USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. II > Part 19
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Stuart. The family located in the town of Bath, on Campbell Creek. Samuel W. Stuart married Mary Ann Carroll, who was born in Bath, a daughter of Andrew and Ann Carroll. Her father was, like her husband, Irish and had come, as he had done, to America as a boy. Soon after their marriage Samuel W. and Mary Ann (Carroll) Stuart located in the town of Howard, where he acquired a good farm, which was his home during the greater part of more than forty years of his experience as a teacher in public schools in Steuben county. He died October 17, 1908, leav- ing a widow and four sons and three daughters, all of whom were living when these paragraphs are written.
The future doctor of medicine passed his boyhood days in the town of Howard and there gained a primary education. Later he was a student at the academy at Canisteo. For a year he was a school steacher, studying medicine in his leisure hours. In 1888 he submitted himself to the preceptorship of the late Dr. C. B. Robertson, and that same year entered the Columbus Medical Col- lege at Columbus, Ohio, from which he was graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1892. He also took a course at the University of Buffalo, where he graduated in 1899, and also from the Uni- versity of the State of New York in the same year. Not long afterward he located at Cameron, Steuben county, New York, where he practiced his profession successfully for ten years. From Cameron he removed to Hornell, where he has risen to a high place in his profession. Giving attention to family practice he has gained the confidence of the public to such an extent that he num- bers among his regular patrons some of the best people not only in Hornell but throughout the surrounding country. He is a member of the Hornell Medical and Surgical Association, of the Steuben County Medical Society, of the New York State Medical Society and of the American Medical Association.
Dr. Stuart is a Mason, a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows ( Hornellsville Lodge, No. 331) and of the Knights of the Maccabees. On January 9, 1895, he married Miss Nellie A. Timmerman, daughter of Henry and Martha Timmerman, of Bath, New York, where she was reared and educated. Politically he is a stanch Republican, and though not in active politics he wields a recognized influence in local party affairs. As a life-long resident of Steuben county he is public-spiritedly interested in everything that pertains to its advancement and prosperity.
The following items of information concerning the brothers and sisters of Dr. Stuart may be found interesting in this con- nection. Rev. Aaron C. Stuart, a minister of the gospel, is sta- tioned at Vernon, Oneida county, New York. Robie W. Stuart is farming near Bath, Steuben county. Lena A. married Melvin Daniels and is living at Hornell. Rev. Elmer J. Stuart is pastor of a Presbyterian church at Oneida, New York. Sarah L. mar- ried William Hoyt, of Howard, New York. Ellen J. is living with her mother on the Stuart farm in Howard.
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LEON M. KYSOR, M. D .- The family of which this prominent physician is a representative has an interesting history. Only that part of it which refers more or less directly to Doctor Kysor and his American ancestry can be here included, however. The name has been long known in Prussia. The grandfather of Doctor Kysor's grandfather in the paternal line of descent was, while em- ployed in the German service, impressed into the service of Eng- land against the colonies in the time of our Revolutionary war, but at the first opportunity he left the British service to become a patriot soldier, fighting for the people of the side of the contro- versy that had his sympathy.
Dr. Leon M. Kysor was born in Howard, Steuben county, New York, September 10, 1872, a son of W. Byron Kysor, who was a son of Archibald Kysor, a millwright by trade, who built some of the early flour mills in Steuben county. W. Byron Kysor was reared in Steuben county and died there at the early age of thirty- seven years. He married Frances Olivia Johnson, a native of Howard, Steuben county, New York, daughter of a pioneer from Pennsylvania. Six children were born to them, the immediate sub- ject of this sketch being the oldest. He began his education in common schools near his childhood home and after he was eleven years old, when he went to Hornell, he continued it in the public schools there. Taking up the study of medicine and surgery he was duly graduated from the medical department of the Universi- ty of Buffalo in 1903.
He began his professional practice by a year's connection with the Steuben Sanitarium. Then he was for some time, until Dr. Parkhill's death, associated with him. Since that event he has been in independent practice. One of the successful and progres- sive medical men of the city, he is identified with the Hornell Med- ical and Surgical Association, the Steuben County Medical So- ciety, the New York State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He is a Mason and affiliates with other secret social and beneficial orders.
