
 the board of trustees of the University of 
 Rochester, and just before his death was 
 elected a vice-president. His religious 
 
 convictions were deep and abiding, and 
 in his daily life he was ever guided by 
 those convictions. He was a member of 
 the Second Baptist Church, and served 
 long as president of its board of trustees. 
 He gave to university and church valu- 
 able service, and when a trust was ac- 
 cepted he gave to that trust his best 
 efforts. 
 
 Though many years have passed since 
 J. Lee Judson died, his memory is cher- 
 ished in loving remembrance, not alone 
 by the family he so dearly loved, but by 
 all those who came in contact with him 
 in the different walks of life. 
 
 J. Lee Judson married Mary C. Mack, 
 who survives him, with five children, 
 namely: i. Marie L., became the wife of 
 Harry Palmer Rusling, a banker of 
 Lawrenceville, Tioga county, Pennsyl- 
 vania, January i, 19x13. 2. Junius R., a 
 graduate of Yale College, receiving the 
 degree of Bachelor of Arts, and of Har- 
 vard Law School, from which he gradu- 
 ated in 1901 ; he entered the Rochester 
 Gas and Electric Company at time of his 
 father's death and continued with the 
 same as secretary until 1904 ; since that 
 time has engaged in the practice of law 
 at Rochester, New York ; he is a member 
 of the Genesee Valley Club, University 
 Club and the Country Club ; married, 
 February 17, 1906, Bessie Fearey, of Bos- 
 ton, Massachusetts, daughter of Thomas 
 H. Fearey,, and they have one son 
 Thomas Fearey. 3. Grace A. 4. Joseph- 
 ine L., became the wife of George N. 
 Shafer, president W. E. Pruden Hard- 
 ware Company, New York City, January 
 1, 1909. 5. Marjorie Elizabeth, who died 
 April 12, 1908. 
 
 Lee Mack Judson, the eldest son, had 
 passed his preliminary examinations pre- 
 paratory to entering Yale College in the 
 class of 1897, when in the summer of 
 1892 he v/as drowned while spending his 
 
 296 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 vacation at Blue Mountain Lake in the 
 Adirondacks on the 25th of July. He was 
 a student, athletic in his diversions and 
 was popular with his schoolmates and 
 teachers. By his death, a life of great 
 promise was suddenly ended. 
 
 GRAVES, Lorenzo S., 
 
 Leading Manufacturer. 
 
 Lorenzo S. Graves, who is now num- 
 bered among the honored dead, and who 
 for many years was a leading manufac- 
 turer and one of the most prominent resi- 
 dents of Rochester, came to this city in 
 1858. He was afterwards connected with 
 several of the leading productive indus- 
 tries here and finally established the 
 Graves Elevator Company, which later 
 became the Otis Elevator Company, with 
 which business he was associated until 
 1900. He achieved such a goodly measure 
 of success that his methods are of interest 
 to the commercial world and in an ana- 
 lyzation of his life work it will be found 
 that he based his business principles and 
 actions upon the rules which govern in- 
 dustry and strict, unswerving integrity. 
 
 A native of Massachusetts, Mr. Graves 
 was born in Southboro, July 18, 1831, his 
 parents being Watson and Fanny 
 (Dench) Graves, the latter a descendant 
 of old Revolutionary stock. The father 
 was born and reared in Southboro, Massa- 
 chusetts, and while a young man he 
 learned the boot and shoemaker's trade, 
 following the same at Southboro during 
 the early part of his life. He then re- 
 moved to Ashland, Massachusetts, where 
 he lived retired during his later years. His 
 widow afterward made her home with her 
 son and while visiting her daughter in 
 Newark Valley she passed away. 
 
 In taking up the personal history of 
 Lorenzo S. Graves we present to our 
 readers the record of one who for many 
 
 years figured prominently in connection 
 with the industrial development of the 
 city. He acquired his preliminary educa- 
 tion in the public schools of Ashland and 
 Andover, Massachusetts, and completed 
 his studies in the school at Amherst, Mas- 
 sachusetts. He was living in Worcester, 
 that State, at the time of his marriage to 
 Eliza G. Coffin, an old schoolmate. Her 
 father, Captain Moses Coffin, of Nan- 
 tucket, Massachusetts, was a sea captain 
 and master of vessels. After leaving the 
 sea he settled in Willimantic, Connecti- 
 cut, where he was employed in the first 
 paper mill in the United States. Subse- 
 quently he removed to Ashland, Massa- 
 chusetts, where he resided until 1851, 
 when he became a resident of Springfield, 
 Vermont, where both he and his wife 
 passed away. Their daughter, Eliza G., 
 became the wife of Lorenzo S. Graves and 
 unto this marriage were born two sons, 
 Edward, who died in infancy, and Fred 
 B., who married Frances Oswald. He 
 was for years superintendent and manager 
 of the Otis Elevator Company, but is now 
 retired. Mr. and Mrs. Graves also reared 
 an adopted daughter, Ida L., who is now 
 the wife of Charles H. Chase, a nursery- 
 man residing at No. 4 Winthrop street. 
 
 In early manhood Lorenzo S. Graves 
 learned the shoemaker's trade with his 
 father, making as high as twelve pairs of 
 boots per day, so expert had he become 
 at hand labor. Upon his removal to 
 Rochester in 1858 he began working as a 
 shoemaker in the employ of a Mr. Church- 
 ill. After a brief period, however, he 
 turned his attention to teaming, and a 
 little later, in i860, he gave to the world 
 as the result of his inventive genius and 
 study the Graves sole cutter, a machine 
 for cutting leather soles. He then began 
 the manufacture of the same, his factory 
 being located on Mill street. He also en- 
 gaged in the manufacture of paper cutters 
 
 297 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 and shoe machinery and was very suc- 
 cessful in both lines, continuing the busi- 
 ness for a number of years and winning 
 a creditable place as a substantial repre- 
 sentative of commercial interests here. 
 At length he decided to engage in the 
 building of elevators and the Graves Ele- 
 vator Company was formed, and the pres- 
 ent large factory now operated under the 
 name of the Otis Elevator Company was 
 erected at Nos. 198 to 210 Commercial 
 street. From the beginning the enter- 
 prise grew rapidly until several hundred 
 men were employed on the construction 
 of all kinds of passenger and freight ele- 
 vators which were shipped to every sec- 
 tion of the country. This became one of 
 the largest productive industries of the 
 city. It was developed along progressive, 
 modern business lines, not only meeting 
 but anticipating the needs of the trade in 
 this direction, and Mr. Graves continued 
 at the head of the concern until 1901, 
 when he sold his interest to the Otis Com- 
 pany, at which time the firm name was 
 changed to the Otis Elevator Company, 
 of which the son was the efficient superin- 
 tendent and manager for many years. 
 The father then retired to private life. He 
 was always a very busy man and in his 
 earlier years his evenings were devoted 
 to study and investigation, especially 
 along architectural lines. His experi- 
 ments resulted in inventions which gained 
 for him a prominent place in the busi- 
 ness world. He certainly deserved much 
 credit for what he accomplished and 
 justly earned the proud American title of 
 a self-made man, for he had a capital of 
 but a few dollars when he and his wife 
 arrived in Rochester. The years passed 
 and his industry and ability made him 
 one of the well-to-do citizens. His suc- 
 cess may be ascribed to his positive, 
 determined pursuit of business and to the 
 
 fact that he was a man of unflinching 
 commercial integrity. 
 
 After retiring from the field of manu- 
 facture Mr. Graves, accompanied by his 
 wife, traveled quite extensively, visiting 
 many points of interest in this country 
 and also making three trips to Europe. 
 They likewise visited the Holy Land and 
 various sections of Asia and South Amer- 
 ica. Mr. Graves was always deeply inter- 
 ested in historic research, and during 
 their travels he and his wife gathered 
 many interesting relics of all kinds in 
 various parts of the world, Mrs. Graves 
 now having in her home two large, fine 
 cabinets well filled with shells, stones and 
 other interesting relics of their trips. 
 
 In his political views Mr. Graves was a 
 stalwart Republican who took much in- 
 terest in the party and its growth. He 
 was frequently solicited by his friends to 
 become a candidate for office but always 
 refused. He built a large and beautiful 
 residence at No. 257 Lake avenue, where 
 his widow yet resides. There in the 
 spring of 1903 he became ill and his death 
 occurred April 21, 1905. Mrs. Graves be- 
 longs to the Central Presbyterian Church. 
 Theirs was a most congenial married life 
 and the very close companionship made 
 the death of the husband an almost un- 
 bearable blow to Mrs. Graves. His loss 
 was also deeply felt throughout the city 
 where he had resided for more than forty- 
 five years — honored as one of its leading 
 business men and prominent citizens. He 
 was one of the ablest and best known 
 manufacturers of Rochester, was genial 
 in manner, and though his time was 
 largely occupied by the details of exten- 
 sive business interests, he always found 
 time and opportunity to devote to those 
 of his friends whose calls were purely of 
 a social character. He was a thorough 
 exemplification of the typical American 
 business man and gentleman. 
 
 298 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 LIKLY, William Charles, 
 
 Successful Manufacturer. 
 
 For half a century the name of Likly 
 has stood as a synonym for reliability, 
 energy and progress in Rochester's busi- 
 ness world and wherever the manufac- 
 tured products bearing the name are sold. 
 Founded by the father and continued by 
 his sons, the house of Henry Likly & 
 Company — now the Henry Likly Com- 
 pany — manufacturers of trunks, traveling 
 bags and other leather goods, became one 
 of Rochester's representative commercial 
 houses, owned and managed by the 
 founder and his son, William C. Likly, 
 both men of sterling character, masterly 
 ability and executive strength, true types 
 of the men who have made Rochester 
 famed as a great manufacturing and busi- 
 ness centre. Although but forty-eight 
 years of age when his earthly career 
 ended, William C. Likly was president 
 of one of the largest companies of its kind 
 in the entire world, a company with which 
 he had been associated from his twentieth 
 year and was not only the executive head 
 but was thoroughly familiar with every 
 detail of the large manufacturing plant 
 operated by the Henry Likly Company 
 and had personal knowledge of every 
 phase of manufacture from bench to fin- 
 ished product. Founder and son, now 
 both passed to the spirit land, were men 
 actuated by most worthy motives, and 
 controlled by the highest principles, both 
 were honored and respected in life and 
 truly mourned in death. 
 
 Henry Likly, the father, was born in 
 Perth, Canada, January 18, 1836, died in 
 Rochester, New York, December 12, 1897. 
 He came to Rochester with his widowed 
 mother in the spring of 1848, and after 
 securing a good public school education 
 entered the employ of A. R. Pritchard, a 
 manufacturer of trunks and traveling 
 
 bags, a business he had established in 
 Rochester in 1844. Henry Likly served 
 a full term of apprenticeship, becoming 
 an expert maker and designer of trunks 
 and traveling bags. So valuable did he 
 eventually become to the business, that 
 he was admitted to the firm on January 
 1, 1848, the new firm name A. B. & T. H. 
 Pritchard & Company. In 1871 further 
 changes were made, the firm then becom- 
 ing A. B. Pritchard & Likly, and so con- 
 tinuing until Mr. Likly and his brother- 
 in-law, W. D. Callister, purchased the 
 Pritchard interest and as sole owners con- 
 ducted the business under the firm name, 
 Henry Likly & Company. They developed 
 a very large business as manufacturers, 
 wholesalers and retailers, Mr. Likly con- 
 tinuing the active head until his death. 
 A Republican in politics and deeply inter- 
 ested in public affairs, he never accepted 
 public office although often urged to do 
 so, believing he could best serve his 
 adopted city in a private capacity. He 
 was a charter member of Corinthian 
 Lodge, No. 805, Free and Accepted Ma- 
 sons, and a past noble grand of the Inde- 
 pendent Order of Odd Fellows. He lived 
 a life of usefulness, lived it in honor and 
 passed the name of Likly to his sons un- 
 sullied by any unworthy act of his. He 
 married, in 1861, Helen E. Callister, who 
 bore him two sons, William Charles, of 
 further mention, and Henry, born March 
 12, 1870, and all his mature life associated 
 with his father and brother in business. 
 
 William Charles Likly, eldest son of 
 Henry and Helen E. (Callister) Likly, 
 was born in Rochester, March 31, 1867, 
 died in his native city, at his home, No. 
 95 Merriman street, September 7, 1915. 
 He attended the grammar and high 
 schools and the Free Academy of Roches- 
 ter, and after graduation at the age of 
 seventeen years, entered the employ of 
 the Traders' National Bank as messen- 
 
 299 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ger. He remained with that institution 
 for one year, then spent another year in 
 the service of the old Union Bank. In 
 1887 he became associated with his father 
 and until the latter's death in 1897 was his 
 trusted and valued assistant. He then be- 
 came head of Henry Likly & Company 
 and until his own death, eighteen years 
 later, was the impelling, directing force 
 that kept that company in the front rank 
 in trunk manufacture. While the busi- 
 ness was started by Mr. Pritchard in 1844, 
 it was brought to its present immense 
 proportions by Henry and William C. 
 Likly, whose ambition was not only to 
 rank with the largest, but with the best, 
 most reliable trunk and traveling bag 
 manufacturers, an ambition realized by 
 both father and son. When it is known 
 that in one year 1,500,000 feet of lumber 
 was used in the making of trunk boxes 
 alone and that the output exceeded 30,000 
 trunks and bags in the same year, some 
 idea of the magnitude of the business of 
 Henry Likly & Company may be gained. 
 William C. Likly was president and treas- 
 urer of the Henry Likly Company from 
 its incorporation until his death, and in 
 addition to the responsibilities of that 
 position was president and treasurer of 
 the William D. Callister Realty Company, 
 treasurer of the Henry Likly Realty Com- 
 pany, director of the Genesee Valley 
 Trust Company and director of the 
 Traders' National Bank, the last named 
 institution, the one with which he began 
 his business career as a lad of seventeen 
 years. In all the foregoing responsible 
 positions Mr. Likly evidenced the 
 strength of his business ability, the 
 breadth of his vision, the depth of his con- 
 victions and the height of his devotion to 
 the truest principles of fair dealing, up- 
 rightness and integrity. The Henry Likly 
 Company was built upon character and 
 as the foundation so the entire structure. 
 
 No name is more widely known among 
 dealers in their specialties in the United 
 States and none is held in greater respect. 
 And as William C. Likly received the 
 name from his father so he passed it to his 
 son "unsullied by any unworthy act of 
 his." 
 
 Although devoted to his business inter- 
 ests, Mr. Likly realized that there were 
 other obligations of life to be met and in 
 meeting them he filled all the require- 
 ments of good citizenship. He enjoyed 
 the companionship of his fellow-men and 
 was associated with them in church, club 
 and fraternity. He was a member of St. 
 Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, Cor- 
 inthian Lodge, Free and Accepted Ma- 
 sons, the Genesee Valley, the Rochester, 
 Whist, Rochester Country and Oak Hill 
 Country clubs, taking an active interest 
 in all. A Republican in politics, he never 
 sought or accepted public office, but was 
 a supporter of all movements that prom- 
 ised progress or improvement. Thus his 
 life was passed in honor and in useful- 
 ness. He was laid at final rest in Mount 
 Hope Cemetery. 
 
 Mr. Likly married, September 12, 1893, 
 Nancy B. Watts, of Rochester, daughter 
 of Frederick Bakus Watts, born in 
 Rochester, and Katherine (Drummond) 
 Watts. Mrs. Likly survives him with 
 two children : Henry Kenneth, now 
 (1916), a student at Cornell University, 
 and Helen Catherine. 
 
 ARCHER, George Washington, 
 
 Lender in Business, Political and Social 
 Circles. 
 
 Leadership in more than one line is sel- 
 dom vouchsafed to an individual, but the 
 late George W. Archer aided largely in 
 molding public thought and opinion in 
 business, political and social circles. En- 
 dowed by nature with strong mentality, 
 
 300 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 he carefully prepared for every duty that 
 devolved upon him, and with a sense of 
 conscientious obligation met every re- 
 quirement and responsibility. An upright 
 manhood, and a strong desire for the ad- 
 vancement and upbuilding of the con> 
 munity wherein he resided, were the ele- 
 ments which made him honored and re- 
 spected by all with whom he was brought 
 in contact. 
 
 George W. Archer was a native of 
 Rochester, New York, born February 8, 
 1837, son of John and Elizabeth Archer, 
 and a descendant of an English ancestry. 
 John Archer was a native of England, 
 from whence he emigrated to this coun- 
 try in 1831, locating at first in New York 
 City, where he remained for three years, 
 devoting his attention to the business of 
 contracting and building, and then be- 
 came a resident of Rochester, which in 
 that year became an incorporated city, 
 and he there continued his business of 
 contracting until 1857, when he retired 
 from active business pursuits. His death 
 occurred in the year 1873, aged seventy 
 years. Among the children of John and 
 Elizabeth Archer were : Robert W. ; 
 George W., of whom further; Mrs. Mary 
 A. Copeland and Mrs. Joseph A. Coch- 
 rane ; John W. 
 
 George W. Archer attended the public 
 schools of Rochester, and completed his 
 studies at Eastman's Business College, 
 from which institution of learning he was 
 graduated. At the age of seventeen he 
 began his business career, learning the 
 trade of carpenter in his father's shop, and 
 upon the retirement from business of his 
 father, in 1857, entered the employ of his 
 brother, Robert W. Archer, who had pur- 
 chased the patent of a dental chair. Later 
 he became a bookkeeper at Petroleum 
 Center, Pennsylvania, in which capacity 
 he served until June, 1864. He then be- 
 came the proprietor of a machine shop at 
 
 Tar Farm on Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, 
 which he conducted until 1868, success 
 crowning his efforts, and in that year, 
 owing to the illness of his brother, he re- 
 turned to Rochester, and assumed the 
 management of his brother's business, the 
 manufacture of dental and barber chairs, 
 and so continued up to the time of his 
 retirement from business, a few years 
 prior to his death. The business was con- 
 ducted under the firm name of R. W. 
 Archer & Brother until 1873, when the 
 senior partner died, and George W. 
 Archer continued in the business alone 
 until January 11, 1881, when he admitted 
 his brother, John W. Archer, to a partner- 
 ship, under the firm, name of George W. 
 Archer & Company, which style was in 
 effect until January 1, 1884, when the 
 Archer Manufacturing Company was in- 
 corporated with George W. Archer as its 
 its president. The business increased in 
 volume and importance year by year, as- 
 suming large proportions, ranking among 
 the leading industries of the city of 
 Rochester, giving employment to many 
 hands. Being a man of good business 
 ability, keen foresight and great resource- 
 fulness, he widened the scope of his ac- 
 tivities by engaging in other lines of 
 endeavor which yielded him large re- 
 turns for labor expended. He was largely 
 interested in oil production in Pennsyl- 
 vania ; from 1882 to 1884 he was president 
 of the Rochester Gas and Electric Com- 
 pany, of which he had previously served 
 as treasurer ; was president of one of the 
 suburban roads ; was vice-president of the 
 Rochester Pullman Sash Balance Com- 
 pany; treasurer of the Vulcanite Paving 
 Company, and a member of the direc- 
 torate of various enterprises of the city. 
 
 Mr. Archer was a staunch adherent of 
 the principles of the Democratic party, on 
 which ticket he was elected alderman, 
 serving from 1881 to 1884. In 1886 he 
 
 301 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 was a candidate for mayor of Rochester 
 on the same ticket, but was defeated by 
 Cornelius R. Parsons. He took an active 
 interest in public affairs, and in the man- 
 agement of these he displayed the same 
 qualities that made his business career so 
 successful. Mr. Archer derived consider- 
 able pleasure from his interest in horses 
 and horse racing, he serving for many 
 years as president of the Rochester Driv- 
 ing Park Association. He was a starting 
 judge of marked ability, and often served 
 in that capacity at meets of importance, 
 and when Rochester had a place in the 
 Grand Circuit, the meets in that city 
 ranked among the best in the United 
 States. Mr. Archer was the owner of 
 horses for a number of years, and the 
 teams he drove in Rochester, before the 
 days of the motor car, were something to 
 compel the admiration of lovers of fine 
 horseflesh. He was a prominent member 
 of the Masonic fraternity, and the Gene- 
 see Valley and Rochester Whist clubs. 
 Mr. Archer married, September 14, 1865, 
 Augusta McClure, who survived him. 
 
 Mr. Archer passed away at his late 
 home, No. 83 St. Paul street, Rochester, 
 June 11, 1911, aged seventy-four years. 
 Thus ended a long, active and useful life, 
 which left an impress for good upon all 
 who came within the circle in which he 
 moved. 
 
 WOODBURY, Willis E., 
 
 Successful Business Man. 
 
 When Mr. Woodbury returned from 
 Colorado in 1882 he was a young man of 
 twenty-five, possessed of capital, experi- 
 ence, strong business ability and an am- 
 bition towin a name in thebusinessworld. 
 How well he succeeded in that ambition, 
 the firm of W. E. Woodbury & Company, 
 of which he was the head from its founda- 
 tion, with its chain of grocery stores in 
 
 several New York cities, must be the an- 
 swer. From Puritan and Huguenot an- 
 cestors he inherited his rich store of en- 
 ergy and talent but he drew so heavily 
 upon his physical resources that five years 
 prior to his death he was an invalid and 
 forced to retire from business. 
 
 He was a true son of Rochester, edu- 
 cated in her schools, one of the builders of 
 her commercial greatness, and with the 
 exception of five years spent in Colorado, 
 his years, fifty-eight, were passed in the 
 city of his birth. He descended paternally 
 from Jonathan Woodbury, who came from 
 England to Massachusetts, in 1624, and 
 maternally from John Boughton, a French 
 Huguenot, who came in 1635. 
 
 His father, Daniel A. Woodbury, born 
 in Vermont, was an engineer, located in 
 Rochester, founded and conducted the 
 Woodbury Engine Company, for many 
 years, was a partner with his son in W. E. 
 Woodbury & Company for thirty years, 
 but not active in business for several 
 years preceding his death. In early man- 
 hood he married Minerva C. Boughton, 
 born in New York, who bore him four 
 children, all now deceased. 
 
 Willis E. Woodbury, son of Daniel A. 
 and Minerva C. (Boughton) Woodbury, 
 was born in Rochester, June 23, 1857, died 
 at his home, No. 344 Lake avenue, in his 
 native city, January 14, 1916. He was 
 educated in Rochester public schools, was 
 engaged with his father, owner of the 
 Woodbury Engine Company, for a time, 
 but at the age of twenty years he went to 
 Colorado, spending five years in Lead- 
 ville, connected with the silver mining in- 
 terests of that mountain city. He was in 
 the West from 1877 until 1882, then re- 
 turned to Rochester, shortly after found- 
 ing the grocery firm of W. E. Woodbury 
 & Company, his father joining with him 
 in the enterprise. He succeeded with his 
 single store in Rochester and soon a 
 
 302 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 branch store was started, then another 
 and another, until his chain numbered ten 
 stores in different parts of the city. 
 Branches were then established in Elmira, 
 Batavia and Geneva, all owned by W. E. 
 Woodbury & Company and under the 
 direct management of W. E. Woodbury, 
 the founder and head. Fourteen stores 
 were included in this large enterprise, all 
 operated under a safe, conservative policy, 
 and transacting daily a vast volume of 
 retail grocery trade. Mr. Woodbury de- 
 veloped a wise executive ability, which, 
 coupled with his sound judgment, cau- 
 tious yet not timid policy, rendered the 
 house one of the strong and prosperous 
 mercantile enterprises of Rochester. 
 
 With his own private business well sys- 
 tematized and controlled, he gradually ac- 
 quired other interests, and at the time of 
 his retirement in 191 1 he was a director of 
 the Genesee Valley Trust Company, a 
 director of the Traders' National Bank, 
 and vice-president of the E. M. Upton 
 Cold Storage Company. He was highly 
 regarded in mercantile and financial cir- 
 cles, and was very popular socially. Up- 
 rightness and integrity marked his course 
 through life and the success he won was 
 fairly earned. He utilized the possibilities 
 his judgment and foresight pointed out, 
 and not only brought prosperity to his 
 own door, but added to the welfare and 
 upbuilding of his city. His genial, social, 
 friendly nature won him a host of friends, 
 and his manly qualities retained them. 
 
 In political faith he was a Republican, 
 but extremely independent in his political 
 action. He was a member of Lake Ave- 
 nue Baptist Church, and aided in the good 
 works of his denomination. His clubs 
 were the Genesee Valley, Rochester Coun- 
 try, and Rochester Whist. He was a 
 member of the Society of Founders and 
 Patriots, and took an active interest in 
 
 all the organizations to which he be- 
 longed. 
 
 Mr. Woodbury married, November 10, 
 1884, Mamie C. Christian, daughter of 
 Peter and Anna Christian, of Rochester, 
 who survives him residing at the beauti- 
 ful family home, No. 344 Lake avenue. 
 She has two daughters : Minerva C, mar- 
 ried Chauncey C. Woodworth, and has a 
 son, Chauncey C. (2), and a daughter, 
 Barbara R. Woodworth ; Evelyn M., re- 
 sides with her mother. 
 
 WARNER, Andrew Jackson, 
 
 Leading Architect and Builder. 
 
 In 1849 there came to Rochester, New 
 York, from "the land of steady habits," a 
 lad of sixteen years who was destined to 
 leave a distinct impress upon the archi- 
 tecture of that city, to add to its artistic 
 beauty and to the strength of its citizen- 
 ship. 
 
 This lad, Andrew Jackson Warner, was 
 born in New Haven, Connecticut, March 
 17, 1833, died in Rochester after an illness 
 of four years, September 4, 1910. He was 
 of early New England descent, son of 
 Amos and Ada (Austin) Warner, his 
 father a farmer, his grandfather a soldier 
 of the Revolution serving under General 
 Washington. 
 
 Andrew J. Warner spent his early life 
 in New Haven, obtaining a good educa- 
 tion in the public school. At the age of 
 sixteen he came to Rochester where he 
 had an uncle, Merwin Austin, an archi- 
 tect, who took the lad into his office. He 
 continued under his uncle's instruction for 
 seven years, receiving little salary but de- 
 veloping decided talent in designing and 
 draughting. At the end of seven years he 
 asked for increased salary and on being 
 refused, left the office proposing to start 
 in business for himself, not disheartened 
 at all by his uncle's prophesy that he would 
 
 303 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 "starve to death." He soon secured a foot- 
 hold, his skill, willingness and persever- 
 ance winning him friends and at first, 
 small commissions. As he grew in years 
 and experience, greater opportunities 
 came to him and the time arrived when he 
 was recognized as the leading architect in 
 all Western New York. He did a very 
 large business, employing many men, and 
 as an honorable reliable superintendent 
 and builder gained a reputation in keep- 
 ing with his skill as a designer. He made 
 architecture his deep and constant study 
 from mechanical and artistic standpoints, 
 harmonizing his designs with the location 
 to be occupied, its purpose intended and 
 the materials to be used in its construc- 
 tion. He had the highly developed faculty 
 of visualizing a projected building before 
 a line was drawn, but so thoroughly did 
 he study a location that, after the material 
 to be used was decided upon, a vision of 
 the building arose in his mind and from 
 that time it was but a matter of architec- 
 tural detail. Every important building 
 that he ever erected seemed to exactly fit 
 its location, to harmonize with its sur- 
 roundings, to be built of the proper ma- 
 terial to bring out its best features, and of 
 a design strictly appropriate to the pur- 
 pose for which it was intended. He was 
 master of the different orders of architec- 
 ture, and of the period styles of residence 
 construction and of interior design and 
 furnishing, the latter a branch in which 
 many architects are weak. 
 
 Among the famed buildings in Roches- 
 ter that he designed, planned and superin- 
 tended, the best specimens of his art 
 and skill are found in the Brick Church, 
 First Baptist Church, First Presbyterian 
 Church, Powers Block and Hotel, Ellan- 
 ger and Barry Building, Wilder Building, 
 City Hall, Second Court House, Entrance 
 to Mt. Hope Cemetery and Lyceum Thea- 
 tre. 
 
 He was an untiring worker, at his office 
 
 day and night, wholly devoted to his busi- 
 ness, suffering nothing to interfere with 
 the prompt fulfilment of his engagements. 
 His artistic soul delighted in harmony in 
 all things, thus music was a great pleasure. 
 He was of a social, friendly nature and 
 found enjoyment in the society of his Ma- 
 sonic brethren at such hours as he allowed 
 himself "off duty." He belonged to Val- 
 ley Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons ; 
 Rochester Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; 
 Cyrene Commandery, Knights Templar, 
 and in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, 
 and attained the thirty-second degree. He 
 was a Unitarian in religious belief, but 
 took little interest in politics and no part 
 in public life. He retired from business 
 about ten years prior to his death. But 
 the name he bore and the reputation he 
 gained is worthily upheld by his son, J. 
 Foster Warner, now Rochester's leading 
 architect. 
 
 Andrew J. Warner married, March 22, 
 1855, in the old Foster home, 91 Frank 
 street, Rochester, Kate Foster, daughter 
 of Jonathan Foster, born in Hillsboro, 
 New Hampshire, July 14, 1801, and his 
 wife, Huldah (Griffin) Foster, born July 
 17, 1802, at Pittsford, New York. Mrs. 
 Warner's father was a prominent citizen 
 and a pioneer of Rochester. On first com- 
 ing to Rochester Huldah Griffin forded 
 the Genesee at the point where the old jail 
 stood near the present site of the Erie 
 Railroad Station. Andrew J. and Kate 
 (Foster) Warner were the parents of four 
 children, two dying in infancy. Their 
 eldest son, William Amos, was born De- 
 cember 27, 1855, the youngest son, J. 
 Foster, May 5, 1859. Mrs. Warner sur- 
 vives her husband with whom she cele- 
 brated her "Golden Wedding" and five 
 succeeding anniversaries of their wedding 
 day, residing in the old home, 37 North 
 Washington street. She has two grand- 
 sons, Andrew Jackson and John A. War- 
 ner. 
 
 304 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ASHLEY, Egbert Fairchild, 
 
 Fire Underwriter and Insurance Expert. 
 
 While Mr. Ashley during his more than 
 thirty years of business life spent in 
 Rochester, New York, gained high repu- 
 tation as a fire underwriter and insurance 
 expert, a line of business activity to which 
 his life was exclusively devoted, he was 
 equally well-known and highly regarded 
 for his fine personal qualities, his activity 
 in church affairs and his charities. Genial 
 and lovable in nature he made many warm 
 friends and numbered his intimates among 
 the best people of his city. Although 
 born beyond the confines of the United 
 States, he was of American ancestry — his 
 grandfather a member of Congress from 
 New York — and when but an infant he 
 was brought by his parents to Ogdens- 
 burg, New York, that state ever after- 
 ward being his abiding place, and from 
 1872 until his death in 1907 Rochester was 
 his home. He began his business career 
 as a clerk, became a partner in the same 
 business, later became sole owner and left 
 to posterity the record of a successful 
 business life and an example of Christian 
 living worthy of emulation. 
 
 His grandfather. Judge Henry Ashley, 
 was born in the state of New Hampshire, 
 later became a resident of Dutchess 
 county, New York, where he attained 
 eminence as a lawyer, jurist and states- 
 man, representing his district in Congress 
 during the years 1825-26. Clarence Ash- 
 ley, son of Judge Henry Ashley, was born 
 at Catskill, New York, married at Odgens- 
 burg, New York, Emily Frances Fair- 
 child, also born in New York, and at the 
 time of the birth of his son was living at 
 Brockville, Canada. A few months later 
 he moved to Ogdensburg, thence to Bing- 
 hamton. New York, there engaging in the 
 hardware business until 1872 when he 
 located in Rochester, his home until death. 
 
 Egbert Fairchild Ashley, son of Clar- 
 ence and Emily Frances (Fairchild) Ash- 
 ley, was born at Brockville, Canada, Janu- 
 ary 8, 1856, died at his home in Rochester, 
 September 16, 1907, death resulting from 
 injuries received when thrown from his 
 carriage a year earlier. When he was a 
 few months old his parents moved to 
 Odgensburg, New York, thence to Bing- 
 hamton, where he attended public schools 
 until 1872. In thatyear the family moved to 
 Rochester where he completed his studies 
 at the Satterlee private school. In 1874, 
 being then eighteen years of age, he en- 
 tered business life as clerk to Mr. Ray- 
 mond, who conducted a fire insurance 
 agency in Rochester. He remained with 
 Mr. Raymond in clerical capacity for ten 
 years, mastering every detail of the busi- 
 ness and developing strong ability as an 
 underwriter. In 1884 he was admitted to 
 a partnership in the agency and so con- 
 tinued until 1891 when death dissolved 
 the association that had existed for seven- 
 teen years. Mr. Ashley purchased from 
 the Raymond heirs their interest and con- 
 tinued the business until 1906 under his 
 own name. In that year the agency had 
 assumed such large proportions that Mr. 
 Ashley — who had no sons — placed it upon 
 a permanent basis by incorporation as the 
 Egbert F. Ashley Company, but retained 
 control as its executive head. The acci- 
 dent which eventually caused his death 
 occurred the same year and closed his 
 connection with a business with which he 
 had been identified for thirty-three years. 
 As a business man he held a high position 
 and there was no phase of the fire insur- 
 ance business of which he was not master. 
 Upright and honorable he was implicitly 
 trusted, many important firms and corpo- 
 rations committing to him the sole control 
 of their fire insurance department. 
 
 Mr. Ashley was a long time member 
 of Christ Protestant Episcopal Church 
 
 N Y— Vol 11—20 
 
 305 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 and active in parish affairs. His sympa- 
 thy with those in misfortune led him into 
 active charitable work, and at the time of 
 his death he was treasurer of the Home for 
 the Friendless. He was a member of the 
 Masonic order, belonging to Frank R. 
 Lawrence Lodge, Free and Accepted Ma- 
 sons. His clubs were the Rochester, the 
 Genesee Valley and the Rochester Coun- 
 try. In political faith he was a Republi- 
 can, but although strong in his party 
 fealty he was not an active worker, nor 
 did he ever seek or accept public office. 
 
 Mr. Ashley married, December 26, 1889, 
 Elizabeth, daughter of William and Mary 
 (Hunt) McConnell, of Rochester. The 
 father was a native of Scotland, came to 
 New York at six years of age, settled in 
 Rochester, New York, died in his eighty- 
 seventh year. Mrs. Ashley survives her 
 husband and with her only child, a daugh-> 
 ter, Mary Frances, born March 15, 1892, 
 resides at No. 24 Hawthorn street, Roches- 
 ter. Both are member of Christ Protes- 
 tant Episcopal Church. Mr. Ashley is 
 also survived by a brother, W. Osborne 
 Ashley, now president of the Egbert F. 
 Ashley Company, the largest insurance 
 agency in Rochester. 
 
 KIMBALL, William S., 
 
 Honored Business Man and Humanitarian. 
 
 William S. Kimball, deceased, one of 
 the foremost business men of Rochester 
 and the friend and associate of many of 
 the eminent citizens of New York, passed 
 away March 26, 1895, leaving behind a 
 record which is an honor to the history of 
 the State of New York. Others have 
 figured more prominently before the 
 public in winning military and political 
 distinction, but William S. Kimball, 
 through his private business affairs and 
 the efforts which he put forth directly for 
 the benefit of the city, greatly promoted 
 
 its upbuilding and improvement. He 
 stood, however, for intellectual and aes- 
 thetic culture, for humanitarianism and 
 benevolence, and as the years rolled on 
 their course and were added to the cycle 
 of the centuries each one was filled with 
 successful accomplishments and good 
 deeds that indicated that, while not with- 
 out that laudable ambition for advance- 
 ment in the business world. Mr. Kimball 
 also possessed the thorough understand- 
 ing of its principles and its possibilities 
 that led him to aid his fellowmen and 
 work for individual character develop- 
 ment, for civic virtue and for national 
 progress. Although the life record is 
 ended, the full value of his work cannot 
 be estimated until interests with which he 
 was connected have reached their full 
 measure of possibilities for good. 
 
 William S. Kimball was a native of 
 Boscawen, New Hampshire. At the usual 
 age he became a student in the district 
 schools in his home locality and he entered 
 business life when a youth of fifteen as 
 an apprentice in the Lawrence Locomo- 
 tive Works, where he thoroughly ac- 
 quainted himself with the machinist's 
 trade. Anxious, however, for further edu- 
 cational privileges, for he had come to a 
 realization of the value of mental dis- 
 cipline, he entered school at Derry, New- 
 Hampshire, later studied at Andover, 
 Massachusetts, and completed a course in 
 mechanical drawing and engineering in 
 the Troy Polytechnic Institute. He was 
 now well qualified for the active, onerous 
 and responsible duties of life and became 
 employed in the rebuilding of locomotives 
 in the railroad repair shops in Concord, 
 New Hampshire. He thus added to his 
 theoretical training broad practical experi- 
 ence, and gained a thorough and practical 
 knowledge of locomotive engineering. 
 
 On resigning that position Mr. Kimball 
 came to Rochester, and upon the outbreak 
 
 306 
 
/ 1 1 frr /// 
 
 ■^■An^r,// 
 


 Tfcimfeirll, 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 of the Civil War was appointed master 
 mechanic in the navy, being attached to 
 the South Atlantic squadron under Ad- 
 miral Dupont at Port Royal, South Caro- 
 lina. There he was detailed to repair the 
 machinery of transports and gunboats and 
 under his supervision were employed a 
 force of one hundred mechanics on the 
 reconstruction of two old Nantucket 
 whalers, the "India" and the "Edward." 
 Mr. Kimball resigned his position in the 
 navy in 1863 and from that time forward 
 was connected with the tobacco trade in 
 Rochester. He was the founder and pro- 
 moter of the Kimball Tobacco Works, 
 one of the largest concerns of the kind in 
 the country, in which connection he 
 gained a world-wide reputation. He also 
 became vice-president of the American 
 Tobacco Company and developed his 
 business interests in that line until he be- 
 came one of the foremost representatives 
 of the tobacco trade in the United States. 
 Not alone to this line did Mr. Kimball 
 give his time and energies, for he figured 
 in connection with the management of 
 various important financial and corporate 
 interests. He was president of the Union 
 Bank, vice-president of the Security Trust 
 Company, a trustee of the Rochester Sav- 
 ings Bank and president of the Post Ex- 
 press Printing Company. He was like- 
 wise a director of the Rochester Railway 
 and the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo 
 Railroad Company. His judgment was 
 sound, his discrimination keen and his 
 sagacity far-reaching. 
 
 Many interests and measures which had 
 no moneyed interests for Mr. Kimball also 
 received his cooperation and the benefit of 
 his judgment and management. He had 
 a ready sympathy and a wide charity. 
 Too broad-minded to limit his belief by 
 any creed or dogma, he recognized man's 
 obligations to his fellowmen and withheld 
 his support from no plans for the amelio- 
 
 ration of the hard conditions of life for the 
 unfortunate. He acted as president of the 
 City Hospital and also of the State In- 
 dustrial School, and was much interested 
 in the great sociological problems which 
 bear upon the evolution of the race in its 
 intellectual and moral progress. He was 
 a lover of art, and the beautiful at all 
 times appealed to him. He acquired re- 
 nown almost equal to that which he 
 gained in business in bringing together a 
 large and valuable collection of orchids 
 which was long recognized as one of the 
 choicest in the country. He also collected 
 an extensive library and a very fine art 
 gallery, embracing numerous works from 
 the most famous artists of the world. He 
 died in the prime of life, passing away at 
 Virginia Beach, Virginia, March 26, 1895. 
 The "Post Express" said of him: 
 
 The death of William S. Kimball, of which in- 
 telligence has just come, must be regarded not 
 simply as a private loss, but as a public calamity. 
 Probably no other man was ever so closely 
 identified with the various social, business, charit- 
 able and educational interests of a community as 
 Mr. Kimball has been identified with those of 
 Rochester. He was a man of great wealth, but 
 what was much rarer, a man who believed in 
 putting his wealth into full activity and throwing 
 his personal energy into every movement for the 
 public good. He was the first to be asked where 
 a contribution was needed, where help in the 
 shape of an investment was sought, where indi- 
 vidual prestige was required. He was in the 
 full vigor of manly strength, in the full flush of 
 rational enjoyment of life — eager as a boy in the 
 pursuit of new interests, and satisfied as a boy in 
 the practice of old pastimes. His alertness and 
 gayety were unfailing; and his frankness, cour- 
 tesy, and good nature were such that his mere 
 presence was enough to win popularity. As a 
 business man he was fertile in resource and un- 
 tiring in effort; but not less characteristic was 
 his enthusiasm in the matter of recreation. He 
 made the wisest choice in his methods of rest and 
 relaxation. He loved the sea and spent much of 
 his spare time beside it; he loved the woods and 
 was an indefatigable sportsman. As a natural 
 consequence he loved nature and was deeply 
 
 307 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 learned in much of the lore of forest and stream. 
 Even when most earnestly at work in the estab- 
 lishment of his great manufacturing business, he 
 devoted himself to the culture of orchids, and be- 
 came an authority on them as well as on other 
 flowers. In the search of greater leisure he had 
 gathered a magnificent gallery of choice paint- 
 ings. It is sad to think of a man with so many 
 capacities for what is fair in the world, so many 
 opportunities to be useful, so prompt a disposition 
 to active effort for what is good, cut off, so sud- 
 denly, from light and life and the affection of 
 friends and family. 
 
 KIMBALL, Harold Chandler, 
 
 Prominent Man of Affairs. 
 
 Harold Chandler Kimball, late of 
 Rochester, New York, was a man in whom 
 business ability and strong intellectual 
 force were combined with broad humani- 
 tarianism. At all times he was correct in 
 his valuation of the worth of an individual 
 or a situation, whether it concerned busi- 
 ness interests or public life, and his labors 
 were of a character which made him a 
 valued element in the growth and de- 
 velopment of Rochester, while his sterling 
 characteristics endeared him to those with 
 whom he came in contact. He did not 
 seek in foreign fields the position for busi- 
 ness advancement, but in his own com- 
 munity so directed his labors that he be- 
 came known as one of its most substantial 
 citizens. His interests were broad, and in 
 his entire nature there was nothing nar- 
 row or contracted. 
 
 Harold Chandler Kimball, son of Wil- 
 liam S. Kimball, one of the prominent 
 tobacco manufacturers in the United 
 States, was born in Rochester, New York, 
 March 5, 1861, and died of pneumonia at 
 the Rochester General Hospital, February 
 1, 191 1. After an excellent preparatory 
 education, he matriculated at the Univer- 
 sity of Rochester, from which he was 
 graduated in the class of 1882, the degree 
 of Bachelor of Sciences being conferred 
 
 upon him. While attending the univer- 
 sity, he was a member of Psi Upsilon and 
 Phi Beta Kappa fraternities. Upon the 
 completion of his university career he be- 
 came a member of the firm of William S. 
 Kimball & Company, retaining his con- 
 nection with it until shortly after its ab- 
 sorption by the American Tobacco Com- 
 pany, in 1890. He then became actively 
 interested in other enterprises, one of 
 these being the construction of the 
 Chamber of Commerce Building, which 
 he completed in 1894, and the last few 
 years of his life were largely devoted to its 
 management. Among the activities with 
 which Mr. Kimball was prominently iden- 
 tified was the Post Express Printing Com- 
 pany, of which corporation he was the 
 secretary. He was a trustee of the 
 Rochester Chamber of Commerce; a 
 trustee of the Rochester General Hospital ; 
 vestryman of St. Paul's Episcopal Church ; 
 a member of the board of directors of the 
 Mechanic's Institute ; member of the 
 Society of the Mayflower Descendants ; 
 Transportation Club of New York ; Uni- 
 versity Club of New York; Society of 
 Colonial Wars; Genesee Valley Country 
 Club of Rochester; Rochester Athletic 
 Club ; Rochester Whist Club ; Frank R. 
 Lawrence Lodge, Free and Accepted Ma- 
 sons ; Hamilton Chapter, Royal Arch Ma- 
 sons ; Monroe Commandery, Knights 
 Templar; and The Protectives. Music 
 and books were the favorite forms of 
 recreation of Mr. Kimball, and in connec- 
 tion with this it may be said that he was 
 a most accomplished musician. For a 
 number of years he had been the organist 
 of St. Andrew's Church, and the follow- 
 ing incident will give a clue to the char- 
 acter of the man : One day it was noticed 
 that he came slightly late to the morning 
 service, but he went quietly to his place 
 at the organ, and conducted the musical 
 portion as usual. Later it was noticed that 
 
 308 
 
^j¥^tau~&& 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 his eyebrows had been burned from his 
 face, and it was then found out that he 
 had that morning gone with the Protec- 
 tives to fight a fire and with his ac- 
 customed bravery and forgetfulness of 
 self had fought the hot blaze until his eye- 
 brows were scorched from his face. He 
 had said nothing of this to any of his 
 church associates. 
 
 Mr. Kimball married, in 1889, Martha 
 Whitney Pond, daughter of Charles F. 
 Pond, at one time comptroller of Roches- 
 ter. She was at her husband's bedside 
 when he passed away, but their two sons, 
 the one a sophomore at Harvard Univer- 
 sity at the time, and the other a student at 
 St. George's School, at Newport, Rhode 
 Island, could not reach their father's 
 deathbed in time to see him before he 
 died. 
 
 Few deaths of prominent men in 
 Rochester in recent years have evoked so 
 many and such heartfelt expressions of 
 sorrow as that of Mr. Kimball. This was 
 not alone due to his leading position in 
 the social and business life of the commu- 
 nity, but to his winning personality. He 
 was essentially a quiet and reserved man, 
 but with a wonderful gift of true sympa- 
 thy and kindness that endeared him to his 
 employes and to all others who came in 
 contact with him. Much of his time dur- 
 ing the last years of his life had been de- 
 voted to the management of the Chamber 
 of Commerce Building, and the board of 
 trustees of the Chamber of Commerce, 
 and the employes of the building held a 
 special meeting in memory of Mr. Kim- 
 ball, and adopted suitable resolutions, a 
 copy of which was presented to the be- 
 reaved family. Mr. Kimball had scarcely 
 reached the prime of life, and judging 
 from what he had already accomplished in 
 various directions, it was to be confidently 
 expected that the city would have been a 
 great gainer by his further activities had 
 he been spared. 
 
 LOWE, Samuel H., 
 
 Public Spirited Citizen. 
 
 In the death of Samuel H. Lowe, of 
 Rochester, New York, the community 
 sustains a loss which can scarcely be 
 overestimated. His individuality was so 
 indelibly imprinted upon the thought and 
 development of the city, that it not only 
 commanded the respect of those with 
 whom he was associated, but gained for 
 him the warmest personal admiration and 
 the stanchest friendships. His heart and 
 mind were both deeply concerned with 
 the affairs of life, with the interests of 
 humanity, and with those problems which 
 have a bearing upon the welfare of the 
 race. No subject was too lofty or too 
 small to gain his interest, as long as he 
 felt that he was serving for the welfare 
 of the greatest number, and he gave free 
 expression to his thoughts and ideas. In 
 many instances he received kindly letters 
 of appreciation, in many other instances, 
 alas! only ingratitude was the return. It 
 is almost impossible to place a correct 
 value upon the life and works of Mr. 
 Lowe. It is well known that he was a 
 man of influence in the city, but influence 
 is an intangible thing and scarcely to be 
 measured. He belonged to that class of 
 men who wield a power that is all the 
 more potent from the fact that it is moral 
 and is exercised for the public weal and 
 and not for personal ends. Regarded as 
 a citizen and in his social relations he 
 belonged to that public spirited, useful 
 and helpful type of men whose ambitions 
 and desires are centered and directed in 
 those channels through which flows the 
 greatest and most permanent good to the 
 greatest number. 
 
