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Go 974.7 F55e v.2 1233355
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01105 6220
Millia .it Second
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
OF
NEW YORK v. 2
A Life Record of Men and Women of the Past
Whose Sterling Character and Energy and Industry Have Made Them Preeminent in Their Own and Many Other States
BY
CHARLES ELLIOTT FITCH, L. H. D.
Lawyer, Journalist, Educator; Editor and Contributor to Many Newspapers and Magazines; ex-Regent New York University; Supervisor Federal Census (N. Y.) 1880; Secretary New York Constitutional Convention, 1894
ILLUSTRATED
THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
BOSTON
INCORPORATED
NEW YORK
CHICAGO
1916
Both justice and decency require that we should bestow on our forefathers an honorable remembrance-Thucydides
1233355
BIOGRAPHICAL
t
Russell Say.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
SAGE, Russell,
Man of Large Affairs.
The Sage family was without doubt of Scandinavian origin, and the name at first was Saga. When the Norsemen conquered Normandy, in France, they generally softened the final "a" tone, thus making Saga, Sage, and added a French suffix to denote landed occupa- tion. To the first Norman Saga or Sage was added ville or town, thus making it Sageville, or Sagetown, or land. As these spread to other countries the name was subjected to other changes. In Germany it was Saige or Sauge, the same in Swit- zerland, while in France it was Le Sage. The name is first found in England on the Battle Abbey Roll, in 1066. This roll was prepared by the monks of Battle Abbey at the command of William the Conqueror, to perpetuate the names of those who took part in the battle of Hast- ings, which gave him the English throne. It is there recorded Sageville. All of the name in England, Scotland and Wales originated in this way. The fam- ily was granted a coat-of-arms, which is used by the American family.
David Sage, American ancestor of the family in New York, was born in 1639, a native of Wales. He was one of the first settlers of Middletown, Connecticut, where he is of record in 1652. He settled upon a tract of land now part of the town of Cromwell, upon the banks of the Con- necticut river, where some of his de- scendants yet reside. His will, dated March 27, 1703, is in the probate office at Hartford, Connecticut. The stone marking his grave is still standing in the
Riverside cemetery, on the bank of the Connecticut river, at the north end of Main street, Middletown, and gave the date of his death as March, 1703, o. s., and his age as sixty-four years. He mar- ried Elizabeth, daughter of John Kirby, in February, 1664. He married (second) in 1673, Mary Wilcox. His grandson, Elisha, was a Revolutionary soldier, and was father of Elisha Sage, who came to New York, settled in Oneida county, and married Prudence Risley, probably in Connecticut.
Russell Sage, son of Elisha (2) and Prudence (Risley) Sage, was born in the little settlement of Shenandoah, in Verona township, Oneida county, New York, August 4, 1816, and died at Law- rence, Long Island, July 22, 1906. Two years after his birth his father re- moved to a farm near Durhamville, in the same county, and there remained until his death in 1854. There young Russell lived and attended the district schools in winter and worked upon the farm the remainder of the year until he was fourteen years of age, when he was sent to his brother, Henry Risley Sage, who had a store in Troy, New York. The work was hard, but he had his earn- ings to himself and improved himself by diligent study. Before he was twenty- one he had paid off a mortgage on his father's farm, and was the owner of sev- eral city lots, and of a sloop which he navigated from Troy to New York. Later he abandoned his clerkship and entered into partnership with his brother, whom he was able to buy out in two years. In 1839 he sold out his store at a profit, and entered into the wholesale
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
grocery and commission business with John W. Bates as partner. The firm in a short time controlled several branches of the trade, not only in Troy but in Albany. He became one of the directors of the Troy & Schenectady railroad, and afterwards president of the same, and held office when the railroad was united with the general system between Albany, Troy, and Buffalo. At that time, in 1853, Mr. Sage was elected a director in the consolidated company in the New York Central and served six years. A little later he became a large owner in the La Crosse railroad.
