HENRY
S. CONDE
Henry Swits CONDE, a successful
merchant and manufacturer of Oswego county, sprung from a noble family
founded in France in the 12th century by Godfrey de CONDE in the French
department of Nord, and from whom descended the illustrious princes of
Conde. One of the earliest noted representatives of the line was
Prince de CONDE, Louis I. de BOURBON (1530-1569)(1) younger brother of
Antony of Bourbon, king of Navarre, who distinguished himself by his gallantry
at the siege of Metz, the battle of St. Quentin, and the capture of Calais,
and who from jealousy and conviction joined the Huguenots. The most
illustrious of the name was Prince of CONDE, Louis II de BOURBON (1621-1686)
who at the age of eighteen was intrusted by his father with the government
of Burgundy. He married a niece of Richelieu, became commander of
the French forces at the age of twenty-two, and acquired a name that still
remains in the first rank of the Frenchmen of his century. He was
known as “the Great Conde.” Adam CONDE, a scion of this ancient family
and a French Protestant (Huguenot), owing to religious persecution fled
to Holland in the latter part of the 16th century and thence came soon
afterward to America, settling in Schenectady, N.Y. He was
called the “Chevalier” Conde, and in 1724 was high constable of Albany.
In 1748 he was killed by the Indians within a few miles of Schenectady,
and was survived by two sons, Adam and Jesse. Jesse CONDE was born
in 1743, married Pathenia, daughter of Jonathan OGDEN, in 1762, and had
born to him five sons and two daughters. Albert, one of the sons,
married Hester TOLL, eldest daughter of Daniel and Susan (SWITS) TOLL,
and they were the parents of Henry Swits CONDE, who derived his middle
name from Henry SWITS, brother of Susan and a member of a respected Holland
family.
Henry S. CONDE, it will be
seen, descended from a distinguished line of ancestry. He was born
in Charlton, Saratoga county, N.Y., May 30, 1809, and inherited all the
principles of manliness which characterized his race. His early life
was not unlike that of his playmates, but a naturally superior intellect
very soon made him a leader among them, a position he held among men as
well throughout an honorable career. Of books his knowledge was necessarily
limited, his rudimentary education being confined to the scanty advantages
of his time, but keen perception, shrewd and close observation, and systematic
reading placed him high in the first rank of his contemporaries before
he had reached his prime, while his youthful avocations developed a natural
business instinct. His most marked characteristics were unerring
judgment and intuitive foresight, two invaluable traits which in his case
are exemplified by living results. In 1830 he settled in Central
Square in the town of Hastings, where he followed the mercantile trade
and held the office of postmaster twenty-two years. There he accumulated
property and established a reputation which ever afterward marked his numerous
commercial relations. In the fall of 1855 he was elected clerk of
Oswego county by an overwhelming majority and removed to Oswego city.
At the expiration of his term of office in 1859, during which he had materially
advanced his popularity, he engaged in the manufacture of knit goods, founding
the present extensive establishment of the Swits Conde Manufacturing Company.
In this he was eminently successful. He was also interested in iron
works, in various oil wells in Pennsylvania, and in cotton and sugar plantations
in the South, and to all these enterprises he brought a trained ability
and shrewd business qualifications. His best energies, however, were
directed towards the maintenance and development of his interests in Oswego.
Starting in a small way while the manufacture of knit goods was yet in
its infancy, he gradually increased the capacity of his plant as the demands
for his products augmented and lived to see his business become one of
the leading factors in the commercial life of the city. A few years
prior to his death, which occurred in Oswego on April 28, 1878, he practically
retired. His wife, Dorcas A. PECKHAM, who was born August 5, 1812,
also died in Oswego city June 30, 1888. Two sons, Swits and Frederick
(elsewhere mentioned), and one daughter, Marion, all residents of Oswego,
survive them.
Swits CONDE, who derives his
name from his grandmother’s brother, Henry SWITS, previously mentioned,
was born in Oswego county on April 24, 1844, and was graduated from the
schools of Oswego city at the age of eighteen. In 1863 he went to
Louisiana and during the succeeding four years was interested in the growing
of sugar and cotton. Returning to Oswego in 1867 he was admitted
to partnership with his father under the firm name of H. S. Conde &
Son, and continued in that capacity until 1874, when he succeeded to the
active and permanent management of the business. He is a member of
the Chamber of Commerce, of the Union League Club, of the Huguenot Society,
and of the Riding and Republican Clubs, all of New York city, where he
has a palatial winter home. He is an enthusiast in yachting and a
member of several yacht clubs. He was married in 1873 to Miss Apama
I., daughter of Churchill and Sarah (MORSE) TUCKER, of Fulton, and has
three sons and two daughters. Mr. Conde’s life since 1867 has been
spent in developing the immense knit goods manufactory founded by his father,
of which he became the responsible owner in 1874, and to which he has constantly
devoted a close study of details. The plant, consisting of a four-story
brick building 100 by 300 feet and a number of contributory structures,
occupies one of the best water-power privileges on the Oswego River and
covers an area of over three acres. It is also supplied with steam
power and employs above 700 operatives. Since 1874 the business
transacted has increased to upwards of $1,500,000 per annum. Mr.
Conde has invented more than forty separate appliances which have been
of practical utility, and to them is largely due the present unexcelled
facilities for manufacturing the various fabrics.
(1) Chamber’s Encyclopedia
BENJAMIN E.
BOWEN
The ancestors of Dr. Benjamin
E. BOWEN were Richard and Ann BOWEN, who emigrated from Wales in the year
1640, and settled in Rehoboth, Mass. Among their descendants were
Pardon BOWEN and William BOWEN, both distinguished physicians at Providence,
R. I., in the early part of the present century, and Jabez BOWEN, L.L.D.,
late lieutenant-governor of Rhode Island, and chancellor of Brown University.