Dr. Kysor married Miss Bertha M. Eells, daughter of James Eells, in August, 1905. He is a director in the Maple City Loan and Savings Association and has from time to time been connected with other important local movements. His public spirit is such that he cordially responds to any demand upon it involving the advancement of any considerable number of his fellow citizens. Professionally he is popular, enjoying the confidence of the gen- eral public and numbering among his patients some of the 'best families in the city.
FLOYD E. ADAIR-Prominent in the business life of Atlanta is Floyd E. Adair, proprietor of the Atlanta Flouring Mills. He has reason to be particularly loyal to Steuben county, for his birth occurred within its pleasant limits, its date being 1873 and the place Cohocton. He is the son of Edward and Osca (McCarty)
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Adair and the family consists of two children besides himself, Verne and Maud. Mr. Adair spent his early days in his native town, attending the common and high schools and when still a lad he developed an interest in milling. His first practical experience in this line was gained in Rochester, New York. He was later en- gaged in a mill situated in the Adirondack Mountains and finally found his way to New York city, where he secured employment in a great flouring mill where there were turned out per day twenty- five hundred barrels of flour.
Thoroughly familiar with the business in all its phases, under- standing the latest and best methods in the production of high grade flour, Mr. Adair wisely gratified his ambition to become estab- lished independently and in 1906 became proprietor of the At- lanta Flouring Mills. This mill is twenty-six by forty feet in dimension, two stories high and has an engine room eighteen by twenty-six feet. It is operated by steam power and has a forty horsepower engine. Its capacity is twenty-five barrels of flour and twenty-five tons of feed per day. He has the latest and most ap- proved machinery and his flour is of the finest grade. Not only does he manufacture all the flour and feed that can be turned out in a mill of such capacity, but he also keeps on hand for the home market a stock of feed of all description.
In 1897 Mr. Adair was united in marriage to Miss Emma Bothwell and two young children are growing to manhood be- neath their roof, these being by name Edward and Harold.
C. L. CRANE, who is winning enviable success at the bar of Steuben county, was born in Cameron, that county, September 12, 1879, a son of Milton E. Crane, also a native of Cameron. His grandfather, who was a native of New York and by trade a black- smith, also one of the historic old-fashioned schoolteachers who flourished in the earlier part of the last century, was a pioneer in Steuben county. He taught his son, father of the immediate sub- ject of this sketch, the blacksmith's trade, and the latter is in busi- ness as a blacksmith at Addison. Mr. Crane's mother was Miss Sarah Snyder, daughter of Daniel Snyder, a pioneer in Steuben county, where she was born. The Cranes are of Scotch-Irish-Eng- lish ancestry, the Snyders are of Holland descent. Mr. and Mrs. Crane had six children, three of whom were sons, and all but one of the six are living.
C. L. Crane was the fourth in order of birth and the youngest son. He was about ten years old when his parents moved to Addi- son from Cameron. After having been graduated from the Addi- son high school in 1896 he was until 1900 in business at Hammonds- port, at Hornell and at Addison. In the year last mentioned he entered upon a year's special work in the College of Liberal Arts in the Syracuse University. He was duly graduated from the law department of that institution and in 1904, after some preliminary experience, went to Long Island City and there began the practice
Charles R. Crous
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of his profession in the different courts of the state. In 1905 he returned to Addison and opened a law office there. In 1907 he formed a partnership with E. C. Smith, which existed till January, 1910, since when he has been in individual practice. He gives attention to general legal business in and out of the courts, is con- scientious in taking cases, respecting both his clients and the court, and when he has accepted a case is indefatigable in pushing it to success by all fair means known to shrewd and resourceful lawyers. He is an influential member of the Steuben County Bar Associa- tion, is an Ancient Free and Accepted Mason and is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and with the Delta Chi and other college societies. He married, August 14, 1906, Miss Grace A. Strang, daughter of F. D. and Alice Strang, of Westfield, Pennsylvania, and they have a little daughter whom they named Janet. She was born March 31, 1910.
In his political alliances Mr. Crane is Republican. He was secretary of the Steuben County Republican Committee from 1906 to 1909 and has been politically active otherwise, with the result that his usefulness is recognized by Republicans throughout the county. He has for a number of years been attorney for the vil- lage of Addison and he is doing good work for the town as corres- ponding secretary for the Addison Board of Trade. In many ways and on numerous occasions he has demonstrated a degree of public spirit that has placed him among the leaders in the valley and there are those who predict that he has only to remain in and continue to labor for the county of his nativity to receive such honors as old Steuben has been wont in all her history to bestow on her favorite sons.
