USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. II > Part 47
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
the faithfulness of a true soldier whose family fought so well in the war of 1812, and at the close of the war had participated in many of its great battles. At the notable charge of Fort Stead- man he received a gunshot wound in the calf of one of his legs, from the effects of which he was confined in hospital when the Army of the Potomac was disbanded after Lee's surrender; so that he did not reach home until about eight weeks after the virtual close of the war. He received two honorable discharges, carrying with them a land warrant and a pension. Both parents died at the home of their son, Dr. Carr, in Corning; the father, March 23, 1904, and the mother, on the 21st day of March, 1905, two days before the anniversary of her husband's death. The father of the family of six children was a farmer and a blacksmith who had enjoyed a fair common-school education ; was a life-long Methodist, always a Christian gentleman, and a sturdy representative of the American middle class, upon which is based the best of the nation's life.
Dr. Charles A. Carr is a native of Hector, Pennsylvania, and was born on the 19th of February, 1864. He received his early education in the district schools of Pennsylvania, and completed his preliminary literary studies in the Westfield Graded school and The Knoxville (Pennsylvania) High School. In 1887 he was matriculated at the Baltimore Medical College, from which he graduated in April, 1890. In the following June he located for practice at Caton, Steuben county, where he continued until 1895. He then entered the School of Ophthalmology, Otology and Laryn- gology of New York, and after finishing the course in that institu- tion became a resident practitioner in these specialties at Corning. His career there has given him a high reputation as a practitioner and a citizen.
Dr. Carr has taken deep interest in local public affairs. In politics he is a Republican; has served two terms as alderman in the Corning city council, and was health officer of Caton and Corn- ing for about eight years. In a more strict professional sense, he is a member (vice president) of the Corning Medical Association, of the Steuben County Medical Association and the New York State Medical Association; is visiting physician of the Corning Hospital and lecturer to its training classes for nurses. He is also earnestly identified with the Christian and Missionary Alliance.
On May 7, 1891, Dr. Carr wedded Miss Effie D. White, daughter of John C. and Lucy Ella (Davis) White, her father being a farmer who died October 7, 1872. Mrs. Carr was educated in the Corning Free Academy, from which also her son (Harold, born in June, 1892), graduated in June, 1911.
Dr. Carr is the sixth and youngest son of Stutely H. and Julia S. Carr. He has four brothers living, viz .: . Dr. James G, Carr, a noted Optometric Eye Specialist located at Harrison Valley; Pennsylvania, where he enjoys a large. and lucrative practice; W. W. Carr, who resides in Bath, New York; H. E. Carr, of 218
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Bridge street, Corning, New York; S. A. Carr, of Clayton, Kent county, Delaware.
W. W. Carr was born in Almond, New York, January 5, 1854, and is the father of five children by his wife, Bertha Chisholm, whom he married in Cameron, New York, January 1, 1878. She died in February, 1898, and he has since remarried. His children are: Alfa May (Carr) Shattuck, born December 22, 1879; Will- ianı Clifford Carr, born July 2, 1881; James Earl Carr, born April 29, 1883; Bessie Eva (Carr) Shattuck, born April 4, 1889; Minnie Adelia Carr, born June 3, 1895. They all reside in Steuben county, New York, at or near Bath.
H. E. Carr was born in Hector, Pennsylvania, June 16, 1855. He married Eva Dorr in Elmira, New York, October 25, 1881. She was born in Elmira, New York, November 27, 1861. They have two sons, viz .: Dr. Fred D. Carr, born July 22, 1882, who graduated from the University of Vermont, College of Medicine, with high honors, on June 24, 1908. He followed this with a year's hospital practice, after which he located for the practice of his profession at Caton, Steuben county, New York. He was married to Mary Thaler on December 25, 1909. They had one child, Margaret Louise Carr, born December 25, 1910. Leigh S. Carr, born August 1, 1884, was married to Winnie Lovejoy October 6, 1909. They are located at 218 Bridge street, Corning, New York, and he is con- nected with the Corning Cut Glass Works.