Dr. Bowen was born on the
15th day of January, 1801, in the town of Coventry, R. I., and was the
eldest son of Stephen BOWEN and Rebecca HILL. She was a direct descendant
from Robert WILLIAMS, the Puritan founder of the colony of Rhode Island.
In early life Dr. Bowen worked at farming in the summers, taught school
in winters, and at the same time pursued his studies in preparation for
his chosen profession. After receiving his degree, in June, 1828,
he first located at Holland Patent, Oneida county, N.Y., where he practiced
his profession of physician and surgeon, with great success during seven
years. In 1835 he removed to Mexico, Oswego county, N.Y., where his
former success was continued, and where he attained not only a high professional
position, but a prominent rank as a public-spirited citizen. He held
the office of president of the Oswego County Medical Society in 1837, and
again in 1851, and in 1846 became a conspicuous member of the New York
State Medical Society. He held the office of postmaster at Holland
Patent under President Jackson, and the same office at Mexico under President
Polk. A Democrat of the old school, he was a man of decided and pronounced
convictions, but when the time of the nation’s peril came, he was among
the first and most enthusiastic to join the ranks of those who upheld the
government during the great struggle of the Rebellion. He was a leader
on most of the local committees for supplying the army with men and means,
and often became personally responsible for money to provide for the payment
of bounties to enlisted soldiers. In 1862 he was elected to represent
Oswego county in the Assembly by a flattering vote over both a Democratic
and a Republican opponent, and during the succeeding legislative term he
occupied an honorable and prominent position. In all local affairs
he evinced an ardent pubic spirit and was ever ready to render valuable
service to the town and county in which he lived. Many of the streets
in the pleasant village of Mexico were laid out at his instigation and
under his supervision. For more than forty years he was an active
trustee of the Mexico Academy, and was many times president of the board.
He was active and conspicuous in the erection of the present Academy edifice,
upon which his name stands engraved as one of the building committee.
Through his energy and persistence, with that of others, in making liberal
contributions, and in the solicitation of funds, the Academy building was
completed free from debt.
Dr. Bowen was a true gentleman
of the old school. Fearless and outspoken, free from hypocrisy, his
judgment upon important subjects was rapidly formed and followed by instant
action. He took part in many local contests, and fought his battles
with great vigor to a clear victory or an honorable defeat. He was
never a compromiser in either politics or morals. Tall and commanding
in personal appearance, dignified and courtly in demeanor, he was a conspicuous
figure in the community and an exemplar of business integrity and social
purity.
Dr. Bowen was married on May
14, 1829, to Julia HASKIN, of Pittstown, Rensselaer county, and had but
one child, Frances, who is the wife of George G. FRENCH of Mexico.
Dr. Bowen died at Mexico, on the 12th day of March, 1878.
GEORGE G. FRENCH
Was born in Pulaski, Oswego
county, N.Y., on the 20th day of August, in the year 1827. He comes
of Puritan ancestry, from England, who settled in Massachusetts before
the Revolution, and removed thence to Vermont, and thence to New York State
in the counties of Jefferson and Oswego. In 1845 Mr. French attended
the Mexico Academy, maintaining himself in his academic course and in acquiring
his profession, by teaching a country district school, boarding around
among its patrons, and by manual labor during the vacations, thus earning
less than one hundred dollars during less than one-half the year, from
which he paid for his board, clothing, tuition, and other necessary expenses
during the remainder of the year. Ever since the close of his studies
he has been a resident of the village or Mexico. In May, 1851, he
was admitted to practice law in the courts of this State. He had
been an earnest and persistent student, was an industrious and thorough
lawyer, and soon acquired a lucrative practice in his profession.
He held the office of district attorney of Oswego county from 1859 to 1863,
administering its responsible duties with credit to himself and to the
entire satisfaction of the public. He however, soon withdrew from
active politics and devoted his time and energies wholly to his profession.
After thirty years successful practice as a lawyer, in the courts of this
State and of the United States, and after being engaged in many famous
and important cases, his private and personal affairs required so much
of his time that he withdrew from active practice as a lawyer. He
was formerly proprietor of a majority of the capital stock, and with Leonard
Ames of Oswego, managed for many years the affairs of the Second National
Bank of that city until they finally sold their stock to the present managers
of that institution. Since that time he has been proprietor of the
Mexico Banking Office at Mexico, N.Y. In all of these private and
public capacities Mr. French has, by his natural and acquired abilities
as an attorney and a business man, by his unimpeachable integrity, and
his genial temperament, won the esteem of his fellow citizens, with whom
he has come in contact.
Mr. French was married on
May 3, 1853, to Frances BOWEN, only daughter of the late Dr. Benjamin E.
BOWEN. They have three children, viz: Julia F., the wife of Dr. George
R. METCALF of St. Paul, Minn.; Mary T., wife of Dr. Frederic W. GARDINER,
of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Fred E. FRENCH, an attorney-at-law, who resides
at Mexico, N.Y., but is engaged in extensive business relations in Minnesota
and North Dakota, which occupy a large portion of his time.
THE FARMAN
GENEALOGY
Roswell FARMAN, eldest son
of John and Rebecca (CHAMBERLAIN) FARMAN, or FOREMAN, as the name was formerly
written, was born in Newbury, Vt. (then N. H.), March 20, 1765.
His father, John, was born
September 16, 1739, in Maryland, and was a descendant in the fourth generation
from Robert FOREMAN, a planter, who settled near Annapolis, Md., in 1674.
John was a volunteer in the old French war, and served in the British army
from 1756 to 1763. He came by the way of the Hudson, the Mohawk,
Oneida Lake and Oswego River, to Oswego, where he was stationed a considerable
time. In 1760 he descended the St. Lawrence, in the general movement
upon Montreal, and in 1763 he went through the forest to New England, and
settled and married in Newbury, Vt.
