USA > New York > Livingston County > A history of Livingston County, New York: > Part 41
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"The Geneseo Gospel Society, the society of the Second Presbyterian church, was organized and legal- ly incorporated Sept. 11th, 1815, by the election of Joseph W. Lawrence, Samuel Finley, Isaac Smith, Wm. H. Spencer, Samuel Loomis and Timothy P. Kneeland, as trustees." One of their first acts was the raising of forty dollars to repair the town house. In 1816 Mr. Wadsworth deeded to the Geneseo Gos- pel Society the 100 acres of land they now own, two miles south-east of the village. This was in accord- ance with a promise made by several of the large land-owners, of cessions of land to the first regularly incorporated religious societies which should be or- ganized in the several towns. Its present name is " The First Presbyterian Church of the village of Gen- eseo."
The first pastor of the Second Presbyterian church was the Rev. Abraham Foreman, who was installed July 12, 1817, and dismissed Nov. 17, 1819. The next pastor was the Rev. Norris Bull, D. D., who was installed June 19, 1822, and dismissed July 3, 1832.
"Very early Geneseo was a preaching station of the Genesee Conference, formed in 1810. In 1807, Father Hudson came here to reside, and thus speaks of the place and his labors : 'The village consisted of a few scattered dwellings. Our little society then assembled in a small school-house.'"
St. Michael's Episcopal church was organized at the house of Mr. Ebenezer Belden, May 17th, 1823. The wardens first chosen were Colonel William Fitzhugh and David Warner. The vestrymen were
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Samuel W. Spencer, C. H. Bryan, Eli Hill, David A. Miller, Chauncey Morse and Marius Willet.
PHILO O. FULLER.
A young New England lawyer, destined to exert a wide influence in politics as well as upon the business interests of Livingston county, fixed his home in Geneseo soon after the war of 1812. It was Mr. Philo C. Fuller, who had been invited hither by James Wadsworth.
An incident which took place on his arrival at his new residence exemplified Mr. Fuller's excellent dis- position. The Avon mail-wagon, on the evening of April 19, 1815, (says an early settler,) set down a large, gentlemanly person of some nine and twenty years at Peirce's stage house. There were no hotel registers in those days, or the little log and frame hostelry at "Big Tree" kept none. Colonel Peirce met his guest at the door, received his name, made ready his supper and gave him a room. The prompt, half-military way in which the guest answered his landlord's customary questions, encouraged an onlooker-some weather- beaten soldier, who had come several miles on foot through the mud, to ask aid in making up his claim for military services-and he ventured to consult the new comer upon his business. The veteran was needy, and Mr. Fuller was chilled, hungry and wearied out ; but the lawyer at once took the proffered bundle of papers, and, with the aid of the soldier's verbal state- ments, soon set his claims in order. The poor fellow would have gladly emptied his pocket in payment for such unexpected assistance, but Mr. Fuller would ac- cept nothing beyond the very audible thanks of his grateful client. The stranger's manner, as well as the service itself, attracted the attention of a host of towns. people collected near. "And I made up my mind,"
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says the relator, "that the Squire (Mr. Wadsworth) had made no mistake this time in his choice of a con- fidential clerk." Years afterwards in referring to his first impressions, Mr. Fuller said, "I well remember my surprise at the inferior appearance of the village and also at the excellency of the supper given me by Mr. Peirce. It was neat, palatable, and very speedy and tastefully gotten up."
