USA > New York > Warren County > Queensbury > A history of the town of Queensbury, in the state of New York : with biographical sketches of many of its distinguished men, and some account of the aborigines of northern New York > Part 13
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(a) MARVIN RUSSELL PECK, son of Joel 1 and Hannah (Baldwin) Peck, was born at Sand Lake (or rather that portion of it which has since been set off under the name of Poestenkill, in Rensselaer county, N. Y.), on the sixteenth of July, 1822. His early education was received at the common schools of the neighborhood where his father resided, working on his father's farm summers, and going to school, as opportunity offered, winters. As a somewhat characteristic incident, illustrating his tenacity of purpose, he followed a teacher (whose superior ac- quirements and ability rendered his instruction desirable) to Wynantskill, a dis- tance of six miles, and during a winter of considerable severity made his way on foot morning and night to and from the school whatever the weather, and what- ever the traveling, as long as the school continued. After this, he had the advan- tage of a select school one season. He came to Glen's Falls on the last day of the year 1842, literally to seek his fortune. That winter, and the summer following, he attended the Glen's Falls Academy. In the September succeeding, he was taken in as an office boy and clerk in the drug and medicine business, then but recently established by his uncle in the new brick structure erected that season
1 A brother of the late Dr. Bethuel Peck, of whom a biographical sketch, including a brief family record, is given above.
1
115
CIVIL LIST.
RUGG, LEVI. REGAN, THOMAS.
ST. JOHN, JOHN. SIMMONS, DUANE B. (a)
on the site of the old bakery. Here he acquired the repute of being one of the steadiest young men of the place. Two years later he was admitted as an equal partner in the same business. At about the same period he commenced his medical studies, which were prosecuted under peculiar embarrassments and difficulties, at such scanty intervals as could be snatched from the cares and anxieties of busi- ness. He had in the interval of student life the advantage of a large practice. He entered the Albany Medical College in the winter of 1848-9 and graduated, after attending three courses of lectures, with great credit in the class of 1851. After this, he remained three or four years in partnership with his uncle, assisting him in his practice and then sold out to him. He was married on the 9th of Sep- tember, 1853, to Miss Marcia L., daughter of Thomas H. and Eliza (Miller) Bemis of New York city. He settled down to the practice of his profession, commanding a fair share of the public patronage and esteem. Two years later he bought out the old doctor, as his uncle was often called, and resumed the drug business in connection with his practice. Subsequently to the death of his uncle he bought of the executors the building used as his store and office. Was burned out in the great fire of 1864. Rebuilt the same year, materially enlarging the size of the building. He closed out the drug business in 1869 to Messrs. Pettit & Fennel, since which time he has devoted his attention exclusively to the practice of his profession. As may be seen by reference to the civil list, he was elected coroner in the fall of "73.
Dr. Peck is a physician of more than ordinary acumen and discrimination ; as a surgeon he has few, if any, superiors outside of the cities. He has performed several capital and important operations, and a more than average amount of success has attested his judgment and skill. But little past"the meridian of his years, a a long vista of usefulness opening through the teeming, busy future, still awaits his practised eye, and skillful hand.
(a) DUANE BUCKBEE, only son of Hiram and Julia Emeline (Buckbee) Simmons, was born in the town of Milan, Dutchess county, N. Y., on the 13th of August, 1832. An uneventful childhood furnishes no subject for record except the removal of his parents to the town of Kinsgbury, where he received the elements of a common school education at a district school about two miles from Sandy Hill, in the direction of Smith's Basin. His academic instruction was received at the Poultney, Vt., Seminary. Following upon this, and with a view of fitting himself for the pursuits of a civil engineer and surveyor, he attended the well known Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, where, being then nineteen years of age, he only lacked one term of graduating ; when his conversion at a revival in the Presbyterian church of Glen's Falls, which he then joined, suddenly changed his ambitions, desires and prospects, and had a controlling influence over his future career. How well grounded his apprehensions may have been, it is not my province to discuss, but it would seem that he entertained a doubt whether the surroundings and associations of an engineer, whose vocation is mostly followed on the frontiers of civilization, were of that kind best calculated to pro- mote growth and development in the Christian life.
Lever has well remarked that the price a man puts on himself is the very high- est penny the world will ever bid for him ; he'll not always get that, but he'll never, no never get a farthing beyond it.
