Oswego County New York Biographies, Surnames N-Z

Transcribed by Jeffrey Tooley

Oswego County New York Biographies extracted from Landmarks of Oswego County, by John C. Churchill, LL.D., 1895.

PAGE, ALANSON SUMNER

ALANSON SUMNER PAG was born in Saratoga county, N. Y., on June 80, 1825. His ancestry belonged to the hardy New England sjtock from which sprang so many of the pioneers of this State. His father was David Page, born in Massachusetts, who removed with his parents to Providence, Saratoga county, when he was ten years old. He was a respected farmer and later in life followed canal contracting. His wife was Elsy Sumner, a daughter of Robert Sumner, of Edinburg, Saratoga county, who was a native of the State of Connecticut, where his daughter was born. The father of David was also named David, was a native of Salem, Mass., and removed to Saratoga county and died there.

Alanson S. Page was given exceptional educational advantages for one in his station in life and at that comparatively early time. After attending the district school through his boyhood, he was sent to the Galloway Academy, which he left in 1842, when he was seventeen years old, to attend the Cazenovia Seminary one year; this was then an institution of learning of considerable note and gaVe its students excellent opportunity for obtaining a highler English education. His attendance there was followed by a period in the academy of Professor Beck, in Albany, which he left well equipped for his after career. It had been determined by himself and his parents that he should follow the profession of law, and he accordingly entered the office of S. & C. Stevens, in Albany in 1846, where he studied assiduously for two years, when he was admitted to the bar and settled in the then young but active city of Syracuse. One year of practice there was sufficient to convince Mr. Page that in other fields of labor he could more surely, and certainly sooner, attain the success for which he was ambitious. He removed to Oswego in 1850 and engaged in lumber trade with Myron S. Clark under the firm name of Clark & Page, a successful business connection which continued until the death of Mr. Clark in 1862, which dissolved the firm. The business was then continued three years longer to 1865 by Mr. Page associated with L. A. Card under the style of Card & Page. This firm was dissolved and Mr. Page became a member of the International Lumber Company, an organization at Albany comprising five co-partners. This organization continued until 187B, when the business was closed up. In 1853, during the existence of the firm of Clark & Page they purchased of Benj. Burt, the water power at Minetto, including an old saw mill, which they rebuilt into the second gang mill in this State. Logs were imported from Canada, and the mill was operated by that firm and by Mr. Page until the close of the business in 1873. During the period between 1868 and 1873 Mr. Page was associated with the late Delos De Wolf in Oswego in the distilling business.

With the winding up of these business enterprises Mr. Page found himself idle after a period of nearly thirty years of active life. With means at his command and the possessor of a splendid water power at Minetto, he remained out of business three years, when his attention was attracted to a new industry. The only manufactory of shade cloth in the country, for window curtains, was then in operation in Oswego, and Mr. Page determined to enter the field as a competitor for a part of the immense trade in these goods. He accordingly in 1879 formed the Minetto Shade Cloth Company, consisting at that time of himself and Cadwell B. Benson. Charles Tremain became a member of the company prior to the beginning of manufacturing. The old saw mill was remodeled for its new purposes, and a new structure was erected 300 by 40 feet in size, and the business was begun with about twenty-five workmen. Mr. Page assumed the direct and active management of the business, and under his energetic and prudent control the manufactory prospered from the first and has become one of the largest industries in Northern New York. Additional buildings for various purposes have been erected, a roller plant established, a large number of workmen’s houses built, and new processes evolved, until at the present time (1895) about 350 hands are employed, and the product of the manufactory finds its way to all parts of the United States, as well as to many other countries.

Mr. Page’s superior business qualifications and his staunch integrity, sound judgment, and his character as a man, have received recognition from his fellow citizens. He was chosen the first president of the Oswego County Savings Bank, upon its organization, but resigned the position and was succeeded by John B. Edwards. Upon the resignation of the latter, on account of his advancing years, Mr. Page was again elected to the office, which he still holds. He was also one of the directors of the City Bank, and for a number of years was in the directorate of the Lake Ontario Shore Railroad. All of these institutions have profited by the business sagacity and conservative counsel of Mr. Page.

In politics Mr. Page was formerly an independent Democrat; indeed, independence of character is one of his marked traits, and when the time came that prompted him to change his political affiliations, he did not hesitate, but cast a Republican vote for President Hayes. Since that time he has supported the principles of that party as far as consistent with his sense of duty. Naturally aggressive and impatient of injustice and trickery in the political field, he has never hesitated to denounce wrong doing, by whomsoever perpetrated. As far back as 1869, before he had changed his political allegiance, he was elected mayor of the city of Oswego by the Democrats and served in that capacity until 1872 inclusive. His administration was satisfactory to the community, and the city business was carried on upon the same prudent basis that has always characterized his own affairs. The new City Hall was erected during that period and is an enduring monument to those who had it in charge. A sewerage system for the city was projected also during that administration, which has been since established on substantially the plan then inaugurated.

In 1875 Mr. Page was elected to the Assembly and served in 1876. In that body he was chairman of the Canal Committee, in which capacity he warmly opposed free tolls on the canals and made a minority report to that effect. Mr. Page’s course in the committee was disapproved at the time by many men who have since lived to adopt the views then so energetically advanced by him. The removal of tolls did not help the canal traffic, but, as he had often predicted would be the case, caused the railroads to lower their rates to a point where they could control the situation, just as they had previously done. With the close of his term in the Assembly Mr. Page relinquished politics as far the acceptance of office is concerned; but he is found fearlessly aggressive and independent in support of what he believes to be for the best in local politics. His public and private life has been such as to gain for him the unqualified respect of his fellow citizens.

In 1858 Mr. Page was married to Elsie Benson, of Geddes, Onondaga county, N. Y., daughter of Dr. D. M. Benson, who died in Geddes in 1854; the widow of the latter died at the residence of Mr. Page in Oswego in January, 1895.

PHELPS, WILLIAM BENJAMIN

WILLIAM BENJAMIN PHELPS. was born in Eaton, Madison county, N. Y., on September 24, 1817. He came from Puritan stock and always felt pride in the fact that his grandfather, Elijah Phelps, fought as a private in the battle of Bunker Hill. His father was John Phelps, who was a farmer, and died at the age of forty-six years. The early years of the subject were passed with his uncle at Springfield, Mass., where he obtained his education. On October 7, 1839, when he was twenty-two years old, he removed to Oswego, traveling on a packet boat. There he taught penmanship and composition for a time, and then found employment in the office of Penfield, Lyon & Co. His first business venture on his own account was as a partner in a hat store; this was not successful and its failure gave him a life-long distrust of mercantile business. After a brief period of work in a shoe store he entered the employ of the chandlery firm of Cooper & Barber, and in 1852 began work for a steamboat company. This business was at that time rising to the height of its prosperity, and many men of good capacity found the beginning of successful careers in connection with the lake commerce of the place. Mr. Phelps’s business capacity, his energy, and his popularity soon gave him a purser’s berth; this was then a lucrative position, for it was not uncommon for a lake steamer to sail with a passenger list of from 1,000 to 1,500. Mr. Phelps performed the duties of his position on several well-known vessels to the satisfaction of his company, and soon gained a wide popularity. About the year 1851 he went to New York as a steamboat agent, and in 1857 removed from Oswego to Buffalo; but the outlook there was not sufficiently attractive to him and he returned to Oswego. At the beginning of the season of 1860 he was acting as chief clerk of the Ontario Steamboat Company, and continued his connection with that organization several years. He finally, in common with other men of foresight, became convinced that the already numerous railroads would eventually outstrip the steamboats in commercial operations, and he counseled the sale of the Ontario line and aided in its accomplishment in 1867. In 1867 he was appointed superintendent of the Oswego and Syracuse division of the D., L. & W. Railroad, then the Oswego and Syracuse Railroad. In this responsible position he remained nearly twenty years, giving the highest satisfaction to both the company and to the public, and only resigned it in 1885 to accept the lighter duties of general agent of the same road, a station which he filled at the time of his death.

