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MEN OF MARK IN
ERIE TOWNS
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CHARLES H.
KNIPP.
Born in Corning, Steuben County, N. Y., August 7, 1858,
Mr. Knipp knew no early life save that of his father's farm and the
village school. After a course at the Corning Free Academy he, in 1878, at
the age of 20, entered Warner's Commercial College of Elmira, from which
he was graduated in the spring of 1879, when he became assistant
book-keeper in a wholesale drug store. In July, 1880, he entered the
office of Youmans & Moss at Elmira, where he read law and reported for
Bradstreet's commercial agency, two years. He then entered the Albany Law
School, and although entering in the middle of the school year, was
graduated with the class in May, 1883. He was admitted to the bar, May 1,
1883, and became the junior partner of Youmans, Moss & Knipp. This
association continued until 1891, when he formed a partnership with H. M.
Clark, under the firm name of Knipp & Clark. In the fall of 1892 he
was elected district attorney of Chemung County. Mr. Knipp has been
admitted to practice in the United States District and Circuit Courts of
New York State. He is a member of the order of Masons, a Knight Templar, a
Knight of Pythias, an Elk, and the Red Men. He was married April 11, 1893
to Miss Jennie, daughter of Jas. N. Walker of Elmira.
CORNING, N. Y.
THOMAS GIBBONS
HAWKES.
This estimable citizen of
Corning comes of fine old Irish stock, his ancestors having occupied a
conspicuous place in history. He was born at Surmount, Ireland, September
25, 1846, and educated at the old Queen's College in the city of Cork. He
chose civil engineering as his profession, and came to the United States,
landing here with only a few dollars. His search for work being
unsuccessful, he was in great straits, when he met John Hoare of the
Brooklyn Flint Glass Company, who employed him as draughtsman. He came to
Corning with the glass company in 1868. During his connection with this
company he mastered the cut-glass business, prospered, and made a wide
reputation for probity and judgment.
In 1880
he established the T. G. Hawkes Glass Cutting Works at Corning. Its
products soon achieved a world wide fame. The works were incorporated in
1890. From a small beginning this plant has grown so as now to give
employment to 245 workmen. At the Paris Exposition of 1889 the Grand Prize
and Gold Medal were awarded the Hawkes exhibit of cut
glass.
Mr. Hawkes is a Republican and a
protectionist. He held the important position of chief of the Corning fire
department for two years; is an active member of the Board of Trade and
vice-president of the City Club. He is a member of Christ Church and one
of its vestry. He is the proprietor of Inniscarra House and lands,
situated between Surmount and the estate of Sir George Cothrust of Blarney
Castle. He married, in 1876, Charlotte Isidore, second daughter of the
late Walter Bissel, of Corning. He has a family of three
children.
AMORY HOUGHTON,
SR.
Amory Houghton, Sr., founder of
the glass industry in Corning, was born at Bolton Mass., August 26,
1813.
At the age of twelve, he went to
Lancaster, Mass., where he attended school, and did chores for his board
and tuition. A year or so later he was apprenticed to Richardson &
Houghton, of Cambridge, to learn the joiner's trade. Eighteen months
before the term was ended he "purchased his time" from his masters at the
rate of eight Yankee shillings per day. He borrowed a few hundred dollars
and began business as contractor and builder in and near Cambridge. So
successful was he that before he was twenty-three he had saved $3,000 and
owed nothing. From 1836 to 1852 he conducted a profitable business in coal
and allied commodities, at East Cambridge. In the latter year he was shown
the possibilities of the glass industry. He sold out his business and
established the Union Glass Company of Somerville, near Boston, and
conducted it successfully. In 1864 he sold the plant and moved to
Brooklyn, N. Y., where he bought out and reorganized the Brooklyn Flint
Glass Company. Labor troubles and other embarrassing complications made
the business unprofitable, and at the end of four years the works were
removed to Corning, N. Y. Before the removal, the Corning Flint Glass
Company was organized with Amory Houghton, Sr., President and Manager. The
effort to manitain the works in Brooklyn and still later reestablish them
in Corning cost Amory Houghton his fortune. The plant was sold in 1871 to
Nathan Cushing of Boston. In 1871 Amory Houghton, Sr., left Corning and
retired to his farm in Northcastle, Westchester County, N. Y. In 1875 he
returned to
PAGE 72
Brooklyn and undertook to rebuild and change the Brooklyn
Flint Glass Works into the Brooklyn Steam Power Works. While engaged in
this business Mr. Houghton died, February 20, 1882.
AMORY
HOUGHTON, JR.
Amory Houghton, Jr.,
eldest son of Amory and Saphronia (Oakes) Houghton, was born at Cambridge,
Mass., on October 20, 1837. He was educated at a private boarding school
at Cambridge, graduating from the high school in 1854. From 1854 to 1857
he was with Lawson Valentine in the paint, oil and varnish business. He
then became connected with the glass industry. After the purchase of the
Brooklyn Flint Glass Company's works by his father in 1864, he removed to
Brooklyn and became a stockholder in the company. On the removal to
Corning, in 1868, he became connected with the Corning Flint Company.
When, in 1871, the company failed and the works were sold, the new owner
placed them in charge of Mr. Houghton, who started the smaller of the two
furnaces and put the works in running order. Having introduced several
specialties, and operating upon a very economical basis, the close of the
year showed a profit for the owner. In 1872 he purchased the plant on
credit. The works were constantly in operation under his sole
proprietorship until 1875, when the Corning Glass Works was incorporated,
with $50,000 capital, and with Amory Houghton, Jr., President and
Treasurer; Charles F. Houghton, Vice-President, and Henry P. Sinclaire,
Secretary. The company formed in 1879 has continued to the present
time.
Mr. Houghton has been connected with
several departments of the municipal government of Corning. He is a
liberal contributor to all worthy causes. He is a Republican and a
protectionist. He was a Garfield elector in 1880. He is an attendant at
Christ Episcopal Church, and, since 1875, one of the vestry. The present
splendid church edifice was in a large measure the result of the
generosity of Mr. Houghton and members of his family. Other churches and
good causes have been the recipients of his
liberality.
On June 9, 1860, Amory Houghton,
Jr., was married to Ellen Anne Bigelow, daughter of Alanson Bigelow of
Cambridge, Mass. Of his marriage five children have been born, four of
whom are now living, two sons and two daughters. His sons have been for
several years connected with the works - Alanson B. in the selling
department, and Arthur A. in the manufacturing
department.
CHARLES F.
HOUGHTON
Charles Frederic Houghton
was born in Cambridge, Mass., on June 1, 1846. He attended the public
schools at Cambridge, and went to Edward Hall's boarding school at
Ellington, Conn. His business career began in 1863 at the Union Glass
Works, Somerville, Mass., where he laid the foundation of a technical and
practical knowledge of the glass business. In 1864 he went to the office
of the Brooklyn Flint Glass Company. In 1866 he was a clerk in the
wholesale drug business in New York City. In 1869 he came to Corning, and
was engaged in his father's business in various capacities, and acquired a
practical knowledge of the glass business. He then became a stockholder,
and later vice-president of the glass company, which position he has since
held. In 1873 Mr. Houghton was elected to the Assembly as the candidate of
the Republican party of the Second District of Steuben County. July 2,
1878, Mr. Houghton was married to Helen, daughter of Judge Benjamin F.
Hall, of Auburn, N. Y. Of this marriage three children have been born, two
of whom are now living. Since 1888, he has been a vestryman of Christ
Church.