Mr. Fuller was a native of New Marlboro, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, where he was born on the 13th of August, 1787. He traced his family to Dr. Samuel Fuller, who came over in the May Flower, and who practiced as a physician in the colony of Plymouth. Mr. Fuller often referred to the exemplary lives of his immediate relatives, especially those in Connecticut, whose daily walk and conversation conformed to the rigid Puritan model. His father, Samuel Fuller, died in May, 1792, after which the youth lived with his grand-parents and his treatment by them was of the kindest and tenderest character. He was fond of books and loved penmanship, an art in which he greatly excelled through life. He was even at that early age a good speller. In the winter of 1803-4 he commenced a course of private instruction under "Parson Catlin, the Presbyterian clergyman, who was critical in English and superb in latin." Spending afterwards a couple of years in teaching a district school, he concluded to go to Virginia. Accordingly, early in the fall of 1806, he left New York on a schooner bound for Richmond. He reached the latter city an entire stranger, and without a line of introduction to anybody. Accidentally meeting a merchant who had recently given up business, he engaged to close the affairs of the concern, a task he so successfully accom- plished that the merchant urged him to become his partner in the lumber trade. But this was not to his
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taste, and he soon found employment as a teacher in the family of Mr. Burke, then a State Senator from King and Queen county. Here he had the use of a fine library and other advantages afforded by the liberal means of his patron. The following autumn found him at his mother's who had removed to Wol- cott, near Sodus Bay, New York. In January, 1809, he returned to Massachusetts to begin the study of law. Making his way himself, he found it necessary to take a district school in Florida, Orange County, New York. Soon after the close of the term Mr. Ful- ler entered Judge Gilbert's law school, at Hebran, Connecticut. In February, 1813, he was admitted to the bar after a severe examination, and with his diploma in his pocket Mr. Fuller visited his friend Dr. Seward, who advised him to enter the office of an eminent lawyer in Newburgh to gain experience in practice. At the latter village he happened to take board at the same house with a recruiting officer, Cap- tain Machin. The war with England was the topic then uppermost, and was discussed with all its bear- ings at the table of his landlady. Mr. Fuller's beau- tiful penmanship, and his skill in preparing papers had induced Machin to employ him from time to time in making up returns and putting in form various official reports. After a few days Machin offered to procure him a lieutenant's commission if he would enter the service. Military life had no great attrac- tion for Mr. Fuller, but after short reflection he en- listed and his squad started for the cantonment at Greenbush, opposite Albany. Captain Larned, the commanding officer of the post, had already been made aware of Mr. Fuller's qualifications for office duties, and on reaching the station he was informed that the military store-keeper at Albany desired his services as a clerk, and in half an hour's time he was
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installed in that capacity in Gray street, at a good salary. Here he remained until the close of the war, a period of eighteen months, devoting himself with great zeal to the varied and responsible duties of his new position.
The close of the war found Mr. Fuller preparing to remove to Ohio, for the practice of his profession. About this time James Wadsworth was returning from New York. Stopping at Albany he met a friend whom he informed that he wanted a confidential clerk. This friend advised him to tender the place to Mr. Fuller. This after a short conversation with the young lawyer he did, and offered him at the same time what was then a large salary. The flattering pro- posal was however declined, but was renewed with the proviso that if after a few weeks spent at Geneseo the position should not be found agreeable to him, Mr. Fuller would be sent to Ohio at Mr. Wadsworth's ex- pense, and this was agreed to. Leaving Albany in the Western stage, then a long covered wagon which was entered from the front, and much the worse for the great wear and rough usage incident to the war then just closed, he reached the Genesee river at Avon after a passage of five days and four nights' continu- ous riding. A few hours more brought him to his future home. The morning after his arrival he entered Mr. Wadsworth's office, which then occupied the north-east corner of the dwelling-house. A common picket fence separated the yard from the road, then little traveled. The grounds about the mansion were not yet laid out, and there was little in the appear- ance of the surroundings to indicate the residence of . a man of wealth. The nature of Mr. Fuller's duties were briefly explained to him, and before the close of the first day he had settled down to their discharge. His legal acquirements, coupled with superior busi-
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ness tact, and a knowledge of men, were readily brought to bear in the extensive affairs of his new em- ployer. In after years Mr. Wadsworth remarked that when Mr. Fuller had been in the office an hour he felt that the flattering opinion he had formed of the new clerk in Albany was more than justified. In April, 1817, Mr. Fuller married Mary Nowlen, daughter of Captain Nowlen of Geneseo, who had died a few months before. Mrs. Fuller was more than an ordin- ary woman. Her house was a social centre, and nota- ble for its refined and cordial hospitality. During the long and by no means unfrequent absences of her husband at Albany and Washington on public busi- ness, she remained in Geneseo in charge of the house- hold, devoting a Christian mother's care to the educa- tion of her sons. She had experienced something of the privations of pioneer life, and had thus gained that added virtue of self-reliance which shines forth so beautifully in the characters of the matrons of those early times. The first district school, conducted in a log house whose floor and roof were of split plank, opened in the town of York, had been taught by her while the country was yet so new that the school- house was reached by the Indian trail only, and the river was crossed by fording .*
Mr. Fuller continued in the employment of the Wadsworths until the fall of 1828, when he was elected to the Assembly. A re-election followed, and from that time down to the period of his final retire- ment, he was almost continuously in public life. In the spring of 1830 Judge Hayden, who had been re- turned to the Senate from the old eighth district, hav- ing died in February while in office, Mr. Fuller was.