Mr. Phelps always entertained a strong liking for military affairs, and was chiefly instrumental in continuing Fort Ontario as a military station, visiting Washington and having personal interviews with the secretary of war, General Sheridan, and others for that purpose. His interest in military matters prompted him to store his mind with a large fund of statistical information on the subject, and he was especially well informed in the military history of the country. He was a charter member of the old Oswego Guards, organized in 1837, and served as fourth corporal, from which fact he derived his familiar title of “Corporal.” He was also an honorary member of various military organizations in Central New York.

In politics Mr. Phelps was a staunch Republican, but not an active partisan. His influence was always exerted for the cause of good government. He served as aiderman of the third ward and was honored with re-election. In 1878 he was beaten by Thomas Pearson in an exciting contest for the mayoralty of Oswego.

Socially Mr. Phelps was one of the most companionable of men, and his popularity wherever he was 'known was boundless, while his domestic life was of the most enviable character. He was married on December 24, 1843, to Caroline Matilda Stone, who died on September 25, 1889. They had four children who survive, Mrs. B. S. Ould, Mrs. C. H. Bond, John P. Phelps, and W. B. Phelps, all of whom are residents of Oswego.

It is proper to close this brief sketch of the life of Mr. Phelps with the following words of eulogy written by one who knew him well:

"Men like Mr. Phelps are unfortunately the rarest of the earth. But few communities are favored with such a character. As wit, raconteur, and bon vivant, this quaint little man could keep a company in a roar. Some of the quips and sallies that have dropped from his lips have provoked to laughter the mightiest of the land. His smile was sunny, a true index of his disposition, almost invariably genial, inquiring, reminiscent and sanguine. This was his social side — a good fellow, a prince of good fellows. From another standpoint a good citizen was revealed, one whose love for his country, her history, her institutions, was so great, so high, so manifest in his every-day doings as to be worthy of standing as the type of sincere patriotism. And more prominent than all, perhaps, was the business side of Mr. Phelps. He was essentially a man of affairs, and however much his attention might be solicited by other matters, he never permitted it to stray from his work sufficiently long for the latter to suffer, It was in the routine of his duties as the representative of the railroad, perhaps, that the manifold qualities which endeared the man to his fellows were best shown. His ear was ever inclined to the tale of the needy, his mind was ever ready to sympathize with the afflicted, while thousands in straits of trouble were made partakers of his generosity and kindness. His monument has long been raised in the hearts of these.”

Mr. Phelps died on May 17, 1893.

PLACE, JOHN ALBRO

JOHN ALBRO PLACE. The history of a county like Oswego would be incomplete without suitable reference to those who have contributed to its intellectual, moral and political development as well as to its material growth. Of this number few have labored longer and more assiduously in all these directions, or wielded a larger or more wholesomely shaping influence upon passing events than has the subject of this sketch, the Hon. John Albro Place. Mr. Place is descended from a long line of New England ancestry and possesses in a marked degree the rugged qualities of integrity and industry so strongly characteristic of that well known people. He was born in the town of Foster, Providence county, R. I., February 25, 1822. While yet a mere child his family removed to Manchester, Hartford county, Conn., where he attended the village school until he was ten years of age, 1882, when the family again removed, this time to Oswego county, taking up its residence in the town of Oswego on the Rice farm, near the mouth of Rice or Three-Mile Creek, which was the first place in this locality to be settled after the Revolution. After a residence here of about a year, and the two or three following years in the village of Oswego, Mr. Samuel Place, the father, having purchased a tract of wild land on what is known as Heald’s Hill in the town of Oswego, distant about four miles west of the river, removed thither with his family. This was about 1886. Here, young Place, by this time a sturdy youth of fourteen, attended the district school during those portions of the winter months that he could be spared from the farm work, making the most of such advantages as were thus offered him, till he was sixteen, when he entered the office of the Oswego Weekly Palladium (this was in the spring of 1838), to learn the printing business. Finding, after four years of this kind of employment, that the business offered no immediate encouragement for remaining in it, Mr. Place, then twenty years of age, engaged in teaching in the schools of the, as yet, village of Oswego, and continued successfully to do so for several years. Mr. Place was a student as well as teacher. From early childhood he had shown a marked interest in current events, especially those relating to politics, both in their local and national bearings. Early, too, he had shown decided aptitude for writing, and his spare hours, while teaching, were naturally devoted to the preparation of various articles for such papers of the county as were open to the propagation of his sentiments, with occasional contributions to other papers outside of his immediate locality and supposedly wielding a larger influence. In these years of teaching and desultory newspaper writing, Mr. Place was a Democrat of the Silas Wright school, Silas Wright then being the leading U. S. senator from the State of New York and an outspoken and masterful opponent of the further extension of slavery by the South. Mr. Place’s earliest formed convictions were opposed to this system of human chattelhood, — convictions that grew T with his growth, and strengthened with his years. It was an interesting period in the history of slavery and its relations to the Democratic party. For several years the slaveholders had had their way and been duly though reluctantly yielded to. A protest, however, against this exhibition of subserviency came with the result of the Democratic national convention of 1844, when Van Buren, also an opponent of the further extension of slavery into the free territory of the country, was defeated and James K. Polk nominated and elected to conciliate the slaveholders. This divided the Democratic party of the country into two factions, one of which, in 1848, nominated Lewis Cass for the presidency; the other, at a convention held in Buffalo, nominating Martin Van Buren on a “no more slave territory” platform. The Whig candidate, General Taylor, was almost necessarily elected. The Democratic party of Oswego county also naturally divided on the issue thus created. The Oswego Weekly Palladium, then published by the late Beman Brockway, afterward of the Watertown Times, took strong ground in support of Mr. Van Buren. The Fulton Patriot, established in 1846 by Merrick C. Hough, had taken equally strong ground for the election of Cass, the pro-slavery extension candidate. Mr. Place was still teaching in Oswego. It occurring to him that the Patriot could, perhaps, be purchased, without consulting anyone, he quietly went to Fulton, made Mr. Hough an offer for his paper and returned with a bill of sale of it in his pocket. In its very next issue the Fulton Patriot flung to the breeze the banner of Martin Van Buren, with the motto, “Free Speech, Free Soil and Free Men!” inscribed upon it. The files of that paper testify with what earnestness and ability Mr. Place contributed to the defeat of the pro-slavery extension candidate, Lewis Cass. A union was patched up subsequently between the two sections of the Democratic party, but the Patriot, notwithstanding, continued loyal, under Mr. Place’s control, to those principles and measures of freedom which, a few years later, were so successfully incorporated into the doctrines of the Republican party and in whose support that party has achieved its most signal triumphs. Mr. Place remained in sole control of the Patriot for six years, when he sold it to accept the office of school commissioner of the first district of Oswego county, which he ably filled for several years, but he continued to write the editorials of the Patriot so long as his successor retained connec tion with it. In February, 1864, the Oswego Daily Commercial Advertiser, with a weekly edition, was established, and Mr. Place became its editor-in-chief. In February, 1873, the Commercial Advertiser and the Oswego Press were consolidated, the new publication being called the Oswego Times and Mr. Place being continued as its editor. This position he has held substantially tiW quite recently, when he voluntarily resigned the charge of its columns to Mr. John B. Alexander, the two having been associated together in the management of the paper for a number of years past. Mr. Place, however, holds his experience and ready pen an invaluable aid — at all times at the service of his successor. And here we may say that whatever of respect and influence the Oswego Times, through its daily and semi-weekly editions, has won in the community and with the press of the State is cheerfully and in the largest measure accorded to the able and conscientious labors and wise guidance of Mr. Place. Mr. Place, from the organization of the Republican party, has neither wavered in his fidelity to its principles nor remitted his exertions to promote its success. He was a member of the convention in 1856 at which the party in Oswego county was organized and was selected to call this convention to order. This he did, and took an active part in all of its deliberations. From that time forward Mr. Place has shown a most earnest interest in the success of the organization, receiving, meantime, many marks of the trust imposed in him by the Republican party. He has frequently represented it in county, district and State conventions, besides being a member of the State committee and serving in that relation on some of the most important sub-committees. In 1868 he was member of assembly from the first district of Oswego county, which included the city of Oswego, serving the interests of his constituents with rare fidelity and conceded ability. In 1873 he was appointed postmaster of the city of Oswego by President Grant. During this term, under much discouragement, he succeeded in securing the free delivery system, Oswego then being the smallest city in the State to receive the benefits of a system now so general and everywhere so popular. He also introduced various other improvements into the local service of essential benefit to the business men of the city. Mr. Place’s services oh the State committee secured the friendship of many of the most prominent Republicans of the State. Thus it resulted that when Alonzo B. Cornell became governor in 1880 Mr. Place was tendered the responsible position of auditor of the canal department, which he filled for a term of three years. The appointment carried with it that of commissioner for the construction of the new capitol building. His associates on the commission were Lieutenant-Governor George G. Hoskins and Attorney-General Hamilton Ward. Mr. Place was elected treasurer, filling the position for the term to the entire satisfaction of the commission and the public. He is remembered to this day as one of the most faithful and painstaking officials ever appointed to a capitol commissionership. One and a quarter million dollars were annually expended during the life of this commission, and so carefully was every feature of the business attended to that neither complaint of the quality of the work nor hint of scandal of any kind has ever followed. Mr. Place’s appointment by President Harrison in April, 1890, as postmaster once again of the city of Oswego marks his last official service. His retirement from it within the year past by reason of the expiration of his term was accompanied by so many expressions of appreciative regard that he is justified in feeling that his administration of the office this time was no less popular and satisfactory to its patrons than was the case on the former occasion under President Grant. Relieved practically from the arduous labors of the editorial chair and gifted with an unusually vigorous constitution, there is foundation for the warm wishes of his numerous relatives and friends that many more years of enjoyment and usefulness are yet to be the portion of one whose whole life so far has been a singularly busy one and filled with interesting incidents beyond the experiences of lives in general.