JOHN HOARE
The
subject of this sketch was a practical man in every sense. He mastered the
trade of a glass-cutter under his father's instruction in Belfast. He came
to this country with his family, 1853, a poor man. He entered the service
of E. V. Haughworth & Co. Five years later he became a member of the
firm. He subsequently purchased the interests of his partners, and
established the house of Hoare & Burns. Later, this firm was
dissolved, and Mr. Hoare became proprietor of the glass-cutting department
of the Brooklyn Flint Glass Company. In succession the firms of Gould
& Hoare and Hoare & Dailey were formed. In 1886 Mr. Hoare located
in Corning, retaining his interests in New York and Greenpoint. In Corning
his career was eminently and characteristically successful. Captain Hoare,
as he was familiarly known, was the first to turn glass in a lathe. The
products of his factories have been rewarded at the Columbian Exposition,
the Paris Exposition, and at the State exhibits at Boston, Philadelphia,
and Baltimore. Captain Hoare was born at Cork, Ireland, April 22, 1822. He
married, in 1845, Catharine Dailey. He died suddenly at the Everett House,
New York, July 17, 1896. He was high in masonry and other orders, and
earnest in church work.
DR. GEORGE W.
PRATT
The subject of this sketch, the
veteran editor of the Corning Daily Journal, has done as much as
any one man, and a great deal more
PAGE 73
than many, to build up the city of Corning and spread its
fame.
George W. Pratt was born in Milo, Yates
County, N. Y., in 1821. He was educated in the schools of his native
county, and at Geneva Medical College, from which he graduated in 1845. He
began the practice of his profession in what was then the village of
Corning, removing to Marshall, Mich., in 1849, where, in addition to
practising medicine, he became the editor of the Statesman, a
weekly Whig paper. In 1851 he returned to Corning and purchased a half
interest in the Corning Journal, of which he became the editor.
Two years later he purchased his partner's interest. The
Journal was founded by Thomas Messenger, who came to Corning from
Peterborough, Canada, in May, 1847. Corning then had a population of less
than 1,000 people. Dr. Pratt began the puplication of the Daily
Journal in 1891. For a long time the price of the Journal was one
cent, but in 1896 it was decided to increase the price to two cents. The
circulation promptly fell off about 1,000 copies. The liberal advertising
patronage which the Journal enjoyed continued, however, and those
subscribers who had dropped the paper began to see what they were missing
and commenced renewing their subscriptions, and now the list of readers is
even larger than before the price of the paper was
raised.
Dr. Pratt was appointed postmaster of
Corning, by President Grant in 1872, and again in 1889 by President
Harrison. At the age of seventy-five his intellect is unimpaired and all
his faculties are alert. Dr. Pratt is one of those vigorous, helpful men,
who would have made a success in any calling in life, and he has made a
success, a distinct one, in the calling which he adopted and which he
loves. For several years his son Harry has been associated with him in the
conduct of the Journal.
DR. HENRY A.
ARGUE
Dr. Henry A. Argue has been in
charge of the Erie's surgical work at Corning since 1890. He was born in
Corning in 1861. Graduating fromt he district school, he entered the
Corning Free Academy, from which he graduated in 1876, entering, a year
later, the Arts department of McGill University at Montreal, where he
remained three years. Graduating from the medical department of the
University of New York in March, 1882, he began his practice in Corning at
once.
In 1894 Dr. Argue was elected on the
Democratic ticket to the Board of Aldermen from the strong Republican
Second Ward, carrying it by a very heavy vote. He is a Mason, a member of
the Knights Templar, of the Red Men, the Knights of Pythias, and other
charitable, secret and social organizations. His is
unmarried.
WILLIAM F.
McNAMARA
Mr. McNamara was born at
Corning, June 17, 1860. He was educated in the ward schools and the
Corning Free Academy, from which he graduated in 1875. He began as a
clerk, studying law nights. In January, 1880, he became head clerk and
bookkeeper for the coal and commission firm of C. G. Denison & Son,
and he had more time to study law. In 1882, he entered the law office of
Spencer Mills, Esq. and in September, 1883, entered the Albany law school,
from which he graduated in June, 1884, having the previous January been
admitted to the bar by the general term of the supreme court. Following
his graduation Mr. McNamara opened a law office at Corning. In March,
1886, he formed a copartnership with A. Hadden, Esq.,
PAGE 74
which continued until the death of Mr. Hadden in 1889. In
1890, owing to a strike of the Corning glasscutters, many of the men found
employment in Western factories. On the night of July 3, 1891, a large
number of them were on their way to Corning to spend the Fourth of July,
and nearly a score were killed and many injured by the wrecking of the
train at Ravenna, O. Mr. McNamara was retained by the heirs of ten of the
victims of the disaster to recover damages from the railroad company, and
the cases were settled out of court, the company paying in each case
$3,000, besides the counsel fees and costs incurred by Mr. McNamara. In
the important and famous Erwin case Mr. McNamara was one of the attorneys
for the plaintiff, Edward S. Erwin. The case involved the title to one of
the finest farms in the town of Erwin, valued at $25,000. The case was in
litigation more than six years, going up to the Court of Appeals, which
decided favorably to the plaintiff.
Mr.
McNamara was clerk of the village of Corning in 1880, and corporation
counsel during 1885-86. In 1885 and 1887 he was the Democratic nominee for
Member of Assembly. In each canvass he ran more than 600 ahead of his
ticket. Since 1884 Mr. McNamara had been an eloquent and effective
Democratic campaign orator, but differeing with his party of the tariff
question he stumped the State for Harrison in 1888, and announced himself
as a Republican.
Mr. McNamara is a member of
Crystal City Lodge, Knights of Pythias. In January, 1888, Mr. McNamara was
married to Maria Griffin of Hornellsville, the issue of that marriage
being two boys, William F., Jr., and Joseph James.
WILLIAM
NICHOLSON
This gentleman of versatile
accomplishment has a fame much more than local. He was born in Scotland in
1856, and came to America while yet a lad. He hdad fitted himself by
education for a successful career, and began it in 1871, as a clerk in the
General Passenger Department of the Erie, under William R. Barr. He
remained there until 1873, when he went to the Audit Department of the New
York Central, where he was a clerk two years, becoming then secretary to
the Assistant General Freight Agent of that company. In 1876 he was
appointed voucher clerk in the office of the Auditor of the New York
Central, where he remained until 1883, when the high quality and
originality of his work having attracted wide attention in the accounting
department of railroads, he was offered by the Vale Brook Railroad Company
the important office of auditor of that entire system. He accepted the
place, and has continued at the head of that department, conspicuous among
directing railroad accountants, as is shown by his long term as Secretary
of the New York Central Board of Auditorys, Chairman of the Nickel Plate
Line Auditing Committee, and Chairman of the Standing Freight Committee of
the Association of American Railway Accounting Officers. Mr. Nicholson has
also been a leader in popularizing and extending the work of the Railroad
Department of the Young Men's Christian Association, both from the
platform and by his pen.
In 1891 Mr. Nicholson
was elected to the Board of Aldermen from his ward. He enjoys a universal
popularity, both socially and in the circles of
business.
H. G.
TUTHILL
The firm of H. G. Tuthill
& Son, architects, of Corning, has been for years past the designers
of nearly all of the finest buildings and most elegant residences that
grace the capital city. The senior member is a member of the Western New
York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and the junior
partner,
PAGE 75
Eugene Tuthill, fitted himself for the profession by a
course in the School of Architecture of Cornell University, and by years
of practical business experience.
H. G.
Tuthill, in September, 1861, raised a company of volunteers for the Union
army. It became Company A, 104th Regiment, N. Y. S. V., and he was made
its captain. In October, 1862, he was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel of
the regiment for distinguished bravery at the battle of Antietam. Later he
was brevetted colonel. He was wounded at Antietam and Gettysburg, being
shot through the body during the latter battle, and was in the enemy's
hands from July 1st to July 5th. He remained in the service until October,
1866. Colonel Tuthill organized the first Grand Army Post in Corning, and
was elected its commander. In 1869 he was elected Superintendent of the
Poor of Steuben County, being the only Republican elected on the county
ticket. He is the father of five well-known and accomplished
sons.