Roswell moved, in his early
childhood, with his father to Bath, N. H., where he resided until 1803,
when he came to Vernon, Oneida county, N.Y., and three years later, in
1806, to New Haven, then a part of the town of Mexico, where he resided
until his death, October 17, 1839.
He was married three times.
He married first Ruth TURNER, by whom he had two daughters, neither of
whom ever resided in New Haven. For his second wife he married Abiah
HUTCHINS, of Bath, N.H., who died in New Haven, N.Y., September 9, 1809.
By her he had five children, one daughter and four sons, all born in Bath,
N.H., viz:
I. Zadok, born April 24, 1791, died
at New Haven, N.Y., April 9, 1854
II. Ruth, born July 18, 1794, married
William TAYLOR, had five sons and one daughter, and died in New Haven in
November, 1827.
III. Richard, born August 5, 1796,
resided after his maturity, for some years, in Augusta, N.Y., and then
in New Haven until 1838, when he removed to Lyons, Mich., where he died
August 25, 1862. There are a large number of his descendants in that
and other States.
IV. Mitchell Hutchins, born May
24, 1799, lived in New Haven until 1871, when he removed to Hillsdale,
Mich., where he died February 1, 1873. He was twice married, but
left no descendants.
V. Truman, born March 16, 1801,
resided in New Haven until 1842, and died in Gelroy, Cal., February 28,
1890, aged eight-nine years. He left two sons surviving him, and
a considerable number of other descendants.
Roswell Farman’s third wife
was Polly WHEELER, who died in New Haven, N.Y., September 1, 1860, aged
eighty-eight years. By her he had one son, George Washington, born
July 4, 1812, and still living in the village of New Haven.
Zodoc Farman, the oldest son
of Roswell, married, March 8, 1814, Martha DIX, daughter of Charles DIX
of Vernon, Oneida county, N.Y. She died in New Haven, December 23,
1863.
They had six children, two
daughters and four sons, all of whom, except the eldest, a daughter, were
born in the house, three-fourths of a mile west of New Haven village, now,
and since the death of Mrs. Farman, owned by Charles Davis. The daughters
died, one in infancy, and the other at the age of nineteen. The sons
all lived to have families and were as follows:
I. Charles Dix FARMAN, born November
1, 1820, married in New Haven, removed to Gainesville, Wyoming county,
N.Y., where he died January 7, 1889. He was a man of prominence in
his locality, was several times supervisor of his town, and died leaving
a handsome property to his three sons and a daughter.
II. Henry FARMAN, born March 14,
1823. On arriving at the age of twenty-one he removed to Augusta,
Oneida county, N.Y., where he still resides. Previous to that time
he had taught school two winters, and afterwards he continued teaching
for a number of winters and managed a farm in the summer. He has
been many years a justice of the peace and general legal adviser of people
in his section, and largely engaged in the settlement of estates of deceased
persons. He has accumulated a large fortune for a rural section.
He is, in religion, a Methodist and has given liberally for the maintenance
of the educational and religious work of that denomination. He has
spent some time traveling in Europe and the Orient. He married Fanny
SHEPARD, daughter of the late Hon. Riley SHEPARD of Knoxboro, N.Y., and
has one son living.
III. Elbert Eli FARMAN (for a sketch
of his life see below).
IV. Samuel Ara FARMAN, born December
6, 1835. When a young man he commenced business as a merchant at
Fillmore, N.Y., and was appointed postmaster at that place by President
Lincoln. Soon afterwards he entered the army as a first lieutenant,
in the 130th Regiment of New York Volunteer Infantry, which regiment was
afterwards transferred to the cavalry service, and designed as the First
New York Dragoons. He served with efficiency, and for about one year
was acting quartermaster of his regiment, the duties of which position
he performed to the full satisfaction of his superiors, his fellow officers,
and the private soldiers. After returning home he was many years
a merchant at Hermitage, N.Y., and now resides at Fillmore, N.Y.
He is married and has one son.
ELBERT ELI
FARMAN
Elbert Eli FARMAN, jurist
and formerly Diplomatic Agent and Consul General at Cairo, and late Judge
of the mixed Tribunals, or International Courts of Egypt, was born at New
Haven, Oswego county, New York, April 23, 1831. On the paternal side
he is descended from an old Maryland family of planters, that settle near
Annapolis, in 1674; and on his maternal side from Leonard DIX, one of the
original settlers of Wethersfield, Conn., and from Thomas WELLS, also one
of the settlers of that town (1635), and the first Colonial Treasurer of
Connecticut, and afterwards, Secretary, Deputy Governor and Governor of
that colony, and twenty-four years one of the Judges of the General Court,
and the writer, and one of the enactors, in 1642, of the severe criminal
statutes, that have given rise to the tradition of the existence of a criminal
code, commonly called the “Blue Laws.”
Mr. Farman prepared for college
at the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, and graduated at Amherst, Mass., in 1855,
and three years later received his degree of A. M.
Immediately on leaving college
he took an active part in public political discussions and soon became
an effective campaign speaker, and made in the campaign of 1856 in Oswego
county, and its vicinity, forty speeches for Fremont. He studied
law at Warsaw, N.Y., and was admitted to practice in 1858. From 1865
to 1867 he traveled and studied in Europe. On his return, in January
1868, he was appointed, by Governor Fenton, District Attorney for Wyoming
county, and elected for the two following terms to the same position, serving
until 1875. In March, 1876, he was appointed by General Grant, Diplomatic
Agent and Consul General at Cairo, Egypt. He held this position until
the 1st of July, 1881, when President Garfield, on the last day of his
public service, on the personal recommendation of the Hon. James G. BLAINE,
designated him as one of the Judges of the Mixed Tribunals of Egypt.