REDHEAD, EDWIN RICHARD

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 along 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 Voelteror German process — and changed from the making of tissue to the manufacture of heavy manilla paper. About 1886 they purhased 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 ot $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 traveled extensively throughout the United States, and in 1889 made a continental tour, during which they visited the memorable Paris Exposition.

ROBINSON, ORVILLE

ORVILLE ROBINSON. Was born on the 28th of October, 1801, at Richfield, Otsego county, N. Y. His parents emigrated from New England at the close of the Revolutionary war to the far west, and took up their abode in the wilds of Otsego county. His early years were spent amid the hardships and privations of pioneer life. The only aid he received in acquiring an education was from the scanty and precarious instruction of the common school. His own energy and diligence did the rest. But in the struggles against these adverse circumstances of his youth, habits of industry and self-denial were formed and a vigor of body and mind, and a strength and firmness of character were developed, which distinguished him in after years and enabled him to outstrip, in the prizes of life, many of his contemporaries who had enjoyed the advantages of the academy and the college.

When about twenty-one years of age Mr. Robinson began the study of the law in -the office of the late Veeder Greene, at Brighton, and finished his legal clerkship in the office of the late Daniel Gott, at Pompey Hill, in Onondaga county. William H. Shankland, afterwards justice of the Supreme Court for the Sixth Judicial District of New York, was his fellow student in the office of Mr. Gott, and many lawyers wdio have attained distinction received their legal training about the same time at Pompey Hill.

In 1827, at the May term of the Supreme Court held in the city of New York, Mr. Robinson was admitted to practice as an attorney of that court, and in July following he opened a law office in what is now the village of Mexico, Oswego county.

On July 7, 1827, he was married to Miss Lucretia Greene, of Richfield, a daughter of 'Wardwell Greene, and the sister of his first instructor in the law. Mrs. Robinson was born February 8, 1862, in the county of Schoharie, N. Y. Her father was a native of Rhode Island and a relative of Major-General Nathaniel Greene of Revolutionary memory. He was also a soldier in the war of the Revolution, was severely wounded in battle and for many years received a pension from the United States. It may also be stated that both of the grandfathers of Mr. Robinson were citizen soldiers. Both rendered active service in the so-called French war of 1755, and both, as captains of companies, shared in the struggles of the American Revolution. It might be expected that the descendants of such ancestors could not be deaf to the call of their country in her hour of danger. Age had unfitted Mr. Robinson for military service in the late civil war, but his sympathies were with the government in all lawful efforts to suppress rebellion and maintain the Union, and his contributions to that end were freely given. His son, Wardwell G. Robinson, however, closed his law office, took command of the 184th regiment of New York Volunteers, and continued in active service until the close of the war ; he is still living in Oswego.

In the first year of Mr. Robinson’s residence in Mexico he was elected to the office of justice of the peace, and in the succeeding year to that of town clerk. In 1830 he was appointed by Governor Throop surrogate of Oswego county and continued in. that office eight years, having been reappointed by Governor Marcy in 1834. In 1834: and 1836 he represented the county in the Assembly, and when the county became-, entitled to two members in 1837, he was again elected as one of them. In the mean time his professional business had been increasing in extent and importance. He had been admitted to the highest grades of his profession in the State and Federal! courts, and had attained a prominent position among the lawyers of Central New York.

In 1841 Mr. Robinson was appointed district attorney of the county and held the: office two years. In 1843 he was elected to represent the newly formed district comprising the counties of Oswego and Madison, in Congress, and in the same year was. elected supervisor of the town of Mexico. In 1847 he removed to Oswego, where he: has since resided. In 1852 he was elected recorder of the city, but the police duties; connected with the office made it distasteful to him, and he resigned in August, 1853. In 1855 he was for the fourth time elected to the Assembly and was honored with the speakership of that body. In 1858 he was appointed by President Buchanan collector of customs for the Oswego District, and after having discharged the duties of that office to the satisfaction of the government and the public for two years, he resigned it and thereafter held no public office.