It was doubtless with some such vague, unuttered feeling as this, that young Simmons at this time signified to his parents his desire of changing his profession for that of medicine, not to become a common country doctor, as he in-
4
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF QUEENSBURY.
SEAMAN, MERINUS. SENTON.
SHELDON, N. EDSON. SPOONER.
țimated, but as good as the country afforded. Receiving their assent, he com- menced the study of medicine in 1851, with Dr. Marshall Littlefield, of Glen's Falls, with whom he continued for one year. During this time his first course of lectures was attended at the Albany Medical College, where he made rapid pro- gress in the attainment of the elements of medical science. He then placed him- self in the office of his uncle, Dr. Israel I. Buckbee, another Glen's Falls boy of sterling merit, who had achieved success and eminence in his profession, at Fonda, Montgomery county, N. Y. Here young Simmons renewed his studies with a more than common energy and assiduity, attending two full courses of lectures at the New York University of Medicine, during which he derived addi- tional advantages by becoming a special pupil of the eminent surgeon and pro- fessor, Willard Parker. In 1854 he received his diploma, and immediately entered upon duty as one of the assistant physicians of the King's county hospital, to which he had had the address and influence to secure the appointment.
A student life of more than common exposure and temptation had nurtured up to bone, the gristle of his youthful resolutions, and he was now verging on man- hood, ardent and impulsive perhaps, but self reliant, and resolved to make the most and best of his opportunities to attain perfection in that profession whose portals opened out on his life career.
He remained in hospital one year, and then embarked in a sailing vessel for Europe. The tedious dullness of the voyage was somewhat diminished by a zealous application to the acquirement of the French language, the little knowledge of which obtained in his school days was nearly obliterated from his memory. He landed at Liverpool, pushed on to London, and after a couple of weeks de- voted to sight seeing, among the most imposing of which was the reception and review of the British army, then fresh from the fiercely contested battle fields of the Crimea, he crossed over to Paris and renewed his application to the French language. His success was so rapid that he was enabled to gain admission the same season to the medical department of the University of Paris and with it the coveted permission to walk the celebrated hospitals of that city. He continued here for two years and graduated; and then for the first time availed himself of the opportunity presented to see something of the world about him. He made a flying tour through the south of France, cross- ing the Alps in the way, and visiting Turin, Florence, Milan, Genoa, Rome and Naples. Here he visited, and descended into the crater of Vesuvius a distance of one hundred and fifty feet or more. This was the year anterior to the great eruption, and the crater already began to exhibit indications of the terrible con- vulsions that were coming. After visiting Herculaneum and Pompeii, Pisa with its leaning tower, etc., he returned across the Mediterranean by steamer to Marseilles, and thence over the divide, and down the storied shores of the Rhine, through Germany and Holland, through many a scene of legend and of song. He visited England again and crossed over to Dublin, in whose celebrated hospital he ex- pected to find a first class position awaiting him. He had been so long on his excursion trip, however, that the place was filled, and he was assigned an inferior position, which was so little satisfactory, that after a month or two he threw up the appointment, and returned home after an absence of something over two years.
He immediately removed to the city of Williamsburgh, where he opened an office for the practice of medicine, and his efforts to secure a professional mainte- nance were rewarded with a flattering success.
Soon after the promulgation of the treaty with Japan, which was effected by
117
CIVIL LIST.
STERNBERG, A. IRVING. STEWART, W. C. B.
STODDARD, JOSEPH L. STOWER, ASA.
Com. Perry, or rather, while that memorable expedition was in progress, the Dutch Reformed church, in anticipation of its success, organized a mission to this hitherto unoccupied portion of the heathen world. A physician was wanted to make the enterprise complete. The superior culture, the scholarly attainments, and the Christian character of young Simmons, who " had kept the whiteness of his soul," at once pointed him out as a fitting and most desirable person for the posi- tion if he were only married. This unforseen obstacle in the pathway of adven- ture, was removed by his being married on Thursday to Maria Antoinette Brower, a most estimable young lady with whom he had long been acquainted. On Friday he received the degrees of craft masonry ; and on Saturday embarked for the famed Cipango of Marco Polo and the early Portuguese navigators, on board the East India clipper ship Surprise, Capt. Randlet. By an arrangement with the board of missions, Simmons was to have his outfit and passage free, and six hundred dollars a year salary, for the first five years, he holding himself entirely at their service and subject to their orders. Through the influence of friends, he was also appointed bearer of despatches from the government to Mr. Harris (another War- ren county boy), the American minister, resident at Yokohama.