 Samuel H. Lowe, son of George Lowe, 
 was born in Flushing, Long Island, De- 
 cember 13, 1840, and died at his home in 
 Rochester, New York, No. 77 Mason 
 street, July 25, 191 1. After an excellent 
 
 309 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 preparatory education he became a stu- 
 dent at the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, 
 at Lima, and would doubtless have been 
 graduated from that institution with 
 honor, had not an attack of typhoid fever 
 been the cause of his abandoning his 
 studies. At an early age he had affiliated 
 with the Methodist church, labored ac- 
 tively in its interests, and was in his 
 early manhood when he was licensed to 
 preach. Not long after his marriage Mr. 
 Lowe received a call to the Charlotte 
 Methodist Church, and served there effici- 
 ently for a period of two years, after 
 which he removed to Rochester, in 1870, 
 and was identified with the interests of 
 that city from that time until his death. 
 He at once entered upon his career as a 
 newspaper man, a field in which he was 
 to earn such well merited success. His 
 first connection in this direction was with 
 the old "Evening Express," now the 
 "Post-Express," for which he wrote edi- 
 torials of exceptional ability, which 
 greatly raised the standing of the paper. 
 His ambition, however, would not permit 
 him to rest here. In association with 
 Samuel D. Lee and several others, he 
 founded, August 5, 1879, "The Morning 
 Herald," in which project he was the 
 leading spirit, and was chosen to be the 
 editor-in-chief, a post for which he was 
 eminently fitted. The paper was pub- 
 lished in Smith's Arcade for about two 
 and a half years, then removed to its 
 present quarters in Exchange street. For 
 the fifteen years immediately preceding 
 his death, Mr. Lowe was editorial writer 
 on "The Democrat and Chronicle." 
 
 One of the greatest pleasures of Mr. 
 Lowe was the art of photography, in 
 which he had by far outstripped the ranks 
 of a mere amateur, many of his pictures 
 showing the artistic ability and the 
 finished work of the professional photo- 
 grapher. One apartment in his home was 
 
 fitted up as a dark chamber, as Mr. Lowe 
 preferred to do every step of the work 
 with his own hands. An especially fine 
 set of views was taken while he and his 
 wife, in company with former Congress- 
 man Charles S. Baker and his family, 
 were in California, after an interesting 
 trip across the continent. Music was an- 
 other art which had great charm for Mr. 
 Lowe, and he was an accomplished per- 
 former on the violin, commencing its 
 study after he had passed the half century 
 mark in life, and so earnest was he in his 
 pursuit of this study, that he had suc- 
 ceeded in mastering the most difficult 
 compositions. His interest in religion 
 and all matters connected with it was an 
 unceasing one. He was a member of the 
 First Methodist Church of Rochester for 
 twenty years, and he was the starter of a 
 mission in the northwestern part of the 
 city which became Glenwood Church in 
 1891. Mr. Lowe was a charter member 
 of this, a member of the first board of 
 trustees, and remained continuously a 
 member of that church, and later of Grace 
 Church, which was a merger of Glenwood 
 and Hedding churches. For a number of 
 years he served as president of the Glen- 
 wood board of trustees, always was a 
 teacher in its Sunday school, and in recent 
 years had had charge of the Bible class 
 for women. He was generous and de- 
 voted in his support of Grace Church, 
 when it was weak, was one of the three 
 to decide whether it should be continued 
 or not, and was a member of the building 
 committee which had in charge the erec- 
 tion of the present fine edifice. 
 
 Mr. Lowe married, in 1868, Harriet C. 
 Ellis, daughter of William and Lydia 
 (Manning) Ellis, of Rochester, who sur- 
 vives him, as do several nieces and 
 nephews. The death of Mr. Lowe was an 
 unexpected one, and a great shock to all. 
 He had not been feeling well for a few 
 
 310 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 days, but had apparently recovered, when 
 a stroke of apoplexy cut off his earthly 
 career. The limits of this space would 
 not permit a reproduction of even a com- 
 paratively small number of the numerous 
 testimonials which were printed and ten- 
 dered in memory of Mr. Lowe, but it 
 seems fitting that at least two should be 
 appended. 
 
 Justice Arthur E. Sutherland said: 
 
 Samuel Halsted Lowe was one of the truest 
 gentlemen I ever knew. His death is a great loss 
 to this community, and a sad bereavement to 
 many friends. To know him was to love him. 
 He was a strong and brave man, a man of prac- 
 tical affairs and yet of sensitive nature. As an 
 editorial writer he had a style that was known 
 for the purity and charm of diction which char- 
 acterized it. He was one of the earliest residents 
 of the section of the city where he lived, and took 
 great pride in the growth of that northwestern 
 section. 
 
 Rev. Earl D. Shepard, pastor of Grace 
 Church, spoke of his influence as a Chris- 
 tian and a man, and said in part: 
 
 He was a Christian man — a man in its best 
 sense, and a Christian in its true sense. His char- 
 acter was transparent, thoughtful, sympathetic, 
 kind and generous. His life was both a tribute 
 and a witness to God— a tribute because he paid 
 his homage, and his worship to God. His belief 
 in the vital and fundamental doctrines of the 
 Christian religion, his lifelong devotion to the 
 cause, the truth and righteousness in all their rela- 
 tions, bear witness to the depth of his personal 
 tribute to God. In his life work this aim was 
 conscientiously followed. His pen was wielded 
 for moral uses, and in the pages of a great daily 
 paper exercised wide influence. Another great 
 daily paper of which he was one of the founders, 
 has borne generous acknowledgment of the in- 
 fluence of his early impression upon, and his con- 
 tinual high service in that field. With constant 
 fidelity he sought to do his life work well, and in 
 the solemn waiting of such an hour as this, those 
 who knew him best, are of one accord, that he 
 well achieved life's high success. His life was 
 one of unending devotion to the ministry of God. 
 At first a minister of the Gospel, and later by 
 carrying into secular life that devotion to high 
 
 ideals and that noble use of his editorial pen 
 which characterized his life work. His influence 
 was always for the best, and those who were 
 fortunate enough to be numbered among his 
 friends, cannot but feel at this time a sense of 
 great personal loss. 
 
 THOMPSON, William Little, 
 
 Expert Lumberman and Manager. 
 
 The successful man is found not alone 
 in public life or in the professions, nor is 
 he always in the public eye, but often in 
 a quiet and unobtrusive way manages 
 large interests and conducts weighty en- 
 terprises veiled from the general view. 
 Such a man was William Little Thomp- 
 son, expert lumberman, manager and ex- 
 ecutive. He was a resident of Rochester 
 from 1897, in charge of the land, lumber 
 and mining interests of Hiram Sibley. He 
 held no public offices but by his business 
 associates he was known as a man of 
 quiet, forceful manner, strong character, 
 and extraordinary ability. He had the 
 happy faculty of attracting and retaining 
 friends and was most highly regarded by 
 all who came under the charm of his per- 
 sonality. 
 
 William L. Thompson was born in 
 Oakland county, Michigan, November 22, 
 1857, died in Rochester, New York, May 
 30. 1915, after a long illness. He was the 
 son of Orange S. Thompson, a prominent 
 Michigan lumberman, and Helen (Ham- 
 lin) Thompson, his wife, both representa- 
 tives of old and eminent families. Until 
 the age of sixteen years he attended 
 school, but his father's death in 1873 com- 
 pelled him to forego further school life, 
 self-study and experience completing his 
 education. His first position in the busi- 
 ness world was as bookkeeper in Saginaw, 
 Michigan, with the Hiram Sibley Lumber 
 Company. He advanced rapidly, became 
 an expert in timber values, and until 1890 
 was extensively engaged in purchasing 
 
 3" 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 and selling pine forests and timber lands. 
 In 1890 he organized the Panther Lumber 
 Company, of West Virginia, in which Mr. 
 Sibley held the controlling interest, and 
 in 1894 Mr. Thompson was sent to Pan- 
 ther to take charge of the lumber and 
 mining interests of the company. He 
 spent three years in Panther, then in 1897 
 came to Rochester as manager of all the 
 large Sibley interests. In addition to the 
 duties this position involved he was in- 
 terested in other activities and bore many 
 responsibilities. He was one of the in- 
 corporators of the McKinley-Darragh 
 Mining Company, controlling silver mines 
 in the Cobalt regions, Canada, and at the 
 time of his death was treasurer and a 
 director of the company. He was also a 
 director of the Panther Lumber Com- 
 pany, director of the Sibley Coal and Coke 
 Company, of West Virginia, and held 
 large interests in many Rochester busi- 
 ness enterprises. Mr. Thompson was a 
 member of the Michigan National Guard 
 in 1880. He was an Independent in poli- 
 tics, never an office seeker, although 
 deeply concerned in all that affected the 
 public weal. Genial and social, he en- 
 joyed the pleasures of club life, holding 
 membership in the Genesee Valley and 
 Oak Hill clubs, of Rochester. He was 
 also a member of the Masonic order, be- 
 longing to a Saginaw, Michigan, lodge. 
 
 Mr. Thompson married, in Saginaw, 
 Louise C. Simoneau, daughter of Leander 
 and Zoa (Toronjeau) Simoneau. Chil- 
 dren : M. Louise, George Lee, Hiram W., 
 born January 8, 1890, died March 1, 1905 
 and Bettie. Mrs. Thompson survives her 
 husband, a resident of Rochester. 
 
 FITZ SIMONS, Michael H., 
 
 Man of Affairs, Public Official. 
 
 During a career of signal activity and 
 usefulness the late Michael H. Fitz Sim- 
 ons did much to further the industrial, 
 
 civic and economic progress of the city 
 of Rochester, New York, of which he was 
 one of the most honored sons, and in his 
 influence in promoting the varied affairs 
 of the section was both potent and far- 
 reaching. He stood as a type of the stead- 
 fast, honorable and upright business man, 
 and of the loyal and public-spirited citi- 
 zen, and his fine intellectual powers in- 
 creased materially his usefulness and 
 prestige as one of the noble workers of 
 the world. The entire course of his life 
 was dominated by a high sense of duty 
 that prompted him to tender his services 
 in support of every righteous cause that 
 was brought to his attention. He was 
 long a prominent and influential citizen of 
 Rochester, and maintained an inviolable 
 hold upon the respect and esteem of all 
 who knew him. A man of firm convic- 
 tions, broad-minded, keen and distinct in- 
 dividuality, he made his life count for 
 good in all its relations, and in this bio- 
 graphical and memorial history touching 
 those who have contributed conspicu- 
 ously to the upbuilding of New York in 
 manifold ways, it is most consonant that 
 a tribute of some length be paid Mr. Fitz 
 Simons. 
 
 Michael Fitz Simons, his father, was 
 the overseer of the estate of Gravel 
 Mount, and when this was sold, he estab- 
 lished himself in business as a miller. 
 Later he removed to Rochester, New 
 York, where he erected a stone residence 
 on Plymouth avenue. He married Alice 
 Tumulty. 
 
 Michael H. Fitz Simons was born in 
 Castletown, County Meath, Ireland, July 
 27, 1838, and died in Rochester, New 
 York, at No. 565 Lake avenue, March 23, 
 1907. He was about nine years of age 
 when his parents took up their residence 
 in Rochester, New York, and with that 
 city he was closely identified throughout 
 the remainder of his life. He acquired his 
 
 312 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 educational training in Public School No. 
 3, and he was still very young when he 
 associated himself with his brother, the 
 late General Charles Fitz Simons, of Chi- 
 cago, forming a partnership which en- 
 gaged in the marble and monument busi- 
 ness on State street, near Center street. He 
 became the sole owner of this enterprise 
 when his brother became a participant in 
 the Civil War as a member of a cavalry 
 troop which he himself organized. He 
 sold this business in 1876, devoting his 
 time and attention to real estate matters, 
 in which he achieved eminent success. 
 In connection with this he became inter- 
 ested in building operations, carried these 
 on on an important scale, and instead of 
 having a contractor as a middleman, su- 
 perintended all the various stages of con- 
 struction personally, thus assuring him- 
 self of the solidity of the structures. 
 These manifold business activities did not, 
 however, prevent him from devoting a 
 considerable share of his time to the more 
 ornamental pursuits of life. He devoted 
 many hours to the study of philosophy 
 and higher literature, and in connection 
 with this pursuit was chosen a member of 
 the board of trustees of the Rochester 
 Athenseum, before he had attained the age 
 of thirty years. He was president of the 
 Athenaeum twice, and presided at the lec- 
 tures which were given by men who had 
 achieved prominence in that time. Dur- 
 ing the progress of the Civil War the lec- 
 tures were delivered in the old Corinthian 
 Hall, and among the eminent speakers 
 heard there were Wendell Phillips, 
 George William Curtis, and others equally 
 prominent. Mr. Fitz Simons was a Shake- 
 spearean scholar of high attainments, and 
 when the Rochester Shakespeare Club 
 was organized by Dr. Holland in 1865, he 
 became a member of this organization 
 and was affiliated with it until the time of 
 his death. His dramatic talent was of an 
 
 unusually high order, and had he chosen 
 to devote his talents to this field, he 
 would undoubtedly have ranked with the 
 best interpreters of Shakespeare and other 
 classical writers that the world has ever 
 produced. It was one of the pleasures of 
 his large circle of friends and acquaint- 
 ances to listen to his recitals of the lead- 
 ing parts in Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Mac- 
 beth, etc. He was a man who thoroughly 
 realized the value of time, and for this 
 reason never wasted a moment. It was 
 this trait that enabled him to devote a 
 portion of his time to the public affairs of 
 the city, and he was a factor to be 
 reckoned with in the political life of his 
 day. The Second Ward elected him, as 
 school commission in 1875, and during 
 the second year of his period of service 
 he was elected president of the Board of 
 Education. He was then elected by the 
 same ward as a member of the Common 
 Council, served from 1877 to 1881, and 
 then resigned. While a member of this 
 honorable body he served as chairman of 
 the finance committee, an office the duties 
 of which are now performed by the comp- 
 troller of the city. So highly appreciated 
 were his services in this office, that the 
 Democratic party nominated him for the 
 office of mayor of the city, but the Repub- 
 lican party was numerically too strong. 
 He purchased the Crittenden home in 
 1877, at the corner of Oak and Erie streets, 
 used this as his residence until 1904, when 
 he removed to No. 565 Lake avenue, 
 where his death occurred. During his 
 term of service as alderman he was the 
 organizer of the first "clean government" 
 movement. Unlike the majority of poli- 
 ticians, he was scrupulously honest and 
 devoted himself to the interests of the 
 city, without the shadow of a selfish mo- 
 tive. His unflinching and unvarying in- 
 tegrity naturally raised up a host of ene- 
 mies for him, but he had the support and 
 
 313 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 appreciation of all right minded and right 
 thinking men, and the mental strength 
 and stamina to uphold his ideas of what 
 was right and fitting according to his way 
 of thinking. Much was done to oppose 
 the carrying out of the projects he had in 
 view, but where it was a question of the 
 good of the community, he went on his 
 way despite opposition, and considered 
 the attacks made upon him, as a result of 
 his straightforward methods as compli- 
 ments of the highest order of merit. 
 
 Mr. Fitz Simons married, January 20, 
 1869, Caroline Seeley Leary, daughter of 
 the late Daniel and Caroline W. Leary. 
 They became the parents of children as 
 follows : Curtis, a resident of Rochester, 
 married Mildred Englehart ; Frances, liv- 
 ing with her mother, was a kindergarten 
 teacher in the public schools for a period 
 of ten years ; Walter Roy, of Rochester, 
 married Frances Welton ; Alice, living at 
 home; Edith, Mrs. Walter Vernon Ris- 
 ing, of Rochester ; Augusta, Mrs. Homer 
 B. Bendict, of Brockport ; Charles Alvin, 
 married Alice G. Swartout ; Portia L., 
 Mrs. Ernest M. Goold, of Albany ; and 
 one deceased. 
 
 BRAGDON, George Chandler, 
 
 Poet and Editor. 
 
 The life of the late George Chandler 
 Bragdon, of Rochester, New York, was 
 crowned with the honor and respect of all, 
 and with a success which was achieved by 
 his sterling qualities of mind, and a heart 
 true to every manly principle. He never 
 deviated from what his judgment indi- 
 cated to be right and honorable ; he never 
 swerved from the path of duty; and his 
 high purposes and upright life have 
 caused his name to be placed on the roll 
 of the honored dead of the city of Roches- 
 ter. His success resulted from continued 
 and unremitting and conscientious effort, 
 and by this means he attained a leading 
 
 place among the representative men of his 
 city. 
 
 George C. Bragdon was born in Rich- 
 land, Oswego county, New York, April 
 29, 1832, and died in Rochester, New York, 
 August 7, 1910. His education, which was 
 an excellent one, was acquired at Mexico 
 Academy and Union College, and upon its 
 completion at the last mentioned institu- 
 tion, he engaged in the profession of 
 teaching, with which he was identified for 
 a number of years. The field of journal- 
 ism next engaged his attention. The first 
 daily paper published in Watertown, New 
 York, was edited by him. He was the 
 proprietor and editor of the Adams "Vis- 
 itor," for a time and subsequently founded 
 "The Ithacan," which became a powerful 
 and influential journal under his able 
 management. His connection with other 
 publications was a wide one, and he was 
 at different times either editor or member 
 of the staff of "The Watertown Post," 
 "The Oswego Times," "The Oswego 
 Palladium," "The New York Financier," - 
 "The Utica Herald," "The Dansville Ad- 
 vertiser," "The Rochester Union and Ad- 
 vertiser," and "The Rochester Post Ex- 
 press." 
 
 His style of writing was a cultivated 
 one and was marked by a sincerity and 
 vigor characteristic of the man in all he 
 undertook. It is doubtful if any other 
 man in the county ever prosecuted anv 
 subject with the vim and energy that Mr. 
 Bragdon put into any matter that he took 
 up. He was untiring in season and out of 
 season, by day and by night, and had he 
 put the same power into any business 
 project, he would undoubtedly have made 
 a profound impression ; his hard and un- 
 ceasing labors on ordinary occasions 
 would have sufficed to move mountains. 
 He would at times concede that his efforts 
 were largely wasted, but on the next occa- 
 sion, when vigorous writing was demand- 
 ed, he would be just as insistent and ag- 
 
 314 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 gressive, absolutely fearless in the ex- 
 pression of his opinions. No one ever 
 challenged his devotion and sincerity; he 
 was always single hearted and honest. 
 
 In later years he contributed liberally 
 to newspapers and magazines, articles 
 and essays of a philosophical and specu- 
 lative tendency, and in a volume of poems 
 "Undergrowth," he showed poetical abil- 
 ity of a high order. His poems show a 
 tenderness of thought and a facility of 
 rhyme and expression which compare 
 favorably with the best we have in the 
 English language. Sincerely believing the 
 teachings of Emerson, he followed in 
 the footsteps of that sage. He was one 
 of the first theosophists in the city of 
 Rochester, and was an active member of 
 this society, remainng so until his last ill- 
 ness compelled him to give up all outside 
 duties. 
 
 Mr. Bragdon married, March 22, i860, 
 Katherine E. Shipherd, and they had two 
 children: May and Claude Fayette. His 
 life was devoted to his family, his friends, 
 to young men who start out dependent on 
 their own efforts, and to those principles 
 which he believed to be right. His un- 
 swerving purpose, his unquestioned fidel- 
 ity, and his unchanging will commanded 
 the highest respect of all. He was a 
 leader in the cause of liberty, of freedom 
 and of progress, and his hearty coopera- 
 tion was ever given to that which tended 
 to elevate mankind. He belonged to that 
 class of men who wield a power that is 
 all the more potent from the fact that it is 
 moral rather than political, and is exer- 
 cised for the public weal and not for per- 
 sonal ends. Regarded as a citizen and 
 in his social relations, he belonged to that 
 public spirited, useful and helpful type of 
 men whose ambitions and desires are cen- 
 tered and directed in those channels 
 through which flow the greatest and most 
 permanent good to the greatest number. 
 
 GRANT, Wilbur Samuel, 
 
 Manufacturer, Inventor. 
 
 The late Wilbur S. Grant, of Rochester, 
 was a man whose marked characteristics 
 were kindness of heart, courtesy and busi- 
 ness strength. For years his name was 
 intimately associated with business and 
 financial affairs. Well educated and well 
 bred, he stood as a high type of American 
 manhood and chivalry, being courteous, 
 refined and popular. Wilbur S. Grant 
 was born in Richmond, Indiana, October 
 28, 1872, son of George Huntress and 
 Mary Isabelle (Blanchard) Grant. The 
 former is deceased, but the latter is living 
 at the present time (1915). His father 
 was a prominent and influential manufac- 
 turer of Indiana, and was for many years 
 engaged in the manufacture of school, 
 church and bank furniture, being an in- 
 ventor of note in this line. 
 
 In the public schools of his native city 
 Wilbur S. Grant mastered the common 
 branches of learning and qualified for en- 
 trance into Earlham College, from which 
 he graduated with the class of 1892, and 
 then went to Wabash College, but owing 
 to the death of his father, left before grad- 
 uating to engage in business. In 1895 he 
 came to Rochester, New York, which was 
 his home and the scene of his useful labor 
 until his death, which occurred in Roches- 
 ter, Minnesota, March 1, 1915, five days 
 after being operated upon. His first busi- 
 ness connection in Rochester was with 
 the Taylor Brothers Company's ther- 
 mometer works. He was also with the 
 National Cash Register Company, and in 
 newspaper work for a time, but in 1902 
 he became associated with the Rochester 
 Folding Box Company, one of the impor- 
 tant manufacturing enterprises of Roches- 
 ter, and acted as secretary and treasurer, 
 as well as manager of this large concern, 
 the growth and success of which was 
 
 315 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 largely attributable to his efforts and wise 
 business and executive management. He 
 was also connected with the financial and 
 banking history of Rochester as a mem- 
 ber of the board of directors of the Union 
 Trust Company and the following resolu- 
 tions were passed by the board at the 
 time of his death: 
 
 A deep shadow is cast on our Board by the death 
 of our esteemed and honored friend, Wilbur S. 
 Grant, who died in Rochester, Minnesota, on 
 March first, nineteen hundred and fifteen. Of 
 splendid physical proportions, he was good to 
 look upon; in his business relations he was pru- 
 dent but forceful, keen and tenacious, upright and 
 safe. In his relations to his fellows he was genial, 
 kind, endearing. His membership in this Board 
 was valuable and helpful. We shall miss him, but 
 remember him with high regard and great satis- 
 faction. 
 
 Fred W. Zoiaer, President, 
 Blake S. Raplee, Secretary. 
 
 Mr. Grant's social nature found expres- 
 sion in his membership in the Genesee 
 Valley Club, being chairman of the house 
 committee ; the Rochester Club, the Oak 
 Hill Country Club, the Rochester Coun- 
 try Club, and the Gun Club. He served 
 as chairman of the Greens Committee and 
 as a member of the board of managers of 
 the Rochester Country Club. He was an 
 active and helpful member of the Third 
 Presbyterian Church. In politics he was 
 a Republican, but never sought nor de- 
 sired public office. 
 
 At a regular meeting of the board of 
 managers of the Genesee Valley Club, on 
 March 6, 191 5, this memorial was unani- 
 mously adopted : "It is with the deepest 
 regret that we record the decease of our 
 beloved fellow member of this board, Wil- 
 bur S. Grant, whose kindly presence won 
 our affection, and whose efficient aid in 
 the affairs of the Club commanded our 
 grateful esteem." Signed, Joseph Hunn, 
 President. 
 
 Mr. Grant married, October 10, 1905, 
 
 Amy Richardson Mayo, daughter of Wil- 
 liam Franklin and Rachel Clarissa (Han- 
 over) Mayo, of Maine and Massachusetts, 
 respectively, resident of Boston for many 
 years, he engaged in the wholesale shoe 
 and rubber business, largest in Boston. 
 Mrs. Grant survives her husband, with 
 their two children, Rachel Hanover, born 
 December 15, 1906, and George Huntress, 
 born May 16, 1909. As a husband and 
 father he was loving and deeply loved, of 
 domestic tastes, devoted to the welfare of 
 his wife and children and counting no 
 effort or sacrifice on his part too great if it 
 would promote their best interests. 
 
 He passed away March 1, 1915, at the 
 age of forty-two, leaving to his family 
 the reward of well directed labor, but 
 more than that, the priceless heritage of 
 an untarnished name. Those who knew 
 him best and were most familiar with his 
 nature, rich in its kindly sympathy and 
 generous spirit, may well echo the words : 
 
 "He was a Man. Take him for all in all, 
 I shall not look upon his like again!" 
 
 The following lines very aptly describe 
 him: 
 
 "Mild and gentle as he was brave — 
 When the sweetest love of his life he gave 
 
 To simple things. 
 Thy harp of life was tuned to Charity: 
 Blind justice swept its strings in harmony 
 With rare fidelity: and love of Man 
 The theme that filled thy soul with melody! 
 True to thy God, thy Family and thy Friends." 
 
 3l6 
 
 MANDERY, Joseph J., 
 
 Pioneer in Automobile Industry. 
 
 A native son of Rochester, New York, 
 Mr. Mandery spent his entire life in his 
 native city. He is credited with being 
 one of the first men in this country to 
 engaged in the exclusive sale of automo- 
 biles, and during his connection of over 
 twenty years with that business was 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 agent at different times for twenty-five 
 different makes of motor cars, steam, elec- 
 tric and gas propelled. He was but thir- 
 teen years of age when he entered busi- 
 ness life as his father's assistant, and for 
 the following thirty-six years he was 
 closely identified with the business inter- 
 ests of Rochester. From 1894 until 1915 
 he was engaged in the sale of automobiles 
 without other connections, being at the 
 time of his death head of the Mandery 
 Motor Car Company, located in the beau- 
 tiful building at East avenue and Mat- 
 thews street, erected by Mr. Mandery in 
 191 1 and first occupied in February, 1912. 
 He was a man of fine business ability and 
 in all his undertakings successful. 
 
 Joseph J. Mandery was born in Roches- 
 ter, New York, July 20, 1866, died in his 
 native city August 18, 1915. He attended 
 St. Joseph's Parochial School until he was 
 thirteen years of age, then began business 
 life as clerk for his father, a dealer in 
 masons' supplies at No. 158 North ave- 
 nue. He continued as his father's assist- 
 ant for several years, and on coming of 
 age was admitted to a partnership. After 
 the death of the senior Mandery, Joseph 
 J. closed out the business and later opened 
 a shop for the sale of bicycles and bicycle 
 accessories at No. 93 Main street, East. 
 With the coming of the horseless carriage 
 Mr. Mandery saw with clear vision the 
 great possibilities and future of the busi- 
 ness and at once formed a connection with 
 the Hitchcock Manufacturing Company, 
 making several sales. That company, 
 however, failed in their deliveries of satis- 
 factory cars, and in 1896 Mr. Mandery 
 obtained the Rochester agency for the 
 American Electric Company, of Chicago, 
 but, that company also failing in their 
 promises, he severed his connection. In 
 1899 he obtained an agency from the Lo- 
 comobile Company, said to have been one 
 of the first concerns to make actual deliv- 
 
 ery of a satisfactory motor car. He was 
 the first agent for Locomobiles in Roches- 
 ter, and with that car created a demand in 
 Rochester for an auto car. He was later 
 and at different times agent for the 
 sale of the Winton, Mobile, Oldsmobile, 
 White Steamer, Pierce, Peerless, Gasmo- 
 bile, Searchmont, Columbia, Studebaker, 
 Baker, Covert, De Dion, Orient, Buck- 
 board, United States Long Distance, 
 Hoffman, Ford, Franklin, Elmore, Fiat, 
 Lansden and Matheson cars. In 1904 he 
 secured the agency for the Packard car, 
 his location then being No. 158 South 
 avenue. In 191 1 he began the erection of 
 a suitable house for the Mandery Motor 
 Car Company, and in February, 1912, 
 moved to the present fine structure occu- 
 pied by the Company, corner of East ave- 
 nue and Matthews street, where he con- 
 tinued head of a large and prosperous 
 business until his death. His business 
 covered the entire automobile field, the 
 company being at the time of Mr. Man- 
 dery's death agents for the sale of the 
 Packard and Dodge gas driven cars, the 
 Selden truck, and Ohio electric cars. He 
 was reliable in his dealings with manu- 
 facturers and users and held the entire 
 confidence of his business associates and 
 the public. 
 
 He was a devoted member of St. Jo- 
 seph's Roman Catholic Church for many 
 years, but in his later years was a parish- 
 ioner of the Church of the Immaculate 
 Conception. He was one of the organ- 
 izers and first president of the Catholic 
 Young Men's Association, belonged to 
 Branch No. 81, Catholic Mutual Bene- 
 ficial Association, and to Rochester Coun- 
 cil, Knights of Columbus. He took active 
 interest in the Chamber of Commerce as 
 a member and bore his full share in all 
 movements inaugurated by that body. 
 His clubs were the Rochester and the 
 Rochester Ad. 
 
 317 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Two weeks prior to his death Mr. Man- 
 dery returned from Clifton Springs, 
 where he had spent the summer endeavor- 
 ing to regain his health, seemingly much 
 benefited, but the improvement was more 
 apparent than real. His funeral was 
 largely attended by delegations from the 
 various organizations of which he had 
 been a member, by representatives of the 
 Packard and Dodge Brothers Companies, 
 and by his many friends. After Solemn 
 High Mass at the Church of the Immac- 
 ulate Conception he was laid at rest in 
 the cemetery of the Holy Sepulchre. 
 
 Mr. Mandery married, September 2. 
 1891, Ida C. Hart, who survives him, re- 
 siding at the family home, No. 92 Plym- 
 outh avenue, Rochester. Children: Irene, 
 Alexander, Raymond, Alice, Marcella, 
 Irma, William, Lucile and Madeline. 
 
 FULLER, Joseph B., 
 
 Enterprising Business Man. 
 
 The department of biography is crowd- 
 ed with the lives of men distinguished in 
 war, science, literature and the profes- 
 sions. All the embellishments of rhetoric 
 and the imagination have been employed 
 to captivate, stimulate and direct in these 
 "upper walks of life," the youthful mind 
 and ambition of the country. The result 
 of this system is manifest, and by no 
 means fortunate. The ranks of the pro- 
 fessions are filled to overflowing. To in- 
 still into the minds and hearts of the 
 young respect for great attainments, rev- 
 erence for great virtues, and to excite to 
 generous emulation by holding up, as ex- 
 amples for admiration and imitation, the 
 lives of the wise, the great and good, is 
 commendable and right. But the field of 
 example should be extended ; the lessons 
 of industry, energy, usefulness, virtue, 
 honor, the true aims of life and the true 
 sources of happiness, should be gathered 
 
 and enforced from all the various prov- 
 inces of labor. The path of labor and use- 
 fulness should be indicated as the high- 
 way of honor. One who has walked in 
 this path, and has achieved distinction in 
 the world of floriculture, is the late Jo- 
 seph B. Fuller, of Rochester, New York, 
 one of the best known seedsmen of the 
 country. 
 
 The family name of Fuller signifies one 
 who thickens, bleaches, cleanses or 
 whitens cloth at a mill, a clothier. The 
 Fuller arms: Argent, three bars gules, on 
 a canton of the second a castle or. Crest: 
 A dexter arm embowered, vested argent, 
 cuffed sable, holding in the hand proper 
 a sword of the first, hilt of pommel or. 
 Motto : Semper paratus. This is the form 
 commonly adopted by the families in this 
 country, being the one employed in the 
 Isle of Wight. The bar is one of the 
 honorable ordinaries representing a belt 
 of honor given for eminent services. The 
 canton is a subordinate ordinary, repre- 
 senting the banner given to knights-ban- 
 neret. There are to be found at least 
 seven distinct immigrants by the name of 
 Fuller who came to this country early in 
 the seventeenth century, and founded 
 families here. Edward and Samuel Ful- 
 ler, brothers, came to America in the 
 "Mayflower," in 1620, landing at Plym- 
 outh, Massachusetts. They were sons of 
 Robert Fuller, a butcher, of Norfolk coun- 
 ty, England. Both signed the celebrated 
 "Compact," which was drawn up in the 
 cabin of the "Mayflower," just prior to 
 the landing at Cape Cod. 
 
 Joseph B. Fuller was born in Brooklyn, 
 New York, October 31, 1827, and died at 
 his home, No. 104 Meigs street, Roches- 
 ter, New York, February 16, 1910. When 
 he was three years of age his family re- 
 moved to Rochester, making the trip by 
 way of the Erie Canal, and in that city he 
 received his educational advantages, in 
 
 3i8 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 schools which were exceedingly primitive manner. Mr. Fuller came to the rescue, 
 
 when compared with those of the present and although it was years since he had 
 
 day. When he was fourteen years old, stood at the case, he set all the type for 
 
 he was apprenticed to learn the printing this work of more than one hundred and 
 
 trade under the late Henry O'Reily, and fifty pages, a remarkable achievement for 
 
 subsequently found employment on the 
 staff of "The Genesee Farmer," of which 
 the late James Vick was the proprietor, 
 and the late Patrick Barry, the editor. 
 There he remained for a number of years, 
 a feeling of mutual esteem and admira- 
 tion existing between him and Mr. Vick, 
 which was fostered by the love both 
 entertained for nature, and especially the 
 culture of flowers. It was no difficult 
 matter to persuade him to engage in the 
 seed business, and in 1863 he entered the 
 employ of Mr. Vick, and this association 
 with the Vick firm was continued with- 
 out any practical interruption until the 
 health of Mr. Fuller became so seriously 
 impaired that he was obliged to abandon 
 active work. He was a man of much 
 executive ability and initiative, and the 
 development and growth of the Vick busi- 
 ness is largely due to his efforts. His 
 knowledge of his occupation was a most 
 thorough one, and in connection with it 
 he had made an exhaustive study of bot- 
 any, which greatly facilitated matters. He 
 was a very thorough business man, and 
 was constantly experimenting, and in this 
 manner achieving new results, and mak- 
 ing the name of Vick more famous. As 
 an example of the benefit derived from 
 his exhaustive study of botany, we men- 
 tion the following incident. He was a 
 member of the Rochester Academy of 
 Science, and devoted much attention to 
 the botanical section of this society. In 
 1896, when the Academy published a list 
 of the plants to be found in Monroe coun- 
 ty, it was not possible to find a composi- 
 tor sufficiently familiar with botanical 
 terms to set up the list in a satisfactory 
 
 a man of his years, as well as from a typo- 
 graphical standpoint. His authority was 
 considered supreme on all botanical ques- 
 tions, and his loss is apparently irrepara- 
 ble. The experience of Mr. Fuller was of 
 a wide and varied character, abroad as 
 well as in his native land. While in 
 Europe in 1888 Mr. Fuller was invited by 
 Messrs. Carter, Dunnett & Beal to inspect 
 their trials of peas. His opinion regard- 
 ing the quality of one especial variety 
 was asked, and he replied : "It's a daisy." 
 This piece of American slang apparently 
 made a deep and lasting impression on his 
 hearers, for some years later, this variety 
 was placed on the market under the title 
 of "Carter's Daisy," and its excellent qual- 
 ities amply demonstrated the accuracy of 
 the opinion expressed by Mr. Fuller. He 
 was a member of the Rochester Volunteer 
 Fire Department, and a very active one in 
 his earlier years ; Valley Lodge, No. 109, 
 Free and Accepted Masons ; and Hamil- 
 ton Chapter, No. 62, Royal Arch Masons. 
 Mr. Fuller married Harriet M. Kelley, 
 in 1861, and of this union there were six 
 children : George Francis, deceased ; Wil- 
 liam J., S. Gertrude, Frederick F., Harriet 
 E. and Harry A. Mr. Fuller was simple 
 and unassuming in manner, and opposed 
 to ostentation of all kinds. Those with 
 whom he was brought into contact had 
 the highest appreciation of his sterling 
 qualities, and his own genial nature rec- 
 ognized and appreciated the good in 
 others. Home and friendship were sacred 
 ties to him, not merely empty names, and 
 he found his chief recreation in the domes- 
 tic circle. 
 
 319 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 WEST, Jonathan Burns, 
 
 Inventor, Manufacturer. 
 
 It may be truthfully said that the lives 
 of our selfmade men furnish a more satis- 
 factory and practical illustration of "his- 
 tory teaching by example" than any other 
 to which the attention of our young men 
 can be directed. The gifts of men are in- 
 finite in variety and degree, but the rarest 
 is the faculty for hard work. Jonathan 
 Burns West was richly talented with a 
 constructive and inventive genius of a 
 high order, but it was his persistent ap- 
 plication, his tenacity, his courage, that 
 made his talent count. His was a most 
 commendable career, not only by reason 
 of the splendid success he achieved, or 
 owing to the fact that his enterprises af- 
 forded employment to many workmen, 
 but also because of the straightforward 
 honorable business policy that he ever 
 followed. 
 
 Jonathan Burns West was born in 
 Lakeville, New York, April 30, 1833, and 
 his death occurred in Rochester, New 
 York, October 22, 1900. During his child- 
 hood he devoted his time between attend- 
 ing school and working out ideas, which 
 came to him naturally, he possessing a 
 fertile and ingenious mind, this trait being 
 encouraged in every way possible by both 
 his parents and his instructors. In early 
 manhood he invented an automatic broom 
 handle machine, also a water meter, the 
 patent of which he sold in France. Sub- 
 sequently, in 1870, he invented the first 
 machine for setting tires cold and named 
 his invention the "West Tire Setter," and 
 to him is due the distinction of having 
 built the first automobile in Rochester, 
 a most notable achievement. In 1894, 
 during a trip in Europe, he found many 
 new ideas relative to the automobile, 
 which he utilized to good advantage upon 
 his return to his native land, perfecting 
 
 his own machine, and which he used in 
 the building of others for delivery pur- 
 poses. Among his minor inventions is 
 that of a screw driver, a machine for em- 
 broidering and a needle for the same pur- 
 pose. He disposed of his patents most 
 advantageously, principally in the cities 
 of the Old World, this necessitating 
 many trips abroad, during which times 
 he gained considerable valuable knowl- 
 edge which aided him greatly in the 
 working out of his ideas. His business, 
 which he established on a substantial 
 basis, was, just previous to his death, 
 merged into a stock company, his wife, 
 to whom he attributed a great part of 
 his success, owing to the help and en- 
 couragement she gave him, being inter- 
 ested in the same, and at the present 
 time (1915) serving in the capacity of 
 president of the company. Mr. West was 
 a member of the Chamber of Commerce 
 for a number of years. 
 
 Mr. West married Cornelia Grenelle, a 
 native of Saratoga, New York, the cere- 
 mony being performed by the Rev. Dr. 
 Shaw. Mrs. West is a member of the 
 Brick Church (Presbyterian), joining the 
 same in early life, and has always taken 
 an active part in the work of the various 
 societies connected therewith. Mr. West 
 also attended the same church, contribut- 
 ing generously toward its support. Mr. 
 West was fortunate in the companion- 
 ship and comradeship of a wife who ever 
 encouraged him in all his undertakings, 
 who cheered him when difficulties threat- 
 ened. She is a modest, unassuming 
 woman, one who is adorned with all the 
 Christian graces. Her nature is essen- 
 tially charitable and kindly and she re- 
 joices in the opportunity of doing good to 
 others, in fact few women so fully realize 
 the responsibilities of wealth or are so 
 little influenced by self-interest in admin- 
 istering to the needs of others as Mrs. 
 
 320 
 
(kv^ -fctrH+^t f(f)2<J~- 
 

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 West. No good work done in the name 
 of charity or religion seeks her cooper- 
 ation in vain, but she instinctively fol- 
 lows the scriptural injunction : "Let not 
 your right hand know what your left hand 
 doeth," and now, at the age of eighty-five, 
 she is able to look back over the years of 
 a long and well-spent life with little to 
 regret and considerable to be thankful for. 
 More than she has done could not be 
 asked or expected, and she has before her 
 still more years in which to round out 
 the long life that has been promised to 
 those who continued steadfast in well do- 
 ing. She is educating J. Henry Hutchins, 
 a grandnephew, for the ministry, and is 
 assisting many young men and women in 
 the battle of life. 
 
 KARL, Tom, 
 
 Singer of Note. 
 
 The career of Tom Karl, whose pure, 
 rich tenor voice of exceptional melody 
 and tone delighted thousands of opera 
 lovers in both America and Europe, was 
 most interesting and remarkable. For 
 forty years he sang to the public, and 
 even after his retirement often gave his 
 friends the pleasure of hearing him, for 
 his voice, while lessened in strength and 
 range by the years, yet retained its old 
 time purity and sweetness. His last song 
 in public was in 1915 over the wires of 
 the Trans-Continental Telephone Com- 
 pany, when at a dinner of the Rotary 
 Club he sang to be heard in San Fran- 
 cisco where his voice was distinctly 
 audible to those who had often listened 
 to him on the opera stage in that city. 
 The song that went over the three thous- 
 and miles of wire was the old English 
 ballad "Drink to Me Only With Thine 
 Eyes." His last appearance on the stage 
 in Rochester was in 1913 in the opera 
 "Patience" which was first given as a 
 
 N Y— Vol 11—21 321 
 
 benefit performance for the Free Dental 
 Dispensary and repeated as a compliment 
 to Mr. Karl, the occasion being adver- 
 tised as "Tom Karl Night." 
 
 During his career as a grand opera 
 artist, he sang with many of the celebri- 
 ties of the operatic world : Galette, An- 
 toinetta Fricca, Pauline Lucca, Christine 
 Nilsson, Annie Louise Carey, Adelaide 
 Phillips, lima di Murska, Clara Louise 
 Kellogg, Parepa Rosa and others. He 
 memorized one hundred and fifty operas 
 and for many years was manager as well 
 as leading tenor of that most successful 
 of English opera companies, "The Bos- 
 tonians." 
 
 He was a man of broad culture, an 
 excellent Italian scholar, widely read, his 
 hours of leisure being spent with his 
 books, he delighting in good literature, 
 both poetry and prose. He was above 
 the jealousies that often mar the great 
 artist and was especially kind as well as 
 helpful to young singers, delighting to 
 set them, aright when he saw them fall- 
 ing into error. 
 
 He never married, but maintained a 
 home in Rochester on Prince street, pre- 
 sided over by Mr. Delon M. Dewey, and 
 his sister, Miss Margaret Karl, who after 
 residing thirty-six years in Australia 
 came to the United States in 1902 to be 
 with her famous and well beloved 
 brother. The only other inmate of that 
 home was his life-time friend and forty 
 years' business manager, Delon M. 
 Dewey. The bachelors were devoted to 
 each other and the home they occupied 
 was filled with curios and works of art 
 gathered by Mr. Karl from all parts of the 
 world, not as souvenirs, but with the 
 discriminating taste of the artist and 
 scholar. 
 
 Tom Karl was a great singer, but those 
 who were personally acquainted with 
 him, and they were legion, knew him to 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 be more than an artist. He was a gentle- 
 man whose courtesy never deserted him, 
 a friend who never failed. As an artist 
 he was admired and sought after, but as 
 teacher and friend he was revered and 
 loved. It was said of him that his ac- 
 quaintance with concert and opera musi- 
 cians was scarcely equalled and it was 
 his intention to publish a volume of 
 reminiscences of celebrities he personally 
 knew, many of these having already been 
 written. 
 
 Tom Karl was born in Dublin, Ireland, 
 January 19, 1842, and died at his home, 
 No. 51 Prince street, Rochester, New 
 York, March 19, 1916. Early in life his 
 rich clear tenor voice attracted attention 
 and he was sent to England to study 
 music. When he first became a musical 
 student it was prophesied that he would 
 never have a voice of sufficient volume to 
 fill an opera house, but an old music 
 master of Europe took charge of the 
 young man, and with faithful labor aided 
 by his pupil's conscientious work devel- 
 oped a voice of remarkable strength 
 without the sacrifice of purity or sweet- 
 ness. 
 
 He spent two years in study at Birm- 
 ingham, England, under Henry Phillips 
 who, when a young man sang the part of 
 Elijah when that oratorio was first sung 
 in that country. Under Mr. Phillips Mr. 
 Karl made a special study of English 
 enunciation, then in 1868, by advice of 
 the great English tenor, Reeves, under 
 whom he also studied, he went to Italy to 
 study, remaining there seven years. 
 
 He made his debut in grand opera in 
 1870 at the Scala Opera House, Milan, 
 Italy, being chosen by Enrico Pettrella, 
 who was then at the height of his fame as 
 a composer, to sing the tenor role in "La 
 Contessa d'Amalfi." He won an instant 
 success and in succession sang in all the 
 large Italian cities, returning for a season 
 
 at the Scala Opera House. In 1871 he 
 came to New York with Parepa Rosa, the 
 great primadonna, made a concert tour of 
 the country, and then returned to Europe, 
 touring Italy and other countries for 
 several seasons. Later he came to the 
 United States and was heard all over this 
 country with that celebrated English 
 opera company "The Bostonians," being 
 best known through his tenor roles in 
 "Robin Hood" and "The Serenade." He 
 was with the Bostonians many years as 
 manager and leading tenor, forming one 
 of that trio of stars, Barnabee, Karl and 
 McDonald. He retired from the stage in 
 1906, his retirement causing general 
 regret on the part of his many admirers, 
 for there were few better tenors than Tom 
 Karl and no singer ever surpassed him in 
 personal charm or popularity with the 
 music loving public of this country, 
 Italy or England. 
 
 After his retirement some years, he 
 became a teacher of vocal art at Rochester 
 Conservatory of Music and later at the 
 Dossenback Klingenberg School of Music, 
 better known as the D. K. G. Institute. 
 While he was in poor health the latter 
 years of his life, death came suddenly. In 
 a talk with his sister Margaret, Mr. Karl 
 once said that he hoped when he died he 
 might "lie in a bed of flowers ;" he said 
 "money spent for flowers isn't wasted, for 
 they are specimens of God's handiwork." 
 The singer's wish was fulfilled, flowers 
 coming from far and near, the most touch- 
 ing gift a blooming plant coming from a 
 little Jewish boy, who was the last pupil 
 Mr. Karl ever taught, brought in loving 
 remembrance of "Uncle Tom." 
 
 Funeral services were held in St. Pat- 
 rick's Cathedral, Right Rev. Thomas F. 
 Hickey, bishop of Rochester, celebrating a 
 pontifical mass of requiem, the ceremony 
 being in keeping with Bishop Hickey's 
 promise, made when told of his friend's 
 
 322 
 
' 
 
 y ^Z^c 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 death, "Everything beautiful that the 
 Catholic church has shall be at his 
 funeral for his death came at the close of 
 a beautiful life." He was buried in Holy 
 Sepulchre Cemetery, Rochester. 
 
 MANDEVILLE, Wesley, 
 
 Business Man, Fnblio Official. 
 
 Wesley Mandeville was born in the 
 town of Webster, Monroe county, New 
 York, August 16, 1837, and died in 
 Rochester, August 24, 1894, son of the 
 Rev. John and Catherine (Vosburg) 
 Mandeville. When quite a small boy he 
 went to live with Mr. George Randolph, 
 of Walworth, New York, and received his 
 education at Walworth Academy. He 
 spent his early manhood on the Randolph 
 farm. In 1863 Mr. Mandeville removed 
 to Rochester where for a time he was 
 engaged in the grocery business. Sub- 
 sequently he formed an association with 
 the wholesale shoe business of Grant & 
 Ross where he continued until his death 
 twenty-five years later. He was a Demo- 
 crat in politics, very active and influential. 
 He represented the old "Tenth," now the 
 Sixth Ward on the Board of Aldermen in 
 1870, 1871, 1879, l88o > l88 5> and l886 - and 
 was a leader of his party in the ward for 
 many years. He was a member of the 
 Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
 was an active church worker. He was 
 ever ready with a helping hand and had 
 many friends. He was a good business 
 man, upright in character, a lover of 
 home and there spent his hours of leisure. 
 Mr. Mandeville was not a man of robust 
 constitution, but possessed an indomit- 
 able will and long after health demanded 
 his retirement he fought off his ailments 
 and remained at his post. He bore a part 
 in the upbuilding of a great city, and to 
 him and his contemporaries Rochester 
 owes a debt of gratitude, for they bore the 
 burden and heat of the day during a 
 
 period that was not as rosy as it is to-day. 
 In the successes of the present, the men 
 of to-day should hold in grateful remem- 
 brance, those of the past, who believing in 
 the future of Rochester laid the founda- 
 tion for its greatness. He was married, 
 February 27, 1862, to Sarah Yeomans, 
 daughter of Eliab and Phebe Yeomans, of 
 Walworth, New York. 
 