THE ROWE FAMILY

THE ROWE FAMILY. The year following the formation of Oswego county, on February 17, 1817, Norman Rowe, then twenty two years of age, with his wife, Mary Moore Rowe, and all their household goods, loaded upon sleighs, drawn by a yoke of oxen, started from Paris, Oneida county, for their new home in the town of New Haven. They settled upon a farm a mile northwest of the present village of New Haven, and afterwards' purchased and cleared a farm further to the north, which is now known as the George W. Daggett farm, and where Mrs. Rowe died, in October, 1835. In the following year, Norman Rowe removed to the village of New Haven, and soon after married Sarah Tompkins Hitchcock. She brought with her her niece and adopted daughter, who, with Norman’s five motherless children by his first wife, made up the family. Mr. Rowe died at the village of New Haven October 28, 1887, being then nearly ninety -three years of age. He was a son of Ari and Wealthy Bull Rowe, and was born at Litchfield, Conn., January 2, 1795, and removed with his family to Oneida county in 1803, and in 1808 to Paris, in the same county. In these early days, he often drove team from Paris to Albany, carrying wheat to market. During the war of 1812, he served as a soldier at Sackett’s Harbor, and thereafter was promoted from time to time until he was commissioned, by Governor Clinton, lieutenant-colonel. Intemperance was then one of the vices of the service, and Colonel Rowe, as an example to his brother officers, took a bold stand for total abstinence from all intoxicants, a novel position in those days, and difficult to maintain, but one which he did maintain ever after. He and his wife, Mary, with his father and mother above named, were four of the original thirteen persons who organized the Congregational church of New Haven, July 30, 1817, one of the first churches in the county; and he was made one of its first trustees, and on December 10, 1852, he was appointed one of its deacons. In 1827, he was elected justice of the peace, and was thereafter elected to that office several terms till 1853, after which he was re-elected regularly every four years, making almost fifty years of service in that office, and he served as one of the justices of sessions in 1849 and 1856. He was elected town clerk in 1860 and again in 1865, and continuously thereafter until his death. These positions he held without opposition of any kind. He represented the town in the Board of Supervisors in 1839, 1840, 1847 and 1858, and was twice chairman of the board. In 1840, he was elected sheriff of the county and again in 1848; and at the time of his death one of his neighbors figured up his years of service in public offices as one hundred and thirty-four years.

In the early days of this county, there was much more litigation in justices’ courts than at present, and its relative importance was much greater. Justice Rowe’s judgment was considered excellent, and it was seldom that any decision rendered by bim was reversed by the higher courts ; but he was known more as a peacemaker than as a magistrate; and by his counsel and aid, many a settlement of neighborhood quarrels was brought about that might otherwise have been the cause of much expensive litigation; in all town matters, his advice was sought and followed. He had a wonderful memory, and his stories of early days were delightful to listen to ; and he retained his faculties until his death. At the age of ninety-two, in the last year of his life, at the town meeting, he presided as chairman of the Town Board.

Mr. Rowe’s children who survived him were Nathan M. Rowe, of Oswego, N. Y.; Abbie N. Rowe, who is well known by the present generation of the city of Oswego, where she was a favorite teacher in the public schools for over twenty years, retiring there from fifteen years ago, to act as housekeeper for her father; Henry M. Rowe, of Bucyrus, Ohio; Elizabeth, mentioned above, who, in 1850, married Dr. C. M. Lee, of Fulton; and Augustus F. Rowe, for twenty years postmaster and the leading merchant at New Haven, and who is now engaged in mercantile business at Syracuse, N. Y.

Nathan M. Rowe, son of Norman Rowe, was born in the town of New Haven in 1823. He went to Fulton while a young man, where he attended Falley Seminary and studied law in the office of the late Judge Tyler, and taught school for several seasons ; but he afterwards chose to follow other callings. In 1848, when his father was elected sheriff for the second time, he came to Oswego to discharge the duties of under-sheriff. In 1850 he married Miss Sophia Park a sister of the late Ira Lafreiniere, the well-known ship-builder of Cleveland, Ohio. Her parents died while she was an infant, and she was adopted by Miss Louisa Park, whose name she took and was reared and educated by Miss Park and her brother, John B. Park, who was one of the most prominent and active members of the First Presbyterian Church, an enthusiastic worker for the common school system, in which he had great faith, and one of the leading dry goods merchants of the former village of Oswego.

For a short time Mr. Rowe was interested with the late James M. Brown as editor and publisher of the Oswego Times, and he was also engaged in the clothing business in West First street. About this time, he built the house in West Fifth street, now the home of Charles H. Bond, and lived there until, becoming interested with Willis S. Nelson, of Fulton, in the starch factory established by the Messrs. Duryea, at Battle Island, he removed thither in 1859, where he assumed the superintendency of the factory, and where he resided with his family until after the factory was destroyed by fire in 1861. The loss by the fire was a heavy one.

In the spring of 1862, he returned to the city of Oswego, and having acquired a. large tract of timber land in conjunction with the late Charles Rhodes of Oswego, in the northwestern portion of the town of New Haven, commenced cutting the timber which found a ready sale at Oswego, as the Island dock and several elevators were then being constructed.

While the Oswego Water Works Company was constructing its plant, the superintendency was offered to Mr. Rowe, which he accepted and retained for many years, and built up and ran in connection with the same an ice business under the name of Reservoir Ice.

About 1890, owing to failing health, he retired from active business, and spent most of his time thereafter on his farms in the town of New Haven where he had one of the largest apple orchards in the county. He died suddenly at New Haven August 29, 1893, of heart trouble, in his seventy-first year.

He was always active and energetic, and ready to help those who needed help. In politics he was a staunch Democrat and was widely known throughout the county. He held many positions of trust and responsibility, and always acquitted himself so as to gain the highest esteem of all with whom he came in contact.

Among those of the fourth generation of the Rowe family in Oswego county is the present postmaster of Oswego city, Louis C. Rowe. He was born at Battle Island, in the town of Granby, November 27, 1861, while his father, the late Nathan M. Rowe, was running the starch factory at that place, and the family returned to Oswego in the following spring. Louis C. Rowe was educated in the schools of Oswego city, and thereafter began the study of law with B. F. Chase, esq., then district attorney of the county. Upon Mr. Chase’s removal to Chicago, he continued his studies with, the late Newton W. Nutting, then our representative in Congress. In 1884, at Rochester, Mr. Rowe was one of twenty-three applicants, out of a class of thirty-four, then admitted to the bar, and since that time he has been engaged in the practice of his profession at the city of Oswego, in which he has attained a satisfactory degree of success. Though still young in years he has been entrusted with a number of important cases, in the conduct of which he has shown superior ability as a lawyer.

He has always been an ardent Democrat, active in the party councils, and has done much good work for his party. April 19, 1894, President Cleveland nominated Mr. Rowe to the position of postmaster of Oswego, but his nomination, with many others, was not acted upon by the Senate, and after the adjournment of the Senate, and on August 80, the president appointed him to the position, and in December sent his name to the Senate, which thereupon confirmed his nomination on December 11, 1894. He was one of the members of the Charter Revision Commission, 1894, 1895. In these official stations he retains the confidence and respect of the community.

SHEPARD, SIDNEY

SIDNEY SHEPARD was born in the village of Cobleskill, Schoharie county, N. Y., September 28, 1814, and died in the town of New Haven, Oswego county, December 26, 1893. The period of seventy-nine years between these dates covered the life of a successful man — a life replete with indomitable activity, honorable purpose, and lasting usefulness. Such a career is worthy of emulation and a fitting example for future generations.