Our space, or the scope of this article, will not admit of a full detail of all tlie incidents of interest and exciting adventures attending this protracted voyage. The vessel grounded in the China sea on the way out, and for eight days they lay in hourly fear of an attack from the treacherous Malays. Taking advantage of a spring tide the craft was finally warped off without disaster, and proceeded to Hong Kong. From that point he made a flying visit to Canton. This was but a little after the terrible massacres and wholesale executions connected with the Chinese rebellion. From Hong Kong again the vessel proceeded to Shanghai, the terminus of her voyage. Here the principal portion of the party were left to become the guests of the American residents at that point, among whom Glen's Falls was then most hospitably represented by the Wells family. After a few days' tarry, Dr. Simmons with a single companion, a gentleman attached to the expedition, took passage in an English sailing vessel for Yokohama, where in due time he arrived, delivered his despatches and made arrangements for the re- mainder of his party, by whom he was joined in a few weeks.
The doctor was assigned a temple, as a hospital and medical headquarters for the mission, while another temple was devoted to its religious objects. For a time they were supposed to be in danger. A native guard was set around the mission temple, for the ostensible purpose of protection, while the doctor's quarters were left wholly without any guard, and the doctor and his wife kept alternate watch for many a weary night, in apprehension of an attack. The movement was un- derstood finally to be a ruse on the part of the Japanese, to prevent their own people from becoming converts to a new religion. At no time did there seem to be any jealousy exhibited against the physician of the mission, and as soon as he had mastered their language sufficiently to be understood, he acquired the confi- dence and good will of many of the influential natives. The treaty already referred to had established Yokohama as the principal port through which com- merce and traffic was to be carried on with this wonderful people. A large population of foreigners of all nationalities was rapidly aggregated at that point, and in view of the necessities of such a floating population, the position of port physician was offered to Dr. Simmons. After consultation with the parties in control of the mission, it was decided to release him from his engagements, he refunding the cost of his outfit and voyage, and agreeing to serve the mission in
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF QUEENSBURY.
STREETER, B. G. TALLMADGE, HENRY O.
TUBBS, H. J.
WARD, H. J.
TUBBS, NATHAN.
a medical capacity as his original contract called for. The exchange was greatly advantageous to him, and in no way prejudicial to the mission. Indeed his oppor- tunities for doing good seemed to be enlarged and improved by the exchange. After a residence of three years, troubles and disturbances arose, by which all foreigners were compelled to leave the country. Dr. Simmons, together with the members of the mission, repaired to Shanghai, where he resumed his practice, and for a period of three or four months achieved a remarkable success. At this time his wife returned to America for a visit of eight months duration. With the reopening of the port of Yokahama, he returned and resumed his position, and remained until the five years for which he had originally engaged, had more than elapsed. He returned home once more, by the way of San Francisco and the isthmus of Tehuantepec. The summer following was passed with his parents, at Perry, Wyoming county, N. Y.
The following spring, he with his wife and son (an only child then of three summers) proceeded to Europe, going first to London, thence to Freiburg, in Germany, a town of some importance lying in the vicinity of the celebrated Black . Forest. Here he and his wife and child passed the summer in quiet and zetire- ment, devoting their leisure to the acquirement of the German language. The ensuing autumn he repaired to Berlin, and entered its celebrated medical school, and at the same time obtained the freedom of its various hospitals, where he ap- plied himself assiduously to the acquirement of all the more recent discoveries in medical sciences. After a residence of about eight months, he took his degree, and proceeded to London, in whose hospitals, being in constant intercourse with their learned savans and distinguished specialists, he passed another six months. Devoting several weeks to travel through Continental Europe, he concluded his . trip, by a prolonged visit to Paris during the palmiest days of the great exposition commonly known as the world's fair.
Now finding himself quite satiated with the excitements of travel, he returned to his native land, and opened an office in the city of New York. His reputation for ripe scholarship soon brought to him a large and remunerative practice, in which he remained something like a year, when he was visited by Dr. Hepburn, with' whom he had formed an intimacy at Yokohama, by whom he was informed that measures were in progress for building up a medical college in the city of Jeddo, in Japan, and offered him one of its principal professorships, at a large salary. (The treaty stipulations which had originally been restricted to a few ports, were now extended over the entire island).