This was a life position, with a liberal salary, but he resigned in the
fall of 1884, and returned to the United States, and took an active part
in the campaign of that year. In 1880, while holding the position
of Agent and Consul General, Mr. Farman and the Hon. Geo. S. BATCHELLER
was appointed, by President Hayes, delegates, on the part of the United
States, to act on an international commission, instituted to revise the
Judicial Codes of Egypt, for the use of the Mixed Tribunals. He was
engaged in this work one year. In January, 1883, he was designated
by President Arthur as a member of the International Commission, organized
to determine the amounts to be paid to the people of Alexandria for damages
arising from the riots, bombardment, burning and pillage of that city,
in June and July, 1882. This commission examined, in eleven months,
over ten thousand claims, and awarded upon them over twenty millions of
dollars. During this work he continued to hold his position in the
courts, generally sitting one day in a week.
Mr. Farman was our representative
in Egypt during the most interesting period of its modern history.
He was in Cairo during those eventful times that led to the dethronement
of the Khedive, Ismail Pasha, and the installation, in his place, of his
son Tewfik, and, afterwards, he witnessed the riots at Alexandria, and
the bombardment and burning of that city.
When General Grant visited
Egypt Mr. Farman presented him to the Khedive and acted as interpreter
at all their interviews. He also accompanied the general on his famous
voyage of the Nile.
While Consul General he sent
to the department at Washington voluminous reports upon the agriculture,
people, commerce, politics and finance of Egypt, many of which have been
published. By direction of the Department of State at Washington,
made at his suggestion, he negotiated with Egypt a treaty, relating to
the extinction of the slave traffic in that country, and its provinces.
Although this treaty was completed and verbally assented to by the Egyptian
government, it failed of execution on account of a sudden change of the
ministry. He took, in other ways, a deep interest in the condition
of the slaves in that country, and on his application and through his personal
efforts, in their behalf, at different times, fifteen slaves were liberated
by the government, on the ground of their ill treatment by their owners.
He successfully conducted the negotiations for the increase of the number
of American judges in the mixed Tribunals, and the Hon. Philip H. MORGAN,
afterwards U.S. Minister Plenipotentiary, and Envoy Extraordinary to Mexico,
was appointed to the position thus created. He also conducted the
negotiations for the obelisk, and to his friendly personal relations with
the Khedive, Ismail Pasha, and the members of this ministry, and his diplomatic
skill, New York city is indebted for the gift of that ancient monument.
Mr. Farman also made while
in Egypt extensive collections of ancient coins, scarabaei, bronzes, objects
in porcelain, and other antiquities, which he has since classified.
Some of these collections are loaned to and are now on exhibition in the
Metropolitan Museum in New York.
In 1882 Amherst College conferred
upon him the degree of L.L.D. On his leaving Egypt he received
from the Khedive the decoration of “Grand Officer of the Imperial Order
of the Medjidieh,” a distinction rarely conferred.
In politics Mr. Farman has
always been an ardent Republican. He is a member of the Union League
Club of New York, of the Society of Sons of the Revolution, and of the
New York Bar Association. He has been twice married. His first
wife was Lois PARKER, a niece of the eminent Presbyterian divine, the late
Rev. Joel PARKER D.D., of New York city.
He married for his second
wife, in 1883, Adelaide F. FRISBIE, daughter of the Hon. David H. FRISBIE
of Galesburg, Ill., and has three children.
Since his return from Egypt
he has delivered an occasional lecture, and made political speeches, but
has been principally engaged in the management of his private affairs.
WILLIAM FITCH
ALLEN
William Fitch ALLEN, oldest
son of Abner Harry ALLEN and Cynthia PALMER, his wife, was born in the
county of Windham, Conn., on July 28, 1808. His parents removed to
Schenectady county, N.Y., in the year 1814. In 1826 he graduated
at Union College, and soon afterward commenced the study of law with the
Hon. John C. WRIGHT, and finished his studies with C.M. and E. S. LEE,
in the city of Rochester. In August, 1829, he was admitted to the
bar, and in the following month began the practice of his profession in
Oswego, in partnership with Hon. George FISHER, then about to take his
seat in Congress as the representative of the district, composed of the
counties of Oswego, Jefferson and St. Lawrence. Mr. Fisher returned
from the practice of his profession in 1833, and in 1834 a partnership
was formed by Mr. Allen and Hon. Abram P. GRANT, which continued until
the election of the former to the bench of the Supreme Court in 1847.
He held various village, town, and county offices, and for several years
officiated as Supreme Court commissioner, and master and examiner in chancery.
He served in the Legislature
of this State as one of the representatives of this county during the session
of 1843 and 1844, at the first session acting as chairman of the Committee
of Ways and Means, and at the last as chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
In April, 1845, he was appointed by President Polk as attorney of the United
States for the Northern District of New York, which office he resigned
on taking his seat as justice of the Supreme Court in 1847.
In May, 1847, he was elected
to the office of justice of the Supreme Court, and officiated in that capacity
until 1863. While thus serving on the bench he was placed in nomination
by the convention for the office of governor of the state of New York,
but he declined the nomination, choosing to remain on the bench, which
he adorned by his wisdom, learning and impartiality. In 1863 he was
the candidate of the Democratic party for the office of judge of the Court
of Appeals. In the following year he removed to New York city and
engaged in the practice of law as counsel only, and remained in that city
until his removal to Albany to enter upon the duties of comptroller, to
which he was elected in November, 1867. He was re-elected to the
same office in 1869. He resigned the office in July, 1870, to take
the office of associate judge of the Court of Appeals, to which he was
chosen in May, 1870. His term in this office would have expired in
December, 1878, but it was shortened by his death, which took place on
June 3, 1878. He received the degree of L.L.D. from Hamilton College
in 1857, and from Union College in 1864.