 Mrs. Mandeville is still a resident of 
 Rochester. She has no children. 
 
 YAUCK, Melville Arlington, 
 
 Inventive Artist. 
 
 When Melville A. Yauck, of Rochester, 
 passed from earthly view, that city lost 
 an upright, talented citizen, and the 
 photographic world a man who had con- 
 tributed largely to its development. When 
 he produced Artura paper he delivered the 
 professional photographer from the bond- 
 age of sunlight and made one of the most 
 important and permanently valuable con- 
 tributions to the materials used in the 
 art of photography. He was a man of 
 strong character and high principles, pos- 
 sessing pleasing personal qualities that 
 endeared him to a wide circle of friends. 
 He was a close observer and clear thinker, 
 having an infinite capacity for painstak- 
 ing, exacting labor. Sterling was his 
 character, very fine grained, with the 
 tenderness and sweetness of a woman, yet 
 with a strong will and determined spirit 
 that never yielded to failure. After years 
 of toil his dreams were realized, and at 
 his beautiful home at the corner of East 
 avenue and Arnold Park, presided over 
 by his wife, a woman of personality 
 equally charming, he was enjoying the 
 rewards of success when stricken with a 
 fatal illness that quickly ended his 
 earthly career. 
 
 Mr. Yauck was of German descent, son 
 of Rev. Martin and Melvina (Althen) 
 Yauck. Rev. Martin Yauck was born 
 
 323 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 near Schwenningen, a village of Wurt- 
 temberg, Germany, circle of the Black 
 Forest, at the source of the Neckar river, 
 August 27, 1845. When a lad of tender 
 years he was brought to the United States 
 by his parents, spending his youth in 
 Rochester, where he obtained his pre- 
 paratory education. He then entered 
 Northwestern College, Naperville, Illi- 
 nois, and in 1870 was ordained a minister 
 of the Evangelical Association at Lafarge- 
 ville, Jefferson county, New York. From 
 that time until he received the Divine 
 approval, "Well done, thou good and 
 faithful servant, enter thou into the joy 
 of thy Lord," on December 17, 1885, he 
 was engaged in ministerial work, having 
 stated pastorates. For four years prior to 
 1870 he had been preaching under lesser 
 authority, serving on the Mohawk, Jeffer- 
 son, and Oneida circuits in New York 
 during the years 1866-67-68 and 69. In 
 the last named year he was preaching at 
 West Sand Lake and was there stationed 
 after his ordination in 1870. In 1871 and 
 until 1873 ne was stationed at Dunkirk 
 Mission ; in 1874 at Lockport ; in 1875 
 until 1877 at Utica Mission ; in 1878 until 
 1880 at Albany; in 1881 at Herkimer; in 
 1882 and 1883 at St. Paul's Church, 
 Buffalo. In 1884 his health failed and he 
 was without an appointment until his 
 death. He was one of the originators of 
 the illustrated Lord's Prayer and Ten 
 Commandments, a lithograph in ten 
 colors, which hangs in thousands of 
 homes throughout the United States. The 
 original painting, two feet six inches by 
 three feet eight inches, may be seen in the 
 Sunday-school room of Calvary Evangel- 
 ical Church, in Rochester. Rev. Martin 
 Yauck married Melvina, daughter of 
 Philip and Christina Althen. She was 
 born at Lyons, New York, March 6, 1849, 
 died at Rochester, March 21, 191 5. They 
 were the parents of four children, Mel- 
 
 ville Arlington, William Percival, de- 
 ceased ; Edwin C, vice-president of the 
 Haloid Company, of Rochester; and 
 Agnes, died in infancy. 
 
 Melville Arlington Yauck was born at 
 West Sand Lake, New York, May 16, 
 1870, died at Rochester, February 18, 
 1914. He was educated in public schools, 
 but the death of his father in 1885 com- 
 pelled him to leave school and to begin 
 his own battle of life. He early developed 
 decided artistic talent and when thrown 
 upon his own resources began learning 
 the art of engraving on wood. He did 
 not long continue his first efforts, how- 
 ever, as he made the acquaintance of W. 
 J. Lee, a photographer of Rochester, and 
 entered his employ. This was in the day 
 of wet plates and collodion papers, when 
 the photographer coated his paper early 
 in the morning of the day he intended 
 using it. But a spirit of investigation and 
 experiment had been developed, and after 
 learning the rudiments of the art young 
 Mr. Yauck became filled with an enthusi- 
 asm for research and experiment that 
 never forsook him and that was finally to 
 result in the discovery of one of the 
 greatest gifts that has ever been bestowed 
 upon the photographic profession. Where 
 ever he lived he had a little dark room, 
 and there he spent every spare hour, 
 mastering by self study the chemistry of 
 photography and the various processes by 
 which pictures are made by that art. 
 After attaining a degree of proficiency 
 that made his services valuable he went 
 to Michigan, where he was employed in 
 a studio, thence to Cleveland, where he 
 conducted a photographic supply business 
 and did finishing for amateurs. In 1890 
 he located in Albany, New York, where, 
 until 1894, he conducted a studio. He 
 then formed a connection with the Baker 
 Art Galleries, of Columbus, Ohio, one of 
 the leading studios of the United States. 
 
 324 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 While there he painted special back- 
 grounds for a series of art figure photo- 
 graphs that was copyrighted and had a 
 very large sale. From his first days in 
 the studio he had been interested in tint- 
 ing photographs, and with his great 
 natural talent it was inevitable that as he 
 progressed in art he should develop into 
 a portrait and landscape painter. His 
 work attracted much attention and favor- 
 able comment at the exhibitions held by 
 the art clubs of which he was a member. 
 Among notable canvases that bear the 
 imprint of his genius is a portrait of 
 President McKinley, that hangs in the 
 State Capitol at Columbus, Ohio. 
 
 At different times during his career 
 Mr. Yauck had seen collodion and gela- 
 tine printing-out papers made success- 
 fully and marketed. In using these 
 papers, however, the photographer was 
 dependent on bright daylight to do his 
 printing, and Mr. Yauck reasoned that if 
 a paper that would yield equally good 
 results could be produced, one that would 
 print by artificial light, fame and fortune 
 awaited the inventor of such a paper. It 
 was not a new thought, as many scien- 
 tific men were endeavoring to work out 
 the problem. During the years Mr. Yauck 
 was with the Baker Art Galleries he spent 
 his evenings and far into the small hours 
 of the morning in his laboratory at his 
 home making emulsions, having in his 
 wife an able, valued assistant. In fact, it 
 was her help, her confidence in ultimate 
 success, and her encouragement that 
 lightened the many disappointments he 
 endured and that held him to persevering 
 effort. Finally the goal was won and 
 their work was crowned with success by 
 the perfecting of a paper that would print 
 by artificial light and faithfully reproduce 
 all the gradations in a negative, yielding 
 as soft and perfect a print as the daylight 
 printing papers. This paper he named 
 
 "Artura," and to make and market it he 
 organized the Artura Photo Paper Com- 
 pany of Columbus, Ohio. 
 
 Many were the obstacles and discour- 
 agements that yet beset his path, not the 
 least of which was the prejudice and con- 
 servatism of professional photographers. 
 But this, too, in time, was overcome, and 
 the paper became very popular and 
 reached an immense sale, supplanting to 
 a large extent the printing-out papers that 
 up to that time had been in use. In the 
 fall of 1909 the Artura Photo Paper Com- 
 pany was sold to the Eastman Kodak 
 Company, and Mr. Yauck returned to 
 Rochester to supervise the manufacture 
 of Artura paper. For five years there- 
 after he lived to enjoy the legitimate 
 fruits of his long years of toil and in the 
 beautiful home now occupied by his 
 widow he catered to the demands of his 
 artistic nature to the fullest extent. The 
 hospitality of his home was unbounded, 
 and with a grace and charm possessed by 
 host and hostess alike, their friends were 
 made welcome. 
 
 Mr. Yauck married, June 16, 1889, 
 Minerva Florence, daughter of George 
 Yeldhan, of Geneva, Ohio. To them one 
 son was born, Daniel Althen Yauck, who 
 married Adelaide Parnell, of Rochester. 
 
 CORNWALL, John Byron, 
 
 Public Spirited Citizen. 
 
 The Cornwall family was founded in 
 America by Sergeant William Cornwall, 
 who was sergeant-at-arms and one of the 
 sixteen body guards of Charles I. He 
 came to this country from England early 
 in the seventeenth century and received a 
 grant of land in Connecticut for his serv- 
 ices as an Indian fighter. For a time he 
 lived in Massachusetts and there his wife 
 died, in Roxbury, 1633. In May, 1637, he 
 was one of a company of seventy-seven 
 
 325 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 men who fought in the Pequot War and 
 was one of seventeen that escaped death 
 in action. In 1638 he was sent with others 
 to purchase land in the vicinity of Strat- 
 ford, Connecticut, from the Indians. In 
 1639 he appears as the owner of a house 
 and sixteen acres of land at Hartford, 
 Connecticut, being one of three out of 
 forty who owned land and cattle. He 
 married again in 1639 and in 1650 moved 
 to Middletown, Connecticut. In 1666 he 
 was granted land at Hartford and at 
 Middletown, owned a house and home lot 
 of ten acres, his combined holdings in 
 both places totalling nine hundred and 
 three acres. In 1667 he was freed from 
 the payment of certain taxes, while in 
 Middletown his was the fifth largest 
 assessment. He represented Middletown 
 in the Colonial Legislature in 1654, 1664, 
 and 1665, and also served as constable. 
 In 1668 he joined the church, and in 1674 
 made his will, still on file in the probate 
 court at Middletown. He was one of the 
 earliest settlers there, and died in 1678, 
 being there buried. He had three sons, 
 and their descendants have ever since 
 been prominent, twenty-two of the name 
 serving in the Continental army. 
 
 The line of descent to John Byron 
 Cornwall, of Rochester, is through Wil- 
 liam (2), eldest son of Sergeant William 
 (1), the founder; his son, Andrew (1) ; 
 his son, Andrew (2); his son, Andrew 
 (3); his son, Amos (1) ; his son, Amos 
 (2) ; and his son, John. Amos (2) Corn- 
 wall was the first of his line to settle in 
 Rochester, New York, coming with his 
 two sons, John and George, and a daugh- 
 ter. Amos (2) Cornwall was a hatter and 
 furrier, and a prominent member of the 
 Masonic order. His son, John Cornwall, 
 was born in Rochester, and for a time he 
 remained his father's assistant. Later 
 John and his brother, George, located in 
 the oil fields of Pennsylvania and there 
 
 prospered. Afterward he moved to New 
 York City, where he remained until 1867, 
 then returned to Rochester, where his 
 father, Amos Cornwall, died April 16, 
 1868. John Cornwall owned valuable 
 Rochester property, including the Crystal 
 Palace block. He married Margaret Von 
 Schuyver, whose father located in Roches- 
 ter in 1820. They were the parents of a 
 son, John Byron, and a daughter, Eliza- 
 beth. 
 
 John Byron Cornwall, son of John and 
 Margaret (Von Schuyver) Cornwall, was 
 born May 4, 1848, in Rochester, New 
 York, and died May 25, 1903. He was a 
 large property owner. He was a strong 
 supporter of the Young Men's Christian 
 Association. He married Anna Van Valk- 
 enburg Gardinier, of the Mohawk Valley, 
 daughter of Cornelius Gardinier, a for- 
 warding merchant of New York City. He 
 was prominent in the Republican party, 
 intimately associated with William H. 
 Seward, Thurlow Weed, and other great 
 leaders of the party. He was an Erie 
 canal commissioner and was widely men- 
 tioned for Governor. His wife, Catherine 
 (Groat) Gardinier, born in Montgomery 
 county, New York, was a descendant of 
 early Dutch settlers of the Mohawk Val- 
 ley. Mrs. Anna V. V. (Gardinier) Corn- 
 wall survives her husband, a resident of 
 Rochester, her home No. 267 Oxford 
 street. 
 
 Byron Edward Cornwall, son of John 
 Byron and Anna V. V. (Gardinier) Corn- 
 wall, was born February 12, 1867, died 
 May 10, 1913- He married Florence 
 Maxon, of New York, and left a son, 
 Edward Floyd Cornwall. 
 
 YOUNG, Jacob J., 
 
 Manufacturer, Public Official. 
 
 Prominent among the business men of 
 Rochester was the late Jacob J. Young, 
 who for almost three decades was closely 
 
 326 
 

 y////fj ^y y ///;////$-' 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAl'IIV 
 
 identified with the history of the city as 
 a representative of one of its most 
 important business interests. He was a 
 man of keen discrimination and sound 
 judgment, and his executive ability and 
 excellent management brought to the 
 concern which he controlled a large 
 degree of success. The safe conservative 
 policy which he inaugurated commended 
 itself to the judgment of all and secured 
 to the company a large and increasing 
 patronage. 
 
 Jacob J. Young was born in Rochester, 
 New York, September 24, i860. He 
 attended the public schools of his native 
 city, acquiring a practical education 
 which qualified him for an active business 
 career. His first employment was with 
 his father, Frederick Young, who was a 
 manufacturer of wagons, plows, etc., and 
 a resident of Rochester for many years. 
 Later Jacob J. Young became connected 
 with iron companies, and by applying 
 himself assiduously to his duties was 
 advanced step by step, attaining the 
 position of superintendent of a large plow 
 works, in which capacity he was serving 
 in 1888. the year in which he engaged in 
 business on his own account. He estab- 
 lished the J. J. Young Wrought Iron 
 Works in Rochester, which continued in 
 successful operation under that style until 
 1905, when the business was incorporated 
 under the name of Young's Wrought Iron 
 Works, he serving as president and 
 treasurer until his death, and at the 
 present time (1915) the business is being 
 conducted by his sons, William J. and 
 Howard J. Young, and is in a flourishing 
 condition. Mr. Young had the contract 
 for the steel work on many of the promi- 
 nent buildings in Rochester, including the 
 Eastman Building, and also the steel 
 work on the Riverside and Catholic 
 cemeteries. In 1899 rie was elected, on 
 the Republican ticket, school commis- 
 
 sioner for the Sixth Ward of Rochester, 
 his term of service being satisfactory to 
 all concerned. He was a member of the 
 Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. 
 Mr. Young married in Rochester, New 
 York, October 19, 1882, private wedding, 
 Holy Redeemer Church, Mary A. Hetzler, 
 daughter of George and Matilda (Nold) 
 Hetzler. Mr. Young was a member of 
 Salem German Evangelical Church of 
 Rochester and his wife was a member of 
 St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, and 
 the children were brought up in the faith 
 of their mother. Children : 1. William J., 
 born July 31, 1884, aforementioned as his 
 father's successor and president of the 
 company; married Clara Vogel, of 
 Rochester ; children : William L. and 
 Norbert Henry. 2. Oscar J., born Sep- 
 tember 14, 1886, a resident of Detroit, 
 Michigan. 3. Howard J., born November 
 30, 1891, aforementioned as his father's 
 successor and secretary of the company ; 
 married Irene Armitage, of Rochester ; 
 one child, Virginia. Mr. Young's death 
 occurred in his native city, October 8, 
 191 1 (after an operation in the General 
 Hospital) in the prime of life, at the age 
 of fifty-one years. His untimely death 
 was deplored by his numerous friends, 
 which included many prominent resi- 
 dents of Rochester, all of whom estimated 
 him at his true worth. His life was manly, 
 his actions sincere, his manner unaffected, 
 and his example is well worthy of emula- 
 tion. 
 
 TUMILTY, James Patrick, 
 
 Author, State Legislator. 
 
 There are few men who attained to a 
 higher plane of popularity and success 
 than James P. Tumilty. A fine orator 
 with a splendid voice and presence he 
 became a power in politics and won his 
 way to legislative honors, and as a busi- 
 
 327 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ness man he was very successful, using 
 his means generously in charity and 
 benevolence. His wit, good humor and 
 fine character won him a host of friends 
 among all classes and even from those 
 opposed to him politically. Among his 
 warm, personal friends was J. Sloat Fas- 
 sett who sat with him in the State Legis- 
 lature, fighting him politically, but there 
 learning to admire and respect. Other 
 close friends were ex-Mayor Werner, Mr. 
 James Buckley, Sol Weil and a host of 
 men well known and of humbler degree. 
 
 James P. Tumilty was born at the 
 family residence in St. Paul street, 
 Rochester, January 7, 1851, and died in 
 his native city, May, 191 1, only son of 
 Patrick and Mary (McGraw) Tumilty. 
 His father was born in Bristol, England, 
 of Irish parentage, his mother in County 
 Down, Ireland. Patrick Tumilty was a 
 sea-faring man in his younger years, 
 coming as a young man to Rochester 
 where he became interested in the manu- 
 facturing of gas, holding a financial inter- 
 est and responsible position in the 
 company. He died at the early age of 
 thirty-seven years. His wife, Mary 
 (McGraw) Tumilty, was related to the 
 McVicker family of New York. 
 
 James P. Tumilty was educated in the 
 public schools and after graduation spent 
 several years in Liverpool, England, 
 where he added to his mental equipment a 
 course in a business college, graduating 
 in 1870. He was there interested in liter- 
 ary and dramatic work and associated in 
 this country and England with Holmes 
 Grosvenor. After his marriage in 1875 he 
 came with his bride to Rochester where as 
 real estate dealer, contractor and builder 
 he was very successful. 
 
 With an inborn love for politics and 
 with a personality that quickly brought 
 him recognition he became eventually 
 one of the able leaders of the Democratic 
 
 party in Rochester. He represented his 
 ward for three consecutive terms on the 
 Board of Supervisors and there made so 
 favorable a record for efficiency that he 
 was sent to the State Legislature. He 
 served one term in the Assembly during 
 President Cleveland's first administration 
 and took prominent part in committee and 
 floor work. As a contributor to the col- 
 umns of the "New York Herald" and other 
 newspapers and through the authorship of 
 several books, Mr. Tumilty won literary 
 distinction. His style 'was easy and enter- 
 taining, his subjects carefully treated, his 
 logic unanswerable. He had great power 
 over an audience and in his own cam- 
 paigns was difficult to beat. He did 
 valiant service for his party "on the 
 stump," in council and with personal 
 influence among the voters. He was 
 highly respected and admired, his manly 
 qualities attracting to him and holding 
 many close friends. He was not a club 
 man and had few interests save those 
 mentioned, his home and family ever 
 holding his closest devotion. He was a 
 communicant of the Roman Catholic 
 church but broad-minded, having no 
 quarrel with those of opposite belief. In 
 fact broad-mindedness and public spirit 
 were dominant characteristics of his 
 nature. 
 
 Mr. Tumilty married, in Liverpool, 
 England. November 12, 1874, Mary J., 
 daughter of John and Dorothy Davies, of 
 English and Welsh ancestry. She sur- 
 vives her husband with five children: 
 Mary. Lawrence, Frank, Edmund and 
 Monica. Her eldest child Patrick and a 
 daughter Geraldine are deceased. 
 
 CHASE, Lewis, 
 
 Pomologist. 
 
 There have been no startling chapters 
 in the life history of the late Lewis Chase, 
 of Rochester, New York, yet it contains 
 
 
 328 
 

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 lessons well worthy of emulation, show- 
 ing that by faithful performance of the 
 duties of each day, and by the intelligent 
 direction of effort, both success and an 
 honorable name may be won. His family 
 is an old one in. this country, and has 
 included many notable representatives. 
 The first of the name in this country was 
 a preacher-farmer, of the stock of the 
 sturdy New Englanders. The family is 
 said to be of Norman origin. In the old 
 English records it is spelled Chaace and 
 Chaase, but in the fifteenth and sixteenth 
 centuries it received its present form. The 
 arms of the family are : Gules four 
 crosses, flory, two and two, or, on a can- 
 ton azure a lion passant of the second or. 
 Crest : A demi-lion rampant or, holding 
 a cross of the shield gules. Motto: Ne 
 cede inalis. 
 
 Lewis Chase was born at Chase Mills, 
 Maine, January 22, 1830, and died at his 
 home, No. 4 Winthrop street, Rochester, 
 New York, September 5, 191 1. He ac- 
 quired his education in his native town, 
 and there, in 1857, he became associated 
 in business with his brothers, Ethan A. 
 and Martin Van B., when they started a 
 nursery. All had had considerable experi- 
 ence as agriculturists, and after making a 
 success of their enterprise in Maine, they 
 looked about for other fields to conquer. 
 In 1868 Lewis Chase, accompanied by 
 his brother, Ethan A., came to Rochester, 
 New York, leaving Martin Van B. in 
 charge of the Maine industry. The busi- 
 ness was first conducted as Chase Bros., 
 of Rochester. In that year they turned 
 their attention to managing traveling 
 agents for the business from the office, 
 rather than the employing of local men 
 in the various fields, as heretofore, enjoy- 
 ing the distinction of being the first in the 
 world to do this, and in this field they 
 were eminently successful, as their con- 
 stantly growing enterprise amply testi- 
 
 fied. Martin V. B. Chase retired from the 
 business in 1878, when the two brothers, 
 Lewis and Ethan A., took charge of the 
 management. The firm was incorporated 
 under the style of Chase Brothers Com- 
 pany, at which time Lewis Chase, owing 
 to the executive ability he had displayed, 
 was elected president of the company, and 
 remained the incumbent of this office until 
 his lamented death. Ethan A. Chase sold 
 his interest in the corporation in 1895, 
 removing to California at that time, and 
 Lewis Chase was left as the sole original 
 member of the firm. He was a member of 
 the American Pomological Society, and of 
 a number of organizations of a similar 
 nature. During his lifetime he was affili- 
 ated with the Universalist and Unitarian 
 churches, contributing liberally both of 
 his time and means to the work connected 
 with each, and was also helpful to many 
 private individuals, being always ready 
 and willing to assist in time of need, giv- 
 ing in such an unostentatious manner that 
 few realized the extent of his benevo- 
 lences. He derived considerable pleasure 
 from the reading of good books, Dickens 
 being his favorite author. 
 
 Mr. Chase married, at Sydney, Maine, 
 September 6, 1855, Elvina G. Dyer, who 
 died May 5, 191 1. Of the five children 
 born of this union two died in infancy, 
 those now living being: Charles H., Mrs. 
 William Pitkin, and Mrs. Ada Dudley, 
 who is an authoress of note, having writ- 
 ten many books and contributed numer- 
 ous articles, stories, poems, etc., to the 
 leading magazines. She is also very 
 active and helpful in the cause of suffrage, 
 serving in the capacity of press chairman 
 of the Seventh Campaign District during 
 the 191 5 New York Woman Suffrage 
 campaign. Mr. and Mrs. Chase were also 
 greatly interested in the suffrage move- 
 ment, being actively affiliated with the 
 same, and opposed to war and the war 
 
 329 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 spirit. Mr. and Mrs. Chase also had ten 
 grandchildren and two great-grandchil- 
 dren. 
 
 Mr. Chase was recognized as a forceful 
 factor in commercial circles, and pos- 
 sessed the spirit of determination and 
 adaptability which not only enabled him 
 to carry forward to successful completion 
 whatever he undertook but also to shape 
 means and methods to his own ends. He 
 had earned for himself an enviable reputa- 
 tion as a careful man of business, and in 
 his dealings was noted for his prompt and 
 honorable methods, which won him the 
 deserved and unqualified confidence of his 
 contemporaries. 
 
 CHASE, Benjamin E., 
 
 Enterprising Citizen. 
 
 The life record of the late Benjamin E. 
 Chase, of Rochester, New York, forms an 
 important chapter in the history of that 
 city, for he was closely associated with 
 business interests there which promoted 
 the welfare of the community, and at the 
 same time he displayed such splendid 
 traits of character as to make his memory 
 a hallowed one. His enterprise, diligence, 
 and the careful direction of his business 
 affairs, had brought him financial inde- 
 pendence, but the evening of his life found 
 him still active and interested in business 
 affairs. While all his fellow citizens 
 recognized in Mr. Chase those sterling 
 traits of character which ever command 
 respect, the real depth and tenderness of 
 his nature was best displayed at his fire- 
 side. 
 
 Benjamin E. Chase, eldest son of 
 Stephen C. and Laura A. (Wiggins) 
 Chase, was born in Floyd, Oneida county, 
 New York, August 2, 1843, died in the 
 Stern Hospital, New York, from the after 
 effects of an operation, March 27, 1915, 
 and his remains were interred in a ceme- 
 
 tery in Oneida, New York. He acquired 
 what was considered a sound and prac- 
 tical education in those days, in the com- 
 mon schools in the vicinity of his home, 
 and graduated from the Eastman Busi- 
 ness College of Poughkeepsie, New York, 
 his leisure time being spent in farming. 
 Upon the completion of his education, he 
 found employment as a clerk in a store, 
 and was identified with positions of this 
 kind until 1865. By this time he had 
 acquired an excellent knowledge of busi- 
 ness methods, and proceeded to establish 
 himself in business independently, a very 
 wise step, as was later proved. He con- 
 tinued in business alone until 1870, when 
 he associated himself in a partnership 
 with C. W. Chappell, in Oneida, in the 
 clothing business, the name of the firm 
 being Chase & Chappell. Until 1880 Mr. 
 Chase resided in Oneida, active in its 
 business affairs, and during this period 
 he was one of the organizers of Chappell, 
 Chase, Maxwell & Company, casket 
 manufacturers. So well recognized was 
 his ability in various directions that he 
 was chosen president of the village of 
 Oneida, an office from which he resigned 
 when he removed to Rochester in 1880. 
 From the organization of the National 
 Casket Company, he served as treas- 
 urer of the concern, whose headquarters 
 were in Rochester, and was the incum- 
 bent of this office until his death. He 
 had many other connections with enter- 
 prises in the East, and had large interests 
 in California and other Western States. 
 He was honored with election to the office 
 of treasurer of the Rochester Chamber of 
 Commerce, was the first incumbent of 
 this office, and held it for almost a quarter 
 of a century. His club affiliations were 
 with the following: Genesee Valley, 
 Country, Adirondack League, Caledonia 
 Fishing, California, of Los Angeles, and 
 the Genesee Club of New York City. At 
 
 330 
 
ytcr^e^^ /i/C^Crqyc^^^^ 
 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 the time of his death, Mr. Chase was 
 president of the Central and East Side 
 banks ; and a director of the following 
 named companies: The Pfaudler, New 
 York Telephone, General Railway Signal, 
 New York and Kentucky, and the Roches- 
 ter Trust & Safe Deposit Company. He 
 is survived by his wife, Jessie Walcott 
 (Tuttle) Chase, and a stepson, Donald 
 Stewart Tuttle, a graduate of Cornell 
 University, standing at the head of his 
 class. The family residence is at No. 10 
 South Goodman street. 
 
 Many resolutions were passed at the 
 time of the death of Mr. Chase, and 
 among them was the following, by the 
 board of directors of the Rochester Trust 
 & Safe Deposit Company, at a special 
 meeting, held March 29, 1915 : 
 
 It is with profound sorrow that the members 
 of this Board have learned of the death of Ben- 
 jamin E. Chase. In our association with him for 
 many years, we have learned his sterling qualities 
 as a man, and appreciated highly his wise counsel 
 and untiring efforts for the welfare of the insti- 
 tution. As a member of this Board of Directors 
 and of the Executive Committee, he was always 
 earnest in the discharge of his duties and willing 
 to accept the responsibilities which went with 
 those positions. His unvarying kindness and geni- 
 ality endeared him to us personally. 
 
 In the thirty-five years of his residence in this 
 city he had won a commanding place in its 
 business life. His ability and high character have 
 been recognized by other financial and industrial 
 institutions of this city, which have called him to 
 places of great responsibility. The death of such 
 a man, in whose probity and loyalty to duty so 
 many have trusted, is a serious loss to the com- 
 munity. 
 
 It is ordered that the secretary spread upon 
 our minutes these words in tribute to his memory, 
 and a copy of it be transmitted to his family, with 
 the assurance of our sincere sympathy. 
 
 ROGERS, Hosea, 
 
 Sea Captain. 
 
 The history of a nation is nothing more 
 than a history of the individuals compris- 
 ing it, and as they are characterized by 
 
 loftier or lower ideals, actuated by the 
 spirit of ambition or indifference, so it is 
 with a State, county or town. Success 
 along any line of endeavor would never 
 be properly appreciated if it came with a 
 single effort and unaccompanied by some 
 hardships, for it is the knocks and bruises 
 in life that make success taste so sweet. 
 The failures accentuate the successes, 
 thus making recollections of the former 
 as dear as those of the latter for having 
 been the stepping-stones of achievement. 
 The career of Hosea Rogers, late of 
 Rochester, New York, but emphasizes the 
 fact that success is bound to come to 
 those who join brains with ambition and 
 who are willing to work. 
 
 The Rogers family is one of the old 
 ones of Massachusetts, and Ezra Rogers, 
 father of Hosea Rogers, came from that 
 State to Monroe county, New York, about 
 the year 1810 At that time the section 
 was wild and unsettled, and Mr. Rogers, 
 with the assistance of his children, culti- 
 vated what in the course of time became a 
 fine farm. Not having registered this by 
 a deed, however, he was later deprived of 
 its possession, although he had made 
 many improvements upon it. and the 
 property was sold. He purchased an acre 
 and a half on Norton street and there 
 erected a house which was more in con- 
 formity with improved and changed con- 
 ditions. The first dwelling which he 
 occupied in Monroe county was but one 
 story in height, almost square in outline, 
 and the building materials were hewn 
 logs, the cracks between these being 
 stuffed with small sticks and clay to keep 
 out the cold and rain. It was lighted by 
 two small square windows, which were 
 glazed, but as these gave but insufficient 
 light, the heavy door of rough boards was 
 always left open unless the inclemency of 
 the weather prevented this. This only 
 means of securing the house against un- 
 welcome intrusion was by means of a 
 
 331 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 wooden latch and a string, which passed 
 out through a round aperture just below 
 the latch, and when visitors were not 
 wanted this string was drawn in as an 
 indication of the fact. From this means 
 of fastening doors we have the expression 
 so frequently heard when inviting well 
 liked guests, "My latch string is always 
 out for you." The little cabin was heated 
 by means of a huge fireplace, the fire in 
 this frequently replacing candles, and the 
 floor was of split logs until a rough floor- 
 ing of pine boards was laid in later years. 
 Mr. Rogers was a cabinetmaker by trade, 
 and after he had lost possession of his 
 land he built a small shop in which he 
 followed this trade with the assistance of 
 his sons. He commenced the manufacture 
 of chairs, his sons doing the initial work 
 by felling the forest trees, and hewing 
 them into transportable shape, and Mr. 
 Rogers used a small foot lathe. He dis- 
 posed of his product in Canada, and not 
 long after his return to New York he died 
 and the support of the family rested on 
 the shoulders of the elder children. Mr. 
 Rogers was a man of prominence in the 
 community, and was deacon of the First 
 Presbyterian Church in that section, this 
 being located in that part of the city now- 
 known as Carthage. He married Betsey 
 Beckwith, while still living in Massachu- 
 setts, and their children in the order of 
 their birth were: Diodat, Betsey, Ezra, 
 Carolina, Hosea. 
 
 Hosea Rogers was born on the present 
 site of the Delos Polly House, on North 
 St. Paul street, Rochester, New York, 
 January 17, 1812, and died in Ironde- 
 quoit, December 14, 1904. He was 
 scarcely more than an infant when the 
 War of 1812 broke out, and during this 
 disturbed period, when the British fleet 
 appeared at the mouth of the river, the 
 men would seize their arms and start for 
 the lake, while the women and children 
 
 fled to the woods, which were thick and 
 impenetrable. Game was plentiful, even 
 so late as when Mr. Rogers was old 
 enough to go hunting, and bears would 
 make occasional and unwelcome visits to 
 the farmyard, and help themselves to the 
 stock found there. There was but little 
 opportunity for obtaining even a meager 
 education in that time. However, the 
 settlers were determined that their chil- 
 dren should obtain some educational 
 advantages, and they accordingly engaged 
 a young lady teacher, who "boarded 
 around'' among the parents of her pupils. 
 The first school sessions were held in 
 the home of Mr. Rogers, and he made the 
 best use of these limited opportunities, 
 and supplemented this early training by 
 keen observation all through his life. The 
 outdoor life he led also gave him a fine 
 constitution which well fitted him for the 
 strenuous work of his latter life. Until 
 his fifteenth year he was raised by his 
 elder brothers, and then for a period of 
 ten years was a sailor on the Great Lakes, 
 commencing at the bottom of the ladder, 
 and by well directed ambition rising to 
 the position of master of a vessel. His 
 brothers built and operated the first ves- 
 sel which ran between Rochester and 
 Chicago, and he was given charge of this 
 as captain in 1834. In his youth there 
 were no steam tugs to tow vessels in 
 windless waters and it was seldom a 
 vessel could sail up or down the Genesee 
 river without assistance from the shore. 
 At first they were towed up and down the 
 stream by men who walked in the Indian 
 path, later the men were replaced by 
 cattle on the tow path. Mr. Rogers 
 frequently walked over this trail with the 
 vessel's cable over his shoulder, and he 
 saw perfect marvels developed in naviga- 
 tion. About 1825 his brothers built the 
 schooner "Jeannette," at Carthage Land- 
 ing, and it was one of the first vessels to 
 
 332 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 pass from Lake Ontario into Lake Erie 
 in the spring of 1830, Mr. Rogers then 
 being before the mast. In 1831 his 
 brothers built the "Aurora Borealis," of 
 which he became captain in the spring 
 of 1832 ; he was afterward in command of 
 the "Indiana," and in the fall of 1833 he 
 took charge of the "John Grant," these 
 two vessels being also the property of his 
 brothers. 
 
 In speaking of those days Mr. Rogers 
 once said : 
 
 In the fall of 1833 I took charge of the "John 
 Grant" and I shall never forget my last voyage 
 that season. We came down from Toronto the 
 12th of November in a pretty heavy gale which 
 carried away my spanker boom ; in the afternoon 
 I ran into Charlotte for repairs. Happening to 
 meet my brother, Diodat, on the pier he immedi- 
 ately put in a new spar and I left port about sun- 
 down with a fair wind, which soon began to in- 
 crease. By ten o'clock we had our hatches bat- 
 tened down and every loose thing on deck was 
 swept overboard. The gale became terrific and 
 we hardly expected to outlive it. Suddenly there 
 was a cry that the heavens were falling as the 
 great dome above us was filled with shooting 
 stars. We had no intimation of the auroral dis- 
 play and coming as it did at an hour when every 
 nerve was strained and every sense alive to the 
 dangers of the elements, the scene was particu- 
 larly impressive. The shower lasted several 
 hours, if I remember correctly, but at no instance 
 during its occurrence did I dare cease my vigil- 
 ance and the exercize of my greatest skill to keep 
 the vessel in her course. We battled with the 
 elements and watchd the unprecedented fall of 
 stars until the morning of the 13th when daylight 
 ended the wonderful display. 
 
 An early trip was also made to Chicago 
 by Captain Rogers by way of the lakes, 
 from Buffalo; at that time Chicago was 
 but a frontier town, old Fort Dearborn 
 commanding the mouth of the creek. 
 
 In 1836 Captain Rogers bought a farm 
 of eighty-five acres in what is now the 
 town of Irondequoit, soon afterwards 
 settled on this and made it his home until 
 his death, with the exception of two years 
 
 still spent as the captain of a vessel. He 
 became interested in the building of 
 sailing vessels, a line of industry for 
 which his past experiences had well fitted 
 him. In all he built fourteen vessels, some 
 at Charlotte and others in Ohio and 
 Michigan. The business interests of 
 Rochester also claimed a share of his 
 time and attention until January 1, 1902. 
 In 1896 he became identified with the 
 Phelps & Rogers Lumber Company, on 
 Warehouse street, and when the concern 
 was incorporated in 1901, Captain Rogers 
 was elected president, and remained the 
 incumbent of this office until his resigna- 
 tion from it, January I, 1902, although his 
 connection with the company remained in 
 force until his death. He was the owner 
 of the site occupied by the lumber yard, 
 and of a large quantity of other real estate 
 in the city. Until the last the powers of 
 his mind and body remained vigorous, 
 and he attended to the cultivation of his 
 farm in addition to the collecting of rents 
 and other business matters. In his 
 political opinions he was a Democrat, but 
 never had time nor inclination for the 
 holding of public office, although he was 
 always a leader in furthering any project 
 which tended to the improvement or 
 development of the city. His religious 
 affiliations were with the Presbyterian 
 church, of which he was a member. 
 
 Captain Rogers married (first) in Octo- 
 ber, 1837, Polly Van Dusen, who died 
 January 25, 1871. He married (second) 
 May 1, 1873, Mary J. Lyon, of Albion, 
 New York, who died May 25, 1875. He 
 married (third) February 2, 1876, 
 Asenath Scholfield, of Port Colborne, 
 Canada, a daughter of James Scholfield, 
 collector of Port Colborne for thirty-three 
 consecutive years, and who died in 1889; 
 and a granddaughter of John Scholfield, 
 a native of England, who was a farmer 
 by occupation, a veteran of the War of 
 
 333 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 1812, and who died in 1866. Mrs. Rogers 
 is living in the old home, a beautiful 
 estate of one hundred and eighty acres 
 just outside the city limits of Rochester. 
 By his third marriage Captain Rogers 
 had children: 1. Polly M., now Mrs. 
 George B. Hunt. 2. William H., of the 
 Genesee Lumber Yard ; married Carrie D. 
 Rollison ; lives in Rochester, New York. 
 3. Mrs. Mary Sheber. 4. Luella A., now 
 Mrs. Walter H. Tyler, of Saugatuck, 
 Michigan. 5. Ezra S., who married Louise 
 C. Reeves ; lives at Irondequoit, New 
 York. 6. Alida J., Mrs. Walter E. Camp- 
 ing, of Elizabeth, New Jersey. The his- 
 tory of Captain Rogers is interwoven with 
 that of Rochester and its development, as 
 he was one of the first white children born 
 in its precincts, and had never severed his 
 connection with it. No breath of 
 suspicion ever assailed his honorable 
 name, and he stood as a splendid type of 
 the honorable, reliable and successful 
 man, the public-spirited citizen and the 
 loyal and trustworthy friend. 
 
 WING, Halsey R. and Walton S., 
 
 Representative Citizens. 
 
 On the just administration of the law 
 depends the very life of the nation. In no 
 walk of life, commercial or professional, 
 are the wickedly unscrupulous and the un- 
 swervingly incorruptible brought into such 
 universal contact. But luckily, though per- 
 version of the letter of the law is not unusual, 
 neither is its honest administration. The 
 carrying out of the law in its highest and 
 best form, the tempering of justice with 
 mercy for the greatest good of the greatest 
 number, that divine gift in the power of 
 all those who rise to prominence in the 
 realm of jurisprudence, is as exalted as it 
 is exacting. The true jurist must possess 
 faculties of the highest order, a mentality 
 keen and quick, an integrity unimpeach- 
 
 able, and a sympathy with human nature 
 incapable of being dulled by the constant 
 contact with crime and cunning in both 
 criminal and civil law. 
 
 In his long and honorable connection in 
 forensic circles, either actively or making 
 his influence felt as a silent power work- 
 ing unceasingly for the good of the com- 
 munities in which he lived, the career of 
 Halsey Rogers Wing was exemplary and 
 spotless, absolutely above reproach. His 
 death in Glens Falls on January 26, 1870, 
 was a cause of wide spread and genuine 
 grief among the citizens of that city, who 
 recognized in his loss the loss of one 
 whose life has been one of service and 
 benefit immeasurable in its midst. 
 
 Halsey Rogers Wing, son of Daniel W. 
 and Rhoda A. (Stuart) Wing, was born 
 at Sandy Hill, New York, July 9, 1809. 
 As was rather unusual in that day, every 
 educational opportunity was offered the 
 boy. He first attended the Academy at 
 Lenox, Massachusetts, later going to Yale 
 University in New Haven, Connecticut. 
 Early in life he showed a decided prefer- 
 ence for the law and chose it finally as his 
 life work, going to Middlebury College in 
 Vermont, from which he was graduated 
 in 1832. In 1834 he was admitted to the 
 bar. His rise to popularity and his fitness 
 for the office brought him the election to 
 the office of district attorney of Albany 
 county, New York, in 1834. In this ex- 
 acting and extremely difficult office he 
 fully justified the expectations of those 
 who had elected him and added greatly to 
 the reputation which he was gradually 
 building for himself. The following year 
 he moved to Brockport, Monroe county, 
 New York, and then to Buffalo, where he 
 formed a law partnership with Judge 
 Frederick O. Stevens. In 1841 Mr. Wing 
 removed to Glens Falls and entered upon 
 what proved to be a very diverse and 
 active career. Politically he was always 
 
 334 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 an active and highly respected Democrat. 
 His energies, though from this time on 
 not always directly connected with the 
 law itself, were bent to lines of effort 
 which are but branches of it. In 1843, so 
 assured had his standing in the estima- 
 tion of his fellow citizens become, he was 
 appointed to the post of county superin- 
 tendent of schools. After holding succes- 
 sively the offices of justice of the peace 
 and inspector of schools he was signally 
 honored by the office of first judge of the 
 county, a tribute to the esteem in which 
 he was universally held and also to his 
 abilities. After acquitting himself with 
 great distinction in this post of public 
 trust, he retired from the professional 
 world entirely and devoted his time to 
 commercial pursuits. 
 
 Realizing the enormous potentialities 
 of the vast, primeval forests of the north- 
 ern part of the Empire State, Mr. Wing 
 now devoted his time and interests to the 
 lumbering business. In 1851 he became a 
 partner in the Jointa Lime Company. In 
 1852 he bought out the interests and be- 
 came sole proprietor of the lumbering 
 business and extensive mills of Abraham 
 Wing. Later on, as the business in- 
 creased, Mr. Wing entered into partner- 
 ship with Isaac J. Lewis, who attended 
 solely to the legal affairs of the firm. He 
 later became a member of the Glens Falls 
 Company. Because of his keenness in 
 business affairs he was sought in all en- 
 terprises of such a character as to demand 
 the calm and excellent judgment of a man 
 of affairs. He was a member of the Glens 
 Falls Transportation Company, and also 
 a director in the Glens Falls National 
 Bank and the Glens Falls Insurance Com- 
 pany. As a truly public-spirited citizen 
 he was always interested in the educa- 
 tional opportunities which the community 
 offered to its youth, and at the time of his 
 death was a trustee in the Glens Falls 
 
 Academy. Mr. Wing throughout his life- 
 time was connected with the Presbyterian 
 church, and at the time of his death was 
 one of its trustees. He had been in- 
 terested in social uplift also and had 
 served as president of the Young Men's 
 Christian Association. 
 
 On August 31, 1835, Mr. Wing married 
 Harriet N. Walton, daughter of General 
 E. P. Walton and Prussia (Persons) Wal- 
 ton, of Montpelier, Vermont, a sister of 
 the Hon. E. P.Walton. Among their chil- 
 dren was Walton Stuart Wing, born July 
 29, 1837, a brief sketch of whose life is 
 appended hereto. 
 
 Walton Stuart Wing was born in Buf- 
 falo, New York, the oldest son of Halsey 
 Rogers and Harriet N. (Walton) Wing. 
 When he was but a small boy his parents 
 moved to Glens Falls, where he received 
 his early education, which was continued 
 at Montpelier, Vermont. Shortly after- 
 ward he started in business, at first in 
 New York City where he received much 
 of the training in business affairs which in 
 after life made him one of the foremost 
 merchants of Glens Falls. He was very 
 successful in New York, and on his return 
 to Glens Falls engaged in the line of busi- 
 ness in which his father had at one time 
 been actively interested. His life was 
 molded on somewhat the same lines as 
 was his father's, a prominent and useful 
 career, and he held many positions of 
 public honor and trust. Mr. Wing was 
 for a number of years identified with the 
 Glens Falls National Bank. He was a 
 staunch Democrat, as was his father. He 
 was representative of the high type of 
 citizen who is always active in the best 
 interests of his city and country. As a 
 merchant Mr. Wing was highly respected 
 for his clean business dealings and fair- 
 ness, though no more highly respected 
 than he was loved and honored by his 
 many friends- 
 
 335 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 On July 9, 1868, he married Helen M., 
 daughter of Isaac and Laura (Shay) 
 Davis. Mrs. Wing's father was distin- 
 guished for valor in fighting in the War 
 of 1812. Their children are: 1. Edgar 
 Henry, who resides in Glens Falls, and 
 who married Helen Murray, daughter of 
 Nelson H. and Sarah (Canfield) Murray ; 
 the children of this marriage are Helen 
 Florence, Laura Murray, Louise Angela, 
 Walton Stuart, died in infancy. 2. Hal- 
 sey Keenan, died July 9, 1882. 3. Leroy 
 Chapin, who lives in Glens Falls. 4. Per- 
 sons Walton, a member of the medical 
 profession and practicing at Canaan, New 
 Hampshire, he married Elizabeth How- 
 land Clark and they have one son, Wal- 
 ton McKie. 
 
 The Wing family have always held an 
 enviable and high though unassailable 
 place in the life, past and present, of Glens 
 Falls. Through sheer force of ability, 
 stern integrity and worth of character 
 they have won for themselves a place 
 among the first in the annals of the city 
 in which they have been prominent in all 
 efforts for betterment, unselfish in striv- 
 ing after the good of mankind, and un- 
 ostentatious withal. They are a family 
 of that worthy and invaluable old type 
 which gave its sons to the service of 
 country and God willingly, a type which 
 now unhappily is becoming rarer with 
 time. 
 
 EDWARDS, Isaac, LL. D., 
 
 Lawyer, Teacher, Author. 
 
 As an author, member of a learned pro- 
 fession, as professor in the law depart- 
 ment of Union University, as an instruc- 
 tor and a helper of youth and as an up- 
 right man, Isaac Edwards, of Albany, was 
 justly entitled to the high reputation so 
 universally accorded him by those of his 
 generation. Many years ago the question 
 
 of the improvement of the public schools 
 was a question agitating the public mind 
 in Albany. Mr. Edwards took prominent 
 position in favor of advanced education. 
 His pungent, powerful articles in the 
 "Morning Express" were scattered broad- 
 cast over the city and were important 
 factors in forming the opinion that re- 
 sulted in public school improvement. To 
 the present generation it seems improb- 
 able that there should ever have been 
 opposition to public school education, but 
 there was, and to Isaac Edwards and to 
 men of his stamp, the present efficiency 
 and glory of the public schools is due. 
 
 As a lecturer in the Albany Law School 
 he was deemed fitted to take the chair left 
 vacant by the death of the eminent Amos 
 Dean. His clearness of diction, his full- 
 ness of illustration and his correctness of 
 definition so commended him to the fac- 
 ulty that he was unanimously elected to 
 the vacant professorship. From that time 
 until his death he was the moving spirit 
 and power of the Albany Law School, 
 delivering about one-half the lectures and 
 presiding at nearly all the Moot Courts. 
 
 As an author Mr. Edwards held a high 
 rank. His first work upon "Bailments" 
 was published in 1855, and in 1878 the 
 work was revised, portions of it were re- 
 written, later decisions were cited, and 
 new chapters were added. Since the pub- 
 lication of the first edition commercial 
 transactions have been widely extended, 
 business has been enlarged, and many 
 new and perplexing questions have come 
 before our numerous courts for discus- 
 sion and adjudication. The most mark- 
 ed developments have reference to pledges, 
 or collateral securities, transportation and 
 telegraphic messages. Upon these sub- 
 jects the second edition is full and explicit 
 and demonstrates that in this branch of the 
 law Mr. Edwardswas thoroughly informed 
 as to the decisions of the courts. In 1857 
 
 336 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 this work was followed by his work upon 
 "Bills and Notes," a second edition of 
 which was published in 1863. The profes- 
 sion concur that they are two of the best 
 books that have been written upon those 
 two branches of the law, and prior to his 
 death they had gone into a second edition. 
 His work, published in 1870, "Factors and 
 Brokers," is an authority in that branch 
 of legal training and in it as in his other 
 books he displayed his deep legal learn- 
 ing and the intense interest he took in 
 elucidating its principles. 
 