DELANO D. COTTRELL .- An enterprise that has added mate- rially to the commercial prestige of North Cohocton is the subscrip- tion business of Mr. Delano Dempster Cottrell. It is most inter- esting to note the evolution of this business from the beginning to the present time and in a following paragraph this matter will be dwelt on in full detail. Mr. Cottrell was born at Oswego Center, Oswego county, New York, on the 8th of June, 1864, and is a son of Rev. Andrew Jay and Harriet Elizabeth (McKee) Cottrell, the former of whom was born at Sandy Creek, Oswego county, New York, on the 6th of January, 1836, and the latter is a native of Ellisburg, Jefferson county, New York, the date of her nativity being July 9, 1838. As a youth Rev. Cottrell learned the shoe- maker's trade and early became interested in church work. He at- tended the Adams Academy in Jefferson county, New York, and in 1863 entered the ministry in the Methodist Episcopal church, but was obliged to give up the work after two years' service. He fol- lowed business pursuits until 1879 when his health having become better, he again entered the ministry. He retired from the minis- try in 1903 and was summoned to the life eternal on the 12th of December of that year. Rev. Cottrell had three brothers, one who is living in the south, one who served in the Union Army in the Civil war and who now resides at Albany, New York, and a third, also a veteran of the Civil war, who died some twenty-five years ago. Mrs. Cottrell was a daughter of Joseph and Mary (Wild)
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McKee and was a twin sister of Helen E., who married Ward Sprague, Sandy Creek, New York. Mrs. Cottrell died at the home of her son March 1, 1911, having made her home with him since the death of her husband. The Cottrell family is descended from one of three brothers which emigrated from England to Rhode Island about three hundred years ago and the proprietor of the noted Cottrell Printing Press Company is a descendant of one of these brothers. On the mother's side Mr. Cottrell is of Scotch-Irish extraction.
Mr. Delano Dempster Cottrell received excellent educational advantages in his youth and for a time he was engaged in the peda- gogic profession. He was graduated from the Sandy Creek high school in 1880 and in the following year he pursued a business course in the Belleville, New York, Academy, and the winter of 1881 taught school in Point Peninsula, New York. In 1882 he was matriculated in Syracuse University at Syracuse, New York, as a member of the class of 1886. The two years beginning fall of 1884, he taught school at Deer River, and New Bremen in this state. For a period of nearly ten years he was traveling salesman for the E. L. Kellogg Company, at that time the largest publishers of educational papers and professional teachers' books in the United States. In connection with this work he covered a territory of twenty-five dif- ferent states and attended many national, state and county educa- tional gatherings, where he met many of the prominent teachers and leaders in the educational world. In 1894 he located at North Cohocton, New York, where he began his present business, concern- ing the history of which a brief article from the Elmira Star Ga- zette, of November 11, 1907, is here incorporated, with but slight paraphrase.
Mr. Cottrell began the subscription-agency business in a small way. His first attempts were made in the house of his mother-in- law, where he utilized the dining-room table in the evening when the family work was done. He then removed to a house between North Cohocton and Atlanta, New York, where he remained for one year. In April, 1895, he removed his ever increasing business into a building next to the hotel in North Cohocton, known as the "Three-story Building," which at that time was considered a pre- tentious structure. The business was a great success from its in- ception under the guidance of Mr. Cottrell, so that, in 1900, he erected a fine office building, thirty by forty-eight feet, with the postoffice in one side of the same building, he having been ap- pointed postmaster in January of that year. This building was very much enlarged in 1897 so that now its complete dimensions are forty-five and a half by eighty-eight feet, the new postoffice on one side being fifteen and a half feet by thirty-five. It is one of the finest postoffices in the country in a town of this size and is finished with steel ceiling and side walls painted white, is splendidly lighted and meets all the requirements of the town and Mr. Cottrell's bnsi- ness. The subscription department includes large offices, working
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rooms and a fire-proof vault. The structure is a model building and seventy-five or more persons are here employed during the busy season. When Mr. Cottrell first started his business he found it difficult to secure enough one-cent stamps at the local postoffice, and an effort on his part to buy fifty dollars' worth from the North Cohocton postoffice led to a government request to the postmaster for an explanation as to why he needed so many stamps. Some ap- preciation of the business of the office can be obtained when it is stated that the postage paid by Cottrell's Subscription Agency to the North Cohocton postoffice has been nearly six thousand dollars in a single month. The postoffice became a third-class office on the first of January, 1900, and a second-class one on the first of July, 1905. Mr. Cottrell was appointed postmaster by President Mc- Kinley, in 1900, and reappointed by President Roosevelt in 1904 and in 1908. He is allowed a deputy, a clerk, and temporary clerks as needed in the postoffice.