Mr. Shepard was descended in a long and honorable line of ancestry from Ralph Shepard, Puritan, who emigrated to America from England in 1635; and on his mother’s side from William Hamilton, a Scot, wdio came over from Glasgow in 1668. His maternal grandfather, Hosea Hamilton, was a surgeon in the Revolutionary war and a personal friend of George Washington. His own father, Jesse Shepard, a physician, practiced his profession for many years in and around Cobleskill. From these ancestors young Sidney inherited a vigorous nature, a strong intellectuality, an upright character, and a robust constitution. His earlier life was not unlike that of the average country lad of that period. His rudimentary education being necessarily limited to the common district schools, his knowledge of books was consequently meagre, but in after years he amply repaired the disadvantages of youth by systematic reading and extended travel. Possessing an alert and retentive memory, and being withal a close observer, he was a shrewd judge of human nature, an accomplishment that materially aided him throughout a long, eventful life. At the early age of fourteen he found his first employment as a clerk in a hardware store in Dansville, N. Y., where he was quick to learn and faithful to duty, traits which characterized him ever afterward. The liking he then and there acquired for the hardware trade, decided his vocation. After a similar experience in Rochester, he went to Bath, N. Y. , in 1831, and for three years was associated in business with his brother. In 1835, while yet not twenty-one years of age, he made his first venture by purchasing a hardware store in that village. Honest in all transactions, energetically devoting himself to business, resolute in a determination to make his own way, he was successful from the very beginning, and the five years there brought him a little capital.

But he aimed higher. In 1886 he removed to Buffalo and bought an interest in a hardware store, the oldest business house in that city, changing the firm name to Crane & Shepard. The next year he became sole owner under his own name, and soon afterward the firm of Sidney Shepard & Co. was formed. A manufactory of sheet metal ware was added, and before ten years had passed an immense business was thoroughly established. A large wholesale trade was built up, not only in Buffalo, but in adjacent sections of the country. Mr. Shepard made several prolonged trips into the then comparatively uninhabited Western States, opening branch houses in Detroit and Milwaukee, and even carried his enterprise into the South. This was done gradually and steadily, with a purpose and zeal born of laudable ambition. In 1849 he became proprietor of the Shepard Iron Works in Buffalo, and thereafter constantly added to his undertakings. The firm eventually became one of the largest importers of tin plate, manufacturers of stamped metal ware, and dealers in hardware and tinners’ supplies in the Union. Nor was his activity confined to these industries alone. Accumulating means, and early realizing the advantages of the electric telegraph to merchants and others, he personally promoted several pioneer lines in the West, and became one of the largest stockholders in the Western Union Telegraph Company upon the consolidation of the earlier lines, being one of its directors until a few weeks before his death, when he resigned. He was also for many years a heavy stockholder and director in the Alabama Central, the Mobile and Ohio, and the New Jersey Central railroads, and was prominently interested in numerous other enterprises. He was frequently offered, but accepted few positions of trust, preferring to concentrate his energies and means largely upon the development and maintenance of the extensive business he had founded. Yet he was, emphatically, a public spirited citizen and liberally encouraged every movement looking toward the betterment of humanity.

His success was due to a good name, a clear head, a sound judgment, an untiring energy, combined with perseverance and singleness of purpose. He possessed a rare business ability and a capacity for organization which almost amounted to genius. Endowed with a faculty for keen observation, a courage equal to any emergency, and a strong faith in things divine, he was ever the true and noble man, the respected citizen, and the sincere Christian gentleman. For twenty-five years he was a member of the First Presbyterian church of Buffalo, to which, as well as to numerous other charitable institutions, notably the General Hospital, the Orphan Asylum, and the Home for the Friendless, of that city, he was a generous and frequent benefactor. In 1865 he relinquished the active management of his business, and for several years thereafter traveled with his family in foreign countries, visiting nearly every capital in Europe, besides Egypt, Asia Minor, and the Holy Land. Upon their return they settled in the spacious and handsome homestead of his wife in the village of New Haven, Oswego county, where he spent the remainder of his life. In 1885 he transferred to his son Charles Sidney, now the only survivor of a family of three children, his interest in the firms of Sidney Shepard & Co. of Buffalo and C. Sidney Shepard & Co. of Chicago.

On the 12th of June, 1851, Mr. Shepard married in Buffalo Miss Elizabeth De Angelis, daughter of Chester R. Wells (elsewhere mentioned in this volume) a lady of rare personal charms and accomplishments. Their children were Elizabeth Wells, who died at the age of ten years; Charles Sidney, and Ralph Hamilton.

Ralph Hamilton Shepard was born in Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, October 15, 1867, and his infant tongue first learned French and German. For eight years he spent the summers in New Haven, N. Y. , and the winters in New Y ork city or the South In 1879 he passed six months in Dresden, where he pursued his German studies in the family of Rev. Dr. Sauer and in close companionship with Counts Castel and Otto von Plessens ; the next year he visited Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Cyprus, Asia Minor, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Roumania, and other historic places, returning to America in the autumn of 1880. He prepared for college at Oswego and Buffalo and passed his entrance examinations at Harvard in 1887, after which he again went abroad, studying German and Italian. Returning in April, 1888, he entered Harvard University in the fall of that year and was graduated with honors in 1892, receiving the appointment as one of the five commencement orators in a class of over 200 men. This selection was really a brilliant honor. The remainder of his life was mainly spent in New Haven, N. Y., where, after nine weary months of suffering, he died •on August 17, 1894, in the first bloom of his manly career. Delicate in physical constitution, but endowed with a mind of rare conception, he evinced the instincts of a scholar and the attributes of a master. He was one of the brightest men of Harvard, and during his brief life acquired a reputation in modern literature and history and as a graceful and forcible writer. He produced many articles worthy a master’s hand, covering a wide range of subjects, and but for his early death an honorable and probably a brilliant future in the world of letters was within his grasp. His most important work was a monograph on “Ralph Shepard, Puritan,” in which he showed tireless research and thoroughness. This was for private circulation, and entailed the examination of numerous manuscripts and letters. Early in 1892 he was one of sixteen sterling young men to band themselves together for mental social improvement and to re-establish Iota Charge of Theta Delta Chi, of which his was the first death that fraternal chapter was called upon to deplore. His most enduring attribute, however, was the sincerity of his manly Christian life, which he beautifully and appropriately expressed by a legacy of several thousand dollars to his alma mater “for the carrying on of religious work in Harvard College". Never before did a young graduate leave to that institution a similar bequest; the monument thus founded perpetuates his good name, and the example of his life should and will guide others to the same Christian service and its rewards.

SKINNER, TIMOTHY W.

TIMOTHY W. SKINNER was born at Union Square, Oswego county, N. Y., on the 24th day of April, 1827. His ancestors were of old and highly respected New England stock. His grandfather, Timothy Skinner, was a Revolutionary soldier and a participant in the battle of Bunker Hill. His father, the Hon. Avery Skinner, was one of the pioneers of the northern section of this State, having come to Watertown from New Hampshire in 1816. He afterwards moved to Union Square in this county in 1824, and from that time until his death in 1876 was prominently identified with the best interests of this section. Judge Skinner was a man of powerful intellect, combined with a vigorous and athletic frame, admirably fitted by nature to take part in the settlement and progressive movements of a new country. For fifty years he filled a most important part in the history of Oswego county and the northern section of the State of New York. In politics he was a Democrat of the Jeffersonian school, a personal friend of Horatio Seymour, Silas Wright and other prominent Democrats, and responsible political honors were repeatedly conferred upon him. For twelve years he was judge and county treasurer of Oswego county. In 1881 he was elected member of assembly from his district, and re-elected to the same office in 1882, serving two terms thereafter; and in 1886-41 was chosen State senator from the district then comprising the counties of Oswego, Jefferson, Lewis, Onondaga, Otsego and Madison. While in the Senate Judge Skinner was a member of the Court for the Correction of Errors, which under the old constitution was the highest court in the State and analogous to the present Court of Appeals. He was also interested in business and educational matters, having been the first presiding officer and a director of the Syracuse Northern Railway Company. He was also one of the founders of the Mexico Academy in 1826, and in 1876, a few months before his death, he attended its semi-centennial as the only survivor of its original board of trustees.