DR. GEORGE WILLIAM
LANE
Dr. Lane was the fourth mayor of
Corning, and the first one elected on the Democratic ticket. He was born
May 28, 1858, in Schuyler County, N. Y. His father was a farmer. He
attended the district schools, taught school, studied medicine, and
graduated from the University of Buffalo, in 1886. He came to Corning to
practice his profession in 1889, and opened a drug store. In 1894 he was
elected alderman from his ward on the Democratic ticket, although the ward
was strongly Republican. In 1896 he was elected mayor over the strongest
man in the Republican party. Dr. Lane is a member of the Steuben County
Medical Society, the Corning Academy of Medicine, and is an Odd Fellow and
Red Man.
December 3, 1879 he was married to
Miss Leila H. Underwood, of Hornby, who died April 25,
1895.
EDWARD W. BRYAN, M.
D.
Dr. Bryan was born at Bath,
November 6, 1832. He attended the local schools and went to the old Sonora
Academy. He studied medicine in his idle hours, when as a young man he was
employed as station agent of the Erie at Savona. He held that position for
nearly three years. He then attended the Homeopathic Hospital College of
Cleveland, O., from which he was graduated in 1868. After practicing
medicine in Illinois and Central New York three years, he removed to
Corning in October, 1877, where he has since resided. Dr. Bryan was
one of the organizers of the Seneca County Homeopathic Society, and was
its first president. He has also been president of the Southern Tier
Medical Society, and several times has held a similar position in the
Steuben County Socienty. He is a life-member of the New York State
Homeopathic Society, a member of the American Institute of Homeopathy, and
of the Hahnemann Society of the Homeopathic College of
Cleveland.
DR. WILLIS SILVESTER
COBB
Dr. Cobb is a native of
Stockbridge, Mass., where he was born, September 23, 1862. Willis worked
on the farm as a boy, and went to district school. He subsequently
attended a business college at Pittsfield, Mass., and later the
Massachusetts Pharmacy College at Boston. He graduated from the Albany
Medical College in March, 1890, and located at Corning, where he succeeded
to the practice of Dr. Hedden, and built up a practice of his own. Dr.
Cobb has been Health Officer of the city four years, Secretary of the
Board of Health and Registrar of Vital Statistics. He is an Odd Fellow, a
member and Secretary of the Corning Academy of Medicine, and
vice-
PAGE 76
President of the Steuben
County Medical Society. In May 1890. Dr. Cobb was married at Elmira, to
Miss Lizzie Bessie Baldwin, of West Stockbridge, Mass. Two children, boys,
have blessed the union.
THOMAS BRADLEY, CONTRACTOR AND
BUILDER
Thomas Bradley, was born in
Hammondsport in 1850. In 1885 he came to Corning, and engaged in the
business of a general building contractor. Some of the finest buildings in
the city were constructed by him; notable among them are the new City
Hall, the Drake block, and the Episcopal Church. In 1890 he commenced
doing all the stone and bridge work of the Fall Brook Railroad, which his
fathr had long done before him. He employs a large number of men. He built
the palatial residence of Col. John Magee at Watkins. The fine court-house
at Towanda, Pa., was built by him in 1896.
CHARLES E.
DRAKE
was born in Corning in 1868. He
was educated at the public schools and free academy and the military
academy at Sing Sing, where he graduated in 1886. For some years he was
connected with the First National Bank of Corning. In 1891 he retired,
retaining his investments there and continuing as a director, and
purchased the wholesale and retail hardware business of M. D. Walker &
Sons, Nos. 5, 7 and 9 Market Street, Corning, a business established by
Hon. C. C. B. Walker more than fifty years ago. The retail trade is the
heaviest done by any firm in the Southern Tier, outside of the larger
cities. No hardward store or warehouse outside of New York and Buffalo
carries a larger or better stock of goods.
MANLEY T.
INSCHO
Manley T. Inscho, the Corning
agent of the Erie, was born in Lawrenceville, Tioga County, Pa., January
12, 1847. In 1862 he became a clerk in Wood & Demarest's sutler store
at barracks No. 3, Elmira. June 28, 1864, he entered the employ of the
Erie at Corning as a janitor of the depot. He was subsequently transferred
to the freight depot. He was faithful in his humble sphere, and was
rewarded for it in 1872 by appointment as day ticket clerk at Corning. He
held that position until 1883, when he resigned to accept joint agency of
the Erie and Lehigh passenger lines at Elmira. In January, 1885, he was
transferred to Waverly in the same capacity, and also made ticket agent
for the Erie. In March, 1884, he was appointed agent of the Erie Express
at Corning. When the Erie Express was purchased by Wells, Fargo & Co.,
he remained as agent. December 18, 1891, he was appointed Erie station
agent at Corning.
Mr. Inscho is a member of
the Episcopal Church, a member of the Corning City Club, and a life member
of the Alliance Hook and Ladder Company. He is high in masonry. His is
unmarried.
JOSEPH CLARK
MOORE
With the exception of a little
over three years, Joseph C. Moore has been in the ticket office of the
Erie at Corning, since September, 1876. Mr. Moore entered the service of
the Erie in 1874 as freight clerk, he having graduated that year from the
Corning Free Academy. In 1876 he was made night ticket clerk.
PAGE 77
In 1883, he resigned to go into business. In 1887 he was
made day ticket clerk, and in 1888 was appointed ticket agent, the office
having been made independent of the station agent. Mr. Moore is a Free and
Accepted Mason, a Royal Arch Mason, a member of the Doric Council of Royal
and Select Masters, a Knight Templar, an Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Right Mason, and honorary member of the Supreme Council, thirty-third and
last degree; an Elk, a member of the Mystic Shrine, honorary member of
Alliance Hook and Ladder Company and a member of the City Club at
Corning.
DR. S. HEBARD
NICHOLS
Dr. Nichols was born in
Orange, Schuyler County, N. Y., January 10, 1835. He was the son of Dr.
Thomas L. Nichols, himself famous as a physician and surgeon. The subject
of this sketch received his education in the district schools, Starkey
Seminary, Franklin Academy, Prattsburgh, and at Madison University. He
graduated in the science of medicine at Hobart College, Geneva, 1857. He
began the practice of his profession in Schuyler County, and continued
there successfully until 1881, when he removed to Corning, where his high
standing as a physician had preceded him. Dr. Nichols is a member of
several medical societies, and is in all ways eminent in his profession.
He was the first president of the Corning Academy of medicine, and for
thirteen years was city assessor.
ARTHUR C.
ARTHUR
Mr. Arthur was born in England
in 1862. He came to America in 1873, settling at Amesbury, Mass., where he
became manager of the Amesbury Opera House. In 1891 he became the manager
of the new Corning Opera House, which had been erected at a cost of
$50,000. He has not only made the theatre a paying financial investment,
but has made the city, through it, a favorite of the best actors in the
country.
BATH, N. Y.
THE DAVENPORT
FAMILY
Ira Davenport, at the age of
fourteen, emigrated from Spencertown, Columbia County, where he was born,
September 20, 1795, and settled six years later at Hornellsville. He
brought a load of goods with him in a wagon drawn by oxen. He built the
first store in Hornellsville, and put his goods on sale. He remained
thirty years at Hornellsville, having accumulated a large fortune, and in
1847 removed to Bath, where he died May 2, 1868. In 1863 he founded the
Davenport Home for Orphan Girls, and endowed it with $100, 000, leaving
also $50,000 to it by his will. He was survived by two sons, John and Ira,
and two daughters, Christina and Fanny. John Davenport conducted the
affairs of the Davenport Home after his father's death, May 5, 1895. Ira
Davenport was elected to the New York State Senate on the Republican
ticket in 1878, and again in 1880. In 1881 he was elected Comptroller of
the State. At the end of his term he was elected to Congress, and was the
nominee of his party for Governor of New York in 1885. He married in 1897,
Katherine L. Sharpe, of Kingston, N. Y. The Bath Public Library was the
gift of Mr.
PAGE 78 Davenport. He was one of the sponsors
of the Soldiers and Sailors' Home at Bath. He suceeded his brother John as
president of the Board of Trustees of the Davenport
Home.