* Mrs. Fuller died at Conesus, Nov 28, 1850. To her husband her loss was irreparable.
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chosen to fill the vacancy thus created, and served during the sessions of 1831 and 1832. In the fall of the latter year he was elected to Congress, where he continued until near the close of a second term. His letters to trusted friends while in Washington, while exhibiting more than ordinary power of expression, are replete with pungent criticism of public men and measures, and exhibit a thorough acquaintance with the spirit and tendencies of southern leaders in Con- gress. The arrogance and assumption of the slave- holding class were most distateful to him. Resigning in September, 1836, he removed with his family to Adrian, Michigan, to assume the management of a bank in that place. In 1840 he was elected to the lower house of the legislature of Michigan, and was chosen speaker of that body. A year later Francis Granger, then Postmaster-General, tendered Mr. Fuller the position of Assistant in his department. At the solicitations of political friends he accepted. Unable however to concur in the policy of President Tyler, he resigned at the end of twelve months. While in Washington he was nominated by the Whigs of Michigan as their candidate for Governor, and al- though his party was in the minority he made a strong though unsuccessful canvass. In the following year he returned to this county, to reside on his large farm in Conesus, where he remained until the fall of 1850 when, on the elevation of Washington Hunt to the gubernatorial chair, he was appointed to succeed him as comptroller of the State. It is seldom that a new incumbent of that responsible and perplexing office so readily mastered its intricacies as did Mr. Fuller, or so wisely administer our complex finances. His experience in accounts suggested improvements in the mode of arranging and keeping the records of payments and rules for auditing claims, and the more
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important ones have been permanently adopted and continue to do their part in protecting the public treasury from particular forms of imposition. At the close of the term he returned to his estate in Conesus, where, dividing his time between farm and books, and in the society of his family and attached friends he spent the remainder of a useful life, which terminated on the 16th of August, 1855. In person, Mr. Fuller was but an inch short of six feet, of good presence and dignified bearing. In his latter years he be- came quite stout. His complexion was fair, and his fine blue eyes, which fairly set out of his head, illu- minated the whole face. His neighbors and constitu- ents held him in high estimation, and it is certain he never did any act to forfeit the confidence of those who trusted him. The years spent by him among public men gave him ease of bearing in society. Mr. Fuller made little pretension as a speaker, though he expressed himself with fluency on any question. His judgment of men was excellent. His loyalty to friends, and to any cause he espoused, was a marked quality of his character. In the many heated political con- tests in which he took part through a long career, he was always a wise and trusted leader, and his mind was so well poised that his judgment was little influ- enced by clamor or prejudice.
JAMES WADSWORTH.
Among the early settlers there were none who ex- erted a more marked influence in shaping the future of the Genesee valley than the Wadsworth brothers, and of these, James, the elder, stands the most prom- inent, as the friend and patron of agricultural pur- suits, and the educational advancement of the people. James Wadsworth was born in Durham, Connecticut, April 20th, 1768. Of his father we have but little:
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account, save that he was possessed of a fortune that was considered quite large in those days. When twenty years of age he was graduated by Yale Col- lege, and his father having in the meantime died, the estate was settled by an uncle, as detailed in a pre- vious chapter, and himself and brother set out for the wilderness of Western New York.