The grandfather of Hon. Timothy W. Skinner on his mother’s side was Solomon Huntington, who settled in the town of Mexico in 1804, and who was a near relative of Samuel Huntington, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and president of the Continental Congress.

Timothy W. Skinner, the subject of this sketch, spent the first twenty fi ve years of his life on his father’s farm, teaching school in the winter and having charge of the farm in summer. In 1852 he was elected justice of the peace and served for two terms. In 1858 he moved to the village of Mexico, where he has since resided. In 1857 Mr. Skinner was admitted to the bar, and in November of the same year joined with Judge Cyrus Whitney in the organization of the law and banking firm of Whitney & Skinner. After this firm was dissolved in 1870 by the removal of Judge Whitney to Oswego, Mr. Skinner took his brother-in-law, Maurice L. Wright, now justice of the Supreme Court, .as his partner, under the firm name of Skinner & Wright, and the partnership continued until 1880. Since then Mr. Skinner has continued alone in the active duties of his profession, and is to-day one of the oldest and most widely known and respected members of the legal fraternity in active practice. Though reared amid Democratic surroundings Mr. Skinner has been an unswerving Republican for many years, identifying himself with that party in its early days, and has had a prominent and influential part in its county, judical and State conventions. No one has been longer connected with the active politics of the county than Mr. Skinner. He was elected surrogate in 1868, again in 1870, and re-elected in 1876, thus serving as surrogate three terms — the longest time that any who have filled that office have held it in the county. He has always taken the deepest interest in the affairs of the village of Mexico ; has served as its president, and' is one of the best known and most highly esteemed of its citizens. He has been for many years a member of the board of trustees of the old historic Mexico Academy, and a trustee of the First M. E Church of that village. He is also prominent in Masonic circles, and has been High Priest of the Mexico Chapter for a long term of years. There are but few men living in this county whose history will show a longer or more honorable career in public life, and all his public acts have been marked by the strictest integrity and moral rectitude. He is a man of great force of character, with a stalwart and vigorous physical development, and his assistance in all matters pertaining to the welfare of the county has always been highly valued. Aside from the arduous duties of his profession, Mr. Skinner has large landed interests in the county, and in the past has been connected with extensive business enterprises.

Mr. Skinner is the oldest of a family of nine ; his sister Eliza, now deceased, married Charles Richardson, of Colosse; his brother, Albert T. Skinner, also deceased, was superintendent of the Walter A. Wood Mowing Machine Co. of Little Falls. Of the brothers and sisters now living the Hon. Charles R. Skinner, of Albany, is Superintendent of Public Instruction of this State; the Rev. James A. Skinner is an Episcopal clergyman near Rochester, and Mrs. Maurice L. Wright is the wife of the Hon. M. L. Wright of the Supreme Court of the Fifth Judicial District.

In 1856 Mr Skinner married Elizabeth Calkins, who died in 1861, leaving one daughter, now Mrs. J. B. Stone, of Auburn, N. Y. In 1862 he married Sarah L. Rose, and their children are Anna Grace Skinner, died December 24, 1894, and Avery Warner Skinner.

STONE, BENJAMIN S.

BENJAMIN S. STONE was born in Bridport, Vt., March 26, 1821, and came to Mexico with his parents, Isaac and Lydia B. (Hurlbut) Stone, in 1826, where he has since resided. One of a family of twelve children, reared on a farm, with all the privations and hardships which that implied in those days, at the age of seventeen he entered upon a clerkship in the general store of Peter Chandler, with whom he remained until that gentleman’s retirement from business in 1843, when he was succeeded by S. H. & B. S. Stone. In 1857 this partnership was dissolved and B. S. Stone engaged with S. A. Tuller under the firm name of Stone & Tuller, in the hardware trade. They were burned out in 1862, and again in 1864, after which Mr. Tuller withdrew from the business and Mr. Stone formed a partnership with a younger brother, J. R. Stone, under the firm name of B. & J. Stone. This firm was dissolved by the death of J. R. Stone in the spring of 1868, and soon after the present firm of B. S. Stone & Co, was organized. They were again burned out in 1882. This record gives Mr. Stone an unbroken active mercantile career of fifty-seven years.

In 1846 he married, at Saratoga Springs, Sarah Elizabeth Chester, only sister of the Rev. A. G. Chester, D.D., of Buffalo, and Col. J. L. Chester, of London, England. They had six children, two of whom died in childhood, and the four living are: Walter C., proprietor of the Advance-Journal, Camden, N.Y.; Edward T., of B. S. Stone & Co., Mexico, N.Y.; Dr. William G., for thirteen years a physician in the Northern Insane Hospital at Elgin, Ill.; and Rev. Carlos H., proprietor of Cornwall Heights School, at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson. His wife died in 1861, and two years later he married Mrs. Ellen S. Boyle (born Hicks), of Bennington, Vermont. Mr. Stone has never sought political preferment, but has nevertheless been called to many positions of public trust and honor. He has been a member of the First Presbyterian church since young manhood, for a greater part of that time one of its trustees, and three times has had charge of repairing and remodeling the church edifice. A member of the Board of Trustees of Mexico Academy for forty years, and president since 1878, he was active and prominent in the erection of the present academy building, to which, as a member of the building committee, he devoted much time and energy, estimating its cost, and, what is noteworthy in these days, eompleting it within the estimate. He has several times served as trustee of the village, has for twenty-five years been prominently identified with the Mexico Cemetery Association, of which he is at present one of the Board of Commissioners, and has since its foundation been a trustee of the Oswego County Savings Bank, of which for several years he has been one of the vice-presidents.

Starting in life with very limited educational privileges and little or no capital financially, and in young manhood, owing to the death of his father, being called upon to partially bear the burden and care of the family, he made the most of his limited advantages, was energetic, economical and of strictest integrity, and has won an enviable reputation among the most successful business men in the county.

STOWELL, MERRICK

MERRICK STOWELL, County Judge of Oswego county, was born in the town of Scriba on October 3, 1838. His father was Shubael W. Stowell, a native of Jefferson county, N. Y. Merrick Stowell, at the age of thirteen, commenced to earn his own livelihood by working as a boatman upon the New York State canals, which occupation he followed continuously for seven years — the first three as a canal driver, the remaining four in other positions. His principal ambition at that early age was to acquire a liberal education. He attended the country district schools winters; afterward the district schools of Oswego, and the excellent High School of the city, where by his naturally studious habits and retentive memory he fitted himself for a teacher. He had already spent two years in this vocation before graduating from the High School in 1860, thus securing the necessary means to carry out his cherished, plan of going through college. But the outbreak of the great civil war, which changed the current of so many men’s lives, found a ready response in the young man’s breast, and he shouldered a musket as a private in the gallant Twenty-fourth Regiment, gave his country two years of faithful service and returned with the rank of sergeant. The record of the Twenty-fourth Regiment is elsewhere given in this work, and in its varied struggles Mr. Stowell bore his honorable part.