In his earlier years Mr. Sage was deeply interested in public affairs, and took a prominent part in political mat- ters in the State of New York. When a resident of Troy in 1845 he was elected to the board of aldermen. While hold- ing this office he was also made treas- urer of Rensselaer county, the finances of which were in a tangled condition. He speedily straightened them out and held the office for seven years. In 1848 he was a delegate to the National Conven- tion of the Whig party. He controlled twenty-eight out of thirty-two New York delegates, and took a leading part in the nomination of General Zachary Taylor for the presidency. It was at his sug- gestion that the convention nominated Millard Fillmore for Vice-President, which selection made him President, for General Taylor died while in office and Fillmore succeeded him. In 1850 Mr. Sage was nominated for Congress by the Troy Whigs, but owing to the defection of a faction of the party he was defeated. He was again nominated in 1852, and was elected by a small majority. Two years later he was returned to Congress by the unprecedented majority of 7,000 votes. During his four years in Con- gress the great talents of Mr. Sage in
financial matters found recognition in his appointment as a member of the ways and means committee, the most impor- tant committee of the house. He served also on the invalid pension committee which had charge of the pensions in- curred by the Mexican War, and took part in the five weeks' struggle which finally resulted in the election of Na- thaniel Banks as speaker. But the incident in his professional career which brought him most reputation was the appointment of a committee through his efforts to in- quire into the condition of Washington's old estate at Mount Vernon, Virginia. The committee's report bore fruit in the formation of the Mount Vernon Asso- ciation, the purchase of the estate, and its dedication as a permanent memorial to the father of his country.
The panic of 1857 which ruined so many while it left him comparatively un- scathed, had an important effect on his business career. He had advanced con- siderable money in the La Cross railroad. To protect his loans he found himself compelled to advance still larger amounts, and finally engaged in three legal pro- ceedings to become owner of the railroad, which ultimately extended into the Chi- cago, Milwaukee & St. Paul system. During his career he achieved the presi- dency of no less than twenty transporta- tion corporations. He was connected in an official capacity, at one time or an- other, with the Iowa Central, Union Pacific, Missouri Pacific, St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern; Wabash, Texas & Pacific; Troy & Bennington; Troy & Boston ; Delaware, Lackawanna & West- ern; Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul : Manhattan Elevated, and other railroads. He was one of the largest stockholders in the Manhattan Elevated, and took an active part in its management. Other enterprises with which he had been active
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James J. J. Stranahan
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
are the Pacific Mail Steamship Company ; the Mercantile Trust Company; the Im- porters and Traders National Bank; Western Union Telegraph ; International Ocean Telegraph; American Telegraph and Cable Company; the Standard Gas Light Company, and the Fifth Avenue Bank, of which bank he was one of the founders and the only one living at the time of his death.
In 1863 Mr. Sage gave up his Troy business altogether and removed to New York to devote himself to the promotion of his own and other railroads and to operations in stocks. He opened an office in William street, and gave his first at- tention to Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul securities. Later he extended his inter- est to other railroads, and gradually en- larged his field of operations until it cov- ered nearly the whole range of stocks listed on the Exchange. One of the fea- tures of Mr. Sage's financial career was his friendship with Jay Gould. They had come together as promoters of the At- lantic & Pacific Telegraph Company, which was later merged into the West- ern Union.
On December 4, 1901, Mr. Sage, while in his office, escaped instant death as by a miracle. An insane crank, Henry W. Norcross, of Somerville, Massachusetts, entered the office, carrying a bag loaded with dynamite, and demanded that the sum of $1,200,000 be given to him imme- diately or he would blow up the build- ing. Mr. Sage, seeing that he was in the presence of a madman, rose and retreated from him; whereupon the maniac ex- claimed: "Well then here goes," and lifting the bag high in the air dashed it violently on the floor. The explosion which followed blew off the dynamiter's head, killed a clerk, injured others, and wrecked the office. Mr. Sage received wounds, but was able to return to the office in a few days.
Mr. Sage was a man of remarkable and varied powers. He could have succeed- ed in almost any field of action that he might have chosen. He chose rather the largest, hardest and most dangerous field of all-the development of the transpor- tation system of the country, for he was above all else, and from first to last, a promoter and manager of railroads. That he was also a lender of money, particu- larly in his old age, was merely an inci- dent in his long and useful life. "He was an American and loved his country," said Henry Clews on hearing of his death. "My aim in life," so he confessed in an interview which was published Decem- ber 19, 1897, in the "New York Herald," "has been to do my share in developing the material resources of the country. I have spent millions on the railroad sys- tem of the United States, and am now connected with more than twenty thou- sand miles of railroad and with twenty- seven different corporations."