Mr. Cottrell's first issue of catalogs was ten thousand, and it has now run up to nearly a million a year. In addition to this he issues circulars to the extent of some six to ten million per year, doing mailing for a large number of publishing houses. As the name indicates, his business is that of securing subscriptions for all kinds of American and foreign publications and during the busy season several thousand of such subscriptions are received daily. The total number of subscriptions annually amounts to a number of hundred thousand, the Ladies' Home Journal and the Saturday Evening Post being the leaders at this office. The agency is one of the largest in the United States and is by far the largest of any in the country in a town of the size of North Cohocton. Orders are received from all parts of the world. A large business is received from the Philippines and the Hawaiian Islands. Every civilized country in the world is represented in their list of customers and there is hardly a postoffice in the United States that does not send orders to the Cottrell Agency.
Several years ago the Periodical Publishers' Association of America was organized. The association at once made an effort to secure uniformity in all clubbing offers advertised and called the larger subscription agencies into a conference concerning this mat- ter. The result was a complete schedule of clubbing offers. The responsibility of having this schedule complete and correct to date of publication is generally placed on Mr. Cottrell. This schedule is sent to all the subscription agencies of the country by the lead- ing publishers, who require that subscriptions must not be taken for their periodicals except in accordance with its terms and conditions. His wide experience, business tact and a special genius in this line make him naturally a leader, so that he is one of the most promi- nent figures at the present time in this business in the world. Under his management and through his clubbing offers the public has been able to get more for the same money than previously, and the pub- lisher nets a larger price for his publication, as the expense for ad-
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vertising and securing subscriptions is largely borne by Cottrell's Agency. It is estimated that their customers altogether saved one hundred thousand dollars in the year of 1910 by placing their sub- scriptions through the agency instead of sending them direct to the respective publishers and paying the publishers regular prices. The great foundation principle of Mr. Cottrell's business has been to make the money of his customers as safe in his hands as in their own pockets. The clerks are uniformly trained to treat their cus- tomers just as they themselves would like to be treated.
Mr. Cottrell supplies hundreds of libraries, reading rooms and clubs with all their periodicals, and so high is the reputation he has built in this business that he frequently receives signed checks from old customers left blank for him to fill in the cost of the periodicals desired. His long experience in this business has re- sulted in a splendid system of handling subscription orders which, although laborious and full of detail, insures accuracy and satisfac- tion to both subscriber and publisher. His agency enjoys the ad- vantage of being closer to the large publishing centers of the coun- try than any other large agency, and a letter from his office is the next day in the hands of any publisher in the eastern cities. Mails arrive and depart from the North Cohocton office ten times daily. Mr. Cottrell's general catalog and bargain list of periodicals should be in the hands of everyone in the United States interested in read- ing. The catalog contains information that every reader of period- ical literature should know, and will be mailed free to anyone on request.
Mr. Cottrell is often honored by invitations to the Periodical Publishers' banquets, gatherings of the leading editors, authors, artists, publishers and advertising agents of the country. He is in- timately acquainted with and enjoys the personal esteem of many of the foremost literary men and publishers of the United States. He is a gentleman of the highest personal and business standing and his agency has been the means of bringing much of the best literature of the world into American homes.
In politics Mr. Cottrell gives an uncompromising support to the principles and policies of the Republican party and he is a liberal contributor to all movements projected for the general wel- fare of the community. He is giving efficient service as a member of the board of school directors and he manifests a deep and intel- ligent interest in all educational matters. He is also trustee of the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the time-honored Masonic order and both he and his wife are devout members of the Methodist Episcopal church in which he is steward and financial secretary.
On the 2nd of June, 1894, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Cottrell to Miss Edith Charlotte Megaffee, who was born on the 15th of November, 1868, the place of her birth being Hillsdale, Michigan. She is the daughter of Edward Megaffee and Cynthia (Smith) Megaffee. Her father, Edward Megaffee, died at Somer-
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set, Michigan, in 1876, but her mother resides at North Cohocton. Mrs. Cottrell came to North Cohocton in 1876. Mr. and Mrs. Cot- trell have two children, Edward Jay, who was born on the 8th of March, 1895, and Lora Belle, born on the 25th of May, 1903. The son was graduated from the high school at North Cobocton in June, 1910, and from the Military Academy at Bordentown, New Jersey, in June, 1911, at which school he won the Buckley scholarship medal for highest standing in his studies during the year.