 His estimate of justice and of the law 
 to establish and enforce it can be best 
 expressed in his own words. He says, 
 "Justice being the supreme interest of 
 mankind, the law established to enforce 
 it, is a most worthy object of labor and 
 study. Aside from its value as the meas- 
 ure and conservator of our rights, the law 
 is one of the noblest of the applied sci- 
 ences. It is beneficent in its purpose ; it 
 aims to secure equity between men in 
 their dealings with each other. It lies at 
 the foundation of our system of govern- 
 ments ; it is both a source and a principal 
 of authority in our halls of legislation and 
 in our tribunals of justice. It underlies 
 our institutions and conserves them. It 
 reaches the individual reason and covers 
 with its protecting power social interest 
 and every relation in life. It is the con- 
 science of the state, everywhere present 
 in the manifold activities of her citizens." 
 With such a conception of the principles 
 of the law, he began his work in the Law 
 School in 1867. As a writer he was clear, 
 graceful, concise and dignified. His me- 
 morial of his cousin, Carlton Edwards, 
 written only for private circulation, is a 
 model of what biography should be, while 
 his contributions to the daily press were 
 trenchant, calm and convincing. 
 
 In politics Mr. Edwards was not a par- 
 tisan, although in early life a Whig and 
 
 afterwards always supported the Republi- 
 can party. He sought not for public 
 office, neither did he refuse it when 
 offered him. As a speaker he was clear, 
 logical and forcible, using nice distinc- 
 tions and strong illustrations. His early 
 success before the jury and in several 
 political campaigns gave assurance that 
 had he but turned his attention more 
 directly to other branches of his profes- 
 sion he would have taken high rank as 
 an advocate. He early united with the 
 Second Presbyterian Church of Albany 
 and continued a member until the forma- 
 tion of the First Congregational Church 
 in 1850, when he united with that congre- 
 gation. He was a member of the com- 
 mittee of nine persons selected April 29, 
 1850, to prepare the Confession of Faith, 
 the Covenant and the Ecclesiastical Rules 
 which were later adopted. He was one of 
 the five persons selected a month later to 
 bring together and to organize a Sunday 
 school. On June 28, 1850, he was elected 
 with two others to invite the council by 
 which the church and society was, on July 
 10th, following, duly organized. He was 
 one of the eighty-one original members of 
 the church, was elected deacon four times, 
 and served eleven years in that position. 
 For many years he taught in the Sunday 
 school, for nine years was a member of 
 the Church Examining Committee, and at 
 his death was president of the board of 
 trustees. He was regular and punctual in 
 his attendance upon public worship, and his 
 words of Christian counsel and prayer 
 were accompanied with a power attesting 
 his conscious sense of a nearness and a 
 oneness with his Master, and an abiding 
 security in his unchanging love. 
 
 Eminent as he was as a lawyer, teacher 
 and author, his higher virtues were ex- 
 pressed in his manly life. He was a lover 
 of truth, goodness and humanity. He 
 was upright in his life, eminently fair and 
 
 N Y— Vol 11—22 
 
 337 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 just to all, kind and genial, his pleasures 
 simple and refined, and competent to fill 
 high stations he sought the humblest 
 places. With learning to which all bowed 
 in respect he walked humbly before God 
 and man. 
 
 Isaac Edwards descended from Alexan- 
 der Edwards, a Welshman, who settled in 
 Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1640. That 
 line of descent was through the founder's 
 son, Samuel Edwards ; his son, Nathaniel 
 Edwards ; his son, Captain Nathaniel 
 Edwards, an officer in the Colonial and 
 Revolutionary wars ; his son, Isaac Ed- 
 wards, a revolutionary soldier at the age 
 of sixteen years ; his son, John Edwards, 
 who founded this branch of his family in 
 Saratoga county, New York, born in 
 Watertown, Connecticut, died in Corinth, 
 New York; his son, Isaac Edwards, LL. 
 D., to whose memory this tribute of appre- 
 ciation, respect and love is dedicated. 
 
 Isaac Edwards was born at Corinth, 
 Saratoga county, New York, August 30, 
 1819, died at Albany, New York, March 
 26, 1879, second son of John and Sarah 
 (Cooper) Edwards, of New England birth, 
 they coming to Corinth from Watertown, 
 Connecticut. John Edwards, a thrifty, 
 successful farmer, had four sons that it 
 was his desire should succeed him in the 
 same occupation. But Isaac Edwards, as 
 he acquired education, developed an en- 
 tirely different ambition. He studied 
 under a prince of teachers, Professor Tay- 
 lor Lewis, who gave new impulse to his 
 desire for a thorough education and en- 
 couraged him in his ambition to become 
 a lawyer. He worked on the farm and 
 continued his general studies until he was 
 nineteen years of age, then definitely be- 
 gan his life work. He moved to Albany 
 in 1838 and began the study of law in the 
 office of his uncle, James Edwards, who 
 at that time was a law partner of Orlando 
 Meads and conducting an extensive and 
 
 lucrative practice. As a student he was 
 diligent and attentive, not confining him- 
 self to the mere routine of office duties 
 and studies. He took up logic, political 
 economy, and kindred subjects and thor- 
 oughly fitted himself for success in his 
 profession. He gave four years to prepa- 
 ration and at the July term, 1843, was 
 admitted to the Albany county bar. After 
 admission his uncle, James Edwards, 
 offered him a partnership which was ac- 
 cepted but continued for a short time 
 only, as he preferred the independence of 
 a single office and his uncle had admitted 
 another partner, Samuel Stevens. He 
 soon established a fair practice, had the 
 handling of some large estates and im- 
 portant trusts and in that field proved 
 himself exceedingly capable. His clients, 
 while not numerous, were among the best 
 merchants of the city and he always 
 retained them. His duties became such 
 that he could devote much time to cases 
 as referee and during the last twenty 
 years of his life he heard and decided as 
 many important cases as any lawyer in 
 his section. His eminently judicial mind 
 was adapted to the hearing of long intri- 
 cate cases and was so well balanced that 
 in the weighing of evidence he had few 
 superiors. He was never charged with 
 being influenced by fear, favor or friend- 
 ship in his decisions, but was credited 
 with making absolute justice his sole aim 
 and endeavor. He held membership on 
 the boards of several public charities, 
 was a vice-president of the Albany Insti- 
 tute, member of the Board of Public In- 
 struction, and aside from his loyal devo- 
 tion to the interests of the entire school 
 system and his thorough conviction of its 
 high mission, was heartily in sympathy 
 with the teachers. He was one of the 
 incorporators of the National Savings 
 Bank and one of its trustees, also a 
 member of the board of managers of the 
 
 338 
 

 c 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Society for the Relief of Orphan and 
 Destitute Children. 
 
 Mr. Edwards married Anna, daughter 
 of the Rev. William James, who survived 
 him with a son, Henry Ames Edwards, 
 and two daughters, Katherine, deceased, 
 and Elizabeth. 
 
 Thirty-six years have passed since the 
 career of this great, good man ended. 
 A new generation now treads the halls 
 where he taught, but his memory is there 
 kept green, and to his precepts, his decis- 
 ions and his books, law students are 
 referred as authority on which they can 
 rely. His work for schools, church and 
 charity lives and the world is better that 
 Isaac Edwards lived. 
 
 EDDY, Royal Jerome, 
 
 Eminent Physician. 
 
 The death of Dr. Royal Jerome Eddy in 
 Glens Falls, May 6, 1915, was one of the 
 most deeply felt and widely mourned 
 occurrences in Warren county, New 
 York, from the time of its formation up 
 to the present day. A man whose life 
 has been an uninterrupted devotion to 
 the unselfish service of mankind cannot 
 fail to be a hero among his own people 
 and a great man in the eyes of the world. 
 The divine pity and love in the heart of 
 every true physician brings to the light 
 through its very magnetism the love and 
 appreciation of humanity. It is doubtful 
 if there was ever a physician more truly 
 loved in the circle of his friends and 
 patients, whose name was legion, than 
 was Dr. Eddy. As a physician he stood 
 well in the fore of his profession, the 
 dean of the Warren County Medical Fra- 
 ternity. In the building up of the Glens 
 Falls Hospital, of which he was the 
 founder, he rendered invaluable service, 
 and was in fact a pioneer in that field, 
 obtaining largely through his own efforts 
 the splendid facilities of the institution. 
 
 To write that Dr. Eddy was a favorite 
 in the city would be hopelessly to under- 
 estimate his popularity. His services 
 were withheld from none, with the result 
 that his life was one of ceaseless and 
 grinding activity. His promptness at any 
 hour of the day or night to hasten to the 
 bedside of the sick, his sympathetic man- 
 ner and kindly, calm nature endeared 
 him to people in all walks of life, and 
 made him beloved by persons in all 
 stations. 
 
 Royal J. Eddy was born July 16, 1842, 
 in the little town of Winhall, Vermont, 
 the son of Silas and Cynthia (Puffer) 
 Eddy. At the age of five years he was 
 deprived of his mother's care and guid- 
 ance by her death, and by this he was 
 forced into a seriousness beyond his 
 years. When only eleven years old he 
 began to work after school hours and on 
 Saturdays. Despite the handicap of the 
 fact that during the time which he should 
 have applied to his lessons he worked, he 
 was the brightest scholar in the district 
 and at the early age of sixteen was chosen 
 teacher of the school, after the custom of 
 the day which disregarded the years of 
 training which the twentieth century 
 now deems necessary for its educators. 
 After teaching school for several years, 
 he saw the impossibility of his getting 
 ahead and decided to better his education. 
 He worked his way through Burr and 
 Burton seminaries in Manchester, Ver- 
 mont, and following his graduation from 
 the last named went to Middlebury Col- 
 lege where in 1866 he received an A. B. 
 degree. During his college course he 
 was made a member of the Chi Psi frater- 
 nity and delivered the Greek oration on 
 his commencement day. At this time 
 Dr. Eddy decided upon the medical pro- 
 fession as his life work, and after a brief 
 space of time spent at the University of 
 Vermont, he enrolled as a student at the 
 New York College of Physicians and 
 
 339 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Surgeons. He also enrolled at Bellevue, 
 which institution he later left, taking his 
 degree of Doctor of Medicine at the 
 University of Vermont. 
 
 He entered upon his first active prac- 
 tice at Middlebury, Vermont, in 1869, 
 where he wedded Elizabeth, daughter of 
 David B. and Miratte (Gayger) Sanford. 
 Following their marriage Dr. and Mrs. 
 Eddy settled in Bristol, Vermont. Mrs. 
 Eddy had at one time resided in Glens 
 Falls, and realizing that it offered a better 
 field for her husband's efforts than Bris- 
 tol, she induced him to settle there.- 
 Glens Falls owes much to her work in 
 inducing Dr. Eddy to locate in that city 
 in 1871. He transferred his interests 
 whole heartedly to his new home and 
 came eventually to love it above all other 
 places. 
 
 Almost immediately after his coming 
 to Glens Falls Dr. Eddy started a move- 
 ment for the formation of the Glens Falls 
 Medical & Surgical Society ; and because 
 of his ceaseless effort on its behalf the 
 organization was perfected within a com- 
 paratively short time and Dr. Eddy was 
 honored with its presidency. No greater 
 tribute to his ability as a physician could 
 have been paid than his successive re- 
 election for thirty-five years to the same 
 office. At the end of that time, five years 
 before his death, h.e resigned because of 
 his belief that he could no longer give 
 proper attention to the details of the 
 office and still conduct his practice, 
 which was unusually large, with the 
 activity of his younger years. Despite 
 his resignation as president he still con- 
 tinued his interest in the organization, 
 attending all its meetings and on many 
 occasions delivering addresses of interest 
 and guidance to the younger members of 
 his profession. • 
 
 The Glens Falls Hospital and the Glens 
 Falls Medical and Surgical Society as long 
 as they exist will stand as monuments to 
 
 the memory of Dr. Eddy. The hospital 
 was the goal of his ambition for twenty- 
 five years before it became an actual 
 reality. During all that time he worked 
 for it with the zeal of one inspired with 
 an idea which in its consummation will 
 bring untold good. In fact, when the 
 late Mr. S. H. Parks, of Glens Falls, gave 
 his Park street home, now the Nurses' 
 Home, for use as a hospital, he made the 
 statement that Dr. Eddy had done far 
 more than all the others combined to 
 make him see the need for such an institu- 
 tion in the city. Further to assure Dr. 
 Eddy of recognition for his works for 
 all time, Mr. Parks transferred to him 
 the deed of the property on which the 
 hospital now stands and it was Dr. Eddy 
 who transferred the title to the city. At 
 his own expense Dr. Eddy fitted and 
 equipped the operating room, the first in 
 the institution. It is now known as the 
 R. J. Eddy surgical and operating room. 
 His speech at that time of the campaign 
 in this city for funds to finance the hos- 
 pital is regarded on all sides as a master- 
 piece of local oratory, both from the 
 point of view of common sense and 
 eloquence combined. Dr. Eddy was a 
 skilled and finished speaker, having be- 
 sides the knowledge in an unusual degree 
 of the subject on which he was speak- 
 ing, the ability of forcibly presenting his 
 ideas and convictions. 
 
 In the ranks of the Warren County 
 Medical Society he was a prominent 
 figure, having filled every office practic- 
 ally in its organization, including that of 
 president, which he held for many years. 
 He was a member and at one time held 
 offices in the Tri-County Medical Asso- 
 ciation. In addition to the several high 
 offices with which he was honored by 
 medical societies, Dr. Eddy served as 
 president of the physician's board of the 
 Glens Falls Hospital, of the Pine View 
 Cemetery Commission, and was on many 
 
 340 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 occasions elected to office by the alumni 
 of Middlebury College. He served on the 
 Glens Falls Board of Health, and twice 
 delivered the commencement addresses to 
 the graduates of the Glens Falls Hospital 
 Training School for Nurses. He also 
 figured at times in the commencement 
 exercises of the Glens Falls High School. 
 The movement which first won Dr. 
 Eddy the love of Glens Falls was one of 
 the utmost heroism and sacrifice, and 
 shows the character of the man as noth- 
 ing else which might be said or written 
 could do. The movement was made 
 about thirty years ago when a serious 
 epidemic of smallpox was raging through- 
 out the village. A pest house was estab- 
 lished outside the village limits to which 
 those suffering from the disease were 
 taken. Dr. Eddy left his lucrative prac- 
 tice, ostracized himself from his family 
 and went to the pest house. Here, con- 
 stantly in danger of death from the 
 disease, he confined himself with the sick 
 and dying and worked to win back to 
 life and health those who were suffering 
 from the dread disease. Only once or 
 twice did he leave the place, driving to his 
 home and speaking through closed win- 
 dows to his wife and small sons. During 
 his services in the pest house, because of 
 the impossibility of securing adequate aid, 
 Dr. Eddy was at times forced to dig 
 graves and bury the dead. Only by vac- 
 cinating himself every day, which action 
 brought its usually painful results, was 
 he able to withstand the disease. His 
 horse was seized with smallpox and died. 
 This forced Dr. Eddy to destroy the 
 wagon and harness and practically all 
 of his own wearing apparel. He was com- 
 pensated by the city to the extent of five 
 hundred dollars, an amount which hard- 
 ly paid his expenses. It would have been 
 impossible to estimate the good which 
 his services did. 
 
 His practice was an extremely large 
 
 one, and because of the general recog- 
 nition of his ability and the excellence of 
 his service, Dr. Eddy had patients 
 throughout the surrounding country. 
 His practice included people in all sta- 
 tions of life, and it is said by those placed 
 in a position to know his private affairs 
 that Dr. Eddy never asked any remuner- 
 ation for a great deal of his work. He 
 consistently refused to discuss financial 
 matters in the home of the sick, his prin- 
 ciple being to let it pass until the health 
 of the patient had been restored. 
 
 Early in life Dr. Eddy became affiliated 
 with a Masonic lodge in Middlebury, Ver- 
 mont. He always retained his member- 
 ship in this, never transferring to the 
 local lodge because he felt that his prac- 
 tice did not allow him time to attend the 
 meetings. Dr. Eddy's religion was that 
 greatest form of nonsectarianism — love of 
 humanity. He recognized the Protestant 
 and Roman Catholic religions with the 
 tolerance of the erudite thinker, but he 
 identified himself with neither, preferring 
 to live according to his own standards of 
 righteousness, faithful to his Maker and 
 sincere in his love of his fellowmen. He 
 attended no services or fraternal meetings 
 of any kind outside those of the medical 
 societies of which he was a member. All 
 his time beyond that given to his patients 
 was passed in his home, and even there 
 he was always ready to answer a call 
 from the needy. In conjunction with his 
 practice Dr. Eddy was for over forty 
 years medical examiner for the Prudential 
 and Equitable Life Assurance societies. 
 
 The value and importance to a com- 
 munity of the presence in it of a man of 
 the type of Dr. Eddy cannot be estimated. 
 His services as a citizen are of the high- 
 est order, both in relation to the present 
 generation and to the example which he 
 sets to the coming one. Dr. Eddy was 
 given that great title of love and vener- 
 ation, "the grand old man" of Glens Falls, 
 
 341 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 which name is an indication of his stand- 
 ing in the eyes of the citizens of the town 
 to which he gave the best years of his 
 life in service. Nothing but good was 
 ever known or spoken of him. What- 
 ever his faults, they were outweighed 
 a thousand fold by his virtues of heart 
 and mind, his devotion to his home and 
 to the service of humanity. Bow we 
 must to the Divine will — all that can now 
 be done is to pay tribute to the memory of 
 a great physician who honored his pro- 
 fession and was a splendid citizen. Doc- 
 tors who were his associates expressed 
 the sentiment of every physician in the 
 vicinity when they stated that Dr. Eddy's 
 loss to the medical fraternity could not 
 be measured. In their opinion he was 
 the best friend a young physician could 
 have, a man whose advice was often 
 sought and always cheerfully given. 
 
 Dr. Eddy is survived by his widow, 
 two sons, Sanford S. Eddy, of Glens 
 Falls, and David J. Eddy, of Houston, 
 Texas, and two grandchildren, William 
 Jerome Eddy and Katherine Elizabeth 
 Sanford Eddv. 
 
 CUNLEY, Court B., 
 
 Active Factor in Community Affairs. 
 
 Some men there are whose lives and 
 careers become so interwoven, so to 
 speak, with the lives of the communities 
 of which they are members, whose affairs 
 become so thoroughly identified with the 
 public affairs of their fellow citizens, that 
 to speak of the latter without mention of 
 the former would be to leave out an 
 essential element, a factor without which 
 no proper understanding of them could 
 be had. We are often astonished in 
 examining the records of such men at 
 the amazing versatility displayed by 
 them in their activities, a versatility 
 which enables them, not merely to take 
 part in practically all of the important 
 
 affairs, but to take part in the capacity 
 of leader, authoritively showing the way 
 to their fellows in a hundred different 
 pathways at once. Such a man was 
 Court B. Cunley, late of Poughkeepsie, 
 New York, who for forty years was one 
 of the most conspicuous figures in the 
 life of the city, playing a most prominent 
 part in its development, and whose death 
 there on June i, 1915, was felt as a loss 
 by the whole community. 
 
 Born near Hillsdale, Michigan, Novem- 
 ber 13, 1837, Court B. Cunley was a son 
 of Daniel and Sarah Ann (Van Voor- 
 hees) Cunley. The father was a native 
 of Stuttgart, Germany, where he was 
 born June 12, 1801. He served in the 
 German army for five years and then, 
 in 1822, came to the United States and 
 lived in various parts of the country both 
 east and west. For some time his resi- 
 dence was in Fishkill-on-Hudson, New 
 York, and here it was that he met Miss 
 Van Voorhees to whom he was married. 
 It was shortly after this marriage to the 
 lady that Mr. Cunley, Sr., went to Michi- 
 gan, making the trip on a vessel up the 
 Erie Canal and later on the lake of that 
 name. He was the owner of a farm of 
 over three hundred acres at Hillsdale, but 
 shortly after the birth of his son was 
 obliged to return East and eventually to 
 give up farming, because of repeated 
 attacks of fever and ague which pros- 
 trated him and used up his strength. 
 Mrs. Cunley was a member of a very old 
 Holland family in which the line of 
 descent is traced back through many 
 generations, and a remarkably complete 
 record of which is published in a book 
 containing some seven hundred pages. 
 
 As already stated, shortly after the 
 birth of Court B. Cunley, his father was 
 obliged to remove to the East and here 
 he took up his abode in Fishkill once 
 more, so that it was with this place that 
 the early associations of childhood were 
 
 342 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 formed by Mr. Cunley. Here also he 
 attended school, where he proved him- 
 self an apt scholar and gained an excel- 
 lent education, and here he first entered 
 upon his career of business and politics. 
 In the former line he made his beginning 
 by securing a position in the tobacco 
 business of the John Jaycox Company, 
 where he learned the trade in all its 
 details. After remaining in this employ 
 for a short period, he went to New York 
 City and there secured another position 
 in the same line of business and com- 
 pleted his apprenticeship. This period 
 of Mr. Cunley's life was a restless one in 
 some respects and he went to a number 
 of places and engaged in business in 
 each. He returned to Fishkill and there 
 became associated with his former em- 
 ployers of the John Jaycox Company for 
 a time, then went to Red Hook. New 
 York, and once more to New York City. 
 On this occasion he was employed in the 
 New York Customs House and there 
 remained for several years. In the year 
 1867, however, he made his final move 
 and located at Poughkeepsie, made there 
 his permanent home and entered the 
 tobacco business on his own account. 
 In this enterprise he was highly success- 
 ful and for many years did a most flour- 
 ishing trade. After retiring from the 
 retail tobacco business in 191 2, Mr. Cun- 
 ley still continued the wholesale manu- 
 facture of cigars at his home. No. ~t, 
 Marshall street. He took an extremely 
 prominent part in the general life of the 
 city also and was one of the best known 
 figures in the community. He was also 
 greatly interested in Poughkeepsie real 
 estate and was a large and very success- 
 ful investor, owning many of the most 
 valuable properties in the city. To him 
 the city owed in a large measure the in- 
 stallment of the plant supplying it with 
 electric light and power, of which he was 
 one of the most active promoters, and 
 
 later served as chairman of the company 
 he had been so largely instrumental in 
 organizing. A man of extremely strong 
 social instincts, he allied himself with 
 many organizations of this nature and 
 with a number of the most prominent 
 fraternal societies. He was a member of 
 the Poughkeepsie Lodge, No. 266, Free 
 and Accepted Masons ; Poughkeepsie 
 Chapter, No. 172, Royal Arch Masons; 
 King Solomon's Council, Royal and 
 Select Masters; Poughkeepsie Command- 
 ery, No. 43, Knights Templar ; Mecca 
 Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of 
 New York, and had received the thirty- 
 second degree of Masonry in the Aurora 
 Grata Consistory of the Valley of Brook- 
 lyn. Besides these Masonic bodies, Mr. 
 Cunley was the first exalted ruler of the 
 local lodge, Benevolent and Protective 
 Order of Elks, a member of Fallkill 
 Lodge, No. 297, Independent Order of 
 Odd Fellows, and the local lodge No. 43, 
 Knights of Pythias. A Methodist Epis- 
 copalian in religious belief, Mr. Cunley 
 was a member of the church of that de- 
 nomination in Poughkeepsie and a liberal 
 supporter of its work. 
 
 But it was in the realm of politics that 
 Mr. Cunley was best known in the com- 
 munity and his career was a most dis- 
 tinguished one, for years being regarded 
 as one of the leaders of the Republican 
 party in Dutchess county. Upon coming 
 to Poughkeepsie he established his busi- 
 ness as tobacconist in the old store of 
 Rudolph Grimm who had been there in 
 that line from 1835. In 1882 Mr. Cunley 
 removed to his handsome store on Main 
 street, and it was in these two places that 
 the leaders of the Republican party in 
 the State made their informal headquar- 
 ters when they were in Poughkeepsie. 
 The official positions held by Mr. Cunley 
 were in no way commensurate with the 
 influence that he wielded in the party in 
 the county, but he was not ambitious in 
 
 343 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 this particular direction. For three years 
 he served as a member of the alms com- 
 mittee in Poughkeepsie and he was also 
 on the water board. He represented the 
 Third Ward of the city in City Council 
 for six years, and in each of these offices 
 did an invaluable work for his constitu- 
 ents and his party. 
 
 On May n, 1858, Mr. Cunley was mar- 
 ried at Fishkill to Sarah J. Owen, of that 
 city, a daughter of Morgan and Harriet 
 (Rogers) Owen, highly respected resi- 
 dents of that place. Born to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Cunley were six children as fol- 
 lows : Cora Nellie, who died at the age 
 of seven years ; John, who died in 
 infancy ; Frank, married Edith O. Ker- 
 nick, of Poughkeepsie, for some time held 
 the position of private secretary to State 
 Senator Ambler, and now occupies the 
 same post for Judge Morchauser, of 
 Poughkeepsie ; Minnie Van Voorhees, 
 now the wife of Frank W. Brown, who is 
 employed in the Poughkeepsie post- 
 office ; Fred Morgan, who married Mary 
 Egan, of Poughkeepsie, and now holds 
 the post of private secretary to General 
 Alshire of the United States army and is 
 located; in Washington, D. C. ; and 
 Albert B., of Poughkeepsie. Mrs. Cun- 
 ley survives her husband and now makes 
 her residence at the old Cunley home at 
 No. 73 Marshall street, Poughkeepsie. 
 
 It would be difficult to give an ade- 
 quate idea of the importance of the part 
 played by Mr. Cunley in the affairs of the 
 Republican party in Dutchess county, 
 New York State, by a mere record of the 
 places that he held and the movements 
 with which he was identified ; and, indeed, 
 not only difficult but impossible. As 
 already remarked the official posts that 
 he held were not even suggestive of the 
 extent of his influence or the general 
 recognition of his leadership. It may be 
 said of him that his ambition was a pure- 
 ly impersonal one and consisted only of 
 
 the desire to serve the cause of the great 
 party in whose principles and policies he 
 so ardently believed. Faithful to its in- 
 terests through some of the most stormy 
 epochs of its history, he was indefatigable 
 in the efforts to insure its success and there 
 were few men in that part of the State 
 who did more to accomplish this end. 
 This was fully recognized by the leaders 
 of the party all over the State and it was 
 always at Mr. Cunley's shop that they 
 held their informal meetings when in 
 Poughkeepsie, those informal discussions 
 and councils in which the policies of the 
 party were really decided, and in which 
 the voice of Mr. Cunley was a weighty 
 one. For many years every moment that 
 he could spare from the absolute neces- 
 sities of business and the hours that he 
 considered as sacred to his intercourse 
 with his family, he devoted to the Re- 
 publican cause. In his private life also, 
 Mr. Cunley's conduct was above reproach 
 and his devotion as a husband and father, 
 his fidelity as a friend, might well serve 
 as models in these most exalted of rela- 
 tions. 
 
 KURZHALS, Charles August, 
 
 Successul Business Man. 
 
 Excluding the Indian aborigines, the 
 population of America is made up 
 exclusively of the peoples of other lands, 
 drawn here, in the comparatively brief 
 period of our history, by the most diverse 
 motives, extending all the way from the 
 desire of religious and political liberty 
 to the hope of material gain. Among the 
 teeming millions here there are indeed 
 the most various elements, each of which 
 has contributed its own qualities to the 
 resultant citizenship. Among the most 
 important of these is the great Germanic 
 factor, the representatives of which have 
 come to these United States in such vast 
 numbers during the latter half of the 
 
 344 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 century just passed and the opening years 
 of this, and have leavened the whole of 
 our body politic with those great Teu- 
 tonic virtues of industry, perseverance 
 and the undeviating pursuit of a chosen 
 objective until its accomplishment is 
 assured. In this manner have they con- 
 tributed to raise the tone of our citizen- 
 ship and make it effective in the practical 
 affairs of life. Of this race, although 
 native in the United States, Charles Au- 
 gust Kurzhals was representative of the 
 best type of his fellows, and in his career 
 showed to excellent advantage the traits 
 and virtues already mentioned. Asso- 
 ciated with both New York City and 
 Mount Vernon, he was active in the 
 affairs of both places, and his death on 
 January 25, 1915, removed a valued and 
 prominent citizen from the community. 
 
 Born in New York City, April 11, 1859, 
 Charles August Kurzhals was a son of 
 German parents who came to this coun- 
 try in their youth seeking the greater op- 
 portunities they had heard of as existing 
 in the great western republic and the demo- 
 cratic institutions that were being battled 
 for even then in the Fatherland. The 
 parents, August and Louise Kurzhals, 
 were of the best type of Germans that 
 were at that time coming to these shores 
 in such great numbers, he being a suc- 
 cessful tailor, who at once engaged in his 
 business in New York, where they set- 
 tled. Charles August Kurzhals passed 
 the years of his boyhood in the city and 
 there received his education at the excel- 
 lent public schools of Brooklyn from 
 which he graduated. Upon completing 
 his studies he entered the tailoring busi- 
 ness upon his own account and pros- 
 pered greatly from the outset. For a 
 number of years he made a specialty of 
 military furnishings and in this line was 
 successful, but he gradually allowed the 
 usual custom tailoring to share his inter- 
 est, and in time this branch of the busi- 
 
 ness became so large as to claim his 
 whole time and attention. His trade 
 became so great in the course of time that 
 he expanded beyond the limits of his 
 original establishment and opened branch 
 stores in various parts of the city which 
 were equally nourishing. To his ability 
 as a business man, which was unusually 
 great, he added an absolute business 
 integrity, giving only of the very best 
 materials and workmanship to his patrons 
 so that he gained a most enviable repu- 
 tation as a man of his word who lived up 
 to the spirit as well as the letter of his 
 agreement. These qualities in combina- 
 tion are rare and they are the invariable 
 ingredients of a sure success such as 
 that enjoyed by Mr. Kurzhals. Besides 
 his tailoring business he was also inter- 
 ested in real estate in a small degree, and 
 in this line his keen insight into affairs 
 was well shown, his investments being 
 made with the greatest good judgment. 
 For a number of years he lived in the 
 great Bronx section of the city, but five 
 years before his death removed to Mount 
 Vernon and there continued to make his 
 home until the end. 
 
 Although he was not particularly fond 
 of society and social functions generally, 
 and belonged to no clubs or orders, he 
 was a member for a number of years of 
 the Eleventh Infantry Regiment, New 
 York National Guard, rising in that 
 organization to the rank of lieutenant. 
 He would doubtless have gone higher, for 
 he had a marked talent in military mat- 
 ters, but his business became so exacting 
 at this time that he was obliged to give 
 up his membership in the regiment and 
 devote his time exclusively to private 
 affairs. In the matter of religion Mr. 
 Kurzhals was an Episcopalian and 
 attended St. Paul's Church of that de- 
 nomination in the Bronx and later 
 Trinity Church, Mount Vernon. He was 
 in both parishes devoted to the work of 
 
 345 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 the church and liberally supported the 
 various philanthropic movements con- 
 nected therewith. Toward the latter part 
 of his life the health of Mr. Kurzhals be- 
 came very poor and eleven years before 
 his death he was obliged to retire from 
 active business. 
 
 On June 19, 1881, Mr. Kurzhals was 
 united in marriage with Caroline Bar- 
 dusch, of New York City, a daughter of 
 Jacob and Elizabeth (Stein) Bardusch, 
 of that place. 
 
 It has already been remarked that Mr. 
 Kurzhals was a member of no organiza- 
 tions with the exception of the Eleventh 
 Regiment, but it is only correct to say 
 that this was due to no dislike felt by him 
 to the companionship of his fellows of 
 which he was really very fond when 
 divorced from the formal accompani- 
 ments of conventional society. What 
 really prevented him from joining these 
 affairs, besides the exacting nature of his 
 business, was the great love he felt for 
 his home and the pleasure he experienced 
 in the intercourse with his own house- 
 hold. Here it was, by the hearth at 
 home, that his chief happiness lay and he 
 never felt any temptation to seek for 
 recreation elsewhere. He was the most 
 hospitable of men, however, and the 
 welcome that he gave to all who were 
 fortunate enough to enjoy his personal 
 friendship was of the warmest and most 
 cordial type. In all the relations with 
 his fellowmen his conduct was above 
 reproach and he added to the fundamental 
 virtues of sympathy and fidelity so many 
 personal attractions that he gathered 
 about him a large number of the warmest 
 friends who felt as a deep personal loss 
 his untimely death at the age of fifty- 
 six years, and regarded it truly as a most 
 unfortunate cutting short of a career, 
 already most worthy and promising yet 
 more brilliantly for the future. 
 
 HAND, Samuel, 
 
 Lawyer and Judge. 
 
 The bar of Albany county. New York, 
 never experienced a greater loss than in 
 the death of Judge Samuel Hand, a jurist 
 whose thorough training and brilliant 
 attainments have been surpassed by very 
 few lawyers in the history of the country. 
 By his unswerving fidelity to the prin- 
 ciples of the law and his deep regard for 
 the administration of justice, he presented 
 an example of professional probity and 
 devotion worthy of the greatest com- 
 mendation and honor of his associates at 
 the bar ; while by his scholarly attain- 
 ments and accomplishments in the course 
 of his chosen career, he secured the 
 reward of brilliant achievements which 
 adorn the record of his life. His whole 
 career seemed actuated and governed by 
 a controlling spirit of absolute fairness 
 and justice ; and as judge, lawyer, and 
 man, he won the highest regard that it is 
 possible for worthy men to bestow upon 
 one another. 
 
 Samuel Hand was not a native of 
 Albany county, but was born at Eliza- 
 bethtown, Essex county, New York, May 
 1, 1834. where he passed the earlier years 
 of his career and first entered upon his 
 practice. He was the son of the Hon. 
 Augustus C. Hand, an ex-justice of the 
 Supreme Court of the Fourth Judicial 
 District of this State, who was elected 
 June 7. 1847, at tne nrst judicial election 
 under the constitution of 1846. At an 
 early age Judge Hand exhibited a remark- 
 able proficiency in his studies, and was 
 only fourteen years old when he entered 
 Middlebury College, Vermont. He re- 
 mained there through his sophomore 
 year, and in 1851 was transferred to 
 Union College, where he was afterwards 
 graduated. 
 
 At the close of his college career, he 
 entered his father's law office and thor- 
 
 346 
 
EXCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 oughly availed himself of its rare advan- 
 tages in preparation for his chosen profes- 
 sion. He was admitted to the bar in 
 May, 1854, and after practicing at Eliza- 
 bethtown for about three years, he 
 removed to Albany. Here he was asso- 
 ciated in partnership with John V. L. 
 Pruyn from October, 1859, until he be- 
 came a member, in 1861, of the law firm 
 of Cagger, Porter & Hand, and was 
 instrumental in its becoming one of the 
 leading firms in the State. It controlled 
 an immense practice as shown by the 
 records of the Federal Courts and the 
 State law reports. In January, 1865, Mr. 
 Porter was appointed judge of the Court 
 of Appeals ; and the firm, was continued 
 under the style of Cagger & Hand until 
 it was dissolved, July 6. 1868, by the 
 death of Mr. Cagger. Mr. Hand then 
 associated himself with Mathew Hale 
 and Nathan Swartz, the firm assuming 
 the style of Hand, Hale & Swartz, and 
 continued doing a very extensive busi- 
 ness as attested by the records of the 
 time. In 1873, Mr. Charles S. Fairchild, 
 subsequently Attorney-General of the 
 State, became a member of the firm 
 which was then known as Hand, Hale, 
 Swartz & Fairchild, and continued in 
 practice until Mr. Fairchild's appoint- 
 ment in the fall of 1875. Two years after 
 this, Mr. Swartz removed to Colorado, 
 the firm continuing as Hand & Hale until 
 1880, since which time Judge Hand con- 
 tinued alone in practice and handled an 
 immense volume of business. In the 
 meantime, in 1878, he had been appointed 
 judge of the Court of Appeals, which had 
 caused a brief interruption in his previous 
 partnership with Mr. Hale. He carried 
 to the bench the same unwearied indus- 
 try and high ability that had character- 
 ized him at the bar, and the records of 
 his opinions are written with a concise- 
 ness, strength and logic that bear witness 
 to the amount of thought and research 
 
 which he brought to the practice of his 
 profession at all times. 
 
 He left the bench of the Court of 
 Appeals on December 31, 1878, and was 
 succeeded by the Hon. George F. Dan- 
 forth. Returning to his practice at the 
 bar, he continued it largely from that 
 time onward in connection with the Court 
 of Last Resort. In the argument of cases 
 his exposition of the precedents upon 
 which he relied, or which were cited by 
 his opponents, was full and minute, and 
 he developed with care and precision the 
 principles upon which they rested. 
 Among the important cases in which 
 Judge Hand took a distinguished part 
 were : The Susquehanna Litigation of 
 1869-70-71 ; Von Woert vs. the City of 
 Albany, involving thirty cases ; the quo 
 warranto case between Thacher and 
 Judson, rival claimants for the office of 
 mayor of Albany ; the impeachment, in 
 1879, of John F. Smyth, superintendent 
 of insurance, Judge Hand conducting the 
 prosecution of the case for the people on 
 the retainer of Governor Robinson : the 
 People vs. Belden. one of the most im- 
 portant cases ever litigated in this State, 
 action being brought by it for the 
 recovery of about $400,000. Judge Hand 
 was counsel for the Canal Investigating 
 Commission of Governor Tilden, in 1875- 
 76. In 1877, he was engaged in the Ele- 
 vated Railroad litigation as counsel for 
 the Metropolitan Railroad, when the con- 
 stitutionality of the Rapid Transit Act 
 was passed upon. In 1884 he was engaged 
 as counsel in the $1,000,000 Water Meter 
 suit, better known under the title of 
 Baird vs. the Mayor of New York. 
 
 Judge Hand occupied a number of 
 official positions. In the beginning of his 
 career he became attached to the Demo- 
 cratic party and was always one of its 
 warmest supporters, his professional 
 standing and wide political acquaintance 
 entitling him to be one of its leaders. In 
 
 347 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 1863, he was appointed corporation 
 counsel for Albany, and was reelected, 
 continuing in office until 1866, when the 
 control of the city government passed 
 into the hands of the Republican party. 
 During the administration of this office 
 the city, excepting in one instance, paid 
 no counsel fee. In January, 1869, Judge 
 Hand was appointed reporter of the Court 
 of Appeals, serving until March, 1872. 
 The six volumes of his reports during 
 this time are numbers 40 to 45 inclusive. 
 He was compelled to resign this post on 
 account of the great increase in his prac- 
 tice ; and in 1875 was appointed by Gov- 
 ernor Tilden as judge of the Supreme 
 Court for the Third Judicial District, an 
 appointment, however, which he was 
 constrained to decline. After Horatio 
 Seymour declined a nomination as can- 
 didate for the governorship in 1876, tend- 
 ered him by the Democratic State Com- 
 mission, it was the wish of Governor 
 Tilden, then in nomination for the presi- 
 dency, that Judge Hand should be offered 
 the gubernatorial nomination. It was 
 agreed accordingly by the leaders of the 
 party to place him in nomination at a 
 convention which was to be held sub- 
 sequently. Though everything then 
 pointed to the success which crowned 
 the Democratic party that year, Judge 
 Hand, for reasons of his own, declined to 
 become a candidate for the governorship. 
 In November, 1875, in accordance with a 
 resolution of the Legislature, Judge Hand 
 was appointed a commissioner to devise 
 a plan for the government of cities. 
 
 But Judge Hand's career was not that 
 of a mere lawyer. His acquirements in 
 the field of literature and general knowl- 
 edge were most extensive, and reflected 
 a bright light upon his statesmanship. 
 He was one of the best read men of his 
 age, and owned a valuable private and 
 professional library including many 
 
 French works of great rarity, so that 
 many persons who were incapable of 
 appreciating his powers as a jurist rend- 
 ered honor to his general scholarship and 
 mental ability. In 1861 he edited notes to 
 the American edition of Philobiblon, 
 written by Debury, Bishop of Durham 
 and Chancellor of England under Edward 
 III. This edition is a carefully revised 
 Latin text, and a translation of three 
 French prefaces of M. Cocheris, a most 
 learned author and editor. The work 
 was published by Joel Munsell, of Albany. 
 On June 25, 1884, the degree of LL. D. 
 was conferred upon Judge Hand by 
 Union College. Not only was he eminent 
 in literature and as a classical scholar, 
 but as a man he was incorruptible and 
 faithful in duty, and won the esteem of 
 all with whom he came in contact in both 
 social and business intercourse. 
 
 Judge Hand was one of the first vice- 
 presidents of the New York State Bar 
 Association, and was president of that 
 institution in its third and fourth years, 
 succeeding Judge John K. Porter, who 
 was its first president. At the annual 
 meeting of the association in the second 
 year of his presidency, Judge Hand pre- 
 pared and delivered an elaborate and 
 highly commended address. This has 
 been published in the Proceedings of the 
 Association, and extensive extracts from 
 it appeared in the "Albany Law Journal" 
 and other periodicals. Among his honors 
 also was the presidency of the Chi Psi 
 Alumni Association of Northern New 
 York and the Mohawk and Hudson River 
 Valleys. 
 
 Judge Hand's death occurred at his 
 home in Albany, May 21, 1886. While 
 he was young in years, his work had been 
 so well performed that his life was equal 
 to the longest, full and rounded out to 
 completeness, and at his demise a repre- 
 sentative gathering of lawyers, including 
 
 348 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 almost the entire bar of Albany, met to 
 do him honor. Many resolutions were 
 passed and words of the highest com- 
 mendation were uttered by the leading 
 men of the day ; Mr. Tilden, in his mes- 
 sage, expressed the universal sentiment in 
 saying: "The loss of this great lawyer is 
 a calamity to the bar, to the courts, and 
 to the State ; I feel it is a personal be- 
 reavement to myself." 
 
 Few men of his generation have left a 
 brighter name on the rolls of the legal 
 profession, and the community was over- 
 whelmed by the magnitude of its loss. 
 Everything in his career tended to endear 
 him to the public ; his well known and 
 widely acknowledged ability, his promi- 
 nence at the bar, his uprightness in 
 private life, and the honorableness of his 
 character in every regard. His life may 
 be summed up in twenty years of in- 
 defatigable and effective work ; and 
 through all his career he evinced a 
 marked aversion to pretense of any kind, 
 and to any deviation from the purity and 
 simplicity of tastes which marked him 
 the great man that he was. He was an 
 energetic and influential member of the 
 Young Men's Christian Association and 
 did much to promote the interests of that 
 organization. 
 
 Judge Hand was married in the year 
 1863 to Lydia Learned, the ceremony hav- 
 ing been performed by the Rev. Dr. John 
 Campbell of Albany. Mrs. Hand was a 
 daughter of Billings P. Learned, presi- 
 dent of the Union Bank, and a niece of 
 Judge William L. Learned, of the Su- 
 preme Court. Her mother was a Miss 
 Mary Noyes prior to her marriage to 
 Mr. Learned. Judge and Mrs. Hand 
 were the parents of two children : Judge 
 Billings Learned Hand, of New York 
 City, and Lydia, the wife of Dr. Henry 
 Hun, of Albany. 
 
 LAWYER, Abram Strubach, 
 
 Representative Business Man. 
 
 Conspicuous among the many changes 
 that have taken place in the standards 
 and ideals of business during the past 
 generation is that which has occurred in 
 the attitude taken by the great captains 
 of industry and finance regarding them- 
 selves and the function they should per- 
 form in the community. These men of 
 unusual ability a few years back were of 
 the opinion that they were but the leaders 
 of enterprise in which the great rank and 
 file of their fellow citizens were partici- 
 pants, copartners with themselves, to 
 whom they owed the highest consider- 
 ation, and for whose benefit, quite as 
 much as for their own, their great 
 achievements were undertaken. This 
 normal and healthy spirit of cooperation 
 has, however, given place to-day to an- 
 other far less wholesome in which the 
 men of great business power and in- 
 fluence seem rather to regard their inter- 
 ests as quite divorced from those of the 
 other members of the community, and 
 these latter as beings whom it is their 
 prerogative to exploit, even if not actual 
 enemies to be crushed and trampled upon 
 wherever they may come betwixt them 
 and their huge ambitions. As is usual 
 this spirit so adopted by those the com- 
 munity has come to regard as its leaders 
 and representatives, has spread into all 
 ranks and classes until each feels himself 
 the opponent of all others and the present 
 type of cutthroat competition has grown 
 up very inimical to the best advantages 
 of all. As has already been remarked, 
 not so were the successful business men 
 of the last generation, and it is very 
 pleasant to turn back, if only for a 
 moment, to the lives of such men and 
 renew for ourselves the pleasant atmos- 
 phere that surrounded the business oper- 
 ations of those days in which a health- 
 
 349 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ful and delightful tradition grew up now, 
 alas ! almost completely lost. Such a 
 life was that of Abram Strubach Law- 
 yer than whom perhaps none who have 
 distinguished themselves in the business 
 and industrial circles of Albany in the 
 past generation were better or more 
 favorably known. He, coming to that 
 city many years ago, by his personal 
 industry and conspicuous talents estab- 
 lished a business house that is to the 
 present day not only a landmark in the 
 city, but through all its long existence 
 a benefit and source of wealth to the 
 community-at-large. Thus it is that his 
 death which occurred there on September 
 10, 1910, was felt by all who knew him 
 to be a public loss, although those who 
 have succeeded him in the ownership and 
 management of the great wholesale house 
 on Hudson avenue have continued the 
 business along the same lines which he 
 so successfully laid down. 
 
 Abram Strubach Lawyer, as has al- 
 ready been indicated, was not a native of 
 Albany, but was born in Schoharie, Scho- 
 harie county, New York, March 2, 1849. 
 He was the son of John J. and Maria 
 (Seeley) Lawyer, and comes of an old 
 and highly regarded family of Schoharie 
 county, whose founders were among the 
 early settlers in that region. His earliest 
 education was received in the environ- 
 ment of his own home where a love of 
 study was instilled into his boyish mind, 
 and later at the Schoharie Academy, 
 where he was sent upon reaching the 
 requisite age, and where his schooling 
 was completed. Upon leaving this in- 
 stitution he entered at once upon his 
 business career, in which he was destined 
 to achieve so great a success. His first 
 position was as a clerk in a local mer- 
 cantile house, where he remained for 
 some time and made himself familiar 
 with business methods generally. His 
 ambitions were early awakened, however, 
 
 and he soon found that his place in the 
 Schoharie house did not offer a wide 
 enough field for his talents and abilities, 
 and accordingly he gave up the position, 
 and with characteristic decision removed 
 entirely from his home surroundings and 
 settled in Albany where he thought to 
 find a larger opportunity. It was in the 
 year 1868 that he came to Albany and he 
 soon secured a place as bookkeeper in a 
 business house in that city where he 
 rendered himself of such value to his 
 employers that he received rapid advance- 
 ment. The intelligence and industry of 
 Mr. Lawyer were supplemented by an 
 equally important quality, that of thrift 
 and economy, which at this time he dis- 
 played to his own great advantage, sav- 
 ing up so much of his salary that it was 
 but a few years before he was able to 
 realize his great ambition and start a 
 business of his own. It was then that the 
 foundations of the great wholesale house, 
 dealing in hardware, paints and mill sup- 
 plies, were laid, the site chosen by him 
 being its present one on Hudson avenue. 
 From that time to his death Mr. Lawyer 
 devoted himself unremittingly to the 
 building up and development of his great 
 enterprise with the result of its complete 
 succeess and his leaving as an inheritance 
 to his family one of the most prosperous 
 and widely known concerns in the city. 
 