Russell Sage was twice married, but had no children. He married (first) in 1841, Marie, daughter of Moses I. Wynne, of Troy, New York; she died in 1867. He married (second) November 24, 1869, Margaret Olivia Slocum, born September 8, 1828, daughter of Hon. Joseph Slocum, of Syracuse, New York.
STRANAHAN, James S. T., Remarkable for Public Spirit.
The life record of James S. T. Strana- han began April 25, 1808, at the old fam- ily homestead in Madison county, New York, near Peterboro, his parents being Samuel and Lynda (Josselyn) Strana- han. He traced his lineage to Scotch- Irish ancestry, of Presbyterian faith- men of strong, rugged, determined char- acter, and women of virtue, diligence and culture. The first of the name of whom record is left was James Stranahan, who
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
was born in the North of Ireland in 1699. The orthography of the name has under- gone many changes, having been in the following forms: Stranahan, Stracham and Strahan. The name, however, is de- rived from the parish of Strachan, Kin- cardineshire, Scotland. James Strana- han, the grandfather of him whose name forms the caption of this review, crossed the Atlantic to the New World in 1725, locating in Scituate, Rhode Island, where he became a prosperous farmer. He afterward removed to Plainfield, Connec- ticut, where he died in 1792, at the ad- vanced age of ninety-three years. His namesake and eldest son served as a Revolutionary soldier in the war which brought independence to the nation, and lived and died in Plainfield, Connecticut.
James S. T. Stranahan lost his father when eight years of age, and his boyhood days were soon transformed into a period of labor, for his stepfather needed his assistance in the development of the farm and the care of the stock. However, when the work of the farm was ended for the season, he entered the district schools and there acquired his early education, which was later supplemented by several terms of study in an academy. From the age of seventeen he depended entirely upon his own resources. After complet- ing his academical work he engaged in teaching school, with the intention of later fitting himself for the profession of civil engineer ; but the occupation of trad- ing with the Indians in the northwest seemed to offer greater inducements, and in 1829 he visited the upper lake region. He made several trips into the wilder- ness and these, together with the advice cf General Lewis Cass, then governor of the territory of Michigan, led him to abandon that plan, and he returned to his home.
The elemental strength of his character was first clearly demonstrated by his
work in building the town of Florence, New York. From his boyhood he had known Gerrit Smith, the eminent capital- ist and philanthropist, who in 1832 made him a proposition according to the terms of which he was to go to Oneida county, New York, where Mr. Smith owned large tracts of land, and found a manufactur- ing town. He was then a young man of only twenty-four years, but the work was successfully accomplished, and the village of Florence, New York, was transformed into a thriving little city of between two and three thousand. His active identification with things political began during the period of his residence in Florence, for in 1838 he was elected to the State Legislature on the Whig ticket in a Democratic district.
A broader field of labor soon engaged the attention and energies of Mr. Stran- ahan, who in 1840 removed to Newark, New Jersey, and became an active factor in railroad building. In 1844 he came to Brooklyn, and from that time until his death he was a most potent factor in the commercial life, the political interests and the general upbuilding of the city. His first official service was as alderman, to which position he was elected in 1848, and in 1850 he was nominated for mayor, but his party was in the minority and he was defeated. His personal attributes at that time were not so well known as they were in later years, and thus he could not overcome the party strength of his op- ponent. However, his nomination served the purpose of bringing him before the public, and in 1854, when the country was intensely excited over the slavery question, he became a candidate for Con- gress, and although he was a strong anti- slavery man and the district was Demo- cratic, he was triumphantly elected. In 1857, when the Metropolitan Police Com- inission was organized, he was appointed a commissioner, and he was one of the
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
most active members of the board dur- ing the struggle between the new forces and the old New York municipal police force of New York, Brooklyn and Staten Island, who revolted under the new leadership of Fernando Wood, then mayor. Mr. Stranahan had joined the ranks of the new Republican party on its organization, and in 1864 he was a presi- dential elector on the Lincoln and John- son ticket. In 1860, and again in 1864, he had been sent as a delegate to the Re- publican National Convention, and at both times supported the Illinois states- man, Lincoln, for the presidency. Dur- ing the Civil War he was president of the War Fund Committee, an organization formed of over one hundred leading men of Brooklyn, whose patriotic sentiment gave rise to the "Brooklyn Union," a paper which was in full accord with the governmental policy, and upheld the hands of the President in every possible way. Its purpose was to encourage en- listments and to further the efforts of the government in prosecuting the war. Mr. Stranahan had an unshaken confidence in the ultimate triumph of the Union cause, and his splendid executive ability and unfaltering determination were of incalculable benefit in promoting the effi- ciency of the committee. His labors, too, were the potent element in carrying for- ward a work in which this committee was associated with the Woman's Re- lief Association, of which Mrs. Strana- lian was president. This work was the establishment of a great sanitary fair, which has become historical and which was the means of raising four hundred thousand dollars to carry on the work of the sanitary commission in connection with the war. Mr. Stranahan never sought public office for himself except in the few instances mentioned, and then his nomination came as a tribute to his
ability. In 1888, however, he was an clector for Benjamin Harrison, and being the oldest member of the electoral col- lege, was honored by being appointed the messenger to carry the electoral vote from the State of New York to Washing- ton.