LEVERETT J. SIMPSON .- The career of Leverett Jerome Simpson, who resides at Canisteo, Steuben county, New York, is a splendid example of what may be accomplished by young manhood conse- crated to ambition and high purpose. He is a lawyer, a self-made man, recognized throughout this community for his ability and conscientious dealings with his clients. His start in getting a high- er education was particularly difficult, and in similar circumstances many young men would have become discouraged and given up the fight, but obstacles, instead of discouraging Mr. Simpson, spurred him onward, giving him that aggressive, persistent determination which has resulted since the period of his first struggles in steady progress and success, and brought him the esteem of both the jndi- ciary and associate attorneys.
A native son of Steuben county, New York, Leverett J. Simp- son was born in the town of Jasper, the 7th of March, 1871. His father, Jerome Madison Simpson, was born in the town of Lenox, Madison county, New York, on the 20th of January, 1829. As a young boy 13 years of age Jerome M. Simpson came to Steuben county, locating in the town of Jasper, where he passed the residue of his life. He was successively a harness-maker, a farmer and a carpenter. He was active in the local formation of the Republican party, to whose principles and policies he gave an uncompromising support and in the local councils of which he was ever a zealous factor. He was ever public-spirited in his views, and active so far as he had opportunity to advance the general welfare of the com- munity and county in which he lived. He served most creditably as justice of the peace for a period of forty years, being incumbent of that position continuously except for a term or so. He was a great and enthusiastic reader of the very best books and papers and although his preliminary educational training had been of some- what meager order he had, by reason of his studious habits, ac- quired more than an average mind at the time of his death, which occurred August 13th, 1895, at the age of sixty-six years.
He married Miss Nancy Ann Griffin, who was born in Cazeno- via, Madison county, New York, on the 23d of May, 1831. She was a daughter of Asa Griffin, who removed to the town of Jasper when she was a young girl 8 years old, where she still lives, loved and respected by all. To Mr. and Mrs. Jerome M. Simpson were born four children : DeWitt, Asa, Leverett J. of this review, and Leslie, all of whom are living, the third in age being the subject of this sketch.
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Mr. Simpson, of this notice, was reared to adult age in the town of his birth, where he attended the public schools until he had reached the age of eighteen years, at which time he entered Can- isteo Academy, in the village of Canisteo, from which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1890. After leaving the Academy he worked at the carpenter's trade for two or three years, in the meantime continuing his studies as he worked and doing post-graduate work in the Academy. He then took up the study of law under the able preceptorship of Eli Saule, of Canisteo, one of the best lawyers in Steuben county. At the end of a three years' clerkship he passed the bar examination at Rochester, in June, 1899, being admitted to the New York bar in the following July. He immediately began the active practice of his profession in the village of Canisteo and November 5, 1900, entered into a partnership for the practice of law, with Eli Saule, continuing therein until the death of the latter, in 1902. Mr. Simpson was decidedly successful in the legal profession from the beginning, building up and controlling a valuable clientage. In addition to his law practice, he is deeply interested in business affairs in Can- isteo and in connection therewith is vice-president of the First State Bank.
At Jasper, New York, on the 8th of August, 1900, was solem- nized the marriage of Mr. Simpson to Miss Eva L. Taft, who was reared and educated at Jasper and who is a daughter of Merritt M. and Maria N. Taft. Mr. and Mrs. Simpson have no children. They are popular and prominent in connection with the best social activities of Canisteo and their attractive and beautifully located home is recognized as a center of gracious refinement and generous hospitality.
In his political convictions Mr. Simpson endorses the cause of the Republican party but while he has never manifested aught of ambition for the lionors or emoluments of public office he is deeply and sincerely interested in all public questions whether local or national, contributing in generous measure to all projects ad- vanced for the good of the general welfare. He has been a mem- ber of the Board of Education for a number of years past and at the present time is president of that body. In his religious faith he is a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as is also his wife, and they are both very active in connection with church and charitable work. He has been superintendent of the Sunday school since 1901 and is deeply interested in temperance work. He is a total abstainer from all intoxicants and tobacco and he is a strong influence for good among the younger generation in Canisteo. He is affiliated with a number of professional organizations of repre- sentative character and in fraternal way is a valued and appreciative member of the time-honored Masonic order. Mr. Simpson has achieved marked distinction in this section and his success is the more gratifying to contemplate inasmuch as it is the direct result of his own well directed endeavors. He is an extensive reader, a
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keen lawyer, and a safe counselor, and a man whose whole life is founded on the motto that while greatness is desirable, goodness is indispensable to the most useful life, and that ethical and religious theories are only valuable to the extent in which they successfully work out in practice. Guided by these he has sought to make him- self highly respected by the bar, of use to the community and a citizen to be trusted.
MAY - - 1988
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