By these representations he was induced to break up his establishment in New York and embark once more for the far off Orient, taking the overland route to San Francisco, and thence by steamship America. On his arrival at Yokohama, his former friends and acquaintances were so desirous he should remain with them that they offered to build him a medical college and hospital at that point, which should be placed entirely at his disposal and control, and at the last advices, he had received an increased offer from the people at Jeddo, the question as yet being undetermined which of the two places should be the favored recipient of his valuable services.
Dr. Simmons is yet in the early prime of an active and vigorous manhood, with a career of unbounded usefulness, and brilliant promise of wealth and distinction opened up before him.
.
MILITARY ROSTERS.
Military Appointments beginning June 23, 1786.
FIELD AND STAFF.
1 ADIEL SHERWOOD, Lt. Colonel Commander. (a)
2 PETER B. TEARSE, 1 Major.
3 ISAAC HITCHCOCK, 2 Major.
4 GILBERT CASWELL, Adjutant.
5 JOHN HUNSDON, Quarter Master.
6 WILLIAM DINWIDDIE, Pay Master.
7 ZINA HITCHCOCK, Surgeon.
8 EBENEZER HITCHCOCK, Surgeon's Mate, . 28th September, 1786
9 CHARLES ROBINSON, Q. Master, vice 5, . 26th February, 1789
10 ALEXANDER; BALDWIN jun., Adjutant, vice 4.
11 HUGH PEEBLES, Pay Master, vice 6.
Unconnected company formed 17th March, 1788, Medad Harvey, captain ; Joseph Harrison, lieutenant; Thomas Bennett, ensign.
28th Sept., 1789, Capt. Buck's company divided into two and a new company formed out of it.
(a) In the absence of all aid in the way of genealogical records but little informa- tion can be here given in regard to the family of Col. Sherwood. He is conjectured to have been the son of Seth Sherwood, of Fort Edward, who in April, 1771, presented a petition to Lord Dunmore, the governor of New York, complaining of the inhuman and illegal proceedings of Henry Cuyler, Patrick Smith, Joseph Gil- lett, Hugh Munroe and others. Had already complained in April 1770, without obtaining redress. He formerly lived in the town of Stratford, Conn., and pur- chased land under the claim of John Henry Lydius. The land being claimed by others he sought to extinguish their title by purchase but without success. Is threatened with a law suit (probably an ejectment suit), and at the time of writing, was a prisoner in the jail at Albany, where he was committed on a judgment obtained by default, in the month of October previously, for £36, at the suit of John Finney, for the purchase of lands from the latter under the Lydius title, and afterwards taken from him by Neil Shaw. This information is derived from the petition to the governor.
Next in order, follows a complaint, dated in jail January, 1771, to the Grand Jury of the Court of Common Pleas in Albany, setting forth that about the last of August, 1768, Patrick Smith, did by a precept of forty pounds cause the arrest of said Seth Sherwood. The Bailiff, Jonas Beemus, after he had got eight or nine miles from Sherwood's residence, tied him with a rope and led him to the City Hall, Albany, his arms still tied. All bail was refused. He remained in
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF QUEENSBURY.
12 JOSEPH ADAMS, Adjutant, vice 10, 6th April, 1792
13 JOHN PERRIGO, Surgeon's Mate, vice 8,
6th April, 1792
14 PETER B. TEARSE, Major, .
7th March, 1793
15 MATHIAS OGDEN, Pay Master, vice 11, 7th March, 1793
16 THOMAS BRADSHAW, 2d Major, vice 3,
17 SETH SHERWOOD, 2d Major, vice 16,.
2d December, 1795
18 CHARLES KANE, Lt. Col. Com'd'g, vice 1,
19 WARREN FERRIS, 1st Major, vice 2,
20 MICAJAH PETTIT, 2d Major, vice 17,
21 JOHN PERRIGO, Surgeon, vice 7,
22 JOHN WHITE JR., Quarter Master, vice 9, .
27th August, 1798
23 LEONARD GIBBS, Surgeon's Mate, vice 13,
24 ROSWELL WESTON, Quarter Master, vice 22,
25 WARREN FERRIS, Lt. Col. Com'd'g., vice 18,
26 MICAJAH PETTIT, 1 Major, vice 19, .
27 JOHN MILLS, 2d Major vice 20,
3d February, 1802
18th April, 1800, the two companies of infantry commanded by Capts. Doty and Morrison dissolved and commissions of the officers revoked.
prison near five months. Refers for character to Edward Jessup, Capt. James Bradshaw, Justice Ashmun, John Andrews, Samuel Dunliam, Daniel Dunham, Daniel Jones, Archibald McNeil, Capt. John Ogden, William More, Jotham Beemus, Noah Payn.