The personal address and business tact of these men, especially of James, were widely felt at this time, when large land-owners were seeking to divert emigration to their broad domain, and no little credit is due them for the rapid progress of the settlements. In 1796 James Wadsworth was requested to undertake a mission to England, for the purpose of inducing capitalists to become interested in the lands of West- ern New York. There he was introduced to people in high circles, and his address and personal influence won for him connections that ultimately proved of great advantage. His mission was eminently success- ful, although the benefits derived from it were indi- rect. The settlements grew with astonishing rapidity, the possessions of the Wadsworths, under their wise and liberal management, increased steadily, and in a few years they were recognized as among the wealthi- est men of the State. The death of General William Wadsworth March 18th, 1833, without family, left James the sole proprietor of this large domain, and this "was probably the only instance since the break- ing out of the Revolutionary contest, of the invest- ment of a fortune accumulated by the industry of a whole life, in agricultural property. In most, if not all, of the other cases in which fortune has been de- rived from the purchase and sale of land, it has been changed in its investment from the tillable soil to city lots or moneyed securities." * * * "The estate of the Wadsworths, reserved in compliance with the
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principle originally adopted, that their capital should not be withdrawn from the region in which it was ac- cumulated, was partly held in their own hands, partly leased, and partly cultivated upon shares. The Home farm, cultivated under their own immediate direction, comprises upwards of two thousand acres, of which more than half is a rich alluvial 'flat' of the Genesee river."
In the year 1804 Mr. Wadsworth married Naomi Wolcott, of East Windsor, Connecticut. Mrs. Wads- worth was a woman of cultivated taste, rare judgment and a disposition congenial to that of her husband, and those who enjoyed her acquaintance speak of her in the highest terms.
As men view these things, the life of James Wads- worth was an uneventful one. He steadily and per- sistently declined public office, yet he was continually engaged in measures for the public good. He sought a quiet, unobtrusive life, and was averse to all ostenta- tious display, yet his acts of charity and liberal efforts in behalf of those around him were continuous and won for him the profound respect of his fellow-men. A special cause, which found in him a life-long and generous supporter, was the education of the people, and if not the father of the common school system of the State, much of its efficiency and usefulness is due to his untiring efforts in its behalf. This was the great object of his life, and he devoted his time, his ener- gies, and his rare intellectual powers to measures. which should place within the reach of the masses a sound and liberal education. To him credit is due for the existence of the present district school libraries. This measure he urged upon the attention of the legis- lature in 1835, and yielding to his suggestions, a law was enacted authorizing the inhabitants of each school district to appropriate a sum not exceeding $20 for the
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first or $10 for each succeeding year, to purchase school libraries. Two years later, when the United States Deposit Fund was received by the State, he urged that a certain portion of the income from this fund should annually be used for library purposes, and in 1838 he employed a clergyman at his own ex- pense to present his views to the legislative committee, and to collate facts bearing on the question for its in- formation. These efforts proved successful, and at the session of that year an annual appropriation of $55,000 was made for this object, which still continues in force.
Mr. Wadsworth did not stop here, however, but de- voted himself to the task of securing the publication of suitable works for these libraries, and in many cases bore no inconsiderable share of the expense, and also assuming the payment of the sums required from the districts in his own locality, under the law of 1835, which sums were never repaid to him. He was also deeply interested in the subject of agricultural chem- istry, then a comparatively unknown branch of science, and spent large sums in procuring the publi- cation of elementary works and tracts on this subject, for free distribution among the people.
His interest in providing reading for the people was also manifested in another way. He was one of the first, if not the very first, to urge upon Mr. Astor the establishment of the magnificent library in New York which now bears his name, and it may be readily believed that the life-long friendship which existed between these men gave Mr. Wadsworth considerable influence over Mr. Astor, which led him to the estab- lishment of that lasting monument to his liberality and public spirit.