It is almost impossible to give in a brief biographical sketch an accurate rec- ord of the great work which Mr. Strana- han did in connection with the upbuild- ing of Brooklyn. His name is a familiar one on account of his labors in behalf of the park system. Under the legislative act of 1860 he became president of the Brooklyn Park Commission, and he re- mained in office for twenty-two years, a period in which the growth of the city made demands for a park system that under his guidance was developed and carried forward to a splendid completion. Prospect Park is an everlasting monu- ment to him. He was also the originator of the splendid system of boulevards, the Ocean Parkway and the Eastern Park- way, which has provided in Brooklyn a connection of the city with the sea in a system of drives unsurpassed by any in the world. The concourse on Coney Island also resulted from his instrumen- tality. The element which made Mr. Stranahan's work different from that of all others, was that he could foresee possi- bilities. It was this which led to the de- velopment of Coney Island, for to him it seemed that the natural boundary of Brooklyn on the southwest was the At- lantic Ocean, and he took steps to secure the rare advantage of an attractive high- way from the city to the sea. It seems that every work with which he was con- nected proved of the greatest value to the city.
The enterprises which he managed were gigantic in volume and far-reach- ing in effect. For more than forty years
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
he was a director of the Union Ferry Company, and under his guidance were developed the great Atlantic docks. Brooklyn had no warehouse on its water- front and the region which is now the Atlantic docks was shallow water at the edge of the bay when he came to the city. He foresaw the possibilities of commerce by establishing docks at this point, and he labored with a courage and patience that has scarcely been equaled in the his- tory of material improvements in the world. It was twenty-six years from the time he advanced his plans for the dock system before the Atlantic Dock Com- pany made a dividend to its stockholders, and yet to-day its shipping returns are greater than those of almost any other port in the world. Only to the civil engi- neer is the scope of this wonderful under- taking familiar. One who has not stud- ied the science cannot conceive of the amplitude of this work. Mr. Stranahan was also connected with the Brooklyn Bridge Company from its organization, and was one of the first subscribers to its stock; he was a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Bridge Com- pany, and he served continuously as trus- tee from the time the work came under the control of the two cities until June 8, 1885. At the meeting of the trustees on that date, he occupied the chair as president of the board, and at that time his term expired. He also served con- tinuously as a member of the executive committee, and upon nearly all of the im- portant committees appointed during construction. He foresaw the immense volume of traffic that would be conduct- ed over this mammoth span, and insisted that the original plans should be altered to insure to the giant structure sufficient strength to enable it to carry a train of Pullman cars. Mr. Stranahan consulted with Commodore Vanderbilt, who agreed
- with him in the opinion that the time would arrive when solid Pullman trains would run in and out of Brooklyn from and to far western points.