On the day following the death
of Judge of Allen, Sanford E. CHURCH, then chief judge of the Court of
Appeals of the State of New York, read a paper upon the death of his fellow
member of the court, in which he reviewed the various public stations to
which Judge Allen had been called, down to the time of his election as
associate judge of the Court of Appeals, and concluded as follows:
“We cannot on this occasion
enter into a proper consideration of the judicial character and labors
of the distinguished judge who but a few days since sat with us on the
bench, and whose loss will be felt ad deplored not by the bench and bar
of the State alone, but by the whole country. The first thirty-nine
volumes of Barbour’s Reports contain the published opinions of Judge Allen,
pronounced by him while a judge of the Supreme Court. They attest
his eminent ability, the fullness of his learning, a firm, intelligent
and comprehensive grasp of the most difficult questions in the law, and
the wisdom which he brought to bear in adjusting a new system of practice
and procedure to the solution of legal controversies. The same qualities
which distinguished him in the Supreme Court marked his judicial labors
in the Court of Appeals. He was fertile in resource, patient and
laborious in the investigation of causes, and unswerving in his adherence
to his convictions. His knowledge of constitutional and commercial
law, and his clear apprehension of their principles were especially conspicuous.
Some of us have been intimately associated with him on the bench of this
court since its organization, eight years ago, and others for lesser periods,
and we unite in bearing testimony to his great qualities as a judge, to
the facility with which he could comprehend and formulate the principles
applicable to the most difficult and complicated cases, to his untiring
industry and conscientious performance of his duty, and above all, to his
independence of judicial judgment, and the fearlessness with which he adhered
to and enforced his conviction of right. We never knew him to be
influenced in the slightest degree by any attempt to bring popular prejudice
or flattery to bear upon the judgment of the court. He was not only
independent, but upright and just. He was truly a man of distinction
among his contemporaries; a distinction to be coveted, for it was reached
by the qualities which exalt the character, and it took no advantage by
false pretensions. Through an extended life he was an honor to his
race, to his profession of the law, and to his judicial office; and just
as men are lamenting that the arbitrary provision of the Constitution would
soon take him from the bench in the ripeness of his character, his talents
and his powers, the Almighty Hand, in its wisdom, has removed him from
earth……His personal character was of the highest order. He took no
step outside the path of a wise sobriety and exemplary rectitude.
His judgments and his life were in accord. He was simple and modest.
He was kind in nature, affable in intercourse, of warm social impulses,
sensible of the claims of his fellows, and prompt in rendering all the
dues of neighborhood. His warm and impulsive nature was held under
restraint of reason, and of the religion he professed and practiced.”
Judge Allen was married in
1833, to Miss Cordelia CARRINGTON, daughter of Elisha CARRINGTON, of Oswego.
The had three children, all of whom died young.
GEORGE M. CASE
Hon. George M. CASE is the
sixth child and third son of Jonathan and Betsey Ann (FERGUSON) CASE, natives
of Oneida county, and was born in Fulton, where he has always resided,
on the 29th of August, 1827. The parents were married in Oneida county
and came thence to Fulton at an early day. Jonathan CASE was a merchant,
sheriff of Oswego county, a canal contractor, and later a contractor on
railroads, and died here in 1850. His widow survived until about
1885, at the age of eighty-six.
George M. Case was educated
in the public schools of his native village and in the old Fulton Academy,
the predecessor of Falley Seminary. He taught a district school one
winter and then entered the dry goods store of J. & S. F. CASE as a
clerk, in which capacity he remained for three years, when he was admitted
to a partnership under the firm name of J. & S. F. Case & Co.
Soon afterward his father died and the firm became S. F. & G. M. CASE.
He subsequently engaged in business as a canal contractor in company with
Thomas GALE, and performed the work of enlarging the Liverpool level.
In 1860 he retired from mercantile trade and until 1870 devoted his entire
attention to contracting. He undertook many important contacts involving
hundreds of thousands of dollars, and executed each one satisfactorily.
These covered numerous State and government works, and among them, as a
member of the firm of Case, Van Wagenen & Co., was the blasting of
rock out of the Mississippi River at Rock Island and the extensive dredgings
in Maumee Bay at Toledo, Ohio. For eight years, with Thomas KEELER,
he had charge of the Cayuga and Seneca canal.
In 1870 Mr. Case retired from
business as a contractor and became cashier of the Citizens’ National Bank
of Fulton, of which he was subsequently elected president, a position he
still holds. This bank was founded and has generally been conducted
by members of the Case family, and no similar institution in Western or
Northern New York ranks higher in financial affairs. It has always
enjoyed the confidence of business men everywhere.
In politics Mr. Case has ever
exerted a commanding and wholesome influence, and as a staunch Republican
he has materially contributed to his party’s welfare. In 1886 and
again in 1887 he represented the second district of Oswego county in the
State Legislature, where he served with distinction as chairman of the
Banking Committee and member of the committee on canals. His legislative
career was marked with unswerving fidelity to his constituents and an open-handed,
liberal support of every worthy measure. He has served as member
of the Republican State Committee for three years, and has frequently represented
his constituency as delegate to local, county, district, and state conventions.
He went as a delegate to the Chicago National Convention in 1880, and was
one of the 306 who voted for the renomination of Grant; after Garfield
was brought forward as a candidate Mr. Case with the others transferred
his support to that subsequently lamented president, and was prominent
among the number who proudly placed his name in nomination. Mr. Case
has also been for many years one of the railroad commissioners for the
town of Volney, a position he still holds. With Willard JOHNSON he
was instrumental in refunding the town’s indebtedness, which proved exceedingly
beneficial to the taxpayers.
In private life and as a citizen
Mr. Case is universally esteemed and respected. His influence is
ever directed towards the betterment of his town and county. In business
he is shrewd, liberal, and honest. He is a generous benefactor, public
spirited, kind hearted, and consistent. He belongs to the Masonic
lodge in Fulton and is a prominent member of the Presbyterian Church, of
which he has served as president of the board of trustees for many years.