Returning to Oswego at the close of his term of service, he resumed teaching for two years, regretfully abandoning his desire for a collegiate education. The following six years were passed by him as bookkeeper in the Lake Ontario Bank, succeeded by six years in the same capacity for a large lumber firm. Finding himself now in circumstances that justified his engagiug in business on his own account, he joined with Charles W. Smith to form the firm of Smith & Stowell, lumber dealers, which connection continued three years to 1876.

Leaving the lumber business Mr. Stowell became associated with Messrs. Cheney Ames and Coman C. Ames in the grain and milling industry, which continued three years, which brought to a close his connection with trade and manufacturing.

In politics he has always been an earnest Republican, and before the year last named had become well known in the local councils of the party, where his knowl edge of the field and grasp of the situation when important issues were at stake, gave him deserved prominence. His official life began with three terms as school commissioner. In the fall of 1879 he was given the nomination for the office of county clerk, was elected by a handsome majority and served three years, 1880-82. Mean while in consonance with his natural liking and his more recent associations, he began studying law in 1878 with B. F. Chase, now of the city of Chicago In the spring of 1883 he was admitted to the bar at Rochester and opened an office in Oswego. His practice was commensurate in extent with his expectations and his success gratifying to himself and his friends. In the fall of 1887 he was nominated and elected district attorney, in which office he served three years to the satisfaction of the bar and the people of the county; receiving a renomination, he was, in the uncertainty, that often prevails in local politics, defeated. Resuming his practice he continued until the fall of 1892 when he was further honored by his fellow citizens with the nomination and election to the office of county judge, in which he is now serving his third year, with marked favor.

The professional career of Judge Stowell is one of the seldom occurring examples of success following the beginning of an entirely new calling in middle life. He was forty years old when he began the study of the law, and it was five years later before he was admitted to practice. Within the succeeding ten years he had risen to the highest county judicial office. While this result may, perhaps, be creditable to some extent to the fact of his having rendered valuable military and political services, it is nevertheless true that it is far more largely due to his exceptional fitness for the office; the qualifications acquired through the most energetic, persistent and unflagging study, with such other fitting attributes as are his by nature. If he is not classed among the more brilliant lawyers whose greatest success is attained through eloquence before court and jury, Judge Stowell is accorded the confidence of his professional associates in his knowledge of the law, his fairness and impartiality as a judge, while as a man he is esteemed by the entire community. He is a member of the Congregational church of Oswego, and is ever found ready to turn his hand to good works.

Judge Stowell married in 1868 Melinda W. Everts, of Mexico, daughter of Frederick Everts. They have four children, one son and three daughters, all of whom are living.

TOLLNER, CHARLES

CHARLES TOLLNER. This enterprising citizen of Pulaski is a native of Westphalia, Prussia, where he came of good ancestry and inherited their best qualities. He was born on January 1, 1824. After attending school in his boyhood he was brought up in the business of his grandfather, but from sixteen to twenty-one years of age served an apprenticeship in a large exporting house dealing in general hardware and tools. At the age of twenty-three, just before the German revolutionary outbreak, he skipped military duty and came to America, his wife following in another vessel. On his arrival in New York he found it very hard to obtain work, but finally succeeded in getting a place as salesman in a small hardware store at the rate of five dollars per Week. After one year’s stay he engaged in the wholesale business of W. N. Seymour & Co., in Chatham Square, and in May, 1851, opened a hardware store in his own name, and was very successful; but the losses during the war time were very heavy, and in 1864 he sold out his store and engaged with a man, C. C. F. Otto, of Pulaski, N. Y. , in the manufacture of floor tiles. This venture was unprofitable and Mr. Tollner soon found himself without means. But his energy and faith in himself had not weakened and he turned his attention for a time to the making of smokers’ pipes of a carbon composition. They were a good article and Mr. Tollner sold them himself from place to place. He soon began placing these pipes in pairs in fancy wooden boxes which he made himself, and the work upon them was so fine and their appearance so attractive that orders began to come to him unsolicited and he soon found himself fully occupied. Not only did the pipes sell, but the boxes began to be called for to be used by manufacturers of other goods. The pipe business was abandoned and he gave his entire attention to making boxes and cabinets of various kinds ; the demand rapidly increased, and from that beginning has been developed one of the largest industries in Northern New York, employing 350 persons, using several million feet of fine lumber annually, and occupying buildings erected for the purpose, which, with dry-houses and lumber yard, cover twelve acres of ground. Most of the fine cabinets for holding thread, ribbons, etc., seen in dry goods stores throughout the country come from this establishment.

Outside of his own business Mr. Tollner is a public spirited citizen. When the natural gas excitement found its way to Pulaski and vicinity, he obtained the franchise and laid pipes through the village streets for the expected gas, which had not at that time been discovered, for his use; he simply pinned his faith to the existence of the article, and was determined that the village should have it when it arrived. When the Pulaski Gas and Oil Company was formed he bought up its stock and is now president of the company and substantially its owner. Gas is furnished to consumers at twenty-five cents per thousand feet. He also established the local electric light plant, which has been of great benefit to the place and which he recently sold to one of his townsmen. These brief statements indicate to some extent the kind of man Mr. Tollner is, in a business way. Energy, persistence, faith in himself are his chief characteristics; he is looked to in all public improvements to take the lead and any measure that meets his approval finds him enthusiastic in its support. Mr. Tollner is a Republican in politics, but he is too busy a man to give very much attention to that field of activity. He has held the offices of president of the Board of Education and president of the village, and could have had further advancement if he would have accepted it. Social and courteous to all, generous with his means, ever ready to exert his influence for the good of the town or for an individual, Mr. Tollner has gained a wide circle of sincere friends and admirers. His family consists of his wife, three sons, Charles, Eugene, and Hugo, all living in Brooklyn and well-to-do, and one daughter, Bertha, wife of Chas. F. Howlett, living at Pulaski.

VAN HORNE, EDGAR A.

EDGAR A. VAN HORNE was descended from Dutch ancestry, and was a son of Robert Van Horne, born in Cooperstown, N. Y. , in 1809, and settled in Oswego village in 1823. There he joined his brother, W. H. Van Horne, in the boot and shoe trade, the firm being W. H. & R. Van Horne. Upon the subsequent dissolution of the firm Robert Van Horne engaged in grocery trade and was many years one of the most extensive dealers in that line in Oswego. In 1840 he married Rebecca Ives, daughter of the late John C. Ives, who was during many years a leading mason and builder of Oswego and erected many of the large stone structures in the place.' Mr. Ives died January 24, 1860. Mr. Van Horne removed to and lived in the town of Oswego several years, but in 1865 returned to the city, and acquired an interest in the transfer business of Parker & McRae, forming the firm of Van Horne & Co. In politics he was an old school Democrat, but never held nor sought office. He was one of the original members of the Oswego Guards, organized in 1838, and so continued until 1842. He was a dignified, courteous and unostentatious gentleman, and fully enjoyed the confidence of the community. His death took place on July 7, 1884, and he is survived by his widow. Robert and Rebecca Van Horne had two children, Celia, and the subject of this sketch, both now deceased.