He next states, that about the last of March, 1770, Joseph Gillet forcibly en- tered his premises, and with about twenty men laid up a fence across the middle of said Sherwood's land which he had occupied five or six years, with several dwelling houses in the same, and took possession of some fourteen acres of his land, and burnt up half of said Sherwood's property, warning him and his sons against putting up the fences he had pulled down. This was done by the order of Henry Cuyler who also claimed the land. He further says that he had with the aid of his son in the summer of 1769, cleared four acres, removed four hun- dred and sixty-eiglit logs to the water side, where he rafted them, and though Cuyler had consented that he should do so, yet through his agent, Justice Patrick Smyth, had them seized and sold to Gillett, without allowing Sherwood anything either for logs or labor in clearing the land.
Among the legislative papers in the Secretary of State's office there is a volume of old legislative papers containing a petition from the same Seth Sherwood of Fort Edward, presented to the legislature 23d of April, 1785, wherein he states, that moved by his love for America, and the principles of the Revolution he resolved to venture his life and fortune in vindication of his country's cause.
His loses in 1777, were appraised at upwards of £370 for which he never received a penny. All he had was burnt and plundered in 1780. The burning part was appraised at £964. 10s. what was plundered nearly as much more. During the three years that Col. Warner's regiment lay at Fort Edward, and Lake George, he lent the public upwards of nine thousand weight of beef, besides flour, corn and hay, and he produced certificates from Lt. Col. Samuel Safford, and Captains John. Chipman and David Bates that he, Captain Seth Sherwood, whilst Warner's regiment was at the above posts for more than three years, was always ready to
5th April, 1796
7th April, 1798
27th August, 1798
10th April, 1800
3d February, 1802
3d February, 1802
12th June, 1793
5th April, 1796
5th April, 1796
121
MILITARY ROSTERS.
CAPTAINS.
1 NEHEMIAH SEELYE, .
23d June,
1786
2 THOMAS BRADSHAW,
66
66
3 SETH SHERWOOD,
66
66
4 DUNCAN SHAW,
66
66
5 CALEB NOBLE, .
66
60
6 LEVI CROCKER, ,
66
66
7 PHINEAS BABCOCK,
66
66
66
9 CORNELIUS BALDWIN (Lieut. Infantry),
66
66
10 JOHN COOLS, .
11 THOMAS SCRIBNER, vice 7,
28th September, 1786
66
66
13 JOHN HUNSDON, vice 10 (Lieut. Infantry), .
66
66
assist with his team when called on, and had furnished the garrison with provi- sions and hay when they could not be procured elsewhere. For (he says) at this time the tories, in order to depress the country and help the British, desisted from raising crops, or stock, whilst they almost starved themselves, "and did then, and still do owe me a revenge because I acted against them in that respect."
Capt. Seth Sherwood petitioned the legislature in April, 1782, for payment for the provisions he had furnished, but though a favorable report was made on his claim, there was no money, to satisfy it. He next applied to the commissioners of sequestration for some vacant land, the owner of which had gone over to the enemy, which land he had already hired, and was in possession of, and expecting that the above certificates would avail in payment, he bought the land of the commissioners, and gave his notes for such payment. Afterwards, on the report of some of his tory enemies, the commissioners sued on the notes before they fell due, which so alarmed Sherwood's creditors that they all fell upon him. He had purchased other certificates which he placed in a knave's hands, to bid for confis- cated lands, who sold the certificates, amounting to nearly one thousand dollars, and then threw himself into jail. He complains sadly of the ill return he has received for his exertions, expenditures and sufferings, and prays redress.1
The surrender of Fort Ann by Capt., afterwards Lieut. Col. Adiel Sherwood in 1780 was then, and has been in even later years the subject of much animadver- sion. He was appointed to the command of that post on the 18th of July, 1780. The following is a copy of his letter of vindication in regard to the affair.2 -
Captain Sherwood to Col. Livingston.
"On board the Carlton, 17 Oct., 1780.
" Dear Sir.
" It is with regret that I write from this place, but my situation will admit of no other. I have not had the least reason to complain since a prisoner, but have been used with the greatest politeness. You have doubtless heard the particulars of my giving up the garrison at Fort Ann to Major Carleton, who was at the head
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