To this organization Mr. Case has long been a liberal contributor and an
earnest, active supporter.
September 11, 1850, Mr. Case
married Miss Vandalia M., daughter of Henry FRENCH, an early and prominent
resident of Fulton. They have had two children, both living, viz.,
Eva D., wife of Dr. Charles R. LEE, of Fulton, and Solon F., cashier of
the Citizens’ National Bank. Mrs. Case died August 14, 1890, and
on October 20, 1894, Mr. Case married for his second and present wife Mrs.
B.J. KIMBALL, of Fulton.
EDWIN RICHARD
REDHEAD
Few men in all Northern or
Western New York have attained by their own exertions, within a comparatively
short space of time, a more distinguished position in the business and
social life of their respective communities than has Edwin Richard REDHEAD,
the extensive paper manufacturer of Fulton. His parents, the Rev.
Richard and Elizabeth (BARKER) REDHEAD, natives of England, descended from
a long line of honored and substantial ancestry, many of whose members
acquired stations of eminence. Soon after their marriage, or about
1847, they emigrated to America, where the father has since followed the
respected profession of a Methodist clergyman, being for a number of years
an active member of the Northern New York Conference of the M.E. Church.
He is now superannuated and lives in Syracuse, where his surviving daughter
also resides, his other daughter having died in Fulton, where he officiated
as pastor in 1860-61. While holding a pastorate in Brownville, Jefferson
county, his only son, Edwin Richard, was born on January 6, 1851.
E. R. REDHEAD was educated in the public schools and spent his boyhood
in the villages in which his father was stationed as a preacher.
He attended the Red Creek (N.Y.) Academy and Fairfield Seminary in Herkimer
county, graduating in the classical course of the latter institution in
1869. He then entered Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn., and
remained until the beginning of his sophomore year, when sickness obliged
him to return home, where he spent one year in recuperating. His
father was then stationed at Port Byron, N.Y. Meanwhile Syracuse
University had been founded, and young Redhead was given the choice of
going there or returning to Wesleyan. He chose the former, entered
as a sophomore, and was graduated in the classical course with the class
of ’74. During his attendance at Syracuse he ably filled all the
positions on the college paper, the University Herald, of which he was
one of the founders, and the last year was editor-in-chief.
In the fall of 1874 Mr. Redhead
began the study of law in the office of the late Judge H. B. HOWLAND at
Port Byron (later of Auburn), where he remained about one year, when serious
impairment of the eyes compelled him to relinquish that profession and
threw him upon his own resources. He finally entered the employ of
F. G. WEEKS, the well-known print-paper manufacturer of Skaneateles, N.Y.,
as traveling salesman, a position he filled with entire success for five
years. In 1880 the two formed a partnership and purchased the original
mill of the present Victoria Paper Mills Company in Fulton, and began the
manufacture of tissue papers. Mr. Weeks was president and Mr. Redhead
served as secretary, treasurer, and general manager. Two or three
years later they reconstructed the plant, erected a pulp-mill – the first
pulp-mill in this section using the Voelter or German process – and changed
from the making of tissue to the manufacture of heavy manilla paper.
About 1886 they purchased the great water-power at the upper bridge in
Fulton and converted an old stone flouring-mill into a pulp-mill.
In 1889 they constructed the present raceway at a cost of $50,000
and laid the foundations of a new pulp-mill which was completed in 1890.
This valuable property had laid idle for a number of years, and it is to
these enterprising men that it owes its modern development. They
reclaimed its immense water-power and converted the site into one of the
best manufacturing privileges in the village of Fulton.
In 1892 Mr. Weeks exchanged
his interest in the Victoria Paper Mills Company for Mr. Redhead’s interest
in the property at the upper bridge; the title at this latter point was
vested in the Oswego Falls Pulp and Paper Company, of which Mr. Weeks had
been the president and Mr. Redhead the vice-president and local manager.
This exchange of interests left Mr. Redhead the principal stockholder,
the president, and the general manager of the Victoria Paper Mills Company,
positions he has since filled with singular executive ability.
In 1894 the mills formerly
operated by William BARBER and the Cataract Paper Company were added to
the plant, making four paper machines, employing an average of eighty men,
and giving a daily product of fifteen or twenty tons of manilla paper.
In the summer of that year a bag manufacturing company was also added.
These vast business interests
have placed Mr. Redhead in the front rank of the leading manufacturers
in not only Oswego county but in Western and Northern New York. He
is one of the best known paper men in the State and acknowledged as a leader
in his line of manufacturing. In local affairs he has always taken
a prominent part. An unswerving Republican he has ever been actively
identified with wholesome politics, but has always eschewed public preferment.
Charitable, liberal, and benevolent, he has been a local benefactor, especially
to the M. E. church, of which he and his wife are active members.
With characteristic liberality he donated the lot upon which the State
street chapel stands and furnished also a large portion of the funds for
erecting that building. During the erection of the new M.E. church
in Fulton he was one of its most generous supporters, while in the government
of that denomination at large he has contributed valuable time, great executive
ability, and wholesome influence. As a lay delegate he represented
the Northern New York Conference in the General conference of the M.E.
church in Omaha, Neb., in 1892. For nine years he has been a member
of the Board of Trustees of Syracuse University, being at present one of
its Executive Committee.
Mr. Redhead was married on
May 22, 1877, to Miss Sarah A., daughter of Israel PETTY, of Port Byron.
They have raveled extensively throughout the United States, and in 1889
made a continental tour, during which they visited the memorable Paris
Exposition.
WILLIAM B.
HUTCHINSON
Wm. B. HUTCHINSON was born
in Pepperall, Worcester county, Mass., July 4, 1806. He received
a district school education in his native town. In early life he
worked at the painter’s trade in various cities in the New England States.