 Besides his great success in business 
 which necessarily brought him into wide 
 prominence in the life of the city, Mr. 
 Lawyer was very active in many other 
 departments of the city's affairs and be- 
 came well known in social circles and 
 possessed an extensive acquaintance in 
 Albany and elsewhere. He was a 
 member of many clubs and was especial- 
 ly conspicuous in Masonic circles and 
 contributed largely to the advance of 
 fraternal life in that locality. He was 
 past master of Temple Lodge, Free and 
 Accepted Masons ; past high priest of 
 
 35o 
 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Capital City Chapter, Royal Arch Ma- 
 sons; a member of DeWitt Clinton 
 Council, Royal and Select Masters ; of 
 Albany Commandery, Knights Templar ; 
 and of Albany Temple, Nobles of the 
 Mystic Shrine; also a member of Clinton 
 Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
 lows, of Albany. 
 
 On September 30, 1876, Mr. Lawyer 
 was united in marriage with Emma Law- 
 yer, a daughter of George and Catherine 
 (Broman) Lawyer, of Albany, and a 
 descendant on both sides of the house 
 from old Schoharie county families. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Lawyer were the parents of 
 four children as follows : Jennie, now 
 residing at home ; George Howard, who 
 married Beulah Young, of Schoharie, 
 they have one daughter, Jane ; John, who 
 died in infancy ; and Tiffany, now a prac- 
 ticing physician of Albany, married 
 Charlotte Fisher, of that city, who bore 
 him a son of the same name who is also 
 engaged in the practice of medicine. 
 
 It has already been said that Mr. 
 Lawyer belonged to an older type of 
 business men in whom the sense of re- 
 sponsibility to the community was much 
 more active than it commonly is to-day, 
 but this is not all. Not only was he one 
 of that type, but conspicuous among his 
 fellows for the virtues that they stood 
 for, a man who did not stop at what he 
 conceived to be his duties to his fellows 
 but went out of his way to benefit all 
 that he could. In his family life, as in 
 his business relations, his conduct was 
 above reproach and in both he might well 
 serve as a model for the youth of the 
 community. 
 
 HILTON, John, 
 
 Successful Business Man. 
 
 Among all the many countries whose 
 peoples have come together in this west- 
 ern land and together made up its com- 
 
 plex population none stands higher, either 
 in the generosity with which she has 
 given of her sons to us or the quality of 
 the element she has thus added to our 
 body politic, than Ireland. Certainly in 
 the number of those that have come here 
 from those green shores she has shown 
 how warm was the hope with which her 
 oppressed sons and daughters looked to- 
 wards a new life in a new home, and not 
 less certainly are we grateful for the 
 splendid virtues the peculiarly Irish qual- 
 ities of courage and light-hearted enter- 
 prise with which the whole great fabric 
 of our citizenship has been colored. 
 From the north of that small but lovely 
 land have come many of our most bril- 
 liant men and much of the best stock that 
 we have in our midst to-day. A fine 
 example of the best type of his country- 
 men was John Hilton, late of Newburgh, 
 New York, whose death there on July 2, 
 1895, removed from the community one 
 of the most public-spirited and active of 
 its citizens. 
 
 Born May 16, 1814, in the north of 
 Ireland, Mr. Hilton passed the first six- 
 teen years of his life in the place of his 
 birth. He was one of an able family, a 
 brother, William Hilton, winning dis- 
 tinction as well as himself, and a first 
 cousin being Judge Henry Hilton, of New 
 York City. He was himself of an enter- 
 prising character, and while still a mere 
 lad developed a strong resolution to seek 
 his fortunes in the new and wonderful 
 country, the land of freedom and oppor- 
 tunity of which so many accounts were 
 then in circulation in the old world. Ac- 
 cordingly, when he was but sixteen years 
 of age, he set sail for America and, land- 
 ing in the port of New York, made his 
 way to the then little town of Newburgh, 
 New York. In this lovely locality he 
 remained a number of years and there 
 served his apprenticeship in the mason's 
 trade, which he mastered very fully, be- 
 
 351 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 coming an expert in the craft. He then 
 went to New York City, where he worked 
 in his trade under the direction of the 
 best metropolitan builders by whom he 
 was employed. By dint of intelligence, 
 industry and thrift he found himself able 
 to enter the business on his own account 
 and for a time was extremely successful 
 in the city. There were reasons, how- 
 ever, which induced him to return to 
 Newburgh, where he continued to be 
 successful, although there seems to be 
 every reason to believe that his unusual 
 sagacity and business sense would have 
 carried him to far greater heights of 
 achievement had he remained in the 
 metropolitan city than they did in the 
 country town where they had scarcely 
 room for proper expansion. For a time 
 after his return to Newburgh he was 
 employed as a master mason, but with 
 his usual keen foresight he began to 
 invest his savings in real estate, quickly 
 perceiving the opportunity in the increas- 
 ing values of property in so rapidly grow- 
 ing a community. The intelligence he 
 displayed in these operations and the 
 foresight in selecting properties in the 
 most direct line of development began 
 soon to exert a favorable effect upon his 
 fortunes and he began to turn his trade as 
 mason to good account, building upon his 
 developing properties and otherwise im- 
 proving them. These operations became 
 more and more extensive with the growth 
 of the city, his interests correspondingly 
 increasing in the meanwhile, until he 
 came to be regarded as one of the most 
 substantial and influential citizens and 
 business men in the community. One of 
 the first, if not the very first, property 
 purchased by Mr. Hilton, the foundation 
 of his subsequent estate, was the prop- 
 erty at No. 71 Smith street. From this 
 small beginning the estate grew until be- 
 fore his death he was the owner of some 
 eighty-five houses in Newburgh. all with- 
 
 in the city limits. Some eight or nine 
 years before his death Mr. Hilton retired 
 from the active pursuit of his business 
 and turned over the management of the 
 great property to his eldest son who has 
 since managed it with a high degree of 
 success. 
 
 Mr. Hilton was a man of strong relig- 
 ious feeling and profound convictions, a 
 Covenanter in belief, and a man who 
 practiced the teachings of his church. 
 He was a member of the First Reformed 
 Presbyterian Church of Newburgh for a 
 number of years and later joined the 
 Westminster Church of that city, of 
 which he remained a prominent member 
 up to the time of his death. Prominent 
 in the work of the congregation, he was 
 a liberal supporter of the philanthropic 
 activity in connection therewith. 
 
 On April 25, 1865, Mr. Hilton was 
 united in marriage with Anna L. Turner, 
 of Waukesha, Wisconsin, a daughter of 
 William and Margaret (Porter) Turner, 
 old and highly respected residents of 
 that place. To them were born four 
 children who, with their mother, survive 
 Mr. Hilton. They are as follows: 1. 
 William, T., of Newburgh ; married Cath- 
 erine C. Quaide, by whom he has a son, 
 William T., Jr. 2. Robert G., who was a 
 civil engineer, graduate of Yale ; died 
 aged thirty-five years ; unmarried. 3. 
 Bertha, now the wife of Frederick C. 
 Balfe, of Newburgh, and the mother of 
 three children: Harriet H., John H., and 
 Frederick C, all of whom are attending 
 school (1916). 4. John Ralph, a gradu- 
 ate of Yale University, and an attorney of 
 New York ; married Clara Lewis, of 
 Chicago. 
 
 Mr. Hilton was in the best sense what 
 is most aptly described in the typical 
 American term of "selfmade man." It 
 was through his own efforts that he won 
 his way to success, by dint of enterprise 
 and courage linked to indefatigable in- 
 
 352 
 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 dustry. In all the relations of his life, 
 private as well as those in connection 
 with his business, his conduct was above 
 reproach, displaying at once those more 
 fundamental virtues upon which all 
 worthy character must be based, courage 
 and honesty, and those scarcely less 
 compelling qualities of kindliness and 
 sympathy which, as they are the more 
 purely social in their character, are per- 
 haps the most valued in society. He was 
 possessed of very strong domestic in- 
 stincts which his many duties and obliga- 
 tions prevented him, from indulging to the 
 full extent during most of his life, but 
 during the latter years of his life he 
 suffered from a somewhat depleted health 
 which kept him from active participation 
 in his business and for which he probably 
 regarded it as well nigh a compensation 
 that he had more time to devote to the 
 members of his family and those personal 
 friends who shared the privilege of his 
 intimacy. By all who came in contact 
 with him, whether intimately or casually, 
 he was held in admiration and affection 
 and it was in a large circle of associates 
 that his death was felt as a personal loss. 
 
 BURNHAM, Cyrus, 
 
 A Leader Among Men. 
 
 The upper part of New York State, 
 especially that part north of the Mohawk 
 in which lies Glens Falls, abounds in 
 traditional and historical connections. 
 From this particularly fertile soil may be 
 drawn thousands of interesting memoirs 
 of lives which count in the history of our 
 State and Nation, from the formative 
 period when the Five Nation Indians 
 fought the sure encroachment of the' 
 enterprising and dreaded white man upon 
 their territory up to the present day. The 
 descendants of the pioneer stock which 
 settled this part of the new land, a stock 
 which in any nation must needs be only 
 
 the best because of the stern and unre- 
 lenting process of elimination through 
 which it passes, still continues to supply 
 our country with much of the material 
 from which she builds her greatness. The 
 men of affairs, the statesmen, the profes- 
 sional men, the successful men in all 
 walks of life, have sprung in the greatest 
 majority from this sturdy, upright and 
 honorable stock. The end and aim of true 
 biography is amply justified in the 
 memorials of these lives. 
 
 To give the ordinary man Plutarch and 
 to expect him to draw guidance from the 
 biographies embodied therein of the 
 world's leaders, to expect him to glean 
 principles by which he may order his 
 own life, fails as completely in its purpose 
 as setting before an untrained speaker the 
 "Philippics" of Demosthenes with the 
 demand that he produce something like 
 them. Ordinary men are moved to 
 admiration, not imitation by the wonders 
 of the world ; they are awed rather than 
 encouraged. The basic principles guid- 
 ing great lives are as great as the lives 
 themselves. The sun defies the study of 
 all except those provided with the most 
 wonderful of instruments. But its lesser 
 satellites offer to men a wide field of 
 comparatively easy research. Just so the 
 lives of men of prominence around us, 
 not necessarily men of greatness, offer 
 us models for our own lives. Such a life 
 was that of Cyrus Burnham, of Glens 
 Falls, whose death there on March 28, 
 1858, in the height of a succeessful career 
 and at the zenith of his usefulness as a 
 public citizen, took from the community 
 one of its staunchest friends and bene- 
 factors. 
 
 Cyrus Burnham was the son of Josiah 
 and Betsey (Hickson) Burnham, emi- 
 grants from England while the fever of 
 colonization was still hot upon the Eng- 
 lish. They settled in Moreau in 1784, 
 Moreau later becoming Queensbury, New 
 
 N Y— Vol II— 23 
 
 353 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 York. Later they moved to what is now 
 Glens Falls and were among the pioneer 
 settlers of that now flourishing city. 
 Josiah Burnham saw active service in the 
 War of 1812, when though still in her 
 infancy America demonstrated once and 
 for all her supremacy on the high seas, 
 and in the Indian war in which his father 
 was an officer. 
 
 Cyrus Burnham was born on April 15, 
 1808. He received what meagre educa- 
 tion the public schools of the day afford- 
 ed. At the age of seventeen years his 
 parents lost all of their possessions by 
 fire and it became necessary for him to 
 contribute some share in the support of 
 the family. He entered the lumbering 
 business, starting on a small scale, not 
 greatly productive of gain. Sagacity in 
 business dealings and honesty and fair- 
 ness of methods rapidly increased his 
 holdings, and at a very early age he be- 
 came one of the foremost lumber dealers 
 of Northern New York. In Glens Falls 
 he was associated in business with George 
 G. Hawley in a manufacturing capacity ; 
 later, on realizing the enormous possi- 
 bilities of the lumber trade and also the 
 comparative unwisdom of narrowing his 
 abilities down to one specific line, he 
 entered the wholesale lumber business 
 with Orlin Mead and George Sanford in 
 Albany, New York, in which he was very 
 successful. His success at all lines to 
 which he bent his energies, though well- 
 nigh phenomenal, is not, all things con- 
 sidered, greatly to be wondered at. It 
 has been said that a man gets out of life 
 very nearly what he puts into it. In the 
 case of Cyrus Burnham, his stern integ- 
 rity, keen business perceptions, and high 
 moral principles, brought only the degree 
 of success which they truly merited. But 
 his success was not limited by the neces- 
 sarily narrow lines of trade and commer- 
 cialism. Force and magnetism of per- 
 sonality made him not only honored and 
 
 respected, but also loved — a leader among 
 men. The number of his friends and 
 ardent admirers and supporters was 
 legion. Though always active in an un- 
 official capacity in the best interests of 
 his city, Cyrus Burnham, up to the year 
 1850, held no civic position, though many 
 times urged because of his signal fitness 
 for great influence for good in the realm 
 of politics to take offices of public honor. 
 In 1850 he finally yielded to unanimous 
 demand and served in the State Assem- 
 bly, which post heaps upon the incumbent 
 who would acquit himself honorably and 
 well of its duties a task colossal in pro- 
 portions. His career in politics, promis- 
 ing in the extreme, was unhappily very 
 short. 
 
 On July 20, 1841, Cyrus Burnham mar- 
 ried Sophia Rice, daughter of Julius H. 
 and Rowena (Foster) Rice, of Glens 
 Falls. Mrs. Burnham died on October 
 2, 1903. Their children were : Cyrus 
 Rice, who died in infancy ; Sophia Rice ; 
 Glen Frederick, died March 8, 1896, aged 
 forty-six years ; and Julius R., died Janu- 
 ary 2, 1891, aged thirty-seven years. 
 Sophia R. Burnham, the only surviving 
 child, now maintains the beautiful home- 
 stead which has been the family dwelling 
 since 1841. She devotes much time to 
 charitable works. 
 
 Mr. Burnham was connected with 
 many business organizations in Glens 
 Falls in a purely advisory capacity, per- 
 forming his duties in a thoroughly un- 
 ostentatious manner. He was one of the 
 incorporators of the Glens Falls National 
 Bank, of which he remained a director 
 from the time of its incorporation in 1851 
 until the time of his death in 1858. The 
 cutting short of the all too short span of 
 human life before the allotted three score 
 and ten years have been attained is always 
 sad. But when the life has been one of 
 signal achievement and widespread influ- 
 ence for moral good and civic advance, 
 
 354 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 the bereavement mounts to the tragic and 
 becomes great in proportion to the great- 
 ness of the man. In the death of Cyrus 
 Burnham, Glens Falls lost a man of the 
 high type of American citizenship which 
 forms the very sinews of the nation, a type 
 of which any community can ill afford to 
 lose even one representative. 
 
 BOEDECKER, Hilmer Burton, 
 
 A Leading Citizen and Business Man. 
 
 It is always pleasant to observe the 
 reward of merit paid in due season while 
 he whose meed it is is yet of an age to 
 enjoy it, to see industry, courage, enter- 
 prise win to their goal with faculties keen 
 to appreciate the taste of their success. 
 This attractive sight is, perhaps, growing 
 less common to-day as our social fabric 
 becomes slightly less flexible and it be- 
 comes more difficult for the man without 
 a favorable start in life to force his way 
 into the realms of wealth, fortune or power. 
 The past century, however, was the great 
 age for successful youth and if we will 
 but turn to its records we shall see a well 
 nigh infinite number of brilliant successes 
 on the part of those who have seized upon 
 some new opportunity in the world of 
 business and bent their energies to its 
 development. Such was the case with 
 the distinguished gentleman whose name 
 heads this brief article, Hilmer Burton 
 Boedecker, of New York City and Mount 
 Vernon, whose death in the latter place 
 on April 6, 191 1, deprived those places of 
 a leading citizen and a man of the widest 
 public spirit and altruism. 
 
 Hilmer Burton Boedeckerwas descended 
 from a family that had its origin in Hol- 
 land but had come over to Canada in the 
 person of Henry Boedecker, his father, 
 who resided in Berlin, Canada, being en- 
 gaged in the importation of toys, most of 
 which came from Holland. He was also 
 
 interested in the great lumber industry of 
 Canada and was successful in both enter- 
 prises. He was married to Augusta Loc- 
 fus, a native of Jamaica. They were par- 
 ents of five children: Hilmer Burton; 
 Herman, who now resides in Tacoma, 
 Washington ; Henry, Adeline and Louise. 
 Hilmer Burton Boedecker was born in 
 Berlin, Canada, March 22, 1859, and there 
 passed the years of his childhood until he 
 was fifteen, receiving the elementary por- 
 tion of his education at the local public 
 schools. At that time his mother died 
 and his father, dropping his business as- 
 sociations and every interest, removed 
 from the town to New York City, bring- 
 ing with him two of his sons, Hilmer Bur- 
 ton and Henry, and the daughters. Hil- 
 mer B. attended the public schools of the 
 city for a number of years and then, with 
 his brother, Henry, entered the new busi- 
 ness that his father had founded in New 
 York City. This was a cleaning and dye- 
 ing establishment, one of the first if not 
 the very first in the city, and from the 
 outset it was a great success. Although 
 the elder man was entirely unfamiliar 
 with this line of business, it prospered 
 from the first and soon became well- 
 known throughout the city. The concern, 
 now known as Boedecker Brothers, dealt 
 with the very best people in the commu- 
 nity and did the best class of work, and it 
 was not long before it began to establish 
 branch houses in other parts of the city, 
 all of which were successful. There were 
 at length three houses in New York, a 
 large one in Newark, New Jersey, and a 
 very prosperous one in Mount Vernon, 
 New York. The company is still in ex- 
 istence and still owned and operated by 
 the Boedecker family. The father, Henry 
 Boedecker, and his two sons, Hilmer B. 
 and Henry, remained in active manage- 
 ment of it until their deaths which took 
 place all within two years of each other. 
 
 355 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 They were the successful pioneers in their 
 line in New York and personally remained 
 in the business for some thirty-five years. 
 About the time of the establishment of 
 the office in Mount Vernon, about 1886, 
 Mr. Hilmer Burton Boedecker removed 
 to that town, then no large place, and 
 there made his permanent home. 
 
 In Mount Vernon Mr. Boedecker was 
 very active, but it was not only in his 
 business that his efforts were expended, 
 for he took a prominent part in the affiairs 
 of the community generally and was ever 
 ready to lend his effectual assistance to 
 any movement that in his judgment 
 promised the advancement of the commu- 
 nity's interest. He was keenly interested 
 in politics and allied himself with the 
 local organization of the Republican party 
 of which he was a member. He remained 
 a staunch supporter of this party's prin- 
 ciples and policies to the end of his life, 
 yet he was no narrow partisan and the 
 good of the community at large was al- 
 ways placed ahead of any party interests 
 by him. Indeed, his lack of partisanship 
 was so marked that it seems remarkable 
 that he should have risen to the position 
 of leader of his ward and held that posi- 
 tion until the end of his life, but his char- 
 acter and personality was such that he 
 was a natural leader of men and others 
 naturally deferred to his prudent but deci- 
 sive judgment. Besides this semi-official 
 post he also held a number of town offices 
 and among them that of coroner of the 
 city of Mount Vernon, in which capacity 
 he had served two years and was still 
 serving at the time of his death. 
 
 On November 28, 1889, Mr. Boedecker 
 was united in marriage with Charity May 
 Fisher, of New London, Connecticut, and 
 a native of New York City. Mrs. Boe- 
 decker was of both German and Dutch 
 descent, her father, Charles Fisher, hav- 
 ing come from Germany in his youth, 
 while her mother, Charity (Decker) 
 
 Fisher, was descended from on old family 
 of Holland that had come to this country 
 in the person of Moses Decker. She was 
 one of three daughters, the others being 
 Mrs. James R. Taylor and Miss Nell 
 Fisher, both of Mount Vernon. To Mr. 
 and Mrs. Boedecker was born one son, 
 Hilmer P. Boedecker, a graduate of the 
 New York Nautical School, that was con- 
 ducted for so many years on the old 
 training ship the "St. Mary," which was 
 put out of commission a number of years 
 ago. Hilmer P. Boedecker, after his gradu- 
 ation, served as quartermaster on a num- 
 ber of steamers, but has since settled on 
 a banana plantation in Porto Rico, and 
 has there spent several years. Two 
 daughters are also born to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Boedecker, Elinor and Marian. Mrs. Boe- 
 decker and her children survive Mr. Boe- 
 decker and all of them, save the son, are 
 residents of Mount Vernon. 
 
 Mr. Boedecker was a man of strong per- 
 sonality and one who of necessity im- 
 pressed himself upon those with whom he 
 was associated. His influence on the busi- 
 ness interests and the general life of his 
 adopted town was a strong one and uni- 
 formly exerted for its good. He was 
 a man of the strongest domestic instincts, 
 finding his chief happiness in the intimate 
 intercourse of his own family by his own 
 hearth, where also he delighted to wel- 
 come those friends who were privileged 
 to call themselves his intimates. In all 
 the relations of life he was of the most 
 exemplary habit, and his career might 
 well be taken as a pattern by the youth of 
 the community. 
 
 FOSHAY, Frank E., 
 
 Active Man of Affairs. 
 
 It is a matter by no means easy to ex- 
 press in concrete terms the actual value 
 and significance of a career, or give a sat- 
 isfactory account of the life of a man who 
 
 356 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 has won for himself through the general 
 worth of his character a high place in the 
 regard of his fellows. The impression 
 conveyed in the mere statement that such 
 a one achieved a great success in this or 
 that line of endeavor is apt to be wholly 
 inadequate, even if not actually mislead- 
 ing, since the true accomplishment of a 
 man lies in his relations, man to man, 
 with his associates, in the influence which 
 his character has exerted for good upon 
 theirs, and not in the wealth or station 
 that he may have won or even in the 
 formal honors that the community has 
 conferred upon him. Of course these 
 latter things do all indicate the existence 
 of certain abilities and talents which are 
 very far from deserving contempt, nay, 
 on the contrary, which the world has, 
 and doubtless wisely, singled out for 
 especial rewards and honors in the present 
 epoch, but in the final analysis these are 
 not conclusive of the true worth of an in- 
 dividual, while in all ages and places his 
 influence upon others is the real test. It 
 is the task of the writer of records, there- 
 fore, if he would truly express the lives 
 and characters of those he deals with, to 
 penetrate the exterior and to draw up 
 from beneath into the sight of the world 
 those essential facts and qualities lying 
 there, upon which the whole structure of 
 personality and achievement rests as a 
 pyramid upon its base. How true this is 
 is amply illustrated for us in the case of 
 Frank E. Foshay, the distinguished 
 gentleman whose name heads this brief 
 sketch, and whose death on March 16, 
 1913, at Ossining, New York, when but 
 thirty-six years of age, deprived the whole 
 community of one who was at all times 
 and in all places an influence for good. 
 Mr. Foshay did, it is true, in the short life 
 allotted him by destiny, win a quite un- 
 usual material success, and had his am- 
 bitions urged him, or time allowed a 
 
 longer course, would doubtless won a 
 wide public recognition. As a matter of 
 fact, however, it was not the outcome of 
 these matters that gave him the position 
 of esteem that he occupied in the hearts 
 of his associates, but his sterling char- 
 acter for which all men felt an instinctive 
 admiration. 
 
 Frank E. Foshay was born March 23, 
 1877, at Ossining, New York, a son of 
 Edwin F. and Mary E. (Thompson) Fo- 
 shay, old and highly respected residents 
 of the village, and there passed his early 
 childhood, gaining his first associations 
 with the place which was to remain his 
 home during the entire period of his brief 
 life. He was educated in the local public 
 schools and later at the Holbrook School 
 and early proved himself an apt pupil, 
 industrious and ambitious to learn. He 
 won the regard of his teachers and at the 
 same time the affection of his fellow stu- 
 dents, and was considered one of the best 
 scholars at the institution during the 
 years that he was there. Upon graduat- 
 ing from the school he turned his atten- 
 tion to the question of a business which 
 he might follow permanently. In the 
 choice of this, he was largely influenced 
 by the fact that his father and grand- 
 father before him had been successfully 
 engaged in an insurance business at Os- 
 sining. So it was that he also took up 
 insurance and added to it real estate 
 operations, in both of which he was emi- 
 nently successful. In a flourishing com- 
 munity such as Ossining, in which the 
 population is increasing, the rising values 
 of property will offer many splendid op- 
 portunities for the investor and it was in 
 his insight into these that the business 
 capacity of Mr. Foshay most conspicu- 
 ously displayed itself. 
 
 But in spite of his successes in business 
 it was not in this connection that he was 
 best known in the community. He was a 
 
 357 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 man of many interests and took an ex- 
 tremely active part in the general life of 
 the place. He was a Republican in politi- 
 cal conviction and was one of the young 
 men of Ossining who might look forward 
 to preferment in his party and to high 
 public office. He had already become a 
 member of the Board of Town Assessors 
 and was still serving most efficiently in 
 that capacity at the time of his death. He 
 was very fond of the society of his fel- 
 lows and one of his strongest tastes was 
 for life in the open air. He was out-of- 
 doors as much as his duties permitted 
 him to be, took part in many athletic oc- 
 cupations and belonged to many clubs 
 existing for this purpose. He was a mem- 
 ber of the Point Senasqua Rod and Reel 
 Club, of the Shattamuc Yacht Club and 
 many others. To all the sports and pas- 
 times he was devoted, hunting, fishing, 
 automobiling, and more than once was 
 he contestant in tests of skill, strength or 
 endurance. He was secretary of the 
 Westchester County Automobile Club 
 and took part in several of the club's hill- 
 climbing contests. In the matter of his 
 religious belief Mr. Foshay was a Metho- 
 dist. He was an active member of the 
 Highland Avenue Church of that denomi- 
 nation, an active worker in its interests 
 and a liberal supporter of its philanthropic 
 undertakings. 
 
 The marriage of Mr. Foshay to Mar- 
 guerite Hall, of Ossining, took place at 
 that village on June 29, 1904. Mrs. Foshay, 
 who survives her husband and still makes 
 her home in Ossining, is a daughter of 
 Herbert H. and Pauline (Buckbee) Hall, 
 life-long and greatly honored residents of 
 the place. To Mr. and Mrs. Foshay were 
 born two children, Marguerite and Frank 
 E., Jr. 
 
 The life of Mr. Foshay was one well 
 worthy to serve as a model of good citi- 
 zenship and strong earnest manhood. 
 
 Possessed of qualities above the average, 
 of an unusually alert and capable mind, 
 of a winning personality, and a practical 
 grasp of affairs, he made himself a con- 
 spicuous figure in the life of the commu- 
 nity. The sterling virtues of simplicity 
 and charity which were the essential fac- 
 tors in his nature were not overlooked by 
 his fellows, however, who admired and 
 hoped to honor him, so that there is little 
 doubt that his career would have been a 
 brilliant one, as it certainly deserved to 
 be, had not his untimely death cut it short 
 in the prime of life. It will be most appro- 
 priate to close these remarks with a quota- 
 tion from the local press, an obituary 
 notice written by one who knew him per- 
 sonally. The "Ossining Register," in the 
 course of this article, said as follows: 
 
 Deceased possessed a frank, genial disposition 
 and was one of those young men whom it is 
 always the keenest pleasure to meet. He was 
 very popular and well liked by all who knew him 
 and his circle of friends and acquaintances was a 
 wide one He was the soul of honor in all his 
 dealings with his fellow-men, and our town and 
 village has sustained a distinct loss in the un- 
 timely death of this young man, whose life and 
 habits were clean and wholesome, and who was 
 so deeply interested in all things pertaining to 
 the betterment of Ossining and its people. There 
 are all too few young men of the type of Mr. 
 Foshay among our citizens and he will be missed, 
 not only by his sadly bereaved family, but by the 
 community at large. 
 
 TILLINGHAST, J. Wilbur, 
 
 Representative Citizen. 
 
 Among the most prominent business 
 men of Albany, at the close of the last 
 century, was J. Wilbur Tillinghast, who, 
 a native of this city, passed here his whole 
 life, and devoted to its municipal welfare 
 and civic interests the treasure of his long 
 experience and wise judgment in com- 
 mercial affairs. His influence has been 
 felt long after he passed away, and he 
 
 3S« 
 
>-^vb6/2^^. 
 

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 may be reckoned in truth as one of the 
 lasting benefactors of the city of his birth. 
 
 J. Wilbur Tillinghast was born January 
 i, 1833, in the comfortable surroundings 
 of the paternal home, where his early 
 years received all the watchful care which 
 a loving mother and affectionate family 
 could bestow. After he had received the 
 rudiments of his education in his own 
 home, he was sent to the Albany Boys' 
 Academy as his first school, and there 
 pursued his studies with such diligence 
 that he was graduated from that institu- 
 tion and prepared for his entry upon the 
 battle of life. He began his business career 
 immediately after his graduation, in as- 
 sociation with his father, in whose old 
 established enterprise he proved of the 
 greatest possible assistance. After he had 
 remained for some years in this connec- 
 tion, he became associated with the busi- 
 ness of John Tweddle, whose daughter he 
 married, and continued to devote his time 
 and efforts to the advancement of the 
 malting interests in which his father-in- 
 law was so deeply engaged, until he 
 finally devoted himself exclusively to 
 banking. It is with the banking interests 
 of Albany, therefore, that his name will 
 always be associated by the community in 
 which he labored for so long a time in the 
 establishment and promotion of good 
 government and the loftiest principles of 
 trade. 
 
 It was in the year 1869 that Mr. Til- 
 linghast was elected as a director of the 
 Merchants' National Bank, of Albany, and 
 the service which he rendered to the insti- 
 tution in this capacity was such that in a 
 very few years he became its vice-presi- 
 dent. In 1880 he became president of the 
 bank, in which important post he con- 
 tinued until his death. Mr. Tillinghast was 
 also vice-president of the Westcott Ex- 
 press Company, and his prudent and ju- 
 dicious guidance of its affairs was no 
 
 small factor in the success of the com- 
 pany's activities. He was also a director 
 of the Watervliet Turnpike and Railroad 
 Company, and did much to enhance its 
 prosperity. Broad-minded and charitable 
 as he proved himself always to be, Mr. 
 Tillinghast was also appointed a trustee 
 of the Old Men's Home, of Albany, and 
 was able to use his influence for the 
 betterment and comfort of the aged poor 
 who were its beneficiaries and received its 
 kindly shelter. 
 
 With the keen interest which Mr. Til- 
 linghast had always manifested in art and 
 literature, he became one of the charter 
 members of the Albany Historical and 
 Art Society which embraced in its mem- 
 bership the leading scholars and intellec- 
 tual lights of the city at that time. As 
 one of the directors of the Albany Insur- 
 ance Company, his death was profoundly 
 regretted ; and at a meeting held shortly 
 afterwards, resolutions were passed in 
 tribute to his memory attesting the affec- 
 tionate regard in which he was held by 
 his former associates on the directing 
 board, where, for more than thirteen 
 years, he had served so well and faith- 
 fully. 
 
 As a trustee of the Albany Savings 
 Bank, Mr. Tillinghast also left behind 
 him the sorrow and esteem of those with 
 whom he had labored so long in the in- 
 terests of that institution, whose welfare 
 he had been so influential in promoting. 
 At a meeting held by the trustees after his 
 death, it was declared that he had brought 
 to the discharge of his responsibilities as 
 a trustee and officer of the bank an un- 
 usually ripe experience, excellent judg- 
 ment, and abilities of a high order in the 
 direction of financial matters. Sincere 
 testimony was borne as to his inspiring 
 and wholly disinterested efforts in regard 
 to the advancement and success of all the 
 business undertakings in which he had 
 
 359 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 been concerned ; his zeal for the public 
 welfare, his liberality, and the fine traits 
 of his character as evinced in all the re- 
 lations of life. 
 
 Mr. Tillinghast's death, which occurred 
 suddenly, on May 26, 1899, at his resi- 
 dence at Menands, was a great shock as 
 well as a grief to his family and friends. 
 He was survived by his widow, who was 
 a Miss Sarah Tweddle, daughter of John 
 Tweddle, a sketch of whom follows in this 
 volume. He left a son, Frederick Tilling- 
 hast, a sketch of whose life is included in 
 this work ; and a daughter married to 
 Harold D. Hills. 
 
 As a vestryman and afterwards senior 
 warden, Mr. Tillinghast was prominent 
 for many years in St. Peter's Protestant 
 Episcopal Church, and at his death reso- 
 lutions were passed by his associates in the 
 vestry bearing witness to their appreciation 
 of his character and exalted merits. He was 
 no ordinary man ; as strong and virile as 
 were his manly virtues, he blended with 
 them the tenderness and gentleness of a 
 woman, and lived uniformly the life of a 
 Christian gentleman. For more than 
 thirty years, during which he was con- 
 nected with St. Peter's as vestryman and 
 warden, his charities were manifold and 
 his counsel wise, clear-sighted, and sus- 
 taining. 
 
 TILLINGHAST, Frederick, 
 
 Public-spirited Citizen. 
 
 It is in the interest of history and civil- 
 ization to analyze the personalities of 
 those men who achieve prominence in 
 their various environments, and add their 
 quota to the progress of events ; to estab- 
 lish the value of their services, and to de- 
 termine the lesson of their lives. It is 
 therefore in the interests of the commu- 
 nity which he served long and faithfully 
 that mention is here made of the life and 
 
 work of Frederick Tillinghast, who, 
 whether in the councils of the church or 
 in the directorates of the respective 
 business and charitable corporations with 
 which he was associated, felt it incum- 
 bent upon him always to devote his best 
 endeavors to the discharge of the varied 
 responsibilities that devolved upon him. 
 
 Mr. Tillinghast was born February 2, 
 1863, in Albany, the seat of his life's work 
 with its many and varied activities. He 
 was the son of J. Wilbur Tillinghast, 
 mention of whom precedes this in the 
 work. Frederick Tillinghast came thus 
 from a family which for three generations 
 was devoted to the welfare of the county 
 and parish, and he followed in the foot- 
 steps of his forbears in the service which 
 he rendered and the honor which he added 
 to the family name in his useful career. 
 Mr. Tillinghast passed his entire life in 
 the community where he was born, re- 
 ceiving there the rudiments of his educa- 
 tion and later attending the Albany Boys' 
 Academy. Upon his graduation at that 
 institution, he entered Williams' College, 
 where his studies were completed. He 
 then embarked upon his business career, 
 following closely in the footsteps of his 
 father whom he ultimately succeeded in 
 the presidency of the Merchants' National 
 Bank, where for many years he con- 
 tributed to its stability and public useful- 
 ness. Mr. Tillinghast had his offices in 
 the Tweddle Building, in this city. He 
 became a director of the Albany Insur- 
 ance Company on December 18, 1898, suc- 
 ceeding his father whose death occurred 
 on May 26, 1899, and served the board 
 with the same interest and devotion, 
 bringing to it the ideal of faithful service 
 which characterized his life. He gave 
 conscientiously to the company the bene- 
 fit of his broad knowledge, his safe judg- 
 ment, his wise conservatism, and his valu- 
 able experience. His careful adminstra 
 
 360 
 
r^^^C^Ss^P^^U^*^-*^ 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 tion of its affairs not only revealed his 
 abilities, but gave evidence of his willing- 
 ness to devote much time and thought to 
 the responsibilities which he felt devolved 
 upon him as a member of the board and 
 a trustee. He was also a trustee of the 
 Albany Savings' Bank and a director of 
 the National Commercial Bank. As one 
 of the younger member of the board of 
 directors of the City Safe Deposit Com- 
 pany, he bore himself with credit, fidelity, 
 and honor, making the use of his name 
 of great value to the corporation whose 
 success depended upon inspiring its pa- 
 trons with a feeling of trust and security. 
 His death was a distinct loss to that in- 
 stitution. He became one of the directors 
 of the Union Trust Company at its organ- 
 ization, giving to that institution the care- 
 ful attention, keen interest, and effort to 
 promote its success which characterized 
 him in all the enterprises with which he 
 was connected. 
 
 Much of Mr. Tillinghast's time was de- 
 voted to the discharge of administrative 
 responsibilities in several of the largest 
 benevolent institutions in the city. For a 
 period of six years he was treasurer of 
 the board of managers of the Albany 
 Orphan Asylum, and for eleven years was 
 one of its most active and influential 
 members. His duties as treasurer brought 
 him into prominent participation in the 
 administration of the institute, which 
 made large claims upon his attention, and 
 his intimate acquaintance with its affairs 
 placed him in a position where the man- 
 agers came to rely on his valued counsel. 
 His opinion therefore was always of the 
 utmost importance, and was often deci- 
 sive in shaping its policies. His manage- 
 ment of the finances, his business acumen, 
 and his clear judgment were invaluable. 
 His interest did not cease with the simple 
 performance of his duties, for he took to 
 heart the purposes and capabilities of the 
 
 institution, and when the plan of reorgan- 
 izing and rebuilding was proposed, famil- 
 iarized himself with the best experience 
 and ideas for the care and training of 
 friendless children. As a member of the 
 committee that prepared the designs for 
 the new buildings, he was particularly 
 helpful in planning to meet the conditions 
 and in evolving the system which won such 
 universal commendation. To his careful 
 and conscientious work at that time was 
 largely due the success and renewed life 
 of the asylum at a very critical period 
 of its existence. His valuable suggestions, 
 his kindly criticisms, his readiness to un- 
 dertake even more than his share of the 
 work, added to his high character, splen- 
 did integrity, and consideration of others, 
 won for him the respect and affection of 
 his associates, and rendered very difficult 
 their task to find another equally gifted, 
 devoted, and worthy to succeed him. 
 
 Mr. Tillinghast became a member of 
 the board of governors of the Albany 
 Hospital on January 25, 1908. His won- 
 derful quality of fidelity, combined with 
 conscientious thoughtfulness and excel- 
 lent judgment, together with his wide ex- 
 perience, were of the greatest value to the 
 hospital in its business operations and ad- 
 ministrative supervision. Mr. Tillinghast 
 was also a member of the board of 
 trustees of the Albany Institute and His- 
 torical and Art Society, of which his dis- 
 tinguished father had been one of the 
 charter members, and became endeared 
 to his associates there in a multitude of 
 ways. Like his father, also, he was long 
 and honorably connected with the vestry 
 of St. Peter's Church, and became its 
 treasurer, thus continuing the traditions 
 of his family in the parish. 
 
 In his social life Mr. Tillinghast was 
 generous and courteous in every relation- 
 ship, faithful to each duty as it arose, and 
 unsparing of personal endeavor. His life, 
 
 36i 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 which almost approached perfection, was 
 ended at the time of its greatest useful- 
 ness to his fellow men. He passed away at 
 his home at Menands, on October I, 1914, 
 and his body was borne to rest, accom- 
 panied by a large gathering of his friends, 
 in the Rural Cemetery of Albany. His 
 wife, who was Miss Carrie Hemenover, 
 of New York City, survived him, as well 
 as a son. Frederick Tillinghast. Chiefly 
 also among those who mourned his loss 
 were his mother, Mrs. J. Wilbur Tilling- 
 hast, and his sister, Mrs. George Long- 
 street, of Auburn. 
 
 Mr. Tillinghast was a member of several 
 social clubs, among which were the Uni- 
 versity Club, of New York City, and the 
 Fort Orange and Country clubs of Al- 
 bany- He will long be remembered as an 
 ideal friend and companion. Possessed 
 of a kindly heart, a genial nature, and a 
 high sense of honor, he was quiet, unas- 
 suming, and considerate of the views of 
 others and inclined to self depreciation. 
 Through long physical distress he was 
 courageous, and to all men and in all 
 places he was the courteous gentleman. 
 
 TWEDDLE, John, 
 
 Prominent Man of Affairs. 
 
 It is only to be expected that citizens of 
 this great country, born here and passing 
 their youth amid its traditions and patri- 
 otic surroundings, should uphold its 
 honor and promote its civic welfare, but 
 too much cannot be said in praise of citi- 
 zens of foreign birth, grown to maturity 
 in distant lands, who have learned so 
 thoroughly to love and honor the country 
 of their adoption as to make it in truth 
 their home and advance its welfare and 
 interests as though it were indeed the 
 land of their nativity. Mr. John Tweddle, 
 of Albany, was such a citizen, and the re- 
 membrance of the benefits which he con- 
 
 ferred upon the community in which he 
 dwelled so many years will not soon pass 
 away. 
 
 John Tweddle was born at Temple 
 Sowerby, Westmoreland county, Eng- 
 land, on February 14, 1798, and died in 
 Albany, March 9, 1875. Orphaned by the 
 death of his father when he was only nine 
 years of age, the boy was early thrown 
 upon his own resources and entered upon 
 the stern battle of life in his tender years. 
 He became apprentice to a wheelwright 
 in Cumberland county, where the rem- 
 nant of his father's family still resided, 
 his mother having married again. Here 
 he continued at his trade until manhood, 
 realizing but meagre gain, so that when 
 he came of age he decided to seek his for- 
 tunes in America, the goal of so many 
 who sought to carve out for themselves a 
 career in life. Having but slender means 
 of his own, he secured a loan of twenty 
 pounds from his step-father ; and it has 
 been said that this is the only borrowed 
 money ever handled by Mr. Tweddle, this 
 being repaid out of his first earnings in 
 America. 
 
 The ocean trip in those early days was 
 a tedious and precarious one, and it was 
 three weeks before the young emigrant 
 reached these shores. He landed at Phil- 
 adelphia, then a formidable rival of the 
 port of New York, in the year 1819. No 
 opening for his abilities presenting itself 
 in that city, he passed on to West Ches- 
 ter, Pennsylvania, with the intention of 
 following his trade as a journeyman until 
 the opportunity of opening a shop on his 
 own account presented itself. He was 
 soon able to establish himself in this way 
 in an independent business, though upon 
 a very small scale, having a forge, and a 
 blacksmith in his employ. The business 
 prospered, and he soon found himself in 
 possession of a small capital. A brewery 
 being for sale in West Chester, he de- 
 
 362 
 
Yr/i/t /ft (f/(/'< 
 

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 cided to buy it, changing his occupation 
 accordingly for one in which he believed 
 that there was chance of greater profit. 
 Though he at first knew nothing of the 
 process of brewing, he soon acquired the 
 necessary knowledge, learning from his 
 own employees after he had made the in- 
 vestment and entered upon the new ven- 
 ture, thus showing the mettle of which 
 he was made. He became foreman, then 
 master, of his own brewery, perfecting 
 his skill and protecting his interests as 
 proprietor, so that for a time he made 
 money rapidly and came to be worth 
 about $20,000 or more. Then he met with 
 reverses and lost all. Burdened by a debt 
 of $7,000, but endowed with courage and 
 youth, he removed to Albany and began 
 business again upon a more modest scale. 
 Renting, in 1847, the malt house of John 
 Taylor, he again became successful, his 
 profits mounting slowly but surely with 
 each succeeding year, so that very soon 
 he owned two large malt houses in Al- 
 bany and two also in New York. He was 
 now a citizen of no little influence and be- 
 came closely connected with the commer- 
 cial interests of Albany, and was well 
 known as a man of spotless integrity 
 faithful in the discharge of corporate 
 trusts. It was to him that the success of 
 the Merchants' Bank of this city was 
 largely due, he having been its president 
 from the date of its organization in 1853 
 until his death in 1875. He was also 
 prominent in various civic organizations. 
 As president of St. George's Society, he 
 retained a strong bond of sympathy with 
 the residents of English nativity, and by 
 his example and counsel furthered among 
 them a feeling of patriotism for the coun- 
 try of their adoption. He was one of the 
 original and most active members of the 
 Albany Board of Trade, and through this 
 connection he was enabled to exert a 
 strong influence upon the commercial 
 
 prosperity of the city. In various parts of 
 the city many monuments attest the 
 enterprise and generosity of Mr. Twed- 
 dle. The Tweddle chimes of St. Peter's 
 Church were the gift to that edifice by his 
 family after his demise, and Tweddle Hall 
 was another memorial to his public spirit. 
 This was for a long while a popular place 
 for the assembly of the citizens, and upon 
 the site which it occupied was erected the 
 Tweddle Building, one of the finest busi- 
 ness structures in Albany. Mr. Tweddle 
 was singularly happy in his social and 
 domestic relations, having been an affec- 
 tionate husband and father, and a sym- 
 pathizing and able adviser to all who 
 sought aid of his ripe judgment and wise 
 counsel. By conviction he was a Repub- 
 lican in his politics, but was not actively 
 engaged in public life. Only once, in- 
 deed, was his name mentioned in connec- 
 tion with any official position, this being 
 in 1864, when he was chosen presidential 
 elector, and thus assisted in seating Abra- 
 ham Lincoln in the presidential chair for 
 his brief and tragic second term. Mr. 
 Tweddle was at this time one of the 
 strong supporters of the Union. 
 
 Mr. Tweddle married (first) Sarah Bell, 
 of Carlisle, England. After her death he 
 married (second) Clara Maria Pulling, 
 daughter of Dr. Pulling, of Amsterdam, 
 New York. He married (third) Frances 
 M. Warren, a descendant of the old War- 
 ren family of New England ; she sur- 
 vived him, as did also six of his children. 
 
 Mr. Tweddle was for many years a 
 member of St. Peter's Church, serving 
 during most of his connection with the 
 church as vestryman, and latterly as war- 
 den. Prior to his interest in St. Peter's 
 Church, he had worshipped with the con- 
 gregation of St. Paul's when they gathered 
 in the old building in South Pearl street. 
 His death in 1875 cast a gloom over the 
 members and officials of the last church 
 
 363 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 with which he had been identified, as well 
 as over all the wide circle of his business 
 friends and associates. He had lived a 
 good and useful life and died past the 
 allotted age, happy in that he had made 
 the world a little better for his presence. 
 
 SOUTHWICK, Henry Collins, Jr., 
 
 Well Known Citizen. 
 
 There is a type of men whose lives are 
 marked by no spectacular achievement, 
 but who nevertheless are silent and 
 powerful factors for good in the life of a 
 community. It is these men who sup- 
 port the burden of the advance of civiliza- 
 tion. Genius makes the spectacular ad- 
 vances, but without the steady, reliable, 
 unfailing backing of the thoughtful, seri- 
 ous rank of citizenry, no stride can be 
 sustained. The achievements of men of 
 this type are not unusual or extraordi- 
 nary, but they are indispensable, an ele- 
 ment without which there could be no 
 permanent success. They are the back- 
 bone of the nation — the solid foundation 
 upon which its greatness is built. These 
 men each do a share of work which is a 
 unit in the whole, like many others ex- 
 cept for that touch of individuality in 
 which one life differs from another of the 
 same type. 
 
 Henry Collins Southwick was a man 
 whose entire life was devoted to doing 
 good to his family and to humanity. His 
 career was long and useful and his 
 activities in a material way added to the 
 welfare of the city of Albany in which 
 he made his residence from the middle 
 of the last century. Here he established 
 a record for enterprise, public spirit, and 
 open-handed charity which has not been 
 excelled by any other resident in this 
 part of the country. He was a broaden- 
 ing influence for good, a kindly, genial 
 gentleman of the old school. Mr. South- 
 wick was the scion of an old and distin- 
 
 guished family, many of the members of 
 which have rendered their State and coun- 
 try the full services of patriotic and loyal 
 citizens. He was a son of Henry Collins 
 Southwick, Sr., and was born June 3, 
 1827, during that formative period in the 
 country's history when the foundations 
 were laid for so much of its subsequent 
 prosperity. As a boy he attended the 
 public schools of his locality. In those 
 days the education afforded was very 
 meagre and inadequate. He attended 
 school until the age of twelve years, when 
 he found it necessary to assume the re- 
 sponsibility of earning his own livelihood. 
 At this early age, with a manly spirit of 
 independence beyond his years, he en- 
 tered the employ of a grocery firm, with 
 whom he spent the first few years of his 
 business life. Mr. Southwick was of a 
 studious and ambitious nature and what 
 leisure time he had was spent in self-im- 
 provement, and more especially in an 
 effort to further his education so that he 
 might rise in a business way. Through 
 hard study he became competent to fill 
 the post of bookkeeper, and left his early 
 position to become associated with his 
 father, who had been appointed canal col- 
 lector. Here his services were of great 
 value and he remained in the canal office 
 as bookkeeper until he saw a better op- 
 portunity with the firm of Monteith & 
 Company, of Albany. He entered their 
 employ as bookkeeper in the canal for- 
 warding office. Here he remained until 
 the year 1856, when he severed his con- 
 nection with the firm and removed to 
 Wisconsin where he established himself 
 in the mercantile business independently. 
 Mr. Southwick remained in the West for 
 several years, and in the year 1859, on the 
 first of January, returned to Albany and 
 entered the service of the State in the 
 auditor's office of the canal department. 
 He continued in the government employ 
 for a number of years, first in the canal 
 
 364 
 
 
 
^^c^>-^i^=>^^ 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 department and later on in the depart- 
 ment of labor, rendering invaluable serv- 
 ice and being active in all political move- 
 ments then agitating the State. He thus 
 became active and influential and conse- 
 quently widely known in his locality, and 
 possessed the personal friendship and 
 esteem of many of the statesmen and poli- 
 ticians of the time. 
 