LANSING DERRICK
HODGMAN
Mr. Hodgman was born November
11, 1815, at Stillwater, Saratoga County. He was educated at Cambridge, N.
Y., and Bennington Academy, Vermont, and was a graduate of the Troy
Polytechnic Institute. He was a member of the original Erie Engineer Corps
of 1834, under James Seymour. When the work of the survey was completed,
and the breaking of the ground for the railroad occurred at Deposit in
November, 1835. Mr. Hodgman was one of the few people who were present on
that historic occasion. He continued in the service of the Erie while the
work was going on in the Delaware Valley until it was suspended in the
Spring of 1837, when he was made assistant engineer of the Erie Canal
enlargement. In 1840 he left that work and entered again the services of
the Erie, in charge of a locating party from Cuba, Allegany County, west
to the Allegany Indian Reservation. In the spring of 1841 he was made
resident engineer in charge of the construction of the road from
Hornellsville to Friendship, and continued until the suspension of the
Erie company in the fall of 1842. Thenceforward until the fall of 1843 he
was agent for the assignees of the Erie Railroad
Company.
August 5, 1843, he was married to
Abby C., only daughter of Hon. Constant Cook, and engaged in the milling
business at Bath and Painted Post. He remained in that and the mercantile
business for half a century.
In 1850 he made
the survey for what is now the Rochester Division of the Erie, and was
appointed consulting engineer in the construction of the road; so that it
may well be said that if any one living is a part of the early history of
the Erie, this veteran and venerable man certainly is. He was one of the
commissioners appointed by Governor Dix in 1873 to have charge of the
building of the Elmira Reformatory. Mr. Hodgman has been one of Bath's
most conspicuous and honored citizens for nearly two generations. He has
been many times a trustee of the village and once president, and was for
twenty-eight years a member of the Board of Education and twelve years
president. St. Thomas's church in Bath was erected under his supervision,
and he has been vestryman of it thirty years. Three sons and two daughters
were born to him.
GEN. WILLIAM FINDLAY
ROGERS
General Rogers was born near
Easton, Pa., March 1, 1820. He learned the printers' trade in Easton, Pa.,
and went to Philadelphia. In 1846 he went to Buffalo to take a position on
the Buffalo Courier. The same year he became a State Militiaman.
He was a captain in the 74th Regiment when the Civil War broke out. In
response to calls for troops six companies of that regiment and four new
companies were organized as the 24th New York Regiment, with Captain
Rogers as colonel. This regiment was in the Virginia and Maryland
campaigns. At Arlington Heights it was brigaded with the 20th New York
Militia and the 23d and 35th New York Infantry, under General Wadsworth.
The regiment was mustered out in Buffalo in May, 1863. Colonel Rogers was
appointed commissioner of enrollment for the 30th New York
Congressional
PAGE 79 District, and afterward
provost-martial. In subsequent civil life he was Auditor of Buffalo in
1864, Comptroller in 1866, and Mayor in 1868. He established the park
system of that city. He appointed the first Board of Park Commissioners,
and was first president of the Board. Afterward he was secretary and
treasurer of the Board until 1885, when he resigned. He was also secretary
and treasurer of the Buffalo State Hospital. He was elected to Congress in
1885. In military life, General Rogers has been president of the State
Military Association, and is a past department commander of the G. A. R.
He was elected superintendent of the New York State Soldiers and Sailors'
Home by the Board of Trustees in 1887. He was the organizer and a charter
member of the second Grand Army Post ever organized in the State, Chapin
Post of Buffalo. He is a member of Bidwell-Wilkenson Post, No. 9, of
Buffalo, and a Mason of high standing. He is also a companion of the
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and of the
Society of the Army of the Potomac. His first wife was Miss Caroline M.
Waldron, of Honesdale, Pa., who died in 1846. They had one son. General
Rogers married for his second wife, Miss Phoebe Demoney, of Buffalo, and
her death occurred at the home in 1890. They had three
children.
HON. FRANK
CAMPBELL
Frank Campbell was born at
Bath, March 28, 1858, the year his father Robert Campbell was elected
Lieutenant-Governor of New York. He was educated at Bath and at Trenton,
N. J. In 1891 he was elected on the Democratic ticket Comptroller of New
York. He was appointed a trustee of the Soldiers and Sailors' Home. In
1893 he assisted in the organization and establishment of the Farmers and
Mechanics' Bank of Bath. He married Mary Louise, a daughter of Warren
Wilson.
HON. JOHN F.
PARKHURST
A native of Wellsboro, Pa.,
where he was born February 17, 1843. He studied law in Bath with Guy H.
McMaster, and was admitted to practice in 1865. In 1872 he formed a
parnership with Mr. McMaster, which was continued till the time of Judge
McMaster's death. In 1890 he became the editor of the Steuben
Courier. He was married in 1886 to Alice, daughter of Judge McMaster.
One son was born to them, Guy McMaster Parkhurst. He is a part owner and
vice-president of the Farmers and Mechanics' Bank of Bath. He has been
chairman for years of the Republican County Committee. He has been long
the recognized leader of the party in Steuben County, and influential in
its councils throughout the State, a fact which was recognized in 1896 by
his appointment as judge of the Court of Claims of New York
State.
A. J. SWITZER
This pioneer among the introducers of native champagne and still wines,
was born in the town of Bradford, Steuben County, N. Y., in 1833. His
education was obtained in the district schools, and the Alfred University.
After leaving school he taught for several terms in his native county. He
then travelled extensively in the West, but returned to Steuben County and
settled at Hammondsport, having married in 1862, Fidelia, daughter of
Hopestill and Lawrence Hastings of the town of Bath. He engaged largely in
grape culture at Hammondsport, and still owns and cultivates extensive
vineyards on Lake Keuka. It is detracting from no one to say that as an
educator of the people up to the fact that native champagnes, honestly
made, are not simply a champagne in name but in every respect that goes to
make such a wine, A. J. Switzer is entitled to stand in the
front
PAGE 80 ranks. For more than thirty-five years
he has mad that his particular task, both in personal argument and
practical demonstration. He has, of course, used as his object-lesson
wines of his own company's brands, but the principle is the same. He is
now, as he has been for many years, secretary of the Urbana Wine Company.
Some years ago Mr. Switzer removed from Hammondsport to Bath, where he
still lives, one of the most popular and respected citizens of that
village. Three sons have been born to him.
DR. GEORGE C.
McNETT
was born at Buffalo, N. Y.,
July 11, 1867. He received a fine education in Belmont, St. Joseph's
College, Buffalo; Alfred University and the University of the City of New
York. He commenced his practice in Belmont, and soon established his
reputation firm on the public mind as a leader in his profession. He
removed to Bath in 1886, when he was appointed surgeon at the Soldiers and
Sailors' Home, and since 1889 has devoted his time and attention to his
large private practice, making a specialty of surgery, in which he has few
superiors. Dr. McNett was married in 1882 to Agnes, daughter of E. S.
Stewart. His is one of the most popular citizens of
Bath.
W. H. PHILLIPS,
D.D.S.
is a native of Union Hill,
Franklin County, Va. He received his education in the Howard Academy and
the Haverling Free Academy, and graduated from the Baltimore Dental
College. He established himself in Bath, where he has won an excellent
reputation. He is a specialist in the treatment of diseased teeth and in
bridge work, and in fillings has a reputation that is second to none. He
married in 1886, Lizzie, daughter of Dr. James Black. They have three
children.
MAJOR JOHN
STOCUM
Although known familiarly in
Steuben and adjoining Counties as Captain Stocum, this sturdy veteran of
the Civil War was commissioned as major by Gen. R. E. Fenton of New York,
February 24, 1865. Captain Stocum raised, at Bath, early in 1861, a
company that became Battery E, First New York Artillery. Five months later
Captain Stocum, with other officers, was ordered to report for
examination, for what reason has never been made clear, and dismissed from
the service. He returned to Bath. Lieutenant-Governor Campbell took the
matter up and induced the War Department to either order the Captain
restored to his command, or to have a re-examination. The latter order was
issued, but he was not restored to his command, and never obtained the
justice he sought.