Mr. Stranahan was twice married. In early manhood he wedded Marianne Fitch, who was born in Westmoreland, Oneida county, New York, and was a daughter of Ebenezer R. Fitch. For three years, from 1837 until 1840, they resided in Florence, New York, and dur- ing their four years' residence in New- ark, New Jersey, their two children were born. Mrs. Stranahan died in Manches- ter, Vermont, in August, 1866, after twenty-two years' residence in Brooklyn. Mr. Stranahan afterwards married Miss Clara C. Harrison, a native of Massachu- setts. Before her marriage she was one of the leaders in educational circles in Brooklyn, and for a number of years was principal of a private seminary for the higher education of young ladies, which had an enrollment of two hundred pupils, and fourteen teachers and professors in its various departments.
Mr. Stranahan passed away in Sara- toga, September 3, 1898, and his funeral cortege was the first that ever took its way to the cemetery through Prospect Park, Brooklyn.
BARNES, Alfred S.,
Publisher, Philanthropist
Alfred Smith Barnes, son of Eli and Susan (Morris) (Bradley) Barnes, was born in New Haven, Connecticut, Janu- ary 28, 1817. He attended a Lancastrian school at Wethersfield, Connecticut, but upon the death of his father, in 1827, re- turned home. At twelve years of age he was placed under the care of his uncle, Deacon Norman Smith, residing near Hartford. Here he worked upon the farm during the summer, and during the
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
winter attended school under the instruc- tion of Professor Jesse Olney. In 1830 his uncle opened a shoe store and in- stalled him as his clerk, but after serv- ing in that capacity for about a year he became restless, desiring to engage in the book business, which he did as soon as an opportunity offered, entering the book store of D. F. Robinson, where his duties were those of youngest clerk. His remuneration was thirty dollars a year and his board, his home being with Mrs. Robinson, who displayed for him the love and solicitude of a mother. In 1835 the firm of D. F. Robinson & Company moved to New York, where he com- pleted his clerkship. In 1838 Professor Charles Davies, the mathematician, called upon him with a letter from Hiram F. Sumner, of Hartford, and this introduc- tion led to an arrangement for the publi- cation of his mathematical books. Mr. Barnes was to be the nominal publisher at six hundred dollars per year, and at- tended to the introduction of the books among the schools, and Professor Davies was to be the literary and office partner. They located in the city of Hartford, and then and there was founded what became the widely known house of A. S. Barnes & Company. Soon afterward they agreed on equal terms as partners, Professor Davies reserving a copyright.
Mr. Barnes at once set out to canvass the country for Professor Davies' books, traveling by boat or stage, visiting the scattered schools, and the small stores of his own and adjacent states, and be- came quite versatile in advocating the Davies' Arithmetics, which were then in their infancy, but came to be studied by millions of school children. His efforts from the outset were successful, he always making a favorable impression by his frank and winning manner and un- mistakable sense of honor. In 1840 the
little concern moved to Philadelphia and took quarters in a modest store in Minor street, but remained there only four years when it was finally removed to New York, occupying a building on the corner of John and Dutch streets. The business steadily increased, and with an enlarged list of publications, soon required the two adjacent buildings on John street in addition. In 1867 Mr. Barnes purchased the large building on the corner of Wil- liam and John streets, to which the busi- ness was again transferred, using the for- mer buildings in part for the printing office and bindery. These latter soon be- came inadequate, however, and necessi- tated the building of the factory, occu- pied by the firm in Brooklyn, erected by Mr. Barnes in 1880 on the site of the old First Baptist Church.
In 1848 Professor Davies retired from business connection with Mr. Barnes, and Edmund Dwight became partner the same year, retiring the following year, when Mr. Barnes took into partnership his brother-in-law, Henry L. Burr, who continued with him until his death in 1865. S. A. Rollo, a clerk, was admitted in 1850. Following Mr. Burr's decease, Alfred C. Barnes, eldest son of Mr. Barnes, became associated with him, and also his brother, John C. Barnes. In 1867 Henry W. Curtiss, cousin of Mr. Barnes, was admitted, and shortly after- ward Mr. Barnes took into the firm his son Henry, and later on his nephew, Charles J. Barnes, in 1879 his son Edwin, and in 1883-84 his two youngest sons, Richard and William, were admitted. At the death of Mr. Barnes his five sons and nephew were left to carry on the business, which they did until 1890, when with several other school book houses it was merged into the American Book Company. The name of A. S. Barnes & Company is still extant and is associated
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