In 1833 he was united in marriage, to Amelia, daughter of Azariah HASKIN,
of Pittstown, Rensselaer county, N.Y. They resided in Poughkeepsie
two years, then went to Palmyra, Wayne county, N.Y., and in 1837 removed
to Mexico, Oswego county, where he purchased a large farm. His agricultural
ability soon develop, and in a short time he was known as a successful
and scientific farmer. Energetic, honest, and upright in every business
transaction, and possessed of a remarkably cheerful and social disposition,
he took a great interest in everything that tended to the welfare and prosperity
of his adopted town. He was greatly interested in educational matters
and did much to bring the school at Colosse up to the high standard which
it had during his residence in Oswego county. He was an organizer
of the Colosse Debating Society, for the culture of the young people of
the vicinity. Mr. Hutchinson took a leading part in the politics
of his town and county, being an old time Democrat, but joined the Republican
party at its formation. From the time Horace GREELEY was nominated
for the presidency he voted the Democratic ticket. Another fact,
of which his children are justly proud, is the interest he always manifested
in the cause of temperance. His popularity in this way made him a
prominent man all through his life, which ended May 26, 1889, at the age
of eighty-three years. His wife survived him two years. Mr.
and Mrs. Hutchinson were the parents of five children; Harriet F. DRIGGS,
of Decorah, Iowa(deceased); Lucy G. CALKINS, of Erie, Pa.; Ellen J. JOYCE,
of North Syracuse, N.Y.; Lydia A. DE LANCEY, of Binghamton, N.Y.; and Charles
D., who died at the age of sixteen. Mr. Hutchinson spent the last
fifteen years of his life with his daughter, Mrs. Joyce, in the town of
Cicero, Onondaga county, N.Y.
GEORGE H. GOODWIN
George H. GOODWIN was born
in Mexico, Oswego county, N.Y., on December 5, 1834. His family is
of English descent, and he is the youngest of four children, and the only
survivor. His brothers were J. Austin GOODWIN, Joseph C. GOODWIN
and Henry G. GOODWIN. His ancestors on both sides were of New England
stock, and of sturdy stuff, both intellectually and morally. His
father, Calvin GOODWIN, and his mother, Emily HINKLEY, were born in Mansfield,
Conn., and came to Mexico in 1828. The former died in 1869 at the
age of sixty-eight years, and the latter died in 1845 at the age of forty-three
years. His grandfather, the Rev. Jonathan GOODWIN, was a widely known
and universally respected minister of the gospel. He preached for
nearly forty years in Connecticut, and was the founder and first pastor
of the Baptist church in Mexico village.
The subject of this sketch
was educated at the Mexico Academy. He early began the study of law
with ex-Judge Cyrus WHITNEY, and finished his legal studies in the offices
of Orville ROBINSON and James NOXON. In 1856 he graduated from the
Department of Law of the Albany University, and was admitted to the bar
at the age of twenty-one years. He practiced his profession in Oswego
county and in California, and for a number of years applied himself closely
to the profession but was afterward more or less diverted from the law
by reason of ill health and the cares devolving upon him in the settlement
of some extensive estates, and has of late given more time to business
and literature than to his profession. Mr. Goodwin has been largely
identified with the growth and prosperity of Mexico, and few men in the
county have a more extended acquaintance or are possessed of warmer friends.
Mr. Goodwin formerly took
an active interest in politics and often refused offers of political advancement.
His local popularity has been attested on numerous occasions by the positions
of trust which have been given him. He was chairman of the Democratic
County Committee many years, and very frequently represented his party
in its State conventions. He was president of Mexico village in 1879,
and was chosen supervisor of the town of Mexico in 1883, though the town
was more than two to one Republican at that time. He is the only
Democrat, with a single exception, that has been elected as supervisor
of the town of Mexico during the past thirty-nine years.
Mr. Goodwin has been an extensive
traveler on both continents. In 1882 he visited Ireland, England,
France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Holland, of which countries
he had previously acquired a broad general knowledge from books and conversation.
In 1889 he made another more extended tour in the east, in the course of
which he ascended the Nile in Egypt, and afterwards visited Palestine,
Syria, Turkey, Greece, and many islands of the Mediterranean. He
has also traversed almost every portion of North America. In writing,
as well as in speech, Mr. Goodwin is a master of the English language,
with a style clear, lucid, terse, and fluent. While abroad he wrote
a long series of very interesting letters, which were published in the
local papers, and widely copied by the press of the State.
In 1883 Mr. Goodwin was united
in marriage with Adelaide E. ALFRED, daughter of Charles L. WEBB, of Mexico.
She died April 14, 1884, at the age of thirty-six years. Their only
child, Mabel A., died September 29, 1984.
SYLVANUS C.
HUNTINGTON
Judge HUNTINGTON was sixth
in direct descent from Simon HUNTINGTON of Norwich, England, who, in 1633,
died on board the ship that was bearing him and his family to America.
His widow, Margaret (BARET) HUNTINGTON, and their four children – the first
Huntingtons in the colonies – dwelt for a time in Massachusetts, but in
1660 Simon, the youngest son, moved to Norwich, Conn., and in that vicinity
his descendants lived for more than a century. There Joseph HUNTINGTON
was born in 1778. In 1807 he married Hannah CONVERS, and engaged
in farming in Orange and later in West Charleston, Vermont, where he died
in 1857, a man of commanding presence and physical prowess. There
Sylvanus CONVERS, the sixth of their eight children, was born April 14,
1820.
Of strong constitution and
vigorous in body and mind, he early determined to get a liberal education,
and buying his time from his father, supported himself during his whole
term of study, first at Brownington Academy, Vt., and afterwards at Oberlin
and Dartmouth Colleges, graduating at Dartmouth in 1845. He then
studied law with McCarty and Watson of Pulaski, N.Y., being drawn thither
by Miss Hannah M. WARMER, of Sandy Creek, a classmate at Oberlin, whose
ambition, so like his own, led her to make her way, by a fortnight’s journey
on horseback, by canal boat and stage to the only college where women could
receive the same classical education as men. After their marriage
in February, 1846, they went to Tennessee, where he was private tutor in
President Jackson’s family at “The Hermitage,” and she a governess in the
family of Mrs. NICHOLSON, President Jackson’s adopted daughter.