In the fall of 1862 Captain
Stocum, in a fortnight, enlisted one hundred men, which saved Bath from
the draft. He was elected captain of the company, which became Company F,
161st New York Regiment, under Colonel Harrower. In camp at Elmira Captain
Stocum was prostrated with camp fever, and it was three months before he
could start to join his regiment, which had in the meantime been ordered
to the Department of the Gulf. He reached it in time to lead his company
in many gallant actions. In the summer of 1863 Captain Stocum was
prostrated by sunstroke while on duty on the picket line, and, after two
months of suffering resigned and returned to Bath. In
PAGE 81
September, 1863, having
recovered his health, he raised a third company. This became Company A,
189th New York, Col. William W. Hayt. Captain Stocum served until the
close of the war, and on three different occasions he had command of the
regiment. An act of bravery that made Captain Stocum conspicuous was the
recovery of the body of Capt. Burrage Rice from a rebel guerilla who had
killed that officer while he was out with a foraging detachment. Company A
was at Appomattox when Lee surrendered, and drove in the last rebel
battery and picket line sent out by General Lee's command. On June 10,
1865, Captain Stocum and his company were mustered out of the
service.
Major Stocum was born at Pultney,
Steuben County, April 27, 1825. He came to Bath a friendless boy to seek
his fortune. He married Elizabeth Metcalf of Bath, in February, 1847. She
died in 1858 and in June, 1860, he married Susan B. Townsend of Elmira.
For more than fifty years he has been engaged in the furniture and
undertaking business at Bath, and has had the direction at the burial of
more than 1,300 veterans of the war. Daniel Drew, who for many years was
potent in the affairs of Erie, was a great-uncle of Major
Stocum.
DR. TEN EYCK O.
BURLESON
This well-known physician is
one of the leading professional men in Western New York, and is the
surgeon at the Soldiers and Sailors' Home, receiving this appointment in
1890. He is a native of Steuben County, having been born at Howard, July
21, 1854. He was educated at Alfred University, and graduated with honors,
in 1880, from the Buffalo Medical College. He began his practice in
Pultney, N. Y., and it was not long before he had demonstrated his ability
and won the confidence and esteem of the community in which he resided. He
was married in 1886 to Miss Lily M., a daughter of George Bennett of
Pultney. He has been president of the Steuben County Medical Society. He
is a member of the State Medical Society, and is highly regarded in the
profession as a progressive and skillful practitioner.
DR.
ORLANDO W. SUTTON
Dr. Sutton was born
at Waverly, N. Y., December 25, 1849. He is a graduate of the Eclectic
Medical College of New York. Previous to his commencing the study of
medicine, in 1865, he was deputy-postmaster of Bath for eight years. He
was several years in the mail service. He has been a member of the board
of trustees of the village, president of the village, a member of the
State Board of Medical Examiners, and secretary and treasurer of the
Southern Tier Medical Society. He was married in 1877 to Susan, daughter
of Daviel W. Coss, and they have one child. Dr. Sutton is a member of the
Odd Fellows and of the Maccabees.
CLARENCE
WILLIS
Clarence Willis is a graduate
of Haverling Academy of Bath. In 1873 he began the study of law, and was
admitted to the bar in 1878. He has been successively clerk of the
village, Justice of the Peace and Police Justice. Judge Willis is an Odd
Fellow, being a patriarch in Bath Encampment and a chevalier.
PAGE 82 He is a past chief patriarch,
past district deputy grand master of the Steuben district, and the
district deputy grand patriarch. He is a member of the Bath Board of
Education. In June, 1895, Hobart College conferred on him the degree of
Bachelor of Arts. He is a vestryman of St. Thomas's
Church.
In 1890 he married Mary A., daughter of
Jacob Billington.
PAGE 84
HAMMONDSPORT, N. Y. HON. JOHN W.
DAVIS
Mr. Davis was born at
Sherburne, Chenango County, New York, October 5, 1820. He was educated in
the public schools of that village, and went to Steuben County in 1837,
where he began life as a clerk. In 1842 he became a member of the firm of
Adsit & Davis, engaged at Hammondsport in the general merchandise and
forwarding business. The firm of Adsit & Davis ran a line of twelve
freight boats between that place and New York, via Crooked Lake, Seneca
Lake, and the Erie Canal. Mr. Davis bought out his partner in 1851. In
1865 Mr. Davis became interested in grape growing, and has ever since been
one of the leading viticulturists of the Keuka district. It is an
interesting fact that he own and occupies the place, where, more than
sixty years ago, the Rev. W. W. Bostick planted the first grape vine in
the town, which still lives and bears excellent fruit. Mr. Davis was
largely instrumental in bringing about the construction of the Bath and
Hammondsport Railroad. He has been director in the Lake Keuka Navigation
Company most ot the time since its inception. In 1881, on the
reorganization of the Urbana Wine Company, he was made director and the
general manager of that company, which place he still
holds.
Mr. Davis is a Republican. He was
supervisor of Urbana in 1848, member of Assembly in 1880. He was a member
of the first board of Trustees of Hammondsport. He has been president of
the village. He is a member of St. James Protestant Episcopal Church of
nearly fifty years standing, and has served successively as vestryman,
junior warden and senior warden much of that
time.
August 10, 1848, Mr. Davis was married
to Miss Sarah Hunt, of Dansville, N. Y., daughter of Richard Hunt, of
Illinois. She died July 3, 1894.
PAGE 85 JOHN J.
FREY
the head of the Germania Wine
Company, was born at Rochester, N. Y., December 17, 1855. He came to
Hammondsport with his father in 1864. At the age of twenty-three he was
made partner. He retained this interest until it was absorbed by the
Germania Wine Company. He is now its general business manager and
secretary. Mr. Frey has ideas on the way local public affairs should be
managed, especially in the assessment of taxation values, which are based
on the theory that taxes should be so levied that they would give a town
the name of inviting investment in the way of industries that would
distribute the result of their works among the people as wages, and thus
benefit directly and indirectly the public generally, instead of assessing
property in such a way as to repel investment.
Mr. Frey was married June 2, 1896, to Miss Anna M. Hilfker, daughter of
John Hilfker, of Rochester. In August, 1894, he became by purchase a
half-proprietor of the Bank of Hammondsport. Mr. Frey is president of the
bank. He is also treasurer of the Hammondsport Building and Imporvement
Company. One of the most beautiful residences in the Pleasant Valley is
the home of Mr. Frey, near the Germania cellars.
GOTTLIEB
FREY
who is one of the proprietors of
the Germania Wine Company, was born at Rochester in 1858. He grew up with
the wine and grape business.
PAGE 86
He has full charge in the
superintendence of wine making and industrial operation of the Germania
Wine Company. He was educated in the Hammondsport schools. He was married
in 1882 to Miss Josephine Schmoker, and has a family of four
children.
The enviable reputation which the
products of Germania cellars enjoy is due to his practical knowledge and
skill in fabricating them. He manifested an interest in skill in real
estate in Hammondsport and vicinity, and is the possessor of much valuable
property. His own house is one to delight the eye of all who see
it.
DE WITT C. BAUDER
De Witt C. Bauder was born in the town of Palatine, Montgomery County,
July 17, 1836. He was educated in the common schools and Canajoharie
Academy. He began life as a clerk in a general store at St. Johnsville.
Five years later he was appointed foreman and paymaster on the enlargement
of the Erie Canal for one year. In October, 1862, he came to Steuben
County, where he became bookkeeper for the Bath Woolen Mills. The
following August he became bookkeeper for J. W. Davis, at Hammondsport. In
February, 1868, he accepted a similar place with the
PAGE 87
Pleasant Valley Wine Company.