Edgar A. Van Horne was born in Oswego on August 7, 1845, and received his education in the city schools. At the age of seventeen years, in 1862, he entered the employ of the late A. B. Merriam as clerk in his hardware store. He served his employer’s interests with fidelity, but all the time felt that he was not in his proper sphere. From early boyhood he had shown a deep interest in all matters connected with railroading ; the running of a locomotive, the laying of track, the bustle about a station, all possessed an irresistible charm for him, and heresolved sometime to join the great army of railroad workers. After two years in the hardware store he found a beginning towards gratifying his ambition, and entered the office of Superintendent George Skinner, of the then Oswego and Syracuse Railroad. There he managed, outside of his prescribed duties, to learn the mysteries of telegraphy, an accomplishment which was often of great value to him in after life. He was now amid surroundings that thoroughly pleased him and he labored unremittingly to master all the details of the office. In 1865 he was promoted to the position of freight and ticket agent. In 1870 he purchased the controlling interest in the line of transfer teams, which he managed until August 81, 1872, when President Mollison made him superintendent of the Lake Ontario Shore Railroad. In the following year he was made assistant superintendent of the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad from Oswego to Richland, which he managed until June 1, 1874, when the Lake Ontario Shore road went under control of the R. W. & O. Company and was added to Mr. Van Horne’s charge. Thus far his career had amply justified his choice of life work, and he demonstrated the possession of extraordinary ability in railroad management.. On January 1, 1876, the Syracuse Northern Railroad also passed to the control of the; R. W. & O. Company, and on October 1, 1878, Mr. Van Horne was made general; superintendent of the whole line of the R. W. & O. road. The exacting duties of this responsible position were discharged by him until the road passed under control; of Charles Parsons on July 1, 1888. He did not remain long idle, and on August 1, 1888, was made general superintendent of the Utica and Black River road, and took up his residence in Utica. He held this position about four years, when he substantially retired from public station, and returned to Oswego to pass the remainder of his life. For a short time he was engaged in Syracuse in the interest of a street railway company, and later was made superintendent of the Oswego Street Railway Company. This offered little inducement to him and he soon resigned and purchased an interest in the hardware store of Smith & Lieb, in Oswego. In 1898 this business was consolidated with that of Tanner & Co. , and the Oswego Hardware Company was formed, of which Mr. Van Horne was a prominent member until his death. For ten years or more before his decease Mr. Van Horne was in ill health and finally became impressed with the belief that his heart was affected. This belief became very strong and to a considerable extent controlled his actions and weakened his powers. He avoided all possible exertion that might affect his circulation, and only a short time prior to his death refused a salary of 810,000 annually for the management of a new railroad. His presentiment that he would die from heart trouble was finally verified, and on July 31, 1894 he, suddenly passed to another life.

Mr. Van Horne was a fine example of the typical successful railroad manager. A strict disciplinarian, he was yet affable and courteous to the lowest employee, as well as to the wealthiest person; and his knowledge of every detail of the business was. remarkable. His genial bearing and the confidence felt in his management made him extremely popular with the public and his friends were numberless. His hospituble home, at a little distance from the city, was characterized by refinement and affection, and the city at large often felt the force of his public spirit.

Mr. Van Horne was fond of military affairs and a one time was a member of the 48th Regiment. He was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant in Company K, and in 1867 was made inspector-general on General Sullivan’s staff with rank of captain. In 1875 he was promoted to major and was inspector-general of rifle practice and brigade inspector in 1877; this office he held until 1881, when he resigned. In Masonry he was a member of Ionian Lodge No. 679, of Lake Ontario Chapter No. 165, and of Lake Ontario Commandery No. 32, K. T.; also a member of Oswegatchie Lodge No. 156, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

At the time of his death he was president of the Oswego County Agricultural Society. He was a Democrat in politics of the conservative type, but never accepted political office.

On June 12, 1867, Mr. Van Horne was married to Sarah M. Perry, daughter of Talmadge Perry, who was a son of Eleazur Perry, the first supervisor of Oswego town, and grandson of the first Eleazur Perry, who was the supervisor of the town of Hannibal, then in Onondaga county. Talmadge Perry died at his home in Oswego town on May 25, 1883, bearing the respect of the whole community. His wife was Amy Sabin. Mr. and Mrs. Van Horne had four children: Mrs. N. H. Tunnicliflf, of Omaha, Neb.; R. E. Van Horne, F. P. Van Horne, and Medora Maynard Van Horne, all of whom are living. Mrs. Van Horne is also surviving.

WELLS, CHESTER ROBBINS

CHESTER ROBBINS WELLS was born September 8, 1799, in Hartford, Conn., and died August 9, 1867, in New Haven, Oswego county, N. Y. At the former place his ancestors had lived since the early colonial days, Thomas Welles, from whom he was directly descended and who was one of the first governors of Connecticut, having settled there after coming from England with Lord Sayles in 1636. On his mother’s side he was descended from the Griswolds, and it was Mr. Wells’s just pride that his great-grandmother was Mary Griswold, one of the heroines of the Revolution. He was the son of Captain Elisha Welles, who was with George Washington at Valley Forge, and of his wife, Mary Griswold, born either in Hartford, or near Saybrook, Conn. After teaching for several years, and not seeming strong enough for a life of such confinement, he ventured in 1826 into what was then the comparatively unsettled region of Northern New York, moving from Trenton, Oneida county, to New Haven. When still a young man he married Miss Hannah Le Moyne De Angelis,. daughter of Judge Pascal Charles Joseph De Angelis, of Holland Patent, N. Y.

His wife’s family was, on her father’s side, of noble Italian and French descent,, being allied by the latter to the famous Generals Iberville and Iturbide Le Moyne, who founded New Orleans, and on the other side to the well known Webbs of Revolutionary and pre-Revolutionary days.

His sons were William Chester and Charles; his daughter, Elizabeth De Angeles, became the wife of Sidney Shepard of Buffalo, N. Y.

He was remarkable for his sweet humility. His son-in-law, Sidney Shepard, said repeatedly that he considered him the most honest man, with the purest character, of any he had ever known, and that his children might be justly proud of such parentage. Eminently true and lovable in all his ways, Mr. Wells won that esteem of his fellow men, which, though in a comparatively narrow circle, was a fitting tribute to a high souled and noble minded Christian.

WRIGHT, MAURICE LAUCHLIN

MAURICE LAUCHLIN WRIGHT was born November 27, 1845, in Scriba, Oswego county. Came from New England ancestry. Received an academic education at Mexico Academy and Falley Seminary. Enlisted in the navy in the summer of 1864; was appointed yeoman of the U. S. Steamer Valley City of the North Atlantic squadron under Admiral Porter, and served until July, 1865; was under fire in several engagements. After the war he taught school. In 1867 began the study of law in the office of Hon. John C. Churchill at Oswego. In 1868 entered the Columbian College Law School at Washington, D. C., and graduated in the class of 1870. In the following year formed a law partnership with the Hon. T. W. Skinner at Mexico.

In 1883 was elected county judge and in 1889 was re-elected. In 1890 was appointed by the governor with the confirmation of the Senate, a member of the Constitutional Commission to revise the judiciary article of the Constitution. In 1891 resigned, the county judgeship, and in the same year was elected justice of the Supreme Court. In 1893 removed to Oswego. In 1869 was married to Miss Mary Grace Skinner, daughter of Hon. Avery Skinner, late of Union Square, N. Y. Has one child, Avery Skinner Wright. Always been a Republican in politics.

[ Surnames A-F ]