Returning in 1847, he was
admitted to the bar, and practiced for two years at Belleville, N.Y., whence
in 1849 they moved to Pulaski. There he continued in active practice
until 1894, alone until 1882, and after that in partnership with his only
son. He served as county judge of Oswego county for four years, beginning
January 1, 1856, and in 1865 was elected district attorney, but resigned
soon after his health not being equal to the strain of that and his other
work.
Alone in a country village,
he devoted himself with great energy to the law in all its branches, and
soon became thoroughly equipped in its principles and practice in the courts
of the State and Nation, and for more than thirty years was conceded by
all to be a leader of the county bar. His great mental and physical
strength and indomitable will enabled him to perform the vast amount of
labor which his reputation as a trial lawyer and as a counsel, and his
devotion to the interests of his clients brought him. Probably his
well trained intellect was at its best in the study and argument of questions
of law before the appellate courts, yet most will remember him as a successful
criminal lawyer, but one of the sixteen, indicted for murder, whom he defended,
having suffered the death penalty. The ability and persistency for
almost six years displayed in the defense of that one, Nathan Orlando GREENFIELD,
a poor farmer of Orwell, N.Y., charged with wife murder, and his lavish
expenditure of time, strength and money, added more to his fame than the
other fifteen. Three jury trials, occupying in all eleven weeks,
four arguments on appeal and numerous applications to the governor did
not bring success. The power of public opinion, the skillful preparation
of the evidence by ex-district Attorney LAMOREE, and the masterly conduct
of the prosecution at the third trial by William C. (afterwards Chief-Judge)
RUGER, secured a conviction, which the highest court sustained. Judge
Huntington’s belief in Greenfield’s innocence became to him a certainty,
when, as stated by Judge CHURCHILL, at the meeting of the Oswego County
Bar in April, 1894, Greenfield before the third trial refused to plead
guilty to murder in the second degree, because by so doing he would admit
that he killed his wife. And the feeling that a great wrong had been
done contributed as much to Judge Huntington’s sorrow at the final execution
of the sentence as did the failure of the labor of years. One of
the results of Judge Huntington’s labors in that case was Chapter 182 of
the Laws of 1876, which provided that persons jointly indicted for crime
could testify for each other, thus making Greenfield’s mother a competent
witness for him.
Judge Huntington’s mind was
well formed and trained for grasping legal principles and solving legal
problems. Its most distinguishing qualities were strength, keenness
of insight, and the power of generalization. He always sought the
broad principles which lie at the foundation of all things, and valued
details only as they showed the way to or illustrated those principles.
He believed in an order of things in which God works by eternal and unchanging
laws, and his reverence for the Infinite One and his expression of himself
in the universe was unbounded.
Throughout his life he added
to his professional labors careful reading of the classics, and critical
and thorough study of the sciences, the higher mathematics, philosophy
and history. His ardent love for the masterpieces of poetry, his
wide reading and most vivid imagination kept his own inner life fresh and
beautiful with the thoughts of all the ages. He was gentle as well
as strong, and his affections formed a large part of his home life, while
his genial nature made him to all a most welcome companion. He never
oppressed or tyrannized over any one. In all his relations with his
fellowmen his principle of conduct was, “All have an equal right to live
their own lives without dictation from others.”
His first wife was seventh
in direct descent from Andrew WARNER, who came from Wales to America about
1630, and lived in Massachusetts and Connecticut. She was the third
child of Andrew WARNER, jr., and Elizabeth Clark (YOUNG) WARNER, who moved
from Vernon Centre to Sandy Creek in 1836. Her literary tastes and
love of study, especially of the laws and ways of nature, continued throughout
her life, which was ended by pneumonia May 23, 1888.
On December 24, 1890, Judge
Huntington married Emily L., daughter of Lovina (WARNER) and Benjamin SNOW,
and widow of Hon. James W. FENTON, of Pulaski. Endowed with rare
personal qualities, she made his last years a happiness for him and therefore
a beautiful remembrance for herself. She survives him and now resides
with a married daughter in New York city.
Judge Huntington left two
children by his first marriage, Miss Metelill HUNTINGTON, now engaged in
literary work in Philadelphia, and S. C. HUNTINGTON, jr., of Pulaski, both
graduated from Oberlin College.
Judge Huntington’s fine inherited
physique and strong will carried him to a good old age in spite of his
immense labors. After repeated attacks of the “grippe,” the last
few years of his life showed constantly decreasing vitality, though no
loss of mental power. He died on March 2, 1894, “full of years and
of honors.”
SYLVANUS CONVERS HUNTINGTON, JR.,
only son of Judge S. C. and Hannah M. WARNER HUNGINGTON, was born June
12, 1857. His home has always been at Pulaski, where he prepared
for college in the class of 1871. In 1872 he entered the Freshman
class at Oberlin College, graduating at the head of the class of 1876.
He then taught classics at Pulaski Academy one year and Greek at Oberlin
the next, and had begun a post-graduate course in languages at Yale, when
his father persuaded him to begin the study of the law in his office.
Admitted to the bar in January, 1882, he at once became junior partner
in the firm of S. C. Huntington & Son, of Pulaski, which continued
until his father’s death in March, 1894. Since then he has practiced
law at Pulaski, first alone, and lately with F. G. WHITNEY.
Mr. Huntington was married
November 1, 1883, to Ellen DOUGLAS, only daughter of Rev. James and Mary
J. DOUGLAS, of Pulaski, and with his wife and their three sons, lived in
the homestead so long occupied by his father.