He became a stockholder in that Company in 1871, and soon afterwards a
director, later secretary and general manager, and in 1885 was also made
treasurer. Mr. Bauder has always been a Republican. He was town clerk for
three terms, and trustee of the village for four years, and president of
the village. November 17, 1858, he married Susan F. Stickney. Three sons
were born to them, and Mrs. Bauder died April 30, 1875. Mr. Bauder was
again married June 14, 1877, to Kate B., daughter of C. D. Champlin. They
have one son.
HENRY S.
STEBBINS
Henry S. Stebbins was born
at Canandaigua, Ontario County, N. Y., March 10, 1858 and received his
education at the Canandaigua Academy. His father is John J. Stebbins of
Penn Yan, N. Y., and his mother's maiden name was Catherine De Graff. In
1872 he took up fancy stock and fruit farming at the town of Benton, Yates
County, N. Y. In 1886, in connection with Morris F. Sheppard of Penn Yan
and F. M. McDowell of Wayne, Mr. Stebbins purchased the lease-hold
interest in the Bath and Hammondsport Railroad and the stock of the Lake
Keuka Navigation Company, and assumed the management of the railroad
company. In July, 1889, they changed the Bath and Hammondsport Railroad
from a narrow to a standard gauge,
PAGE 88
and acquired a controlling
interest in the stock of the company, cancelling the lease. In 1890 he
became the manager of the Lake Keuka Navigation Company, still retaining
his connection with the railroad. In 1892, in addition to his connection
with the two companies above named, he became manager of the Grove Springs
Hotel and Steamboat Company, and in 1893, a similar position with the New
York Coal and Warehouse Company, doing a general warehouse business on
Lake Keuka. In 1898 he resigned his offices at Hammondsport to become the
North-western agent of the Erie Dispatch as Seattle, Washington. Mr.
Stebbins is a born traffic manager, and in the wider, more progressive
field he has chosen, an enviable future is undoubtedly
his.
DR. M. T. BABCOCK
Dr. Moses Treat Babcock was born at Fort Ann, Washington County, N. Y.,
April 30, 1825. He was educated in the common schools, and in Franklin
Academy at Prattsburg. In 1848 he took up the study of medicine with Dr.
P. K. Stoddard, in Prattsburg, and was graduated from Geneva Medical
College June 16, 1852. He began the practice of his profession at
Hammondsport, and in December, 1854, he entered the Buffalo Medical
College, where he attended lectures one term, and again in 1857-58. In
September, 1862, he was appointed assistant surgeon to the One Hundred and
Forty-first Regiment, N. Y. V., and was with that regiment until the close
of the war. Dr. Babcock has been a member of the Steuben County Medical
Association since 1870, and of the New York State Medical Association
since 1870, and of the New York State Medical Society since 1885; he has
also been a member of the Republican party since its organization, and was
trustee of the village for a number of years. He has been a member of the
Masonic fraternity since 1858, and held the office of treasurer of Urbana
Lodge, No. 469, for twenty-seven years. He has also been a member of the
I. O. O. F. for six years. In 1893 he married Josephine Sherwood, of Penn
Yan, N. Y.
PAGE 90
JOSEPH FENTON
CROSBY
Joseph F. Crosby was born on
the ancestral farm, in Yates County, N. Y. In 1862 he was chosen sheriff
of that county. He was twice elected county clerk. He was one of the
pioneers in steamboat navigation on Lake Keuka. At one time the firm of
Joseph F. Crosby & Co. were the sole owners of all boats that plied on
Lake Keuka. Their business was purchased by the Lake Keuka Navigation
Company, Joseph F. Crosby retaining interest. He owned and conducted the
Yates County Chronicle, at Penn Yan, during the presidential
campaign of 1888. He has a fine place where he lives, at Crosby's Landing,
on Lake Keuka.
DR. PHILO L.
ALDEN
Dr. Philo L. Alden was born at
Howard, August 27, 1856, and was educated in the High School of Howard and
in Alfred University. He remained in Howard until 1879, in the mercantile
business, and then removed to Buffalo. In 1883 he began the study of
medicine at Pultney. He was graduated from the medical department of the
university at Buffalo, March 1, 1887. He located in Wayne, Steuben County,
and in October, 1889, came to Hammondsport, where he has since been
engaged in practice. He is a member and vice-president of the Steuben
County Medical Society. September 17, 1885, he married M. Emma Nichols, of
Pultney.
KANONA, N. Y. DR. F. H. LAWRENCE
F. H. Lawrence was born at Arkport, N. Y., April 14, 1858. He
graduated from the Cincinnati Medical College in 1881. He began the
practice of his profession at Kanora, where he has been postmaster, and a
member of the United States Pension Board. Dr. Lawrence is a popular
citizen and a successful physician.
CANISTEO, N. Y. LESLIE D. WHITING
Ex-sheriff Whiting was born in Jasper, Steuben County, in 1859, on his
father's farm. In 1881 Mr. Whiting engaged in the hay and grain business
at Canisteo, and conducted it successfully. In 1894 he won the Republican
nomination for sheriff of Steuben County. His triumph at the convention
was followed by his election by a majority of 4,350 — 500 votes ahead of
his ticket. While Mr. Whiting was one of the most thorough disciplinarians
as sheriff, he was very kind and considerate in his dealings with the
unfortunate class who chanced to be under him at the county jail. By his
just and careful treatment, he was enabled to meet with far better success
than had been accomplished in other penal institutions by the inhuman
paddle.
In 1897 Mr. Whitney, with other
well-known capitalists, organized the First State Bank of Canisteo, of
which he is the president. Sheriff Whitney has an interesting family, and
his home life at Canisteo is most happy. He is a Knight Templar, and one
of the most popular men in Steuben County.
HORNELLSVILLE, N. Y.
PAGE 91 MARTIN ADSIT
Martin
Adsit, president of the First National Bank, has been a resident of the
place as a hamlet, village, and city longer than any other man. Born in
December, 1812, and in the latter part of 1826 having determined to start
out in the world for himself, he emigrated at the age of fourteen years to
what was then the wild settlement of Hornellsville, arriving there on
December 14th of that year. His uncle, Ira Davenport, Sr., was the keeper
of a general store in the then settlement, which consisted of about
twenty-five houses and 100 inhabitants, located in the wilderness,
with pine forests all about and coming down to the very doors of the rude
houses. The lad was set to work doing general chores and clerking
about the store, and in the course of a few years, when he had learned to
weigh sugar and nails and measure calico, as well as to compute the number
of pounds or yards that a certain number of coon skins would pay for, he
was taken into partnership, and eventually became proprietor of the
business.
Mr. Adsit was always a successful
business man and man of affairs. Starting in business for himself in 1833,
he remained continuously in the business of a general storekeeper for many
years, until he at last handled dry goods only. For many years his was the
largest dry-goods business in that part of the State. When the New York
and Erie railroad was being built through the Canisteo Valley, a majority
of the men employed in the work of construction were Irishmen who had left
their families in the old country. Every pay-day they sent home as much
money as they could spare, and as there were no banks in this part of the
country at that time they applied to Mr. Adsit for help in sending the
money away. When the men were working around Elmira, Dr. Beadle of that
place had forwarded the remittances for them, and had gained their
confidence to an unusual degree. Mr. Adsit went to Elmira and saw Dr.
Beadle, from whom he learned how to send the money, and thereafter he was
the chief financial agent in Western New York for the Irishmen employed on
the railroad, and through doing their business he became familiar with the
possibilities of banking, and formed a love for that business. His
experience then induced him to engage regularly in the banking business,
and in November, 1863, the First National Bank was organized through his
efforts. Ira Davenport was president, and Martin Adsit cashier. The other
directors were Ira Davenport, Jr., and Constant and Henry H. Cook of Bath.