WILLIAM G. COYE, of Hornell, is one of the oldest insurance, loan and real estate men in Steuben county and one of the oldest in the country. He is a native of Otsego county, New York, born September 16, 1833. J. Morris Coye, his father, was born in New York state and was among the early settlers in this county. He was a printer by trade and carried on a business in his line in Hornellsville several years. When he passed away he was mourned as a pioneer. He married Sophronia Norton, a native of New York state, who bore him a son and two daughters. Frances is dead. Mary (Mrs. Isbel) was living in 1910 in California.
Mr. Coye's childhood and youth were spent in his native coun- ty, where he acquired a practical education in the public schools. He came to Hornellsville about 1860 and was for a time a clerk in a dry goods store. In 1866 he made his start in the insurance busi- ness, with N. M. Crane and C. H. Young. About 1874 Mr. Crane withdrew from the firm and its style became Coye & Young and was so continued until Mr. Coye assumed individual proprictor- ship of the enterprise. Real estate operations and the handling of loans were added to the business, and under Mr. Coye's manage- ment have become important factors in it. He is regarded as one
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of the best judges of local real estate values in the city, and in the negotiation of loans he has shown rare tact and shrewdness. So long has he been in business in Hornell that his office is one of the landmarks of the town, not only one of the things that bridged the transition of the place from village to city, but one of the liv- ing interests that connect the present with the days of primitive things. So well established is Mr. Coye's reputation for integrity in all his dealings that no one in Hornell would hesitate to entrust to him any commission however large or however difficult.
In 1873 Mr. Coye married Miss Julia A. Lockwood, daughter of Nelson Lockwood. She was born in New York of Connecticut ancestry. In his political allegiance Mr. Coye is a Republican, and has been in all the history of his party. In the days before the war, when the people were divided on the question of slavery, he espoused the cause of Fremont and of Lincoln. Through the period of the Civil war he was steadfastly Republican and "Un- ion." Through the period of reconstruction he supported the party that he believed had put down the rebellion and saved the nation from dissolution and was trying to reunite it in the only practical way in which he believed the work could be done. In the later days of our great national expansion he was proud of the party that was in power while most of it was brought about, and in these days of political unrest, out of which he believes better things and grander things are to come, he sees no reason for forsaking the straight road that he has followed safely through so much of tur- moil and of evolution.
EDWARD W. BRYAN, M. D., for many years a leading practi- tioner of Corning, New York, was born on a farm in Steuben coun- ty, November 6, 1832, and belongs to a family long resident of the "Empire state." His grandfather, George Bryan, a blacksmith by trade, was born April 7, 1779, and his grandmother Bryan, whose maiden name was Covart, was born March 23, 1775, both in New York. For some years they lived in Seneca county, from whence they moved to Steuben county when their son, Abram C., the Doctor's father, was a small boy. Abram C. Bryan was born in Seneca county October 21, 1806, passed his life as a farmer in Steuben county, and died here February 2, 1895. He married, October 11, 1831, Asenath Conlogue, who was born in Ontario county, New York, August 1, 1806, and who died in Steuben coun- ty March 18, 1882. They were the parents of six children: Dr. Edward W .; Catherine J .; William J., who was a physician; El- mina ; Laura, and Mrs. Mary E. Orcutt. The latter, now a widow, was born November 2, 1840, and resides in Gorham, Ontario county, New York. All of the children are deceased excepting the subject of this review and Mrs. Orcutt.
Edward W. Bryan was reared on his father's farm and was occupied in agricultural pursuits until he reached his majority, in his youth having meagre opportunity for obtaining an education.
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After he was grown, however, he determined to educate himself, and began by utilizing all his spare moments. He worked for seventy-five cents a day at odd jobs at whatever he could find to do. Later he taught school in the winter and spent the summer in the harvest fields, and all the while pursued his studies with a view to entering the medical profession. In the meantime he spent two years and a half as agent for the Erie Railroad Company at Savona. In 1865 he entered the Homeopathic Hospital College at Cleveland, Ohio, where he pursued a three years' course and grad- uated in 1873. Previous to his graduation he had practiced for a short time in Illinois, and after he received his degree he settled at Ovid, New York, where he opened an office and practiced suc- cessfully for a period of eleven years and a half, coming thence to Corning. Here he has had a successful career as a practitioner, covering nearly thirty-five years, and during this time has fre- quently been called into consultation with other prominent physi- cians not only at Corning and in this vicinity but also to distant points. He is medical examiner for the Marine Corps of Corning and is city health officer.