 Mr. Southwick's long and useful life 
 was brought to a close on December 24, 
 1906, at the age of seventy-nine years. 
 For several years prior to his death he 
 had been stricken with blindness. His 
 life was full of good deeds and charities 
 toward his fellow men, and he was noted 
 for his activities in the work of the church 
 of which he was a member and trustee for 
 many years. He was one of the chief 
 members of the Tabernacle Baptist 
 Church, and it was due to his generous 
 and untiring efforts for more than a year 
 that the erection of the present structure 
 took place. 
 
 Through his public life he was distin- 
 guished by his wide sympathies in all 
 fields. He found his greatest happiness 
 in his home and domestic circle, was 
 noted for his hospitality, and found his 
 greatest enjoyment in the entertainment 
 of his friends in his home. In earlier life 
 he had been interested in fraternal mat- 
 ters, and had held membership in various 
 clubs. These he gave up in his latter 
 years, devoting himself more entirely to 
 his home circle and to the church in 
 which he was so active. 
 
 On April 8, 1850, Mr. Southwick mar- 
 ried Margaret Julia Fraser, a daughter of 
 Hugh and Julia Ann Fraser. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Southwick were the parents of 
 twelve children, three of whom, one son 
 and two daughters, are still living. These 
 are : Harvey J. ; Margaret, the wife of Mr. 
 Horace S. Bull ; and Effie, wife of Mr. 
 Ralph W. Thomas, of Hamilton, New 
 York. The other children were: James 
 
 B., Harry C, Julia Ann, George Newell, 
 a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in 
 this work, and the others died in infancy. 
 Mrs. Southwick still resides in the old 
 home at No. 55 Ten Broeck street, one of 
 the most comfortable and homelike of the 
 old homesteads of Albany, where the 
 family have lived for the past fifty years. 
 
 SOUTHWICK, George N., 
 
 Public Official. 
 
 The Southwick family has for genera- 
 tions been closely identified with the pub- 
 lic life of this State and of New England. 
 Its sons have always been prominent in 
 public affairs and in the life of the com- 
 munities in which they have resided, 
 gaining notable successes for themselves 
 and at the same time doing the full duty 
 of American citizens toward the land 
 which gives them their opportunity and 
 fortune. On every hand one finds men 
 whose talents and inclinations fit them 
 preeminently for public service but who 
 shun this duty of patriotism because of 
 the greater pecuniary benefit to be de- 
 rived from the field of business. The 
 country has its statesmen, but it needs in 
 the ranks of its servants and advisors the 
 analytical and trained mind of the busi- 
 ness man to solve the problems which to- 
 day face the nation — the problems within 
 its own borders. The talents of the ordi- 
 nary business man do not run to un- 
 ravelling the intricacies of international 
 law, but rather do they apply to and ex- 
 cel in the management of questions of 
 commence, labor, reform, etc., which agi- 
 tate the public to-day. For men so en- 
 dowed to reject office because of selfish 
 reasons is a blot upon their citizenship. 
 No man can truly uphold the ideals and 
 standards of America, who, being capa- 
 ble, refuses the high honor of office. 
 
 The Southwick family has always 
 borne with honor its full share in public 
 
 365 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 affairs. George N. Southwick, with whom 
 this sketch deals more particularly, for 
 many years the representative of the Al- 
 bany district in Congress, entered public 
 life primarily through his great oratorical 
 ability, and to a well-trained mind which 
 analyzed the national issues over which 
 the great political parties fought. He 
 was a firm believer in the protective tariff, 
 and his effective speeches on that subject 
 when it was the leading national question 
 more than a score of years ago firmly 
 established his reputation as an able 
 speaker and politician. He was a force- 
 ful and pleasing public speaker, an ag- 
 gressive newspaper writer, and a legis- 
 lator of strong influence. His ability was 
 quickly recognized in all of his undertak- 
 ings, and his activities on behalf of those 
 whom he represented united with his 
 qualities of friendship, gave him a com- 
 manding position in public life until his 
 retirement two years prior to his demise. 
 
 Mr. Southwick was born at Albany on 
 March 7, 1863, and was one of a numer- 
 ous family of brothers and sisters, the 
 children of Henry Collins Southwick and 
 his wife, Margaret Julia (Fraser) South- 
 wick. They were old residents of Albany, 
 where the family had lived since the mid- 
 dle of the last century. A sketch of the 
 life of Mr. Southwick's father, Henry 
 Collins Southwick, Jr., precedes this in 
 the volume. 
 
 George N. Southwick received his edu- 
 cation in the public schools of his native 
 city, entering the Albany High School in 
 1876 from Public School No. 6. where he 
 received his earliest instruction. He was 
 graduated in 1879, having taken high rank 
 in his studies. The following year he en- 
 tered Williams College, where he spent 
 four years, graduating in 1884. His abil- 
 ity as an orator was first manifested at 
 college, where he was the Groves prize 
 orator and pipe orator of the class. With 
 the intention of making the law his pro- 
 
 fession, he entered the Albany Law 
 School in 1884, but finding that a legal 
 course would not be congenial to him, he 
 became a journalist instead, and began 
 his career as a reporter and editorial 
 writer on the staff of the "Albany Morn- 
 ing Express," then under the manage- 
 ment of Addison A. Keyes. Here he did 
 excellent work for four years, his edi- 
 torial articles on the tariff during the 
 Cleveland-Blaine campaign winning him 
 distinction. He was also a legislative re- 
 porter for the "Associated Press" for a 
 period of three years. 
 
 In the fall of 1888, when Benjamin Har- 
 rison was the Republican candidate for 
 the presidency, Mr. Southwick was one 
 of the campaign speakers. In the latter 
 part of the year, also, he became man- 
 aging editor of the "Morning Express," 
 and the following year exchanged this 
 post for the managing editorship of the 
 "Evening Journal." He was then one of 
 the youngest editors in the State. His 
 knowledge on the tariff question was 
 possibly unsurpassed in the editorial field 
 and this fact added weight to his words 
 both written and spoken. In the Presi- 
 dential campaign of 1892 he was again 
 very active on the stump. In the year 
 1894 he was himself candidate for Con- 
 gress from the Twentieth District, and 
 won the Republican nomination over Clif- 
 ford D. Gregory, the campaign being one 
 of the most active ever known in this dis- 
 trict. He addressed four or five meetings 
 here during the day, as well as noon day 
 meetings at West Albany, and in the lum- 
 ber district, thus carrying the election. 
 Taking his seat in Congress in 1895, Mr. 
 Southwick at once began to secure legis- 
 lation in favor of Albany county. He 
 secured a law which resulted in the manu- 
 facture of ordnance in the Watervliet ar- 
 senal, and was also instrumental in ob- 
 taining a liberal appropriation for the im- 
 provement of the navigation in the Hud- 
 
 366 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 son river. He agitated the question of 
 coast defense, of which subject he made 
 a thorough study, and, interesting the 
 representatives of districts not on the 
 coast, was able to secure an appropriation 
 of eleven million dollars for this purpose. 
 A portion of this appropriation went 
 direct to the Watervliet arsenal, and in 
 this way a great number of workmen 
 were employed there. 
 
 In the interests of labor Mr. Southwick 
 always manifested a most praiseworthy 
 activity and fought with fine success the 
 plans of Secretary Lamont to reduce the 
 wages in the Watervliet arsenal from 
 $1.50 per day to $1.25, a procedure which 
 Mr. Southwick declared to be "the most 
 despicable piece of economy in the his- 
 tory of the country." During his first 
 term he also introduced a bill to prevent 
 inter-State commerce in prison made 
 articles, which was bitterly opposed, but 
 finally received favorable action. In the 
 spring of 1896 he presided at the State 
 convention which sent delegates at large 
 to the Republican National Convention, 
 instructed for Morton. He devoted a 
 great deal of attention to the currency 
 question, and was an advocate of sound 
 money. In the year 1897 he was appoint- 
 ed by Speaker Reed as a member of the 
 committee on banking and currency. 
 
 When the cruiser "Albemarle" was pur- 
 chased by the government, it was through 
 the influence of Representative South- 
 wick that her name was changed to the 
 "Albany" instead, in honor of the city of 
 that name. In bringing this about, he 
 had the warm support and cooperation of 
 the then assistant secretary of the navy, 
 Theodore Roosevelt, and the entire New 
 York delegation. In the year 1898 Mr. 
 Southwick suffered defeat in the cam- 
 paign for Congress, by Martin H. Glynn, 
 but in 1900 the situation was reversed, 
 and he was returned by a plurality of 
 
 2,456. He resumed his activity in Wash- 
 ington, and secured another appropria- 
 tion for the improvement of the Hudson 
 river channel. Under Speaker Hender- 
 son he served on the committee on Indian 
 territories, and the committee on ex- 
 penditures in the treasury department. 
 He was reelected in 1902, the district then 
 embracing the counties of Albany and 
 Schenectady, and in that year his major- 
 ity was 6,399 over that of the opposing 
 candidate from Schenectady. As chair- 
 man in 1903 of the committee to present 
 a silver service to the cruiser "Albany," 
 Mr. Southwick took part in the presenta- 
 tion ceremonies by the city. 
 
 In the same year he was named by 
 Speaker Cannon as chairman of the im- 
 portant committee on education, and he 
 also was able to procure an appropriation 
 of thirty thousand dollars in the same 
 session for a site for the new post office 
 in Schenectady. In 1904 he was again 
 nominated for Congress, and elected by a 
 majority of 8,145. He was again chair- 
 man of the committee on education, and 
 was instrumental in securing the passage 
 of a bill incorporating the National Edu- 
 cational Association of the United States. 
 In the same year he secured an additional 
 appropriation of one hundred and sev- 
 enty thousand dollars for the new post 
 office at Schenectady. Deeply interested 
 in the veterans of the Civil War, he prose- 
 cuted many pension claims during the 
 period of his service in Washington, and 
 he was also instrumental in securing fifty- 
 five rural delivery routes which consti- 
 tuted a network of mail communication 
 between the less populous districts of Al- 
 bany and Schenectady counties. In addi- 
 tion, he secured the passage of another 
 appropriation bill in favor of the Schenec- 
 tady post office, bringing the total up to 
 two hundred and ten thousand dollars. 
 
 In 1908 Mr. Southwick was again elect- 
 
 367 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ed to Congress, and served with distinc- 
 tion as chairman of the committee on edu- 
 cation. He retired voluntarily in 1910, 
 not being a candidate again for nomina- 
 tion, though he continued his interest in 
 public affairs until the day of his death, 
 and continued doing good work in the in- 
 terests of many of the projects which had 
 claimed his attention while he was in Con- 
 gress. He became connected with a num- 
 ber of business pursuits and enterprises, 
 and interested himself in transactions in 
 Washington real estate. He also inter- 
 ested himself in literary pursuits, and con- 
 tributed articles to the "North American 
 Review," and other periodicals, taking 
 that interest always in matters of the 
 tariff which had earned for him in youth 
 the sobriquet of the "Boy Tariff Talker," 
 first applied to him, in derision by his op- 
 ponents, and then adopted in admiration 
 by his friends. 
 
 Mr. Southwick died on October 17, 
 1912, in Albany, at the old homestead in 
 Ten Broeck street, where he was born, 
 his final illness having been but brief. He 
 was never married. He possessed warm 
 friendships and was a man of social and 
 genial disposition. He was a close friend 
 of the late ex-speaker, Thomas B. Reed, 
 and of Vice-President James S. Sherman, 
 sharing an apartment with the latter in 
 Washington when Mr. Sherman was a 
 representative in Congress. Mr. South- 
 wick was a member of many clubs and 
 social organizations, among which were 
 the Albany, Capital City, Unconditional 
 Republican, and University clubs of Al- 
 bany ; the Tapeworm and Washington 
 clubs of Washington ; and the Williams 
 College Alumni. His fourteen years of 
 service in the national legislature gave 
 him a wide acquaintance, and he was uni- 
 versally regarded as a man of broad 
 views, strong patriotism, high attainment, 
 and enduring accomplishments during 
 the long period of his public service. 
 
 SEARLES, Charles Edgar, 
 
 Successful Business Man. 
 
 It is somewhat trite to remark how the 
 career of each man is determined by the 
 two factors of his personality and en- 
 vironment, how every act and circum- 
 stance, however haphazard and fortuitous 
 it may appear, is really the result of these 
 two elements in their constant action and 
 reaction upon one another. But though 
 this is trite as an abstract proposition, the 
 observation of it as a concrete fact in the 
 life of the individual is never so, and we 
 feel the same vivid interest in it as in the 
 most primitive ages. Perennially fresh 
 and attractive are the developments of 
 the old struggle between the two ele- 
 ments, personality and environment, as 
 we call them to-day, man and destiny, in 
 the phrase of a more romantic time ; at- 
 tractive and full of interest without refer- 
 ence to what names we know them by, 
 and as a matter of fact there is as much 
 to claim our attention in the careers of 
 the successful men of to-day as in the 
 more perilous lives of our ancestors. In 
 such a case as that of Charles Edgar 
 Searles, late of Peekskill, New York, is 
 shown, not inaptly, how strong tastes in 
 combination with a strong will and cour- 
 age can bend the environment to the form 
 desired and mould circumstances to a pre- 
 determined end. Mr. Searles, whose 
 death in Peekskill on June 8, 1915, was 
 a serious loss to the whole community, 
 was a man of strong artistic tastes and 
 aesthetic feelings, to the development of 
 which conditions seemed decidedly un- 
 favorable. So much so that for a time he 
 was engaged in entirely foreign kind of 
 occupation, but through his own persist- 
 ent effort he was finally able to engage in 
 a line consistent with his inclinations. 
 
 Charles Edgar Searles was a native of 
 Yorktown, New York, born there May 
 30, 1864, a son of Horace and Susan 
 
 368 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 (Farrington) Searles, lifelong residents 
 of that place. The father was engaged 
 in farming not far from the town, and his 
 son experienced all the advantages and 
 disadvantages of a rural upbringing, of 
 which the former may be typified by a 
 robust health and a wholesome outlook 
 upon life, and the latter by somewhat 
 meagre educational opportunities. In the 
 case of Mr. Searles, however, these dis- 
 advantages were neutralized by his taste 
 for the things of culture and beauty which 
 impelled him to do a great deal of read- 
 ing and to supplement at home the studies 
 of the school. His formal education was 
 obtained at the Yorktown public schools, 
 both the grammar and high school. There 
 seemed no possibility at the time of his 
 engaging in any kind of occupation in 
 which he could satisfy his fondness for 
 art, and he turned his attention to engi- 
 neering, for which he displayed a distinct 
 talent. He was employed for a time as 
 engineer on the Croton Dam, then in the 
 course of construction, and there, by dint 
 of the most indefatigable devotion to his 
 work and notable thrift, he managed to 
 put aside a sufficient amount of capital to 
 establish himself in business for himself. 
 This was an opportunity which he did not 
 miss and upon coming to Peekskill he 
 founded a music store there. From the 
 outset he gave the closest attention to 
 his business and in a short time came to 
 be the proprietor of a large and flourish- 
 ing trade. He could work at this with his 
 whole heart as it brought him into contact 
 with the art of which he was fondest, and 
 his success continued undiminished until 
 the close of his life. 
 
 Besides his business activities, Mr. 
 Searles was a participant in a number of 
 departments of the town's life, and was 
 especially prominent in social and fra- 
 ternal circles. He was a member of the 
 Independent Order of Odd Fellows and 
 the Knights of Pythias and held offices in 
 
 both societies. In politics he was a Re- 
 publican, but never took an active part 
 in local affairs and never sought office at 
 any time. His religious affiliations were 
 with the Methodist church, and he was a 
 faithful attendant at and a liberal sup- 
 porter of the church of that denomination 
 in Peekskill. 
 
 On April 22, 1893, Mr. Searles was 
 united in marriage with Katherine G. 
 Bailey, of Ossining, New York, a daugh- 
 ter of Henry and Amanda (Jerow) Bailey. 
 Mr. Bailey was a farmer and conducted a 
 successful place in the vicinity of Ossin- 
 ing. Children of Mr. and Mrs. Searles: 
 Grace, Lucy, Henry, Marjorie, Kenneth, 
 Morley. 
 
 Mr. Searles' devotion to music has al- 
 ready been remarked a number of times, 
 and it certainly deserves a prominent 
 notice in any sketch of his life, as does 
 his fondness in all the arts. He was also 
 a great lover of books and a wide reader, 
 and he gave much of his spare time to this 
 delightful and improving exercise. His 
 instincts were strongly domestic and his 
 greatest happiness was found in his home 
 in the intimate intercourse of family life, 
 or in the pursuit of one of his favorite 
 subjects. He never entirely got over his 
 fondness for the country and an outside 
 existence developed as a boy on the farm, 
 and he devoted a considerable portion of 
 his charming place at Peekskill to cer- 
 tain farmrlike pursuits. Chief among 
 these was the breeding and developing of 
 fancy poultry, and this he turned to more 
 than pleasure, running his chicken coops 
 as a sort of side venture to his other busi- 
 ness. 
 
 NORMAN, John Amos, 
 
 Active Factor in Community Affairs. 
 
 Better and more potent in the long run 
 than any of the influences of material suc- 
 cess is the intangible but very real effect 
 
 N Y-Vol II-24 
 
 369 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 of the virtuous, intelligent man upon the 
 community, better and more potent, be- 
 cause it is at once more vital and more 
 direct. It is not so often made a matter 
 of record as are the achievements of men 
 who have left concrete reminders of their 
 services such as a church, a library, a hos- 
 pital or what not, yet perhaps this is as 
 much due to the difficulty of estimating 
 and comparing or of handling in any way 
 adequately things of so spiritual an 
 essence than from any common disbelief 
 in their power or efficacy. Such was the 
 influence of John Amos Norman, late of 
 New York City and Mount Vernon, 
 whose death in the latter place on June 
 
 22, 1912, removed from the community 
 a potent factor in the cause of culture and 
 enlightenment. 
 
 The native place of Mr. Norman was 
 the romantic and beautiful island of Jer- 
 sey, southernmost of the Channel Islands, 
 in which nature seems to have outdone 
 herself in making prevailing conditions 
 favorable to man. Almost a continuous 
 orchard, with here and there the most 
 picturesque little towns breaking the 
 charming monotony, this miniature State 
 offers many attractions to those who love 
 the rural environment at its best and yet 
 would not cut themselves off too com- 
 pletely from the doings of the great world. 
 For steamers ply constantly between the 
 ports of Sts. Helier and Aubin and Plym- 
 outh, England. Indeed, the people of Jer- 
 sey, besides their apples and their famous 
 dairies, are devoted to the sea and many 
 of their most important industries are 
 connected with it, notably the taking of 
 oysters in the great fisheries thereabouts 
 and shipbuilding. In the island of Jersey, 
 then, Mr. Norman was born November 
 
 23, 1841, and among these delightful sur- 
 surroundings his childish associations 
 were formed up to the age of ten years. 
 In 1851 his parents, George A. J. and 
 
 Mary (LeBrun) Norman, both members 
 of old and honorable English families, 
 came from Jersey to the United States 
 with their son and settled in New York 
 City. 
 
 Here the lad attended the public schools 
 and obtained an excellent education, his 
 aptness as a student and his honest ambi- 
 tion to learn gaining for him the best that 
 these institutions had to offer. Upon 
 leaving school he turned his attention to 
 the serious business of earning a liveli- 
 hood and secured, while still a mere 
 youth, a business association with one 
 Henry J. Campbell, who was engaged in 
 importing and exporting on a large scale. 
 He was thus employed in 1861 when the 
 long dispute between the Northern and 
 Southern States reached its climax and 
 the Civil War broke out. Mr. Norman, 
 who was then but twenty years of age, 
 hastened at once to the aid of his adopted 
 country to which he had transferred not 
 only his home but his affectionate allegi- 
 ance and for which he felt the sincerest 
 patriotism. This could not have been bet- 
 ter proven than by his prompt readiness 
 to risk his life for the imperiled Union 
 which he did many times in the course of 
 the gigantic struggle. He enlisted in the 
 Ninth New York Regiment, which re- 
 sponded to President Lincoln's first call 
 for recruits and was afterwards changed 
 to the Eighty-third New York Volunteer 
 Infantry Regiment and went through the 
 entire war. He saw a great deal of active 
 service, taking part in a number of diffi- 
 cult campaigns and being present in no 
 less than seventeen pitched engagements. 
 He rose to the rank of lieutenant and re- 
 ceived his honorable discharge. Return- 
 ing to the North. Mr. Norman once more 
 made his home in New York and took up 
 the importing and exporting business, but 
 this time on his own account. He opened 
 an office at Nos. 21-25 State street and 
 
 37^ 
 
ti/^A^f&tm. 
 
 /' ' ys 
 
 L^C 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 there did a large and remunerative trade, 
 living in the Bronx district of the city for 
 a time and later making his home in 
 Mount Vernon, moving to the latter place 
 about twenty years before his death. 
 
 Although very successful in his busi- 
 ness, an occupation that made exacting 
 demands upon his time and energy, it was 
 not in this department of activity so much 
 as in his participation in the general life 
 of the place that Mr. Norman became a 
 conspicuous figure. He was prominent 
 in social and club circles and belonged to 
 a number of the most important organiza- 
 tions of a fraternal and social order. He 
 was a member of Alexander Hamilton 
 Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and 
 also of the order of Free and Accepted 
 Masons. In the matter of religion, too, 
 he was very active and did his uttermost 
 to aid in its advancement in the com- 
 munity. An Episcopalian in belief, he 
 belonged to the church of St. Ann of that 
 denomination in the Bronx and later to a 
 church of that denomination in Mount 
 Vernon. Of the former he was treasurer 
 for a number of years. In politics he was 
 very active. He was a man of very inde- 
 pendent mind who never took his ideas 
 ready-made from any source and was far 
 too intelligent to be a strict partisan in 
 the political realm. He cast his vote con- 
 sistently for the man or cause he thought 
 best for the occasion or place, without 
 regard for the name attached to them. As 
 a matter of fact, however, he was entirely 
 unambitious in this direction and avoided 
 rather than sought for any political pref- 
 erment. 
 
 On June 26, 1864, Mr. Norman was 
 united in marriage with Susan Odell, of 
 New York City, a daughter of Adolphus 
 and Mina A. (Forshay) Odell, old and 
 highly respected residents of that place. 
 Mr. Norman was survived by his wife 
 and two children who were born to their 
 
 union, Adolphus Livingstone and Mary 
 Le Brun, all of whom reside in Mount 
 Vernon. 
 
 It is such men as Mr. Norman and the 
 other members of his family that form the 
 most valuable and welcome addition to 
 our citizenship from foreign lands ; he 
 was one of four sons, the brothers being 
 George A. J., Jr., Alfred T. and Adolphus 
 P., and it was only the latter, who was 
 too young to bear arms, that did not enter 
 the Union army in the time of the peril 
 of their adopted land. Aside from this 
 splendid act of devotion, they, and espe- 
 cially the Mr. Norman with whom this 
 sketch is concerned, were throughout 
 their careers valuable members of the 
 communities where they resided, always 
 casting their influence on the side of in- 
 telligent progress, always standing for 
 the good cause as they saw it and contri- 
 buting to the welfare of their fellow citi- 
 zens. To such men as these the nation 
 shall always hold out the hand of wel- 
 come, not only for their own sakes, but 
 because of what they shall do, now and 
 hereafter, in their own persons and in 
 those of their children to leaven and keep 
 sweet and pure and strong the mighty 
 mass of men of all races that is here being 
 wrought into a new American race. 
 
 McKEAN, Henry Melville, 
 
 Prominent Lawyer. 
 
 To maintain without blemish the tradi- 
 tions of an old and honorable house and 
 to further by every conceivable effort its 
 name is the sacred trust delivered into 
 the hands of each of its sons. The de- 
 scendants of a house whose name has 
 been one of the foremost in America's 
 great democracy, whose sons have been 
 identified from the very beginning with 
 the best of the ideals and ideas for which 
 these United States stand, finds upon his 
 
 371 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 shoulders at the outset of his life a solemn 
 duty — that of never being unworthy of 
 his race or land. But that is negative — 
 there is also a positive duty — to add to, 
 advance and glorify his name, to amplify 
 the tradition to be handed down to pos- 
 terity. The scion of such a house, the 
 happy recipient of such precepts was the 
 late Henry Melville McKean. 
 
 Henry Melville McKean was a descend- 
 ant of Thomas McKean, who was one of 
 the signers of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence. He was the son of William H. 
 and Eliza Ward (Pell) McKean. His 
 mother was a direct descendant of Lord 
 Pell, who settled in Connecticut in the 
 early part of the last century. Mr. Mc- 
 Kean was born in Brooklyn, February 23, 
 1847, and received his early education in 
 the public schools there. He later de- 
 cided to enter the profession of the law 
 and commenced his studies for that pur- 
 pose in the office of R. & William Ingra- 
 ham. He later pursued his studies under 
 that eminent jurist, David Barnett, from 
 whose offices he was admitted to the bar 
 in 1871. His conduct of the first few cases 
 with which he was entrusted was suffi- 
 cient to prove his entire ability to man- 
 age more important litigations, and this 
 becoming recognized, he rose quickly, 
 attaining the envied position of the prom- 
 inent lawyer and attracting some of the 
 most influential concerns of Brooklyn, for 
 whom he afterward acted in a legal capac- 
 ity. Mr. McKean's reputation for legal 
 acumen became widespread and he be- 
 came one of the leaders of his profession 
 in Brooklyn, conducting a practice large 
 and varied in nature. While he devoted 
 the greater proportion of his time to 
 realty affairs, he was perfectly well in- 
 formed on all points of his profession, and 
 his acquaintance with financial and cor- 
 poration law being eagerly and widely 
 conceded. He was noted for his exten- 
 
 sive and exhaustive knowledge, and his 
 strict integrity and unimpeachable honor 
 in his practice. He was a conscientious 
 attorney, and guarded well the interest of 
 his clients. 
 
 Mr. McKean's acquaintance with cur- 
 rent happenings and existing conditions 
 was great. He was a man of broad 
 minded, liberal tolerance, such as only 
 one who has studied humanity at first 
 hand can be. Full understanding of the 
 impulses and workings of the human 
 mind is given sparingly. It is not gained 
 through studying one book or many 
 books, but is the result of years of con- 
 tact with the innate goodness, the cupid- 
 ity, the virtues and vices of men. No 
 matter how perfect in detail the statue 
 may be, it fails in its end if it is not life- 
 like. The ability to model convincingly 
 from life comes only after years of earn- 
 est and unremitting study on the part of 
 the artist. The same principle is equally 
 true in the profession of the law. To 
 judge quickly and accurately and to prog- 
 nosticate the workings of the mind is the 
 principal requirement for the success of 
 a lawyer. It is a faculty developed by a 
 course of rigorous training, on the very 
 rigor and persistency of which depends 
 the student's success. To set down at 
 length the broad scope of understanding 
 which was Mr. McKean's is neither possi- 
 ble here nor necessary at any time. The 
 prominence to which he attained in his 
 profession is evidence of this. 
 
 On February 2, 1871, Mr. McKean mar- 
 ried Carrie A. Holbrook, of Worcester, 
 Massachusetts, whose father and mother 
 were both descendants of Revolutionary 
 families of the old "Bay State." Mrs. Mc- 
 Kean, who resides at No. 133 Rutland 
 Road, Brooklyn, New York, survives her 
 husband. As is the case with every law- 
 yer, the circle of Mr. McKean's acquaint- 
 ance was large, both professionally and 
 
 372 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 socially. His disposition was entirely de- 
 void of that touch of cynicism which is so 
 often found in the men who follow his 
 profession. He was of a genial, magnan- 
 imous nature, and of an even temper which 
 quickly endeared him to the people whom 
 he met, making a large percentage of 
 them his friends for life. His death oc- 
 curred on December 8, 1914, and was the 
 cause of deep-felt and earnest regret and 
 sorrow. 
 
 Mr. McKean was a member of the Mon- 
 tauk Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, 
 the Thirteenth Regiment Veteran Asso- 
 ciation, and the Brooklyn Bar Associa- 
 tion. He was a great lover of nature and 
 devoted much of his spare time to flowers, 
 in the cultivation of which he was deeply 
 interested. He had a great knowledge of 
 horticulture, and his garden was filled 
 with very beautiful varieties of rare flow- 
 ers and shrubs and he liked nothing bet- 
 ter than to delve in it. He was also a 
 music lover, and himself a fine singer. 
 
 Few lawyers have, during the course of 
 a legal career, been more sought after in 
 connection with real estate matters than 
 Mr. McKean. He had the advantage of long 
 experience, in fact at the time of his death 
 he was one of the oldest practicing law- 
 yers in Brooklyn. This combined with 
 ready tact, quick but trusty judgment and 
 perseverance, rendered his services of ex- 
 . eptional value to large interests. These 
 attributes are calculated to achieve suc- 
 cess in any direction, but particularly use- 
 ful are they in the legal profession, where 
 competition is close, and great concerns 
 require the best talent. Mr. McKean's 
 life was devoted to the purpose of achiev- 
 ing success for himself and bringing 
 honor upon his name. That he fulfilled 
 his aim and goal is evidenced by the fact 
 that there was no more highly respected 
 and honored lawyer in Brooklyn than 
 himself. 
 
 McMULLEN, Alonzo Thomas, 
 
 Active Factor in Community Affairs. 
 
 Very rare it is to find combined in the 
 same personality those qualities which 
 insure great success in material things 
 and make for prominence in the affairs 
 of the world and those, no less definite, 
 traits which impel their possessor toward 
 a certain spiritual achievement so subtle 
 and intangible as to be difficult either to 
 name or describe, but which may be 
 known in its effect of cheering and in- 
 spiring those that come into contact with 
 it and which is never disassociated from 
 the practical charity that relieves the 
 needs of the unfortunate. It is rare to 
 meet with this combination for the simple 
 reason that, although theoretically there 
 is nothing incompatible in their natures, 
 yet as a matter of fact these qualities are 
 apt to destroy and negative each other, 
 since much success in worldly things 
 almost inevitably brings with it a certain 
 cynicism impatient of the more spiritual 
 aspects of life, while on the other hand a 
 close preoccupation with the welfare of 
 our fellows tends to make us forgetful of 
 our own. Occasionally, however, we find 
 the two qualities flourishing side by side 
 in the same personality, the result being 
 almost invariably a character of unusual 
 power, the effect of which in the world of 
 men is a notable one. Of such characters 
 the late Alonzo Thomas McMullen, of 
 Albany and New York City, furnishes an 
 excellent example, a man whose career 
 was at once eminently successful in its 
 worldly aspects and whose influence for 
 good among those with whom he asso- 
 ciated cannot easily be overestimated. 
 His death in New York City on April 7, 
 1889, was a loss to every community with 
 which he had been identified, but the in- 
 fluence which he exerted is not one to 
 pass. 
 
 373 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Born June 19, 1827, in Albany, New 
 York, Mr. McMullen was a son of 
 Thomas and Henrietta (Van Benthusen) 
 McMullen, old and highly respected resi- 
 dents of that city, who during their lives 
 took a very prominent part in the social 
 life of the place. His father's family was 
 of Scottish descent, while his mother was 
 of old Knickerbocker stock, and for many 
 years his ancestors and relatives have 
 taken a conspicuous part in the affairs of 
 the city. In his own generation the name 
 of McMullen was very well known in Al- 
 bany besides the distinction that his own 
 career gave to it, his brother Edgar hav- 
 ing made himself well and favorably 
 known, and his sisters, Emma and Louise, 
 having married Albert P. Stevens and 
 Clarence T. Jenkins, respectively, both 
 men of prominence there. 
 
 In his youth Alonzo Thomas McMul- 
 len was educated in the Albany Academy 
 and in a school in Schenectady, in both of 
 which institutions he proved himself an 
 apt scholar and won the affection and re- 
 spect alike of his instructors and his fel- 
 low students. His career after leaving 
 school was a varied one for a number of 
 years, but in all the places that he lived 
 and in the various lines of business in 
 which he engaged his record was uni- 
 formly of the highest order and he estab- 
 lished a reputation at once for honesty of 
 purpose and business ability unusual for 
 a young man. Immediately upon gradu- 
 ation, he engaged in a wholesale grocery 
 enterprise in Albany, but although suc- 
 cessful enough, he soon gave this up and 
 came to New York City, where he re- 
 mained for a time. A little later he went 
 to Buffalo, where he became connected 
 with the Great Western Despatch Com- 
 pany in the capacity of manager of the 
 office in that city. Later he returned to 
 New York City, where he had an offer 
 from the Erie & North Shore Despatch 
 
 Company of a position as construction 
 agent. He was located at the offices of 
 the company at No. 401 Broadway and 
 rapidly rose to a position of great impor- 
 tance and responsibility, being chief clerk 
 and construction agent for upwards of 
 eight or ten years. During this period, 
 however, his health, which had never 
 been robust, grew less and less good, 
 until he was forced to retire from active 
 business entirely about fifteen years be- 
 fore his death. 
 
 More than in business, however, Mr. 
 McMullen was prominent in the general 
 life of the community, taking part in a 
 great number of important movements 
 undertaken for the advancement of his 
 fellows, and liberally giving of his wealth 
 and effort towards their success. He was 
 a Republican in politics, but did not seek 
 to identify himself with the local organi- 
 zation of that or any party, and avoided 
 rather than sought political preferment 
 of public office of any kind. In his early 
 youth he was very active socially and be- 
 longed to a large number of clubs and 
 other organizations, but as years went by 
 he allowed this association to lapse some- 
 what, especially as he found a great deal 
 to do in connection with the work of his 
 church. While living in the lower part 
 of New York City he attended service at 
 the well known Church of the Strangers, 
 but afterwards, when he made his home 
 in the Bronx, he became a member of St. 
 Paul's Dutch Reformed Church in that 
 district. He was active in both congre- 
 gations and especially in connection with 
 the philanthropic and temperance move- 
 ments connected therewith. 
 
 On July 2, 1874, Mr. McMullen was 
 united in marriage with Katherine Lohr, 
 of New York City, a daughter of Conrad 
 Charles and Martha (Dietrich) Lohr. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Lohr were of German stock and 
 natives of the province of Hesse-Cassell, 
 
 374 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 and Airs. McMullen was one of a family 
 of seven children. To Mr. and Mrs. Mc- 
 Mullen was born one child, Nellie Louise, 
 who became the wife of Richard Henry 
 Fenker, of New York City, and bore him 
 two children, Richard Boyd, born De- 
 cember 15, 1903, died March 14, 1913, 
 and Marjorie Eugenia, born October 21, 
 1904. 
 
 The interest taken by Mr. McMullen in 
 temperance matters has already been 
 hinted at, but not sufficiently emphasized, 
 for to this cause he gave a great deal of 
 his attention and time. He first became 
 interested in it during the time he spent 
 in Buffalo, in that and in church and phil- 
 anthropic matters generally, and ever 
 thereafter this interest formed one of the 
 chief elements of his life. He was asso- 
 ciated with charitable works of all kinds, 
 but it was chiefly his private benevolences 
 that occupied him, of which no one will 
 ever know the full extent since he per- 
 formed them in the most quiet manner, 
 obeying the Scriptural injunction not to 
 let his left hand know what his right was 
 doing. He was a man of essential sim- 
 plicity, which expressed itself in many ad- 
 mirable virtues. Not the least of these 
 was the tenderness he felt and was not 
 ashamed to show to his fellow men, more 
 especially those who were in any way un- 
 fortunate, and another equally character- 
 istic was his great love of children, a love 
 that was returned by its objects with the 
 greatest warmth. In personal appearance 
 Mr. McMullen was a very handsome man, 
 with a most impressive and even com- 
 manding manner and bearing, but a 
 nature that won the almost instant affec- 
 tion of those with whom he associated 
 even the most casually. In all the rela- 
 tions of life his conduct was above re- 
 proach and it may well be said of him 
 that the community was made better from 
 his having lived therein. 
 
 PILLSBURY, Daniel Sargent, 
 
 Public-spirited Citizen. 
 
 It is true, what has so often been com- 
 mented upon in regard to a great city like 
 New York, that it act as a mighty vortex 
 and draws unto itself as a center people 
 from a vast surrounding area who hasten 
 to swell its already vast population and 
 increase still further its attractive power. 
 One of the most striking examples of this 
 in the world is the myriads that flow 
 annually from the nations of Europe into 
 the great metropolis of the western world 
 to whose capacity there is no apparent 
 limit. Of course it is true that it is not 
 simply the attractive force of New York 
 that draws all this mighty army of 
 foreigners into its port, for doubtless with 
 the majority of them it is not New York, 
 but America that forms the great magnet 
 of their hopes and desires and causes 
 them to leave their dearest associations, 
 their homes, to seek their fortunes in 
 fresh fields and pastures new. But al- 
 though this be true it remains a fact that 
 once here and within the reach of the 
 great city's seductive current, an enor- 
 mous proportion never extricate them- 
 selves, but make it their permanent 
 earthly home. Another source, which if 
 less conspicuous is probably even greater 
 than the foreign lands in the toll it pays 
 regularly to the city's demands, is the sur- 
 rounding regions of our own country 
 whence a continual stream of humanity 
 moves cityward which, as it reaches its 
 destination, is quickly merged in with the 
 rest of those who form, the great human 
 melting pot. A great deal is said of the 
 ill effects of this tendency upon the coun- 
 tryside, how it takes therefrom many of 
 its strongest souls and bodies and leaves 
 its farms ever more and more lonely and 
 isolated, but surely there is also some- 
 thing to be said upon the other side as to 
 
 375 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 how the city is ever rejuvenating its citi- 
 zenship with the fresh, virile blood of the 
 country among whom are often to be 
 found its most able and successful men. 
 Such men, for instance, as Daniel Sar- 
 gent Pillsbury, who, coming from whole- 
 some, hardy New Hampshire, engaged in 
 business in New York, bringing with him 
 the simple and yet shrewd standards of 
 the northern commonwealth, are nothing 
 but a blessing to the city with whose life 
 they cast in their lot. Active for many 
 years in the business world of New York, 
 Mr. Pillsbury made his home in Mount 
 Vernon, where his death occurred on Feb- 
 ruary 13, 1902, removing from the com- 
 munity a broad-minded, public-spirited 
 citizen. 
 
 Born in East Hampstead, New Hamp- 
 shire, May 5, 1836, Daniel Sargent Pills- 
 bury was a son of Benjamin L. and Mary 
 (Sargent) Pillsbury, highly respected 
 residents of that place. His mother was 
 a native of Amesbury, Massachusetts, 
 and a member of an old English family 
 that had made its home in that State for 
 many years. Mr. Pillsbury spent but a 
 brief portion of his life in his native 
 region, coming as a boy to Bridgewater, 
 Massachusetts, where he received his edu- 
 cation at the excellent normal school 
 which bears the same name. After gradu- 
 ating from this institution, he went tem- 
 porarily to Boston, where he engaged in 
 business for a while, but eventually came 
 to New York City, which became the 
 scene of his business activities for the re- 
 mainder of his life. In New York he 
 established himself in the retail station- 
 ery trade, his store being situated at No. 
 680 Sixth avenue, and in this venture he 
 was highly successful from the outset. 
 For a time he accepted an offer from a 
 large concern engaged in the manufacture 
 of silver tissue paper to act as its New 
 York agent, and opened an establishment 
 on Maiden Lane. In this also he was 
 
 successful, and he continued the same up 
 to the time of his death. For a number of 
 years he lived in New York City, but in 
 1890 he removed to Mount Vernon and 
 thereafter made his home in that attrac- 
 tive city. 
 
 Besides his business interests, Mr. 
 Pillsbury was active in every movement 
 undertaken for the welfare of the conv 
 munity which appealed to his judgment 
 as wise, and after coming to Mount Ver- 
 non he was prominent in political circles. 
 He was a strong supporter of the Repub- 
 lican party, its principles and policies, and 
 he gave a considerable portion of his time 
 and attention to the advancement of its 
 cause, but he consistently avoided politi- 
 cal preferment of any kind and would 
 never consent to hold public office. Mr. 
 Pillsbury was fond of the comradeship 
 of his fellowmen. provided that it was 
 informal in its character, but he did not 
 enjoy social functions of a conventional 
 kind, nor would he join any clubs or other 
 organizations, preferring to spend his 
 spare time in the midst of his own house- 
 hold or in the society of his more inti- 
 mate personal friends. He was strongly 
 religious, however, and always took an 
 active part in the life of the church, 
 wherever he happened to be located, being 
 a member of the Broadway Tabernacle 
 while still residing in the city and later 
 of the Congregational church in Mount 
 Vernon. 
 
 Mr. Pillsbury married (second) Mary 
 Fletcher Goldthwaite, of Medford, sec- 
 tion of Boston, on February 4, 1874. She 
 was a daughter of Silas Brigham and 
 Maria (Fletcher) Goldthwaite, who came 
 originally from Northbridge, Massachu- 
 setts, where the Goldthwaite family had 
 lived for many years, it being one of the 
 important English families that had set- 
 tled in that region in early times. Mrs. 
 Pillsbury survives and continues to make 
 her home in Mount Vernon. By a former 
 
 3/6 
 
^r-^c_ 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 marriage Mr. Pillsbury was the father of 
 two daughters : Anne Mary, who became 
 the wife of James Douglass Anderson, 
 lives in London, England, and Mildred 
 Sarah, who became the wife of James E. 
 Brush, of New York City. 
 
 Mr. Pillsbury's devotion to his family 
 and home has already been remarked and 
 it will serve to stand as an excellent ex- 
 ample of the man's entire character. Into 
 the complex life of the city he trans- 
 planted the simple virtues and tastes of a 
 long line of rural ancestors, virtues and 
 tastes confirmed in his own case by the 
 first few years of his life spent among 
 similar scenes and associations with 
 which they had been familiar. It was not 
 that he did not feel at home in, or sym- 
 pathize with the conditions of his en- 
 vironment, on the contrary he enjoyed 
 them greatly, but merely that certain 
 fundamental simplicities that we are apt 
 to associate with country life and its more 
 primitive occupations never deserted him 
 but always colored his ways to a certain 
 homely tint most attractive and worthy 
 of all praise. His attractions and virtues 
 gathered about him a large circle of de- 
 voted friends who rightly considered him 
 a model of good citizenship and simple 
 straightforward manhood. 
 
 FORCE, Henry Lyon, 
 
 Educator and Business Man. 
 
 From coast to coast the stentorian cry 
 "efficiency" has been taken up and re- 
 echoed throughout the breadth of the land. 
 It is the slogan of every man, whether he 
 be engaged in commercial or professional 
 pursuits, and with it, inseparable com- 
 panions, are "power," "result," and "suc- 
 cess." For a man to have been a success 
 in any walk of life usually insures re- 
 spectful attention to his methods of work 
 and life. The old order changeth, giving 
 place to new. and as in the case of all 
 
 radical changes it brings in its train the 
 usual complement of evil. The old type 
 of polished, erudite, widely-read gentle- 
 man, the range of whose abilities was 
 widespread and versatile, is passing out, 
 giving place to what is except in the 
 highly developed case an automaton of 
 specialization. Far too often do we find 
 development of some faculty or attribute 
 to the absolute waste or exclusion of 
 others, which in the course of time 
 atrophy from disuse. We find a man 
 whose ability mounts almost to genius in 
 his own line to be an absolute dullard 
 when removed from his own sphere, how- 
 ever brilliantly he may shine therein. 
 Disproving the theory that genius means 
 specialization is the versatility of the 
 great men of the world's history. Julius 
 Caesar, one of the world's greatest mili- 
 tary geniuses, was a man of letters, a 
 student, a statesman and a great law- 
 giver. To trace the career of a man 
 whose keen intellect covered a store of 
 knowledge as comprehensive as it was 
 great, a lifelong student and teacher in 
 one capacity or another is a pleasure not 
 often accorded the biographer in this day. 
 Such a life was that of Henry Lyon 
 Force, a man whose influence for public 
 betterment was particularly great and 
 valuable, and whose death in Newburgh, 
 New York, in the year 1907, removed not 
 only from that community itself but from 
 others, a potential factor in its advance- 
 ment. 
 
 Henry Lyon Force was born in Cayuga 
 county, New York State, on December 
 24, 1855, the son of Dr. Daniel A. and 
 Mary (Downer) Force. Dr. Force was 
 originally a native of New Jersey. The 
 Force family are of French extraction and 
 are descended from the famous historical 
 character, the boy Force, one of the nobil- 
 ity who escaped from France at the time 
 of the Revolution in 1789 and took refuge 
 from the violent mobs of the bourgeoisie 
 
 377 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 in America. He settled in Louisiana. Mr. 
 Force received his early education in the 
 district schools at Port Byron, his birth- 
 place, and here after evincing mentality 
 of an unusual calibre in one of his age 
 he was given a position as teacher in the 
 local school. At the same time he studied 
 law, as was the custom before the law 
 schools of the country mounted to the 
 prestige which they now hold, in the office 
 of a judge at Port Byron. At the age of 
 eighteen years he removed to Troy, New 
 York, where he taught elocution, and hav- 
 ing definitely decided upon teaching in 
 some form as his life's work he became 
 attached to the Rensselaer Polytechnic 
 School. Mr. Force remained in Troy for 
 some time and then realizing the inex- 
 haustible fund of education and informa- 
 tion that there is in travel, he went West, 
 where he engaged in business. He lived in 
 Chicago and the vicinity of that place for 
 several years, and later returned to Port 
 Byron. During all this time he was study- 
 ing continually. He next left Port Byron 
 to go to Bloomfield, New Jersey, where he 
 entered upon a course of lecture giving. 
 Mr. Force has traveled extensively and 
 lectured on his tours. He was among the 
 first to make use of stereopticon views to 
 illustrate his lectures, when this practice 
 was still in its infancy. Mr. Force came 
 to Newburgh in 1886 and entered the cal- 
 cium light business with a Mr. Kethcurn, 
 of that place. It is unusual that one finds 
 business sagacity coupled with a studious 
 nature. Usually the calm, retiring, intro- 
 spective character of the student is not 
 conducive to successful business ventures. 
 But where in the exceptional cases the 
 cool and trained scholarly judgment is 
 combined with keen business talents the 
 results of the combination are obvious. 
 Mr. Force was very successful in this 
 business and remained in it until one 
 year before the time of his death which 
 
 occurred on January 7, 1907, in New- 
 burgh. 
 
 On September 24, 1885, Mr. Force mar- 
 ried Sophia M. Kaupp, of Bloomfield, 
 New Jersey. Her parents were George 
 and Katherine (Hoffman) Kaupp, of 
 Wurtemburg, Germany. The children of 
 Mr. and Mrs. Force are as follows : Dan- 
 iel Augustus, who is in the real estate 
 business in Newburgh, married Ethel 
 Strong and they have one daughter, Mar- 
 garet Helene ; Helen Ward, Frank Ham- 
 ilton, Henrietta Katherine, and Phoebe 
 Downer. 
 