Martin Adsit subsequently became president, and remains to this day the
active director of the important bank, and enjoys, as he has long enjoyed,
the reputation of being one of the ablest financiers in the western part
of the State. A storekeeper for more than forty-seven years, and a banker
for over thirty, Mr. Adsit has shown himself in every way to be a man of
affairs, and a success in every way. His solicitude for the benefit of
Hornellsville has been shown in numberless ways, and there is to-day no
citizen of Hornellsville who takes a greater personal interest in the
growth and welfare of the city than he, nor any who would do more than he
to benefit the thriving city, which he has seen grow from a waste place in
the wilderness to its present metropolitan- like proportions.
DR. JAMES
KELLY
Dr. Kelly was born in
Bergen, Genesee County, N. Y., February 12, 1857. After the usual boyhood
experience with the district schools, young Kelly went to the Brockport
Normal School three
PAGE 92 years. From there he went to Buffalo,
where he attended lectures in the medical department of the University of
Buffalo, and was graduated there in the spring of 1884, and during the
succeeding two years was a surgeon in the Sisters' Charity Hospital of
Buffalo. Leaving there he removed to Hornellsville, where he commenced
practice, and has been highly successful from the beginning. In 1892 he
was appointed surgeon of the Erie railway, and in that capacity has had
charge of many very important surgical and other cases. Dr. Kelly has been
prominently identified with the Democratic party, and in 1890 and 1891
represented the Third Ward in the Board of Aldermen. He is also chairman
of the Democratic City Committee, and is one of the three members of the
Executive Committee of the County Committee. Dr. Kelly married Miss
Theresa Henneberg, of Port Jervis. Dr. Kelly is a member of St. Ann's
Church.
HON. RUSSELL M.
TUTTLE
Mr.Tuttle was born in
Almond, Allegany County, January 12, 1840, and two years later his parents
removed to Hornellsville, which city he has since made his home. He was
educated in the public schools of Hornellsville, at the Alfred University,
and the University of Rochester. In 1867 he was married to Miss Ervilla
Goodrich, daughter of the late Dr. Levi S. Goodrich. In August, 1862, Mr.
Tuttle enlisted in the famous One Hundred and Seventh Regiment, New York
Volunteers. He participated in the Atlanta campaign and in the march to
the sea. He was pro-
PAGE 93
moted through
the various non-commissioned offices to second and first lieutenancies,
and at the close of the war was brevetted captain of U. S. Volunteers. The
duties he was assigned to in the army were those of topographical engineer
and assistant adjutant-general with Generals T. H. Ruger and W. T. Ward of
the Twentieth Army Corps. In 1868 Mr. Tuttle was elected president of the
village of Hornellsville, and in 1880 and 1881 he represented the Second
Assembly District of Steuben in the State Legislature. In 1867 he was one
of the organizers of the Hornellsville Times, of which he was an
editor until 1879. Then he retired from the paper. In 1888 he again
secured an interest in it, and has been its editor continuously since. No
newspaper in the interior of the State wields a greater influence than the
Times under the guiding hand of its editor. Mr. Tuttle has always
taken a deep interest in the welfare of the Hornell Library Association,
of which he was one of the founders. He has always lent his assistance
towards encouraging a love of literature in the minds of the young. No
proposition for the advancement of the city or its interests fails to
receive his most hearty encouragement and support. No man is more highly
regarded in the Maple City than he.
REV.
EDWARD MARK DEEMS
The First
Presbyterian Church of Hornellsville was organized August 14, 1832, at the
house of Truman Bostwick, and its first pastor was the Rev. Moses Ordway,
a pioneer of Methodism. The congregation in those days was small, and the
people were poor, but from the day of its organization until the present
time the church has prospered. Rev. Edward Mark Deems was called to the
charge in 1889. He was born at Greensboro, N. C., April 22, 1852, and is a
son of the famous Rev. Dr. Charles F. Deems, of the Church of the
Strangers, New York City. In 1865 the family removed to New York City,
where Dr. Deems was prepared for school. He was a student at the
Lawrenceville High School in New Jersey, and subsequently attended
Princeton College, from which he graduated in 1874. He pursued his
theological studies in Union Seminary, New York, and at Princeton
Theological Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1877. During his
vacations he devoted his time to home mission work in Nevada and among the
Rocky Mountains. In April, 1877, he was licensed to preach by the
Presbytery of New York, and was immediately called to the pastorate of a
church at Longmont, Col. In February, 1879, he resigned to become chaplain
of the " Woodruff Scientific Expedition." On his return to America he
served for six months, as the supply of the Church of the Strangers in New
York City. In March, 1880, he accepted a call to the pastorate of the
Westminster Presbyterian Church of New York City. This was consolidated in
1889 with the West Twenty-third Street Church, of which, under the name of
the Westminster Presbyterian Church of West Twenty-third Street, Dr. Deems
became associate pastor. In November, 1889, Dr. Deems accepted a call of
the First Presbyterian Church of Hornellsville, and was installed its
pastor on May 9, 1890. In June, 1892, the University of the City of New
York conferred on Mr. Deems the title of Doctor of Philosophy. Dr. Deems
is happily married and his home life is charming.
DR. CLAIR S. PARKH1LL
Dr. Clair S. Parkhill was born in Howard, Steuben County,
November 15, 1842. In 1876 David Parkhill moved to Hornellsville, where he
died November 8, 1892. The Parkhill family traces its ancestry to a French
boy castaway saved from a wreck in the English Channel. Near where the
wreck came
PAGE 94
ashore an English gentleman
had a country seat in a large park, at Torquay, and it was called Park
Hill. The castaway being unable to give an account of his family, the
gentleman adopted him and gave him the name of Parkhill, after the name of
the place where he lived. He is an ancestor of Dr. Parkhill.
The subject of this sketch was educated at
the Haveling Union School at Bath, the Michigan University, and the Albany
Medical College, from which he was graduated December 24, 1866. He began
the practice of his profession with his brother, Reuben F., in the town of
Howard, and continued with him for seven years. In September, 1873, he
removed to Hornellsville and continued
his practice. For a number of
years he has been the company surgeon for the Erie Railway at
Hornellsville. He is a prominent member of the Steuben County Medical
Society, a member of, and has been president of, the Hornellsville Medical
and Surgical
Association, a member of the New York State Medical
Association, and the New York State Medical Society; president of the New
York State Railway Surgeons' Association; member of the Erie Railway
Surgeons' Association; of the surgical section of the Medico-Legal Society
of New York City ; president of the medical and surgical staff of the St.
James Mercy Hospital, and is advisory member of the Board of Trustees. Dr.
Parkhill is a member of Evening Star Lodge, No. 44, F. and A. M., and one
of the principal supporters of the Railway Y. M. C. A. He is a member of
the Presbyterian Church. In 1884 Dr. Parkhill was president of the village
of Hornellsville, and was subsequently a member of the Board of Education
four years, being president of the board during the last year. Dr.
Parkhill married Marjory P., the daughter of the late William Rice of
Howard, March 20, 1867. They have had four children : Louise, the wife of
Blake B. Babcock ; Annie, who died at the age of three ; Walter, who died
at seventeen ; and one who died in infancy.
WILLIAM H. MURRAY
Mr.
Murray was born at Hornellsville, July 26, 1854. He was educated in the
village schools and at St. Ann's parochial school. He became the support
of his widowed mother and the family, and at the age of fourteen he became
a switchman in the Erie yard at Hornellsville. He was soon promoted to
yardmaster. He held that place sixteen years, when he was appointed deputy
sheriff of Steuben County under Sheriff Esek Page. He served three years
and was reap-
PAGE 95
pointed by Sheriff Henry
Baldwin. He continued in the office during the three years of that
incumbency. Mr. Murray is a Democrat. In 1888 he was nominated as its
candidate for sheriff. Despite the fact that the county is strongly
Republican, Mr. Murray ran 2,400 ahead of his ticket, and was defeated by
only 187 votes. When Hornellsville was incorporated as a city Mr. Murray
was appointed
as chief of police. He resigned September 30, 1894,
having been appointed by President Cleveland postmaster of Hornellsville.