All these years Dr. Bryan has maintained membership in vari- ous medical organizations. In the New York State Homeopathic Society he has filled several offices, including that of vice-president. He is a member of the American Institute of Homeopathy, a char- ter member of the Hahnemann Society of Cleveland, and the only living charter member of the Southern Homeopathic Medical So- ciety of the state. Also he is a charter member of the Corning Medical Association. Other fraternal organizations with which Dr. Bryan has long been identified are the F. & A. M. and the Royal Arcanum. Politically he is a Republican, religiously a Methodist.
EDWARD P. AND CHARLES D. BAKER. - Edward P. Baker, a successful business man of Kanona, New York, member of the firm of Baker Brothers, who own and operate a mill at Kanona, is a native of the county where he now resides, born on what is now the Soldiers' Home grounds, June 14, 1858, a son of John K. Baker. His grandfather and great-grandfather, as well as his father, were millers, and the family came to Steuben county from Pennsylvania.
John K. Baker was born in southern New York May 14, 1824, and was reared to the work of operating a mill, in which his father was engaged. In 1857 he removed to Steuben county and estab- lished a grist mill where the Old Soldiers' Home now stands. Sev- eral years later he left this location and operated a mill at Howard, Steuben county, and in 1865 established a mill at Kanona, putting in good machinery. He bought the building of L. D. Fay, who had bought of a man named Rowe, and it had first been used as a sawmill. The first proprietor of this mill was a Mr. Gross, who built it in 1840.
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Most of the present improvements in the mill were installed by John K. Baker, and he put in the old turbine machinery. Many modern appliances have been installed by the present owners. Mr. Baker married Lucretia Powell, who was born in 1830 in Penn- sylvania, daughter of Hon. Joseph C. Powell, a member of an old family in the Keystone state, who married Saloma Ellis. Mr. Baker and his wife had two sons, Edward P. and Charles D., of Kanona.
After receiving his education in the public schools of his lo- cality Edward P. Baker took up the trade of miller and worked for his father. He has followed this line of work since with ex- cellent success and in 1906 the firm of Baker Brothers was formed. They have a reputation for the excellence of their output and are both men of good judgement and enterprise, using the best and most modern methods and carrying on the enterprise in a most businesslike way. Edward P. Baker married Minerva Andrews, a daughter of Lewis Andrews, and three children have been born of this union, namely: J. Powell, aged sixteen years; Ruth Eliza- beth, aged fourteen, and Helene Brown, aged ten. Mr. Baker pays strict attention to his business interests, and this is one of the secrets of his success in life. He does not belong to any church and is not active in political affairs, though he votes the Demo- cratic ticket.
Charles D. Baker, younger of the two sons of John K. Baker and his wife, was born December 3, 1862, on what is now the Old Soldiers' Home grounds, and after attending the public schools of his neighborhood until about nineteen he then engaged in the milling business. He and his brother are men of similar tastes and both have a natural aptitude for the work in which they are now engaged.
On April 8, 1890, C. D. Baker married Ida Snell, who was born in Avoca in 1866, daughter of George W. Snell, a farmer along the Mohawk River, who came to Steuben county with the Mohawk colony and settled on a farm. He married Margaret Dil- lenbeck. No children have been born to Mr. Baker and his wife. He is a member of the Maccabees, and is not actively interested in political affairs, being entirely absorbed in his business enterprises.
WILLIAM W. CLARK .- Among those who have conferred dis- tinction and honor upon the bench and bar of the Empire state is Judge William Walker Clark, of Wayland, who is now serving upon the bench of the supreme court of the state, as representative of the Seventh Judicial District. The distinguished official posi- tion of which he is incumbent indicated not only the profundity of his legal knowledge but also the estimate placed upon him by his fellow men.
Judge Clark claims the state of Illinois as the place of his nativity and was born in the city of Elgin, which was then a mere village, on the 14th of February, 1858. His father, DeMarcus
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Clark, was born in Kirkland township, Oneida county, New York, and the place of his birth was locally known as Clark's Mills, the family home having there been established in the pioneer days. DeMarcus Clark was a son of Martin Clark, was born in the bor- ough of Colchester, New London county, Connecticut, and was a child at the time when his father, Noah Clark, a native of Eng- land, removed from Connecticut to Oneida county, New York. Noah Clark secured a tract of wild land in Oneida county, where he reclaimed a productive farm and where he continued to be identified with agricultural pursuits until his death. Martin Clark likewise devoted his entire active career to the great basic industry of agriculture and was a resident of Oneida county at the time of his death, which occurred on the 7th of September, 1870. His wife, whose maiden name was Wealthy Smith, was born and reared in the state of New York and she was summoned to the life eternal in 1858. Both were consistent members of the Baptist church and in politics he originally gave his support to the Whig party, from which he transferred his allegiance to the Republican party at the time of its organization.