 Mr. Force was a Mason and a member 
 of the American Reformed Church, which 
 was formerly called the Dutch Reformed. 
 From earliest boyhood until his death he 
 was a deep scholar, in fact retiring about 
 a year or so before his death for the pur- 
 pose of studying. Naturally enough, 
 through his acquaintance with books and 
 his extensive travel, Mr. Force was an 
 interesting and instructive talker and a 
 much sought after-dinner speaker. Per- 
 haps it was because of the fact that all his 
 education was the dearly brought result 
 of his own hard work and self-denial at 
 times, Mr. Force appreciated the comfort, 
 solace and companionship of the world's 
 good books and sought them out. He 
 was extremely well read and had a very 
 retentive memory. Mr. Force was an ac- 
 complished linguist, being well versed in 
 Greek, Latin and Hebrew. His personal- 
 ity was both charming and forceful and 
 he made many lasting friends in his wide 
 travels, although with the characteristic 
 self-sufficiency of the book lover he was 
 reticent and retiring, seeking no friends 
 for the sake of pure companionship, but 
 rather waiting until he had tried his ac- 
 quaintances. He was a man of strong 
 character, honest and upright in the ex- 
 treme, fair and broad-minded as is every 
 true student of life and literature. The 
 
 378 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 loss to the community of the type of man 
 of which Mr. Force was so worthy a rep- 
 resentative cannot be overestimated, and 
 its disappearance from our national life 
 except in small minority is almost tragic. 
 In our rush to adopt the new order let us 
 not forget the old, which has demon- 
 strated its usefulness and proven value. 
 
 RICHTER, Edward A., 
 
 Hotel Proprietor. 
 
 The proprietorship of a first-class hotel 
 is a position which brings its incumbent 
 in touch with the best element not only in 
 lis own town but in different parts of the 
 country and even, in some instances, with 
 the world at large. Thus it often happens 
 that friendships are formed between men 
 of widely divergent careers and circum- 
 stances, friendships which are sometimes 
 of life-long duration. This was true of 
 the late Edward A. Richter. proprietor of 
 the old White Plains Hotel and later of 
 another well-known hostelry, and num- 
 bers of his fellow townsmen can abun- 
 dantly testify to the truth of the assertion. 
 Certain it is that no man ever partook of 
 Mr. Richter's hospitality without conceiv- 
 ing for him a feeling of the warmest cor- 
 diality, and equally indisputable is it that 
 no guest ever took leave of him without 
 the wish, and in many cases the deter- 
 mination, to return at no distant day. 
 
 Edward A. Richter was born May 21, 
 1863, in Saxony, Germany, and received 
 his education in his native land. In his 
 early manhood a spirit of enterprise led 
 him to emigrate to the United States and 
 for some time he found employment in 
 New York. Circumstances, however, led 
 him in the course of time to remove to 
 White Plains, and here he entered the 
 service of F. Theodore Dall, at that time 
 proprietor of the Union Hotel. Later he 
 was employed by Diedrich Becker in the 
 hotel now conducted by Frank Blumen- 
 
 thal at the corner of Central avenue and 
 Smith street. After being associated for 
 a time with several others in the hotel 
 business Mr. Richter, feeling himself in 
 circumstances which justified him in act- 
 ing independently, took charge of the old 
 White Plains Hotel which then stood on 
 the site now occupied by the large estab- 
 lishment of the Fowler and Sellers Com- 
 pany. Under Mr. Richter's management 
 the White Plains Hotel was extremely 
 popular, fully meriting its high reputation, 
 a reputation achieved in part by Mr. 
 Richter's excellent business administra- 
 tion and in part by the genial atmosphere 
 which he diffused around him and which 
 caused all his guests to feel thoroughly at 
 home. At the end of an era of well de- 
 served prosperity the ancient hostelry was 
 taken down to make room for the impos- 
 ing brick structure of the present day. 
 Mr. Richter at this time went to Valhalla 
 where, for about eight years, he success- 
 fully conducted a hotel. In February, 
 191 1, he returned to White Plains and 
 took charge of the house on Martine ave- 
 nue of which he remained, during the 
 closing years of his life, the efficient and 
 popular proprietor. 
 
 Always public-spirited, Mr. Richter 
 served for many years as a member of the 
 Independent Engine Company, contribut- 
 ing greatly by his energy, sound judg- 
 ment and well-directed efforts to its pros- 
 perity and efficiency. His social disposi- 
 tion as well as the inborn love of music 
 so universal among Germans led him to 
 join the Concordia Singing Society and 
 for several years he served as its secre- 
 tary. He also affiliated with the White 
 Plains Court of Foresters and was a 
 charter member of the White Plains 
 Lodge of Moose. He belonged to the 
 German Benevolent Association of Tarry- 
 town, and was a member of St. Matthew's 
 German Lutheran Church. If it be true 
 that a man's choice of associates throws 
 
 379 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 light on his character certainly Mr. Rich- 
 ter's selections harmonize with his per- 
 sonality as known to his townsmen all of 
 whom might, without exaggeration, be 
 termed his friends. 
 
 Mr. Richter married, in 1899, Mary 
 Franck, who had been the companion and 
 friend of his youthful days in the far-dis- 
 tant fatherland, and who like himself had 
 sought a home in the New World. In 
 after years and amid different surround- 
 ings the old friendship ripened into love 
 and the result was a happy and sympa- 
 thetic union. 
 
 In the prime of life and in the full tide 
 of activity Mr. Richter's career of useful- 
 ness and benevolence was abruptly ter- 
 minated. On March 27, 1915, he passed 
 away, leaving mourners in every class in 
 the community and in the hearts of his 
 many personal friends a void which could 
 never be filled. Truly has it been said 
 that "there are some men who take pos- 
 session of the public heart and hold it 
 after they have gone." Of no man could 
 this statement have been made with 
 greater and more unquestioned truth than 
 of Edward A. Richter. 
 
 MATTHIAS, Charles Adolph, 
 
 Hotel Proprietor. 
 
 Few citizens of White Plains were more 
 widely known and certainly none was 
 more cordially liked or more deservedly 
 popular than was the late Charles Adolph 
 Matthias, for many years proprietor of 
 the Fuller Hotel and a conspicuous figure 
 in a number of leading fraternal organiza- 
 tions. Mr. Matthias was a resident of 
 White Plains for more than thirty years 
 and in all that concerned the welfare and 
 progress of his home town was character- 
 ized by a laudable degree of public spirit. 
 
 Charles Adolph Matthias was born June 
 29, 185 1, in the old city of Hamburg, Ger- 
 
 many, and it was there that he received 
 the education which was to fit him for 
 the active duties of life. As the youth 
 approached manhood the spirit of adven- 
 ture stirred within him. The New World, 
 with its larger opportunities and its varied 
 and inviting prospects, beckoned to him 
 and he determined to cast in his lot with 
 the multitudes of his countrymen who 
 had made it their home, having found the 
 success which they had felt awaited them. 
 Accordingly, in 1870, being then nineteen 
 years of age, Mr. Matthias embarked for 
 the United States, where he was destined 
 to spend his entire after life and to form 
 the strongest and most enduring ties. His 
 early years in this country were spent in 
 New York and New Haven, but in the 
 latter part of 1879 he came to White 
 Plains, identifying himself at once and 
 permanently with the life of the commu- 
 nity. It was with the hotel business that 
 Mr. Matthias associated himself and the 
 fact that he abandoned it for no other 
 proved his fitness for it. After being em- 
 ployed successively at the Union Hotel, 
 the Gorham Hotel and the old White 
 Plains Hotel he became, in 1888, owner 
 and proprietor of the present Fuller Hotel 
 on Railroad avenue. In this position he 
 made for himself the highest reputation, 
 not only as a business man but also as a 
 citizen. His marked financial success was 
 achieved in an orderly, systematic and 
 law-abiding manner. He was respected 
 as much as he was liked and that is say- 
 ing a great deal. Ruling his house with 
 the utmost strictness he yet won and kept 
 the kindness and good-will of all. 
 
 Politically Mr. Matthias was a Demo- 
 crat, but the affairs of the organization 
 had few attractions for him. Frequently 
 urged to enter the local political field, he 
 could never be induced to accept any 
 office but that of town auditor. His 
 friendships with men of all parties ren- 
 
 380 
 
'ju> Q/T^^^yi^ ? c*^ 
 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 dered political life distasteful to him. It 
 was, perhaps, in his long connection with 
 the fire department of White Plains that 
 Mr. Matthias gave most notable proof of 
 public spirit. When he first came here 
 the department had been disbanded for a 
 number of years, but on its reorganiza- 
 tion, in 1883, many of the younger men of 
 the village joined it. Some of the older 
 men who had served for long periods in 
 the department were piqued and resolved 
 to organize an independent company. In 
 this endeavor Mr. Matthias gave them 
 valuable assistance and loyal service. In 
 association with others he succeeded in 
 collecting many subscriptions, and it was 
 not long before the Independents had a 
 hand engine and a house on Depot square. 
 To the support of this company he gave 
 of his money and of his time, the mem- 
 bers according him, in their turn, their 
 fullest recognition and appreciation. 
 Every office in their gift they bestowed 
 upon him and in the course of time he 
 passed from the ropes to the position of 
 chief. When at last he wished to retire, 
 the members refused to listen to such a 
 suggestion and his name remained on the 
 roll as long as he lived. 
 
 The warmly social nature which was 
 one of Mr. Matthias's most marked char- 
 acteristics found expression in his affilia- 
 tions with fraternal organizations. Al- 
 most on his arrival in this place he joined 
 the Concordia Singing Society, a body of 
 Germans which had formerly been banded 
 together under the name of the White 
 Plains Gesang Verein. To this organi- 
 zation he remained loyal all his life, gladly 
 performing the duties of a collector and 
 by his judicious action maintaining a 
 healthy treasury and a never ceasing 
 membership. He was the most genial of 
 companions and at their social functions 
 was the life of the company. With a 
 number of other fraternal orders Mr. Mat- 
 thias was identified. He affiliated with 
 
 White Plains Lodge, Free and Accepted 
 Masons, and also with the social I. D. O., 
 an organization of Masons of all lodges 
 who have an annual frolic. He was a 
 loyal Forester, joining Court White Plains 
 in its early life and devoting himself with 
 unflagging zeal to its good work. Mr. 
 Matthias also affiliated with Hebron 
 Lodge, No. 329, Independent Order of 
 Odd Fellows, and was advanced step by 
 step until he received the tribute of the 
 highest office in the gift of his fellow 
 members. Never did he turn a deaf ear 
 to a brother's appeal, nor was he known 
 to fail in the visitation of the sick. 
 
 Mr. Matthias married, October 20, 1884, 
 Charlotte Eberle, of Mount Vernon, and 
 they were the parents of a daughter who 
 became the wife of Elie Ouimette, of 
 White Plains. Domestic in his tastes, 
 despite his social proclivities, Mr. Mat- 
 thias loved his home and was a most 
 affectionate husband and father. 
 
 On December 25, 1910, ere he had en- 
 tered upon the period of old age, Mr. Mat- 
 thias passed away, mourned by the whole 
 community in every class of which he 
 numbered friends. Despite the time that 
 has since gone by it is difficult for those 
 who survive him to realize that never 
 more shall they meet his laughing eyes 
 or respond to the greeting of his cordial 
 voice. Representatives of all parties and 
 believers in all creeds mourned for Charles 
 Adolph Matthias. Superior to minor poli- 
 tical and religious differences he regarded 
 only the great fact of human brotherhood, 
 and the memory of such a man is cher- 
 ished in many hearts long after he has 
 passed from earth. 
 
 NAGENGAST, George, 
 
 Chief of Fire Department, Fonghkeepsie. 
 
 There is always to be found matter of 
 interest in the lives and careers of suc- 
 cessful men which makes the perusal of 
 
 38i 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 their records delightful to us, even when 
 their success is the result of methods 
 which we cannot admire, or even of such 
 as our consciences must strongly dis- 
 approve. For it is inevitable that the 
 account of the means through which other 
 men have accomplished that which lies so 
 near to the heart of all of us should find 
 an answering emotion, should command 
 the attention of those who also desire to 
 attain to the favor of that fickle goddess, 
 fortune. It may be urged with some 
 justice that this interest has become too 
 dominant in this place and generation, 
 that Americans as a general rule allow it 
 to cloud somewhat their discrimination 
 between right and wrong until they come 
 to the point of admiring success for its 
 own sake without regard to the means by 
 which it was reached. But however this 
 may be, nay, perhaps ever more because 
 it is the case, it admits of no doubt that 
 the records of the men who have won 
 success without the compromise of those 
 ideals of honor and justice which form 
 the very foundations of society afford a 
 subject the most valuable for the study 
 of others, whose interest, if they be not 
 morally oblique, cannot fail to be inten- 
 sified by the fact that here virtue and 
 achievement walked hand in hand. And 
 it may be further claimed that it is only 
 by this alliance with virtue that success 
 can assure itself that permanence that 
 can only spring from the approval and 
 sympathy of one's fellows, and which is 
 its last and crowning value. There are 
 beyond question many men of promi- 
 nence here whose success has not this 
 value, but there are many more with 
 whom it is far otherwise and of these it 
 is the duty of all to perpetuate the mem- 
 ory in every manner possible. Of the 
 latter class was George Nagengast, the 
 successful business man and faithful head 
 of the fire department of Poughkeepsie, 
 New York, whose death there on Novem- 
 
 ber 30, 1914, was felt as a loss by the en- 
 tire community. In the case of Mr. Na- 
 gengast the gaining for himself of a posi- 
 tion of influence and wealth was in no 
 way incompatible with the great and in- 
 valuable service that he rendered to his 
 fellow citizens in his official capacity 
 and the development of a number of en- 
 terprises which have uniformly advanced 
 the interests of the city. Poughkeepsie 
 was the scene of the lifelong connection 
 with the great work he did in connection 
 with the fire department, and his memory 
 is there held in the highest veneration and 
 respect by all those who knew him or 
 came, even into the most casual contact 
 with him, and by the community at large 
 which feels strongly how great is the 
 debt of gratitude that it owes him. 
 
 Born June 10, 1852, in Poughkeepsie, 
 Dutchess county, New York, Mr. Nagen- 
 gast was a son of Charles Nagengast, a 
 native of the Kingdom of Bavaria, Ger- 
 many, who came to this country and 
 settled in the city of Poughkeepsie in 
 1840, where he became connected with 
 the iron industry and had a position as 
 foreman in charge of some great blast 
 furnaces in that place. The son George 
 received his education in the excellent 
 schools of Poughkeepsie, and when only 
 eleven years old obtained a position in 
 a cigar factory there and learned thor- 
 oughly the detail of the tobacco busi- 
 ness, remaining in that employ for up- 
 wards of twenty years. During this time 
 he had received promotion to a respon- 
 sible post in the factory and was regarded 
 as one of the most faithful and efficient 
 members of the force. He had a great 
 ambition, however, to engage in business 
 on his own account and, with this end in 
 view, he saved a large portion of his 
 wages. In the year 1883 he found him- 
 self at length in a position to embark 
 upon an enterprise of his own, and accord- 
 ingly established himself in the meat 
 
 382 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 business. From this time onward his 
 career in the business world was a most 
 diversified one and he tried his hand at 
 many lines and was most uniformly suc- 
 cessful. After a short time spent in the 
 meat business, he thought that it would 
 be wise for him to take up the line in 
 which he had gained so wide a knowledge 
 and experience and accordingly worked at 
 the cigar making business, remaining in 
 this line but a few months. He then saw 
 an opportunity to purchase a good hotel 
 which he promptly availed himself of and 
 conducted with a high degree of success 
 the well-known Hudson River House for 
 upwards of eight years. He then sold 
 this place and purchased the larger house 
 known as the International at No. 435 
 Main street, Poughkeepsie, and there 
 remained for five years longer. Once 
 again Mr. Nagengast changed his loca- 
 tion, this time purchasing the Globe at 
 No. 403 Main street. He continued in 
 this place until a few years prior to his 
 death, when he retired altogether from the 
 hotel business, the Globe now being called 
 the Hector. His*career as hotel man was 
 extremely successful and he seemed to 
 possess all the characteristics necessary 
 to the popular and successful host, and 
 knew well how to make his hostelries 
 appear homelike and informal without 
 subjecting his guests to any of the incon- 
 veniences arising from a lack of discipline 
 or any laxity in the service. He was him- 
 self one of the chief attractions in his 
 houses, everyone feeling him to be a 
 friend who would not desert them in 
 any emergency, and a most witty and 
 congenial companion did they desire it. 
 Of recent years Mr. Nagengast had his 
 attention attracted to the business of 
 trucking and carting and he had engaged 
 in this with great success and was con- 
 tinuing in it at the time of his death. 
 Another interest of his, one of the most 
 important of all, as a matter of fact, \v 
 
 real estate, in which he had become inter- 
 ested comparatively early in his life and 
 in which he entered more and more 
 deeply as time went on. His keen busi- 
 ness sense and foresight here stood him 
 in good stead and he was extremely suc- 
 cessful in his investments, at the time of 
 his death owning some of the most valu- 
 able properties in the city of Pough- 
 keepsie. 
 
 While Mr. Nagengast was a staunch 
 supporter of the Republican party and 
 even allied himself with the local organi- 
 zation and aided in the work of advancing 
 party interests, he never had any ambition 
 for political preferment or public office, 
 and avoided rather than sought the same. 
 There was one department of the city's 
 affairs in which he was extremely inter- 
 ested and it is probable that he was better 
 known in his connection with this than 
 in any other sphere of activity. This was 
 the fire department with which he was 
 constantly identified from February 20, 
 1S71, until his death, and for which he 
 did more than any other single man in the 
 community. When no more than eigh- 
 teen years of age he formed his first con- 
 nection with this body, joining the 
 Niagara Engine Company while he was 
 still employed in the old tobacco factory. 
 Here he quickly took hold of the work 
 and evinced such interest that he soon 
 became foreman and then held the office 
 of treasurer for about four years. He 
 then resigned from this group and joined 
 the O. H. Booth Hose Company and in 
 this also served as treasurer for a number 
 of years. He was extremely active during 
 all this time in arousing and maintaining 
 public interest in the department and 
 served as treasurer for several tourna- 
 ments held by the department which 
 attracted much attention from the public 
 generally. On December 10, 1901. in 
 recognition of his great services, he was 
 elected chief of the fire department and 
 
 383 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 served about thirteen years, and after, as 
 before, gave every moment of his spare 
 time to the service of the department. 
 Few men have worked more effectively 
 or conscientiously than did he in this 
 cause and he had the great satisfaction to 
 see it among the finest departments for 
 cities of the size in the country, and of 
 finding himself placed at its head. He 
 was near the conclusion of his sixth term 
 as chief at the time of his death in 1914. 
 
 On November 2, 1878, Mr. Nagengast 
 was united in marriage with Caroline L. 
 Swartout, a daughter of William and 
 Adeline (Martin) Swartout, of New 
 York State. To Mr. and Mrs. Nagengast 
 were born two daughters, as follows : 
 Araminta H. and Lily May, who with 
 their mother survive Mr. Nagengast and 
 now make their home in the attractive 
 house at No. 45 Catherine street, Pough- 
 keepsie. 
 
 Mr. Nagengast was a conspicuous 
 figure in the social life of the community, 
 and a prominent member of a number of 
 important fraternal organizations among 
 which should be named the Independent 
 Order of Red Men, Lodge No. 439 ; Lodge 
 No. 275, Benevolent and Protective Order 
 of Elks ; and the United Germans of 
 Poughkeepsie. He was also treasurer of 
 the Volunteer Firemen's Mutual Benefit 
 Association, and in that capacity increas- 
 ed the indebtedness of the department to 
 him. 
 
 After the basic virtue of honesty, 
 strong common sense and an invincible 
 will, the latter tempered by unusual tact 
 and judgment, were the basis of Mr. 
 Nagengast's character and incidently of 
 his marked success in life. Men felt in- 
 stinctively that he was a strong man, a 
 man upon whom they could lean in times 
 of difficulty, and therefore the more will- 
 ingly followed his lead in whatever thing 
 they might be associated with him. They 
 
 felt also the charm of a warm heart and 
 charitable nature with the result that few 
 men in the community could boast of so 
 large a following of devoted personal 
 friends, or exercised a greater influence 
 in that most direct of ways, the effect of 
 character upon character, of personality 
 upon personality in the common relations 
 of daily life. Of the most versatile talents 
 and the broadest tastes, he was, neverthe- 
 less, able to concentrate with the most 
 single sightedness on whatever he set 
 before him as an objective, thus proving 
 that he inherited characteristic German 
 virtues from his ancestors. Another 
 virtue, doubtless derived from the same 
 Teutonic ancestry, was the strong love of 
 his home, a domestic instinct that found 
 its expression in his intense desire to 
 spend his time by his own hearthstone in 
 the intimate intercourse of his own 
 family. A devoted and affectionate hus- 
 band and father, Mr. Nagengast's conduct 
 in these most close relations was not less 
 exemplary than that in public life. 
 
 HOWARD, Charles C, 
 
 A Leader Among Men. 
 
 We all feel a strong instinctive admir- 
 ation for the natural leader of men, the 
 man who, because of the possession of 
 some quality or other, reaches a place 
 in which he directs the doings of his fel- 
 lows and is accepted of them naturally 
 in that capacity. We all admire him in- 
 dependently of what that quality may be, 
 even if our best judgment tells us that it 
 is by no means praiseworthy in itself, 
 and even if we should resent the exercise 
 of it upon ourselves. When, however, 
 that quality is a lovable one and a man 
 leads in virtue of the sway he holds over 
 the affections and veneration of others, 
 our admiration receives an added power 
 from our approval, and this feeling re- 
 
 384 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ceives its final confirmation when the 
 leadership so won is directed solely to 
 good ends. In noting the rise to power 
 and influence of such men it often appears 
 that their achievement is not the result 
 of any faculties which we, as average 
 men, are possessed of, but rather that of 
 some charm the secret of which we have 
 not learned, so easily obstacles seem to be 
 overcome and so completely does every 
 factor appear to bend itself to the fore- 
 ordained event. In the great majority 
 of cases, however, such appearance is 
 entirely deceptive and the brilliant out- 
 come is the result of causes as logical 
 and orderly as any in our most humble 
 experience, of effort as unremitting and 
 arduous as any with which we are 
 familiar. Such in a large measure is true 
 in the case of Charles C. Howard, late of 
 Mount Vernon, New York, whose name 
 heads this brief appreciation, and whose 
 reputation in his home town for success 
 gained without compromise of his ideals 
 is second to none. His rise to a place of 
 prominence in so many departments of 
 the community's life was doubtless rapid, 
 but it was not won without the expendi- 
 ture of labor and effort of the most con- 
 sistent kind, labor and effort which doubt- 
 less felt discouragement and grieved at 
 their own limitations, just as every man 
 experiences in the course of his life. If 
 this were not so how would it be pos- 
 sible to explain the large tolerance, the 
 broad human sympathy and understand- 
 ing which he displayed through all his 
 varied intercourse with his fellowmen, for 
 it is beyond dispute that what we have 
 not ourselves experienced we cannot 
 sympathize with in others. How large 
 this sympathy was and how well judged 
 his tolerance is borne witness to by the 
 general mourning that was occasioned 
 throughout the community by his death 
 which occurred there on January 4, 1916. 
 Born December 3, 1872, in Mount Ver- 
 
 non, Mr. Howard was the son of George 
 and Joanna (Case) Howard, old and 
 highly esteemed residents of the place. 
 He received his education in the excellent 
 local schools where he proved himself an 
 exceedingly apt pupil and developed a 
 strong taste for studious pursuits which 
 he never outgrew. He also began to 
 exhibit the unusual power of leadership 
 that afterwards marked him, among his 
 fellows, and it was customary, even in 
 boyhood, for him to assume the direction 
 of such sports and pastimes as he and 
 his companions engaged in. Upon com- 
 pleting his schooling, he established him- 
 self as a contractor and builder in Mount 
 Vernon and thus began the career which 
 developed so brilliantly. From the out- 
 set his business prospered and eventually, 
 under his capable management, assumed 
 the very great proportions that it bears 
 to-day. 
 
 But it was not as a business man that 
 Mr. Howard was the best known in 
 Mount Vernon, although he became very 
 influential in that aspect of the com- 
 munity's affairs. Rather was it as a 
 public-spirited citizen who took a con- 
 spicuous part in every movement of 
 importance for the welfare of the city or 
 any section of its inhabitants. Though a 
 large employer of labor himself, Mr. 
 Howard had the interest of the laborer 
 very much at heart and sympathized with 
 the cause of organized labor to such an 
 extent that he became a member of the 
 Mount Vernon Labor Union and wielded 
 a great deal of influence in the affairs of 
 that body, striving by every means in his 
 power to advance its interests. He was a 
 Republican in politics, but invariably 
 sank partisan considerations into the 
 interests of the community at large and 
 was a strong follower of Fisk during the 
 career of that remarkable man. He was 
 an enthusiastic member of the Clinton 
 Hook & Ladder Company of Mount Ver- 
 
 N Y-Vol H-25 
 
 3S5 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 non and rose rapidly to the position of 
 chief of the whole department there. 
 When the fire department became a part 
 of the city government, Mr. Howard was 
 elected the first commissioner, and it was 
 through his efforts that the new depart- 
 ment was put upon the effective basis 
 that it has ever since enjoyed. Another 
 department of the city's affairs in which 
 Mr. Howard took a prominent part was 
 the educational arrangements, the schools 
 and libraries and various means under- 
 taken to help the child along the difficult 
 pathway of knowledge. He was always 
 keenly interested in the welfare of the 
 children, gave a great deal of his time to 
 this particular matter and served as presi- 
 dent of the Mount Vernon Board of Edu- 
 cation for a considerable period. The 
 Chamber of Commerce of Mount Vernon 
 is an extremely effective body and plays 
 a large and important part in the com- 
 mercial life of the city, and one of its 
 most active members was Mr. Howard, 
 who for a number of years served as its 
 president and through the medium of 
 its activities did much to build up and 
 develop the resources of the city. Among 
 the various institutions of one kind and 
 another with which Mr. Howard was 
 connected should be mentioned the East 
 Chester Savings Bank, of which he was 
 a director. In the matter of his religion 
 Mr. Howard was a Methodist and for 
 many years was a member of the First 
 Church of that denomination in Mount 
 Vernon. He was extremely active in his 
 support of the work of the congregation 
 in the community, particularly in con- 
 nection with its benevolences and philan- 
 thropical movements, to which he gave 
 most liberally both of his wealth and 
 effort. 
 
 On June 4, 1900, Mr. Howard was 
 united in marriage with Maude Merserau, 
 of New York City, a daughter of Israel 
 Putnam and Armenia (Penrose) Mer- 
 
 serau, well known residents of that place. 
 A sister of Mrs. Howard is married to 
 Retired Commander William Hugh Mc- 
 Grann, of the United States navy, who 
 is now a member of the well known firm 
 of Kirbin, Woolsey & Hickox, admiralty 
 lawyers of No. 27 William street, New 
 York City. To Mr. and Mrs. Howard 
 was born one child, George Merserau 
 Howard. Mr. Howard is survived by his 
 wife and child, both of whom still make 
 their residence in Mount Vernon. 
 
 The record of Mr. Howard's achieve- 
 ment is truly an extraordinary one in view 
 of the fact that he was but forty-two years 
 of age at the time of his death. A career 
 begun so brilliantly could not but promise 
 still more brilliantly for the future, and 
 when it was cut so abruptly short, his 
 powers and faculties scarcely having 
 reached their full development, his 
 energy at its prime, his accomplishment 
 but beginning, it came as a terrible shock 
 to all his many friends and associates and 
 was felt as a loss by the community gen- 
 erally. But although the mere record is 
 a remarkable one, it cannot give a fully 
 adequate idea of the place occupied by 
 Mr. Howard in the community. It was 
 not only that he held responsible and 
 important positions at an unusually 
 youthful age, it was not only that he was 
 active in carrying out valuable works, but 
 rather in virtue of a certain vitality in 
 the man which made him seem an essen- 
 tial part of everything he undertook and 
 kept him the virtual leader in a hundred 
 diverse matters. His work in the cause 
 of organized labor affords an excellent 
 example of this and proved him the man 
 of strong and true instincts that he was, 
 making himself the champion of the 
 rights of those who were in the least 
 favorable position to enforce their own. 
 In all the relations with his fellows he 
 took the same generous and altruistic 
 position, the manly position in which 
 
 386 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 every man of energy and right thinking 
 might wish to find himself, striving for 
 the common weal with a splendid enthusi- 
 asm and a self-forgetfulness that won the 
 trust of all men. So many were the 
 interests with which he was concerned, 
 so many the movements with which his 
 activities were identified, that no account 
 of the community's affairs in that period 
 would be complete without reference to 
 him, his death leaving a gap which will 
 not readily be filled nor soon forgotten. 
 
 FORCE, Isaiah F., 
 
 Manufacturer and Major. 
 
 Men receive names at birth that are 
 often great misnomers, but Major Isaiah 
 F. Force could not have been more aptly 
 called had his christening been performed 
 at the end of his active life, for whether 
 or not he drew his inspiration from his 
 name there was ever exhibited in his life 
 a force of character that raised him far 
 above the average and constituted him a 
 leader of men. From 1887 until his death, 
 fourteen years later, he was an invalid, 
 almost helpless at times, yet during those 
 years of physical helplessness and suffer- 
 ing he maintained a clear mind and a calm 
 and cheerful spirit, when it would have 
 been so easy to have made life a burden to 
 himself and to those about him. He 
 offered his life to his country and on the 
 battlefields of the South demonstrated the 
 depth of his devotion. He was a success- 
 ful business man, but his business was 
 one easily affected by natural causes and 
 severe losses were often sustained, but 
 these losses were met with the same 
 fortitude that he displayed in his loss of 
 health, and never disturbed him nor 
 caused him to depart from the even tenor 
 of his way. 
 
 He was a resident of Rochester, New 
 York, from early boyhood, and for fifty- 
 eight years resided on East avenue. In 
 
 1870 he built a mansion at No. 100 East 
 avenue, one that when built was con- 
 sidered the very finest in its design, fur- 
 nishings and appointments. There he 
 resided until death, a strong man stricken 
 in his prime. But there was no flaw in 
 his armor. He was an associate of busi- 
 ness men and held their unvarying 
 respect ; a large employer of labor, he 
 won the confidence and love of his men 
 and trouble with them was unknown ; a 
 gallant officer of the Union, he won the 
 admiration of his superiors in rank and 
 from them received merited promotion. 
 In his home life a devoted husband and 
 father, in his friendships loyal and un- 
 flinching, strongest in adversity, and in 
 his citizenship high-minded, patriotic, 
 and public-spirited, he fought a good 
 fight and left an example of courage and 
 fortitude unsurpassed, and was faithful 
 to every trust, perfect in his integrity. 
 
 Isaiah F. Force was born in Easton, 
 Pennsylvania, November 14, 1833, died in 
 Rochester, New York, July 2, 1901, son 
 of John and Althea Catherine (Farley) 
 Force. When he was a small boy his 
 parents chose Rochester as their resi- 
 dence and there his after life was spent. 
 He was educated in the public schools. 
 He early entered the business world and 
 in 1859 established a plant for the manu- 
 facture of axe handles and truss hoops. 
 When war broke out between the North 
 rind the South the military ardor latent 
 in his blood led to his enlistment, and he 
 went to the front as major of the One 
 Hundred and Fortieth Regiment, New 
 York Volunteer Infantry. He was not 
 without military training and preparation 
 for so important a command, for he was 
 a member of the Rochester Light Guards, 
 enlisting as a private, and at the time of 
 entering the United States service was 
 captain of the "guards." Others of his 
 family also served in the Union army, 
 one of them, Major George B. Force, fall- 
 
 387 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 ing in battle the very day the One Hun- 
 dred and Fortieth New York left for the 
 front. Major I. F. Force saw fifteen 
 months of hard service with his regiment, 
 the One Hundred and Fortieth, then was 
 stricken with an illness that kept him a 
 long time in the hospital at Washington. 
 While confined there he was promoted 
 and commissioned lieutenant-colonel "for 
 gallant and meritorious services," but was 
 not permitted to rejoin his regiment and 
 was "invalided'' home, his military career, 
 much to his sorrow, ended. But this 
 blow he manfully sustained, and in the 
 capacity of a civilian he rendered the 
 Union cause such service as he could. 
 
 On leaving for the front Major Force 
 had placed the management of his factory 
 in the hands of his father, his capable 
 wife taking charge of the office. On his 
 return he resumed control and added to 
 his manufacturing a department for the 
 sale of hardwood lumber. This depart- 
 ment grew to large proportions and in 
 1870 a branch was established at New 
 Albany, Indiana, that he continued until 
 his death. From 1901 until 1908 this 
 branch was under the management of 
 Mrs. Force, her son, John W. Force, and 
 Frank Peters, and later the business was 
 disposed of. Besides his large lumber and 
 factory interests Major Force acquired a 
 large barrel and stave manufacturing 
 plant in Detroit, Michigan, and was other- 
 wise associated with business activities. 
 On more than one occasion he sustained 
 severe losses by floods, but these setbacks 
 seemed only to urge him to greater activity. 
 He won prosperity, but it was by sustain- 
 ed, well-directed effort, good judgment, 
 and the application of the golden business 
 rule, honest dealings with all, his sterling 
 integrity knowing no middle ground. 
 Expediency was not a word in his vocabu- 
 lary, a thing was either right or wrong; 
 if right, do it, if wrong, shun it, was his 
 principle, from which he never deviated. 
 
 To his many employees he was just and 
 kind, many of them remained in his em- 
 ploy many years, and all respected and 
 admired him. He possessed great execu- 
 tive ability and well were his varied inter- 
 ests managed. In 1887 spinal trouble 
 drove him from active business, and 
 thenceforth he was helpless to do other 
 than counsel and advise. He never mur- 
 mured or repined, but with a brave front 
 met his fate. 
 
 Major Force married, June 9, 1859, 
 Jennie, daughter of John and Ann (Haz- 
 lett) Wright, residents of the north of 
 Ireland. Mrs. Ann Wright died while her 
 daughter was still in infancy, and John 
 Wright with his children came to the 
 United States, locating in Rochester, 
 where he died in 1876, aged eighty-one 
 years. Mrs. Force, educated in the public 
 schools, successfully taught school for 
 two years prior to her marriage, and dur- 
 ing her husband's military life conducted 
 the office department of his business. She 
 survives him,, a resident of Rochester, at 
 No. 123 Barrington street. Children : 
 John W., of Rochester; Gertrude, widov 
 of Harold Bolce; Elmer E., Fred W., 
 George T., the last three deceased. 
 
 SARGENT, James, 
 
 Inventor, Successful Business Man. 
 
 The inevitable law of destiny accords 
 to tireless energy and industry a success- 
 ful career, and in no field of endeavor is 
 there greater opportunity for advance- 
 ment than in that of invention, a profes- 
 sion whose votaries must, if successful, be 
 endowed with native talent, genius of a 
 high order, and singleness of purpose, all 
 of which characteristics were fully devel- 
 oped in the late James Sargent, who was 
 not only a wonderful inventor, but a suc- 
 cessful business man, and who was re- 
 ferred to in other cities as "The Rochester 
 Edison." 
 
 388 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 James Sargent was born in Chester, 
 Vermont, in 1824. He spent the early 
 years of his life in his native village, 
 where he received a practical education 
 in its common schools. Later he removed 
 to New Hampshire, and in 1848, the year 
 following his marriage, changed his place 
 of residence to Rochester, New York, and 
 there spent the remainder of his days. 
 Shortly before entering into partnership 
 with Halbert S. Greenleaf, he perfected 
 his time lock, a device which has defied 
 the skill of all safe burglars, this lock 
 being at the present time in universal use. 
 The application for the patent on the 
 Sargent Time Lock was made in June, 
 1873, and the first lock was made May 
 26, 1874, when one was attached to a safe 
 in the First National Bank of Morrison, 
 Illinois, where it is still in use. Mr. Sar- 
 gent's experiments connected with lock 
 picking, with which he startled the 
 Treasury Department of the United 
 States government, and a world of bank- 
 ers, financiers and safe makers, would 
 make exceedingly interesting reading. 
 Another of his valuable patents was that 
 of a smoke consumer, which, it is said, 
 pays for itself by the reduction in the 
 amount of coal used. It has been adopted 
 by the government and many large manu- 
 facturing plants. There is also his glass 
 enameled steel tank, which makes it pos- 
 sible to manufacture beer under the 
 vacuum process, from start to finish, 
 within twenty days, whereas the old 
 process in wooden tanks requires at least 
 three months, and is far less sanitary. 
 The Sargent Automatic Railway Signal, 
 warning the approaching train of danger, 
 is also widely known and generally used. 
 These are only a few products of his 
 brain, many others, of equal value and 
 which have proved themselves to be 
 
 order to benefit mankind. Mr. Sargent 
 was president of the Sargent & Greenleaf 
 Company, manufacturers of locks and 
 keys, their place of business being located 
 on Court street, Rochester, having in 
 their employ a number of skilled work- 
 men, thus making it one of the leading 
 industries of that thriving city. He also 
 acted in the same capacity for the Water- 
 loo Gold Mining Company, Railway Sig- 
 nal Company, the Pfaudler Fermentation 
 Company, and the Association of Sum- 
 merland Island, Thousand Islands. 
 
 Kind and philanthropic by nature, his 
 interest in worthy charities was active, 
 and his contributions numerous, while he 
 was a staunch supporter of the First 
 Universalist Church and its societies. He 
 was a prime mover in all the work under- 
 taken by this church, his culminating act 
 of generosity coming a few years prior 
 to his death when the expense of several 
 improvements in the church necessitating 
 an outlay of nearly sixty thousand dollars, 
 was all borne by the Sargent family. His 
 worth as a man and a citizen were widely 
 acknowledged, his loyalty and patriotism 
 were marked, and those who knew him 
 best esteemed him for his sterling qual- 
 ities. He was interested in the civic up- 
 building of Rochester, where he resided 
 for more than six decades. He combatted 
 the smoke nuisance, and one of his last 
 acts was to take into the courts his fights 
 against cluttering up the main streets 
 with lunch wagons, obtaining a decision 
 of the court of last resort which compelled 
 them to vacate the streets. He was an 
 extensive traveler, thereby gaining not 
 only rest and recreation, but a valuable 
 fund of knowledge, and nearly all his 
 winters were spent in the South or Far 
 West, thereby escaping the rigorous 
 northern climate. He was a member of 
 
 labor-saving and sanitary devices, having Valley Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, 
 emanated from his fertile and productive the Royal Arch Masons and the Shrine, 
 mind, which was always on the alert in It was Mr. Sargent's custom to entertain 
 
 389 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 his friends each year on his birthday, and 
 the year preceding his decease he gave a 
 party at the Hotel Seneca, and in his 
 after-dinner talk he declared himself in 
 favor of woman suffrage, saying: "No 
 man should have a wife if she cannot be 
 made equal to him 'In all things." 
 
 Mr. Sargent married, in 1847, in New 
 Hampshire, Angelina Morse Foster, who 
 died after a wedded life of more than three 
 score years. They were the parents of 
 one daughter, Mrs. John W. Force. Mr. 
 Sargent, after an illness of only a few 
 hours, passed away January 12, 1910, at 
 his late home, No. 98 East avenue, Ro- 
 chester. The remains were taken to 
 Buffalo, New York, for cremation, and 
 the ashes repose in Mt. Hope Cemetery. 
 This brief resume of Mr. Sargent's many 
 spheres of activity proved the broadness 
 of his mental vision, and whether con- 
 sidered as employer, business man, in- 
 ventor, churchman, official business asso- 
 ciate or clubman, he was found to be a 
 man true to himself and true to his fel- 
 lows. 
 
 BUCKMAN, George Rex, 
 
 Active Man of Affairs. 
 
 It is seldom the lot of any man to lead 
 so varied and changing a life as that of 
 George Rex Buckman, of New York City, 
 whose death on May 9, 1915, removed 
 from that city a public-spirited citizen ; it 
 is seldom that a man becomes connected 
 with so many important activities and 
 wins so large and well-deserved a repu- 
 tation in them all. From his early youth 
 in Pennsylvania, when he won a name as 
 a skillful inventor, through the long 
 period in which he dwelt in the West 
 and identified himself with the strenuous 
 life of that great region, to the later career 
 in New York City, he displayed a ver- 
 satility of talent, an adaptability of intel- 
 lect that made him a most valued member 
 
 of each and every community in which 
 he took up his residence. He was the 
 possessor of that rarer and higher type of 
 public spirit that takes an interest in the 
 welfare of his fellows without respect of 
 class or place, so that whether he was 
 East or West, whether he was a member 
 of one of the growing, enterprising conir 
 munities of the great new empire that is 
 now in process of development across the 
 continent, or of those more fixed and in- 
 flexible communities on the Atlantic sea- 
 board, with their hard and fast social and 
 business standards and their barriers be- 
 tween the classes, he was still at work 
 for the betterment of the community-at- 
 large and of all those with whom he hap- 
 pened to come in contact. 
 
 George Rex Buckman was a native of 
 the little town of Willow Grove, Penn- 
 sylvania, where he was born November 
 26, 1853, and a son of Albert and Emily 
 (Rex) Buckman. His mother was a 
 woman of remarkable ability and was one 
 of the pioneers in the great women's 
 movement in this country, having been 
 one of the board of managers of the Cen- 
 tennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 
 1876, in which capacity she was one of 
 the prime movers in the erection of the 
 women's building, where were exhibited 
 the work of women in all parts of the 
 country in every department of activity. 
 The youth of Mr. Buckman was passed 
 in the region of his birth and it was there 
 that he gained his education, attending 
 the local schools for that purpose. He 
 early displayed a remarkable talent for 
 mechanics and desired to follow that 
 branch of applied science as a career. He 
 invented, while still a mere lad of eight- 
 een, a form of lever for controlling the 
 flow of steam in locomotives, which is 
 now in universal use. His health was 
 frail, however, and did not permit him to 
 work with the unchanging energy that his 
 ambition urged him to, and about this 
 
 390 
 
%o*ps 92. <%u€&n» 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 period he broke down completely so that 
 he was forced to go West to recuperate. 
 He settled in Colorado Springs, and after 
 a short time spent there as an invalid he 
 began to take part in the affairs of the 
 place. In the short period of his resi- 
 dence there he had already grown to love 
 the place and the life so much more free 
 of conventional restraint than in his 
 native East. He was the possessor of an 
 unusual literary ability and this he turned 
 to the praise of the new home — the Pike's 
 Peak Region as it is called, from the 
 great mountain that dominates the whole 
 surrounding country. It was in the year 
 1891 that he first became connected with 
 the Colorado Springs Chamber of Com- 
 merce, which prior to that time had spent 
 a somewhat precarious existence in the 
 young community, struggling with finan- 
 cial difficulties and other obstacles. In 
 the year that Mr. Buckman joined it. it 
 underwent a complete reorganization and 
 he was elected its secretary-treasurer, 
 while Judge H. G. Lunt was made presi- 
 dent. It became the object of Air. Buck- 
 man to build up a creditable organization 
 which might play a really important part 
 in the life and development of the com- 
 munity. It was largely due to his efforts 
 that the body survived the many difficul- 
 ties that still confronted it, and made for 
 itself the conspicuous place in the com- 
 munity that it has since enjoyed. The 
 making known of the whole region to the 
 outside world now occupied the attention 
 of Mr. Buckman and it was in this effort 
 that his literary talent came most con- 
 spicuously into play. Indeed the first 
 work of the sort was done by him and 
 consisted of a series of pamphlets describ- 
 ing the climatic and scenic attractions of 
 the country penned by him and published 
 broadcast through the East. The first of 
 these was of considerable length and was 
 devoted more particularly to the city 
 proper. It was entitled "Facts, Medical 
 
 and General, Concerning Colorado 
 Springs," and was advertised so success- 
 fully in eastern periodicals that over eight 
 thousand copies were distributed in 
 various parts of the country. It was fol- 
 lowed by another smaller pamphlet which 
 reached the great number of forty thou- 
 sand distributed copies. Another, and 
 perhaps the best known of his works in 
 this connection, was that known as 
 "Colorado Springs and Its Scenic En- 
 virons,'' of which more than seven thou- 
 sand five hundred copies were sold at a 
 dollar apiece. Among the important 
 works in which Mr. Buckman was instru- 
 mental in the founding were the great 
 projects of establishing a road communi- 
 cation between Colorado Springs and the 
 thriving mining community at Cripple 
 Creek, across a most difficult mountain 
 region, and the building of the great 
 reservoir for his city at Monument, 
 Colorado. He was also extremely active 
 in the social and religious circles in the 
 western city and was a member of many 
 of the most important clubs and organiza- 
 tions of a similar nature there. At the 
 time of the formation of the El Paso Club 
 Mr. Buckman formed one of its members 
 and was elected to the secretaryship 
 thereof, holding the same for a period of 
 twenty-five years. In religion he adhered 
 to the tenets of the Society of Friends. 
 
 His first connection with the banking 
 firm of William P. Ronbright & Company, 
 a connection which eventually brought 
 him to New York City to live, was in 
 1896 when he surrendered his office of 
 secretary-treasurer of the Chamber of 
 Commerce and entered the Colorado 
 Springs branch of that large house. 
 Here he became identified with the bank- 
 ing business and made himself so invalu- 
 able to the central office in New York that 
 when the western branch was finally 
 closed he was called to that city and there 
 admitted as a member of the firm. He 
 
 391 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 remained in this connection until within 
 a year of his death and then retired from 
 all active business on account of his fail- 
 ing health. 
 
 On July 27, 1900, Mr. Buckman was 
 united in marriage with Gertrude Wolffe, 
 of Hagerstown, Maryland, a daughter of 
 Dr. Martin Luther and Elva (Besare) 
 Wolffe. Mrs. Buckman survives her hus- 
 band and continues to make her home in 
 the delightful dwelling at No. 310 West 
 Seventy-ninth street, New York City. 
 
 The character of Mr. Buckman was of 
 that positive kind that leaves of neces- 
 sity its impress upon any circle into which 
 it comes in contact, an impress, however, 
 that is welcome to those receiving it. He 
 was, as a matter of fact, one of those who 
 lead others in his own way rather than 
 drive them, enlisting by the power of his 
 own enthusiasm the hearts of other men 
 in the enterprises of which he was an 
 advocate. The various communities of 
 which he was a member consequently re- 
 member him with gratitude, but perhaps 
 most of all the strong and virile western 
 city with the character of whose life his 
 own had so much in common. As has 
 already been suggested his talents were 
 of the most versatile nature and his career 
 as banker in New York was as success- 
 ful as his more public activities in the 
 West or his attempts at mechanical in- 
 vention while still a youth in Pennsyl- 
 vania, but there was something especially 
 harmonious in the Colorado life for his 
 temperament which was felt reciprocal- 
 ly by himself and the community. A? 
 witness to this fact, the following quota- 
 tion from the "Colorado Springs Gazette," 
 two days after his death, but a number 
 of years since his ceasing to be a resident 
 of that city, may be cited: 
 
 Of the men who have lived in Colorado Springs 
 and contributed substantially to its upbuilding 
 there are few who will be remembered longer or 
 
 by a wider circle of friends than George Rex 
 Buckman, who died in New York last Sunday. 
 It is more than four years since Mr. Buckman 
 changed his residence from Colorado Springs to 
 New York, but it is safe to say he never changed 
 his allegiance. Most of his adult life was spent 
 here, and it was here that he accomplished the 
 work which made the Pike's Peak Region his 
 debtor and attracted attention throughout the 
 entire country * * * Throughout his resi- 
 dence Mr. Buckman was a prominent figure in 
 the social and business life of the city, and his 
 cultural attainments made him a leader in its 
 intellectual life. His visits in later years were 
 occasions that will long be remembered by the 
 many friends who now mourn his passing. 
 