The free delivery system was perfected under his direction.
One of the most famous fire companies in
Western New York is Emerald Hose Company No. 2 of Hornellsville. Mr.
Murray was its organizer, a charter member of the organization, and its
foreman until he was elected chief engineer of the department, serving two
continuous terms. He was a charter member of Division No. 2, Ancient Order
of Hibernians, which was organized in 1890, and
was its president. He
has been its county delegate, and attended the convention at Yonkers, the
national convention at Omaha, and at the convention held in Rochester in
1894, he was elected a State director. He is a member of the C. M. B. A.
Mr. Murray is a member of St. Ann's Church.
In April, 1876, Mr. Murray was married to Miss Kate Magnor, of Wellsville,
N. Y. They have five children.
DR. JOHN
STEARNS JAMISON
Dr. Jamison was
born in Canisteo, N. Y. From the district school he went to Clyde Academy,
later to Nunda Academy. Young
Jamison taught penmanship and
bookkeeping several years. Among his scholars who became distinguished
were Senator Don Cameron, of Pennsylvania, and James Bigler, who
afterwards became governor of California. In 1847 he began the study of
medicine with Dr. D. D. Davis of Canisteo, and soon entered Buffalo
Medical College, from which he went to the Michigan University, where he
graduated in 1852. He returned to Canisteo and began the practice of his
profession. A year later Dr. Jamison moved to Hornellsville. May 4, 1861,
Dr. Jamison enlisted as assistant surgeon of the Eighty-sixth New York
Volunteers. He was at second Bull Run, and participated in all the
engagements of the Army of the Potomac. In 1862 he established the
"Contraband Hospital" in Washington, for the care of the thousands of ill
and destitute slaves who flocked to the capital city. In April, 1864, Dr.
Jamison was appointed surgeon and chief of a division by Major-General
Hancock. At the close of the war Dr. Jamison returned to Hornellsville and
resumed practice. In 1873 he was appointed a medical examiner for the
pension department. In 1890 he was elected by the New York State Medical
Association as delegate to the International Medical Congress at Berlin,
but owing to ill health was unable to attend.
Dr. Jamison married Miss Lavinia Newman, daughter of Abijah Newman, of
Schuyler County. They had one son. Mrs. Jamison died October 22, 1887.
PAGE 96 DR.
CHARLES O. GREEN
Dr. Green was
born in Dansville, N. Y., January 28, 1859. His father was a farmer. He
was graduated from the Rogersville Union Seminary. He entered Bellevue
Hospital Medical College of New York. He graduated in 1890. Dr. Green came
to Hornellsville immediately after graduating, and entered upon the
practice of his profession. Upon the death of his brother. Dr. Theodore
Green, in 1892, he was appointed his successor as Erie surgeon at
Hornellsville, and has continuously and satisfactorily filled that
position since. Dr. Green is unmarried.
MILES W. HAWLEY
Miles
W. Hawley was born in Almond, Steuben County, August 30, 1833. the son of
the late Hon. William M. Hawley. The family removed to Hornellsville in
1838, when Miles was five years old. Mr. Hawley attended the public
schools, and subsequently the Alfred University and Franklin Academy at
Prattsburg, and was three years a student at the State and National Law
School at Poughkeepsie, graduating from there in 1855 with the degree of
Bachelor of Laws. He began practice as a member of the State bar. He was
admitted to practice in the United States district court, June 25, 1857.
With the exception of short experiences in Perry, Syracuse, N. Y., and
Denver, Col., Mr. Hawley has practiced all his life in Hornellsville. In
August, 1862, he enlisted in Co. F, One Hundred and Forty- first Regiment,
New York Volunteers, and was rapidly promoted to the rank of first
lieutenant, in command of Co. B. and was brevetted captain. After the war
he resumed the practice of his profession. He has had as partners in his
legal practice the late Judge William M. Hawley, Homer Holliday, and the
Hon. J. E. B. Santee. Of late years he has practiced alone. In politics he
is a Democrat. He was supervisor for six years, village clerk twelve
years, town clerk nine years, and civil magistrate in the city of
Hornellsville for three years. He is so thoroughly informed and accurate
in such matters that he is accepted as
PAGE 98 authority on all disputed points of
local history. He is a life member of the famous Orophelian Society of
Alfred University. Mr. Hawley was largely instrumental in settling the
great strike of the Erie employees at Hornellsville in the summer of 1877.
HON. IRVIN W.
NEAR
Mr. Near, whose family name
was formerly spelled Neher, was born in Alexandria, Jefferson County, N.
Y., January 26, 1835. His parents were descendants of Holland refugees who
settled in the Mohawk Valley. He attended the district schools, and was
graduated from the University of Montreal. He removed to Watertown, N. Y.,
and entered the law office of Clark & Calvin. He was admitted to
practice at Syracuse, January 5, 1858. In the following year he removed to
Kanona, Steuben County, where he practiced law for six years and then went
to Hornellsville, where he formed a copartnership with Horace Bemis. He
was subsequently associated with Henry N. Platt, William E. Bonhain, and
Fay P. Rathbun. Politically Mr. Near is a Democrat. In 1883 he was elected
district attorney. Under appointment from State Comptroller Campbell he
established the title of the State of New York to Raquette Lake, the gem
of the Adirondacks. For four terms he was president of the village of
Hornellsville. He was a member of the Board of Education for nine years.
He was one of the incorporators of the Rochester, Hornellsville and
Lackawanna Railroad Company, and was its first secretary. He was active in
the formation of the New York and Pennsylvania Railroad, and is its
secretary. He was one of the organizers of the Canisteo Valley Historical
Society, and its first president. Mr. Near has been twice married. His
first wife was Miss Alice Goff, daughter of Warren W. Goff, of
the
PAGE 99 town of Howard. They had one child,
Paul E., who was born in 1876. Mr. Near married for his second wife Mary
E. Staples of Watertown, N. Y.
EDWARD F.
WILLETTS
Edward F. Willets was
born at Ledyard, Cayuga County, N. Y. He is a graduate of the Poplar Ridge
Seminary. He learned the trade of a molder and worked at his trade in
Farmer, Seneca County. He removed to Angelica, Allegany County, in 1856,
and engaged in the lumber business. Later he embarked in the milling
business at Belmont. In 1876 he went to Bradford, Pa., where he operated
successfully in the oil fields six years, and removed to Hornellsville. He
was supervisor of the city of Hornellsville four times. He succeeded James
B. Day, the first mayor of the city, as mayor, and was
reelected.
He married at Lockport, N. Y.,
Amelia, daughter of Sidney Smith. A son, their only child, died at the age
of sixteen.
DR. BENJAMIN C.
WAKELY
Dr. Wakely was born at New
Hudson, Allegany County, N. Y., in 1854. He attended school in the winter
and worked on the farm in summer, until he entered Belfast Academy at
Franklinville. He was graduated in a full medical course from Buffalo
University in 1876. He began his practice at Angelica. In 1891 he removed
to Hornellsville. He has been city physician, and in 1893 was coroner of
Steuben County. Dr. Wakely is a member of the F. and A. M., and of the
Hornellsville Medical and Surgical Association.
F. J. HUTCHINSON
Several years ago F. J. Hutchinson started business in a modest
way in Hornellsville as a jeweler. Today he has one of the most successful
lines of business of the kind in Western New York. He has long made a
successful specialty of mounting diamonds and other precious stones, and
deals largely in fine glassware and porcelain, imported pottery, bicycles,
typewriters, optical goods, etc.
In his store
Mr. Hutchinson displays a magnificent mounted flamingo, which emblem he
has adopted for his trade-mark. He has designed and manufactures an
artistic souvenir spoon for Hornellsville, consisting of a flamingo
rampant on a maple leaf engraved in the bowl of the spoon, and one with
the new armory handsomely engraved in the bowl. On both spoons he has had
a great trade.
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