DeMarcus Clark was reared to maturity in Oneida county, and his early educational advantages were those afforded in the com- mon schools of the locality and period. He continued to be asso- ciated with his father in the work and management of the home farm until he had attained to his legal majority and shortly after- ward, in company with his brother and two of his uncles, he en- gaged in the manufacturing of cotton cloth in Oneida county. The little village that grew up about the factory gained the name of Clark's Mills, and the title has been retained to the present time. With this line of enterprise Mr. Clark continued to be concerned un- til his demise, which occurred on the 7th of January, 1871, at which time he was but fifty-one years of age, his father having passed away in the preceding September, as already noted. DeMarcus Clark was a man of superior mentality and strong business acu- men, the while his impregnable integrity and honor in all the rela- tions of life commended him to the approbation and implicit con- fidence of all who knew him. He was a stanch and effective advo- cate of the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor and gave yeoman service in behalf of the party cause. Both he and his wife were zealous members of the Baptist church and exemplified their Christian faith in their daily lives. At Utica, New York, was solemnized the marriage of DeMarcus Clark to Miss Mary Ella Walker, whose father, Rev. Warhan Walker, was at that time pastor of the Baptist church in Utica and the maiden name of his wife was Jane Davis. Mrs. Clark was - born at Utica, New York, in the year 1831, and her summons to eternal rest came in 1860. She was a woman of most gracious and engaging personality and her memory is revered by her chil- dren and others who came within the sphere of her gentle influence. DeMarcus and Mary Ella (Walker) Clark became the parents of
Vol. II-11
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one son and two daughters, and of the number, Judge Clark of this review, and one daughter are now living. Lillian C., the surviving daughter, is now the wife of Robert C. Young, assistant superintendent of the Utica Street Railway Company, at Utica, this state.
Judge William W. Clark gained his preliminary educational discipline in the public schools of the village of Clark's Mills, Oneida county, and supplemented this by a three years' course in Whitston Seminary, at Whitesboro, New York, after leaving which institution he was matriculated in the law department of Hamilton College, at Clinton, in which he was graduated in June, 1878, and from which he received his degree of Bachelor of Laws. In May of the following year the future jurist established his home at Way- land, Steuben county, where he engaged in the practice of his profession and where his earnestness, devotion and technical abil- ity in the work of his chosen vocation caused him to make rapid and secure progress, until he gained precedence as one of the leading members of the bar of this section of the state, with ultimate pre- cedence as one of the strong lawyers and distinguished jurists of the old Empire commonwealth. His novitiate in his profession was attended by its due quota of hardships, however, and he recalls, with appreciative memory, that when he opened his office in Way- land his financial resources were of emphatically negative order, the while the furnishings of his legal sanctum were summed up in a few well worn law books, one desk, one chair and, perhaps fortunately, one cuspidor. His first fee as a full-fledged attorney was the generous sum of seventy-five cents and was paid to him by Josiah Gray. His first law suit was that involved in the defending of an old rag pedler, from whom he received a fee of three dol- lars. In 1892 Judge Clark was elected district attorney of Steu- ben county, and he continued incumbent of this position for three successive terms, during which his administration of the office of public prosecutor did much to heighten his professional precedence. In 1902 he was elected to the bench of the county court, upon which he served for four years, resigning in 1906 with an admir- able record,-one that proved the solidity of his legal learning and his fine judicial acumen. He was still serving as county judge at the time of his appointment to his present distinguished office as a justice of the supreme court of the state, in March, 1906. This appointment was conferred by Governor Higgins and was made to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge John F. Parkhurst. In November of the same year Judge Clark was regularly elected to the office for the full term of fourteen years. It is specially significant that in securing this preferment he was the nominee on both the Republican and Democratic tickets, having first been nominated by the Republican party, of whose cause he has ever been a stalwart supporter. That he gained also the support of the opposition party offers emphatic and unequivocal evidence of
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