 SHELLHOOS, George A., 
 
 Successful Business Man. 
 
 "There is a tide in the affairs of men 
 which taken at the flood leads on to for- 
 tune." Then justice offers on the scales 
 of the balance, success and failure. These 
 two are invariably pivoted on the same 
 point, and the ultimate outcome of the 
 choice depends upon the keenness of per- 
 ception, strength of will, ability, and 
 persistent pursuit of the sworn objective 
 point. The man who succeeds is the one 
 who has courage to take up work and 
 forge ahead where another man has left 
 off, too great pride to become a failure 
 and too great faith in himself and his 
 abilities to surrender to the pressure 
 brought to bear on him in the crises of 
 affairs which come to every business man. 
 There is something sublime in the cour- 
 age of a man who stakes all on the out- 
 come of a chance where if he ventures 
 nothing he will lose all. But the man 
 with the high type of mentality which 
 recognizes the potentiality of every 
 chance and who utilizes to the good of 
 the greatest number his opportunities, is 
 the man upon whose ability and stability 
 depends the very life of these United 
 States. A worthy representative of this 
 class of men in public life was George A. 
 
 392 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Shellhoos, of Newburgh, New York. 
 Because of the fact that he recognized and 
 grasped every business opportunity which 
 presented itself to him, though perhaps 
 it was necessary to sever intimate ties 
 which bound him at the time, Mr. Shell- 
 hoos was a man of an extraordinarily 
 active and quite successful career. 
 
 George A. Shellhoos was born at Cross 
 River, New York, on June 28, 1872, the 
 son of John and Catherine (Whitman) 
 Shellhoos. He received his early educa- 
 tion, in fact all of the education that he 
 had outside that of the school of life, in 
 the public schools at Cross River, where 
 he remained until he reached the age of 
 fourteen years. Then, experiencing that 
 desire for restless activity and wanting to 
 get started on his career which all boys 
 of active mind do go through, a sort of 
 restless impatience to get out of school 
 and do something, he left his home and 
 went to Norwalk, Connecticut. Here he 
 worked for a Mr. Holmes, who conducted 
 a flour and feed business. After several 
 years in business with Mr. Holmes Mr. 
 Shellhoos lost his health, undoubtedly 
 due to the nature of the business in which 
 he was engaged, and spent about one year 
 in North Carolina regaining it. At the 
 age of twenty-three he returned to the 
 North and spent three years at Saranac 
 Lake, in New York. After he had re- 
 gained his health he went to Shelton, 
 Connecticut, and there engaged in a gro- 
 cery and meat business, of which he was 
 sole proprietor and which after a year he 
 discontinued. 
 
 His abilities in his line were consider- 
 able, and his personality and character 
 was such that he was offered a position 
 as manager in Stamford, Connecticut, for 
 Armour & Company, the great packers. 
 In this he proved quite successful and in 
 1900 he was put in charge of that com- 
 pany's organization in Newburgh, New 
 York, which position he held until 1905, 
 
 acquitting himself ably and honorably 
 of all its duties and retiring. He then 
 returned to his former business, that of 
 the grocery and meat trade, and estab- 
 lished himself in Newburgh. This he 
 controlled for three years. Mr. Shell- 
 hoos was a man of wisdom and judgment, 
 who never hesitated in accepting any 
 chance which fate put in his way for 
 advancing himself. He next went to New 
 Haven, Connecticut, and became manager 
 of the house of H. J. Handy, a wholesale 
 produce company, returning, after his 
 work there was done, to Newburgh, 
 where he again assumed control of his 
 old business which he kept until the time 
 of his death. 
 
 On March 1, 1904, Mr. Shellhoos mar- 
 ried Elizabeth Corkedale, daughter of 
 John and Elizabeth (Andersen) Corke- 
 dale. Mrs. Shellhoos is a native of New 
 York City, but at the time of her mar- 
 riage was resident in Newburgh. She is 
 a well educated and very widely travelled 
 woman, having travelled extensively 
 through Europe, Turkey and the Holy 
 Land, of which trips she has many rare 
 and beautiful souvenirs. The only child 
 of Mr. and Mrs. Shellhoos is a daughter, 
 Sherrelldein Elizabeth, born May 11, 
 1905. Mr. Shellhoos was a Baptist, but 
 after his marriage embraced the Epis- 
 copal faith, and became a member of the 
 Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, 
 of which his wife was a member. 
 
 He was a member of the Independent 
 Order of Odd Fellows. He was a Repub- 
 lican, one of that vast number of staunch 
 and unswerving supporters of the right 
 upon whom depends the administration 
 of the laws of the land, one of the great 
 body politic in whose hands is the power 
 of creating and filling as it wills its offices. 
 He held no office at any time during his 
 life, though he was at all times silently 
 Interested in the affairs of the various 
 cities in which he resided. 
 
 393 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Mr. Shellhoos was one of those intense- 
 ly active men who are of enormous value 
 to any community. Their energies, con- 
 centrated and directed along worthy lines, 
 are fruitful of untold good. His versatility 
 and the fact that he was thoroughly con- 
 versant with the business world made his 
 advice sought widely throughout the 
 community, where he was highly re- 
 spected. His character and personal 
 attributes were as high and commend- 
 able as his business connections were irre- 
 proachable, and his death in Newburgh 
 on September 20, 1910, caused deep and 
 unfeigned grief. 
 
 MAPES, Albert W., 
 
 Active Man of Affairs. 
 
 To measure with anything approaching 
 accuracy the effect of any man upon the 
 community in which he has dwelt, even 
 when that effect is in the shape of the 
 most concrete and material achievement, 
 is a matter of great difficulty, but when 
 it comes to a like calculation in the case 
 of those whose influence has been exerted 
 in those more spiritual modes of force 
 that we call to mind when we speak of 
 one's character or personality, the task at 
 once rises into the region of the impos- 
 sible and the nearest we can come at an 
 estimate can be expressed only in those 
 vaguest of words, great and little, strong 
 and weak, good and bad. And yet there 
 are very few of us, and they only the 
 most flippant, who will deny the value 
 of such influences and, intangible though 
 they be, refrain from making some sort 
 of reckoning concerning them. And, in- 
 deed, we are justified in this, for however 
 illusive as values these things may be, 
 there are few matters that we feel more 
 directly, that strike us more trenchantly 
 in the very focal point of our conscious- 
 ness than these very facts of the per- 
 sonalities and characters of our asso- 
 
 ciates so that we may judge well of 
 whether they are great or small, good or 
 bad, although to stretch the tape upon 
 them or to weigh them in the scales is 
 quite beyond our power. It is in these 
 most intangible of ways primarily that 
 the influence of such a man as the late 
 Albert W. Mapes, of Newburgh, New 
 York, was exerted, although in his case 
 there was much of concrete achievement 
 as well, and of him we may state with- 
 out fear of contradiction that the effect 
 of his presence in the community was a 
 great one. His death, which occurred in 
 Newburgh, May 18, 191 1, was felt as a 
 severe loss to the entire community. 
 
 Born March 23, 1838, in the town of 
 Blooming Grove, Albert W. Mapes was 
 a son of Edward and Deborah (Wood) 
 Mapes, old and highly respected residents 
 of that place. In his childhood he en- 
 joyed the advantage of that training on 
 the farm that has been the cradle of the 
 greatest figures in our history, a training 
 which in the healthy and wholesome work 
 and pastimes, the intimate yet impersonal 
 contact with the elemental facts of nature 
 that it imposes upon those that are sub- 
 jected to it, is, perhaps, the most potent 
 fosterer of the fundamental virtues and 
 strengths that has yet been discovered. 
 Certainly Mr. Mapes always regarded his 
 own debt to it as great, not the least of 
 it being the constitutional health and 
 vigor which it induced and which, coupled 
 with his good habits, rendered him able 
 in after life to resist the usual ailments 
 of men. In the summer his time was spent 
 out-of-doors, either in the sports of child- 
 hood or the lighter labors of the farm, 
 while in the winter he attended local 
 district school. There he proved himself 
 an apt scholar and, taking every advan- 
 tage of the somewhat meagre opportuni- 
 ties offered by the institution, laid a splen- 
 did foundation to the excellent education 
 that was his valued possession. In the 
 
 394 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 year 1854, he being then at the age of 
 sixteen, he moved with his family to 
 Newburgh, New York, where he con- 
 tinued his schooling. Newburgh was at 
 that time merely a village, but it was the 
 home of an excellent school known as the 
 Newburgh Academy which drew patron- 
 age from all the surrounding country, 
 and it was here that the lad continued his 
 studies, graduating with the class of 1857. 
 Shortly after this event the late Judge 
 Robert Denniston, a lifelong friend of 
 Mr. Mapes, Sr., exerted his influence in 
 behalf of the young man and secured for 
 him a place as discount clerk in the High- 
 land Bank at Newburgh where he re- 
 mained until March 10, 1862, making him- 
 self of great value to the management of 
 the bank and learning in detail the bank- 
 ing business and mastering very fully for 
 so young a man the financial situation 
 generally. Events had been moving in 
 the meantime which were to entirely 
 change the course of Mr. Mapes' life and 
 draw him into a much larger sphere of 
 action. The Civil War had broken out 
 and involved many changes in the govern- 
 ment's arrangements, not the least im- 
 portant of which was the issuance of the 
 now celebrated "greenbacks" as legal 
 tender and the payment of government 
 employees in that medium. Among the 
 others the men employed in the Brooklyn 
 Navy Yard and numbering at that time 
 some fifty-five hundred men experienced 
 the change. Alfred A. Belknap, the purser 
 of the yard, had always entrusted the 
 actual payment of the men to a certain 
 elderly employee who had grown used to 
 handling the coin necessary in the per- 
 formance of his function, and was some- 
 what confused by the new notes. Mr. 
 Belknap feared that he would be unequal 
 to making the change and cast about for 
 some one to take his place. It happened 
 that while he was still undecided he made 
 a short visit to Newburgh and there met 
 
 young Mr. Mapes and quickly learned of 
 what an alert and active mind he was 
 possessed and good knowledge of money 
 matters. He quickly formed his decision 
 and offered the position to Mr. Mapes 
 who as quickly accepted it. The satisfac- 
 tion with this arrangement was mutual 
 and shortly after Mr. Mapes was installed 
 in the government's service as paymaster's 
 clerk, the appointment dating from March 
 10, 1862. In his work in this capacity his 
 large knowledge of accounts was most 
 valuable and made him in turn of great 
 value to his superiors. For a consider- 
 able period he remained in the Brooklyn 
 yard and was then transferred to the 
 United States frigate "Susquehanna," 
 which spent some time in cruising in 
 West Indian waters and was later sent to 
 the Brazil station where it remained two 
 years. On September 30, 1866, after a 
 wide and varied experience of more than 
 four years, Mr. Mapes was honorably dis- 
 charged from the service. 
 
 For seventeen years after his return to 
 civil life Mr. Mapes remained in New 
 York City engaged in various businesses 
 and uniformly successful in them. In 
 1883 he returned to Newburgh, however, 
 and there became a member of the firm 
 of Barnes & Mapes, which for a number 
 of years was engaged in business as com- 
 mission merchants and wholesale dealers 
 in provisions. For a time the establish- 
 ment was located on Water street, New- 
 burgh, but in 1890 it was removed to 
 South Water street and in 1890 Mr. 
 Mapes withdrew from the concern, as his 
 health had suffered greatly, since even 
 his rugged constitution was unable to 
 bear the constant work in the confining 
 office rendered necessary by the size and 
 complexity of the business. For a time 
 he gave himself over to the task of regain- 
 ing his health through the pursuit of a 
 less confining life, and with such good 
 success that the close of 1891 saw him 
 
 395 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 once more at work and in excellent health. 
 It was now, for the first time, that he 
 came into business association with the 
 Coldwells, father and son, and with them 
 organized the Coldwell Lawn Mower 
 Company, with which his name is most 
 intimately connected. Thomas Coldwell 
 and his son, William H. Coldwell, were 
 the inventors of an improved form of 
 lawn mower and in forming the company 
 called in the skill and business knowledge 
 of Mr. Mapes. To him was given the 
 office of secretary in the newly organized 
 concern and this he held until the time of 
 his death. The Coldwell Lawn Mower 
 Company began its existence on the third 
 floor of the old Bazzoni carriage factory 
 standing at the corner of Broadway and 
 Grand street, the site of the present New- 
 burgh City Hall, but its business rapidly 
 developed and its market extended until 
 it embraced not only many parts of this 
 country but of Europe as well. Later it 
 entirely outgrew its original quarters and 
 a splendid new factory was erected at the 
 corner of Lander and South William 
 streets to which at various subsequent 
 times additional buildings were attached. 
 Mr. Mapes had charge of the New Eng- 
 land and European business of the com- 
 pany and was obliged for a long period to 
 spend from three to five months in Europe 
 each year. The foreign headquarters were 
 in London, and the business done there 
 was an extremely large one. This build- 
 ing having burned, the business bought 
 the old cotton factory on the river front, 
 and one of the last acts of Mr. Mapes 
 was to superintend its reconstruction and 
 the removal to the new site, also to attend 
 to the adjustment of the fire insurance 
 for the burned factory. One feature of 
 which he was very proud was that in that 
 adjustment, with its large business, the 
 claim of the factory and the insurance 
 companies agreed to within fifty dollars. 
 But it was not merely in the realm of 
 
 business that Mr. Mapes was prominent 
 in Newburgh, as he was associated with 
 many of the most important activities of 
 the city. More important than any other 
 thing in his life was his religion, to which 
 he was always ready to sacrifice any other 
 consideration, his feelings and convictions 
 being of a very profound order. He was 
 affiliated with the First Baptist Church of 
 Newburgh, of which the Rev. Byron N. 
 Hatfield has been the pastor for many 
 years. He was prominent in the work 
 of the church and served in the capacity 
 of church clerk for above twenty-six 
 years and made himself of so much value 
 to the congregation that it was their 
 desire to make him deacon, but this Mr. 
 Mapes declined. Another association of 
 Mr. Mapes was with the Masonic frater- 
 nity, of which he was one of the most 
 prominent members in Newburgh. Mr. 
 Mapes was "made a Mason" in the local 
 Newburgh Lodge, No. 309, Free and Ac- 
 cepted Masons, April 5, 1861, and six 
 years later became affiliated with the 
 Hudson River Lodge, No. 607, Free and 
 Accepted Masons, of Newburgh, and 
 served as its junior warden in 1890. He 
 was also a member of the Highland Chap- 
 ter, No. 52, Royal Arch Masons, and 
 served in that body both as king and 
 scribe, and of the Hudson River Com- 
 mandery, No. 35, Knights Templar. He 
 was a member and the vice-president of 
 the Masonic Veterans Association. 
 
 On November 7, 1861, Mr. Mapes was 
 united in marriage with Sarah E. Parsons, 
 a daughter of John and Eliza (Bishop) 
 Parsons, highly respected residents of 
 Newburgh. To them was born one 
 daughter, Mary Frances, now the wife of 
 Arthur DuBois, of Newburgh, where he 
 carries on a successful business as drug- 
 gist. Mrs. Mapes survived her husband, 
 making her home in Newburgh until her 
 death, May 2, 1916. 
 
 The personal character of Mr. Mapes 
 
 396 
 

 6 02 C/P 
 
 fy. rsf/s//f. 
 
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 was a most admirable one and of a kind 
 to win him true friends and admirers. 
 To the sterling virtues which lie at the 
 base of all character that is worthy, to the 
 qualities of unimpeachable honor and an 
 unusual industry in pursuing his aims, he 
 added a simplicity and directness of out- 
 look rare indeed. He was absolutely un- 
 pretentious both in his manner of living 
 and in his relations with his fellowmen, 
 and his modesty was so great that it with- 
 held him from accepting many offices of 
 trust and honor which his fellows desired 
 to accord him. It is more than ever the 
 duty of those who know such a man to 
 fill up the gap left by his intentional 
 neglect in the meed of praise due to him 
 by his fellows, in order that the fame of 
 his virtues may be spread as far as pos- 
 sible abroad and serve as an example of 
 worthy manhood. 
 
 CONKLIN, Jacob, 
 
 Captain of Industry. 
 
 Among the enterprises of great magni- 
 tude carried on along the west shore of 
 the Hudson river in New York State is 
 that of quarrying. The natural geological 
 formation of the land of that section offers 
 an almost inexhaustible field of trap rock, 
 the quarrying of which is profitable as it 
 is extensive. In the course of the years 
 during which it has been going on the 
 industry has grown to great size, and, as 
 Vermont brings to the mind of the hearer 
 almost subconsciously the word granite, 
 so the west shore of the Hudson has be- 
 come synonymous with its greatest indus- 
 try, quarrying. In studying, or even in 
 passing in rapid survey as must be done 
 here, over the great industries, one finds 
 their histories to be almost entirely con- 
 tained in those of the men, the chosen 
 few, who control them. The success or 
 failure of a business venture, no matter 
 how great or how small its chances at the 
 
 outset, rests with those who are guiding 
 its course. Achievement is limited by the 
 genius and fitness for their positions of 
 the heads and directors of an effort. A 
 figure of importance, in fact a prime 
 factor in the success and growth of stone 
 quarrying along the Hudson, and more 
 particularly of Haverstraw, was Jacob 
 Conklin. Mr. Conklin was one of the 
 finest and most influential citizens of that 
 town, one of its captains of industry. 
 
 The Conklin family, members of which 
 have been actively and prominently iden- 
 tified with the vicinity of New York State 
 in which Haverstraw is located for the 
 past six or seven decades, is of Irish 
 descent. They have played parts of 
 weight and importance in the develop- 
 ment and progress of the communities in 
 which they have made their homes. 
 
 (I) Jesse Conklin, the first of the line 
 here represented of whom we have any 
 information, was a man of public spirit 
 and patriotism. He served on the side of 
 the Union in the Civil War, participating 
 in several battles and engagements. He 
 was a resident of Haverstraw, Rockland 
 county, New York, where he was a well 
 known and highly respected figure in local 
 affairs. His wife, Eliza Conklin, bore him 
 three children : James C, of whom fur- 
 ther mention is made ; Euretta and Cath- 
 erine Ann. Jesse Conklin died about 
 
 1873- 
 
 (II) James C. Conklin, only son of 
 Jesse and Eliza Conklin, was born in 
 Haverstraw, Rockland county, New 
 York, July 28, 1835. He attended the 
 schools in the neighborhood of his home, 
 completing the ordinary elementary edu- 
 cation. He learned the trade of a mason, 
 attaining a high degree of proficiency 
 therein, and devoted the remainder of his 
 active career to building in Haverstraw. 
 He erected many of its buildings, both 
 business and residential, and among those 
 of the latter named class is his own house 
 
 397 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 which stands as a monument to his skill 
 and ability in the line of work which he 
 chose. His widow now occupies this 
 house. Mr. Conklin was an active mem- 
 ber of the Methodist Episcopal church, in 
 which his wife also holds membership 
 and is keenly interested in the work. Mr. 
 Conklin was a prominent factor in polit- 
 ical circles, but although urged to do so 
 he never accepted public office. He was 
 a Democrat, but was never bound against 
 his good judgment by party platforms. 
 He married, in June, 1856, Sarah E. Tay- 
 lor, who was born near Spring Valley, 
 New York, August 29, 1837, a daughter 
 of Jacob E. and Gertrude (De Baun) 
 Taylor. Mr. Conklin spent all his leisure 
 time in his home, to which he was devot- 
 edly attached, and there dispensed a hos- 
 pitality among his wide circle of friends 
 and acquaintances for which he was 
 noted in the vicinity. He was a gentle- 
 man of the old school, polished, kindly 
 and generous, and his death, which oc- 
 curred at his home in Haverstraw, March 
 29, 1909, at an advanced age, came as a 
 deeply felt blow to all with whom he 
 was brought in any way in contact. 
 
 (Ill) Jacob Conklin, son of James C. 
 and Sarah E. (Taylor) Conklin, was 
 born in Haverstraw, Rockland county, 
 New York, on November 30, 1858. He 
 received all the educational advantages 
 which his native town offered, completing 
 his studies in the Haverstraw High 
 School, which at that time was one of the 
 best schools in the country. His first 
 experience in a business line was in the 
 line of telegraph operating. He found 
 this agreeable neither to his tastes nor 
 ambitions and continued at it only a short 
 time. He was anxious to start in busi- 
 ness for himself, and securing a loan of 
 two hundred dollars from a Mr. Murphy, 
 he entered partnership with Wilson P. 
 Foss in the dynamite manufacturing 
 business in Haverstraw. This they con- 
 
 ducted for a number of years until the 
 factory was destroyed by fire, when the 
 plant was moved to New Jersey, Mr. 
 Conklin still keeping his connection with 
 it. Incident to this a high quality of trap 
 rock was found upon the old manufac- 
 turing site, and Messrs. Foss and Conk- 
 lin in company with some other men 
 interested in the venture formed a com- 
 pany known as the Rockland Lake Trap 
 Rock Company. This soon became an 
 enterprise of considerable size, virtually 
 controlling all the quarries on the Hud- 
 son. The company is in existence at the 
 present time (1916) and their tugs and 
 barges are a familiar sight in all the 
 harbors along the Hudson river. Mr. 
 Conklin was at the head of the business 
 for many years and had complete control 
 of the New York office, making his resi- 
 dence in New York during that time. He 
 amassed a fortune estimated at four mil- 
 lion dollars, the result of unremitting 
 labor in the enterprise, and the devotion 
 of the greater part of his time and 
 strength. In the meantime the dynamite 
 concern was purchased by the Du Pont 
 Company, Mr. Conklin retaining but a 
 slight interest in it, and taking no pan 
 in its operation. Mr. Foss, his original 
 partner, now holds a high office in the Du 
 Pont Company. 
 
 Mr. Conklin was a member of the 
 Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks 
 for some time, and two years prior to his 
 death, which took place in Haverstraw, 
 November 3, 1912, he joined the Order 
 of Free and Accepted Masons. He was a 
 Democrat in political affiliation. He was 
 a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
 church of Haverstraw, and was actively 
 interested in its work. Mr. Conklin's 
 career, as may be easily judged from the 
 details herein recorded, was full and 
 eventful and gave promise of greater 
 things in the future, which made its 
 cutting short at the age of fifty-four all 
 
 398 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 the more tragic. He was a man of genial 
 disposition and kindly, highly esteemed 
 and honored in Haverstraw. 
 
 MAGEE, Richard James, 
 
 Educator and Expert Penman. 
 
 There is none of the professions that 
 does not possess its own great mass of 
 accumulated associations which have 
 grown up into a body of characteristic 
 tradition which surrounds its practice 
 with a sort of atmosphere perfectly 
 definite and, in its own realm, all per- 
 vading, which the votary can no more 
 escape imbibing than an inhabitant of 
 this earth can avoid breathing the cir- 
 cumambient air. For each profession, too, 
 the atmosphere is quite individual and 
 different from those of all the rest. Thus 
 the traditions of law and medicine, for 
 instance, are different, not only in those 
 details in which it is obvious that they 
 must diverge, but in their whole quality 
 and content so that they produce in us 
 distinct mental sensations and emotions. 
 One of the most pleasant of these atmos- 
 pheres, as those who have experienced it 
 can readily vouch, is that which sur- 
 rounds the profession of teaching, and 
 which gives to those who follow it, 
 slowly, almost imperceptibly, but none 
 the less surely, that particular mental 
 quality and balance by which we instinc- 
 tively recognize a teacher. This is not 
 by any means necessarily the same as 
 that which marks a student of the char- 
 acteristic type, retired from the world 
 and living mainly in an atmosphere of 
 books and old research, although as a 
 rule it must contain just enough of this 
 to abstract the subject's attention from 
 the more illusive and ephemeral aspects 
 of the every-day world. The teacher, on 
 the contrary, is rather a man of practical 
 affairs, familiar enough with the actual 
 human qualities to deal successfully with 
 
 every type of person in that, one of the 
 most delicate of relations, of master and 
 pupil. Such a man was the late Richard 
 J. Magee, of Poughkeepsie, New York, 
 whose death on April 10, 1912, deprived 
 that city of one of its most public-spirited 
 citizens. 
 
 Richard J. Magee was born April 20, 
 1848, in Ireland, and came with his parents 
 to this country when an infant. He was a 
 son of Patrick and Ellen Magee, who after 
 a short residence in New York City re- 
 moved to Poughkeepsie, New York, 
 where Patrick Magee conducted a black- 
 smith shop on lower Mill street. In his 
 youth Mr. Magee attended the excellent 
 public schools of Poughkeepsie and there 
 gained a good all round education and 
 proved himself to be an apt student. 
 Even at this age he began to show signs 
 of the talent that he afterwards put to 
 use as his means of livelihood, and was 
 accounted one of the best penmen in the 
 schools which he attended and attracted 
 the attention of the instructors to him by 
 this ability. He was also an excellent 
 athlete and doubtless his splendid, robust 
 health in later years was due to the great 
 amount of time spent by him in the open 
 air in his youth. His especial favorite in 
 the way of pastimes was the national 
 game, in which he excelled to such an 
 extent that he won a considerable repu- 
 tation for himself in this line and played 
 on a number of the strongest clubs in the 
 neighborhood. He was particularly well 
 known as the third baseman on the cele- 
 brated team of the old Union Club of 
 Poughkeepsie. After completing his 
 studies and spending a few years playing 
 baseball and in other hardy sports, Mr. 
 Magee turned his attention to the serious 
 business of life, his great ability as a pen- 
 man suggesting to him that he enter the 
 profession of teaching with this as his 
 particular branch. He experienced no 
 great difficulty in this and became con- 
 
 399 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 nected with the Eastman Business Col- 
 lege in Poughkeepsie, where he eventual- 
 ly was given the post of professor of 
 penmanship. After leaving the Eastman 
 Business College, he went to Atlanta, 
 Georgia, with A. R. Eastman, and they 
 conducted a business college in that place. 
 After leaving there he went to Toledo, 
 Ohio, where he formed an association 
 and conducted a business college under 
 the firm name of Dettwiler & Magee, and 
 in 1881 removed to New York City, and 
 for many years was with the Cutler 
 School, a business college. Previous to 
 being with Mr. Cutler he became asso- 
 ciated with Mr. Coleman, also a former 
 Eastman man, formerly of Newark, New 
 Jersey. He lived for a time in New York 
 City, but afterwards returned to Pough- 
 keepsie and there made his home at No. 
 31 North Clover street, where he finally 
 died. 
 
 Professor Magee always took an active 
 part in the general life of the community 
 and was a leader in many movements 
 undertaken with the object of improving 
 the condition of the city generally. In 
 religious belief he was a Catholic, a firm 
 adherent to his ancient faith and one of 
 the most conspicuous figures in Catholic 
 circles in the city. He attended for many 
 years the Church of St. Peter, Pough- 
 keepsie, and was one of those appointed 
 to the committee in charge of the cele- 
 bration of the diamond jubilee of the 
 church. He was a fourth degree member 
 of the Knights of Columbus and was ex- 
 tremely active in connection with that 
 
 body. He was also very prominent in 
 the Aquinas Club connected with St. 
 Peter's parish, and, with the single excep- 
 tion of Father W. J. B. Daly, the assistant 
 rector of the church, probably did more 
 work towards its organization and devel- 
 opment than any other member. 
 
 On February 13, 1878, Professor Magee 
 was united in marriage with Emma 
 M. Turner, a native of Wheeling, West 
 Virginia, and a daughter of Alexander and 
 Elizabeth (Taylor) Turner, of that place. 
 Mr. Turner was a man of prominence in 
 the southern city and kept a successful 
 store there. To Mr. and Mrs. Magee 
 four children were born, two of whom 
 survive their father. They are Alex- 
 ander T., who married Anna Bolend, of 
 New Haven, and is now the father of 
 three children, and Ellen G., who resides 
 with her mother in Poughkeepsie. Rich- 
 ard J. and Henry are deceased. 
 
 The character of Mr. Magee was in 
 many respects a most remarkable one and 
 in all respects admirable. He was one 
 of those men who took the precepts of 
 religion to be practical counsels and en- 
 deavored to translate them into the terms 
 of common, everyday existence. Always 
 charitable, he made it at once his duty and 
 his pleasure to turn away from no appeal 
 which he knew to be a sincere one. He 
 was devoted to his family and in all the 
 relations of life did his duty and fulfilled 
 his obligations to his fellowmen. As a 
 result he numbered many among his 
 friends and his death was mourned by a 
 large proportion of his fellow citizens. 
 
 400 
 
INDEX 
 
ADDENDA 
 
 McKean, pp. 371, 372, 373. Henry M. McKean was reared in the faith of the Baptist church, 
 of which his parents were members, and attended the Sunday school connected therewith. 
 His marriage ceremony was performed by the Rev. Henry M. Gallaher, member of the 
 Nassau Street Baptist Church, of Brooklyn. He was a member of the Geographical Society 
 of Washington, with which he was identified for six or seven years. 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Anderson, Martin B., 97 
 Andrews, Elisha, Rev., 120 
 
 Stephen P., 120 
 Archer, George W., 300 
 
 John. 301 
 Arthur, Chester A., 13 
 
 William, 13 
 Ashley, Clarence, 305 
 
 Egbert F., 305 
 
 Elizabeth, 306 
 
 Henry, 305 
 
 Mary F., 306 
 Astor, John J. (3d), 33 
 Averell, Elizabeth B., 291 
 
 Mary B., 291 
 
 Ruth, 291 
 
 William H., 290, 291 
 
 William J., 291 
 
 Badeau, Adam, 64 
 Raker, Charles A., 280 
 
 Charles S., 278 
 
 Cornelius B., 280 
 
 Harold H., 280 
 
 James, 278 
 
 Jane E., 280 
 
 Leigh Y., 280 
 
 William J., 280 
 Rallou, Charlotte, 240 
 
 Jerathmel, 239 
 
 Joseph, 238 
 
 Theodore P., 238 
 
 Barlow, David H., Rev., 91 
 
 Francis C, Gen., 91 
 Barnard, Frederick A., 63 
 
 Robert F., 63 
 Beecher, Edward, Rev., 119 
 
 Henry Ward, Rev., 9 
 
 Lyman, Rev., 119 
 Belmont, August, 132 
 Bergh, Henry, 134 
 Bigelow, John, 44 
 Bissell, John, 214 
 
 Wilson S., 214 
 Blatchford, Richard M., 182 
 
 Samuel, 182 
 Bliss, George, Jr., 142 
 Boedecker, Charity, 356 
 
 Elinor, 356 
 
 Henry, 355 
 
 Hilmer B., 355 
 
 Hilmer P., 356 
 
 Marian, 356 
 Bonner, Robert, 90 
 Boss, Lewis, 95 
 
 Samuel P., 95 
 Bowen, Henry C, 36 
 Brace, Charles L., 140 
 Bragdon, Claude F., 315 
 
 George C, 314 
 
 Katherine E., 315 
 
 May, 315 
 Brewster, Gwendolen J., 273 
 
 Harriet J., 273 
 
 403 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Harry L., 272 
 
 William W., 272 
 Bridge, Charles, 243 
 
 Charles F., 244 
 
 Lucy M., 244 
 Brovver, David, 249 
 
 William H., 249 
 Browning, Eva B., 226 
 
 John, 225 
 
 John H., 224 
 
 Nathaniel, 224 
 
 William, 225 
 Buckman, Albert, 390 
 
 George R., 390 
 
 Gertrude, 392 
 Burden, Henry, 100 
 
 Peter, 100 
 Burnham, Cyrus, 353, 354 
 
 Josiah, 353 
 
 Sophia, 354 
 
 Sophia R., 354 
 Butterfield, Daniel, Gen., 175 
 
 Timothy, 175 
 
 Chapin, Edwin H., Rev., 137 
 Chase, Benjamin E., 330 
 
 Charles H. 329 
 
 Elvina G., 329 
 
 Ethan A., 329 
 
 Jessie W., 331 
 
 Lewis, 328, 329 
 
 Martin V., 329 
 
 Stephen C, 330 
 Church, Ann, 201 
 
 Ozias, 201 
 
 Sanford E., 201 
 Cleveland, Grover, 40 
 
 Richard F., Rev., 40 
 Cochrane, John, 122 
 
 Walter D., 122 
 Comstock, Cornelia, 209 
 
 George F., 208 
 Conklin, Jacob, 397, 398 
 
 James C, 397 
 
 Jesse, 397 
 
 Sarah E., 398 
 
 Conkling, Alfred, 30 
 
 John, 30 
 
 Roscoe, 30 
 Cooley, Charles E., 248 
 
 George F., 248 
 
 Kate T., 249 
 Cooper, Charles, 235 
 
 Daniel M., 235 
 
 Delia, 236 
 
 Peter, 7 
 Copeland, Albert E., 289 
 
 Clara M., 289 
 
 David, 288 
 
 Emily S., 289 
 
 Esther C, 289 
 
 Jennie I., 289 
 
 Jonathan C, 288 
 Cornell, Al6nzo B., 217 
 Cornwall, Byron E., 326 
 
 Catherine, 326 
 
 John, 326 
 
 John B., 325, 326 
 
 William, 325 
 Corrigan, Michael A., Rt. Rev., 92 
 
 Thomas, 92 
 Cox, Ezekiel T., 67 
 
 James, Gen., 67 
 
 Samuel S., 67 
 Craig, Helen M., 270 
 
 Joseph, 269 
 
 Oscar, 269, 270 
 Cullum, Arthur, 129 
 
 George W., 129 
 Cunley, Court B., 342 
 
 Daniel, 342 
 
 Frank, 344 
 
 Fred M., 344 
 
 Minnie, 344 
 
 Sarah J., 344 
 Currey, Cornelia, 232 
 
 Cornelia N., 232 
 
 John, 231 
 Curtis, Eugene T., 292 
 
 George, 146 
 
 George W., 146 
 
 Gurney T., 292 
 
 404 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Joseph, 292 
 Sarah L., 292 
 
 Daly, Charles P., 133 
 Draper, John C, Rev., 130 
 
 John W., 130 
 Du Bois, Arthur, 396 
 
 Mary F., 396 
 Dudley, Ada, 329 
 Duryee, Abram, Gen., 138 
 Duyckinck, Evert A., 144 
 Dwight, Benjamin, Dr., 88 
 
 Theodore W., 88 
 
 Eddy, David J., 342 
 
 Elizabeth, 340 
 
 Royal J., 339 
 
 Sanford S., 342 
 
 Silas, 339 
 Edwards, Alexander, 338 
 
 Anna, 339 
 
 Henry A., 339 
 
 Isaac, 336, 338 
 
 Nathaniel, 338 
 Emery, Charles E., 136 
 
 Moses L., 136 
 Ericsson, John, 205 
 Evans, David E., 244 
 
 George, 245 
 
 Fenton, George W., 204 
 
 Reuben E., 204 
 Field, David Dudley, 5 
 
 David D., Rev., 5 
 
 Timothy, Capt., 5 
 Fish, Hamilton, 62 
 
 Nicholas, Col., 62 
 Fiske, Willard, 179 
 Fitz Simons, Alice, 314 
 
 Caroline S., 314 
 
 Charles A., 314 
 
 Curtis, 314 
 
 Edith, 314 
 
 Frances, 314 
 
 Michael, 312 
 
 Michael H., 312 
 
 Portia L., 314 
 
 Walter R., 314 
 Flower, Nathan M., 210 
 
 Roswell P., 210 
 
 Sarah M., 211 
 Force, Daniel A., 377 
 
 Gertrude, 388 
 
 Henry L., ^7, 378 
 
 Isaiah F., 387 
 
 Jennie, 388 
 
 John, 387 
 
 John W., 388 
 
 Sophia M., 378 
 Foshay, Edwin F., 357 
 
 Frank E., 356, 357 
 
 Marguerite, 358 
 Foster, Henry A., 81 
 Francis, John M., 60 
 
 Joseph, 119 
 
 Richard, 60 
 Fuller, Frederick F., 319 
 
 Harriet M., 319 
 
 Harry A., 319 
 
 Joseph B., 318 
 
 S. Gertrude, 319 
 
 William J., 319 
 
 George, Annie C 127 
 
 Henry, 125 
 
 Richard S. H., 125 
 Gerling, Jacob, 240 
 
 Louisa, 242 
 Gould, Jay, 61 
 
 John B.. 61 
 Grant, Amy R., 316 
 
 George H., 315, 316 
 
 Jesse R., 49 
 
 Rachel H., 316 
 
 Ulysses S., Gen., 40 
 
 Wilbur S., 315 
 Graves, Eliza G., 297 
 
 Fred B., 297 
 
 Lorenzo S., 297 
 
 Watson, 297 
 Gray, Asa, 3 
 
 Moses, 3 
 
 405 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Hackett, James H., 143 
 Halleck, Henry W., 65 
 
 Peter, 65 
 Hamilton, John C, 87 
 
 Schuyler, Gen., 87 
 Hand, Augustus C, 346 
 
 Billings L., 349 
 
 Lydia, 349 
 
 Samuel, 346 
 Harris, Albert H., 275 
 
 Edward, 273, 274 
 
 Edward, Jr., 275 
 
 Elizabeth H., 275 
 
 Emily H., 275 
 
 Emma L., 275 
 
 Harriet, 275 
 
 Henry, 274 
 
 Jonathan, 81 
 
 Sarah, 275 
 
 Townsend, 81 
 Hartley, Catherine, 104 
 
 Isaac, 103 
 
 Robert M., 103 
 Hewitt, Abram S., 215 
 Hilton, Anna L., 352 
 
 Bertha, 352 
 
 Henry, 351 
 
 John, 351 
 
 John R., 352 
 
 William, 351 
 
 William T., 352 
 Hooker, Horace, 250 
 
 Horace B., 251 
 
 Susan, 252 
 Howard, Charles C, 384 
 
 Maude, 386 
 Hunt, Montgomery, 22 
 
 Ward, 22 
 Huntington, Arria S., 158 
 
 Dan, Rev., 153 
 
 Frederic D., 152 
 
 George P., 158 
 
 James O., 158 
 
 Tngersoll, John, 38 
 Robert G., 38 
 
 Jenkins, John S., 165 
 Jewett, Freeborn G., 164 
 Johnson, Ann M., 103 
 
 Benjamin P., 102 
 
 William, Dr., 102 
 Judson, Grace A., 296 
 
 J. Lee, 295 
 
 Junius, 295 
 
 Junius R., 296 
 
 Lee M., 296 
 
 Marie L., 296 
 
 Mary C, 296 
 
 Karl, Margaret, 321 
 
 Tom, 321 
 Kimball, Harold C, 308 
 
 Martha W., 309 
 
 William S., 306 
 King, John A., 172 
 Kurzhals, Caroline, 346 
 
 Charles A., 344, 345 
 
 Lasscell, Adele, 230 
 
 Elizabeth, 230 
 
 Lilly, 230 
 
 Marcia, 230 
 
 Ralph, 227 
 
 William B., 227 
 
 William T., 230 
 Lawyer, Abram S., 349, 350 
 
 Emma, 351 
 
 George H., 351 
 
 Jennie, 351 
 
 John J., 350 
 
 Tiffany, 351 
 Lefferts, John L.. 83 
 
 Leffert, 83 
 
 Marshall, 83 
 Leslie, Frank, 78 
 Likly, Helen C, 300 
 
 Henry, 299 
 
 Henry K., 300 
 
 Nancy B., 300 
 
 William C, 299 
 Lindsley, Dorlissa, 223 
 
 Rufus, 221 
 
 Smith M., 221 
 
 406 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Linn, B. F., 278 
 
 Edith L,, 278 
 
 Hugh, 277 
 
 Samuel H., 277 
 
 Willis L., Dr., 278 
 Loder, Daniel P., 283 
 
 George F., 282, 283 
 
 Mary U., 285 
 
 Nina, 285 
 Loomis, Ann, 105 
 
 Arphaxad, 104 
 
 Thaddeus, 104 
 Lossing, Benson J., 94 
 Low, Abiel A., 190 
 
 Annie W., 193 
 
 Seth, 190 
 Lowe, George, 309 
 
 Harriet C, 310 
 
 Samuel PL, 309 
 Ludington, Claude, 295 
 
 Ira, 295 
 
 Ira M., 293, 294 
 
 Mary R., 295 
 
 McAlpine, John, 121 
 
 William J., 121 
 McCloskey, John, Rt. Rev., 85 
 McKean, Carrie A., 372 
 *Henry M., 371, 372 
 
 Thomas, ^72 
 
 William H., 372 
 McMullen, Alonzo T., 373, 374 
 
 Katherine, 374 
 
 Thomas, 374 
 Magee, Alexander T., 400 
 
 Ellen G., 400 
 
 Emma M., 400 
 
 Patrick, 399 
 
 Richard J., 399 
 Mandery, Ida C, 318 
 
 Joseph J., 316, 317 
 Mandeville, John, Rev., 323 
 
 Sarah, 323 
 
 Wesley, 323 
 Marshall, Elisha G., 118 
 Marvin, Eliza R., t67 
 
 Selden, 166 
 
 William, 166 
 Mather, Frederick, 124 
 
 Joseph, 124 
 Matthias, Charles A., 380 
 
 Charlotte, 381 
 Miles, Agnes E., 293 
 
 Catherine L., 269 
 
 Cora, 269 
 
 Edward B., 269 
 
 Franklin, 292, 293 
 
 Ruth H., 269 
 
 Sarah F., 293 
 
 William, 293 
 
 William E., 268 
 Miller, Camilla, 254 
 
 Carrie E., 290 
 
 Charles A., 254 
 
 Cornite, 252 
 
 James, 252 
 
 James T., 289 
 
 Ritchie C, 254 
 Morgan, Edwin D., 162 
 
 Jasper, 162 
 
 Jedediah, 114 
 
 J. Pierpont, 45 
 
 Joseph, 46 
 
 Junius, 46 
 
 Lewis H., 114 
 
 Miles, 45 
 
 Nathaniel, 46 
 Munsell, Jane C, 108 
 
 Joel, 106 
 
 Mary A., 108 
 Myer, Albert J., Gen., 117 
 Henry B., 117 
 
 Nagengast, Caroline L., 384 
 
 Charles, 382 
 
 George, 381, 382 
 Newman, Evelina E., 234 
 
 Henry, 233 
 
 John L., 233 
 Norman, Adolphus L., 371 
 
 George A. J., 370 
 
 John A., 369, 370 
 
 407 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Mary L., 371 
 Susan, 371 
 
 Oaks, George, 286 
 
 George J., 285, 286 
 
 M. Louisa, 288 
 O'Connor, Adelia, 255 
 
 Francis, 254 
 
 Joseph L., 255 
 
 Parker, Willard, JJ 
 Patton, Mary, 200 
 
 Robert, Col., 199 
 
 William, Rev., 199 
 Paulding, Hiram, 72 
 Peckham, Peleg, 198 
 
 Rufus W., 198 
 Pillsbury, Benjamin L., 376 
 
 Daniel S., 375, 376 
 
 Mary F., 376 
 Piatt, Ella L., 208 
 
 Thomas C, 207 
 
 William, 207 
 Porter, Moses, 152 
 Pratt, Asa, 145 
 
 Charles, 145 
 
 Lydia A., 145 
 
 Mary H., 146 
 Pruyn, John V. L., 109 
 
 Richardson, Albert D., 84 
 
 Elisha, 84 
 Richter, Edward A., 379 
 
 Mary, 380 
 Ritter, Elizabeth, 256 
 
 Frank J., 255 
 
 Sophia E., 256 
 Rogers, Asenath, 333 
 
 Ezra, 331 
 
 Ezra S., 334 
 
 Hosea, 331, 332 
 
 M ary J., 333 
 
 Polly, 333 
 
 Polly M., 334 
 
 William H., 334 
 Ross, Peter, 219 
 
 Sage, Charles, 96 
 
 Henry W., 96 
 Sammons, Barbara, 106 
 
 Simeon, 105 
 
 Thomas, 105 
 Sampson, James, 212 
 
 William T., 212 
 Sargent, Angelina M., 390 
 
 James, 388, 389 
 Schoeffel, Francis A., 281 
 
 Francis H., 282 
 
 George B., 282 
 
 Margaret E., 282 
 
 Sarah, 282 
 
 Susan B., 282 
 Schofield, John M., Gen., 70 
 Searles, Charles E., 368 
 
 Horace, 368 
 
 Katherine G., 369 
 Selden, Joseph, 144 
 
 Samuel L., 144 
 
 Susan M., 145 
 Seymour, Henry, 158 
 
 Horatio, 158 
 
 Mary L., 159 
 Shaw, Emily, 265 
 
 James B., 262 
 
 James S., 262 
 
 Laura, 265 
 Shellhoos, Elizabeth, 393 
 
 George A., 392, 393 
 
 John, 393 
 
 Sherrelldein E., 393 
 Shepard, Elliott F., 209 
 
 Fitch, 209 
 
 Margaret L., 210 
 Sickles, Daniel E., Gen., 89 
 
 George G., 89 
 Sloan, William E., 274 
 Smith, Elizabeth, 167 
 
 Gerrit, 167 
 
 Peter, 167 
 Southwick, George N., 365, 366 
 
 Henry C, Jr., 364 
 
 Margaret J., 365 
 
 408 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Spinner, Francis E., 85 
 
 John P., Rev., 85 
 Stanton, Daniel, Judge, 39 
 
 Elizabeth Cady, 39 
 
 Taylor, Bayard, 26 
 
 Charles W., 247 
 
 George, 247 
 
 George S., 247 
 
 Nellie, 247 
 Thompson, Louise C, 312 
 
 Orange S., 311 
 
 William L., 311 
 Tilden, Nathaniel. 23 
 
 Samuel J., 23 
 Tillinghast, Carrie, 362 
 
 Frederick, 360, 362 
 
 J. Wilbur, 358, 359 
 
 Sarah, 360 
 Townsend, Martin I., 213 
 
 Nathaniel, 213 
 Tumilty, James P.. 327. 328 
 
 Mary J., 328 
 
 Patrick, 328 
 Tweddle, Clara M., 363 
 
 Frances M., 363 
 
 John, 362 
 
 Sarah, 363 
 
 Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 12, 127 
 
 William H., 12 
 Van Voorhis, Coert A., 257 
 
 F ranees A., 258 
 
 John, 257 
 
 Stevens C, 257 
 
 Wakeman, Abram, 108 
 
 Jonathan, 108 
 Warner, Amos, 303 
 
 Andrew J., 303 
 
 J. Foster, 304 
 
 Kate, 304 
 
 William A., 304 
 Warren. Gouverneur K., Gen., 203 
 Werner, Lillie B.. 196 
 
 William, 194 
 
 William E., 193 
 West, l ornelia, 320 
 
 Jonathan 11., 320 
 Wheeler, William A., 183 
 White, Amelia J., 190 
 
 Benjamin, 188 
 
 Horace, 188 
 
 Horace, Dr., 188 
 
 Martha H., 190 
 Whitman, Walt, 34 
 Wilder, George, 271 
 
 Lillian, 272 
 
 Samuel, 271 
 Willard, Frances E., j,j 
 
 Josiah F., 37 
 
 Simon, Gen., 2,7 
 Wing, Daniel W., 334 
 
 Edgar H., 336 
 
 Halsey R., 334 
 
 Harriet N., 335 
 
 Helen M.. 336 
 
 Parsons W., 336 
 
 Walton S., 335 
 Wolcott, George P., 247 
 
 Ida J., 248 
 
 James F.., 247 
 Wood, Fernando, 201 
 Woodbury, Daniel A., 302 
 
 Evelyn M., 303 
 
 Mamie C, 303 
 
 Minerva C, 303 
 
 Willis E., 302 
 Worden. John L., 139 
 
 Yauck, Daniel A., 325 
 
 Martin, Rev., 323 
 
 Melville A., 323, 324 
 
 Melvina, 324 
 
 Minerva, 325 
 Young, Howard J., 327 
 
 Jacob J., 326, 327 
 
 Oscar J.. 327 
 
 William J., 327 
 
 409 
 

 S3 
 
 T 7k5 
 
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