The crowning act of Mr. Wadsworth's life was the establishment at Geneseo of the Athenaeum (now called
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Wadsworth) Library, with a permanent endowment for its support and improvement. This library, which now comprises over eight thousand volumes, placed in a large and handsome brick building, is free to all inhabitants of the county, and the benefits it has already conferred and will confer in time to come are scarcely to be estimated.
In 1843 Mr. Wadsworth's health began to decline, and he became sensible that his end was near. He preserved his usual cheerfulness however, and faced death with equanimity and fortitude. Yielding to the importunities of his family and friends he tried a change of climate, although himself aware that all efforts to arrest the progress of his disorder would prove fruitless. Returning in a short time to Geneseo, he died June 7th, 1844, aged 77 years. This event was the cause of unfeigned sorrow in Geneseo, and among all who had known him, but it was said of him that "he died as he had lived, calm, dignified and collected, with an unshaken reliance on the justice and goodness of his Heavenly Father."
In all his intercourse with his fellow-men Mr. Wadsworth was kind and courteous. "To an habit- ual dignity never lost sight of, Mr. Wadsworth added a courtesy of manner that rendered his society inter- esting in the highest degree. His coversational pow- ers were uncommonly great. He never trifled, he was never dull. A' temper naturally quick, he had sub- jected to absolute control,-and his life has been a continual testimonial of inflexible perseverance." As compared with his brother William he was the most intellectual man. William was possessed of indom- itable will and perseverance,-a practical, go-ahead, business man. The two together were symmetrical in character, -" James to counsel and plan, William to execute ; James inside, William outside."
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GENERAL JAMES S. WADSWORTH.
James Samuel Wadsworth, the eldest son of James Wadsworth, was born in Geneseo, October 31, 1809. His boyhood was spent in his native village, in fitting himself for the college course which his father de- signed he should pursue, and his education was com- pleted at Harvard University and Yale College .* On the 11th of May, 1834, he married Mary Craig Whar- ton, daughter of John Wharton of Philadelphia. After the death of his father in 1844 the care of the vast family estates devolved upon him, and occupied most of his time. Resembling his father in many respects, he proved a careful business manager, a kind, forbearing landlord, and a man of prudence and fore- thought. The patrimonial estate comprised extensive farms in the valley of the Genesee, in several adjoin- ing counties of Western New York, and in a number of the Western States, besides city property in Buffalo, New York and other places. The landed property was occupied principally by tenants, and the rents rarely exceeded four or five per cent. of the valuation of the lands. Tenants were required to pay all taxes, a plan which gave them an interest in all public affairs, and placed them on the side of the landlord. As a proof of Mr. Wadsworth's fairness in dealing with his tenantry, the fact is cited that there has never been the slightest appearance of organized opposition or other difficulty on their part, and as a class they could not be better disposed. They were among the best of farmers, and the opportunities given them were so favorable, that many who are now in comfortable
* He subsequently studied law with Daniel Webster, and afterward in the office of Mckeon & Deniston, at Albany, and in 1833 was admitted to the bar. He never engaged in practice, however, but his legal training was of great advantage to him in after life.
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if not wealthy circumstances, laid the foundations of their accumulations as "Wadsworth tenants." In years of bad crops Mr. Wadsworth was easy and liberal in his terms. For some years the weevil proved very destructive to the wheat crop, and some were unable to pay him the full rent. He refused to allow them to fall into arrears, but permitted them to pay what they could, and cancelled the indebtedness on these terms. His business affairs were conducted with system, regularity and promptness, and although a bold operator, he was prudent and far-seeing. He was conspicuously engaged in railroad, banking and other enterprises, and was regarded as a wise and practical business man. In the winter of 1861 he was a member of the Peace Congress or Convention, this being the only office, with the exception of Regent of the University, and Presidential Elector, held by him until the breaking out of the war. Like his father he was averse to all show and ostentation, and repeatedly declined public offices when tendered him by an ad- miring public, twice refusing the nomination for Gov- ernor of his State. As a member of the Peace Con- gress he was earnest in his efforts to close the widening breach between the two sections, but stood firmly op- posed to all compromise with the slave power.
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